Pattern Recognition #72 - Time after Time

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

21 June 2018

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Hello everyone! I am berryjon, your resident Old Fogey. Welcome back to Pattern Recognition, Tappedout.net's most regular article series - barring the occasional week off for work or just because I'm out of energy. I endeavor to provide insightful, thought provoking and educational material for you all. Or at least a convenient target for all of you to aim your Abrades at.

So, no, I am not going to talk about the Cyndi Laupher song, despite what the article title may or may not tell you. No, today I will be talking a little bit about, what is in my opinion, the single pinnacle of 's ability to control the board.

No, it's not Counterspell. That's a close second.

Rather it is something that has been in the game since Alpha, and I was inspired to commit to this article when I saw the latest version coming out in Core 2019. Today, I will talk about Time Walk and those seven words.

Now, as a note, of all the cards printed in Alpha, Time Walk is one of two that if they were printed today would not have to have their text box changed to fit with the modern design sensibilities of the game. The other? Stream of Life. But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about extra turns!

When this card was first printed, the idea behind the game was that it was a one-on-one duel, and it was over quickly. The existence of this card was a play to the construction of the game, and to the fact that there was an assumed limitation in the number of cards people would have. For them and then, taking an extra turn was about as serious as taking the lead on the turn count, to make up for going second, or to simply buy the player time to do whatever it is they needed to do.

This ... isn't how it worked out. Quickly joining the ranks of the Power Nine, Time Walk, unlike it artifact based 'equal' of Time Vault, found itself an integral part of 's arsenal, and Wizards kept trying to 'fix' it to keep their players happy.

But before I get into the litany of followup cards that do just that, let me explain to you why this card is so powerful.

Control as an archetype, is not about actual 'control' in the way of 'you do what I command'. Rather, it is actually more along the lines of resource denial. Counterspell denies your opponent the card they were about to cast. Boomerang changes the board state by taking a piece off of it.

But when you cast this card? Any of these cards? And take an extra turn? You want to know what resource is being denied thanks to Blue's ubiquitous and total control?

An entire turn.

This card, this whole series of cards, isn't about gaining an extra turn! It's about taking it away from your opponents. One on one, it's bad enough? But toss this card out into a four player Commander game, or an eight player Conspiracy game? You're not gaining one extra turn. You're denying three or more turns to everyone else.

That's what the power of this card represents. It's the ultimate in denial, and the ultimate expression of control over the game.

So, naturally, Wizards has tried to tone back the ability, both by making it more expensive and harder to cast, as well as adding in additional riders to the spell. First of all, the ability as-is was increased in cost. Massively. Recall that Time Walk is . However, Capture of Jingzhou and Temporal Manipulation are the new next cheapest versions of the spell that don't include some form of negative rider, and they cost each.

They're also from the Portal sets, so let's take them with a grain of salt.

And after that, that's pretty much it for simple cost raising. Now we get into other means of trying to balance this out for playability reasons. And of the thirty some cards in the game that let you take an extra turn, four of them require that you exile the card in the process. Temporal Trespass, Temporal Mastery, Part the Waterveil and Gonti's Aether Heart.

This may not seem like much, but in a game where it is frankly rather easy to treat the Graveyard as an extension of the hand, requiring an exile of the turn-granting card makes it much, much harder to recur and take another turn with the same card. So, Exiling is the safest bet.

Except, you know, for all the other cards that don't do that at all. So that's kind of a bummer.

There's no real rhyme or reason to what Wizards has been doing to try and 'balance' taking an extra turn. There are things like Savor the Moment which force you to skip the most important step of having another turn - the Untap step.

Second Chance only triggers if you have five or less life. Stitch in Time requires that you win a coin flip for the extra turn, and Ral Zarek gives you five chances if you can get him to that point.

But isn't the only one to get in on the free turns. is a very solid contender for second place in this regard, save for the fact that they all do the same thing. Final Fortune, Last Chance and Warrior's Oath all do the same thing. They give you another turn for , then you lose the game at the end of that turn.

I mean, what does need for the future, except to use it now?

Another interesting aspect of this control happens when decides to take a more direct approach to bringing about their next turn. With three simple little words, they can bring down an entire player's turn.

All they have to say is End the Turn.

Never before or after has three simple little words caused so much pain and agony for players. Not only does the player effectively lose what was left of the turn, but everything else they might have been doing. And in a two player game, that's essentially the same thing.

And what's worse? Not having a turn at all, or having a turn snatched away from you at the last second?

Of course, things don't end there. Wizards has also experimented with the concept of not granting a full turn, but rather, in granting an extra phase or two during the turn. This is the realm of as they have this rather interesting trend of granting themselves additional Combat steps followed up by another Main Phase. Normally, a turn goes like this: Upkeep Phase -> First Main Phase -> Combat -> Second Main Phase -> End Step. However, with Red and their predilection toward trying to stomp on people as often as possible, they like to have extra chances to do that, which means their turn can look like this: Upkeep Phase -> First Main Phase -> Combat -> Second Main Phase -> Combat -> Third Main Phase -> End Step.

This isn't an extra turn in the whole. There's no extra upkeep or untap, which is vital for restoring your creatures to combat readiness again - unless you have some other method of untapping in or or have Vigilance. Or you could go the route of cards like Fury of the Horde, which include an untap clause for all your creatures.

Uniquely though, and this is most definitely more of a gimmick than anything else, presents us with Paradox Haze. This Time Spiral card was designed to synergize with the Suspend mechanic in the block, counting down twice, rather than once.

However, this card also has a more insidious effect, as it forces a player to pay upkeep costs twice. You know, like all those cards with Cumulative Upkeep over in Coldsnap, which was in the same Type II rotation?

Taking extra turns, or even extra phases, plays right into the design of the game itself. The cards that hand these out tend rightly to be Mythic Rares, and while I still maintain my objection to that rarity on principle, in this case, it is something I do agree with. It's an extremely powerful effect, and one that when abused, can make the game unfun as you simply can't play the game any more.

Ask anyone on the receiving end of an Infinite Turn loop, like those I see far too often in Commander.

So when I saw Nexus of Fate, I saw one of the potentially powerful cards with this ability for its ability to recur with fewer issues that normal. And the cost isn't that prohibitive. I Foresee many possible attempts to exploit this card. And it's even slightly better than Beacon of Tomorrows!

Join me next week, when I field a request from the audience, and it's one I suspect will have to be spread out over two articles.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!