Margalis' Time Spiral Draft Guide

[Margalis]

So I was working on a draft guide for a while, but then I actually played some Time Spiral and things changed...so I'm going to post in parts. I'll cover the five colors first then talk about deck archetypes. I've done fairly well drafting TSP and watched a bunch of replays as well but this is all my opinion only.

[Margalis]

(Note: ratings are what place you are happy to take this card at)

White

Commons
-------

Temporal Isolation: One of a few pieces of removal in the set that works against creatures regardless of size, color or other restrictions.
1-2

Castle Raptors: One of the largest common flyers, the 5 toughness is key as it puts it out of the range of an Errant Ephemeron and many forms of removal including an early-game Tendrils, a Strangling Soot, Rift Bolt and Sudden Death.
1-3

Amrou Scout: They key card-advantage enabler for white, but useless without other rebels.
1-6 (Highly dependent on other cards in deck)

Momentary Blink: Pretty good on its own, but the real strength is in the variety of synergies such as Ivory Giant, Mangara of Corondor, Draining Whelk, etc. Playable without blue but much better with. Better in a slightly slower deck than all-out aggro.
2-8 (Highly deck dependent)

Amrou Seekers: A 2/2 with "white fear" is nothing to sneeze at, and fits well with White's aggressive tempo decks.
3-5

Benalish Cavalry: A 2/2 flanker for 2 also fits well into any aggressive White deck.
3-5

Cloudchaser Kestrel: Evasion at a reasonable price, destroying an enchantment is relevant against monster cards like Stormbind and Sacred Mesa, and the secondary ability is also relevant more than you might think, with Celestial Crusader and Ivory Giant benefitting while killing off Skulking Knights.
3-5

Fortify: A finisher in an aggro deck. I am normally not a fan of these sorts of cards but it fits very well with what white is often trying to do. Either deal the last few points of damage or if you fall behind all your little 2/2 guys can still accomplish something against 4/4s.
3-5

Ivory Giant: Shines in a mostly white deck, serving as a finisher or a disgusting lockdown with Momentary Blink. Value drops dramatically as deck becomes more diverse color-wise. Because this is useful in primarily white decks this can often table or be picked up 5-8 pick.
2-8

Flickering Spirit: Really annoying once it gets going, but hard to cast and protect on the same turn and slow in general.
4-8

Errant Doomsayers: A tapper that can only deal with toughness 2 or less. Ok in a rebels deck, on their own I consider them sideboard material although many people do play them maindeck.
6-10

Icatian Crier: A 1/1 for 3cc is horrid, but this can turn late lands into men and has a number of synergies including Fallen Ideal, Liege of the Pit, Herd Gnarr, Hivestone, Pendlehaven Elder, Celestial Crusader and Tromp the Domains. I will play this in a slower deck or a deck that can abuse tokens in some way.
7-10

Zealot il-Vec: A rebel you can put into play with Scout, has evasion, and the ability is often relevant. This is a card I will maindeck and be prepared to board out or not include it and be prepared to board in. Without a number of x/1 targets not really worth playing in most cases.
10-12

Pentarch Ward: I liked this card coming in but it hasn't impressed me. Too situational, too big of a tempo hit in a color and environment where tempo is key, and protection against a single color isn't as helpful as it might first appear.
10-12

Gaze of Justice: Another card that does not fit well with a tempo-based format. Playable in sealed with a mostly white deck, not very playable in draft.
10-15

Jedit's Dragoons: A 6cc guy that doesn't come close to breaking the game open. Pass.
10-15

D'Avenant Healer: Not a fan of this guy in draft at all, although the format does have a number of 1/x guys that are hard to deal with, such as Looter il-Kor and Keldon Halberdier. I probably wouldn't maindeck this though.
10-15

Foriysian Interceptor: Does not fit in well with a tempo-based aggressive white deck. Too much evasion in the set for a plain wall to help much.
12-15

Children of Korlis: Awful.
15

Detainment Spell: Far too situational to ever maindeck, dubious even to side in except under extreme circumstances.
15

Divine Congregation: Useless.
15


Sidewinder Sliver: Ok in a heavy Sliver deck, not playable in a non-Sliver deck.
N/A

