Time Spiral
Time Spiral is the fortieth Magic expansion and was released in October 2006 as the first set in the Time Spiral block. Time Spiral is the first expansion to include a separate bonus subset of cards.
Set details
Time Spiral contains 301 all new black-bordered cards (121 commons, 80 uncommons, 80 rares, 20 basic lands) and a bonus reprint subset of 121 "timeshifted" cards. Time Spiral was nostalgia-themed. Most of the cards in this expansion reference previous cards in some way. The expansion symbol of the set is an hourglass to reinforce the time themes and to imply the idea that time is running out.
Timeshifted
Timeshifted cards make up a 121-card subset comprised entirely of pre-Mirrodin reprints, tying in with the set's theme of revisiting the past. Each card in the subset features the old Seventh Edition card frame and has a new purple expansion symbol to denote their unique rarity. One timeshifted card appears in every Time Spiral booster pack, making the cards roughly 50% as rare as rare cards, which also appear once per pack but comprise of only 80 cards. However, in the Time Spiral preconstructed decks, timeshifted cards are treated as though they had their original rarity, as each deck features several of the timeshifted cards that were originally common, including multiples of the same card.
Timeshifted cards are treated as a part of Time Spiral block, thus it is legal in any format that uses Time Spiral's cards (Standard, Extended, Block Constructed, Modern).
Marketing
Time Spiral was sold in 75-card tournament decks, 15-card boosters, four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. All products except the boosters contained a random Pro Tour Players Card. The booster packs featured artwork from Serra Avenger, Sengir Nosferatu, Mishra, Artificer Prodigy, Undying Rage, and Bogardan Hellkite. Time Spiral was the first set since Alliances to distribute cards in boosters differently from the typical eleven commons, three uncommons and one rare format. Instead, they included ten commons, three uncommons, one rare and one purple-rarity timeshifted card. Tournament decks contained three timeshifted cards, replacing three commons.
Time Spiral was the first set to use a new premium card distribution method. All premium cards were now included in booster packs replacing a common card. Past expansions replaced a card of the same rarity as the premium card. This created the possibility of "three rare" boosters in Time Spiral, as it was possible to find the normal rare, a premium rare and a Timeshifted card that was previously rare in the same pack.
The prerelease events for this set were held on September 23–24, 2006. The prerelease card was a foil alternate art Lotus Bloom. The release card was Sudden Shock. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name by Scott McGough. Additional art for several tokens was created for Magic Online.
Flavor and storyline
After more than its fair share of cataclysms, the plane Dominaria is in ruins. Over two hundred years ago, Phyrexia invaded the plane. In the end Phyrexia and its god, Yawgmoth, were defeated, but not before they devastated Dominaria. Salt rains from the sky and the air is poisonous. The trees are gray and rotting and covered with a sickly, fungal kudzu. The elves must subsist on mossy scraps. Their greenseekers roam Dominaria in search of any thriving plant matter, but the plains are dry salt flats blasted by windstorms. Nothing grows there. The swamps are littered with the dripping carcasses of Phyrexian horrors. Seas' acidic waters eat away at the solidified volcanic spurts that dot the waves. Freyalise's seemingly graceful placement of the Skyshroud Forest was backed by brutal force, causing the Skyshroud rift to drain the green and red mana from Skyshroud and Keld. Though Skyshroud's green mana was slower to drain, Keld's mountains all either caved in or withered to spires resembling obelisks.
Time also seems to be in trouble, as people, locations and objects from the plane's past seem to appear and disappear on their own. Teferi returns from his phased-out home and upon seeing the destruction realizes that the connection between land and mana is breaking. He seeks the help of Freyalise to repair the plane.
Storyline sources
Rules changes
Several rules changes accompanied the release of Time Spiral. Most of the returning mechanics received at least a small update (such as Echo now specifying a cost instead of using the mana cost of the permanent by definition). In addition, the rules governing cards without mana costs were changed to allow a cycle of spells only playable by the Suspend ability, and a new rule was created causing +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on the same permanent to eliminate each other in order to avoid confusion.
