Decaying Time Loop
Instant
Discard all the cards in your hand, then draw that many cards.
Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Doctor Who
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #7227
Decaying Time Loop resets the entire game state — hands, graveyards, battlefield — while leaving a decaying counter on itself as the only price for the privilege. In Captain Howler, Sea Scourge decks specifically, that mass-reset doubles as a wheel effect, which means the commander's discard-matters payoffs trigger the moment the loop resolves.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Captain Howler, Sea Scourge
Captain Howler, Sea Scourge cares about opponents discarding cards, and Decaying Time Loop forces everyone to pitch their hand and redraw — triggering that engine immediately on resolution and resetting any threat that had developed on board.
The Emperor of Palamecia
The Emperor of Palamecia rewards casting spells and filling the graveyard with instants and sorceries, and Decaying Time Loop's board-wiping reset clears the way while the spell itself feeds that count — plus the new hand means fresh fuel for the next loop around the table.
Brallin, Skyshark Rider // Shabraz, the Skyshark
Brallin, Skyshark Rider // Shabraz, the Skyshark turns each card discarded into a damage trigger, so Decaying Time Loop's forced mass-discard translates directly into a burst of power counters and damage spread across every opponent at once.
Rielle, the Everwise
Rielle, the Everwise grows whenever you discard, so Decaying Time Loop's reset — which has you pitch and redraw your entire hand — counts as a single discard event that pumps her and immediately replaces every card you lost.
Melek, Reforged Researcher
Melek, Reforged Researcher cares about instants and sorceries going to the graveyard and being cast, and Decaying Time Loop is a high-impact sorcery that survives its own reset via the decaying counter, giving Melek a recurring threat to interact with each loop.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Decaying Time Loop belongs — the four-player environment makes a full board-and-hand reset maximally disruptive, and the decaying counter means a sufficiently dedicated deck can re-use the effect over multiple turns. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal, but the effect is too slow and symmetrical to compete with the unfair things those formats are doing by turn three. Oathbreaker shares Commander's multiplayer DNA and the card slots in cleanly there for the same reasons. Anywhere else, it's off the table entirely.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Decaying Time Loop isn't available yet, which usually means it's either a very recent release or not yet widely tracked. Check Scryfall or TCGPlayer directly for current buylist and market price before picking up copies.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Captain Howler, Sea Scourge
- The Emperor of Palamecia
- Brallin, Skyshark Rider // Shabraz, the Skyshark
- Rielle, the Everwise
- Melek, Reforged Researcher
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.