Watcher Sliver: Playable with at least a minor Sliver theme.
N/A


Uncommons of note
-------
Griffin Guide: Hands down the best white uncommon.
1-2

Knight o Holy Nimbus: A 2/2 2cc drop with flanking and early-game regen? (And a rebel!) These guys are the best turn 2 play available to white.
3-5

Cavalry Master: A 3/3 with flanking is fairly hard to deal with on its own and really shines with other flankers.
3-5

Duskrider Peregrine: Very strong play against black, ok play against other colors. At suspend 3 playing this on turn 3 isn't bad if you want to drop something else on turn 2.
3-5

Celestial Crusader: A strong card in a heavy white deck, weakens dramatically as deck drifts towards more multicolor.
3-7

Outrider en-Kor: Unlike the Nimbus Knights the ability here is more late-game centric. Hitting the board a turn later hurts. Still a decent rebel, works well when paired with green creatures that can absorb some damage or especially a Stuffy Doll. In a rebel deck or slower deck I would take these guys over Benalish Cavalry but in an aggro deck I would take the Cavalry instead.
5-7


Play good decks, not good cards
Ratings should be taken with a grain of salt - card synergy and deck strategy are what matters.


Common deck archetypes
---------------------

Mono white aggro
Mono white decks typically suspend an Ivory Giant play a bunch of small efficient guys and get a Scout going, building up a large tempo and numbers advantage. 2/2s with flanking are hard to deal with early game, as are evasive guys like Kestrel and Seekers. When 4 mana is hit the player can play out more threats from their hand or use the Scout. (I tend to use the Scout because if I play guys first then Scout is killed off I've lost all those guys - if I use the Scout first the other threats remain in hand) This deck tries to win fast and finish with a mix of evasion, numbers advantage, Fortify, Ivory Giant coming into play or being Blinked after coming into play.

The focus here is on efficient drops, evasion and rebels. Attack fast and hard.


White/blue aggro
White/blue decks also tend to be aggressive and tempo based. Here Coral Trickster, Temporal Eddy and Riftwing Cloudskate can control the tempo while Errant Ephemeron and Spiketail Drakeling provide more evasive beaters. Looter il-Kor is also a strong early play that is lower on damage than some others but provides very valuable card filtering in the early game. A white/blue decks tends to be slightly slower than a well-oiled mono-white deck but is easier to draft. Here the value of Momentary Blink goes up while Ivory Giant and Celestial Crusader drop.

A key to white/blue is managing color requirements on early drops. Nibus Knights are WW, Kestrel is 1WW and Drakeling is 1UU while Eddy is 2UU. It can be important to either grab some fixing or construct your deck to avoid too many double-color early drops across both colors.


White/green beats
White/green decks can take advantage of a number of synergies between the two colors. White and green tokens can both benefit a Herd Gnarr and both benefit from a Tromp the Domains or Pendlehaven Elder. In addition the ability of Amrou Scout to put a lot of guys on the board quickly also works very well with Tromp as a finisher and with Herd Gnarr. The addition of cards like Durkwood Baloth can provide some more late-game punch, while Ashcoat Bears can provide redundant 2 drops if needed. Thrill of the Hunt becomes very playable as you can play it and flashback on the same turn, and Strength in Numbers can work well with swarming early drops. (Not sure about that last one)

White/green decks still want to finish fairly fast as they tend to lack late-game bombs and removal. This is more of a combination people find themselves in because one of the colors has some early-pick bombs or is open rather than aiming for, but in reviewing tournaments it is a combination that does well much of the time.


White/black or white/red
These are combinations I rarely see. Black and red both add removal but the splashable removal is going to be heavily drafted. Black and red tend to be slower colors and don't fit well into an aggressive deck as the creature efficiency just isn't there. Desolation Giant is pretty amazing with WW but other than that there aren't a lot of synergies. Green has efficient creatures and blue has tempo control and evasion, black and red have neither. It isn't impossible to play white/black or white/red but it isn't easy either.

White/x control or stall
White has so many small drops and so few control cards that this is not played often. The blockers white has in this set are don't handle evasion well. "Stall the ground and win in the air" is a pretty common theme in draft but in this set stalling the ground is hard for white to do.



