Time Spiral
From MTG Salvation Wiki
- For other uses, see Time Spiral (disambiguation).
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|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
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| Design Team | Brian Tinsman (lead) Aaron Forsythe Devin Low Mark Rosewater | |
| Development Team | Brian Schneider (lead) Michael Donais Aaron Forsythe Devin Low Matt Place | |
| Release Date | 6 October, 2006 | |
| Mechanics | Timeshifted cards, Rebels, Slivers, Spellshapers, Thallids | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Buyback, Echo, Flanking, Flash, Flashback, Madness, Morph, Shadow, Split second, Storm, Suspend | |
| Size | 301 (121 Common 80 Uncommon 80 Rare 20 Land) 121 Timeshifted | |
| Expansion Code | TSP | |
| Development Codename | Snap | |
| Sets in Time Spiral Block | ||
| Time Spiral | Planar Chaos | Future Sight |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Coldsnap | Time Spiral | Planar Chaos |
Time Spiral is the fourtieth Magic expansion and was released in October 2006 as the first set in the Time Spiral block. The prerelease events for this set were held on September 23-24, 2006.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Set details
It includes 301 all new cards and a 121 "timeshifted" bonus reprint subset that are distributed in 15-card boosters including ten commons, three uncommons, one rare and one purple-rarity timeshifted card. Most of the cards in this expansion reference previous cards in some way.
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 coexisting on the same permanent to eliminate each other in order to avoid confusion.
[edit] Pro Tour player cards
One Player Card was placed in each Time Spiral Tournament Pack, Theme Deck and Fat Pack as an additional card (each pack still contained the same number of Magic cards as previous packs). Thirty players are featured in the set, including all five 2005 Hall of Fame inductees, 2005 Player of the Year Kenji Tsumura, 2005 World Champion Katsuhiro Mori, and many others. The front of each card features a portrait of the player and his national flag, with the back filled with career statistics and personal data.
[edit] 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. Three new time-related mechanics were introduced in this expansion; they are flash, split second and suspend. Another theme are the "timeshifted" cards, each of which is a reprint of a card from Magic's past.
- Flash has been on earlier cards but spelled out as "~ may be cast antyime you can play an instant".
[edit] Storyline
After more than its fair share of cataclysms, Dominaria lies in ruins. Salt rains from the sky and the air is poisonous. Time also seems to be in trouble, as people, places and things from the plane's past seem to appear and disappear on their own. Teferi returns from his phased-out home to find such destruction and realizes that the connection between land and mana is breaking. He seeks the help of Freyalise to repair the plane.
[edit] Cycles
Time Spiral has 19 cycles:
- Mana-costless suspend spells: Rare spells with the Suspend ability, no mana cost, and an effect of a powerful spell from Magic's past — Restore Balance, Ancestral Vision, Living End, Wheel of Fate, Hypergenesis and Lotus Bloom.
- Buyback: Rare spells with Buyback — Evangelize, Walk the Aeons, Demonic Collusion, Reiterate and Wurmcalling.
- Flash auras: Common Auras with flash — Temporal Isolation, Ophidian Eye, Feebleness, Ghitu Firebreathing, and Æther Web.
- Allied-color flashback spells: Common instants with a flashback cost that includes the allied color that follows in the sequence WUBRGW from the color of the spell — Momentary Blink, Mystical Teachings, Strangling Soot, Ancient Grudge and Thrill of the Hunt.
- Morph creatures: Rare creatures with morph and abilities that allude to cards from Magic's past — Weathered Bodyguards, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Liege of the Pit, Fortune Thief and Thelonite Hermit.
- Rare split second: Rare instants with split second — Angel's Grace, Trickbind, Sudden Spoiling, Word of Seizing and Stonewood Invocation.
- Uncommon split second spells: Uncommon spells with split second — Celestial Crusader, Wipe Away, Sudden Death, Sudden Shock and Krosan Grip.
- One-mana suspend creatures: Common creatures with suspend costs of C — Ivory Giant, Viscerid Deepwalker, Corpulent Corpse, Keldon Halberdier and Durkwood Baloth.
