Dead Rhino Dominance --- *Primer* :)

Modern Aggro Combo Competitive UR (Izzet)

garytheman

Land (16)

• 4x Bloodstained Mire
• 4x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Mountain
• 3x Scalding Tarn
• 4x Steam Vents

Sorcery (10)

• 4x Crashing Footfalls
• 2x Finale of Promise
• 4x Living End

Creature (16)

• 4x Chancellor of the Annex
• 4x Simian Spirit Guide
• 4x Sphinx of Foresight
• 4x Waker of Waves

Enchantment (4)

• 4x As Foretold

Instant (14)

• 4x Electrodominance
• 4x Force of Negation
• 4x Izzet Charm
• 2x Stubborn Denial

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Sideboard

Instant (6)

• 2x Echoing Truth
• 2x Mystical Dispute
• 2x Stubborn Denial

Enchantment (8)

• 4x Leyline of Sanctity
• 4x Leyline of the Void

Artifact (1)

• 1x Engineered Explosives

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Dead Rhino Dominance

This is a deck that I have been working on for years: and I've finally come to an iteration that i  feel like is tiered. This list uses the strangest and most polarized tempo gain cards that modern has to offer, and it's an absolute blast to play. I urge anyone who enjoys decks that are extremely explosive to give this a go. There are alot of gimmicks here, but the biggest of them is that the deck, like 8-rack, likes to go second. I know this choice seems highly incorrect but i assure you thats not the case. Bear with me for the primer, ill get deep into why this is the case. I've gotten alot of wins with this monster, so if you like this deck and have a mind for modern, you will too

What Type of Deck is This?

Make no mistake: this is a combo deck. It is meant for competitive play, your typical tabletop casuals will have issues if you bring this to your saturday night table. That being said, it is very fun to jam at fnm and other larger tourneys as well. It operates on an axis a little more like deaths shadow, where you create an early MASSIVE threat, and have tools to make that threat go the distance. You create this threat by means of 2(usually) card combos that result in either a 2+ creature Living End, or casting Crashing Footfalls using the 10 methods of doing so in the deck. My goal in making this deck originally was to play as many pregame effects as i could (my biggest inspiration being Chancellor of the Annex

Colours and Card History

When this deck idea was in it's infancy I had a wonderous panoply of ideas of where the deck could go. I experimented heavily with black coming into the colour mix for early disruption like Thoughtseize and Collective Brutality. I dabbled with the idea of Goryo's Vengeance as a secondary package, as well as Hollow One and Street Wraith I tried every iteration of Restore Balance that exists, many that don't, and even tried mixing all of the above ideas: nothing works as well (I've found) as just izzet colours, focusing on Crashing Footfalls first and Living End as a secondary finisher. Keeping the deck a bit more on the blue side also opens up the glorious opportunity to get some Force of Negations in this list, one of the strongest cards in the deck. Force needs at least around 20 blue spells to have an over 90% chance of having a blue spell to pitch to it whenever you have one in hand. For this reason youll notice the majority of the sideboard is blue.

Deck Strengths

This is probably one of the most explosive decks in the format in my opinion. Between early living ends and turn 1 Crashing Footfalls, it hardly feels like a deck that should be operating in modern. Since alot of your gameplan is instant speed, you have Force of Negation to back up your plays ALOT of the time. Against disruption based decks that rely mostly on non creature spells to stabilize, Force of Negation and Stubborn Denial will be your best friend. When playing against creature based decks like humans, spirits, eldrazi tron, merfolk, the key to your success will lie in the Living End gameplan. I find one of the biggest strengths of the deck is being able to answer the majority of problem cards just with the cards that are in the mainboard. You just need a way to find the answer you need....

To quell one of the biggest difficulties a deck of this nature (consistency), we have a decent amount of filter. The cards that filter, also all have a role in our Living End plan, these cards include: Sphinx of Foresight, Izzet Charm, and Waker of Waves. Out of all the strengths of the deck listed above, its crowning glory (and what makes it competitive in my opinion) is that its a heavy combo deck, but it has a very reliable disruption and protection plan.

