The doubters have been definitively proven wrong. The Time Spiral Block Pauper format is as diverse and exciting as ever. Slivers are virtually non-existent, having been conclusively hated out by stronger and more resilient archetypes.
At long last, I will provide a glimpse into the field of Time Spiral Block Pauper. If you wish to see the UPDC metagame laid bare, then click on, gentle Pauper!

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This week, the Slivers were upset about my impotence joke from last week, and they came out in full force, erect and ready to strike. There are so many flavors of the deck, but most of them do include white (Sinew, Sidewinder, Watcher) and red (Bonesplitter, Two-Headed, Homing).
Slivers wasn’t the only deck, but the diversity that we experienced last week was gone. However, once again, the Top 8 was full of surprises.

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Slivers couldn’t keep it up after seeing Granny naked in the shower and so Madness came out in full force! It was a diverse field for sure, proving the pundits wrong. Block is more than a Sliver breeding ground. All the action, recapitulated within!

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Originally posted for UPDC 1.05 in early July:
Welcome to Time Spiral week! This week, our content will be focused on the upcoming Time Spiral block format for Sunday’s UPDC tournament. To a large degree, Paupers will be delving into the unknown with this brand new format, discovering the ‘decks to beat’ and defining a whole new metagame. Time Spiral block is a very rich environment and is poised to lend itself to a very diverse and dynamic metagame. It benefits from the lack of snow lands even at it suffers from the lack of bounce lands, making it accessible to even the most impecunious of Paupers. And, to a degree that largely remains to be seen, today’s Time Spiral block is tomorrow’s Standard!
Starting on Sept 9th and running for at least four consecutive Sundays, UPDC will be switching from the tried-and-true Standard format to the smallest legal cardpool in PDC history — Time Spiral block. Registration for these block UPDC events will begin at 2:00pm EST on Sundays. Play will begin at 2:30pm EST, and the tourney will consist of 3 rounds of Swiss pairings (best 2 of 3) with the top 8 players from Swiss advancing to a single-elimination playoff. For more information, please visit the UPDC event thread. I hope to see everyone out on Sept. 9 for the kickoff event!

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One of the most intriguing and potentially brutal mechanics in Time Spiral block is Madness, a trick which allows you to play a spell even as it’s being discarded. Obviously, the best way to exploit this mechanic is to find abilities that allow you to discard cards for some effect, and then play the discarded spell for its Madness cost, a 2 for 1 situation.
In all of Classic Pauper, the task of coupling Madness cards with discard outlets is a bit more involved and complex. (Luckily for those interested in Classic, many before you have done the legwork.) In Time Spiral block, on the other hand, there is a much smaller pool of cards with Madness and discard outlets (mostly ‘spellshapers’) which makes the job easier. So let’s get to work!

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