Good evening, my esteemed guests. I hope you slept well and have had a refreshing day? Excellent! What's this? Why, I believe we may have new guests. If that is the case, you need not fret. Not only was our previous adventure into time recorded [here] thanks to our hired journalist, Jeeves, but also I am more than happy to explain to you what our journey entails. You also might want to listen just in case you need a refresher.

Clockwork Manor, along with being my lovely summertime (or anytime) estate, is also an interactive tour. Along this tour, we will journey through our Gallery of Time. In here are hundreds of broken or stopped clocks that we must fix. However, these are not ordinary clocks; they're decks! These decks are ones that our currently not Standard (Type Two for you older players) legal, for any number of reasons, and we "fix" it so that it's tournament legal and kitchen table friendly! Honestly, I can't stress enough how important it is you understand the knowledge displayed in our first venture. Fortunately, Jeeves is a diligent worker and fellow deck connoisseur, so he has once again recorded the events [here].

As some of you may remember, I promised you we would look at the opposite of Sligh, our first fixed clock. I keep true to my word; however I must first explain the further workings of our clocks. I explained before about the Gears (lands) and Cogs (Spells), but that was merely scratching the surface. I'll introduce you to new styles of machinery within our lovely clocks and give sufficient examples of each. Keep your eyes peeled, as some of these cards will be showing up in the next deck. The clever among you may be able to guess the deck before it's revealed! How exciting!

First, we will go in-depth on Gears. Let me say that Gears are the most underrated part of a deck/clock. In a clock, gears are vital. Sure, they don't go tick, tock, bong, or tell you when it's high tea time, but they are what keeps the clock moving. Without them, nothing will move, and you will most likely end up sipping tea at midnight, which I must say from experience if it's not intended is quite dreadful. This is the same for a deck; no deck can run without mana, and that's what lands are for, though there are a few exceptions (that's a topic I'll reserve for later adventures). In order to keep things simple, basic lands will be classified simply under Gears. Next, the lands are classified under two types of specialty gears.

First off are Vertical Gears. These gears I feel are like ladders that lead the cogs straight up to the face of the clock where they can get the job done. Vertical Gears are lands that are strictly built to benefit you. Current Standard-legal cards that fit this description are bounce lands (like Dimir Aqueducts), storage lands (like Molten Slagheap), and beneficial effect lands (Pendelhaven, Academy Ruins, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, etc.).

The other type is Horizontal Gears. These would be the gears that make sure your other parts stay in place, and as they say, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Cards that fit these descriptions are lands that protect cards you control (Prahv, Safe Haven, etc.), Lands that stall against an opponent (Kher Keep, Orzhova), and lands built to directly fight against your opponent and/or their creatures on their own (Urza's Factory, Mouth of Ronom, Quicksand, Rix Maadi, etc.). These lands are often harder to come by than their vertical brethren, though we are fortunate to be in a Standard environment that's abundant in both!

Now let's return to Cogs. For now, Cogs will be broken up into three different sections. The first section is called Clockwise Cogs. Clockwise Cogs are cards that are built to move your clock forward. In an aggro deck, these are your heavy hitting early drops; in combo, your pieces that when put together set off that inane infinite combo you no doubt saw on a combo page somewhere (I wonder who would have that **wink**) and simply had to make into a deck; and finally in control, it's that one creature you drop down and ride all the way home on. This is a very broad field, and the dividing line between it and the other two I am about to mention is sometimes fuzzy. If you're confused, ask yourself this: If I play this, does it have a good potential to win on its own or in a combo? To sum it up, will this card win me the game?

Next are Connect Cogs. These cards won't win you the game, but they will bring you closer to it. These are spells specifically put in your deck to help you get out your win condition. For the most part, these cards will tutor you a card, draw you cards, or thin your deck of cards (mainly lands), though there are a few other loose ends.