Deck Weaknesses

Okay lets talk about where this monster can fall a bit short. You are all about speed with this deck, and as it happens, many decks in modern are about being fast too! Burn and prowess can definitely give this deck a run for its money if you cant get some saucy rhinos happening EARLY, or a juicy Living End that takes out a couple beaters and gives you a Chancellor of the Annex or a Waker of Waves. There is no inherent lifegain in the list so your fecth-shocking is gonna burn. If your opponent can present a faster clock than your hand can... well your going to be on the ropes. This problem can be exacerbated by the decks need to go second, even against fast decks that LOVE taking the play. The extra card makes the lands more feasible and the combos far more consistent than you would think, having rainbow mana and sometimes EXRTEMELY explosive starts with Gemstone Caverns requires the draw, and finally Sphinx of Foresight is much better when on the draw; scry 3 then draw is much better than the scry 3 and draw next turn - especially with the fetches. This downside can often be mitigated by having Sphinx of Foresight, Gemstone Caverns and Chancellor of the Annex in our opener. In addition, by nature of most of the cards in the deck not being effective on their own, we like to mulligan HARD for a really broken start. I'll get a little bit deeper into mulligans below, but its worth noting here that going down to 4-5 cards is VERY doable. This being said, without bringing in our leylines we can definitely have issues with Thoughtseize effects if we mulligan too deep. Again though, taking the draw CAN mitigate some of these issues, as well as stashing important cards in your Sphinx of Foresight scrys, so they cant beThoughtseized until you need them.

The real magic of this deck is that it doesn't really operate like other decks in modern. There is very little that it is inherently "good" or "bad" against. Effectively the whole game your playing is - can my opponent provide a faster threat before I kill them with mine, or remove mine and stabilize before I kill them. If your opening hand was good, its likely they wont be able to, and you will win. Some of the fast clocks include: burn, prowess, deaths shadow and infect. Some of the grindier lists include: tron, jund, anything involving uro, uw control, etc.

Game Plan

There are alot of synnergies in this deck but there are two HUGE ones we need to discuss before delving into the rest.

1: Crashing Footfalls+ Electrodominance/As Foretold.

Both Electrodominance and As Foretold allow us to play Crashing Footfalls from our hand with out suspending. This premise is the bread and butter of the deck creation. Both are good in their own rite, however on a whole Electrodominance is where the real explosive play happens.

Electrodominance has the perks of being instant speed, being versatile as you can pump little pieces of damage with its x cost and costing two red mana (Simian Spirit Guide)

As Foretold has different perks: it stays in play and is there fore repeatable, its blue for Force of Negation, and it can allow for us to cast non-suspend spells in niche scenarios as well.

1. Living End+ Electrodominance/As Foretold

These pros and cons also apply to when youre casting Living End with the above mentioned spells, however I will note that with Living End the difference between casting Living End at instant speed and sorcery speed is huge.

Now that we know how were casting our explosive game winning spells, I'll talk a bit about how the rest of the deck interacts with the main game plan.

First lets get into how the Living End package works, since the rhinos are pretty easy to understand. There are only three creature cards in the deck that want to find their way to your graveyard to be reanimated. These three are Sphinx of Foresight, Chancellor of the Annex, and Waker of Waves. The main method we load these into our graveyard is with Izzet Charm. Our other method is by using Waker of Waves discard ability. These two methods are plenty when it comes to setting up Living End.

Card Inclusion Reasoning

Now that the basic combos in the deck have been adressed, I'm going to go over each card and why its important for the deck/the most optimal choice.

Crashing Footfalls - this card one of the two win conditions in the decks. Crashing Footfalls is insane when its able to resolve within the first fews turns of the game. Also note, this card can sometimes be suspended if you have a Gemstone Caverns with a luck counter on it.

Living End - the other win condition in the deck, requires more set up than Crashing Footfalls but the payoff is heftier and typically more game-ending

Electrodominance/as foretold - enablers for living end and crashing footfalls, see above.

Chancellor of the annex - one of the best cards in the deck. The pre game effect is extra helpful for us as were going to be on the draw. This is the best card in the deck to reanimate, but also the most dead draw. Do no keep more than one chancellor unless you also have an izzet charm in the opener.

Sphinx of foresight - fantastic to have in the opener to find oir combos and great to reanimate. It can be pitched to force of negation as well as being reasonably costed. There are definitely games where i hard cast this guy, either with lands or by having four counters on as foretold. Real solid beater, even turns on stubborn denial.

Waker of waves - both a fatty for our yard AND the means to get him there (instant speed and uncounterable btw). A 7/7 with an anti-anthem is rad, and its a pitch taget for foce of negation. I screamed with excitement when this silly uncommon was spoiled.

