Zendikar Decks Part VII: Time Sieve

Welcome to the final deck in the Zendikar Decks series: Time Sieve. This potent combo deck doesn't lose too much from the rotation, and can still be a competitor. It seems to have fallen out of favor...which is the perfect time for combo decks to strike.

Here's the list I used:

Lands (17)

4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
3 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
2 Swamp

Creatures (4)

4 Architects of Will

Spells (39)

4 Angelsong
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Font of Mythos
4 Howling Mine
3 Jace Beleren
4 Kaleidostone
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Open the Vaults
3 Tezzeret the Seeker
4 Time Sieve
4 Time Warp

Sideboard:

4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Wall of Denial
4 Day of Judgement
3 Path to Exile

I hopped on to MWS to do battle.

Round 1 vs. Boros Bushwhacker

He gets Goblin Guide, then Goblin Guide, then Steppe Lynx, a fetchland, and Bushwhacker. I exclaim disbelief over his Turn 3 kill. Jesus Christ.

Game 2 he gets Goblin Guide and Steppe Lynx, but I get Wall of Denial. He tries a swarm. I go for Day of Judgement. I get Howling Mine and Font. I set up my hand while using fogs to keep him at bay, then go off.

Game 3 he drops me down to 2 before I attempt to go off. I get numerous extra turns, but can't get 6 artifacts to let my Font stick. I eventually run out of Time Warps and Open the Vaults' and lose.

0-1

Round 2 vs. Landfall Ramp

He Pulses my double Howling Mine draw, and I play another Howling Mine. He gets Ob Nixilis and Empyrial Archangel, I get Tezzeret and go for Time Sieve -> Open the Vaults. With the Mines and Architects in the graveyard, I easily assemble enough artifacts to go lethal.

Game 2 he doesn't do much til he gets a Baneslayer. He plays Pithing Needle and names Time Sieve, then Identity Crisis blows me out.

Game 3 I whiff on an attempt to go off. He casts Baneslayer, and I get Open the Vaults to try again. I then spend a difficult 8 minutes comboing off. He quits halfway through, claiming I'm too slow, but he's tapped out, so I simply combo off anyway, since he couldn't do anything. I call that a win, since I eventually reach critical mass and would kill him.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Boros Bushwhacker

He gets some early beats. I lay Tezz and Jace, and he kills Tezz with his guys. I manage to stall him long enough to combo off.

Game 2 he gets 2 Steppe Lynxes and some fetchlands, knocking me down to 2 in short order. Luckily I manage to go off (there's not much details in these logs for a reason. It's a pretty consistent deck: either it goes infinite and wins, or it doesn't.)

2-1

Round 4 vs. Goblins

Game 1 he gets Goblin Guide and Warren Instigator, which brings in Siege-Gang Commander. I'm on 6 and trying to go off when I totally punt this: with 7 mana and 1 black source, I use my black source to play a Kaleidostone and then play another artifact before realising that I needed that black for Time Sieve, to combo off, and win. I deserve to lose this game.

Game 2 he gets Goblin Chieftain and assorted goblins. In 20 cards, I see one Time Warp and zero Time Sieves. I can't go off, and therefore cannot win. He beats me to death.

2-2

Salivanth's Rating: 4.5/5
Match Rating: 4/8

Total Rating: 8.5

Unlike some decks in this series, Time Sieve is a deck that takes some time to master. If my performance was the sole indicator of it's strength, I'd rate it a 3.5, but as it is, I know if I took the time to master the deck, I could do far better with it.

The next post will be an analysis of the decks' scores and attributes, and I'll make some recommendations, and then we'll move on to other things again! It only took about a month to do the series...

See you next time!