Timeless Tier List

The Gathering’s MTG Timeless tier list is data-driven that looks at the past  week’s worth of MTG event results, top finishes, and overall entries to determine which Timeless decks are currently the most popular and likely to be seen at any given event. There is a small amount of player input in regards to arrangement, but the list is primarily reflective and backward looking.

Updated Every Friday

S Tier

A Tier

Grixis Death’s Shadow

An Efficient Interactive Tempo Deck

 Spend life with reckless abandon to be able to cast powerful threats with minimal mana; Shadow is the best deck for treating life as a resource. Every threat costs two mana or less, every piece of interaction and card draw can be cast for one mana, and most turns involve both casting and killing a fresh threat.

Jund Midrange

A True Flexible Midrange Deck

Jund is the balancing force of Timeless, utilizing flexible removal, card-generating threats, and specific disruption to adjust gameplans for each opponent. Jund is the best at simply doing more per turn than any other deck, with every spell either generating a mana or card advantage.

Domain Zoo

The Fastest Aggro Deck

In Arena’s most powerful format, Domain Zoo is the best deck for getting an opponent dead fast. Zoo uses fetchlands to assemble all 5 basic land types to enhance removal, power up creatures, and cast cheap spells in any color. Quick creatures allow powerful burn spells and key disruption to take out most other decks before they get close to stabilizing.

Dimir Control

A Draw/Go Hard Control Deck

 Dimir Control locks down the game with the strongest counterspells and removal on Arena, answering every conceivable deployable threat and never passing the turn with less than two mana available. A companion Lurrus, the Jace/Valki Combo, and four Orcish Bowmasters with flash serve as the deck’s only win conditions.

B Tier

Rakdos Burn

A Consistent Burn Deck

Cast spells that deal damage, draw cards, and prevent lifegain, to deal 20 damage as quickly as possible. While some decks are faster than Rakdos Burn, none are more difficult to stop. All 12 available Arena spells that deal three damage for one mana are present, with either more burn or Death’s Shadow variants to finish the list.

Mill

A Combo Control Deck

Mill outside of being one of the most hated decks, outside of a dedicated few, aims to play a werid mix of Burn and Control. It uses multiple mill spells to quickly empty the opponents library, but also controls the board in order to have time to do so with a multitude of counterspells and removal.

Show and Tell

An Interactive Combo Value Deck

Efficient card draw, tutors, and interaction enable the casting of namesake Show and Tell to cheat a game-ending permanent into play, usually Omniscience. Omnitell then utilizes free spells large and small to sift through an entire library and sideboard until Approach of the Second Sun wins the game that turn.

 

Yawgmoth ▼

A Toolbox Creature Combo Deck

Using its namesake, Yawgmoth generates card advantage from recursive creatures or infinitely drains an opponent with complex combinations of creatures. Chord of Calling and Natural Order allow for an array of different win conditions and value engines, generating too many threats for most decks to answer.

C Tier

Titan Field

A Consistent Ramp Landbox Deck

With a full 30 lands, 8 ways to put them into play, and 16 ways to search them up, Titan Field finds the right land at the right time until Field of the Dead generates a lethal number of zombies. Pulling value out of lands is difficult for decks to interact with even in Timeless, and Primeval Titan and other Natural Order targets round out the threats.

Mono-Black Vamps

A Punishing Cardflow Kindred Deck

Necropotence remains Magic’s most efficient way to turn life into cards. This combined with the plan of cheating Vein Ripper into play provides the deck with two versions of its best starts. While just providing a  good backup plan with their less explosive hands.

D Tier

Rakdos Reanimator

A Graveyard Combo Deck

Rakdos Reanimator combines the old engine of looping Stitcher Supplier and Demonic Intent with Underworld Breach out to storm off with the new addition to Timeless, Reanimate, to create the best of both worlds. The ability to put an Atraxa or other big threat in as early as turn one gives the deck a more explosive back up plan then the old versions, but more hurt by graveyard hate.

Esper Stoneblade ▼

A Toolbox Aggro Deck:

Esper Stoneblade at its heart uses Stoneforge Mystic as an engine to tutor up and effect it needs both early and late game to put it ahead. Outside fo the Equipment Package the deck plays simular to a Death and Taxes by making your opponents turns as akward as possible using cards like Archon of Emeria.

Jund Death’s Shadow *NEW*

An Aggressive Midrange Deck:

A Resilient Midrange Tempo Deck: Maximize every resource but your life total, with the most efficient threats, removal, and discard spells available on Arena. Drain your own healthbar to deploy one-mana threats and answer opposing threats on the same turn, building an array of large creatures and bringing them back with the newly “printed” Jet Collector.

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