Play Fast, Swing Hard

Here is my first Time Spiral sealed pool:

Red

1 Lightning Axe
1 Fire Whip
1 Grapeshot
1 Mogg War Marshal
2 Blazing Blade Askari
1 Flowstone Channeler
1 Ironclaw Buzzardiers
1 Barbed Shocker
1 Coal Stoker
1 Subterranean Shambler
1 Keldon Halberdier
2 Plunder
1 Greater Gargadon

Green

1 Thallid Shell-Dweller
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Spinneret Sliver
2 Glass Asp
1 Thallid Germinator
1 Chameleon Blur
1 Herd Gnarr
1 Stonewood Invocation
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Savage Thallid
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Phantom Wurm
1 Tromp the Domains
1 Havenwood Wurm

Black

1 Call to the Netherworld
1 Mindlash Sliver
2 Deathspore Thallid
1 Smallpox
1 Faceless Devourer
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Tresspasser il-Vec
1 Cyclopean Giant
1 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore
1 Evil Eye of Urborg
2 Traitor's Clutch
1 Mindstab
1 Phthisis

White

1 Detainment Spell
1 Amrou Scout
1 Disenchant
1 Temporal Isolation
2 Outrider en-Kor
1 Zealot il-Vec
1 Return to Dust
1 Watcher Sliver
3 Ivory Giant

Blue

1 Screeching Sliver
1 Coral Trickster
1 Dream Stalker
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Willbender
1 Bewilder
1 Temporal Eddy
1 Stormcloud Djinn
1 Errant Ephemeron

Artifact

1 Hivestone
1 Chronatog Totem
1 Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII
1 Grinning Totem

Lands

1 Fungal Reaches
1 Urza's Factory

Multi-colored

1 Dementia Sliver

I don't have a feel for the set but it seems like a decent pool to me: nothing too broken here, but a decent number of solid roleplayers. This was my first (and only) flight on day one of the Time Spiral pre-release and my mindset going in was that this set was going to be fast and furious, especially for one in tune with the rhythms of RGD draft. My guiding principles were speed, consistency, efficiency. I was willing to accept that I was going to build what would in hindsight look like a sub-optimal deck, but I was banking on my opponents doing so as well so I just wanted to give self the best chance by playing a forgiving deck that drew and mulliganed well and was close to an automatic win against anyone off to a slow start or forcing too much of a color stretch.

Here is what I went with:

Lands

7 Forest
6 Mountain
3 Swamp
1 Fungal Reaches

Creatures

Red

2 Blazing Blade Askari
1 Flowstone Channeler
1 Ironclaw Buzzardiers
1 Coal Stoker
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Greater Gargadon

Green

1 Scryb Ranger
1 Spinneret Sliver
1 Thallid Germinator
1 Herd Gnarr
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Savage Thallid
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Phantom Wurm
1 Havenwood Wurm

Black

1 Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore
1 Evil Eye of Urborg

Spells

Red

1 Lightning Axe
1 Fire Whip
1 Grapeshot

Green

1 Stone Invocation

Artifact

1 Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII

First off, I made one glaring error. Greater Gargadon is a completely dead card in my deck. Perhaps it is possible to build a control deck in Time Spiral limited (I am not convinced of this yet), but in my deck even the long, grinders only took about ten turns total. And, of course, since I play like a complete n00b, I always forgot to sacrifice my creatures when they were destroyed in combat.... Any way, after the first match I always subbed the beast out for Tendrils of Corruption. I overlooked this card a bit on the first pass because I was trying to keep my black splash as light as possible, but it turned out that this card would actually always have an impact on the game even if I cast it with only one swamp in play.

Another sideboarding plan which I had prepared was to swap out black for white: 3 plains for 3 swamps and Disenchant, Temporal Isolation, and Grinning Totem for the three black spells (pretend I didn't maindeck the Gargadon like I am trying to do...). Multiple people were opening up Akromas and other bombs around me and, while my speedy deck was my first defense against huge bombs, I had a back-up plan if my little beaters needed a little help keeping the path clear to the finish line.

