Time Spiral is one of my favorite sets. The entire block was amazing and holds many strong and unique cards that are like nothing else ever seen in MTG. Time Spiral had many cards that were based off of past cards, but were slightly different. There were the various Magus cards, as well as cards like Knight Of The Holy Nimbus (which is the next step up from Clergy Of The Holy Nimbus). This list will not include the Timeshifted cards, as they are not really part of this set, but part of sets from the past. This set (and the block as a whole) made you feel like you were playing with old Magic cards. However, it felt like you were playing with new cards as well. It was that happy medium that you rarely are able to replicate. Enough talk though, let’s get down to the best cards from Time Spiral!

#30 Deep-Sea Kraken

This card is basically Deep-Sea Crapken if you only look at its converted mana cost. However, with suspend and its suspend-related ability, this card is actually pretty cool.  Every spell your opponent plays gets them closer to an unblockable six damage. Pretty nice. However, even with this acceleration ability, this card doesn’t come out too quickly. I run one in a deck built around adding/removing time counters to permanents and it’s great. However, I can see that it isn’t exactly the best card of this set. This card is one that some people love, and other people use as book marks. But hey, it’s on the bottom of the list, so don’t sweat it. We’re just getting started.

#29 Pentarch Paladin

I like this card, even though it can’t come out too terribly fast. It’s pretty good if you want to attack with it and it also is incredibly versatile. Because it can destroy permanents (permanents, not creatures) of the color of your choice, this card can almost always save your butt. If it had vigilance it would be out of control, but since it doesn’t it remains simply a good card without any extra craziness. It’s a fun card that is reminescent of all the various paladin cards that destroyed creatures of various colors. It’s a super charged version that’s a strong play.

#28 Hypergenesis

This card can empty everyone’s hands if they have the right stuff in them. It’s for decks that run big creatures with even bigger mana costs. One thing to be careful of is that it gives this advantage to your opponent as well as to you. I can see this used in a five color dragon deck or something else along those lines. Risky, but potentially worth it.

#27 Curse Of The Cabal

This card is great because your opponent gets hurt no matter what happens. They’ll either take the big hit of losing half their permanents or simply lose a permanent here and there over the course of the game. If this card is hardcast then you deserve a prize. However, most use it for the suspend price and enjoy watching their opponent squirm over the what to sacrifice.

#26 Reiterate

I like to think that this card is the perfect spell to stop a Fireballto the face. In fact, it can turn the game around in a surprise win. Your opponent launches lethal damage at you and you copy it. Your spell will resolve first, and (hopefully) deal to them the lethal damage they so wanted to throw at you. That’s fun. However, most of the time this card is used to copy your own spells that you want to double-dip on. What’s nice is that if you have the mana you can use buyback and keep this card for whenever else you might need it.

#25 Paradox Haze

Here’s a card that might can be worth much more to some than others. For some it’s useless, but for others amazing. This is a card that works very well when combined with the various fungus cards (Mycoloth in particular) and the various cards with suspend. Also, if your opponent has a card or two out that require an upkeep cost, this card can really screw up their game. Some cards work better with extra upkeeps, and some are worse. It’s up to you to figure out how to use this card, but there are more than enough ways to win with it.

#24 Children Of Korlis

A great one drop creature, this card gives you back all the life you’ve lost in the turn you’ve sacrificed it. It’s a card that can really help you out in a game. I can see it used in a black and white deck with Tainted Sigil, some zombies with Shepherd Of Rot, and Sanguine Blood. Quite a deadly pairing you might say. It’s useful outside that sort of thing, but this is a card that could be a keystone in such a deck.

#23 Terramorphic Expanse

This card was most recently reprinted in MTG 2010. It makes you wonder why you ever used Rampant Growth. It’s any basic land you want for zero mana. Of course, the it’s also the one land you play for the turn, so it isn’t perfect. However, this card has a lot to offer and has some awesome flavor text.

#22 Vesuvan Shapeshifter

This card is based on Vesuvan Doppelganger, though I feel like it’s almost as good as the original (which is quite powerful). The difference between this card and the other is that this one you have to pay to flip it over again if you want to turn it into another creature. It’s very powerful and can be used in many ways. There’s nothing like having this card flip over to become some giant creature when your opponent least suspects it. I’m not clear on whether this card targets anything or not. “Choose” makes me think it isn’t targeting anything or it would say “target”, but I’m not sure. Feel free to clear this one up for me!

#21 Mangara Of Corondor

This card is great because when it’s ability goes on the stack you can use something like Flickerto remove it from the game until the end of the turn and then it will come back into play. This will still remove the targeted permanent from the game too. It’s a cool way to get multiple uses out of this card, but it works fine with only one use too. Taking out any permanent is quite powerful and this card costs very little mana as well.

#20 Ancestral Vision

This card is based off of good old Ancestral Recall. It does the same thing, just in four turns. This is a card that gets better with Paradox Haze. There’s not much more to say. Three cards is three cards.

#19 Bogardan Hellkite

I have to issue a large “Boo!” at this card because it was upgraded to a mythic rare in MTG 2010. Not at all worthy of the title. A good card, but mythic? Not at all. Anyway, now that I’ve yelled about this card, I’ll give it some praise. It has flash and can surprise an opponent with five damage wherever you may need it to destroy this or that. Not to mention, if there aren’t any creatures worth shooting the damage at then you can just hit the player for five. Pretty cool. Sporting a mana cost of eight though, this card falls short of the top ten and just barely makes its way into the top twenty. And once more for the road, “Boo!”

#18 Fortune Thief

Ali From Cairomay be a better play at only four mana, though this card does have the option of being morphed (and sells for much much less). As you may have guessed from that comment, this card is based on Ali From Cairo, a card that appeared only in Arabian Knights. It’s a card that can prevent death! However, it also has only one toughness and protection from nothing. It’s a huge target. Some love cards like this, and some hate them. I’m in the middle on this one. I much prefer the beefier Platinum Angel for my anti-lose the game cards, though this one does have a certain charm to it.

#17 Restore Balance

This card is based off of Balanceand it is great! Of course, you need to anitcipate that you’ll be behind when you play this card, since it doesn’t work until six turns later. However, it makes all players have the same amount of land, creatures, and cards in their hands. Isn’t equality nice?

#16 Magus Of The Disk

This card is based off of Nevinyrral’s Disk and has a much more managable name. It works as a more efficient Wrath Of God, though also more expensive (by only one little mana). So is that really more efficient? Perhaps, perhaps not. It depends on what you want to do. This is a much more destructive card, though you can’t use it right away, even if you did give it haste somehow.

#15 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero

This card makes trample all the more destructive. It would be awesome to use this card with Overrun (essentially giving all creatures +5/+5). Anyway, this card is a 6/6 when attacking and helps all your creatures with trample become much more formidable. It’s for those red and green offensive decks, but if you aren’t running many creatures with trample then it doesn’t do anything.

#14 Stronghold Overseer

I’m a huge fan of this card. It’s basically impossible to block (because this is the only card with shadow and flying) and has a powerful ability. Its ability allows you to boost the power of all your creatures with shadow and also shrinks the power of all the creatures without shadow. I find the most effective use for this abilty is strictly defensive. If you can play this card then you can give all creatures without shadow -3/-0. This greatly reduces the threat of lethal damage and makes blocking creatures easy, for their power (if they have any) is usually too low to destroy any of your blockers. It’s a card that may seem like it should be in a shadow deck, but is actually useful in any black deck.

#13 Living End

This is a card for decks that put a lot of creatures into their graveyard (or can sacrifice their creatures for powerful abilities). You get all your creatures in the graveyard, wipe the board, then get all the creatures that were in your graveyard before you wiped the board put right into play. It’s a powerful card and you can play it on the fourth turn to secure a win on the seventh/eighth turn (depending on what your deck is running). It’s a cool card and a powerful one too.

#12 Mishra, Artificer Prodigy

This card could be on the top of the list…but it has some weird colors for an artifact card. Most seem to be blue, black, and white anymore. The red makes this card less powerful, but it’s still incredible. I wanted to place it higher on the list, but figured the other cards may be more powerful. Anyhow, this card allows you to get two artifacts (of the same name) for the price of one. One thing I like about this card is that it’s black, making it immune to Terror, Dark Banishing, etc. It also has enough toughness to survive a Lightning Bolt.

#11 Teferi, Mage Of Zhalfir

If this card is played, it means your spells won’t be countered, your opponent can’t cast things like Fog to stop your assaults, and your opponent can’t use any funny instants like Giant Growth to add on some damage. Also, all your creatures have flash. It’s just an amazing card. It does so much and only for five mana. A great card for blue decks.

#10 Academy Ruins

A land that allows you to bring your artifacts back to the top of your library? Sounds good to me!

#9 Trickbind

This card is a Stifle that is pretty much impossible to counter. It is one more mana, but it does the same thing. That’s powerful as there are only three cards that do such a thing (this card, Stifle, and Voidslime).

#8 Gemhide Sliver

Sliver decks rejoice at this ridiculous common! Every sliver is Birds Of Paradise. That means that you can play all your slivers without any difficulty. Strangely, I’ve only ever gotten one of these in the about 100 packs of Time Spiral I’ve opened. Maybe I’m unlucky when it comes to this card, but I feel it’s been printed less than the other commons. Or maybe it is just my luck…

#7 Angel’s Grace

This card is amazing. It gives you another turn to live because you can’t lose! It’s Platinum Angel and Ali From Cairo all in one! This card can turn a game around. It has split second too so forget about countering this one.

#6 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

Wow, now we’re into the heavy hitters. This card is a combination of three cards. The first is Red Elemental Blast (without the option of countering a blue spell), the second ability is Incinerate, and the third is Fire Tempest. With all these options, this card gives you quite a lot of power. It’s impossible to not find a use for this one. Each ability costs you a card, but it’s worth it. An amazing card that I wish had one more toughness.

#5 Gemstone Caverns

Here’s a card that famously is used for a turn zero win combo (that’s winning on your opponent’s first turn before they draw and before you even take your turn). Anyway, it taps for any color of mana if you have it in your opening hand and you begin the game with it in play. That’s power.

#4 Sudden Spoiling

This card is like a mass Sorceress Queen against a player. All their creatures become worthless. In fact, this card is better than Sorceress Queen because it takes aways the creature’s abilities too. This card basically says that target opponent’s creatures become useless. The only way the creatures have any value is if they have +1/+1 counters on them. Basically, this card messes someone up.

#3 Stuffy Doll

A lot of mana for this one, but it is a great blocker and is one damage every whenver you tap it. Quite an amazing card. There’s not much more to say about this one though.

#2 Lotus Bloom

This card is a Black Lotus in three turns. It is arguably the best (or at least coolest) card from this set. However, it isn’t a Black Lotus no matter how much you want it to be. The extra three mana (for free!) is greatly appreciated, but isn’t always a win. I love this card, but for the number one card I had to go with something much stronger and something that is in many decks as a win condition…

#1 Grapeshot

This card is insane. A common that should be a rare. This card is used for infinite damage (or at least an amazing amount of damage) in so many decks. It’s difficult to deal with because even if it’s countered, it still storms. Basically this card is the end of a game. And that’s why this common card is the best card from Time Spiral.

Thanks for reading!