The comprehensive rules for both vanishing and fading, and a closer look at the differences between them.

Special note: Stifle, Trickbind and Voidslime can actually stop vanishers from going away.

Time Spiral Cards with Vanishing
Aven Riftwatcher
Calciderm
Chronozoa (a wacked out Phantom Monster?)
Deadly Grub (part Cocoon, Deadly Insect, and Penumbra)
Deadwood Treefolk
Keldon Marauders
Lavacore Elemental
Reality Acid (the blue Vindicate)
Tidewalker
Waning Wurm (possible use with Sutured Ghoul)

Fading into History
The roots of these abilities may have started with Clockwork Beast, Divine Intervention, Lord of the Pit and Stasis. Magmasaur was likely a huge influence to the creation of vanishing and fading. Cumulative upkeep, echo, phasing and even suspend have similar elements to vanishing and fading.

Fading Cards from the Past
Static fading cards have a basic countdown
Blastoderm
Cloudskate
Parallax Dementia
Rejuvenation Chamber
Rusting Golem
Skyshroud Behemoth
Skyshroud Ridgeback (a Kird Ape wannabe)
Tangle Wire

Adjustable fading cards let you remove counters for more effects
Ancient Hydra
Defender en-Vec
Jolting Merfolk
Parallax Nexus (likely an influence for Nightmares)
Parallax Tide
Parallax Wave (likely the influence for white blink cards)
Phyrexian Prowler
Saproling Burst
Woodripper

There’s also Parallax Inhibitor to alleviate faders.

Using Vanishing and Fading Effectively
Due to their limited lifespan, you have several options here:
1) Play fast and aggressive with cheap and efficient damage or mana production.
2) Use bounce or blink effects - Temporal Adept, Clockspinning, Ghostway, Safe Haven, or Blood Clock are some examples.
3) Use reanimation (normally found in black) - Hell’s Caretaker might be a powerhouse with fading or vanishing.

Here’s some other cards that use time counters:
All Hallow’s Eve
Tourach’s Gate (might be fun with Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder)
Infinite Hourglass
Time Bomb

Stopping Vanishing and Fading
Forget bounce and blink spells, that will only encourage your opponent!
Also, don’t fall into the trap of using AEther Snap, Ferropede, or Spinal Parasite. Use strong, basic tactics instead and try stopping whatever is allowing the opponent to abuse the cards.

Favorite Card with Decklist
Blastoderm/Calciderm

Here’s a Standard-legal deck that uses bounce and blinking to reset your time counters.

Vanishing Act
Lands: (24)
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Hallowed Fountain
8 Island
8 Plains

Creatures: (16)
4 Calciderm
4 Dust Elemental
4 Sage of Epityr
4 Temporal Adept

Other Spells: (20)
4 Chromatic Star
4 Ghostway
4 Reality Acid
4 Remand
4 Wrath of God

This is a basic control deck, so play defensively until you can clear the way for your finishers. There’s a lot of synergy here, as Dust Elemental or Ghostway can save your side from Wrath of God, and Temporal Adept with Reality Acid is great for all-purpose removal. Sage of Epityr really helps to smooth out your draws, especially when you can use it repeatedly throughout a game.

History of Banding
Banding was once integral to Magic, but has since been replaced.

Banding helped to influence a “cooperative” effect (tapping a creature to give a bonus to another creature - ex. Wyluli Wolf and Nantuko Disciple) as well as the en-Kor ability.

Similarly, creatures that can deal damage to an attacking or blocking creature have a heavy banding feel to them (ex. D’Avenant Archer, Crimson Manticore, Tor Wauki, Lady Caleria). This ability was a red mainstay for a while with cards such as Balduvian Trading Post, Dwarven Sea Clan, Lava Storm, and Rockslide. This ability has pretty much shifted into white to replace banding, with cards like Crossbow Infantry, Heavy Ballista, and Hail of Arrows.

Banding even left its mark by becoming spells and enchantments like Defensive Formation. Check out how banding still influences the game today with spells like Master Warcraft.

As the card pool grew, banding was also more powerful. Later banding cards seemed to increase in mana cost (see Kjeldoran Escort, Kjeldoran Skycaptain, and Urza’s Engine), and ultimately the ability was left to history.

