The deck started as a
Mono Time Ramp list during Cold Hunt, but it was lacking good removal options, so i ended up splashing with Shadow. In the past year I have been optimizing and updating it with every new release. Finally i got to the point where i can not improve further and its time to publish.
The idea of this deck is really simple:
1) Ramp and play fat creatures to lock down the board
2) Facetank some damage, while try to avoid chump blocking, and trading without
Ixtol, Champion of Grodov or
Grodov's Burden.
4) Generate unlimited Power with
Worldbearer Behemoth and
Ixtol, Champion of Grodov
5) Snowball to win.
The deck have 4 x 2 Removals that complement each other weaknesses
x2
Twilight Hunt Cheap, ignores Aegis, +2/+2 if played on dinos, best use is on
Worldbearer Behemoth to trigger its ability without being killed by blockers, or a guaranteed kill if played on one of your deadly units.
x2
Curtain Call replaced
Feed the Hecaton for Timetravel's advice in the comments.
x2
Send an Agent Cheap, Fast, but its useless against some of the multifaction decks and vs Aegis. Best use is to bait your opponents to block one of your fat unit to get multiple kills at once.
x2
Banish Fast, but its useless against some big threats and Aegis. Use it similarly.
16 unit/spell to help you ramp and mitigate early power shortages:
x4
Desert Alchemist Helps to fix your mana early, and can act as a removal. But later it will be less impactful as your opponent stops attacking.
x4
Trail Maker Ramp + free influence fix for
Alhed Ascending or
Twinned Spiteling or for a turn 3 market.
x4
Tocas, Waystone Harvester Big body + Ramp + the AI hates it because its messing up your opponents combat tricks and often sponges 2
Torch which is great because its one of your weaker units and you don't really mind trading it for 2 removals. Maybe im doing wrong, but i rarely use the twist ability, when i do it's mostly to buff Ixtol or when the opponents board is clear for an A+Space.
x4
Time Etchings is your only market card, that also draws you a
Time Sigil
The cards that win you the game:
x4
Dinosaur Nest in your opening hand is really strong, 2 of this is a jackpot and most of the time a guaranteed win! Don't chump block with the 1/1 dinos unless its absolutely necessary. After 4 turn it will give +2/+2 to all of your dinos.
x4
Alhed Ascending is a dino and it's just OP. Great target for your
Twilight Hunt to protect it from
Torch or similar spells. At 4 time influence it will give Decay to all of your attacking units, that can be used to weaken the opponent units/relic weapons, also make them unable to Revenge, and redrawn from void.
x4
Hexavore A cost effective dino with overwhelm. Usually this 4/4 is enough to stop aggro decks on turn 3. Can be exhaused for
Feed the Hecaton or make a 6/6 killer with
Twilight Hunt.
x4
Sandstorm Titan The most iconic Time creature. One of your limited tools to deal with flyers.
x4
Twinned Spiteling for 4 mana you get 2 body on board 1/1 deadly with unblockable and a
Timekeeper that snowballing as you suck out the mana from your deck.
x3
Ixtol, Champion of Grodov This is your main power generating tool with stats equal to your maximum power. If this card left on the board, it will win you the game really quickly. Not only it snowballs himself and
Timekeeper it helps
Alhed Ascending reach the 8 influence too.
x3
Worldbearer Behemoth It's a dino with all of its benefits. Also your secondary power generating unit. If possible save your fast removals and
Twilight Hunt for this, so it can survive when you attack with it. If none of those available, you can trade it if you have Ixtol on board to start the snowballing.
I used to run 4 copy of the 5 drops, but i got screwed so many times, so i reduced them to 3. The deck feels much better and wins more consistently.
If you have both
Ixtol, Champion of Grodov and
Worldbearer Behemoth in your hand, and you don't plan to trade or kill anything in your turn go with behemoth first.
The market options:
Infinite Hourglass Great for hard countering Freezing Touch opponent and permafrosts
Vara's Choice Flexible spot, i like this as a last resort removal.
End Of An Era Also flexible spot, its great against token decks like Praxis, or just simply clean up the board after you stop an aggro deck. Also it's really really good if you can play
Ixtol, Champion of Grodov first.
Gnash, Desert Prince mainly its an anti-flyer, also the 1/1 killers are great counter at the Burn Scar boss
Grodov's Burden Finisher, most of the time you will pick this.
The deck is capable to win the games without any market card, so it's not a big deal to use
Time Etchings as a power fix if you are mana screwed.
Pros:
Deck is made specifically for grinding gauntlet !
Consistent, and have answer for every threat
Relative fast, usually 6 to 8 turns for a win
Easy to pilot, straightforward gameplan
Every card is powerful by itself and also in synergy with the theme - no filler cards
Cons:
Not so great in Throne
Expensive
2 Power hands can be risky
"Budget" version
Gameplay vs Sudden Death:
https://youtu.be/eM1Xn7TUDII