telling time is like the modern brainstorm, its an instant. U search 3 cards and put one in ur hand. Of course its way worse then brain storm. But in a format where ponder is banned i think telling time can shine in modern. I have been testing it, and i have been able to respond to an opponets spell with telling time, get a mana leak and counter the spell. Anyone have any experience with this card? I think it could be very good in the right deck. I know its two mana, but its so close to the allmighty brain storm in might just work.
I wasnt sure if this the right place for this. Mods please move it if u need to.
Telling time is no where near brainstorm. Brainstorm is arguably the best card in legacy; telling time is a "meh" card in modern. With brainstorm you can generate huge amounts of advantage that you can't with telling time. I see your point, but I just want to make that clear.
I have played with telling time, and it's decent. I don't really like it too much though. If you are playing combo and trying to search for something as fast as possible a two mana spell is not what you want. If you are playing control the slight advantage you get doesn't seem worth it; I'd rather be playing another counter spell. It gets slightly better with fetchlands, but only slightly.
Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand dig better than Telling Time. Even comparing cards with the same mana cost, the blue Bolas wizard and Peer through Depths provide a body and dig deeper, respectively.
Telling Time into Mana Leak is cute, but that's 4 mana just to counter a spell. Replace the Telling Time with Cryptic Command and you get way more value.
The beauty of Brainstorm is that it allows you to put CARDS FROM YOUR HAND BACK INTO THE LIBRARY. I do not understand why so many people keep missing on this one small detail. This is why Brainstorm is so good. It is capable of being an Ancestral Recall.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy Decks
~~~~~~~~~
Too many to list efficiently. Find me online with the same SN if you want to play, or message me here to set up a time to play.
Modern
~~~~~~~~~
Whatever pile of 75 I throw together the night before without testing. Usually: :symb::symu::symg:
Telling Time is a good card in the right build. I would probably run it if I played UR Twin, and possibly Delver. There aren't too many other decks out there that would benefit from it though.
Cocaktrice Game Room Quotes
[14:58]  Paramount_Elite: Anyways don't confuse Casual EDH with EDH or the highly compettive format called French Duel Commander.
I really want to like this card, but the fact that you only get to toss one card to the bottom kills it. I played it in Tron for a while but it just doesn't help you dig that much. It's only marginally better, effect-wise, than Sleight of Hand, and instant speed is not worth the extra mana.
Also, what exactly is the synergy with miracles? Because as far as I can tell, all it does is let you know they're coming. If the miracle is on top, you...leave it on top. If it's second or third from the top you can get it early, but you can do that with cards that aren't miracles too.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you peer long enough through the depths, the depths peer also through you.
The problem with it is that when I use it I always end up having to put a card I need on the bottom of my deck because the other two i need slightly more. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Seems like it would not be too overpowered if it was one in the hand, one on top, and one in the graveyard.
This doesn't let you Miracle on your opponent's turn, because it tells you to put a card into your hand, not draw it. Miracle only triggers off the latter.
I think that Telling Time can be good enough for modern, but not right now. It is not a card that any of the decks that currently exist want.
Anything Delver makes the 1 mana of supreme importance.
Tron is filling the "go over top" area of the metagame which keeps control a bit suppressed, and even if Tron were to go away, the general consensus seems to be that control still wouldn't have all the tools it needs to fill that role.
But in a world where Tron sees a ban, and the few right control cards get printed, I could see some folks running Telling Time. I know we made it do some good work in standard circa Time Spiral. Even then, there are so many options for a draw effect in modern, I doubt it would float to the top as the best, just as a possible option if you want to slant your deck towards it, the same way I could see Forbidden Alchemy possibly being an option should you want to skew toward the graveyard.
But thats just not the world we're living in. But rest assured, there is at least one other person out there that suggests trying Telling Time every time someone in my group makes a blue deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I support WotC's goal of shaping Modern in favor of diversity.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
I love it, but the feel you get when you play it EOT is that you are just replacing it and sending a card from the top to the bottom, which many times you don't want to...