So how did the deck play? Well, I should have taken notes but here are some brief details from my memory:

Round 1: I drop some beaters, he drops some fungi, we trade for a bit, then he hits seven mana and plays out Trisklavus. I play a Phantom Wurm to try to tempt him in to using his little artifact bullets, but he doesn't go for it and game 1 ends. Games 2 and 3 go pretty similarly. On turn three, I play a morphed Thelonite Hermit. On the end of his turn on turn 5 I flip my hermit and then crash in with my many 2/2's on turn 6 and quickly overwhelm him. Sadly this would be the only round I ever draw the hermit.

Round 2: These games were all exciting, rough and tumble battles, in part because we both played like good players (ie never blocked). We would battle down to dangerously low life totals and then just see who had the better trick to come out on top. This was helped in part by his aggressive use of his Sangrophage. One game found us both down to 2 life and no cards in hand with me having more two power beaters than he had blockers. Unfortunately he got to draw first at that point of the game and ripped a Griffin Guide to fly over for the win (just one instance where I would probably have rather had disenchant in my deck than Eyes...). The other games went similarly except I came out on top...without really drawing any big creatures either. Herd Gnarr learned that reading can be quite enlightening as he oftened crashed through for four after brushing up on his Sarpadian history. I made one major misplay in game three, playing a Scryb Ranger and never using its ability to take out his Skulking Knight but luckily he didn't realize that I didn't realize...until I was too far ahead.

Round 3: Evil Eye of Urborg makes its first appearance and begins eating my opponent's board one critter at a time. My other creatures become roadkill as keep attacking and hoping that eventually he not draw a blocker for a change. Eventually I start pushing through damage, but on the turn before I would win the game he casts Phthisis on my eye with me at 11 life. Luckily I had been holding back Stonewood Invocation all game and can use it to counter Phthisis and win on the next turn. I enjoy game two because he plays Nightshade Assassin and shows me Sudden Spoiling. Being behind in life and creatures, I try to come up suboptimal blocks that are juicy enough to bait his sudden spoiling but still leave me with a chance to win. Of course, I lose because I am behind on life and creatures and he has Sudden Spoiling.... My little 2/2's pound in as hard as the can the last game but unfortunately swampwalking Viscid Lemures and a Nightshade Assassin embracing a Fallen Ideal slip through my defenses for the wins.

Round 4: In the first game I draw three lands and four three drops in my opening hand (or maybe I got a Coal Stoker and worked up to the double drop) and just ran him over before he could set up his defenses. In the second game, my Keldon Halberdier stares blankly across the board at a D'Avenant Healer, leading me to conclude that one toughness creatures are not too good in Time Spiral (though they rarely are in general either). This game, I do finally get the double eye tag team running, however, and overwhelm my opponent by the sheer proposterousness of it -- he made alot of misplays this game though my card quality might still have been high enough to win...Amrou Scout was doing good things for him though....

Some Final Pre-Release Thoughts

So I went 3-1 on match record and 7-4 on game record...not bad, I can't complain about getting six extra packs for my efforts though some of those games were much closer than I would have liked. In hindsight, I think the Greater Gargadon and Keldon Halberdier were the two cards that didn't really shine as I would have liked. There were several cards vying for MVC and it would be difficult to single out just one. With my extreme three drop redundancy (six 2/2's for three counting morphs) Coal Stoker actually played surprisingly well, allowing for two creatures to come down on turn four usually; it also helped boost a Grapeshot one time. Scryb Ranger and Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII interacted well with the Herd Gnarr in numerous games. The ranger also helped power out a Havenwood Wurm one game when I was short a land. Stonewood Invocation helped finish off an opponent a couple times (including the time detailed above).

