A Look Back At Time Spiral Remastered

Time Spiral Remastered was the first of the remastered sets to hit paper magic.  This set was released in 2021 and featured reprints from any of the Time Spiral Block sets and was curated for a fun Limited experience.  The other major thing this set did was start to bring back retro framed cards!  For that reason, let's take a look back at some of the cards I like best that this set brought to us.

White

White is widely considered to be the worst color in the commander format.  With that said, Wizards has printed some bangers the past few years.  I like to use white as a supplemental color largely for the removal options that become available to us when we do!  This set brought us the 5th most played card in the entire format, Path to Exile.  Restoration Angel serves as a combo piece when paired with Kiki-Jiki who was also in this set.  One of my favorite archetypes is "Enchantress" and Sigil of the Empty Thrones is an absolute bomb in those decks.  Sram can lead a potent equipment or aura based deck while bringing elusive card draw to white.  Thraben Inspector is just a solid one drop that replaces itself with a clue token that can be popped later.  

Blue

Blue had two potent but probably un-fun (for your opponents!) commanders.  Baral leads counterspell.deck while Talrand does something similar.  Talrand is one of the stronger commanders if you are hoping to make a mono-colored deck using only retro cards, but can be pricy due to the cost associated with blue.  Laboratory Maniac gives us a great wincon that can be played in Dimir colored decks and paired up with Demonic Consultation (if you want to be "that person").  Mulldrifter is a great card in general but excels when paired with a blink strategy.  Treasure Cruise paired well in the limited format alongside Tasigur and would be a great include in a Tasigur deck if you choose to make one.  Under the right circumstances, it's like playing Ancestral Recall. 

Black

Black gave several key pieces to decks.  Stinkweed Imp is exceptional at loading up your graveyard by using the Dredge ability.  Read the Bones is one of my favorite draw spells so I was elated to see it appear here.  It gives you the potential to see four cards for a pretty low price.  Sanguine Bond is half of a two-card combo when paired up with Exquisite Blood (not yet available in retro frames).  Yawgmoth is an extremely broken commander allowing you to have removal on a stick for zero mana, while drawing you cards!  In addition to that, he has a built in discard and proliferate ability.  Amazing...  Zulaport Cutthroat starts to make an aristocrat strategy viable but we are still several pieces away at this point.  

Red

Etali!!!  Etali is one of the more fun cards out there in my opinion.  If you're allowed to untap with it, the benefit is huge!  Because of that, he is one of the "kill on sight" cards in the format.  Temur Battle Rage goes great in a Feather deck or any other combat based red deck.  Vandalblast is one of the highest played cards in the format as well and it can have a slot in literally any deck that includes red. I'm not too big on "spell slinger" type decks but I know Young Pyromancer does really well in them and makes some creatures you would love to Skullclamp.  Past in Flames goes well in spell slinger decks and typically finds it's way into a storm build.  

Green

Green doing green things.  In all seriousness, Farseek is my absolute favorite green ramp spell.  I like that it can fetch any kind of land with a basic land type (excluding forest).  Now that shock lands have been printed, it's one of the best mana fixing cards.  It also does a great job in a deck using mostly basics because of budget constraints.  Beast Within is a card that I probably value more than most in any deck that can play it.  I love having the ability to blow up any permanent type, including lands and am willing and happy to pay a premium for it.  Reclamation Sage is great in any elf, blink, or deck needing sac fodder.  It come's in, does it's thing and is happy to die afterwards.  Because it's in green, this will often draw you a card when it enters from cards like Guardian Project or Beast Whisperer.  It's easy to reanimate to do it's trick again because it's a creature as well.  Really, it's much more versatile than a Naturalize because it's the same ability attached to a creature.  At the very worst, it's a chump blocker for you or a Planeswalker.  Courser of Kruphix will give you an idea of what's coming up as well as allow you to hit your land drops.  The incidental life gain is nice too.  

Multi-Colored

Knight of the Reliquary is a great card that can help fetch whatever land you want!  This is a card that should be "auto-included" in any Selesnya based deck.  Mortify is not by any means a good removal card by today's standards but it beats a lot of the other options we have up to this point.  It's still a welcome addition in most of my decks that can play it as it has some built in versatility.  As someone who plays more enchantments than most, I understand how important it is to be able to destroy them.  Rakdos Charm is one of my all time favorite wincons, although you rarely get to use it as such.  Otherwise, it's a versatile modal card that can get rid of artifact or a graveyard.  But that time it works as player removal will always stay in your memory.  I recommend adding it to literally every Rakdos deck just to have the possibility of achieving this dream.  The rest of these are cards that are fine filling into most decks in their color what I consider to be one of the best slivers.  Cloudshredder Sliver gives both flying and haste, both of which are amazing keywords.

Artifact

Panharmonicon is one of the most fun cards that have come out in my opinion and started the craze of "this is good, let's double it!".  Solemn Simulacrum has been a format staple for years and while not as good as it once was, it still has it's place.  Cranial Plating is an absolute house in the decks it would go in and will definitely help you to KO an opponent with the instant speed equip ability.  Manifold Key is very versatile and goes well with some of the more powerful mana rocks such as Basalt Monolith, Mana Vault, or Grim Monolith.  Vanquisher's Banner gives a big boost to typal strategies that are at this point a little bit weaker than other strategies are as they don't have as much support.

Land

Bojuka bog belongs in EVERY black deck and now it can fit in ours too!  Mystic Sanctuary can be part of an infinite combo with an extra turn spell and something like Trade Routes.  I like it even more because it can be fetched up by fetch lands.  Field of Ruin put land destruction into anyones budget in retro frames so you don't have to splurge on a Strip Mine or Wasteland.  Ramunap Ruins is not a card that I have played but man would I love to deal the last two damage to someone with it.  Blighted Woodland is a fine piece of ramp later game to trigger landfall abilities such as in a Tatyova deck, or puts itself into the graveyard in a Titania deck.  I like that it does not enter tapped so I don't hate putting it into a deck.