I still like it, but it feels worse in practice than it seems in theory
It needs the right deck to work well. Miracles keep coming up, and I completely agree - Telling Time is good if you're running a build with miracles. I can tell you, it's really sweet to Telling Time at the end of an opponent's turn into a Temporal Mastery setup and Time Walk the next turn.
But you had to have known the Miracle card was there first. Thats pointless. Miracles want Brainstorm or SDTop. Telling Time just isn't either of those and a poor replacement. Unless Wizards unbans one of SDTop/Preordain/Ponder I don't see Telling Time as anything but bologna.
But you had to have known the Miracle card was there first. Thats pointless. Miracles want Brainstorm or SDTop. Telling Time just isn't either of those and a poor replacement. Unless Wizards unbans one of SDTop/Preordain/Ponder I don't see Telling Time as anything but bologna.
Not really. In the case of the build I'm running Temporal Mastery in, it's serving as a random Time Walk that I can draw. There's been several cases where I dug 3 deep with Telling Time, got a card I needed and also got a free turn from the Temporal Mastery that was either 2 or 3 cards down. Considering we don't have Brainstorm in Modern and SDTop is banned, Telling Time, Serum Visions, and other scry cards are probably our best bet. Is it going to make getting a Miracle consistent? Nope. But, it's an interesting avenue to pursue in Modern right now. I've been doing a lot of playtesting with a Temporal Mastery/Telling Time package, and it's given me some neat results so far.
Every discussion I've seen about Telling Time thus far ends in half the people saying it gives them good results and they like the instant speed, while the other half say "it's not Brainstorm." Well, no kidding it's not Brainstorm - it's not meant to be. You can say the same thing about Serum Visions, but everyone runs it anyway because it's only U.
Here's the only upside to Telling Time's 1U cc: It's instant speed. If it wasn't instant speed, I wouldn't even bother testing it. That means you can threaten a counter and if that mana ends up not being used, you have instant speed dig/draw eot to set up your draw phase. That can be huge in the early game and can mean the difference between having your draws fixed while still being able to threaten counters/removal. Serum Visions can't do that (but SDTop could if it wasn't banned), and that's why I've been testing Telling Time so much lately.
I loved this card back in Old Extended alongside Ponder and Preordain for U/R combo builds, but it doesn't have a lot of legs in Modern, which is just too fast a format (arguably the fastest format besides maybe Pauper) for a two-mana cantrip that digs three deep. You can't really durdle in this format.
There is room to debate the merits of what to run in the sideboard of deck x, y, and z. Then there are aspects of magic that are just set in stone. Period. Things like...
- 99% of the time its better to only play 60 cards in your deck.
- Affinity is a fast aggro deck
- Brainstorm is a good card
Arguing against such things is like argueing that 2+2 doesn't equal 4 or that the sky isn't actually blue. It's asinine and the person doing it just comes off as being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. This is one of those times.
Telling Time is suboptimal. Period.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern (I collect the format):
WURDelver
[/MANA]MANA]R[/MANA]GTron WDeath and Taxes WSoul Sisters RWG Pod Combo URSplinter Twin URStorm RBurn
I'm testing it in a build of Swath Storm that already has Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, and Peer Through Depths, but I can't think of any other deck that would want it.
I tried this card and I really didn't like it. I prefer instead Esper Charm or perhaps maybe Compulsive Research for quantity/versatility or just sticking to the established cantrips like Lomax just posted above me.
If you're playing a control deck and need instant-speed draw, Thirst for Knowledge is your best bet.
In Storm, the 2-mana draw slot is very crowded. Desperate Ravings or Peer through Depths are better than Telling Time, the former because it can be used twice (so once you build 2 counters on Ascension, you can start flashing back to rebuild your hand), and the latter because it digs deeper (instant/sorcery only isn't much of a restriction because Storm is made up of ~60% of those cards). Both are instant-speed too.
I wasnt sure if this the right place for this. Mods please move it if u need to.
I have played with telling time, and it's decent. I don't really like it too much though. If you are playing combo and trying to search for something as fast as possible a two mana spell is not what you want. If you are playing control the slight advantage you get doesn't seem worth it; I'd rather be playing another counter spell. It gets slightly better with fetchlands, but only slightly.
