Introduction

《Violent Outburst》 is now banned in Modern.

A change that many wished for a long time – Cascade decks when combined, often reached upwards of 30% of the Modern metagame and put a lot of stress on everyone’s sideboard. Timing on the change is maybe a bit odd – we’re months away from Modern Horizons Ⅲ, which can potentially flip the format upside down yet again, but here we are.

What changes with 《Violent Outburst》 gone?

What is the Future of Cascade Decks?

The banlist announcement cites the previous December banning of 《Fury》, and how it was able to weaken Rakdos Scam, while still keeping it in the metagame as a respectable choice.

Some players – like yours truly – have been skeptical if you can run undying tricks with only a single playset of Evoke elementals, but pretty quickly that has proved wrong when weakened Rakdos Scam was still capable of winning a Legacy European Series event the following weekend.

Therefore, the question coming to mind – are the cascade decks simply gone from the format? Or will they be capable of adapting the inferior 《Ardent Plea》 (or maybe even 《Demonic Dread》)?

Quite likely – I think it’s not the last we’ve seen of the cascade decks. In fact, in many Modern matchups the instant speed from 《Violent Outburst》 doesn’t hold that much weight – think of Golgari Yawgmoth, Amulet Titan, or Rakdos Scam.

Sure, swapping to 《Ardent Plea》 will still be a downgrade – but I doubt it’s a difference big enough to make the cascade decks plummet from the top of the metagame into the abyss of unplayability.

Things mostly change in the blue matchups, and they change in a big way. If your opponent holds up 《Counterspell》, there’s not much that can be done to play around it anymore – you can’t pass the turn back with 《Violent Outburst》, you can’t end of turn 《Violent Outburst》 into 《Shardless Agent》, and you can’t use 《Force of Negation》 to help you resolve one.

Opposing 《Force of Negation》 will always line up well against your cascade spells – perhaps turning 《Force of Negation》 into a fully reactive card, one it was supposed to be! 《Mystical Dispute》 remains a useful tool, but planning to simply resolve your namesake spells sounds not easy.

Rhinos is, all things considered, a midrange deck. It won’t appreciate losing so much ground against countermagic, and likely will need to make deckbuilding sacrifices, but trading Rhinos for 《Counterspell》 is not game over if you present a deck with enough individually strong cards that warrant getting countered – hardcast 《Solitude》 comes to mind.

The mana bases of Domain Rhino decks get to support 《Ardent Plea》 with little to no changes, and 《Ardent Plea》 itself increasing the white count for pitching will be useful in supporting the card.

Intuitively, Living End will suffer much worse from the banning. Unlike Rhinos, Living End is much more of a feast-or-famine deck – it’s really hard to win games without resolving the namesake.

Switching the Temur mana base to a Bant one should be no problem, even if 《Eagles of the North》 don’t quite pack the same punch as 《Oliphaunt》. 《Glassdust Hulk》 is available as a cycler if you’d ever want to enable 《Solitude》 – Living End is not known for struggling against creature strategies, there is some merit to it if you need to play longer games.

The most important thing for Living End to stay competitive is a plan to beat countermagic. Off the top of my hand, I don’t know how to tackle that, or if it’s even possible.

When I played Living End in the past, I occasionally used sideboard plans that contained a playset of 《Subtlety》, 《Endurance》, some 《Brazen Borrower》, and sometimes even 《Nightpack Ambusher》 – but that plan, again, relied heavily on your opponent’s need to respect 《Violent Outburst》 and never tap out. Perhaps sideboard 《Teferi, Time Raveler》 could help you exhaust opposing countermagic?

All things considered: I expect Rhinos to remain a competitive (but worse) deck. Living End might find a way to continue existing, but I’m not very optimistic and it might very well be relegated to the 《Glimpse of Tomorrow》 tier of cascade decks. As for their general place in the metagame, a game-winning three-mana spell paired with free interaction should still be a recipe for success against non-blue decks.

Cascade players will need to rethink many assumptions they might’ve gotten used to from the ground up – is it, as an example, still wise to maindeck four copies of 《Force of Negation》 when it can’t protect your cascade spell with it?

As for My Choice of the New Modern is…

One funny thing about the ban is that, while Cascade has a rich history of consistently being a top-tier deck ever since Modern Horizons Ⅱ, the weekend just before the announcement saw Esper 《Goryo’s Vengeance》 Reanimator take center stage instead.

Esper Reanimator

Esper Reanimator by Piotr Glogowski – Sample List

The deck has slowly been gaining traction since Murders at Karlov Manor, and lately, Magic Online has been utterly flooded with players picking up the archetype. Surveil Lands were an incredible addition to a deck that both lacks proactive one-mana plays and utilizes its graveyard effectively.

While the deck seems strong, the full extent of its longevity and place in the metagame was unclear to me even before the 《Violent Outburst》 ban. I would, however, keep Esper in mind and I would not trim on graveyard hate now, even with the expected decrease in Living End’s numbers.

Amulet Titan

As for my choice of the new Modern? I’m sticking to my guns. I’ve been a dedicated Amulet Titan player since last fall, and 《Violent Outburst》 being gone should improve the deck’s position – Cascade matchups could get challenging at times.

Neither 《Shardless Agent》 nor 《Ardent Plea》 are red, which means Rhinos of the future are unlikely to support 《Blood Moon》 or 《Magus of the Moon》.

Amulet Titan by Piotr Glogowski – Sample List

The starting point of my Amulet list doesn’t change much. Perhaps I will abandon 《Storm’s Wrath》 in favor of some less red-heavy 《Magus of the Moon》 answers if Rhinos ends up being played too little which subsequently would prompt me to restructure my entire sideboard – I’ll need to know what problems exactly I’m facing before I do that, though.

One thing I’m sure of is that I’ll run those 《Turn the Earth》 for as long as Espers remains this popular – it’s a perfect answer to 《Goryo’s Vengeance》, while flashback makes it resistant to discard spells. Nonetheless, Amulet Titan will assuredly be my weapon of choice for the next big paper tournament I play – the Legacy European Series event in Prague.

Conclusion

We’ve also been promised a Weekly MTG stream where Play Design members will explain their decision to ban 《Violent Outburst》, hopefully giving us some insights into their philosophy and goals when it comes to curating the ban list. At the moment of writing, I unfortunately don’t have access to the recording yet, but I’ll be very interested in hearing what they have to say.

As always, I’m excited to dive right back into the format and explore it!

Piotr Glogowski (X / Twitch / Youtube)