Deck 11 - Time Sieve

This deck was made because it has a personal meaning to Mr Hills (me) . This was one of the decks used when I played competitively, and I have made them again so other people can experience what MTG was like at the time, and can share my passion for the game.

This deck list specifically was taken from Olivier Ruel, and was played during the Nationals Standard Format in 2009. 

The Time Sieve Combo deck is a unique and intricate deck that focuses on taking extra turns and gaining massive card advantage to lock your opponent out of the game. The primary goal is to assemble a combination of artifacts and spells that allow you to repeatedly take extra turns, eventually overwhelming your opponent with an unstoppable onslaught.

In the early game, your focus should be on setting up your mana base and drawing through your deck. Fieldmist Borderpost and Mistvein Borderpost help fix your mana while also contributing to your artifact count, which is crucial for your combo pieces later in the game. Elsewhere Flask and Kaleidostone are key draw engines that also add to your artifact count, enabling smoother draws and more consistent access to your combo pieces. Howling Mine is another vital card, providing you with additional card draw each turn, which speeds up your ability to find your key combo pieces. While it also gives your opponent extra cards, your deck is designed to leverage the extra resources more effectively. Jace Beleren is a versatile tool in your early game, either drawing you additional cards or forcing your opponent to draw cards if you need to mill them out or disrupt their hand. Tezzeret the Seeker is another powerful planeswalker, helping you fetch artifacts from your deck or untap your Borderposts to generate more mana.

The core strategy of the deck revolves around Time Sieve and your artifacts. Time Sieve allows you to sacrifice five artifacts to take an extra turn. The key to the combo is to have a steady stream of artifacts coming into play, which you can achieve through cards like Open the Vaults. Open the Vaults returns all artifact and enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, replenishing your artifact count after you’ve used them for Time Sieve. The ideal scenario is to have enough artifacts to repeatedly sacrifice to Time Sieve while drawing cards and gaining more resources each turn. Elsewhere Flask and Kaleidostone not only draw cards when they enter the battlefield but also serve as expendable artifacts for Time Sieve. Time Warp further enhances this strategy, allowing you to take an additional turn without the need for Time Sieve. Combining Time Warp with Open the Vaults or Time Sieve can lead to a chain of extra turns, leaving your opponent with little opportunity to respond.

While setting up your combo, it’s crucial to maintain control over the game. Cryptic Command is an all-star in this regard, offering a versatile suite of abilities such as countering spells, bouncing threats, or tapping down your opponent’s creatures to buy you time. Silence is another powerful tool, preventing your opponent from casting spells on a critical turn, which can protect your combo from disruption. Pollen Lullaby helps keep you alive by preventing combat damage from your opponent’s creatures, buying you the time needed to assemble your combo. The clash mechanic on Pollen Lullaby can also give you an edge by providing an additional turn of protection if you win the clash. Ethersworn Canonist from your sideboard (or main deck) is a great way to slow down aggressive or spell-heavy decks, limiting them to one non-artifact spell per turn, which can give you the breathing room to set up your combo.

Once you’ve successfully assembled your combo, the goal is to take multiple turns in a row until your opponent is out of resources or you’ve amassed a game-winning board state. Tezzeret the Seeker can search out more artifacts or provide a win condition by turning all your artifacts into 5/5 creatures with his ultimate ability. By taking repeated turns through Time Sieve, Time Warp, and recurring artifacts with Open the Vaults, you’ll eventually reach a point where your opponent cannot recover, allowing you to win either by overwhelming them with creatures or simply by outlasting them in turns. An alternate win condition in the deck also is through Jace Beleren, by taking many turns you're able to build up a lot of loyalty on Jace, and then use the ultimate ability to mill your opponent 20 cards at a time, do this enough and you can mill them out entirely. However this is quite rare to pull off.

The Time Sieve Combo deck requires careful planning and precise execution, but once you’ve mastered it, you can effectively lock your opponent out of the game and win through a series of extra turns and overwhelming card advantage.