Rhino, Barreling Brute Deck Tech

Rhino, Barreling Brute | Art by Filipe Pagliuso

The full set spoilers for Marvel's Spider-Man are in! In this deck tech, I'm looking at one of my favorites from Spider-Man's rogues gallery: Rhino, Barreling Brute.

I have a pretty bizarre idea for this one, and I'm very excited to show it off. Something tells me the Modern players among us will enjoy what I've cooked up.

What Does Rhino, Barreling Brute Do?

Rhino, Barreling Brute is a 6/7 with vigilance, trample, and haste for . When he attacks, he draws a card if a spell with mana value four or greater was cast this turn.

Essentially, Rhino is an Up the Beanstalk with very impressive stats and a ludicrously high mana value.

Rhino is very clearly asking a deck constructed around him to commit to the following game plan: Ramp, cast Rhino, cast big spells, smash the opponents. That's exactly the sort of deck I've prepared.

However, I've put a little twist on it. On top of the typical ramp strategy, there's a cascade package reminiscent of the Modern Temur Rhinos decks.

Rhino's Rhinos

In Modern, decks that are looking to cascade into a suspend spell all have a similar structure. Suspend spells don't have a casting cost, and they have a mana value of zero. Cascade decks are full of three-mana spells with cascade, like Violent Outburst and Shardless Agent, and don't play any spells that those cascade cards can hit other than the suspend cards.

Typically, this involves playing spells that can be cast for less mana than their actual mana value, like Fury or Leyline Binding. That way the cascade spells will always hit a suspend card, but without completely giving up on playing spells in the early stages of the game.

This deck is looking to cascade into one of two cards: Crashing Footfalls and Up the Beanstalk. There are five cascade spells at three and four mana; all of them are guaranteed to hit either Up the Beanstalk or Crashing Footfalls. Then, there are many other cascade spells at higher mana values that provide a wider range of outcomes.

In all reality, Crashing Footfalls is only in this deck because I get a lot of joy from casting it. A sorcery like this isn't going to make a splash at the Bracket 4 (Optimized) tables, and that's alright for this deck's purposes. A more tightly optimized variant of this deck would stick to the more powerful of the two cards it's looking to cascade into.

Up the Beanstalk is an incredibly potent card draw engine - among the best ever printed. For just two mana, this enchantment draws a card when it enters and then draws another card every time it's controller casts a spell with mana value five or greater. At face value, that's only impressive in a deck that can make enough mana to cast more than one five-mana spell per turn.

However, one universal truth of Magic: the Gathering is that players will find ways to cheat on mana. In Modern, that method is using spells with alternate casting costs, like Fury. For this deck, it's casting big spells with cascade that cascade into even more big spells.

Key Cards for Rhino, Barreling Brute

One of the deckbuilding challenges cascade decks face is finding ways to make early plays without playing any cards with a mana value of one or two. I've chosen to circumvent that problem with Adventures, Omens, and creatures with evoke or cycling. These cards fill out most of the deck's utility cards, like ramp and removal.

For example, the Omen half of Bloomvine Regent is essentially just a Cultivate, but it's a Cultivate that can't be cast with a four mana cascade card.

Finally, there's the top of the mana curve. Once Up the Beanstalk is in play and the Rhinos have been unleashed, it's time to do what ramp decks do best: begin dropping expensive bombs turn after turn.

The best top-end bombs are the ones that draw cards or make mana. Wondrous Crucible is a protection spell that grants everything ward and casts a spells from the graveyard at random every turn. As I've said many times, Commander players are often unwilling to bear the mild inconvenience of an additional two mana to target something. For that reason, I consider the ward that Wondrous Crucible grants to be effectively hexproof the majority of the time.

Where Up the Beanstalk is a card draw engine for casting five-mana spells, Screamer-Killer is a removal engine. Screamer-Killer is a best-in-class tool for keeping opposing blockers off the board to clear the way for Rhino, Barreling Brute. This easily feels like the most oppressive card in the deck when things are going according to plan.

Etali, Primal Storm is a card advantage machine. One of the reasons I'm so comfortable playing a deck that has such a narrow range of answers is that it plays a handful of cards that can steal opponents' cards to help pick up the slack. Maybe this deck isn't great at targeted creature removal, but I'm sure if I attack with Etali, Primal Storm enough times, or get lucky off an Etali, Primal Conqueror enters trigger, someone will have something I can use. That's good enough for my purposes.

Plus, this is a deck that wants to constantly put more material on the board regardless of the text on any of the cards.

How Does This Rhino, Barreling Brute Deck Win the Game?

There aren't a lot of specific plans for winning the game baked into this deck. Placing big creatures on the table and turning them sideways is about as far it goes. However, there are a few cards that make ending the game a little easier.

Thunderfoot Baloth, Craterhoof Behemoth, and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa are all creatures that grant the rest of the team a power/toughness boost and trample. These all drastically simplify the process of pushing through the 120 points of damage required to end a game of Commander.

Rhino, Barreling Brute Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This is the first Bracket 2 (Core) deck I've ever built. It was a blast! Rhino, Barreling Brute offers a very refreshing gameplay experience compared to the other decks in my arsenal. I tend to go for "fiddly" decks that have meticulously crafted game plans and a lot of subtle nuances.

The Rhino is about as subtle as a brick. That style of play scratches an itch!

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