Classic Banding Cards

White:
Benalish Hero
Cooperation
Errand of Duty
Icatian Skirmishers
Kjeldoran Knight
Mesa Pegasus
Soraya the Falconer
Volunteer Reserves

Others:
Ayesha Tanaka
Baton of Morale
Battering Ram
Helm of Chatzuk
Nalathni Dragon
Nature’s Blessing
Timber Wolves
Tolaria
Urza’s Avenger

Classic Bands With Other Cards

Adventurers’ Guildhouse
Cathedral of Serra
Mountain Stronghold
Seafarer’s Quay
Unholy Citadel
Shelkin Brownie
Master of the Hunt

We’re Getting the Band Back Together!
Banding was one of the first linear designs in Magic, and thus rewards you for playing lots of banders. (an explanation of linear design can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr92

How to Stop Banding
In most cases, you won’t win a combat against banding head on. Look for ways to evade and outnumber the banders, and remove the opponent’s creatures with spells instead.

Favorite Card and Decklist
Benalish Hero, for being small but effective.

We’re a Band!
Lands: (23)
3 Flagstones of Trokair
20 Plains

Creatures: (22)
4 Adarkar Valkyrie
4 Benalish Hero
3 Kjeldoran Skyknight
3 Kjeldoran Warrior
4 Mesa Pegasus
4 Serra Angel

Other Spells: (15)
4 Glorious Anthem
3 Leonin Sun Standard
4 Roar of the Kha
4 To Arms!

The deck uses small banding creatures alongside some vigilant angels to bowl the opponent over in combat. Glorious Anthem and Leonin Sun Standard add more size to your creatures, and the instants in the deck allow you to play offensively while still having a deceptive defense.

A particularly interesting combo arises between Adarkar Valkyrie and any banding creature. Simply band them in an attack or use them together to block, then assign all damage to the banding creature and use the Valkyrie’s ability to get the bander back after it dies of combat damage.

Feel free to modify this as needed for removal spells or whatever else you might need. This is only a rough deck to get you started.

Flashback to the Future
Cards dealing with the ability found in Time Spiral:
Ancient Grudge
Call of the Herd
Conflagrate (a weird mix of Meteor Shower and Firestorm)
Dralnu, Lich Lord (a Recoup on legs)
Dread Return (possible use with Sengir Autocrat?)
Gaze of Justice (a nod to the Hand of Justice)
Momentary Blink
Mystical Teachings
Strangling Soot
Think Twice (a mini Deep Analysis)
Thrill of the Hunt
Traitor’s Clutch

History of Flashback
Cards that may have influenced flashback:
Death Spark
Hammer of Bogardan
Buyback cards
Yawgmoth’s Will

What flashback in turn may have helped to inspire:
Recover
Dredge
Haunt
Forecast

Top Past Flashback Cards by Color

White:
Battle Screech
Prismatic Strands

Blue:
Deep Analysis (with its reference to the overpowered Masticore)
Flash of Insight

Black:
Cabal Therapy
Chainer’s Edict

Red:
Flaring Pain
Lava Dart
Recoup

Green:
Call of the Herd
Roar of the Wurm

Artifact:
Catalyst Stone

Play it again, Sam
Using Flashback Effectively
Cards that can fill your graveyard with flashback spells can be incredibly useful, as there are a number of spells that have a cheaper flashback cost than their regular mana cost. Dredge, discard effects and similar abilities team well with flashback. The Judgment wishes and Pull from Eternity could allow you to get back an already flashbacked spell to play yet again.

Stopping Flashback
Graveyard hate cripples flashback. Beware of Withered Wretch, Tormod’s Crypt, and Leyline of the Void.

Favorite Card with Bonus Combo:
Firecat Blitz + Pandemonium + Goblin Bombardment

Example Decklist using Flashback:
UGly Flashbacks

Lands: (24)
9 Forest
7 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wooded Foothills

Creatures: (0 though this is deceptive, as there’s many token-making spells)

Other Spells: (32)
4 Call of the Herd
4 Catalyst Stone
4 Deep Analysis
4 Grizzly Fate
4 Life from the Loam
4 Prohibit
4 Quiet Speculation
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Rune Snag

The deck focuses on filling the graveyard with a number of flashback spells, allowing you to play out an army of token creatures. The fetchlands do more duty than in normal decks, as they help the graveyard reach threshold for Grizzly Fate and make Life from the Loam downright insane.

Quiet Speculation and dredging Life from the Loam fills your graveyard as well, usually with flashback spells. Try to play either of these spells as soon as possible, even if you have no lands for Loam to grab. You want to dredge it early to fill the graveyard.

Deep Analysis helps to draw into more cards, and Prohibit and Rune Snag are at your disposal to counter any major threats (like Wrath of God for example). If you can, play agressively and only hold back mana for countermagic if you know the opponent has something to ruin you.

