Mastering the Cards
Ghost of the Past
-Generally speaking, Ghost of the Past is the main 'mid-hitter' for Time, although its price can be somewhat expensive compared to other creatures found in the alternate elements.
The major attribute of this card is from its passive, 'Obsession', which deals 10 (or 13 if upgraded) damage to its owner upon being discarded from the hand. In this case, a player should work their decks to have sufficient quanta in order to play Ghosts rather than discard them, or at least ensure that they aren't forced to discard any if their hand is full with vital card combinations.
The most obvious combination card to pair up with Ghost of the Past is Nightmare; by playing a Ghost of the Past and immediately targeting it with a 2 (or 1)
quanta cost Nightmare, the opponent's hand will be filled with Ghosts, which will deny their next draw as well as potentially forcing them to discard a card if they still don't have enough quanta to play their other spells, creatures, or permanents. In addition, depending on many Ghosts enter your opponent's hand, you'll be healed a significant amount due to Nightmare's healing effect.
Of course, expert players who see a Darkness mark and time quanta on your board may withhold from playing cards in order to avoid a forced discard. Additionally, Ghost of the Past has only 4 HP for both versions, making it susceptible to hard CC such as Shockwave and Lightning, and can be killed or stopped by several enemy CC effects depending on the element being faced.
Ghostmare is a fairly popular denial deck that many Time players use against non-Time users, due to its efficiency. Other cards, such as Fractal and Dimensional shield, can create a 'Ghostal' deck that utilizes stalling tactics and massive amounts of time and aether quanta to overwhelm an enemy with sheer numbers, while Precognition and Golden Nymph allow for a more focused build when mixed together in a mono-Time.
Reverse Time
-Given its cheap cost and simply efficiency at what it does, removing creatures off of either player's field (mainly the enemy's though), can be better than doing straight up damage.
Unlike other creature control cards, Time's spell simply removes a creature and places it back on the top of the owner's deck, essentially 'killing' it, while also reviving it for its owner to play again if possible. As a player must spend the same amount of quanta again in order to replay a creature that is Rewound, this can force opponents into deciding whether or not a creature is worth replaying again, especially if they need other cards in their deck to draw and play.
While Eternity, the rare weapon for Time, uses Reverse Time as an ability, most players do not mix the two. In spell form, Reverse Time is more effective with other spells, such as Earthquake, which can topple pillars and pendulums, causing a shortage of essential quanta to an enemy. Mixing the two can make it extremely frustrating to foes who are pressured into deciding whether to play the creature again for damage/utility, or hold it off in the hopes that they can draw additional pillars/pendulums to stabilize their quanta sources, alongside drawing other cards to adapt to the denial tactics.
Immortal (and Burrowed) creatures can often laugh at Reverse Time as a whole due to its inability to effect untargetable creatures; Cloak in particular, can make it impossible for a Time player to use many denial tactics and combos unless they also have Permanent control. Because of this, players who often expect Reverse Time will either hold off cards repeatedly in order to play them all at once (thus, making it hard to Rewind them all unless you have multiple spells), or use specific combinations to stop the instant removal, such as Quintessence to prevent creature targeting.
Reverse Time is also found in Ghostmare decks due to its simple elegance with Nightmare, and can be snuck into several other decks due to its cheap cost. Several Supernova-based speedbows often have this deck as quick CC if fast-damaging cards such as Lightning can't kill the creature, or if Freeze can't prevent a creature's potential efficacy on the field.
Pharaoh
-Despite the rarity, Pharaohs are an awesome stall breaker (in most cases) and long-term investment for building up a formidable army of scarabs - not just for damage, but also for creature control if you can spare the gravity quanta.
Similar to Firefly Queen, Pharaohs are a pure mono-Time quanta-loving creature that can summon a plethora of Scarabs, acting (and looking) as a leader of a oncoming army. Scarabs have 2 (or 3 if upped) ATK and have variable HP levels depending on the number of Scarabs in play, alongside whether or not any Scarab was boosted or damaged in the health department. Pharaohs are costly creatures (9
quanta with a 2
ability cost), making them very expensive, but well worthwhile if a player has the required resources.
As Scarabs themselves are powerful due to their swarming tactics alongside their ability to devour other creatures (their Devour ability), many players will often seek a relationship between Time and Gravity in order to maximize the profit of a Pharaoh-based deck. The amount of Scarabs produced is reliant not only the amount of quanta, but also whether or not a Pharaoh can use its ability to the fullest in a match. Thus, cards such as Shard of Readiness can be used to quickly summon Scarabs onto the field if applied to a Pharaoh (while also removing the cost of the ability for future uses). Alternatively, Quintessence can be used to protect the Pharaoh from being killed or targeted by nasty creature control effects, and Chimera (utilizing Gravity quanta again) can serve as a last-ditch attempt kill the enemy if there are annoying shields blocking your Scarabs from consuming your prey.
Pharaoh decks are for the most part slow, making them easy to recognize and combat if an experienced player foresees them coming in battle. Control cards, such as Freeze and Basilisk Blood can stop a Pharaoh for several turns from making an army, while denial cards, such as Discord and Devourer can be equally annoying if you don't have the sufficient quanta to play the rare card (or summon Scarabs). Of course, most players will simply have faster decks or ways of dealing alternate damage to ignore Pharaohs from affecting them at all.
