Many thought the story of Fallen Empires ended with the advent of Ice Ages. The empires were in ruin, and Thrulls and Thallids ruled over Sarpadia as snow blanketed the land burying any remainder of the continent in the cold. Some creature lines continued on, but for many of the Sarpadian lines it was the end of their Age. That's how Wizards left Sarpadia in 1995, but its story interestingly continued in 2006 with Time Spiral.

The arrival of Time Spiral had many familiar faces emerging from the time bubbles back into our present. The mass planar destabilization had given a second life to the sets of Magic's past. Homarids appeared again from the depths of time, while Thallids rampaged across the land amongst the legions of Slivers. Most surprising of all were names the old vanguard of Magic knew by heart, showing up 1000's of years in Dominara's future.
 

Today we will examine what may be Fallen Empires's final tale, through the cards of Time Spiral.

Almost every child in the Western world knows the fables of Aesop and the morales they impart. Prepare to revert back to kindergarten for a moment; if you must, get yourself a juice box and take a seat on the magic carpet, 'cause it's story time. And today, my special little ones, we will examine the story of "The Bundle of Sticks."

Now, before we get into finger painting or nap time I have to snap you back into the adult realm. What do these three generally unlinked things have in common: Fallen Empires (Icatia), the Bundle of Sticks, and the Lilliputians? The answer is the concept of many smaller people making an unbreakable whole, standing up successfully to a larger whole. This concept applied to the story matches perfectly; Icatia as a nation banded together withstood the hordes of Goblins and Orcs at Montford. However, Icatia later did fall at the hands of a combined army, which was partially due to the internal strife with the Farrelite Cult. Their bundle was divided in two, and much like the in the parable, it broke.

When it comes to Magic combat, you have to question the theory though. Eight 1/1's versus a 7/7 leaves you with a dead 7/7 and a measly 1/1 left over, or a single 1/1 dead and the 7/7 alive. Abilities like first strike and trample further complicate this. It just doesn't work like the bundle of sticks, does it? That's because our 1/1's aren't together; they're still seperate entities. To really bundle them together we need a long abandoned mechanic: Banding. Banding was removed from the game due to its confusing nature, but in general we really want it for the non-confusing part—we choose how creatures deal damage, which allows our sticks to truly bundle.

Simple, powerful, efficient. Very few decks match the pure speed of White Weenie. Zoo-style decks and Goblin decks can put a hamper with near equal speed, but ample amounts of first strike combined with minimal banding can easily out-win a stall easier than those two. Against slower decks, the weenie army is unchecked, forcing fast plays and sacrificial blocks to remain in the game. This isn't an optimal deck by any means, but it highlights the lesson of the masses.

Playing the deck is very simple. Creatures come out fast and attack relentlessly. As the opponent gets down more creatures some attackers may fall, and it will be a choice at what point to convert to defense to deal with threats. Strip Mine is an all-star card helping to slow down decks that rely on higher cost creatures and spells while still easily churning out weenies. Icatian Crier and Battle Screech help to create mass tokens if forced into alpha strike mode, while Ajani and Crusade bolster every other card in the deck. Hopefully the lesson was imparted; attack together, defend together, and never let an opponent's size become a factor.

One of the earliest features of Blue was having extremely powerful spells, backed by large bulky creatures. Blue had always ruled the sea and the sky producing extravagant creatures such as Mahamoti Djinn and Sea Serpent. The Dark pushed it even further by cloning other cards such as Crusade and Drudge Skeletons bringing elements of Weenie decks to Blue. Fallen Empires continued this tradition emulating Preacher, Thunder Spirit, and Squire.

Fallen Empires attempted to expand the existing Merfolk tribe and create the Homarid tribe. Merfolk continued the tradition of Island-limited attacks and existence, while Homarids attempted to mimic the power of the tides and create the concept of shroud. At a glance, this makes the Homarids seem extremely powerful gaining shroud at will (at the cost of not untapping for a turn), but spot control was fairly low—think Terror and Lightning Bolt—really limiting its potential power at the time. Today, they would be seen as slightly more powerful. The most interesting creature was Vodalian Mage who became one of the first "X on a stick creatures," his being Force Spike.

Careful study of the Time Spiral cards reveals very few Merfolk from the correct era, but one Homarid does appear. While there is legitimate discussion as to whether Viscerid Deepwalker represents the Ice Ages or Fallen Empires era, hopefully it is easy to see what our intended study will be. The following deck using the cards of Time Spiral's generation to impart a lesson of Fallen Empires—people who think Blue is merely for Control will be vastly surprised—and there's no reason our spells can't have legs.

This deck is best played by people with good poker faces. Early suspends and in-your-face counters show people just how in trouble they are, forcing them to alter their play style. As they attempt to force counters, their weaker creatures make it out only to get gobbled up by suspends before they can guess that you're not countering anything from hand—who would think it after all? Late game when mana is more available, powerful creatures begin to create counter threat against game-turners and help to create very unfair advantages.

This deck exemplifies how far Blue Aggro has evolved. Instead of mimicking inferior versions of other cards, they become empowered by the tenets of Blue. Riftwing Cloudskate acts as a walking Boomerang, Aeon Chronicler a living draw engine, the Whelk a counterspell and Spiketail Drakeling a Mana Leak. Some create them as they come into play, others as they leave. In the end, the deck is driven by the power of Aggro and card advantage created by creature effects. Much like other Aggro decks instead of Control, you'll notice the spells are mana support, nuke finishers, and in one a bizarre case a Blue Giant Growth variant. The lesson hopefully sinks in: Blue can be much more than slow Control.

