Time Spiral (spoiler warning)

MatthewVII

Looks like a few cards from time spiral have been previewed. check out www.mtgsalvation.com for the 11 cards we know

Confirmed NEW Mechanics:
Suspend - instead of paying a cards cost, remove it from the game with a number of counters on it. remove one counter every upkeep. when they're all gone, play the card without paying mana cost

Split Second- as long as a spell with split second is on the stack, players can't play spells or abilities that aren't mana abilities. basically makes a spell unrespondable to, like interrupts of old. Eg, naturalize with split second on an umezawas jitte with counters will prevent the opponent from using the counters to gain life in response

Confirmed RETURNING Mechanics
Storm - old mechanic from Scourge and a personal favourite of mine. cards like mind's desire, brain freeze and tendrils of agony come to mind.

Flashback - Pure card advantage is always good, and the reusability of flashback cards have made them winners in the past. has good synergy with dredge from rav

Morph- Onslaught's signature mechanic (it's what the expansion symbol was based on), it changed the game totally, giving you a virtual "hand on the field" and leading to a significant game shift as you play around what you think your opponent is hiding on the field.

I for one am totally pumped about this set, it looks like the most insane thing in years. any comments?

Ivan

Hmmm, that split second mechanic...

Seems rather insanely good, I just love it.

and I always loved the morph mechanic, though it really depends on the creatures we get

Flashback is a bit nasty, but I look forward to playing around it

All in all this looks like the best set in a long time, cant wait

MatthewVII

Split second is subtly powerful. it will be a major headache for blue decks, and clearly another move by wizards to try to weaken everyone's favourite colour.

As you say, the power of morph will totally depend on what we get, but it was never an extremely dominant constructed mechanic (apart from Tribal Forcemage) so i wonder if that will have changed since onslaught.

Flashback is insane, although they seem to have reduced the power level by making the flashback cost a different colour to the spell cost. not a prob in the rav standard but might make them less playable in the future.

Established goodies:
1) Slivers are back
2) Fungi are back

As for the wild rumours circulating:
1) Akroma may be reprinted in some shape or form
2) There is talk of cards from older sets being included in fat packs or tourney packs or something. they will be from a pool of about 100 cards and will have new card frame with old art and a purple expansion symbol. I'm highly sceptical of this one, but it may be the reason for the initial reports of a 422 card set when there is only 301 cards in it.
3) Kamahl may have a new reprint

Ivan

Akroma and Kamahl were both some of my favourite ever legends, in fact I had a T2 standard & extended reanimation deck ( I think everyone did at the time) built around these cards and to see them reprint would be spectacular.

Suspend looks like a pretty good blue hozer mechanic, as well and its great to see a lotus blossom reprinted even if it is a modern take on the card.

As for morph, I seem to remember Astral Slide decks being built around the morph mechanic (and the cycle one too), more particularly a specific angel. If this card were to be reprinted, I would die a happy man

MatthewVII

Exalted angel certainly was a little bombshell. I hope to god that beastie is never reprinted