Instant-speed card draw is a rare commodity
these days, but Telling Time is one of those
cards that provides it. Two mana for
manipulating your next three cards is a
decent-enough buy, and you have the ability to
ditch the least useful of the bunch, a lack of
which is often a downfall of cards with similar
abilities. I have to rate Telling Time high for
Constructed purposes, especially with Standard
in mind. Once you start dipping into other
formats, especially Casual, it lowers in quality
due to the availability of better cards.
In limited, I rarely play much card draw, but
Telling Time is one that I would gladly put into
my deck. It isn't a first pick by a long-shot,
but if you see if floating in the middle of the
draft and you're in blue, it is a quality pick
that you won't regret.
Telling Time -
Remember that aggressive blue-black deck I was
talking about on Tuesday? Well, it's got four
copies of Telling Time in it. I threw it in
mostly to test the card that had so much hype
when Ravnica was in the rumor mill, and I've
been quite pleased with the results. Telling
Time is more than just a digging spell like
Impulse. It also sets up your next draw, which
comes in handy more and more often. Sometimes
you don't want just one card off a digging
spell, and Telling Time offers you two. The easy
casting cost and instant speed of TT put it
right up there with the classics of quick
cantrips like Opt, Serum Visions, Sleight of
Hand and Impulse. Sure, it's no Brainstorm, but
what is?
A very decent card, and though you don't see it
in many constructed builds, it does have a lot
of casual fans. Card draw is always great, and
this gives you a bit of a deck stack too.