Overall, I was happy with the way the deck played. I would have preferred a couple more solid two drops like Ashcoat Bear just to make the deck a little more consistent and fast. With seventeen lands and mostly two colors, I was never color screwed and rarely mulliganed even (I did mulligan some and my six card hands were usually solid). It was pre-release and I wanted to have fun so I don't regret playing the eyes though I'm not sure they are the best splash. Tendrils of Corruption was definitely a better black splash -- there are a few ways the eyes can be neutralized and neither one is quite effective enough on its own to make up for it: Orms-by-Gore is too slow of a clock for my fast deck which would rather swing with everyone than rely on three unblockable points of damage, and Urborg just takes out your opponent's worst creature while the good ones can swing back without worry of you alpha striking. They would work better in a controllish deck, or a deck capable of getting rid of them which could serve to throw your opponent off guard (yes, the Gargadon could help with this...).

Looking at other paths I could have taken with the deck, blue seems like it might have been better than I originally gave it credit for. Evasion was so sparse as to be irrelevant most games (and very relevant in a few). Those two big fliers and the shadow looter might have been quite effective, and I am sure the two morph creatures would have played their roles well. Temporal Eddy and Bewilder seem like decent tricks as well -- though still that's only seven playable cards which is on the light side for this format where you need to be basically two colors. I wish I had had a couple more white creatures because I think my rebel suite could have worked pretty well (I am a fan of the scout -- from experience playing against her, searching up a nice three drop when you don't have a good four drop in hand is pretty effective), plus the above mentioned utility sideboard cards...I stand by my judgment that the giant is too slow. There were a bunch of black cards but they seemed too slow and weak to me. The thallids combo well with Sarpadian Empires but are really weak Plagued Rusalkas for the most part. I would have loved to have been able to play Sudden Spoiling, my only real bomb, and Phthisis but the other black cards just didn't make it worthwhile for me. Traitor's cluth would have been nice...if there were guys worth targeting with it -- perhaps one of them could have fit in to the deck I ended up playing instead of an eye.

As for the colors I did play, I am glad I didn't play the asps due to the previously mentioned weakness of one power creatures in the format. Contradictorily, I wish I had played the Mogg War Marshal. I think getting four 1/1's for two mana would have been helpful in many games -- whether those 1/1's served as chump blockers or helped swarm on offense, they could have had an impact on the damage race. Also, the Subterranean Shambler is probably better than I gave him credit for. I was worried about negative synergy with my deck but he probably would have been better than the halberdier and could have wrecked my opponents in some instances.

My initial take of the time theme is that it just means win as fast as possible -- my experiences with thallids and suspend cards were not too positive as most games were almost decided after turn six or seven before suspend or thallids could really contribute much to anything. There are a couple exceptions of course. Ancestral Vision seems like it is powerful enough to wait for and cheap enough to suspend to be good as long as you draw it in the first four or five turns.... Also, talking to my round 3 opponent, playing heavy enough black makes Phthisis a playable card just as a hard cast in the sealed deck environment at least.

I am curious to see how the draft format plays out. I played seventeen lands and felt in the end that eighteen would probably have been preferable. There are enough discard effects to make extra lands in hand useful and in most of my games my six and seven mana creatures were just dead cards because I didn't draw my sixth or seventh land quickly enough to make them relevant.

With half the card pool rare/Time-shifted cards, there is alot of variety in Time Spiral limited and plenty of subtleties to tease out.... Good luck playing fast and swinging hard in post-apocalyptic Dominaria!

Appendix:

A couple other potentially better deck configurations:

Exchange both eyes, the halberdier, and Phantom wurm for:
Thallid Shell Dweller, Traitor's Clutch, Subterranean Shambler, and a mountain

Or those cards and Tendrils of Corruption and the swamps for
Willbender, Coral Trickster, Stormcloud Djinn, Subterranean Shambler and a mountain plus islands for the swamps (currently I think this is the overall strongest deck)

Or work in the Ephemeron

Or etc.

Post Scriptum:

I must admit that when I was looking back over the cards I realized I had misread Tendrils (I thought X was twice the number of swamps...). I still think getting one or two points is pretty decent for the last spell to make the deck -- there are alot of one and two toughness creatures in Time Spiral that people value too highly for their fragility...but I should perhaps have been a little less gushing in my 3 swamp Tendrils splash.