My Rhinofesto - A Guide to Crashing Footfalls in Modern
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- An Underappreciated and Misbuilt Deck
- Interact, Counteract, Attack
- The Core
- On the Battlefield
- On the Stack
- The Flex Slots
- The Sideboard
- The Mana
- The Gameplay
- The Opening Hand
- Turn One
- Turn Two
- Turn Three
- Turn Four and Onwards
- The Matchups
- The Sideboard Guide
- Alternative Card Choices
- The Gameplay (Continued)
- Thank You!
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Introduction
Hello there, and welcome to my Rhinofesto!
My name is Jonatan Nahnfeldt, also known to some as FjodorSascha. I’ve been playing
Crashing Footfalls in some iteration since 2019, starting with the Electrodominance variant,
going to Temur with the Modern-printing of Shardless Agent and now to 4-color after the
banning of Violent Outburst.
On my resume I have two RCQ wins with the archetype, one with Temur back in 2022 and
one just recently in the current season of 2025. I have a multitude of RCQ top8s in the
period in between, as well as a top16 finish at Swedish Modern Nationals and a 2k dollar
cash win in Arena Open Aetherdrift.
But enough about my middling accomplishments! Let’s get to the deck that I just love to play!
After falling into obscurity after the Violent Outburst ban, little innovation has been done to
the deck. It makes sense, to a degree, it was never a very popular deck until it rose to
dominance just ahead of the ban, but even then it was relatively underplayed for the quality
of the archetype.
Due to the deck building restrictions there are few new cards that make the cut. Wizards
have been careful about printing efficient high mana value cards that have an alternate
casting cost lately, in part due to the whole Up the Beanstalk disaster.
However, this is not to say that the archetype is in any way dead! In my mind it has the
potential to be more alive than ever! So why isn’t it putting up any performances in larger
tournaments? I will go through the main reasons in the next section.
An Underappreciated and Misbuilt Deck
If you have looked for lists for this deck on for example MTG Goldfish, you will have seen a
common theme. Most lists contain the now classic Leyline-Scion combo, utilizing the
interaction between Leyline of the Guildpact and Scion of Draco.
At face value it’s a strong combination that can be hard to break up for a lot of decks,
especially pre-sideboard. Domain Zoo has long used this 2-card combo to good effect, and
with Rhinos moving into the Domain space it should have a similar slot there, right? My firm
answer to that question is no.
There are several reasons as to why this is my stance. First and foremost, the odds of you
having both Leyline and Scion in your opening hand is about 16%. This does not account for
the playability of the rest of the hand. Not every hand out of those 16% will be otherwise
playable. It can be a onelander, contain one or more Leylines or Crashing Footfalls or
similar. I’m not a mathematician, but I’d estimate that the true number of hands where you
have the combo and a playable hand is closer to 10% or less. The percentage is decreased
further by the games where the opponent has the prerequisite interaction to deal with the
combo. Someone once said “never tell me the odds”, but when it comes to Magic I
appreciate the estimate and this one does not satisfy my requirements for consistency.
Because if it’s anything that Rhinos has always been, it's consistent. You generally have the
same outline for the first three turns of the game. I will go through this in more detail later,
but what this means for Leyline-Scion is that it reduces your consistency in terms of playable
opening hands.
In Domain Zoo, Leyline has many different uses. It turns on Territorial Kavu, Wild Nacatl,
Nishoba Brawler and Tribal Flames without needing the appropriate lands in play. Even if
you don’t have Scion in play it will affect the game in some fashion. This is not true for
Rhinos.
If you don’t have Scion in play, Leyline does stone cold nothing when in play apart from
providing you with color fixing. That is not something that the deck really needs. Conversely,
having Scion in play does not meaningfully impact your other creatures.
In Zoo, it gives Ragavan first strike, Kavu first strike and trample and if you play Psychic
Frog it gets hexproof and lifelink. It truly does affect the board on the turn it comes down. In
Rhinos it does not grant any other creature any meaningful buffs in the same fashion. Your
Rhinos already have trample, giving hexproof to Shardless Agent and Subtlety is hardly
relevant and Phlage does honestly not need more keywords to take over a game.
If you have Scion and Crashing Footfalls in your opener, but not Leyline, there is no way for
you to suspend Footfalls turn 1 and play Scion on turn 2. This means that you will either not
suspend or play Scion until turn 4 (assuming you are cascading on turn 3). This is essentially
a mulligan as either option is lacklustre at best.
There is no way to truly mitigate getting Leyline-flooded in Rhinos. Zoo can discard
redundant copies with Kavu, or be pretty happy casting it with Scion in play as it, as
previously mentioned, affects the board in a completely different fashion.
In Rhinos you can of course pitch the Leyline to Force of Negation or Subtlety, but this is
hardly an upside to the card.
Another downside of Scion is that it makes you weaker to post-sideboard Consign to
Memory, something everyone plays and will board in to counter cascade triggers.
Countering Scion is a 1-for-1, but Shardless Agent and Ardent Plea never are. You will still
get your cascade card into play, and both can be very relevant to either still present some
sort of clock or to enable attacks that otherwise wouldn't have been possible. Essentially,
Consign is a pretty medium sideboard card against you if you're not playing Scion.
In summary, while having the Leyline-Scion obviously will win you some games, it will not
meaningfully improve your win-rate and in my opinion more likely decrease it over a greater
sample size of matches by making the deck more inconsistent. It causes awkward opening
hands and decreases the amount of interaction you have available to you. Therefore, the
commonly proposed build of Rhinos is a misbuild and actively hurts the deck's overall win
rate.
A problem that follows due to this is that if people pick the deck up and take it for a spin, they
will likely do poorly and then drop it as soon as they 2-3 their first league on MTGO. The
deck also does not have any online champions, such as Living End and similar off-meta
decks have. The perceived play rate drops even more as it does not put up results in
leagues or in challenges.
It’s a negative feedback-loop that inevitably leads to lower play rate and a preconceived
notion that the deck is worse than it actually is. I’m not saying that Rhinos would be
guaranteed to be in tier 1 if it was built “correctly” but it definitely deserves more attention
than it currently gets as a paltry 0.2% of the MTG Goldfish meta share would tell you.
