A comment I see echoed a lot about MTG Arena is that certain cards are unplayable because their typical support packages aren't available like, “It's a shame Nadu's unplayable because we don't have Shuko” or, “I'd play Crashing Footfalls but we don't have Shardless Agent.” While the majority of you probably realize this type of thinking is absurd, I wanted to address it because it's an approach I take especial issue with.
Innovation and fun is found when we don't give ourselves arbitrary constraints and allow ourselves to experiment, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do with today's deck tech. Crashing Footfalls is a card that has seen plenty of meta play in Modern because of how it synergizes with cascade effects and it was recently responsible for getting Violent Outburst banned in the format.
So how would we go about playing with Crashing Footfalls even though the good three-drop cascade enablers it traditionally uses aren't available on Arena?
The Primary Enablers
In order to get Crashing Footfalls on the stack, we need to cast it without paying its mana cost. While suspending it is a fine idea, in theory, waiting four whole turns is asking a lot in most matchups out there. Electrodominance is our primary enabler because even if X=0, you can use it to cast Crashing Footfalls at instant speed. Hitting our opponent's end step with this is a pretty great trick.
Additionally, the card Zoyowa's Justice is capable of having us discover for one which would ensure we hit Crashing Footfalls as long as we don't have any other one-drops in the deck. Of course, Zoyowa's Justice has to target a one-drop artifact or creature in order to do this, so what's the deal? Well, Egon, God of Death has a one-drop artifact on his back side while being seen as a three-drop while discovering. If we lead off with Throne of Death on turn one, Zoyowa's Justice is a guaranteed Crashing Footfalls on turn two.
Considerations that Didn’t Make the Cut
Bloodbraid Marauder is a two-drop that has cascade as long as you have delirium enabled. In Timeless, delirium is pretty easy to achieve when you use cards like Dragon's Rage Channeler and Mishra's Bauble. Unfortunately, in order for our Zoyowa's Justice combo to work, we can't run any zero or one drops outside of Crashing Footfalls. I attempted builds with Bloodbraid Marauder, but found it very difficult to get delirium consistently with the build I'd used. Cards like Bitter Reunion and Fable of the Mirror Breaker certainly helped, but I found it difficult to find overlapping synergies that added the consistency we're looking for.
Our current build is Jund and many other builds I tried were actually Mardu, but I have seen variants of Timeless Footfall decks in Izzet that leaned into Jace Reawakened because his plot ability gives you a chance to free cast Crashing Footfalls but also the loot ability helps us find our combo pieces as well. It's a solid include, but the idea of not getting to cast Crashing Footfalls until turn five at the earliest or adding yet another hoop to jump through with Leyline of Anticipation feels like it isn't playing into the explosive gameplan I'm after. By that time, your opponent may be able to deal with two rhinos.
Finale of Promise and Dreadhorde Arcanist both can free cast out of the graveyard, which is very intriguing given the hand hate that exists in the format, but if the graveyard gets attacked as it often does with Surgical Extraction, Unlicensed Hearse, or Leyline of the Void, the chances of these cards lining up well becomes very low. I'm not convinced there isn't a place for this approach in the deck and Arcanist specifically performed well in a few builds where I tested it and may return before I'm satisfied, but for now I think we can live without.
Plans B and Beyond
You may notice that we don't have very many energy payoffs, so Amped Raptor might seem like an odd choice. It totally works, though, because our deck is made up of almost exclusively two-drops. Ideally it spins into a Crashing Footfalls and we're off to the races, but if we have to settle for an Orcish Bowmasters or Assemble the Team, I'm certainly not going to complain.
The one potential miss for our raptor is Boggart Trawler. This three drop represents a land but it can also exile our opponent's graveyard while also putting three power on board. The card is not a powerhouse by any stretch, but the utility of having main deck graveyard hate tacked to a land is really handy.
Bone daddy is a known staple in a lot of midrange shells because you just get a ton of value for relatively little mana. In our deck, it can be cast off of Amped Raptor without being a discover hit at two, it has the inherent adventure card advantage and it can deny damage prevention if your opponent has a turn of The One Ring protection that they thing will stop the rhinos for a turn. If your opponent is playing with the ring, I highly recommend saving a Bonecrusher back to ruin their day. Keep in mind, they will have protection and, therefore, can't be targeted. If they don't have a creature or walker to hit, don't hesitate to blast your own rhino. It'll definitely be worth it.
Is This Deck Good Enough?
This is a question that genuinely plagues me as I write this. I've spent a number of hours iterating on this deck and these lines can generate very good early scenarios, however, they do struggle a bit when presented with overwhelming hand hate that you'll see a lot these days with Thoughtseize and Greif. Requiring two specific combo pieces align properly is a pretty big ask in current Timeless, so redundancy is absolutely critical to make sure we can execute our gameplan successfully.
Also, I have to confess this deck is a work in progress and, especially as it relates to the sideboard, is subject to change in the coming days. I do believe this core could be part of something great, but I'm not convinced I've cracked the code just yet. In the spirit of innovation, I invite you to comment below with suggestions on how you'd improve it, and feel free to stop by my stream on Twitch as I workshop it.
Thank you for reading, and happy brewing!
Also, huge shoutout to SinfulSanctum on Twitch for putting this interaction on my radar and starting this obsession. It's been a blast to explore!
