This is one of those cards that's been around
for years (actually, for almost two decades at
this point) but tends to be overlooked. I'm not
sure why. Yes, Time Ebb doesn't kill creatures
outright, but it both buys you time and costs
your opponent a draw step, putting you ahead on
two fundamental resources of Magic. In a deck
built for speed and with a devotion to robbing
the opponent of time (cf. Temporal Spring,
Memory Lapse, etc) it can be absolutely
devastating.
Today's card of the day is Time Ebb which is a
three mana Blue sorcery that puts target
creature on top of its owner's library. While
this isn't an instant, which would make it a
much better card, it is still a strong card that
works very well in aggressive Blue decks to open
up the field for an attack and slow an
opponent's tempo. Overall this will see
play in several themes and should be fairly
popular across current formats, even at the
competitive level.
In Limited this is a great card to have in
Sealed alongside a creature based Blue pool and
while not quite true removal is worth drafting
early in Booster as it has a similar if less
permanent role.
Sorcery speed doesn't make Blue players
happy, so most of them don't bother with this.
Three mana is also a drawback when Voyage's End
costs one less, has a scry rider, and is instant
speed. And since most blue bounce is closer in
power to Voyage's End than Time Ebb, you can
guess what people choose to play. The one
advantage Time Ebb has is putting it right on
their library instead of in their hand, so they
have to re-draw the creature before they can
re-cast it. This means that they're one more
turn away from drawing whatever else they were
about to draw, and also they have one fewer card
in hand next turn than they would if you'd
bounced it to their hand. I've said quite often
how much I like card advantage. Time Ebb is card
advantage AND tempo, getting a blocker out of
your face and often making your opponent re-play
his last turn.
