This September, the attention towards the Timeless format was higher than usual since, in addition to a Metagame Challenge, there was its first Qualifier Weekend on MTG Arena.
Currently, the top tiers of the format seem to be three: Show and Tell, Mardu Energy, and Dimir Tempo, which coexist with each other, maintaining a rock-paper-scissors balance, despite the lines being thin and each of them having the right tools to beat its direct rival:
- Show and Tell is favored against Energy but disfavored against Dimir;
- Mardu Energy is favored against Dimir but disfavored against S&T;
- Dimir Tempo is favored against S&T but disfavored against Energy.
Between these three, today I want to introduce what many consider to be the strongest deck overall and which is surely the best combo if you include all its variations. Let's talk about Show and Tell!
Show and Tell
The Combo
As the name of the deck suggests, Show and Tell is the main card that allows both players to cheat a permanent in play (not Planeswalkers and not Battle since they didn't exist at the time). Obviously, since this is our strategy, we'll be better prepared than our opponent and we'll be able to put a permanent with a mana value 10 like Omniscience directly into play on turn 3, or even on turn 2 by accelerating with Dark Ritual, and from there win on the same turn through a combo that we'll see in a bit.
Alternatively, for redundancy and as a plan B, but also part of the combo itself with Omniscience, there is Atraxa, Grand Unifier which, even if it doesn't allow you to win the turn it enters, represents a huge threat that most of the time opposing decks have trouble dealing with, and it fills your hand with 4-5 new cards, which will probably allow you to cast another Show and Tell the following turn to combo again.
Furthermore, the opponent will be able to counter the Omniscience combo with a whole series of hate cards as: Vexing Bauble, Boromir, Warden of the Tower, Roiling Vortex, Deafening Silence or High Noon, but these will be completely ineffective against Atraxa, Grand Unifier who will have a clear field in front of her to take home the match.
Ok, but now that Omniscience is on the battlefield, what to do? You can cast any spell in your hand for 0 mana, including Atraxa, Grand Unifier, by drawing or tutoring cards in order to go deep enough to find Mastermind's Acquisition.
The latter allows you to take Approach of the Second Sun from your sideboard, cast it, use another tutor or draw effect to retrieve it from your deck as the seventh card, cast it again and win the game.
For the same purpose, in addition to the single Mastermind's Acquisition you can also use a copy of Fae of Wishes // Granted, which I don't think is necessary, but which can be reasonable for redundancy and resilience to Sugical Extraction. The first copy must necessarily be Mastermind's Acquisition because if in the worst case scenario it ends up in the graveyard you can take it back with Mystic Sanctuary, but Fae of Wishes // Granted can also be useful as a blocker in the early game, to be reused as a tutor later by returning it to your hand.
The Diggers
Now that we've seen the combo, all that's left to do is figure out how to assemble it! Demonic Tutor is the first choice for any combo deck and this is no exception. With only 2 mana you can take the missing piece directly from the library and it will be often our play on the second turn, tutoring Show and Tell or Omniscience. Even better when you're comboing off and it costs no mana, because it'll allow you to take Mastermind's Acquisition directly and win with just a few clicks.
However, it's restricted to only one copy in the deck and therefore Assemble the Team comes to the rescue, which, despite only showing you a third of the deck, is almost as good and will most of the time still succeed in its purpose, usually repaying itself with another draw or tutor spell if it fails.
A new addition to the deck is Waterlogged Teachings // Inundated Archive which, even if it's not able to tutor any of the pieces of the combo, is still very useful to cast at the end of the opponent's turn to set up your hand with protections like Veil of Summer and Borne Upon a Wind, or just with draw spells like Dig Through Time, digging for the combo and getting value. Most of the time it will be nothing more than an early game tapped land, but its potential is best expressed with Omniscience, becoming a full-fledged tutor for responses like Abrupt Decay or Krosan Grip, but especially Hullbreaker Horror which, as we will see, enables a further alternative victory path.
As for draw spells, Brainstorm cannot be missed, which allows you to see 3 fresh cards, and shuffle 2 from your hand into the deck thanks to any fetchland, so you can find everything you need in a short time. Even in combo with Omniscience it's excellent for going deep, getting rid of the useless cards on top with: any of the tutors, Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Dig Through Time.
Furthermore, even though Brainstorm is notoriously affected by Orcish Bowmasters, in this deck it's not particularly a problem: both because the deck wins really fast and taking some damage and giving a 4/4 to the opponent is often irrelevant; and because there is Veil of Summer, so it's possible to protect yourself from direct damage, being able to draw as much as you want during the combo.
To go even deeper there is Dig Through Time, particularly useful against counters and in grind matchups. It can be cast at the end of the opponent's turn and if it's countered it probably leaves the way open for the resolution of Show and Tell, while otherwise it give us card advantage and card selection.
