Timeless: Budget Mono Red Aggro - Deck Tech (Best of One)

Magic Arena announced, last week, a new eternal format for the platform: Timeless.

In this new modality, all cards available in Magic Arena are legal in their original form, that is, without rebalancing caused by the Alchemy and Historic formats. Currently, it also does not have a banned list, with only three restricted cards, meaning decks can only use one copy of the followig spells in their lists:

A notorious problem that the community has complained about with the new format is how, as it makes the best cards on the platform available, it is also expensive for rare and mythic wildcards - even more so after the launch of Fetch Lands in Khans of Tarkir this week, not to mention the fact some staples, released through Strixhaven's Mystical Archives series, such as Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Memory Lapse and Counterspell, are "locked" at higher rarities in Magic Arena.

Therefore, I looked for ways to bring an accessible list capable of competing in the Timeless environment, so that more players can take advantage of its high level of power without spending dozens of wildcards and money in the process, and in this article, I present a variant of Mono Red Aggro with only eight rares for the format!

After some testing, this was the decklist that seemed most efficient for this proposal in the Best of One environment.

I like to call this list Mono Red One Drops, since every spell on the list costs one mana, in addition to Mishra's Bauble, which is free

Its game plan is pretty clear: put one or two threats into play and power them up to deal lethal damage as early as possible, but it has some micro-interactions that make it a little more flexible than it actually appears.

The only rares are four copies of Soul-Scar Mage and Lightning Bolt. Both seem essential to add consistency, speed and flexibility to the list, and I don't recommend building it without having these cards, although we can replace Lightning Bolt with Thud to "combo" with Fireblade Charger and Cacophony Scamp.

Our ideal one-drops to start the game.

Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear increase our clock with each spell we cast, and can bypass even bigger blockers and still survive combat.

Dragon's Rage Channeler triples in functions on this list: in addition to also being a threat, she has evasion and helps us filter our top to find what we need.

Our "combo pieces".

Cacophony Scamp enables an immediate victory with the right combination of cards. A sequence of it with Monstrous Rage and Reckless Charge grants 14 damage in a single turn. This sequencing is also possible with Infuriate.

Both Cacophony Scamp and Fireblade Charger have another function: punishing the opponent's removals and aggression, Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push are two of Timeless' most famous removals, and they can deal with our board position with a single card. In these cases, it is better to maintain a posture where we can take advantage of these removals to respond with pumps than to go "All-in", unless the opponent has all their lands tapped.

Our pumps. They all guarantee an increase of three in power, but each has a distinct quality that guarantees its place on the list.

Reckless Charge allows for more explosive plays and can be reused from the graveyard, allowing us to have "extra breath" even when our opponents deal with all of our creatures.

Monstrous Rage grants permanent evasion, essential for Cacophony Scamp, but also usable by other creatures to pull some extra points of damage or guarantee lethality against blockers.

Infuriate gives an increase in toughness to our creatures, important in situations where we don't want to lose them in combat, or in response to Lightning Bolt to keep some of them alive.

Mishra's Bauble interacts very well with Prowess triggers, guarantees us a free draw, allows us to plan the next turn with knowledge of the top of the opponent's deck, and is also an artifact for Dragon's Rage Channeler.

Ancestral Anger is another method of granting evasion for our creatures, as well as granting another means of digging deeper to sequence multiple spells.

Lightning Bolt is our only damage spell, and the only one we need. Its flexibility is what matters in the list: the potential to remove blockers from the board, deal extra damage, or even deal with troublesome creatures, such as Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, make it a staple of the format and essential for the deck.

With so many one-drops and a fast game plan, 16 lands seem like a good number. Although rare, there are situations where we need to pull the last points of damage in a game that goes on, and Ramunap Ruins can, in some cases, be beneficial in this regard while not requiring relevant concessions to be included.

Mono Red's game plan is very straightforward: be aggressive and take your opponent's life total from 20 to 0 in as few turns as possible. There are plays and combinations that guarantee our victory as early as the third turn.

In an environment where players are abusing Fetch Lands and Shock Lands, situations where the opponent inflicts three to five damage during the first turns are not rare, and this greatly favors our game plan. On the other hand, there are some situations that hinder our strategy and create irreversible game states. For example, cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse are unbeatable if they hit the board too soon, and we don't have enough means to play over them.

Trying to go "All-In" will not work in some cases. The more removal dense the opponent is, the more we will be punished for betting too much on a single attack. With 20 creatures, we have enough threats to diversify our number of targets and capitalize on a wrong bet on their removals.

Companion

The Companions above are the two available for our deck, and I would opt for Lurrus of the Dream-Den before Jegantha, the Wellspring anytime, even with no mana sources to actually cast it.

There are no realistic opportunities for us to cast Jegantha without losing. Our list has 16 lands, four of which are Ramunap Ruins, and we also have access to top filtering with Dragon's Rage Channeler. Reaching five mana to play Jegantha, The Wellspring is not a viable option.

On the other hand, Lurrus of the Dream-Den is a Timeless staple and the most played Companion in several strategies. Having it on the list encourages certain patterns in the opponent's keep because they will expect a specific strategy where the Companion is an important recursion piece. In that sense, there is a "surprise" in putting Lurrus on a Mono Red Aggro list, even though we don't have the means to put it into play.

Sideboard Options

This list was designed for Best of One, as the format continues to adapt. However, there are a few options for Sideboard today:

Chalice of the Void is our biggest nightmare. Therefore, efficient artifact hate is necessary. Cast into the Fire has the advantage of dealing with The One Ring as well, in addition to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Orcish Bowmasters, while Abrade is more comprehensive in the number of creatures it deals with.

End the Festivities is a proactive card that deals with the aforementioned Ragavan and Orcish Bowmasters, as well as other small creatures.

Claim the Firstborn is an excellent trick against Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and other large low-cost threats, as well as turning your opponent's creatures into threats against them.

Roiling Vortex adds inevitability and avoids excess lifegain, but it is a little slow for this deck's purpose. The same applies to Tormod's Crypt, ideal for dealing with possible Reanimator strategies, or those that depend on the graveyard, but which does not interact directly with our game plan.

Strangle and Burning Hands deal with creatures and Planeswalkers and can be useful in many games. Burning Hands deals with both Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Oko, Thief of Crowns.

Finally, Witchstalker Frenzy is an excellent option for dealing with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and other larger creatures.

Maindeck Options

There are two creatures capable of deserving a space in this archetype instead of the Goblin package:

Both Kiln Fiend and Picnic Ruiner can explode rapidly in this list and enable "combo-kills" with fewer cards, but their higher mana cost opens up possibilities where we won't be able to cast them and use Reckless Charge to catch the opponent off guard.

Additionally, Cacophony Scamp and Fireblade Charger double their role by punishing interactions against them, while the two creatures above create gigantic targets around them.

In the end, the choice of which package to use depends on what advantages and disadvantages players are looking for, between having more raw power for a higher mana cost, or more flexibility in interactions for a lower cost.

That's all for today.

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

Thanks for reading!