Time Warp (Original Art)

Time Warp is one of the most elegant and powerful effects in Magic: the ability to take an extra turn. Time Warp isn’t just about getting another untap phase. It’s about creating a tempo advantage that snowballs into inevitability: you untap all your lands, you draw another card, and you get another attack step or planeswalker activation. When combined with cards that copy spells, untap permanents, or recur sorceries, Time Warp easily becomes a looping win condition. During Urza’s Block / Tempest Standard (1997-1999), Time Warp was considered too slow for most of the broken “Combo Winter” decks. It saw occasional play in Mono-Blue Control or Wildfire builds to secure the late game after stabilizing. When Time Warp was reprinted in Magic 2010 and Magic 2011(M10-M11 Standard 2009-2011), it immediately found a home in the infamous Turbo Fog and Time Sieve decks. Turbo Fog used Time Warp alongside Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, and Jace Beleren to continually fog combat damage and take extra turns until decking the opponent. Time Sieve Combo paired Time Warp with Time Sieve, Howling Mine, Pollen Lullaby, and Open the Vaults – taking infinite turns and decking the opponent with Jace Beleren, or by killing with Tezzeret the Seeker. In Modern, Time Warp has been a combo engine since the format’s inception. It is central to the Taking Turns archetype – decks built around Time Warp, Temporal Mastery and Part the Waterveil. These decks were further supported by Howling Mine and Dictate of Kruphix for draw and mana acceleration. The goal was to chain extra turns until the opponent never untaps again. In cEDH/Commander, Time Warp is a staple in blue decks that care about value, recursion, or combo lines. Time Warp is used by popular commanders such as Narset, Enlightened Master (casts Time Warp from exile for free), Vivi Ornitier and Edric, Spymaster of Trest. Time Warp is not on the Reserved List.