Creatureless Temporal (Summer 2019)

A Throwback for some of you, or a weird new thing for others, Temporal Distortion decks used to be a big thing back when it first came out, but have seriously fallen out of favor as new expansions come out.

With everyone but me, that is, because I've continued playing and updating this deck on-and-off basically since Temporal Distortion came out, and I still adore it.

And I got asked for my list twice playing it on ladder trying to climb out of Gold League today, so I figure I ought to throw it online for Posterity.

This is The hard control archtype of Eternal, and arguably why they nerfed Channel the Tempest, but that's genuinely not enough to stop this monstrosity of a deck. If you want to grind out stupidly long games before blasting people to death with Channel the Tempest, but you tried Chalice Control back in the day and it was either too swingy depending on if you drew a Chalice or not, or too actually proactive on the board, this is your deck.

I've seen versions that run creatures, or spells like Great Parliament that generate creatures, and while I wouldn't be shocked if they were actually better than this version, I consider the strength of this deck the fact that basically all removal is stone-cold useless against you. Sure, Relic removal can get 'ya good, but you have ways to circumvent that, and there's honestly no single Relic in the deck that you can't win without. Distortion is great, and is a huge advantage when you get it up and running, but I've won plenty of games where my opponent successfully got rid of it, and honestly, all the other relics are even less important than that.

As for specific cards: Disjunction is both redundancy to keep your relics around and removal for dangerous enemy relics, Lightning Strike isn't the best removal spell, but the deck needs some good cards against aggro, and having played both Ice Bolt and vanquish in this slot recently, I honestly still stand by Lightning Strike. It's good enough, often enough that it's worth it, in my opinion, though I can respect trading it out for Ice Bolt. You got plenty of effects to kill the big 'uns in this build though, Vanquish is redundant and doesn't help enough against aggro.

Re-read was actually Excavate not too terribly long ago, in no small part because Excavate and End of the Story work hilariously well together, but with the addition of Pristine Light as basically another wrath and Re-read as a better recursion spell, that synergy isn't really nessecary anymore. The deck might actually want more re-reads, that redundancy is super good.

Shush was an absolute MVP game-winner in this deck before they buffed it to only cost 2. How does casting Shush on Inquisitor Makto sound? How about on their first Clockroach of the game? Or on Rost, the Walking Glacier? Card is absolutely great here, never play this deck without it, you'll just loose to too many cards your opponents are playing.

Eye of Winter is a bit of a spicy one, and it is quite slow, but think of it this way- while power-intensive, it garuntees that, short endurance units, you'll Always get significant value from your boardwipes, because you can force your opponents to keep committing to the board until you Harsh Rule and obliterate them.

Hailstorm, Harsh Rule and Pristine Lightwill keep you from dying horribly every game, they're non-negotiable and should require no introduction. Moondialis your long-game card advantage, because sometimes the spells don't quite cut it on their own, and is also hilariously useful for killing your opponent on rare occasions through Nightfall damage, or at least killing Auric Runehammers, which is good, because one of this deck's weaknesses is relic weapons (More reasons to play Disjunction and Lightning Strike).

Wisdom of the Elders and Honor of Claws keep your hand stocked and are just good, there are a lot of situational cards in this deck that Honor of Claws filters out... or just the heaps of excess power cards you'll have around, both are good to get rid of.

Stronghold Visageis that weird card that you've probably never seen anyone seriously tell you to play before, and it was that way when I first added it to the list way the hell back when, and it has earned its spot in the deck many, many times over, because there are a lotof games where someone will just barely manage to count to 25 damage over a bunch of turns, and just a little bit of lifegain each turn can save you time and time again.

Sword of the Sky King and Channel the Tempest ought to need no introduction, they're baller winconditions, and you will be satisfied by blasting people over and over again, but you also don't need either one card, so a Rain of Frogs or Royal Decree getting rid of Channel doesn't completely screw you over, even if it makes the game harder. This deck has been build over a long time to be pretty damn resilient to those sorts of effects, which is why there's a conspicuous lack of Face Aegis in the deck- I just never found it to be a great answer to other decks like this one, because you can just Sword of the Sky King them in the face. And, of course, Temporal Distortion, the reason this deck exists, doubling your mana for everything but relics and their abilities, and just generally being a huge game-swing in your favor. Depleted power cards are ready during your opponent's next turn, and there are some gnarly things you can do buffing spells like Harsh Rule to Fast Spells.

This deck takes some learning- I've been playing it since Dusk Road came out in various forms, which makes me feel freaking old, but there it is. I actually just looked back and found my old version of the deck here if anyone wants to compare Temporal Control, but I would 100% go with this version over it, and not just because I've included newer cards.

Edit: Been going back and forth between Defiance and Lightning Strike, trying a split between the two now.