Mechanics and themes
The theme of the expansion is the past. Many mechanics and themes that appear in Time Spiral also appeared in past expansions. These include the keywords buyback, echo, flanking, flashback, madness, morph, shadow, and storm. Returning creature-type themes include rebels, slivers, spellshapers and thallids. Two new time-related mechanics were introduced in this expansion, namely split second and suspend, and additionally flash was keyworded. Another theme is the "timeshifted" cards, each of which is a reprint of a card from Magic's past and features a special purple rarity symbol. Alongside the direct reprints of old cards, there was a cycle of 'callbacks'; cards that had the same effect as extremely powerful older cards but which could only be played by suspend and never directly cast.
- Suspend sends a spell into the future by paying a reduced cost and waiting a number of turns before casting it for free. Some cards had other ways to reduce the time taken before they were played.
- Split second freezes time for a moment, preventing spells and abilities from being played while a spell with split second is on the stack.
- Flash slows down time for the mage, allowing a non-instant spell to be cast at instant speed. This was simply the keywording of an existing ability. Flash has since become an evergreen keyword.
Creature types
The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Assembly-Worker and Triskelavite.
The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Advisor, Angel, Archer, Artificer, Assassin, Avatar, Bear, Beast, Bird, Cat, Centaur, Cleric, Construct, Demon, Djinn, Dragon, Druid, Dryad, Elemental, Elf, Eye, Faerie, Fungus, Gargoyle, Giant, Goblin, Gorgon, Homarid, Horror, Hydra, Illusion, Insect, Kavu, Kithkin, Knight, Kor, Kraken, Leech, Merfolk, Nightmare, Orc, Pegasus, Rebel, Rogue, Scout, Serpent, Shaman, Shapeshifter, Skeleton, Sliver, Snake, Soldier, Spellshaper, Spider, Spike, Spirit, Treefolk, Vampire, Viashino, Wall, Warrior, Wizard, Wurm, Zombie.
Cycles
Time Spiral has twenty cycles:
Slivercycles
Notable cards
- Academy Ruins, used as a regrowth mechanic for artifacts, specifically in Extended to severely hurt or even lock the opponent under a Mindslaver.
- Ancestral Vision, a very cheap but delayed draw spell
- Ancient Grudge, a high quality card due to Flashback, as such used in decks that dump their library in the graveyard, e.g. Friggorid.
- Dread Return also card widely used in Reanimator decks, especially after Narcomoeba came along two sets later.
- Empty the Warrens, an alternate win Condition for storm decks when they can't target the player.
- Gemstone Caverns, a card designed by Tsuyoshi Fujita during the 2005 Magic Invitational which was voted on by users of the Wizards of the Coast homepage to be the one they'd want to see the most in a set (though changed in functionality due to playtesting later on).
- Greater Gargadon, a long term threat used in R/G aggressive decks, which sacrifices permanents if the opponent attempts to destroy them. It was later used in combo decks as a sacrifice outlet, e.g. with Saffi Eriksdotter and Reveillark.
- Hypergenesis and Living End, two cards which would later be abused with the Cascade mechanic to clutter the battlefield with a number of large and/or utility creatures that are hard to kill.
- Krosan Grip, a valuable sideboard card against blue decks that are dependent on a specific artifact or enchantment, e.g. Counterbalance or Vedalken Shackles
- Lotus Bloom, a card to be played for free and adding mana 3 turns later, especially widely used in Storm decks.
- Saffi Eriksdotter, becoming a card due to its popularity from the Flavortext of Lhurgoyf.
- Smallpox, a variation of Pox which still saw wide play due to its strong effect depriving the opponent of multiple resources at once.
- Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, a representation of Teferi after he lost his Planeswalker spark in a spell to heal the time rift near his home continent of Jamuraa. Saw widespread tournament play due to his ability to shut down opposing Control decks and being searchable with Mystical Teachings, also from this set.
- Avalanche Riders, Shadowmage Infiltrator and Voidmage Prodigy were all reprinted Magic Invitational cards.
- Dragonstorm, unlike its first appearance in Scourge inspired a whole new deck, partially because of the inclusion of Bogardan Hellkite and Lotus Bloom, both also from this set, creating the so-called Dragonstorm deck.
- Tormod's Crypt, a reprinted graveyard hate card to combat graveyard based decks such as Friggorid which were widespread in the Extended Environment at the time.
Theme decks
The preconstructed theme decks are: