Carpe Diem... Ad Nauseam...

For some reason or another, whenever I find myself playing Magic at a competitive level, I also find myself with a combo deck in my hands. Maybe it's because I generally don't like interacting with people. Maybe it's because I'm not patient enough to sit in for a long control matchup, or an aggro stalemate. Maybe I just enjoy making my opponent concede from boredom, we may never know. Back in my Vintage days I played 2-Land Belcher to great success. In Legacy it was Solidarity, which gave me the great joy of breaking my over-confident opponent playing Solitary Confinement. It was almost like a buy! In Extended it was Tinker Combo, a deck I'd LOVE to write an article about, but never will, as it can never be played again. In Standard of course I was rockin' Astral Slide, and now, it's Time Sieve.

I've actually had Time Sieve on the shelf for a while, but I really think now's the time to give it another look. Yes, it rotates out in October, but I'm really starting to think it'll be a contender for Extended. Tezzeret allows for all sorts of silver bullets, and I'm sure Scars will be able to offer it something. We're not talking about Extended though! We still have a few months before Alara rotates from Standard so let's get crackin'!

This Is Heavy

My kind of combo deck is the kind that can go off on Turn Zero. This is not one of those decks. The fact is we need access to no less than six mana to win the game. Sure, there'll be exceptions, but we will need to survive for a few turns before we can win. Originally I swore by Angelsong, but lately I've been testing Wall of Omens, after finding it essentially fills the same role. It "usually" prevents about as much damage as Angelsong would, and allows you to draw a card without having to cycle it. Thopter Foundry has very good synergy with the entire deck, and should at least be played as a one-of. Not only can it act as a win condition, but also give you that much needed life-gain and chump blocking until you're able to go off.

Weight Has Nothing To Do With It! Being a slower-than-your-average-combo-deck combo deck, we actually require a draw engine to find all our bits and pieces. Good old JB is both a great draw engine, while also serving as an alternate win condition under the right circumstances. Kaleidostone and Prophetic Prism both act to fix our mana, while drawing us multiple cards through recursion. Lastly, Howling Mine is our mainstay draw-more card. It has the unfortunate effect of benefiting our opponent, but when we swing it to favor us more, it's quite beautiful. I'm in the habit of not playing Howling Mine until after my combo is rolling, if I can help it. There are several ways to disrupt this deck, so I am of the opinion that giving your opponent more gas is one of the worst things you can do here. Still, sometimes it can't be avoided, and you'll need those extra cards regardless. Half of playing a combo deck is learning all of its intricacies. It's quite fun!

The mana base in this deck is both a blessing and a curse. Consisting almost entirely of basic lands, it's probably the cheapest to build. Moreover, conventional forms of mana disruption like Goblin Ruinblaster, Tectonic Edge and even Spreading Seas have no effect on it. However, this leaves us with little diversity in our mana. No dual lands, no Tectonic Edge of our own and no man-lands. We also have the issue of becoming vulnerable to new forms of mana disruption. Maelstrom Pulse, Naturalize, All is Dust and others all suddenly become very dangerous. In some matches, it's not incorrect to actually cast your borderposts as opposed to "cheating" them in. This is typically the case when either you have access to enough basic lands to win without the necessity of early borderposts, or you're worried about artifact removal. Again, being successful with this deck will rely a good deal on your decision making as a player.

 1.21 Gigawatts Of Win

 The deck is pretty straight forward: Set yourself up to take several turns via Open The Vaults, Time Sieve and Time Warp, find a win condition either through a 20/20 Glassdust Hulk, an army of Thopter tokens, a handful of Tezzified 5/5 artifacts, or even through decking them via Jace. Your sideboard allows you to bring in Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre as alternate forms of win.

Time Sieve Combo

 

Creatures 2 Glassdust Hulk 4 Wall of Omens 6 cards Other Spells 4 Fieldmist Borderpost 4 Mistvein Borderpost 4 Kaleidostone 4 Prophetic Prism 3 Howling Mine 2 Time Sieve 3 Thopter Foundry 1 Executioner's Capsule 2 Day of Judgment 2 Jace Beleren 2 Tezzeret the Seeker 4 Open the Vaults 1 Everflowing Chalice 36 cards

Lands 3 Marsh Flats 5 Island 6 Plains 4 Swamp 18 cards Sideboard 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind 1 Pithing Needle 3 Perimeter Captain 3 Zealous Persecution 3 Negate 1 Ulamog, the infinite gyre 3 Tidehollow Sculler 15 cards

This is the first list I cam up with, and testing was fairly enlightening. I found the lone Everflowing Chalice to be ten kinds of useless, so I ended up cutting it entirely. I ended up replacing it with a third Day of Judgment, and have been pretty happy with the results. Additionally, the sideboard was pretty messy, so I trimmed that down to:

4x Zealous Persecution
3x Negate
2x Into The Roil
3x Perimeter Captain
3x Tidehollow Sculler

Zealous Persecution has proven to be very tech against several decks, with its main function being to shut down Lotus Cobra, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise and several other x/1's in the format.

I Hate Writing About Combo!

I playtested against Grixis, Jund, RDW, GW Ramp, NLB, and others but the videos would not have been worth posting. As soon as they see an unanswered Open The Vaults or even a Time Warp the game usually ends there. This doesn't typically happen in tournaments, but in the TP room no one wants to watch you take eight turns in a row, and they generally will not. That said, after a good week of testing the deck showed about a 35%-40% win average. Nothing to write home about, but you'll be sure to steal a few games with it.

What really intrigues me is what's coming down the pipe with M11, New Extended and Scars...

Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads!

The bell can outright replace Jace as our engine, and is probably better than Howling Mine in that we can play it early, but not actually use it until we need it. Voltaic Key is back! Easily tutorable with Tez at one mana and having great synergy with Temple Bell, I can see myself running one or two of these. Crystal Ball and Brittle Effigy deserve some special mention here as well, and will sure be tested.

New Extended will be giving us some old tricks from Lorwynn block (TSP exclusion deliberate) and I think this deck may have a place there. I'm planning on upping the Tezzeret count and adding more 1-of silver bullets to the deck. Additionally, and I feel like I mention this in every one of my articles, Scars is just around the corner and I imagine this deck will benefit a good deal from it.

As it stands, this is a fun deck that makes for a great break from the monotony that is current Standard. I really can't recommend bringing it to an event where money's on the line, but I encourage people to break it out in the TP room. I'm anxious to see how it'll play out in the new Extended, and perhaps I'll put something together to show you all down the line.

It's been a pleasure, but now it's time to make like a tree and... get outta here!

-Jeff Torres