The bottom line
---------------------
Win fast or die trying. White has many creatures that are hard to deal with early-game and some nice finishers, but can lose steam especially if your evasion is not optimal. Play out a bunch of threats and keep swinging is usually the way to go, as common drops are heavy on small efficient beaters and very light on lasting power.

[Johny Cee]

Thanks Marg,  very good article.

It would be nifty if someone collected the finished work, edited them together, and stuck them on the frontpage.  Or something.

[Margalis]

Blue

Commons
-------

Errant Ephemeron: The scariest turn two play in TS. Whenever my opponent has an island in play on turn 2 I'm praying they don't suspend this guy. 4/4 is very hard to deal with for anything that can block flyers and a lot of removal as well. Most decks just cannot deal with a 4/4 flyer at all.
1-2

Looter il-Kor: It's hard to lose if you can keep this guy alive for any length of time. Card filtering in the early game is huge - Thought Courier was a great pick in 9th and this guy does damage on top of that. Gets even better with Madness or a card with flashback you can play from the yard. Not strict card advantage but card quality advantage and turns dead land draws into beaters. The only issue here is fragility.
1-3

Fathom Seer: A great card if you can choose when to flip him properly. On turn that you miss a land drop you can flip him for minimal tempo loss. (replay one of the returned lands immediately) Similar to Scryb Ranger you can even use this as an accelerator of sorts, tap 2 islands, return one to hand, put it in play and tap it again for UUU total out of two lands. Drawing two cards is awesome, but don't be afraid to trade with this guy. Drawing cards mid-game almost for free is great but you have to make it to mid-game with a healthy life total for that to matter. Throw this guy into a Bonesplitter Sliver and don't feel compelled to activate the flip if it will set you behind tempo-wise. Don't get greedy and feel that you always have to keep him alive for the mid-game or always have to flip him if he is about to die anyway.
3-5

Spiketail Drakeling: Evasion at a nice price and an ability that can delay bombs and preserve a tempo advantage.
3-5

Temporal Eddy: Being on the wrong side of this really hurts. The best tempo-preservation card available and a good way to draw out the game if that is what you want as well. Start combining this with Snapback, Coral Trickster and Riftwing Cloudskate and you can dominate the early to mid game.
4-6

Viscerid Deepwalker: The only turn 1 play blue has and a pretty decent one. Should always make the maindeck cut but not a standout.
5-8

Crookclaw Transmuter: A tricky guy who can kill walls outright and serve as a nice combat trick, this guy should not only hit the board as a 3/1 flyer but also serve as ghetto removal.
5-8

Snapback: A nice utility card in a tempo-based deck.
7-10

Coral Trickster: A nice card that can preserve tempo as well as serve as a combat trick by untapping a tapped attacker. Great when you are ready to attack with all your guys and they have a big beater in the way.
7-10

Cancel: I like counter spells a lot more than some people, opinion is very mixed overall. Some people claim that TSP is a very bomb-based format but I don't see that. Counters are typically better against late bombs than a steady stream of beaters. However counters work very well against suspend as can keep mana open specifically for the turn the suspend card comes into play. I consider Cancel maindeck quality.
8-12

Think Twice: I like this in sealed but in draft probably too slow a lot of the time. The first activation thins your deck with no other benefit. If you don't have other turn 2 plays this can be very nice, if you have other turn 2 plays (and you should, given Looter and Ephemeron are both turn 2) this loses out to those superior cards competing for the same slot.
8-12

Tolarian Sentinel: 4cc for a 1/3 is pricey. The ability is nice if you have CIP effects like Cloudskate or as a madness enabler, or as a way to save guys in combat. Solid but not exceptional, I would want at least two ways to abuse this to be happy maindecking it.
8-12

Slipstream Serpent: This guy can swing for six once even if your opponent does not control an island, as you can flip him after the declare attackers phase. This guy can make the main-deck cut at least some of the time as a 2/2 for 3 with some potential upside, especially if your opponent controls an island or if you can mix him up with other morphs.
9-12


Dream Stalker: Ok in a slower deck or if you have some way to abuse CIP effects, such as a Riftwing Cloudskate. Other than that not really worth playing in most decks.
10-15

