Time and Tide MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Time and Tide stands out as a pivotal card in controlling the battlefield by allowing you to untap all creatures and phased-out creatures you control. This action can swiftly change the tide of the game, allowing you to respond to threats with a full board or reset after an aggressive turn.

Resource Acceleration: Using Time and Tide can lead to significant resource acceleration. By refreshing your creatures, you effectively double their utility within a single turn cycle, maximizing your available resources and outpacing your opponent’s board development.

Instant Speed: The strength of Time and Tide is amplified by its instant speed, providing the flexibility to react in the midst of battle. This capability means you can adapt to an evolving game state, potentially untapping your creatures to surprise blockers or strategically timing the phasing in of key creatures for optimal impact.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Unlike other spells that provide an immediate benefit once cast, Time and Tide require you to plan ahead due to its phasing mechanic. This can lead to unfavorable situations where the card’s effect does not align with the current board state, reducing its immediate impact on the game.

Specific Mana Cost: Time and Tide’s casting cost needs both blue and generic mana, which can limit its inclusion to decks running adequate blue sources. This could deter its play in decks with a restrictive or tight mana base that cannot consistently meet the blue mana requirement.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its mana cost sitting at two blue and two generic mana, Time and Tide may seem steep for its effect compared to lower-cost alternatives that provide more direct board control or card advantage. In a game where tempo is crucial, the investment might not always correlate with substantial advantage.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Time and Tide slots into decks that heavily rely on phasing mechanics or require untapping creatures for maximum efficiency. Its ability to manipulate the state of the board can be pivotal in both offensive and defensive strategies.

Combo Potential: With the proper setup, this card can enable surprising combo plays, synergizing with permanents that have tap abilities or benefit from being phased out and in effectively. It acts as a cog in a well-oiled combo machine, offering new angles to traditional play patterns.

Meta-Relevance: Time and Tide maintain relevance in environments where tempo plays and surprise shifts in board state can outmaneuver opponents. In metas where phasing is not a common mechanic, it can catch many unprepared, turning the tides in your favor quite literally.

How to beat

Time and Tide is a card that can be a game-changer in any MTG match, particularly when it grants many phases of untapping for creatures and islands in just one turn. As a blue instant, it fits snugly into decks that enjoy manipulating the state of play during an opponent’s turn. However, formidable as it may appear, Time and Tide is not unbeatable.

The key to outmaneuvering this card lies in anticipating the untap phase this card brings. Tactical use of instant-speed removal spells when your opponent is low on mana can disrupt their plans. Furthermore, running counter spells to prevent Time and Tide from ever hitting the board is a classic blue-on-blue tactic. Cards like Negate or Counterspell can effectively nullify this threat. Alternatively, leveraging abilities or cards that tap your opponent’s creatures during their upkeep can mitigate the advantage they gain from Time and Tide, ensuring they cannot capitalize on their freshly untapped creatures. By staying one step ahead and keeping their board under control, you can neutralize the strategic edge this card offers.