There are also a multitude of suboptimal sideboard choices, which I will discuss further in the
sideboard section of this guide.
But enough about how you shouldn’t build the deck. How should it be constructed?
Interact, Counteract, Attack
Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7172136#online
In this part, I will go through all of the cards in my build by sections. The core, the interaction,
the flex slots and the manabase. I will also go over the sideboard, why I’ve made the choices
I have as well as flex cards to approach different metas.
The general plan of the deck is to play a tempo-oriented game plan, making use of your
one-card combo to deploy a fast clock early on while keeping your opponent off balance with
cheap and efficient interaction.
Proper threat-assessment will be integral to your success. While your interaction is great,
you don’t have access to true card advantage outside of Lórien Revealed. This makes it
difficult to deal with everything your opponent can throw at you, but you can definitely set
yourself up to handily deal with their key cards. I will explore threat assessments in each
matchup in the sideboard guide later.
Let’s start with the cards the whole deck is built to accommodate.
The Core
These cards hardly need introduction or explanation. These 12 cards are the core of the
deck and your main threat. Playing either Shardless Agent or Ardent Plea on turn 3 to put
8-10 power on board with a single card is the main goal of almost every game.
Game 1 you often want to mulligan towards having at least one cascader in your hand, with
few exceptions. Most decks just can’t compete with the explosive change in board presence
backed up by interaction, and regardless of what is on the other side the Rhinos present a
fast clock that needs to be dealt with quickly.
If you have the choice to play either Shardless Agent or Ardent Plea, you should always go
for Shardless as it will add to your board even if the opponent has a counterspell.
Next, let’s look at how we complement this powerful threat package.
On the Battlefield
Fire // Ice, Dead // Gone and Leyline Binding are your main source of interacting with
permanents on the battlefield.
The two split cards have been staple cards in Rhinos since the Temur days, and they
continue to be prime real estate. While Dead // Gone has been cut down to two copies, Fire
// Ice continues to be your primary turn 2 plan.
Icing your opponents land on their turn two upkeep can really set their plans back, especially
if you’re on the play. If the opponent didn’t have a turn one play it feels very similar to casting
Time Walk, setting you up to really put your opponent on the back foot and having to play
catch-up immediately.
Fire is hardly an irrelevant side of the card either. 2 damage is enough to kill most early
tactics from the opponents’ side, and being able to split up the damage to kill two one
toughness creatures is icing on the cake. Fire can also go face to push the last couple points
of damage, making sure your opponent is never safe when at a low life total.
Dead // Gone has more disparity between the two halves, as Dead will be the half you cast
probably 90% of the time. Gone providing bounce to deal with high toughness or mana value
creatures is not irrelevant though, as sometimes all you need is to get a blocker out of the
way, by all means necessary.
Leyline Binding is one of the best removal spells printed in the last few years. With full
domain in play, being able to deal with any nonland permanent at instant speed is massive
for any deck, but this one in particular and it’s the main reason for going into the full 5 colors
of mana. It’s castable as early as turn 2 with several combinations of lands and provides
much needed flexibility in your ability to deal with whatever your opponent might throw at
you.
On the Stack
Rhinos isn’t just able to deal with things on the battlefield, the deck is equally adept at
dealing with cards on the stack, and it is one of the best to make use of the Modern Horizon
pitch cards. Free spells are broken, and if you can take advantage of them, you absolutely
should.
In my configuration I play a full 4 copies of both Subtlety and Force of Negation. This is not
something that most decks can support due to the inherent card disadvantage when playing
them for free. However, since we get virtual card advantage in being a one card combo that
does not require setup to present our clock, cards in hand have less significance.
As long as you can keep the pressure up the opponent only has a couple turns to deal with
your trampling 4/4s, and as such just delaying your opponent and keeping them off balance
gives you the time you need to finish the game before the card disadvantage matters.
Another upside of the free spells is that it allows you to tap out on turn 3 to deploy your
cascader while not leaving yourself completely open to the opponent’s counterplays. It is
quite simply some of the most efficient tempo plays you can present in the Modern format.
The Flex Slots {#the-flex-slots}
Calling Phlage a flex slot is probably disrespectful to the card. It is more or less mandatory to
play two copies. It is your main backup wincon and an excellent way to make use of your
graveyard, which is otherwise an unused resource in the deck.
Playing Phlage does put significant strain on the mana base. Even with the powerful mana
fixing of fetchlands having access to UU, RR, WW and G is no easy task without paying
significant amounts of life, but Phlage is such a powerful card as well as offsetting the life
loss it is a much needed inclusion to give the deck some extra closing power.
Brazen Borrower has been a staple inclusion for Rhinos ever since the deck’s conception.
The number of copies has varied, but one little sneaky Faerie has always stuck. It’s just a
very versatile card to answer troublesome permanents as well as providing a decent flying
threat on the creature side. With the addition of Leyline Binding it does bring a little less
value, as we then already have permanent answers to any nonland permanent. The one
toughness is definitely more noticeable nowadays with Orcish Bowmasters and Lava Dart
being more prevalent, but it can still do the job.
A true flex slot inclusion, however, is Brotherhood’s End. Since its printing in Brother’s War it
has seen plenty of sideboard play in multiple formats, with both modes of the card being very
relevant in many matchups. So relevant today, that I have chosen to include it in the main
deck.
Its main purpose is to deal with Boros Energy, as controlling their board presence is vital to
the matchup. It also shines against Prowess, Broodscale and BW Blink decks, in essence
having high relevance against roughly 50% of a given field. It can also deal with more
off-meta decks such as Merfolk and Affinity, and has high value vs Urza’s Saga decks to
clear big constructs which is something the deck can struggle against.
In the current meta I wouldn’t leave home without my two maindeck copies, but as metas
change and vary, these two slots can always be something else that attacks the current
meta in a different way.
The Mana
I will be the first to say it, the mana in this deck is absolutely atrocious. It’s strained to the
maximum with several different double pips in the deck, but it does work out.