Drifter il-Dal: Perhaps the most controversial TS card. I find that U each turn is too much of a hit in the early game and detrimental to an aggro strategy as it delays other guys hitting the board for a turn. Especially bad if you have double U casting cost guys. Mid-game he is a 2/1 shadow guy which is not bad, but not great either. Depends a lot on mana curve but I consider him not worth playing while others will swear by him. There is no doubt that he can get in 4-8 damage on the play, the problem is in delaying the rest of your game. A racing card that slows down your ability to race. You have to think carefully about which turn is best to play him based on your mana curve and hand contents, even though he is a 1 drop playing him on turn 1 is often one step forward and two back.
10-15

Eternity Snare: Frustratingly slow, by the time you play this it is often way too late. It's probably better to go for more offense than to run this as removal.
10-15

Mystical Teachings: Too much of a tempo hit. Perhaps playable if you have some huge instant/flash bombs, but a simple Sudden Death will cost you 7cc to fetch and cast. I'm usually dissapointed when I draw this even in the slower sealed environment.
12-15

Ophidian Eye: The first time this activates all it does it replace itself at the cost of 3cc. To make this effective you have to swing and hit at least twice and preferably three times. A big tempo hit if you can't hit with it at all. More of a "win more" card, if you can hit the opponent 2 or 3 times you often don't need this. Appears playable but has been a big dissapointment to me.
12-15

Sage of Epityr: I am not a fan of card re-ordering without any draw or filtering attached. Sure he can re-order your next few draws but at the cost of one turn himself for a pretty useless 1/1. If the cards are in an acceptable order you've just wasted a turn. Perhaps ok with many library shuffling effects but those are not very common.
12-15

Bewilder: A poor stall card and a temp hit.
15

Clockspinning:I've never seen a legit use for  this in draft.
15

Screeching Sliver: Works only in a fairly specific Sliver-deck.
N/A

Shadow Sliver: Works only in a fairly specific Sliver-deck.
N/A



Uncommons of note
-------
Careful Consideration: Nice card draw but a tempo hit.
4-6

Fledgling Mawcor: With the number of x/1s in the set this can be very annoying and take out key opponents, even better in multiples or with other pingers. A 2/2 flyer for 4 is not bad either and easier to cast that Spiketail.
2-4

Riftwing Cloudskate: A very strong turn 2 or 3 play, gets even better with guys like Tolarian Sentinel.
2-4

Telekinetic Sliver: I'll cover Slivers separately but turnin all Slivers into tappers is pretty beastly.
N/A

Wipe Away: Split second on here helps a lot as does "target permanent" instead of "target creature." Combat trick, tempo preserver, mana screwer.
3-6


Common deck archetypes
---------------------

White/blue aggro
Previously covered. Blue adds better tempo control and some more evasion to the mix while sacrificing the power of Ivory Giant and being a bit slower than a well-tuned mono-white deck.

Blue/black madness
This can be tricky to pull off but very powerful if you can set it up. The idea here is to use Looter and to a lesser extent Careful Consideration as madness enablers in addition to the madness enablers in black. This can turn Looter discards from filtering into outright card advantage and a Dark Withering for B is almost unfair. To make this effective you probably need two Looters and a couple good madness cards or at least a Looter and a Trespasser in black. Blue tempo control can help make up for black's relative slowness and morphs can also help cover the early drops that black generally lacks. This deck is a card advantage deck that looks to stabilize then dominate with better card quality and outright card numbers through Looter, Fathom Seer, etc.

Blue/green beats
Similar to white/green but with more tempo control and fewer damaging 2 drops, this deck looks to win via evasion, flyers and early drops backed up by green fat in the mid game. Typically slower than a white/green deck but a bit more resilient should the opponent stabilize, due to card draw and Ephemeron beatdown. Ashcoat Bears are fairly playable in this sort of deck as two drops with bite and Coral Trickster can help open things up for Durkwood Baloth to swing free or win a race.


Blue/red
I've rarely seen this. Can't really comment but I don't see any obvious synergies.

Mono-blue
Blue is a popular color to draft and the creature depth isn't there, I've never seen a mono-blue deck in draft or sealed.



