Temporal Control w/ Pit

Based on bullettime’s Walk With Rhythm deck. Thanks for the core, bullettime!

The primary changes I’ve made so far:
- cutting Aid of the Hooru for Celestial Omen. Aid played too cute and Omen has been amazing. Most of the time you Omen for a merchant to get Pit/Mastey, but it’s also great to grab a Wrath when you need it, Eilyns Choice to counter something nasty, or even just Brilliant Idea to reload.
- cutting Bury the Past for a 4th Harsh Rule.

I’m currently testing trimming some ramp for more spot removal and will update when I’m happy.

The Plan

You play mostly like Temporal Control of old, but with a bit more ramp. Instead of closing the game with Sword of the Sky King or Channel the Tempest, it’s Pit of Lenekta - which has the side bonus of gaining life to put you out of Burn range.

While Pit may finish the game, it’s not the true All Star. That is Brilliant Idea. If you played mtg during RTR/THS, you can think of this like Sphinx’s Revelation. No matter what killed the opponent, it was the second Revelation that “won” the game. Idea plays a similar role. The first one may only draw 2-4 cards but the second draws 6-10 and very few opponents can come back from that kind of card advantage.

Tips

- Don’t be afraid to cast Brilliant Idea for just 2 cards the first time. It’s not ideal, but when you are trying to stabilize it can be absolutely the right play.

- If you’ve already got your main relics out of the market, hold Omen as long as possible. Being able to Omen for Eilyn’s Choice to counter Passage of Eons or Burglarize (or other surprises) is a huge game changer.

- if you have a few Wurms out during the end game, hold power in hand. It’s not gonna change the clock much and insulates you against your opponents wrath

- Lumen Reclaimer May seem cute, but it’s absolutely nessecary. In very long games - particular against other Control decks - or decks running Bore - it can be occasionally hard to fully rely on Pit to finish the game. I’ve come close to running out of power to make Wurms or just lost Pit/Mastery, had a Wurm Avigrafted after burning Passage, etc. Reclaimer shines in not only getting all those cards back in you deck but saying “look eventually you will deck and I never will”

The Matchups
In progress

Jennev Peak/Mid/Control - Strong Favorite - ultimately you will out card them. You need to be careful of playing around their Display when you can and try to save Desert Marshall/Equivicate for Zal Chi.

FJS - HEAVY Favorite - This might be your best match up. Try to equivocate/Marshall Makto if they are on that version but ultimately their card advantage engine of Displays/Xo pales to yours. Matchup does become significantly tougher if they start running Bore more often again, but I think you’ll still be a Favorite

Haunted Highway - Severe Underdog - This matchup is close to unwinnable and honestly it’s not worth trying to tune for. Sure you can up a percentage point here or there, but not enough and at the cost of too much from your other matchups

Rakano Aggro - Even? - I’m not sure what to write here. It FEELS like I should be an underdog, but I actually have a positive record vs Rakano Aggro and by a decent amount. I’m trusting my instinct enough to think I may have just gotten lucky and calling this Even for now despite results

Scrappy Hour - Heavy Favorite - You have 10 wrath effects in this matchup (yeah Hailstorm misses Riders and Gearcruncher, but still). It’s really hard for Hour to win through all that. If your lifetotal is low once you get Pit going, be wary of Madness, but other than that you should be able handle this easily.

Changelog

- January, 30th: Cut Find the Way for a second Defiance. Not positive on this change yet, but I’ve generally been medium on Find the Way. Occasionally, yes, it helps you fix your influence and it is a decent card to market away thanks to Echo but more often than not I’m not happy when I draw it. Also with a season reset on the horizon, I’m expecting to see more aggro soon and a second Defiance may be useful