Essentially, what we are working with is a Jeskai deck splashing green for Shardless Agent
and a Xander’s Lounge for Leyline Binding. However, to not instantly lose to Blood Moon
effects, it is at the same time necessary to play 3 basic lands. I will go through the reasons
for each basic below.
Plains: Gives you an out to play a 4 mana Leyline Binding to deal with all Moon effects.
Mountain: Gives you an out to kill Harbinger of the Seas with red removal.
Forest: Lets you play Shardless Agent through Harbinger of the Seas.
The exclusion of basic Island might look odd at first, but it does not actually provide you with
any utility through the Moon effects. It doesn’t let you interact apart from Petty Theft, nor
does it allow you to cast any relevant spells as single blue is only good enough for Ice. It
simply does not contribute to your potential outs.
Forest is still an awkward inclusion, as it is one of two lands that does not contribute to
casting Phlage with Escape. The other is Breeding Pool, which is a concession to being able
to get green mana with Lórien Revealed. They are necessary evils to make the mana work
in a sufficiently consistent manner. For similar reasons, Sink Into Stupor is left out of the
deck as it does not cast Phlage and does not provide a typed land for Domain purposes.
Lórien Revealed fills the “land that pitches to Force” space instead for these reasons.
Something I have wanted to be able to include a lot of the time is a third surveil land, but with
3 taplands as well as 3 Lórien Revealed (essentially a tapped land) you are too constrained
on tapped vs untapped sources of mana. You risk not being able to play your spells on
curve, which outweighs the benefits of additional surveil value.
The Sideboard
The sideboard of Rhinos is, of course, subject to the same deckbuilding restrictions as the
main deck. However, this does not necessarily mean that it’s inflexible. There are several
options depending on what kind of deck or meta you want to attack.
The trio in the image above, Clarion Conqueror, Endurance and Mystical Dispute are cards I
deem must-includes in your sideboard, along with at least two copies of Force of Vigor. I
would never go below three copies of Clarion Conqueror or Endurance. Mystical Dispute is a
very valuable counterspell against any blue deck, but particularly against Psychic Frog on
the draw. I will always play at least two Disputes.
Clarion Conqueror takes over games by itself and hoses a multitude of strategies, most
notably the Broodscale combo and all flavors of Emry-artifact decks. The games where the
Conq is good it is THE card in the matchup.
Endurance is your graveyard interaction of choice and a great way to keep opposing
Phlages in check, take away delirium and all of those other pesky graveyard shenanigans
your opponents may be up to. I will note that Endurance, and by extension Force of Vigor
are much more difficult to pitch-cast than they were in the Temur variant, as you only play 8
green cards in the main deck and a maximum of 14 postboard. Not suspending your
Crashing Footfalls on turn 1 to be able to pitchcast either is often worth it.
My RCQ-winning list is tuned towards the Energy matchups, as that is one of the most
popular decks locally. If you aim to beat Energy, board wipes are your friend and having
access to additional ones out of the board is vital to the matchup. Rough // Tumble is a very
valuable one, especially on the draw as it can relieve the early pressure and allow you to be
more proactive as the game progresses.
However, the less Energy you expect to face the less the card deserves its spot, as it is not
particularly strong in any other matchups.
Obsidian Charmaw is a sideboard choice against different flavors of Eldrazi and Tron, as
well as against Amulet Titan (however it is much less valuable there).
Some notable exclusions compared to a number of lists I’ve seen floating around are
Inevitable Betrayal and Teferi, Time Raveler.
I’m a firm believer that Inevitable Betrayal is a trap that does not improve the matchups that you
would board it in against. It’s a card that sees play almost exclusively against Emrakul
decks and Goryo’s Vengeance. These are both already unfavored matchups and what you
are essentially doing when boarding in Betrayal against them is trying to beat them at their
own game by putting their massive creatures into play before them. In my mind, this is the
same as just giving up on the matchup.
The thing about constructed magic is that any given deck is just that; constructed to do a
certain thing. You will extremely rarely be able to beat an opponent at their own game.
You are much better off sticking to your main plan of Rhinos and trying to disrupt the
opponent as much as possible. You have access to Force of Negation in the main deck after
all, and after sideboarding a well timed Endurance or Force of Vigor can seriously disrupt the
opponent.
While cascading into Betrayal and stealing an Atraxa feels great, it does not end the game
quicker than Rhinos nor does it provide you with better card advantage than your opponent.
At least the Rhinos can force your opponent to use multiple cards to deal with them, while a
single Solitude quickly clears your board presence if you’ve played Betrayal. Board presence
matters so much more to Rhinos than card advantage, and as such sticking to your main
plan is much more important than anything else.
Similarly, Teferi does not contribute meaningfully to your main plan. There aren’t many
counter wars happening in the current meta, and shutting off your opponent’s instant speed
interaction simply isn’t as relevant today as it was a few years ago. It is far from a bad card,
but in my opinion it doesn’t make the cut in the current meta.
I have also seen people including Balustrade Spy for Belcher and silver bullet cards to
cascade into, like Doorkeeper Thrull, Drannith Magistrate and High Noon. These are all
traps, and should never make it into your sideboard.
Balustrade Spy will probably steal you a game once or twice against Belcher, but there are
two major flaws with this. Firstly, it requires that you fetch Xander’s Lounge. This is not
always something that you have the privilege to do, depending on your opening hand. Nearly
all Belcher players also sideboard Harbinger of the Seas, which will make you completely
unable to cast it anyways.
Secondly, a competent Belcher pilot will not let this line of play happen and have access to
way too many ways to counter the Spy in the majority of cases. Never assume your
opponent is a bad or incompetent player and sideboard in a way that assumes your
opponent knows their outs and their way to win. And besides all of this, the matchup is
already skewed favored for Rhinos, so you don’t need such a specific sideboard card to win.
As for the “cascadeable” sideboard cards, you either need to sideboard out all of your Footfalls or gamble on which card you will cascade into. Neither of these options are good.