- Rare Slivers: Rare slivers that grant slivers the abilities of a rare creature from Magic's past — Pulmonic Sliver, Psionic Sliver, Plague Sliver, Sedge Sliver and Fungus Sliver.
- Uncommon monocolored Slivers: Monocolored uncommon slivers — Quilled Sliver, Telekinetic Sliver, Vampiric Sliver, Fury Sliver and Might Sliver.
- Uncommon multicolored Slivers: Uncommon slivers with CD in their mana cost, where C and D are allied colors of mana — Opaline Sliver, Dementia Sliver, Ghostflame Sliver, Firewake Sliver and Harmonic Sliver.
- Common Slivers: Common 1/1 slivers — Sidewinder Sliver, Screeching Sliver, Mindlash Sliver, Two-Headed Sliver and Gemhide Sliver.
- Common Spellshapers: Common spellshapers with an activated ability resembling a common card from Magic's past — Icatian Crier, Tolarian Sentinel, Urborg Syphon-Mage, Flowstone Channeler and Greenseeker.
- Common Slivers: Common slivers — Watcher Sliver, Shadow Sliver, Basal Sliver, Bonesplitter Sliver and Spinneret Sliver.
- Magi: Rare Human Wizard creatures with the converted mana cost and abilities of a powerful artifact from Magic's past — Magus of the Disk, Magus of the Jar, Magus of the Mirror, Magus of the Scroll and Magus of the Candelabra.
- Totems: Uncommon artifacts with "
: Add C to your mana pool" and an activated ability to turn the card into a creature on the Reserved List with a cost of that creature's mana cost — Thunder Totem, Chronatog Totem, Phyrexian Totem, Foriysian Totem and Weatherseed Totem.
- Two-color legendary creatures: Rare legendary creatures with mana costs that include CD, where C and D are allied colors of mana. Each of these legendary creatures represent characters from Dominaria's past — Ith, High Arcanist; Dralnu, Lich Lord; Kaervek the Merciless; Stonebrow, Krosan Hero; and Saffi Eriksdotter.
- Storage lands: Uncommon lands with ": Add 1 to your mana pool.
, : Put a storage counter on [this]. , Remove X storage counters from [this]: Add X mana in any combination of C and/or D to your mana pool." where C and D are allied colors — Calciform Pools, Dreadship Reef, Molten Slagheap, Fungal Reaches, and Saltcrusted Steppe.
- Rancor-like Auras: Uncommon Auras that grant the enchanted creature an ability and have "When [this] is put into a graveyard from play, return [this] to its owner's hand." — Spirit Loop, Fool's Demise, Fallen Ideal, Undying Rage and Aspect of Mongoose.
[edit] Theme decks
The preconstructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| Fun With Fungus | ■ | ■ | |||
| Hope's Crusaders | □ | ||||
| Reality Fracture | ■ | ■ | |||
| Sliver Evolution | □ | ■ | ■ | ||
[edit] Timeshifted
121 cards were timeshifted into Time Spiral. The most recent ones were from the Scourge, the furthest timeshifted card came from the Unlimited core set.
[edit] Points of interest
- Time Spiral is the first set since the Alliances expansion to distribute cards in boosters differently from the typical eleven commons, three uncommons and one rare format.
- Time Spiral is the first expansion to include a separate bonus subset of cards. While modern Core Sets include a small subset of cards, these are only included in introductory packages and are not distributed in boosters.
- Time Spiral is the first set to use a new premium card distribution method. All premium cards are now included in booster packs replacing a common card. Past expansions replaced a card of the same rarity as the premium card. This creates the possibility of "three rare" boosters in Time Spiral, as it is possible to find the normal rare, a premium rare and a Timeshifted card that was previously rare in the same pack.
- Both non-rare cards with buyback are blue.
- All cards with echo are red.
- All cards with madness are black.
- All non-rare cards with morph are blue.
- All cards with storm are red.
[edit] References
- ↑ "Announcing Time Spiral", by "Magic Arcana", MTG.com, Thursday, March 9, 2006..
[edit] External links
- Official Time Spiral Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering
- Time Spiral Rules Primer, by Mark Gottlieb, MTG.com, Monday, September 18, 2006.