Echo in Time
Echo cards appearing in Time Spiral:
Avalanche Riders
Basalt Gargoyle (akin to Granite Gargoyle)
Firemaw Kavu (brother to Flametongue Kavu)
Flamecore Elemental (like Fire Elemental)
Hunting Moa
Mogg War Marshal (a smaller Goblin Marshal)
Subterranean Shambler (similar to Subterranean Spirit)
Tectonic Fiend
Thick-Skinned Goblin

History of Echo
Echo was most likely influenced by other upkeep variants before it, and may have helped to shape Fading and Morph.

Echoes of the Past
Most echo cards can be divided into two categories:

Improved - Larger creatures for the mana cost
Albino Troll
Citanul Centaurs
Cradle Guard
Pouncing Jaguar
Ring of Gix

Specialist - Average size for cost, but includes a ‘comes into play’ ability
Deranged Hermit
Ghitu Slinger
Keldon Champion
Keldon Vandals
Yavimaya Granger
Goblin Marshal

Using Echo Effectively
Ignore echo with Thick-Skinned Goblin or Eon Hub.

Swap your echo creatures for your opponent’s and watch them try to pay echo with Chromeshell Crab, Confusion in the Ranks, Cultural Exchange, Gauntlets of Chaos, and Spawnbroker (among others).

In some decks, cards like Cloudstone Curio, Equilibrium, or Blood Clock could allow you to use the specialist creatures then bounce them back before having to pay the echo cost.

How a few echo cards (Avalanche Riders and Crater Hellion) made it into the top decks of 1999-2001.

Stopping Echo
Improved echo cards can usually be stopped with bounce or flicker variants. Against specialists, the opposite is true - try instead to stop the opponent from replaying their specialists.

Favorite Card and Decklist
Lightning Dragon (it was tied with about five others, so I went with my favorite artist amongst them!)

Echo Red
Lands: (22)
22 Mountain

Creatures: (22)
4 Goblin Patrol
3 Thick-Skinned Goblin
4 Ghitu Slinger
4 Shivan Raptor
3 Keldon Champion
4 Lightning Dragon

Other Spells: (16)
4 Wheel of Fate
4 Seething Song
4 Rift Bolt
4 Gauntlet of Power

The deck is a mono-red aggro using both echo and suspend cards in an attempt to make up for the wonky tempo that echo can sometimes cause. The deck is chock-full of fast, red creatures and pumps them as well as your mana through the roof with Seething Song and Gauntlet of Power. Rift Bolt and Wheel of Fate are low on mana cost, allowing you to deal damage and refill your hand even when having to pay echo.

As usual, we start off with a look at the Comprehensive Rules for shadow.

Shadow in Time Spiral
Dauthi Slayer
Drifter il-Dal
Faceless Devourer
Looter il-Kor (a variation of Merfolk Looter)
Nether Traitor (the new Nether Shadow)
Shadow Sliver (Winged Sliver variant)
Soltari Priest
Stronghold Overseer
Traitor’s Clutch
Trespasser il-Vec
Zealot il-Vec (a throwback to Farrel’s Zealot)

History of Shadow
Where the roots of the ability may have come from, and a note about how shadow almost made it into Kamigawa.

Shadows of the Past
What shadow was like during Tempest block. The aggressive black Dauthi, the white weenie styled Soltari, and the blue Thalakos with their interesting abilities. Mention was made of the only multicolored shadow creature, Soltari Guerrillas. Also a small story on how shadow influenced Magic (for better or for worse), causing quite a stir.

Using Shadow Effectively
Possible strategies using shadow cards. Mentioned for BW aggro decks include Bad Moon, Glorius Anthem, and Crusade.

Cards that give other creatures shadow: Shadow Rift and Dauthi Embrace, both of which are usable with creatures that have an ability based on hitting the opponent (like Phage the Untouchable, Raven Guild Master, and poison creatures.

Bonus combo: Dauthi Cutthroat + Dauthi Trapper.

Stopping Shadow
How to deal with shadow? Pass up cards like CoP: Shadow, Maze of Shadows, and Shadowstorm in favor of more traditional methods to deal with creatures.

Favorite card and decklist
Looter il-Kor and Nether Traitor are featured in this Standard-legal deck: In the Shadows http://www.essentialmagic.com/Decks/View.asp?ID=501312

A look at the Comprehensive Rules for madness.

Spiral Madness!
An update as to what’s new for storm, morph and of course madness from Time Spiral.