Also worth mentioning is Lórien Revealed, which is sometimes played in 1 or 2 copies. It will be almost always a tutor for an island (including surveil lands and Mystic Sanctuary) and an additional way to shuffle your deck after Brainstorm, but with Omniscience in play it becomes an extra way to draw 3 cards.
The Protections
At this point we have all the tools to play our combo in goldfish, but unfortunately it’s not enough for a real Magic game, because the opponent will do everything to interrupt it and we’ll have to protect it.
Veil of Summer is perfect for this purpose, being a maindeck way to both make our spells uncounterable and protect our hand from discard spells. All we have to do is stay open by one green mana and wait for the enemy action to play in response, drawing also a card in the process. Veil of Summer, furthermore, in addition to stopping the direct damage of Orcish Bowmasters as already mentioned, allows us to go off with Omniscience while there is Vexing Bauble on the other side of the table, paying its mana cost and thus making all our spells uncounterable and therefore immune to the artifact.
Borne Upon a Wind is another useful tool that allows us to flash everything we play, beating enemy spells and abilities by simply adding more spells to the stack, so that they resolve first and winning while the others still need to resolve. For example, it allows us to win when the opponent puts Static Prison or Leyline Binding into play with our Show and Tell to remove Omniscience, or in mirror, with both players putting the enchantment, but where the one who manages to resolve Borne Upon a Wind first wins, being able to cast Atraxa, Grand Unifier and the various tutors at instant speed.
Hullbreaker Horror is a new piece of technology recently added to the deck and that I included among the protections. Why? Because it allows you to beat a lot of the enemy hate cards, as well as guaranteeing you an alternative victory plan to Approach of the Second Sun, maybe in case Mastermind's Acquisition is exiled. Comboing off with Omniscience, you can cast Hullbreaker Horror despite Vexing Bauble, since it can't be countered and it returns permanents to the hand by casting any spell, thus it beats Static Prison or any other hate permanent. With a succession of cantrips and tutors it will therefore be possible to return all of the opponent's nonland permanents to their hand, leaving them with an empty board, all of their spells bounced and with Hullbreaker Horror and Atraxa, Grand Unifier to deal with.
The Speed
Finally, there is the speed factor and Dark Ritual allows the deck to combo off as early as turn 2, giving us a chance to be nuts and beat even the fastest combo to the punch. However, this is not strictly necessary, since the deck is already very fast and Dark Ritual could sometimes be superfluous, so much so that recently some are starting to leave it out, despite it being a very strong card and a staple of the format.
In addition of allowing the turn 2 win, it's particularly useful for casting Dig Through Time, guaranteeing a +2 in mana and adding a card to the graveyard for the discount, acting in this specific case like Black Lotus.
Planar Genesis is an alternative that I haven't had the chance to test yet and that has recently been adopted as a replacement for Dark Ritual. Depending on the matchup and the situation, you can choose whether to make it act like Impulse, and therefore fixing the hand, or as a sort of Growth Spiral, ramping the mana and accelerating.
Sideboard
Thoughtseize is mainly against Mirror, Dimir Tempo and Control, aiming to remove the opponent's counterspell, hate piece or even just a discard spell.
Defense Grid is also against Dimir Tempo, Control and Mirror and is here to beat the counterspells. Avoiding being constantly mana open, it can be a good play to make on turn 2, using the mana and in some cases trading itself for an enemy counter. It can also be done at the end of the opponent's turn thanks to Borne Upon a Wind, clearing the way for the combo.
Surgical Extraction provides some interaction with the opponent's graveyard by hitting: the target of Reanimate or Persist, Grief under the effect of a scam spell like Not Dead After All, Underworld Breach and Shifting Woodland decks.
Abrupt Decay is the deck's versatile removal spell because it can hit both creatures and hate cards. The fact that it's uncounterable is not an insignificant detail, because we can wait for the right moment to remove something without fearing the opponent's response, and it allows us to remove Vexing Bauble comboing off with Omniscience.
Krosan Grip is the mirror breaker, allowing us to destroy the opponent's Omniscience without them being able to respond in any way. It's one of the first cards we want to tutor during the mirror match and, once we have it, we want to be the active player who casts Show and Tell. In this case, when both players put Omniscience into play, we would have priority (since it's our turn) and would be able to cast Krosan Grip first, destroying the opposing enchantment with no reply.
I prefer Path of Peril to the more played Toxic Deluge, since life is a resource. It cleans the board against Mardu Energy that will go all-in trying to steal the match in speed, but it can also be useful against the bigger creatures of Dimir Tempo like Nethergoyf and Psychic Frog.
That's all for today! Show and Tell, in this or other variations, is one of the best decks in the format and you are forced to respect it if you are interested in playing Timeless competitively. We'll see how the situation evolves as new cards are added and if a much-requested zero-mana counter arrives sooner or later to rebalance the power of this deck.