You want to know with 100% certainty what you are cascading into. Putting yourself in a
situation where you don’t know exactly what your turn three play will give you will make you
unable to plan ahead in an efficient manner and then hitting the “wrong” card likely hurts you
more than the opponent. Your cascaders are meant to present your clock, not your
counterplan. The absolute best way of preventing your opponent from winning is winning
before them, and approaching the game by focusing on preventing your opponent from
winning is playing to not losing rather than playing to win.
This is a common fallacy that many fall into, but I guarantee you that just playing to win will
provide you with much more success than doing your darndest to prevent your opponent
from doing their thing.
Alternative Card Choices
Two interesting recent potential additions to the deck are Magmatic Hellkite and Quantum
Riddler.
Magmatic Hellkite can be an excellent follow-up to cascading, especially against decks like
Eldrazi strategies.
I’ve tested it to decent success, including an RCQ top 8 and an MTGO 5-0 result. However,
dependent on the matchup or your draw, it can span from being a completely bonkers 4
mana 4/5 flier that Stone Rains your opponent to being an uncastable card that doesn’t even
pitch to anything.
If you expect to face a lot of Eldrazi, Tron or Amulet Titan I can fully endorse this card as
excellent, but the inherent variance in its usefulness causes it to not make the cut in the
current meta.
At the time of writing this, Quantum Riddler has not yet been released, but I have goldfished
quite a bit with the card and I feel it has great potential to be a two- to three-of in the deck.
It not only gives the deck an additional turn 2 play, but also crazy inevitability in the late
game. The body is massive and evasive, as well as doubling up your draw steps allowing
you to pitch-cast your cards even more aggressively. It even has the flexibility to make a very
good Expressive Iteration impression by casting it for its warp cost in the late game if you
can’t or don’t want to tap out. It has the potential to be the new best card advantage spell in
Modern.
Riddler requires further testing, and if the meta stays Boros heavy Brotherhood’s End might
still make the cut over it as a meta call, but I will definitely be acquiring a playset of them at
release.
The Gameplay
Moving on to the gameplay, I will go over the first four turns of the game. These are the most
“scripted” turns and will often look very similar in the majority of your matches.
The Opening Hand
The exact composition of your ideal opening hand is of course always dependent on the
matchup in question. However, if we assume that we are in game one against an unknown
opponent it looks something like this.
The above hand gives you access to all necessary mana, versatile interaction and cascading
on turn three. This hand simply sets you up to have the ideal conditions to progress your
game plan.
So how do we play our first few turns? There are quite a few ways to do it, and I will go
through the general sequencing here.
Turn One
Despite being a deck that technically doesn’t contain cards below a mana value of three,
Rhinos has several different ways to play its turn one.
The best turn one play is most likely to suspend Crashing Footfalls, a surprisingly relevant
play in many matchups. It lets you take more of a controlling approach to the game in
matchups like Prowess where you will be under heavy early pressure by evasive creatures,
as well as against control decks where you are setting up for a turn where you try to break
through countermag ic by cascading twice in the same turn, similar to how you could play
Violent Outburst in the opponents end step to then untap and cascade again.
Second best is just to play or fetch a surveil-land or getting an untapped land to cycle your
Lórien Revealed. This sets up your land drops and makes sure you can cast your spells on
curve. This land should in most cases be Temple Garden or Lush Portico to best set up for
domain mana, but can also be Xander’s Lounge if it suits your curve better.
Turn Two
Your optimal turn two play, especially when you are on the play, is to cast Ice on your
opponent’s land. If they haven’t made a turn one play this can very closely mimic a Time
Walk and can be absolutely vital for you to keep the upper hand in the match.
If you don’t have Fire // Ice in hand for turn two this is an excellent time to fetch Xander’s
Lounge. Ideally you’ve gotten a Lush Portico or Temple Garden on turn one, and this sets up
the full domain to enable the one mana Leyline Binding. With a Binding already in hand this
also lets you cast it to deal with a problematic early play from the opponent.
Turn Three
This one is hardly a secret. This is the turn that the deck wants to execute in the same
fashion every game. What you want to do on turn three is basically always to cascade and
get your Rhinos in play. There are of course edge cases where this might not be your best
play, but it’s rare for it to not be.
The situations you diverge from this plan may be when you have a Footfalls suspended and
want to focus on interacting with your opponent until the last suspend counter has been
removed, or post board when you want to play around a counterspell by holding up an
additional mana for Mystical Dispute.
Turn Four and Onwards
This is where the fun begins. From turn 4 onwards you want to protect your Rhinos and keep
up the pressure. Maybe you play proactively and deploy more Rhinos, or you go in on
utilising your free interaction to keep your opponent on the back foot.
This part of the game is very matchup dependent and from here you will have to figure out
how to navigate the specific match in the moment. However, some general directions can
always be provided.
If you don’t foresee any board wipes, such as Wrath of the Skies or similar, you can pretty
freely just keep cascading turn after turn. Very few decks can actually deal with 4+ Rhinos,
especially if you can keep them off balance with your free interaction.
Anything that halts your ability to attack is something that needs to be dealt with, however
trading off your Rhinos can often be fine. Even chump attacking can be sometimes
reasonable just to push damage, especially if you have additional cascaders in hand.
Setting your mana up to be able to escape Phlage is also important at this stage of the
game, as well as having double blue available to hardcast Force of Negation and Subtlety.
Subtlety in particular is also a very reasonable evasive threat that can close out games if
your Rhinos have dealt some damage but then been dealt with. Don’t be afraid to just flash it
in on end step as a flash Phantom Monster!
After sideboarding you can expect opponents to bring in countermagic, in particular Consign
to Memory and Orim’s Chant to prevent you from getting your Rhinos into play. You might
ask, how do we play around this? To that I say, just jam into the counters. If the opponent
commits to playing reactively rather than proactively they make themselves slow down,
sometimes by a significant amount.
Countering Crashing Footfalls will always be a card-negative interaction for OP, as you will
resolve either Ardent Plea or Shardless Agent to get at least one piece of cardboard down. It
might not seem like much, but this deck aims to eek out every little piece of card advantage
it can and this is a great way to do it.