Telling Time into Mana Leak is cute, but that's 4 mana just to counter a spell. Replace the Telling Time with Cryptic Command and you get way more value.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
~~~~~~~~~
Too many to list efficiently. Find me online with the same SN if you want to play, or message me here to set up a time to play.
Modern
~~~~~~~~~
Whatever pile of 75 I throw together the night before without testing. Usually: :symb::symu::symg:
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Cockatrice username- Chrismp19.
Formats played: Modern
Avatar and Sig created by http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=182339
Cocaktrice Game Room Quotes
[14:58]  Paramount_Elite: Anyways don't confuse Casual EDH with EDH or the highly compettive format called French Duel Commander.
Its hold allot of value when u get a counterspell then win on ur next turn.
The flavor text is nice though.
Also, what exactly is the synergy with miracles? Because as far as I can tell, all it does is let you know they're coming. If the miracle is on top, you...leave it on top. If it's second or third from the top you can get it early, but you can do that with cards that aren't miracles too.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Anything Delver makes the 1 mana of supreme importance.
Tron is filling the "go over top" area of the metagame which keeps control a bit suppressed, and even if Tron were to go away, the general consensus seems to be that control still wouldn't have all the tools it needs to fill that role.
But in a world where Tron sees a ban, and the few right control cards get printed, I could see some folks running Telling Time. I know we made it do some good work in standard circa Time Spiral. Even then, there are so many options for a draw effect in modern, I doubt it would float to the top as the best, just as a possible option if you want to slant your deck towards it, the same way I could see Forbidden Alchemy possibly being an option should you want to skew toward the graveyard.
But thats just not the world we're living in. But rest assured, there is at least one other person out there that suggests trying Telling Time every time someone in my group makes a blue deck.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog
Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
I still like it, but it feels worse in practice than it seems in theory
Not really. In the case of the build I'm running Temporal Mastery in, it's serving as a random Time Walk that I can draw. There's been several cases where I dug 3 deep with Telling Time, got a card I needed and also got a free turn from the Temporal Mastery that was either 2 or 3 cards down. Considering we don't have Brainstorm in Modern and SDTop is banned, Telling Time, Serum Visions, and other scry cards are probably our best bet. Is it going to make getting a Miracle consistent? Nope. But, it's an interesting avenue to pursue in Modern right now. I've been doing a lot of playtesting with a Temporal Mastery/Telling Time package, and it's given me some neat results so far.
Every discussion I've seen about Telling Time thus far ends in half the people saying it gives them good results and they like the instant speed, while the other half say "it's not Brainstorm." Well, no kidding it's not Brainstorm - it's not meant to be. You can say the same thing about Serum Visions, but everyone runs it anyway because it's only U.
Here's the only upside to Telling Time's 1U cc: It's instant speed. If it wasn't instant speed, I wouldn't even bother testing it. That means you can threaten a counter and if that mana ends up not being used, you have instant speed dig/draw eot to set up your draw phase. That can be huge in the early game and can mean the difference between having your draws fixed while still being able to threaten counters/removal. Serum Visions can't do that (but SDTop could if it wasn't banned), and that's why I've been testing Telling Time so much lately.
This is the problem with the internet...
There is room to debate the merits of what to run in the sideboard of deck x, y, and z. Then there are aspects of magic that are just set in stone. Period. Things like...
- 99% of the time its better to only play 60 cards in your deck.
- Affinity is a fast aggro deck
- Brainstorm is a good card
Arguing against such things is like argueing that 2+2 doesn't equal 4 or that the sky isn't actually blue. It's asinine and the person doing it just comes off as being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. This is one of those times.
Telling Time is suboptimal. Period.
WURDelver
[/MANA]MANA]R[/MANA]GTron
WDeath and Taxes
WSoul Sisters
RWG Pod Combo
URSplinter Twin
URStorm
RBurn
In Storm, the 2-mana draw slot is very crowded. Desperate Ravings or Peer through Depths are better than Telling Time, the former because it can be used twice (so once you build 2 counters on Ascension, you can start flashing back to rebuild your hand), and the latter because it digs deeper (instant/sorcery only isn't much of a restriction because Storm is made up of ~60% of those cards). Both are instant-speed too.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.