D
DarthFerret
Guest
The card: Time Spiral
Objective: Fast paced deck that wont kill itself by deck default.
Ready....set....go!
Objective: Fast paced deck that wont kill itself by deck default.
Ready....set....go!
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
This is a FUN one. Time Spiral is so broken. That's why I have three (traded one of my copies a long time ago, but I'm not worried about it because as far as tournaments go, the card is restricted to one copy in Vintage decks and banned everywhere else).
Now, the immediate comparison is to Timetwister. Time Spiral cannot possibly be as good, because it costs twice as much. But its effect is largely the same. Time Spiral could potentially be used to help a control deck. It won't give you card advantage, but it can recycle your graveyard and give you a new hand, as well as paying for itself, allowing a control deck to keep stability. But that is not what the Oversoul uses it for. He likes broken cards and Time Spiral used this way is not broken. Time Spiral will do its broken dance for you when you play COMBO decks...
Of course, if you're playing a combo deck, you don't like saying "go" very much. You should not have six lands out to use with Time Spiral--unless you are using Fastbond or something. It is entirely possible to build broken casual decks that do something like that, but Time Spiral doesn't usually play as big of a role in such decks. Time Spiral does work REALLY well with two other blue cards. The first of these is High Tide--a very common instant that boosts your Islands. And then there's Dream Halls, one of the most broken enchantments ever.
Being the cowardly sadist that I am, I used Time Spiral in combo decks based around both of these cards. I can dig up exact decklists if anyone wants, but the following is from memory...
My High Tide deck liked going off on the third turn, but usually waited. With High Tide, you can just keep waiting until your opponent can kill you, and then the turn before that would happen, you go crazy. The only permanents that your opponent can hit are your lands. Your hand is vulnerable, but that's what countermagic is for, since this deck is monoblue. Thawing Glaciers is optional. I didn't experiment with it, because it seems to work best with Mind over Matter, which I didn't use. I'm still not sure as to how well either of those cards would work in casual High Tide decks. They seem to be quite good, but I'm not sure if they're optimal anymore....
So, on your fourth turn (probably), you drop an Island, play High Tide, and tap your other Islands for six mana. That means you can keep increasing your mana by playing some combination of Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, Snap, and Frantic Search. Frantic Search is a key spell here, because it digs through your deck and gives you mana. But the card it is often digging for is Time Spiral, which will completely refill your hand, and give you mana. The goal is usually to play a Palinchron and bounce it back and forth with its own ability for infinite mana and kill with Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser. But it's not necessary. You can build up large amounts of mana without Palinchron.
Time Spiral really helps this deck. Much of the time, you're trying to combo off on turn four or so. Now, if you have a High Tide and a Time Spiral at that point, it doesn't matter if your other cards are not going to draw into more fuel for your combo. The Time Spiral draws SEVEN cards. Casting a single Time Spiral will usually win the game for High Tide, but it can also be fun to use all of them.
Of course, I built this deck before Scourge came out. Nowadays, we have two awesome storm cards, which might be added to the arsenal. Mind's Desire is appealing in that, if casted after a Time Spiral it will win you the game. The problem is that if you're casting Time Spiral, you're probably already going to win. Mind's Desire may or may not be a "win more" card in High Tide. I haven't tested it. But more tempting is Brain Freeze. Brain Freeze costs only two mana, and mills the opponent's library away easily, if used after the High Tide combo has become active. It won't kill by itself, so you'll want to either force your opponent to draw a card or pass the turn and let the draw phase do that. The latter method has problems with cards like Necropotence, but is otherwise just as good. Brain Freeze seems too good to pass up for High Tide--just as long as you're not up against Gaea's Blessing...
High Tide is very good, but it lacks the incredible brokenness of Dream Halls. Dream Halls is the perfect card to use with Time Spiral because it ignores Time Spiral's mana cost entirely. My deck used Mana Vault and Mind over Matter to generate tons of mana for Stroke of Genius. There could be other methods now that might be more suitable (Mind's Desire comes to mind). Time Spiral not only generated mana for this, but it recycled the graveyard of cards pitched to Mind over Matter or Dream Halls, and refilled my hand. It was one of the best cards to get the combo going. After tapping two Islands and a Mana Vault to play Dream Halls, I would then cast card-drawing spells. Meditate, Opportunity, and Frantic Search were frequently used here, but Time Spiral was the best one.
This deck was MONSTROUS! Second turn kills were commonplace. It was one of the most evil decks I ever made. However, I should note that while the combo would usually kill the opponent (and quite quickly too) if left on its own, there was always the chance that the deck would kill itself. It actually happened sometimes. It didn't give my opponents the same warm, fuzzy feeling that smashing me with Kavu might have, but they won just the same--not very often though...
Now, the immediate comparison is to Timetwister. Time Spiral cannot possibly be as good, because it costs twice as much. But its effect is largely the same. Time Spiral could potentially be used to help a control deck. It won't give you card advantage, but it can recycle your graveyard and give you a new hand, as well as paying for itself, allowing a control deck to keep stability. But that is not what the Oversoul uses it for. He likes broken cards and Time Spiral used this way is not broken. Time Spiral will do its broken dance for you when you play COMBO decks...