The more troublesome sideboard cards are proactive anti-cascade cards like Vexing Bauble
and Chalice of the Void. Neither of them requires the opponent to keep up mana, allowing
them to progress their gameplan without concerning themselves with our main plan. Vexing
Bauble also stops pitch-casting, severely impacting our tempo-gameplan, especially if it
comes down on turn one.
The Matchups
So how are you supposed to approach different matchups? In this section I will discuss the
sideboard and matchup approach of the most popular decks in the meta (according to MTG
Goldfish). You will find a summary sideboard guide at the end of this section.
I will preface this whole guide that the exact cards I sideboard are mainly based on vibes
rather than thorough research. If you feel the vibes of the listed sideboarding is off, feel free
to divert from the guide.
A lot of the even matchups can easily be swung in your favor if you pilot the deck well,
eßpecially control matchups as well as BW Blink.
Boros Energy
Favored
In: +1 Brotherhood’s End, +1 Rough // Tumble, +3 Endurance
Out: -1 Force of Negation, -4 Subtlety
Boros Energy and its variants is the deck you want to be able to beat, and I can say with
confidence that this matchup is favored for Rhinos.
The cards you care about answering the most in the matchup are Guide of Souls, Goblin
Bombardment and Phlage. Guide of Souls providing a solid life buffer as well as granting
evasion to their otherwise ground-based threats will make it difficult for you to stabilise the
board. In a similar way, Goblin Bombardment provides “evasive” damage that makes
blocking as well as removal ineffective. Phlage hardly needs introduction, but it too simply
is reach-damage as well as a sticky threat that is hard to properly answer.
Your own best cards will in every matchup be the cascaders, for obvious reasons, so going
forward I will only discuss cards other than those as key for each matchup.
Dead // Gone and Brotherhood’s End are crucial to be able to control the board and the early
game. Note that Brotherhood’s End also hits planeswalkers so an Ajani that has not been
plussed will also die to it.
Fetching in a way that lets you play one-mana Bindings is very good if you have the
opportunity, as you will often be pressured into answering multiple cards in the same turn.
Your own Phlage’s provide a life buffer as well as removing threats from your opponents
side. If the game goes long it is often decided by which player can make Phlage stick for
long enough to attack.
Post-board you get access to two additional sweepers to have greater control of the board
as well as Endurance to keep your opponent’s Phlages in check. Due to the greater number
of sweeps Subtlety drops in value as you care less about individual creatures resolving and
more about dealing with threats in play. Subtlety also does not deal with Phlages that are
discarded with Fable or Seasoned Pyromancer, or surveiled into the graveyard if your
opponent is lucky. It can also proactively deal with the graveyard to prevent escaping Phlage
in a situation where you don’t get priority, such as discarding to Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.
Take note of every situation where you get priority if the opponent has a Phlage and the
prerequisite cards to escape it, as Phlage can make or break a game, especially with Arena
of Glory.
One Force of Negation is often what gets cut to accommodate the sideboard cards, but you
need access to them to deal with cards that in many situations cannot be allowed to resolve.
These include Goblin Bombardment, Vexing Bauble and Wrath of the Skies.
Domain Zoo
Unfavored
In: +2 Mystical Dispute OR +2 Endurance, +2 Force of Vigor
Out: -2 Brotherhood’s End, -2 Force of Negation
*Mystical Dispute comes in v Psychic Frog variants, otherwise you generally want Endurance.
This matchup is bad, but with that said it’s not unwinnable. You need the opponent to
stumble a little bit, and it’s not impossible to engineer this.
You can, for example, remove Leyline of the Guildpact in situations where they might not
have great mana without it or to remove keywords granted by Scion mid-combat. Using
removal as combat tricks is in general very good in this matchup as the trample from Rhinos
lets damage go through even if they have been blocked previously.
Subtlety shines in this matchup to keep the pressure on and the opposing side of the board
clear, but with full Domain online Territorial Kavu does very easily stabilize. Tribal Flames is
also a problem as it constricts your ability to tank hits or deploy your mana in a timely
manner.
The sideboard does not offer much, but with some luck Force of Vigor can provide additional
answers to Leyline. Mystical Dispute is great to answer Psychic Frog on the draw, but if they
play a different variant Endurance is a better fit to deal with Phlage.
The biggest issue is simply that Domain has larger creatures and a more evasive clock, but
if you can keep them off good mana and break up the Leyline-Scion combo it is very much
possible to win.
BW Blink
Even
In: +3 Endurance, +1 Brotherhood’s End
Out: -4 Force of Negation
This matchup is a difficult one, and can vary quite a bit depending on variance and how each
player’s draw lines up against the other’s.
If your interaction lines up just right, say for example that you answer Phelia on turn 2, then
untap to cascade and have Subtlety when they try to go for a Solitude-Ephemerate line, it is
hard to lose. The same goes for a well timed Brotherhood’s End, which is also one of your
best answers to a well-developed board on the opposing side.
If Phelia instead goes unanswered and they get to “flip” an Overlord early on, the matchup
looks very different. A Flickerwisp-heavy draw can also be problematic as it is just a flying
Nekrataal for your Rhinos.
As you can tell from my examples, Phelia is the main card that needs to be answered out of
the deck. Second in line, it’s Overlord of the Balemurk. If it flips, the game is more or less
over, as they then have a profitable blocker as well as card advantage to mitigate having to
spend multiple cards to answer your Rhinos.
Your main road to victory is to accrue virtual card advantage and run them out of resources
for them to not be able to stabilize in time. By keeping Balemurk, Phelia and Flickerwisp off
the board, this is achievable. But if you can’t, you will have a bad time. Subtlety that
Overlord!
Amulet Titan
Favored
In: +2 Force of Vigor, +2 Obsidian Charmaw, +2 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Phlage, -2 Brotherhood’s End
With 4 Subtlety and 4 Force of Negation in the main deck this matchup is always going to be
favored.