The bottom line
---------------
Blue has a nice curve with a Deepwalker on turn 1, Looter or Ephemeron on turn 2 and morphs/Drakeling on turn 3. Blue has powerful utility and tempo control in the form of Trickster, Cloudskate and various bounce spells. Blue is heavily drafted but Ephemeron is such a powerful turn 2 play that it can be almost worth it to move into blue just for that, a 4/4 flyer will give most decks fits and turn games into a race. The overall creature base is not as redundant as white and drops off in power fairly quickly if someone near you is grabbing up the best from each pack.

[Calantus]

TLDR

Kidding, although I haven't read it yet, I will tomorrow when I wake up. Just wanted to say thanks because I am about to get back to drafting again (and keeping to a budget...) and could use the pointers. :P

[Johny Cee]

ETA on more,  Marg? 

I've been doing pretty well lately drafting Black,  with either Red or Green as backup.  Grab removal (Tendrils, Assassinate, Strangling Soot, Premature Burial, etc) and some of Black's evasive creatures (fear, shadow) then go Red for more beats/burn or Green for efficiently costed creatures and bombs,  and mass token generation to fuel sac effects.

Black and Black/Red have some real great bombs:  Magus of the Mirror, Lim Dull, Karavek the Merciless (House!), etc.

[Margalis]

Soon...this weekend more.

Kaervek is awesome, I drafted a deck that had 2 and was passed a 3rd!

[Margalis]

Black

Commons
-------


Stangling Soot: Even without the flashback is pretty good, flashback makes it great.
1-3


Tresspasser il-Vec: Good stalemate breaker, madness enabler and agressive power.
3-5

Corpulent Corpse: A first turn play with an ok body and evasion.
3-5

Tendrils of Corruption:The value of this is going to vary a lot based on how many swamps you have, but typically a high pick.
3-6

Dark Withering: Very nice in a madness deck.
4-6

Assassinate: In a tempo-based block a sorcery that only kills black creatures isn't nearly as good as it looks.
5-8

Urborg Syhpon-Mage: Good stalemate breaker and madness enabler.
5-8

Feebleness: With the number of X/1 cards in the format this is not bad if you lack removal.
8-12

Deathspore Thallid: Pretty lame outside of Thallids but pretty awesome if you have Saproling tokens.
8-12

Pit Keeper: Special ability is occasionally useful and it is a rare black two drop.
8-12

Mana Skimmer: Yet another innefficient card. Nice effect when it hits but like Cyclopean giant this guy usually ends up blocking and dying the turn he comes into play.
8-12

Gorgon Recluse:Another card that is pretty good in madness and way too slow outside of it.
8-12

Mindstab: I've had zero luck with this but I see it in winning draft decks. As a first turn play it is pretty good, usually nabbing 2 or 3 cards.
8-12

Basal Sliver: OK in a Sliver deck or as a way to accerlerate out a Kaervek or Avatar of Woe.
10-15

Skulking Knight: A 3/3 flanker for 3 is very good. Unfortunately this guy dies to a lot of stuff including virtually any combat trick, Kestrel's turn white ability, a single grapeshot, etc etc. Be prepared to either side in or side out.
10-15

Call to the Netherworld: Essentially useless outside of a madness deck and merely ok in one. Remember this can only fetch black creatures.
10-15

Cyclopean Giant: Inneficient and tricky to cast, much of the time this guy will just come into play and immediately block a bear or be blocked by one.
12-15

Drudge Reavers: Too costly, another big tempo hit.
12-15

Sangrophage: Early body that can trade with a 2/2 flanker. Of course opponent can just not attack let you take 2 anyway. I've run this in decks that were very aggro with Daruthi Slayer, Totem, plenty of removal, etc, but typically not worth it.
12-15

Psychotic Episode: I wouldn't run this unless I had 4 or 5 different madness enablers.
12-15

Viscid Lemures: 5 for a 4/3 is pretty bad. OK sideboard against swamps, pass otherwise.
12-15

Traitor's Clutch: I've never seen anyone use this.
15

Mindlash Sliver: Horrible.
15



Uncommons of note
-------
Dread Return: Use madness to pitch a guy and this to bring him back. Nice with bombs like Avatar of Woe and Kaervek. Outside of that probably not worth bothering with.
6-10