Gemstone caverns - really strange inclusion i agree, and often times you would think its just better to go first and in the times im second and have gemstone its no different than going first without it. However a play the deck really likes to make is gemstone on their first turn, simian into izzet charm, waker of waves, or electrodominance. Then on your first turn you play a land and cast finale of promise, or living end. Without this card its a lot more difficult to cast as foretold on turn 1, as you would need 2 simians otherwise. Stubborn denial on their first turn can be really funny too. The last thing to note about caverns is if you have multiple pre game effects and caverns is one of them, you can exile the other card AFTER its effect, to the caverns.

Simian spirit guide - the other source of fast mana. This card is integral to the explosive cheese this deck likes to pull off. On very rare ocasion you can play him as a 3 mana 2/2, which can later get reanimated.

Izzet charm - super versatile, instant speed, removal, counterspell, and pitch for living end. Can even be used to pitch to a force of negation. I dont think we can ask for much more in a card for this deck.

Force of negation - i hardly need to explain why this is included. We play very often on our opponents end steps or during combat, so force is amazing for protecting both the resolution of spells and creatures who have already secured a spot of the battlefield.

Stubborn denial - similar to force but good to protect on our turn, and to cheese people off playing on curve. All our win conditions active the ferocious effect of stubborn denial.

Finale of promise - i wish i could just run 6 electrodominance but alas, rules. Mostly just an alternative method to casting rhinos or living end. Casting crashing footfalls on endstep, and finale on your turn can be nasty. Creating 16 trampljng power quite easily with both this and electro dominance is crazy. Lastly theres a 4 mana play that can be made that just about instantly sets up our living end. Casting this spell where x=2 and targeting both living end and izzet charm is likely to load up a good living end.

Side Board Card Choices and Reasoning

Sideboard card choices (im not 100% sure if the board is in an optimal place yet. So im very open to suggestions)

Leyline of sanctity - the burn and thoughtseize hoser. Against prowess and effectively anything that runs lightning bolt, were bringin this ba bitch in. Sometimes if thoughtseize is the only issue i might bring in 2 instead of four. This card actually lets us race the fast decks out there very convincingly.

Leyline of the void - man 8 leylines?? The pre game clause for these enchantments is really good for us. We dont want to cast hate pieces, having 2-3 lands a game. The reasoning for this one is simple: we arent the only graveyard deck out there, and we need a way to exile their yard while keeping ours.

Stubborn denial - this obviously comes in against more grindy matchups. If you feel like you need 8 hard counters instead of the usual 6, bring them in.

Echoing truth - sometimes that trinisphere or ensnaring bridge or chalice on 0 resolve. Good to bring in against prison heavy matchups or anything with tokens.

Mystical dispute - for those matchups luke delver, anything with uro, cryptic, etc. Very useful for when you expect a counterspell war.

Engineered explosives - a good one- of removal for chalice, dorks, grafdiggers, etc. Mostly a remnant of when this list played tolaria west.

So theres effectively two ways were sideboarding: against creature heavy threats, and against noncreature heavy threats. Counterspells for noncreatures come out against creatures, and we trim off pieces of the living end combo against more control based decks. The biggest swap were going to often make is two finale of promise out and two stubborn denial in.

As far as optimizing the sideboard goes, I think from experience that leyline of sanctity is a must, i could maybe go to 3 leyline of the void, 2 stubborn denial, 2 (maybe 3) echoing truth. This leaves 4 slots remaining for your beautiful minds to think on.

Play Tips

Your really looking for opening hands that tell a story with this deck. Look for hands you KNOW will be explosive within the first few turns. Not one that MIGHT be explosive. The biggest perk to this deck is with electro dominance, waker, and izzet charm, were usually playing on our opponents end step. Dont fetch on your turn and never play an instant at sorcery speed unless absolutely nessessary. Remember your whole plan is to make massive creatures early, then protect them until they win you the game.

Thats about it for the primer. Im going to edit event logs of match ups as i have them from this point forward just so everyone knows. I wrote all this so that people (hopefully) build and try my brew, and hopwfully i can get some feedback. Being a deck that exists nowhere on the tier list it will be imperative to its continued evolution that all of your beautiful, magic minds bring comments, critisism, suggestions and discussion. Any serious requests are very encouraged, keep in mind this is supposed to be very competitive, just new, so keep the suggestions competitive instead of casual. Thanks again for reading! I hope at least some of you put this little devil together and take it for a spin, itll be a gas.

Cheers -garytheman

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 9 Rares 10 - 4 Uncommons 4 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.61
Tokens	Rhino 4/4 G