While Titan is more resilient to interaction with the Analyst-loop, Rhinos presenting a fast
clock with interaction backup puts Titan under heavy pressure to go off quickly.
The cards you want to counter at all costs are of course, the namesake cards in Amulet of
Vigor and Primeval Titan. Scapeshift is a game winning play in more or less any situation
they would go for it so that is always something you need to counter.
Note that both Scapeshift and Titan can be allowed to resolve if there are no Amulets or
Spelunking in play, as neither will generate mana at that point. However, if you do not have
to pitch-cast either Force of Subtlety it is still of course very worth it to do so.
Blue Belcher
Even, leaning favored
In: +2 Mystical Dispute, +3 Clarion Conqueror, +1 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Phlage, -2 Brotherhood’s End
This is another matchup that can go either way depending on how each player’s draw lines
up against the other’s.
Icing your opponent’s lands is an even more powerful play in this matchup, as a lot of your
opponent’s lands enter tapped, setting your opponent back even more than in other
matchups.
Belcher also has trouble countering Footfalls for free, save for Flare of Denial. For this
reason it’s important to keep the board clear of Thundertrap Trainers and Fallaji
Archaeologists ahead of your turn 3.
Take care to interact with your opponent’s suspended Lotus Blooms, you can let it resolve
and still cast a Leyline Binding on it in their upkeep, denying them the mana except for
instant speed spells.
Postboard you really want to resolve and protect Clarion Conqueror, as they cannot combo
through it. The single Endurance comes in to have at least one tool vs Tameshi, but since
Endurance is hard to pitch-cast it is less valuable.
UB Frog
Even, leaning unfavored
In: +2 Mystical Dispute, +4 Endurance
Out: -4 Force of Negation, -2 Brotherhood’s End
If the opponent’s Psychic Frog gets to stick it is very difficult to accrue enough virtual card
advantage to win.
The most recent iterations of these decks are playing 3-4 Force of Negations in the main
deck which allows them to interact with Crashing Footfalls even when tapped out. When they
were playing 1 or even none in the main the line of Subtlety the Frog into untap cascade was
much more of a game winning sequence. For this reason the matchup has gone from
favored to even.
Postboard you want to pivot into more of a “4c Flash” deck, putting pressure on your
opponent’s interaction on their own turn. Endurance isn’t actually that great if you consider
its normal usage of graveyard hate, but having access to another four cards that can be
played on the opponent’s turn is. It can also ambush Frogs, forcing them to discard at least 2
cards if they want it to survive.
Mystical Dispute is also excellent to answer Frog on the draw, as well as to fight for Footfalls
on the stack on turn 4+. It is often worth delaying casting a cascader until turn four for this
reason, especially if you have access to playing Endurance on turn 3 instead.
Living End
Favored
In: +2 Mystical Dispute, +4 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Phlage, -2 Brotherhood’s End
This matchup used to be absolutely atrocious. I’m talking about a 90/10 matchup in Living
End’s favor. Their cascade turns were simply bigger, better AND wiped your board. However,
since the banning of Grief and Violent Outburst the matchup has turned on its head.
Of course, their cascades will still be bigger, better and wipe your board, but them only
having access to cascading on their own turn makes your Force of Negations much, much
stronger than they used to be. So much so that I think the matchup turns into a favored one,
even if just slightly.
Having access to the full 4 Endurance is critical post board, and as always the one-mana
interaction for counterwars in Mystical Dispute is fantastic.
Izzet Prowess
Unfavored
In: +1 Brotherhood’s End, +3 Endurance
Out: -2 Force of Negation, -2 Subtlety
I’ve gone back and forth on this matchup, as I’ve had good results against it. However, I’m
pretty convinced that against a competent player who knows not to over sideboard this
matchup is unfavored.
Game one is difficult to win if you don’t have a very interaction heavy draw. Their threats are
evasive and their clock can be extremely fast. If they quickly get DRC online you will take
considerable amounts of damage if it goes unanswered and stabilising will be difficult.
Cori-Steel Cutter is a source of virtual card advantage for Prowess and a card that leads
them to their most explosive starts, Force this card every time you can.
Postboard is where the matchup can change. An opponent that focuses too much on
interacting with your Footfalls sets themselves up to lose. They simply don’t need to care
about the Rhinos, because with a reasonable draw their clock is simply faster. The longer
the game goes, the more favored you will be.
For example, if the opponent sideboards something like four Consign and two Spell Pierce,
they commit to the plan of holding up at least one mana for the whole game from turn three
onwards. This severely affects their velocity and will grant you time to find your interaction.
They also risk being interaction-flooded and unable to pressure your life total in a meaningful
way.
However, if they stick to sideboarding only two Spell Pierce and stick to the game one
beatdown plan they are suddenly heavily favored again. As long as they stay proactive, this
matchup will always be difficult.
Goryo’s Vengeance
Unfavored
In: +2 Mystical Dispute, +4 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Phlage, -2 Brotherhood’s End
This matchup is similar to the UB Frog matchup in that the Frog sticking around makes the
matchup considerably more difficult to win. However, in contrast to UB Goryos has access to
much more explosive starts as well as a more impactful late game.
The fact they can play around Force of Negation by casting Goryos on your end step
severely hurts the matchup compared to many other combo-matchups. The life swing from
Atraxa also swings the race as well as providing them with way too many cards takes away
Rhinos two greatest assets, virtual card advantage and life total pressure.
This is simply a very difficult matchup if they have a good draw. However, there is always the
chance that they have a bit of a clunky draw, something that Rhinos is very adept at
capitalizing on.
Post board you get a few more tools to fight them, with four Endurance and Disputes coming
in. This does improve the matchup greatly, but still not enough for me to consider it a
favorable one.
Ruby Storm
Favored
In: +4 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Brotherhood’s End
Similar to the Titan matchup, access to free interaction puts you in a favored position. Of
course, sometimes they just have the turn two nuts and you didn’t have the right interaction,
but it’s important to note that Ruby Storm basically never has a deterministic kill until they
cast Past in Flames with Wish in the yard. As long as you can deal with their discounters as
well as Past in Flames you’ll most likely win comfortably.
