Timeless: 8 Decklists with Modern Horizons 3

The previews of Modern Horizons 3 have finally come to an end, and with it, we begin our review season at Cards Realm, where we analyze the main expansion cards for competitive formats.

In today's article, we present eight decklists for the format with the new expansion's new features, whether through the famous elementals with Evoke, the addition of Kappa Cannoneer to artifact decks, or the Merfolks and Elves creatures that gave new life to the archetypes of their respective types!

Rakdos Evoke

The Modern Horizons 2's Elementals to Timeless brings several new interactions and strategies to the format's competitive Metagame, starting with the famous Scam, a strategy that has dominated other eternal formats and led to the banning of Fury in Modern.

This archetype consists of the proposal to cast Grief or Fury as early as the first turn and use Not Dead After All or similar to return it to the battlefield and extract maximum value of them, whether by removing two resources from the opponent's hand, having a 4/4 with Double Strike at the beginning of the game, or by copying them with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.

In Timeless, the archetype is complemented by the insertion of Reanimate for more consistency, in addition to Deathrite Shaman helping to cast them for their mana value earlier, if necessary.

Dimir Death’s Shadow

Following the same pattern of making the most of Grief, Death's Shadow and Troll of Khazad-dûm come together with Reanimate's plan to bring a Tempo list similar to Legacy, but aiming to take advantage of the life loss to create an alternative game plan with a powerful clock.

Coupled with Mana Drain and Thoughtseize for protection and Fatal Push and Bitter Triumph to interact with the opponent's threats, Dimir Shadow is a solid choice that leverages some of the best Modern Horizons 3 cards in both the maindeck and sideboard!

Orzhov Ephemerate

The third and final Evoke-themed deck, Orzhov Ephemerate seeks to make the most of the ETB effects of Grief, Solitude and other creatures along with an efficient toolbox with Recruiter of the Guard, as well as a toolbox that includes some specific hates and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd to reuse your creatures in each combat!

Patchwork Affinity

Timeless may not have all the cards that Affinity needs to work as well as in Modern, but MH3 brought several supports for the archetype to the point of making it much more viable around casting, as early as possible, a powerful staple from Legacy - Kappa Cannoneer.

Springleaf Drum and Moonsnare Prototype team up with Ornithopter and Mishra's Bauble to accelerate our mana and bring consistency in casting Simulacrum Synthesizer on the second turn, where we then want to use Frogmyr Enforcer or Myr Enforcer the next turn, or sequence the right cards and cast Kappa Cannoneer early.

To complement this strategy, Patchwork Automaton is an efficient two-drop that we can sequence and grow early to establish pressure while it protects itself on its own.

Abzan Energy

Based on Primal Prayers, Abzan Energy seeks to use the enchantment to create infinite loops.

The combo revolves around the interaction between Guide of Souls with creatures that return themselves to the hands of their owners. The idea is to use Primal Prayers to cast these creatures without paying their mana cost and then return them to the hand while Guide of Souls gives us one more energy to repeat the process.

Acererak, the Archlich is the main victory condition, as we can return it to the hand repeatedly until we drain our opponent's life, but it also offers an extremely time-consuming plan in Magic Arena and, therefore, we bet on the interaction between Kor Skyfisher with Dina, Soul Steeper and Guide of Souls to win faster.

This strategy is complemented with the famous combination of Atraxa, Grand Unifier with Natural Order for a more objective approach. If we prefer, we can also add other cards like Craterhoof Behemoth to get the same result.

Golgari Belcher

The new double-faced cards add much more consistency and speed to Goblin Charbelcher decks, in addition to making it easier to access colors at the right time.

With a core of untapped lands, we can bet more on cards like Dark Ritual and Beseech the Mirror to start the combo in addition to having Assemble the Team for create the ideal setup when starting the combo, and it will be worth seeing how far this new, faster variant will reach the competitive Metagame!

Simic Merfolks

Merfolks hasn't yet had its moment to shine in Timeless, but the new Harbinger of the Seas as a hate against greedy mana bases and the use of Flare of Denial as Timeless' main free counterspell could give it to the archetype what he needed to be a competitor in the format!

This version is extremely focused on an aggressive game plan, with Collected Company teaming up with several creatures that increase the power of others to add consistency and speed to our game plan, as well as creatures with efficient ETB effects that can later be sacrificed with Flare of Denial.

Golgari Elfball

With the addition of Priest of Titania and Wirewood Symbiote to Timeless, we can focus on a more combo-oriented version of Elves, where we use the extra mana and the potential to untap Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid to sequence multiple creatures in a single turn while drawing cards with Leaf-Crowned Visionary.

This sequencing will eventually lead to Natural Order to fetch Craterhoof Behemoth and thus lead us to victory in a single combat. Plan B involves casting Natural Order early to get Atraxa, Grand Unifier while we can also use the power boost from Elvish Archdruid and Leaf-Crowned Elder to follow a beatdown plan.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!