Nightshade Assassin: Nice especially if you can bounce and re-play it. Rare black card advantage.
3-6

Phthisis: This is much better if you have a reasonable shot at hardcasting it.
2-4

Phyrexian Totem: Technically an artifact but who's counting? If you want to play aggro this guy is great, if you have extra lands you can sac, and mana acceleration is something black often needs.
3-6

Smallpox: Nice in a slower control deck and you can often pick up multiples. Control the board by Poxing/Dark Withering then swinging in with your Totem. These often go very late.
8-12

Sudden Death: The best removal spell in the format. Kills a lot of stuff and by doing -X/-X you can get a 1 to 1 trade even if you have to use this and then block as well.
1-3




Common deck archetypes
---------------------

Near-mono black
Going mono-black or close to it has many advantages. Tendrils are more damaging, Nightshade Assassin is more powerful. You can hardcast Phthisis, flip a Leige of the Pit, pay for Stronghold Overseer, etc. Red is often a good splash for the flashback on Strangling Soot.

Blue/black madness
Covered in blue. The key card here is Looter il-Kor which is a madness enabler that takes no mana to activate and draws you a card! Cards like Syhpon Mage can be hard to use as madness enablers, to Syhpon and play a Medusa you need 2BBB available. The core of this deck is Looter, Dark Withering, Nightshade Assassin, Medusa, etc.

Green/black Thallids
Deathspore Thallid is the best Thallid Saproling user. Leige of the Pit can also put Saprolings to good use, as can Fallen Ideal. In addition the rare Thelon of Havenwood has a black activation cost. One issue with this build is that black only has one Thallid and no other token generators outside of the rare Master Breeder, so green has to do the heavy lifting here.



The bottom line
---------------
Black is defined a lot by the uncommons and rares you get. Sudden Spoiling can be a huge turnaround, Stronghold Overseer is an awesome finisher, Sengir Nosferatu is nice, Plague Sliver is a huge beatdown, Liege of the Pit is very playable in close to mono-black, Kaervek is game over if he can stay on the board for a couple of turns, Lim-Dul and Endrek Sahr are both nasty. There is a lot of quality stuff at rare and uncommon. The timeshifted cards also add good stuff like Void, Faceless Butcher and Daruthi Slayer.

The problem is that common is a very mixed bag. A couple of the cards are very inneficient outside of madness, and many of the cards are just low quality in general. The creatures have very little redundancy. In white if you want a 2 drop you can choose from Amrou Scout, Benalish Cavalry and Knights of the Holy Nimbus. For 3 drops with evasion you have Amrou Seekers and Kestrel. In black the two and three drops are weak and black has a lot of trouble dealing with flanking. For two drops you have Pit Keeper that can't block a flanker at all, and Sangrophage which can block and trade and cost you two life. At 3cc neither Syphon Mage nor Tresspasser can trade with a flanker. Even at 4cc Mana Skimmer can't trade with a flanker.

What often happens is that black gets going just too little, too late. Opponent plays some early drops, even bears, coupled with some combat tricks and you fall hopelessly behind.

Black does have a lot of reach.(Ability to go late game) Corpulent Corpse, Syphon Mage and Tresspasser all represent fairly unavoidable damage. Flashback on Soot can give you card advantage. The trick is stabilizing at healthy life totals.

One of the reasons Premature Burial is quite good is that black needs early-game help and that's what Premature Burial is. As a topdeck it isn't very good but black can win long games. What you really need as black is either removal or creatures that can trade off or block and live in the first few turns. Rift Bolt, Sudden Shock, Premature Burial, Temporal Isolation, Thallid Shell-Dweller, Wall of Roots, etc.

Avoid the Eyes by the way. They are occasionally good but you will be kicking yourself when you play an Eye and they Temporal Isolation it. The 4cc and 5cc drops in black are full of innefficient or hard-to-deal with creatures including Medusa (if you can't madness her out), both Eyes, Skittering Monstronsity, Lemures and Cyclopean Giant. A deck with many of these will be incredibly clunky.