Endurance gives you additional ways to deal with Past in Flames after sideboarding, which
is more or less all you need to safeguard the matchup.
Neobrand
Favored
In: +2 Mystical Dispute
Out: -2 Brotherhood’s End
Another matchup where the free interaction really shines. It’s very difficult for Neobrand to
have enough protection to fight both Force of Negation and Subtlety, and you give them very
little time to rebuild after a countered Neoform or Rider.
There is not too much to say about the matchup but to just make sure to have the free
interaction in your opener and things will most likely go your way.
Broodscale Combo
Unfavored
In: +3 Clarion Conqueror, +2 Force of Vigor, +1 Brotherhood’s End
Out: -2 Phlage, -4 Force of Negation
On face value this seems like it should be a good matchup, it’s a combo deck where
creature interaction has value. However, the deck is so resilient and has many roads to
victory which makes it difficult to have enough interaction in the right order to deal with the
deck.
That being said, Clarion Conqueror can completely solo the matchup postboard, as it shuts
off more or less the whole deck and they can’t combo through it.
Make sure to save your interaction for the main combo pieces in Broodscale and Blade, but
keep in mind that Fleshraker can put massive pressure on your life total, especially in
multiples, and does need to be dealt with swiftly in most situations.
Eldrazi Ramp
Unfavored
In: +3 Clarion Conqueror, +2 Obsidian Charmaw, +2 Force of Vigor
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Brotherhood’s End, -2 Phlage, -1 Force of Negation
Eldrazi Ramp has fallen from grace with the rise of Consign to Memory in almost every
sideboard, which is good for Rhinos, because the matchup is a difficult one. They present
creatures that outsize the Rhinos very early on and Ugin can be very hard to deal with even
if it doesn’t resolve.
Your plan will mainly be to play the mana denial angle. Ice their Sprawl:ed land, oftentimes
it's even worth Forcing it. You want them to be constrained on their mana as much as possible and kill them before they can deploy their large creatures.
Post-board both Clarion Conqueror and Charmaw supplement this plan, making them
unable to cast their spells ahead of schedule and clearing the way for tempoing them out.
Watch out for Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon after sideboarding and remember to fetch
your basics.
Burn
Even
In: +2 Mystical Dispute
Out: -2 Brotherhood’s End
A rare matchup in this day and age. It’s favored on the play and unfavored on the draw.
Every point of life matters in this matchup, and fetching your basics will be more relevant
here than in other matchups just for managing your life total.
Playing Subtlety on their Goblin Guide is quite honestly a decent play, but save your
counterspells for Boros Charm or a potentially lethal burn spell.
Mystical Dispute coming in out of the board might seem odd, but a 3 mana Mana Leak is
quite honestly just good enough in a lot of spots as you often only need to counter one or
two burn spells to save enough life to win.
Song of Creation Combo
Favored
In: +3 Clarion Conqueror, +2 Force of Vigor, +2 Mystical Dispute, +1 Brotherhood’s
End
Out: -2 Phlage, -2 Dead // Gone, -4 Subtlety
Somewhat of a newcomer to the modern meta, and maybe not even on the radar for most is
Song of Creation combo. It’s been popularized locally in Sweden by Rasmus Enegren, one
of the best in the country, and has taken hold among the local players.
The goal of the deck is to play Song of Creation, then rattle off a ton of Moxen and other free
spells to draw your deck and win with either Grapeshot or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, similar
to the Underworld Breach combo decks.
As every other combo matchup your Force of Negations pull a lot of weight, and after
sideboarding Clarion Conqueror just solos the matchup completely. It shuts off their Moxen
and their Emry, denying them the ability to generate mana on their combo turns and as such
making their life extremely difficult.
Force of Vigor can deal with Urza’s Saga starts and keep them off tempo, and Brotherhood’s
End is excellent on both modes to either clear off Emry/Tamiyo or all of their small artifacts
and their large constructs.
Affinity
Even
In: +3 Clarion Conqueror, +2 Force of Vigor, +2 MD, +1 Brotherhood’s End
Out: -2 Phlage, -2 Dead // Gone, -4 Force of Negation
The affinity matchup is mainly about keeping them off a critical mass of permanents.
Brotherhood’s End shines in this regard, as it can really set your opponents back by getting
Moxen and Drums off the board to constrain their mana production.
Postboard Clarion Conqueror once again does its thing of just shutting everything down,
including artifact lands! Force of Vigor prevents some early starts and dispute helps
countering stuff like Kappa Cannoneer.
UWx Control
Unfavored to Even
In: +2 Mystical Dispute, +2 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Brotherhood’s End
The control matchup varies in “favoredness”. Straight up UW control with Isochron Scepter
and main deck Teferi, Time Raveler is possibly the worst matchup you could face, while
Jeskai variants where Phlage is their main win condition are much more manageable.
One of the most important aspects of this matchup is to not play into board wipes. You have
the privilege of being able to present a two turn clock with a single card, and it is something
to make use of. Never over extend by playing an additional cascader when you already have
Rhinos in play. Instead just keep up interaction and force the opponent to blink first.
Suspending Crashing Footfalls, even past turn 1 is actively good in this matchup, as it
provides a steadily encroaching threat allowing you to hold up interaction, even on the turn
that you deploy your threats.
Try to make sure that your suspended Rhinos don’t overlap too much with your cascaded
ones though, as you never want the opponent to have the opportunity to deal with two of
your Crashing Footfalls with a single boardwipe.
Endurance out of the sideboard is mostly to have extra ways to deal with Phlage. But if you
have exhausted all your Footfalls and still have additional cascaders in hand, there is real
value in targeting yourself to shuffle them back in.
Samwise Combo
Favored
In: +3 Clarion Conqueror, +1 Brotherhood’s End
Out: -2 Force of Negation, -2 Phlage
I will concede that I have little experience with this matchup, but it is a three-card creature
combo. That is something that this deck is very adept at breaking up. As long as you can
keep Samwise off the board this should as a baseline be a favored matchup.