Finally, we have the opposite of a Clockwise Cog, the Counter-Clockwise Cog. As you can guess by the name, the deck I'll be briefly showing is chock full of these kinds of Cogs. But what is the opposite of a card that is designed to make you win? Simple, a card designed to make your opponent lose. Now I know what you're thinking: doesn't your opponent losing inevitably end result in you winning? Of course it does, but it goes about it a different way. You see, instead of you playing cards that better your position, you play cards that worsen your opponent's. How can you lose if your opponent can't even touch you? Simply put, you can't.

The two Cogs may seem awkward together, but the combining of the two is how you win games, and even though Connect Cogs are mainly there to get the Clockwise Cogs moving, they invariably move the Counter-Clockwise cogs on the other side of them as well. The result is all three Cogs working together to form a fully functional piece of time-related machinery. Examples of Counter-Clockwise Cogs are damage spells (Volcanic Hammer, Tendrils of Corruption, Char, etc.), redirection (Word of Seizing, Commandeer, Reiterate), removal (Cruel Edict, Wrath of God, Sudden Death), discard (Stupor, Psychotic Episode, Mindstab), and probably the biggest of all, counter magic (Cancel, Spell Snare, Remand, Mana Leak).

And, my esteemed guests and patrons, the moment you've been waiting for is here! So what is the opposite of Sligh? Remember, Sligh is a mono-Red deck with a low mana curve built to just throw as much as it can at its opponent ASAP. Perhaps you figured it out already. For those who haven't, let's peer into a clock created by a mister Randy Buehler:

Obvious, eh? The opposite of Sligh is one of Magic's most aptly named decks ever, Draw/Go! Well, I've spent enough time boring you fine people with my ramblings, let's jump straight into the workshop and get to work on this beauty!

Wind-Up Key: Draw/Go is about as Control-oriented as it gets. The deck earned its name due to its typical game plan: Draw a card, play a land (optional), pass the turn, counter anything and everything your opponent is stupid enough to attempt to throw at you, do some end of turn drawing (optional), when your opponent finally gives up play a win condition and, well, uh, win.

Draw/Go has two major characteristics that set it apart from any other Control Deck. First, it has more counter magic than any other deck out there (this particular variant runs 21, over a third of the deck). Second, it only runs about five to six win conditions that are either hard to kill or land-based (stalking stones falls under the same category of Gears as Urza's Factory). As a result, it is extremely reliant on drawing plenty of counters.

It runs some outs in the form of Quicksand and "The Disk" as we like to call it at my local card shop, but not much else. There are only two times you want to put a win condition on the table: your opponent is out of resources, or you've got it backed up behind such a huge wall of counter magic that it doesn't matter. The fact that Stalking Stones can go active at instant speed is an added bonus.

Gears:
Horizontal:
Stalking Stones- The main win condition, effective for the fact that it can sit passively until needed, putting the pressure on your opponent. This will be replaced by the more expensive but often more effective Urza's Factory. In a world of split second insanity such as Sudden Death, Sudden Shock, Krosan Grip, and Wipe Away, it's good to know we can produce more than one threat should our counter magic happen to fail us.

Quicksand- Take it from an experienced clock fixer, core sets are your good friends.

Cogs:
Clockwise Cogs:
Rainbow Efreet- Moderately priced and extremely hard to hit. Though it's no Phasing, the "return to hand" ability of Fleeting Image, along with flying just in case, makes for an effective beater for this deck.

Counter-Clockwise Cogs:
Force Spike- Built to stem the early tides. The current counter of choice for early onrushes is Spell Snare. Seems fair enough.

Counterspell- The first and the ultimate. Fortunately, we have his little (or I guess you could say big) brother Cancel around. Yay!

Memory Lapse- This one of was built to play on a spell your opponent didn't need or needed at that precise moment and putting it at the worst spot possible: where their potential bomb could have been. For this I recommend what is thought to be one of the greatest uncommons in Standard, Remand. Though they still get their draw, you get one too. That's card advantage enough for me.

Mana Leak- See Quicksand.