Now we shall study my favorite tribe from Fallen Empires: the Thallids. The Thallid tribe is interesting because even though it has always been a Fungus, people have always separated it out into its own unique niche. No one plays Thallids and says "I'm playing the Fungus tribe." Thallids are magical creatures (not natural) infused with mana and raised as food by Elves in Sarpadia. Feasting off decaying matter Thallids have ample supplies of energy to produce new life which is either consumed or grows into another Thallid over the years—it would sound kinda evil if it wasn't all naturey.

Thelon of Havenwood to me has always been an interesting character as well. Here we have Mr. Elf King of the Treehuggers, and he gets thrown into a world where the trees are dead. A world of ruin with no forest, where the only semblances of nature are fetid masses of Fungus shambling around—a testament to the Havenwood legacy. This lesson will be the one that Thelon must have learned on his arrival to the future: There is life amongst death.

This is a powerful deck based on a Thallid-driven deck I played last year; it evolved into a powerful contender deck that could hold its own against tournament caliber decks. What it features is powerful early creatures driven by a Dark Confidant draw engine. Thallid and Deathspore Thallid grow counters from the very start and become massive behemoths on later turns when Thelon of Havenwood appears. The Thallid Aggro is supported by other "grower" creatures such as Tarmogoyf and Vinelasher Kudzu, while Ravenous Baloth gives the opportunity for a little life gain in a very efficient 4/4 Beast.

Every other card is fine-tuned for the sheer power it brings at such a low cost. Profane Command and Chord of Calling are all star cards that provide massive power for a minimal cost. Pernicious Deed is a shoo-in; its sheer power can't be denied. Also, please don't mock the Fists of Ironwood either, it has won more games than any other card in the deck.

Yet people have seen this deck before and I wanted to show something new as well—an old meets new Black Green pure Thallid deck. Play-style is very easy so just enjoy the straight-forward deck. The only interaction really that needs a note is Thelon vs. Recursion. Thelon takes your dead Thallids and sows them back onto living Thallids. This can eat away any use of Svogthos and Oversold Cemetary, but can easily bolster creatures in play, which leaves the choice of "now or later?"

And there it is; a basic Thallid deck. Simple to the core. Fungus creates life, Fungus consumes life, Fungus grows stronger. Blooms help foster early spore growth, while Doubling Season matures spores even faster, even spawning more Saprolings. In full swing, this deck can overpower just about anything and takes a mass culling to stop. All through the power of nature—take that yuppies.

Now begins the tale of woe and blight. How the once-proud Ebon Hand—children of Tourach the Dark One—fell to their own monstrous creations. They were meant for a much grander death in battle versus the Order of Leitbur when they fell to their Thrull slaves. A true Proletariat uprising occurred in the Magic world; of course their Bourgeoisie killed them for supplies, and didn't merely live off their toils.

The Thrulls obviously were the means of production for the Ebon Hand and held vast strength in both value and natural strength. Bred to be subservient originally, Endrek Sahr saw the potential in them to bolster their army. He began experiments to twist their bodies and empower their minds creating variants that were superb in battle and had prowess in magic. Unfortunately, for the Ebon Hand the intelligence led to recognition of their plight which lead to rebellion, aided by their stronger brethren.

Today, we'll examine how to keep our Thrulls in line via the thing they do best: Sacrifice.

This if you haven't figured out is a massive combo and pure power deck. Korlash alone will cause problems for some decks, but the main threat here comes in the form of all the nasty stuff Endrek does. Carrion Feeders and Husks eat up any creature for free keeping, the Thrull engine alive and well, while Shriekmaw can evoke for five tokens at a mere two mana if necessary, and if you're evoking you can snack him up into a Feeder as well. Beyond that there is recursion and pure dark power to support the Thrull minions.

So what's the lesson? Don't let your Thrulls become your army. Keep them in line and keep them sacrificed constantly to maintain the correct number. This is a fairly standard pure Black deck empowered with a little Thrull know how. If you have other favorite cards for your mono-Black decks, play them—after all it's hard to mess it up. Just make sure you have some draw and life gain to keep the deck rolling smooth, and most importantly, keep your Thrulls in line.

That brings us to our end of lessons. Hopefully you learned something from them, whether it be a new look at Blue and its beatdown potential or an old reminder of Green's dark cycle of life. You may have noticed there was no Red; sadly Red was more or less ignored in Time Spiral when it came to Fallen Empires.

The lessons of Red in Fallen Empires were mainly taught to Wizards in that flipping coins and chance were pretty bad mechanics. Beyond that the most meaningful Red cards augmented the Goblin tribe helping to create the first true and longest lasting Tribal powerhouse. It's hard to imagine Magic these days without those little Red buggers running around killing everything in sight. The Orcs and Dwarves were and still remain failure tribes compromised of small numbers and meaningless members. As a Tribal enthusiast I would of course love to see them augmented and made good.

Regardless, our tale of revival is at a conclusion, as are our lessons from Fallen Empires. We've examined the set as a whole and how it impacted the game as well as the artwork and the bold and lasting legacy it left on the game. Finally we examined how Fallen Empires was used in decks back in the day, and how it can be used again after the Time Spiral block. It's so nice that such an old set can still be so highly relevant to Magic. Tomorrow will conclude this volume, and it will be a test of everything you might have learned or still need to learn about the continent Sarpadia. Until then....

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Memories of an Old Magic Player 10: The Outsiders Journal #3.
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Tribal Coffee: The Smaller Tribes.
[Mini-Article] Controlling the Game: Without Blue.
Raiding the Dollar Bins: Return of the Vault Ninja.
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More Evil Than Evil.
Memories of a Jarhead.