A Crash Course on New Cards for RUG Rhinos and Some Footfalls to Avoid

Hello! Nathan here, Swish Gaming’s biggest Rhino fan at the moment. LOTR gave the Modern format a pretty big shake up recently, so let’s talk about what that means for what is unarguably and will likely remain one of the best decks in the format.

Lorien Revealed may be the most impactful new card for the deck. I believe every list with good results is playing a full set and reducing the land count to 21, sometimes as low as 20. This card feels like a fetch-land that pitches to Force of Negation and Subtlety. Bonus points if you’re playing Murktide Regent for adding another piece of good Delve fodder after Islandcycling it. It gets even better as a late-game top deck, creating more card-draw than a single card has any business providing in a deck like this. We have utility, synergy, and card-advantage all in one neat package. “Look on this card with friendly eyes! Behold the land-base of the Deck of Rhinos and be glad!” Play four copies.

Flame of Anor is my favorite new card from LOTR. Turns out a modal spell that doesn’t need to be filtered through standard R and D can feel pretty busted. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that the floor of this spell’s effectiveness is fairly high, while the ceiling of its value is second only to something like Cryptic Command. The upsides that Flame has over something like Cryptic or perhaps Archmage’s Charm are multiple. First and foremost, it’s easily castable in our three-color deck, and whereas with the aforementioned blue spells, we’d need to warp our mana-base by playing filter-lands like Waterlogged Grove, with Flame we are actually incentivized to play Mutavault, a colorless land that can become a Wizard to increase this spell’s power. The other major reason this spell is better than other contenders is how well the effects line up with the format. Dealing five damage to a creature when most of the spells this deck has access to only deal two is a huge upside. Kills all the hate bears that matter and destroys Chalice of the Void and Void Mirror. Sometimes it does both things or whichever is needed while drawing 2 cards. At its worst, we are holding up interaction and choosing to draw two in our opponent’s end step. Not a bad place to be, in my opinion. When this card was spoiled I was racking my brain trying to find playable Wizards with mana value three or higher. I thought of Vendilion Clique, Nimble Obstructionist, Magus of the Moon and Aether Channeler. I completely glossed over Arcane Proxy, and I think, for good reason. I have seen lists do well playing one or two copies, but I personally don’t think this card is good enough. Swapping a Blood Moon in the side for a Magus, on the other hand, feels pretty free, so I’m in on that plan. Otherwise, Mutavault is there to take your Flame higher. I suggest playing two or three in the main deck and maybe an extra or two in the sideboard.

The One Ring presents a new problem that demands an answer without overcompensation. There are several options available, most of which aren’t new inclusions at all. The card advantage that control decks generate with this card is something Rhinos is already good at beating by simply applying overwhelming pressure very quickly. It’s the Ring’s ETB that is a challenge to outmaneuver, usually arriving on the turn or two turns before Rhinos closes the game. I believe the best solution to be had is Force of Negation. Counter it and move on with your life seems to work really well. However, we can only play four copies of Force of Negation and although Mystical Dispute will work in a pinch, Cancel is not something you’ll catch me champing at the bit to cast anytime soon. Enter our old friend Bonecrusher Giant. The adventure spell of this card, Stomp, states “Damage can’t be prevented this turn,” including the damage that is prevented from protection effects. The card is already good enough that it used to be played heavily in this deck alongside Brazen Borrower as cascade-proof interaction with an efficient threat to follow up. I suggest playing one or two Bonecrushers in the main deck. Note that sometimes you will need to target a Rhino token or yourself with Stomp in order to take advantage of it’s other text. Another card with a similar effect is Questing Beast. I have been fond of this card since it was printed and would be happy to play this card in the main deck if I thought it was good enough. However, I do not think it has good utility outside of dealing with The One Ring and maybe a stray defensive Giver of Runes. Therefore, I am relegating this Beast to a singleton-copy in the sideboard.

Dismember, Commandeer, and ObsidianCharmaw are three cards that I do not like. Lists running these cards have been doing quite well, so I’m not going to write them off completely. However, I will explain my stance and try to help you understand when and if to play these. Dismember certainly answers big threats much sooner than Flame of Anor can and the four life is a small price to pay for premium removal, in my opinion. However, the lack of utility makes me less-inclined to play this over an additional copy of Flame or some number of Brazen Borrower. However, if you keep losing to a Scammed Fury, you may want to consider it as the earliest possible answer for that problem. Lists have been performing well with one or two Commandeer in the sideboard and the card offers an absolutely bonkers tilt-your-opponent-off-the-face-of-the-earth blow out against big, game-ending spells like Karn Liberated and other powerful Planeswalkers, Beseech the Mirror, Goblin Charbelcher, Scapeshift, etc. Pretty good against The One Ring as well if you’re short on other answers for it, but I’d rather not three-for-one myself to steal my opponent’s card advantage unless I was pressed. If your local meta is full of Tron and Coffers players, I wouldn’t fault you for playing one or two in the sideboard. Speaking of Tron, let’s talk about Obsidian Charmaw. Swish’s Tron expert and all-around good guy, Noah Huizinga told me this card is possibly the best sideboard card against stock Green Tron and that more people should be playing it. I think that’s true in general, but Rhinos should just stick to Blood Moon effects for their utility alone. Blood Moon is great against Tron and Amulet Titan while also having utility against greedy mana-bases like Four-Color Control, Domain Zoo, and Grixis Death’s Shadow as well as decks like Hammer Time, Jund Sagas and Indomitable Creativity which factor non-basic lands with powerful and/or synergistic effects. That said, if you’re playing the four-color version of rhinos, there’s no chance you should be playing Blood Moon effects and Charmaw is your new bestie.

Until next time, good luck and attack for eight.