Forbid- This card, given you had the spare cards, put your opponent in an interesting soft-lock. However in order to do this, you would need powerful and expensive card draw (i.e. Whispers of the Muse). As such, I decided to sub it with Spell Burst. Though on plain paper Spell Burst costs more, it is equally tedious to keep Forbid's Buyback engine running, so it seems an easy fit.

Dissipate- This card almost makes it seem as though the spell never happened. Though we can’t replicate the effect it has in our current card pool, we can take a new twist to it. Rewind also makes it seem like the card was never played, because it's virtually a free counter. Also, it’s a sideboard staple in current Control decks when facing other Control players. As such, it gets the slot.

Nevinyrral's Disk- A powerful reset button. We don't have any artifact cards like that nowadays (and probably never will), though Time Spiral did bring back a particularly good artifact from Homelands, Serrated Arrows. Wait a second, a good card from Homelands?!? I guess stranger things have happened... maybe.

Huh?

Connect Cogs:
Impulse- An absolutely ridiculous powerhouse of a draw spell. Seriously, anyone who hasn't been on the business end of a Control deck fueled by this should count him or herself lucky. This can be replaced with one of today's more underrated card drawers, Telling Time.

Whispers of the Muse- Hello, Time Spiral! Good to see you, and you brought us a friend! How thoughtful.

So what do we get when we mix all this together? Take a look at our finished product!

If you remember what I said about clocks from earlier, you’d remember the racing clock, the amount of turns it takes a deck on average to win. This deck has no definite clock, but for the most part it will win (or theoretically win since it laid down an unstoppable win condition) on turns 15-20. This is a really slow deck, but it's effective. The trick to winning is surviving the first five turns using your Serrated Arrows and Mana Leaks. After that, as long as you have about four cards in hand at least at all times, you're golden, and trust me, with this deck, holding back cards is a lot easier than it looks.

If you wanted to add some more power to the deck, I have a few suggestions:

Gears: You'll likely want to switch out two Islands for Academy Ruins. You've got enough colored mana, and with this, you can recur your Arrows when against a steady stream of weenies. Another good idea if you want to go for the Spell Burst lock early is Urza Tron and Signets. Maybe even both!

Cogs: Fleeting Image can easily be switched out with Triskelavus. Not only is he an effective beater that's hard to hit (mainly because he can split up), but also he goes very well with both Academy Ruins and Urza Tron. Furthermore, I would put the two Rewinds, one Spell Burst, and one Spell Snare out of the deck or in the sideboard, and in their place add in another Mana Leak and three Remands. Another sound strategy is splashing Black via Dimir Aqueduct or Dreadship Reef for the potent Mystical Teachings. Teferi is a good beater for this strategy. You may also like to splash White for Magus of the Disk instead of Serrated Arrows, but I chose to keep this deck mono-Blue like the original.

How do you like our new look into the process of clock fixing? Please feel free to come up to me and tell me your feelings after the tour, as I love a good debate. Now I have one more order of business, and that is a promise I need to keep. I stated in our first foray that this would be an interactive tour where your input is welcome, and by Karn, I intend to make it just that!

Furthermore, players of the world can rejoice; Future Sight is here and looking good! As such I decided to make my next deck a tribal deck using one of the new cards from Future Sight! For this, however, I will need your help.

I want you patrons to each choose a card you want to see in a deck and tell me why. You can tell me this via post or Private Message on the MDV forums, a proud sponsor of Clockwork Manor. There's no single aspect better than another, so be creative. Is the card flavorful? Powerful? Fun? Whatever catches your eye about it, tell me. You can tell me any way you want. A description, a combo, a deck, a song and verse, whatever.

After a few weeks, I'll choose one entry, and that card/deck will be used. Remember, if you send a deck and win, I'll happily use that deck for our next fixing! As such, you can use any cards you like, not just Standard. I've already done a Red deck and a Blue deck, so this time around the deck will either be Green, Black, or White. Without further ado, here are your choices:

• White Rebels
• Green Elves
• Black Zombies

That's all for today. Please feel free to enjoy this lovely summer day in our famous reverse-current swimming pool. Sound off!

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.