Storm:
Empty the Warrens (a storm take on Goblin Offensive)
Ground Rift (the new Panic Attack)
Volcanic Awakening

Morph:
Brine Elemental
Fathom Seer (a morph creature/Gush)
Fledgling Mawcor
Fortune Thief (the new Ali from Cairo)
Liege of the Pit (throwback to Lord of the Pit)
Slipstream Serpent
Thelonite Hermit (cousin to Deranged Hermit)
Weathered Bodyguards (reminiscient of Veteran Bodyguard)

Madness:
Call to the Netherworld
Dark Withering
Gorgon Recluse (similar to Thicket Basilisk)
Nightshade Assassin
Psychotic Episode

Mental History
A look at how madness may have began (Guerrilla Tactics) and how it might have influenced the Onslaught cyclers with triggered abilities, like Slice and Dice.

Methods to Madness
How to use madness effectively, and some example discard outlets.
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Dream Halls
Masticore
Compulsion
Hypochondria
Mortiphobia
Narcissism
Pyromania

Still Crazy After All These Years
A look at how madness cards along with Wild Mongrel and Psychatog dominated Standard of their day, as well as Extended and Legacy even now.

Craziest Card and a Demented Decklist
Fiery Temper is featured in the deck here:
http://www.essentialmagic.com/Decks/View.asp?ID=495520

Special Thanks
To MovieWavs.com for the Star Wars Theme
Stanford.edu for providing the definition of ‘fair use’ in terms of parody (so I’m not violating any copyright issues). http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html#2

A look at the Comprehensive Rules for morph, including the brand new changes (described in detail in Mark Gottlieb’s article).

Time Spiral Update!
A look at upcoming cards with abilities covered in today’s and previous episodes.

Ignite Memories (a new storm card), Vesuvan Shapeshifter (a throwback to Vesuvan Doppelganger) and Coral Trickster (a decent creature with Twiddle tacked on).

History
Where the face-down/morph mechanic started (Illusionary Mask and Camouflage) and how it might have influenced Kamigawa flip cards and Ninjitsu.

Older Morph Cards
A look at the different types of morph creatures, divided into several categories:

Upgraders: Blistering Firecat, Grinning Demon, Krosan Cloudscraper, Disruptive Pitmage, Dwarven Blastminer, and Whipcorder

Sneakers: Dawning Purist, Riptide Entrancer, Serpentine Basilisk, Silent Specter, Skirk Commando and Soul Collector

Tricksters: Bane of the Living, Echo Tracer, Frontline Strategist, Nantuko Vigilante, and Skirk Marauder.

Bluffers: Crude Rampart, Wall of Deceit and a bonus combo of Scornful Egotist + Juxtapose

Tribals: Bloodstoke Howler, Boneknitter, a couple of Mistform creatures, Nameless One, Proteus Machine and Warbreak Trumpeter

Anti-Tribals: Fallen Cleric, Foothill Guide and Riptide Biologist

Assistants: Ixidor, Reality Sculptor, Dream Chisel, Aphetto Runecaster, Aven Farseer, Bonethorn Valesk, Primal Whisperer, Skirk Alarmist and Tribal Forcemage

Meta-morphosis
Some cards that will ruin a morph player’s day.
AEther Flash, AEther Storm, Lethal Vapors, Chalice of the Void, Crime//Punishment, Pernicious Deed, Pyroclasm, Wrath of God, Fatal Mutation, Nosy Goblin, and Tariff

Mighty Morphin’
How morph cards influenced the tournament scene, namely Standard when they were legal.

Favorite Card
Willbender, with a sample decklist.

Looking at the Comprehensive Rules of the ability, along with what spells actually count as ‘played’. Of special mention, interaction with Isochron Scepter, Panoptic Mirror and Eye of the Storm.

Time Spiral Update
Looking at known storm cards in the upcoming set.

History
A look back at the beginnings of storm and where it may have influenced other abilities.

Weathering the Storm
Some ways to maximize the potential of the storm mechanic.

Drawing many cards to play:
Recycle
Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Skullclamp

Playing the same spells multiple times:
Hurkyl’s Recall, Rebuild, Retract
Cloudstone Curio
Yawgmoth’s Will
Ill-Gotten Gains
Recall
Nostalgic Dreams
Enduring Renewal and ‘free creatures’ (Ornithopter, Kobolds, Cloud of Faeries, and a sacrificer.
Elves, Concordant Crossroads, Tangleroot, Aluren, Fecundity

Past Cards
A look at each storm card, including their possiblities as well as proven use in popular decks.

Possible uses for Sprouting Vines: Seismic Assault, Lightning Storm

The Power of Storm
How storm dominated The Vintage and Legacy World Championships held August 2006. Here’s a link to Ted Knutson’s article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/354

My Favorite!
Tendrils of Agony

Here’s a wacky ‘unpowered’ Vintage build using Cloudstone Curio, Kobolds and Tendrils of Agony for the win. http://www.essentialmagic.com/Decks/View.asp?ID=169335