Now that Time Spiral is going to be Tournament legal in less than a week, I've decided to take a look at some of the cards in the set and some of the less obvious interactions with other Type 2 cards. If any of these are posted anywhere else I apologize. I do not intend to take any of these interactions from any website, just out of my head and if they are posted somewhere else than it's nice to know someone else out there thinks like me.
1. Cloudchaser Kestrel with Pentarch Paladin- Cast the Paladin choosing White. Use the Kestrel to turn anything white. Blow things up.
2. Evangelize with Quicken- Cast the Evangelize on your opponent�s turn to remove one of his creatures from battle, steal on of his creatures to prevent them from attacking you, or just to gain control of one of his creatures so you can attack on your turn.
3. Icatian Crier and Firemane Angel or Shard Phoenix- Discard the Firemane and start gaining life or return it to play later on. Discard the Shard Phoenix and return it to your hand during your upkeep and repeat. You get 2 1/1's for 5 mana every turn.
4. Magus of the Disk and Wipe Away or Ghostway- Bounce the Magus after putting the ability on the stack with the uncounterable Wipe Away. Or remove all your creatures from the game after the Magus's ability is on the stack.
5. Momentary Blink and any morph creature- Play the morph creature as a 2/2 then use Momentary Blink to allow it to come into play face up.
6. Outrider en-Kor and Stuffy Doll- redirect all damage from the Outrider to the Stuffy Doll to make your opponent take a lot.
7. Pentarch Paladin and Momentary Blink- Once you�ve used the Paladin to destroy all creatures of the chosen color (or merely the most potent creature of that color) you can use the Blink to reset him to a different color.
8. Pentarch Ward and Stuffy Doll- No more black zero-toughness removal since that is one of the few ways to deal with the Stuffy Doll.
9. Clockspinning and Serrated Arrows, any Thallid, Gemstone Mine, suspended cards- This is one of the more obvious combos but I thought I'd list it anyway. Use Clockspinning to make your opponent�s Suspend cards stay suspended, Add extra counters to your thallids to make token creatures faster, add more counters to Gemstone Mine, add extra counters to the Serrated Arrows or put more -1/-1 counters on a creature that the Arrows already shot.
10. Ixidron and Pyroclasm- a friend of mine came up with this idea. Cast the Ixidron and then all other creatures become 2/2's. Then cast Pyroclasm. This is a way for R/U to deal with Paladin en-Vec.
11. Magus of the Jar and Ignorant Bliss- Use the Magus's ability to fill your hand. If you draw an Ignorant Bliss in those seven cards, you can remove your hand and at the end of the turn, stack the abilities so that the Magus's will trigger first, and the Ignorant Bliss second. You have effectively come out well ahead in card advantage.
12. Ophidian Eye and Looter il-Kor- Draw 2 and only have to discard one. I already know everyone knows about the combo with Niv-Mizzet.
13. Paradox Haze and suspend cards- This is somewhat obvious but I didn't even notice it until someone else told me about it. When the Haze is in play you get two upkeeps so you get to remove two counters from your suspend cards. If you have two in play you get to remove three counters. Hopefully the rest of the block has cards that can make this combo worthwhile.
14. Telekinetic Sliver with Hivestone and any token maker- This will recreate the old Merfolk Opposition deck. Make a lot of tokens, cast Hivestone to turn them all into slivers, then cast Telekinetic Sliver and tap all your opponent�s permanents and prevent them from casting anything while you slowly build up an army to blast away with.
15. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder with Dread Return and any other creature- Get Endrek into play and cast another creature. Get lots of thrulls. Then you can cast Dread Return to get a creature back and sacrifice 3 thrulls to flash back the Dread Return.
16. Faceless (Butcher or Devourer) and Momentary Blink- Put the Faceless creature into play. Put its ability on the stack, then cast Momentary Blink on the Faceless creature. The Faceless creature will remove one creature permanently, then remove another normally as it comes back into play.
17. Liege of the Pit and 2 Nether Traitors- Sac the Nether Traitor to the Liege. Next turn sac the second Nether Traitor to the Liege and return the first one to play. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
18. Plague Sliver and Essence Sliver- You take 2 damage, but gain it right back and you gain even more life when you attack or block.
19. Sudden Spoiling and Pyroclasm- Cast Pyroclasm, then respond by casting Sudden Spoiling to turn all creatures your opponent controls into 0/2's. They all die and you still have your army to attack with. Another nice effective way to clear the board of any pesky protection from Red or Black creatures.
20. Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and Shard Phoenix- For 5 mana you can constantly either Incinerate your opponent or one of their creatures.
21. Lightning Axe and Fiery Temper- Kill an 8 toughness creature for 2 mana or deal 5 to a creature and 3 to your opponent.
22. Wheel of Fate and Ignorant Bliss- Suspend the Wheel and as the last counter is removed, cast the Ignorant Bliss. Let the Wheel resolve and at the end of the turn you get your original hand back plus what you got from the Wheel, plus one more from the Bliss.
23. Phantom Wurm and any card that pumps toughness- You get a creature that cannot die due to damage.
24. Auratog and Hatching Plans- Sacrifice the Hatching Plans to pump up the Auratog and gain three cards.
25. Academy Ruins with Grinning Totem or Jester's Cap- For eight mana every turn you can take your opponent�s best spell out of their deck and possibly play it, or you can use the Cap and get their 3 best cards out of their deck forever.
Those 25 interactions may be easy to see and some may be hard to see, but they will be fun to play win or lose. Good luck with all your Time Spiral deckbuilding and tournament playing.
Billy Moreau
[email protected]