Postboard Clarion Conqueror once again stops any combo from happening at all and can
solo this matchup, and I don’t really think any additional sideboarding is necessary apart
from adding another Brotherhood’s End.
Yawgmoth
Favored
In: +1 Brotherhood’s End, +3 Clarion Conqueror, +4 Endurance
Out: -4 Force of Negation, -2 Phlage, -2 Fire // Ice
Yawgmoth is in many ways similar to Samwise (take that Vorthos-nerds) but it is in general
more graveyard focused with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron being a big part of their combo
potential.
However, as long as you keep Yawgmoth from resolving this matchup is mostly smooth sailing. You can often get them low enough on life that they can’t pay enough life enough to win.
It’s important to note that nowadays they also have access to infinite life with Dredger’s
Insight, Young Wolf and a Ballista under Cauldron. Rhinos cannot beat this, which is why it’s
very worth it to bring in Endurance in addition to the obvious MVP Clarion Conqueror.
Tron
Unfavored
In: +2 Obsidian Charmaw, +3 Clarion Conqueror, +2 Force of Vigor
Out: -2 Phlage, -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Brotherhood’s End, -1 Force of Negation
I haven’t played this matchup since The One Ring was still legal in Modern. However, it has
always been an unfavored one and I don’t see that as having changed.
They play main deck Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere for the most part, both of which
need to be answered for Rhinos to do basically anything at all, and nearly every spell has to
be countered for Rhinos to not fall behind.
Mana denial is your best option, and keep in mind that you can tap Trinisphere to get around
the tax, but this matchup is a rough one, no matter how you slice it or dice it.
Mirror
Even (duh)
In: +2 Mystical Dispute, +2 Endurance
Out: -2 Dead // Gone, -2 Brotherhood’s End
The mirror usually revolves around one thing and one thing only, and that is who can resolve
more Rhinos.
Whoever gets to cascade and resolve Footfalls is favored as they get to be on the offensive.
Force of Negation is also high value, in the same way as against Living End as cascading is
only done on your turn nowadays.
I will concede that I haven’t played the mirror since the VO ban, but I’d boldly assume that
most of the same heuristics apply. Just resolve more Rhinos and you will win.
To aid your goal Endurance is a good 2-of to come in out of the sideboard to shuffle back
your Footfalls and keep deploying Rhinos forever.
Sideboard Guide
Shorthand Glossary:
BEnd = Brotherhood’s End
Conq = Clarion Conqueror
D//G = Dead // Gone
Endu = Endurance
MD = Mystical Dispute
F//I = Fire // Ice
FoN = Force of Negation
FoV = Force of Vigor
OC = Obsidian Charmaw
Phlage = Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury
R//T = Rough // Tumble
Sub = Subtlety
Matchup In Out
Boros/Mardu Energy +1 BEnd, +1 R//T, +3 Endu -1 FoN, -4 Sub
Domain Zoo +2 MD OR +2 Endu, +2 FoV
*MD v Frog otherwise Endu
-2 BEnd, -2 FoN
BW Blink +3 Endu, +1 BEnd -4 FoN
Amulet Titan +2 FoV, +2 OC, +2 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd, -2 Phlage
Blue Belcher +2 MD, +3 Conq, +1 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd, -2 Phlage
UB Frog +2 MD, +4 Endu -4 FoN, -2 BEnd
Living End +2 MD, +4 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd, -2 Phlage
Matchup In Out
Prowess +1 BEnd, +3 Endu -2 FoN, -2 Sub
Goryos +2 MD, +4 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd, -2 Phlage
Ruby Storm +4 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd
Neobrand +2 MD -2 BEnd
Broodscale +3 Conq, +2 FoV, +1 BEnd -2 Phlage, -4 FoN
Eldrazi Ramp +3 Conq, +2 OC, +2 FoV -2 D//G, -2 BEnd, -2 Phlage, -1 Sub
Burn +2 MD -2 BEnd
Song of Creation +3 Conq, +2 FoV, +2 MD, +1 BEnd -2 Phlage, -2 D//G, -4 Sub
Affinity +3 Conq, +2 FoV, +2 MD, +1 BEnd -2 Phlage, -2 D//G, -4 FoN
UWx Control +2 MD, +2 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd
Samwise Combo +3 Conq, +1 BEnd -2 FoN, -2 Phlage
Yawgmoth +1 BEnd, +3 Conq, +4 Endu -4 FoN, -2 Phlage, -2 F//I
Tron +2 OC, +3 Conq, +2 FoV -2 Phlage, -2 D//G, -2 BEnd, -1 FoN
Mirror +2 MD, +2 Endu -2 D//G, -2 BEnd
The Gameplay (Continued)
The Thank You
Thank you for reading! This guide will always be free to read for anyone with the link, but if
you feel like you got something out of this guide, I’d appreciate if you would send any
amount of your choice to paypal.me/fjodorsascha
Happy Rhino-ing!
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The Front Page Images (Inline) Notes
- Interact, Counteract, Attack image snippet placeholders and decklist link for quick reference.
- The Core image trio shows Shardless Agent, Ardent Plea, Crashing Footfalls as core threats.
- On the Battlefield image shows Leyline Binding, Fire // Ice, Dead // Gone, etc.
- The Stack image demonstrates Subtlety and Force of Negation in action.
- The Flex Slots image shows Phlage, Brazen Borrower, and Brotherhood’s End.
- The Sideboard image shows Clarion Conqueror, Endurance, Mystical Dispute.
- The Mana image depicts Temple Garden, Xander’s Lounge, Flooded Strand.
Closing Thoughts
The guide emphasizes a tempo-oriented plan with one-card cascade reliability and thoughtful sideboarding to handle a diverse meta. It highlights the importance of threat assessment, maintaining a clock, and avoiding overreliance on Leyline-Scion in opening hands.
References and External Links
- Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7172136#online
- Announced matchups are drawn from MTG Goldfish meta snapshots
- RCQ and Nationals results cited throughout the narrative for context
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading and happy playing. If you enjoy the guide, contributions via the provided PayPal link are appreciated.