Of course, if you're playing a combo deck, you don't like saying "go" very much. You should not have six lands out to use with Time Spiral--unless you are using Fastbond or something. It is entirely possible to build broken casual decks that do something like that, but Time Spiral doesn't usually play as big of a role in such decks. Time Spiral does work REALLY well with two other blue cards. The first of these is High Tide--a very common instant that boosts your Islands. And then there's Dream Halls, one of the most broken enchantments ever.
Being the cowardly sadist that I am, I used Time Spiral in combo decks based around both of these cards. I can dig up exact decklists if anyone wants, but the following is from memory...
My High Tide deck liked going off on the third turn, but usually waited. With High Tide, you can just keep waiting until your opponent can kill you, and then the turn before that would happen, you go crazy. The only permanents that your opponent can hit are your lands. Your hand is vulnerable, but that's what countermagic is for, since this deck is monoblue. Thawing Glaciers is optional. I didn't experiment with it, because it seems to work best with Mind over Matter, which I didn't use. I'm still not sure as to how well either of those cards would work in casual High Tide decks. They seem to be quite good, but I'm not sure if they're optimal anymore....
So, on your fourth turn (probably), you drop an Island, play High Tide, and tap your other Islands for six mana. That means you can keep increasing your mana by playing some combination of Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, Snap, and Frantic Search. Frantic Search is a key spell here, because it digs through your deck and gives you mana. But the card it is often digging for is Time Spiral, which will completely refill your hand, and give you mana. The goal is usually to play a Palinchron and bounce it back and forth with its own ability for infinite mana and kill with Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser. But it's not necessary. You can build up large amounts of mana without Palinchron.
Time Spiral really helps this deck. Much of the time, you're trying to combo off on turn four or so. Now, if you have a High Tide and a Time Spiral at that point, it doesn't matter if your other cards are not going to draw into more fuel for your combo. The Time Spiral draws SEVEN cards. Casting a single Time Spiral will usually win the game for High Tide, but it can also be fun to use all of them.
Of course, I built this deck before Scourge came out. Nowadays, we have two awesome storm cards, which might be added to the arsenal. Mind's Desire is appealing in that, if casted after a Time Spiral it will win you the game. The problem is that if you're casting Time Spiral, you're probably already going to win. Mind's Desire may or may not be a "win more" card in High Tide. I haven't tested it. But more tempting is Brain Freeze. Brain Freeze costs only two mana, and mills the opponent's library away easily, if used after the High Tide combo has become active. It won't kill by itself, so you'll want to either force your opponent to draw a card or pass the turn and let the draw phase do that. The latter method has problems with cards like Necropotence, but is otherwise just as good. Brain Freeze seems too good to pass up for High Tide--just as long as you're not up against Gaea's Blessing...
High Tide is very good, but it lacks the incredible brokenness of Dream Halls. Dream Halls is the perfect card to use with Time Spiral because it ignores Time Spiral's mana cost entirely. My deck used Mana Vault and Mind over Matter to generate tons of mana for Stroke of Genius. There could be other methods now that might be more suitable (Mind's Desire comes to mind). Time Spiral not only generated mana for this, but it recycled the graveyard of cards pitched to Mind over Matter or Dream Halls, and refilled my hand. It was one of the best cards to get the combo going. After tapping two Islands and a Mana Vault to play Dream Halls, I would then cast card-drawing spells. Meditate, Opportunity, and Frantic Search were frequently used here, but Time Spiral was the best one.
This deck was MONSTROUS! Second turn kills were commonplace. It was one of the most evil decks I ever made. However, I should note that while the combo would usually kill the opponent (and quite quickly too) if left on its own, there was always the chance that the deck would kill itself. It actually happened sometimes. It didn't give my opponents the same warm, fuzzy feeling that smashing me with Kavu might have, but they won just the same--not very often though...
D
DarthFerret
Guest
Ok, that gave me a couple of ideas that I might just have to play around with. Will post a deck if I come up with something good.
Anyone else?
Anyone else?
C
Captain Caveman
Guest
The Lame ...and easy solution would be to use the Enchantress Deck.
4 Argothian Enchantress
2 Cloud of Faeries
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Palinchron
4 Enchantress's Presence
3 Exploration
4 Fertile Ground
4 Frantic Search
4 Seal of Removal
4 Wild Growth
3 Time Spiral
1 Goblin Cannon(Brain Freeze, Stroke or whatever for the kill)
6 Forest
6 Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Serra's Sanctum
4 Argothian Enchantress
2 Cloud of Faeries
4 Wall of Blossoms
1 Palinchron
4 Enchantress's Presence
3 Exploration
4 Fertile Ground
4 Frantic Search
4 Seal of Removal
4 Wild Growth
3 Time Spiral
1 Goblin Cannon(Brain Freeze, Stroke or whatever for the kill)
6 Forest
6 Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Serra's Sanctum