Time Spiral focused on the past, and is laden with references to previous Magic: the Gathering sets.

Time Spiral is typical among the first sets of a Magic: the Gathering block in that the cards are sold in four different forms.

This design was achieved through keywords and mechanics that interact with time, as well as cards based on those in previous sets, to promote a sense of nostalgia.

The set size was then confirmed to be 301 cards, with 121 commons, 80 uncommons, 80 rares, and 20 basic lands.

[8] The confusion came about because Time Spiral was released with a 'sub-set', 121 timeshifted cards in addition to the 301-card basic set.

After the set officially went public, Rosewater said that Wizards of the Coast had released the apparently conflicting figures by accident, but ended up just as happy to have done so after seeing the speculation they fueled.

Designed by Bill Rose (lead designer), Matt Place, Mark Rosewater, and Paul Sottosanti, and developed by Devin Low (lead developer), Zvi Mowshowitz, Brian Schneider, Henry Stern, and Mike Turian, Planar Chaos was tasked with representing the present in a set focused on the cycle of time.

[10] The design team considered a number of ways to represent an alternate present, including the introduction of purple as a new color.

Some of these are instantly recognizable by veteran players as reprints of extremely famous and iconic cards, like Damnation being a black reprint of the white card Wrath of God, or Hedge Troll being a colorshifted version of Sedge Troll.

[12][3] These cards have normal rarity symbols as opposed to purple, and are considered a part of the expansion, not a separate sub-set.

However, Dominaria is not as he knows it: the stress of constant warfare and apocalypse (the Brothers' War, the Phyrexian invasion, and Karona's War), combined with mana-draining rifts created by the overlaying of Rath and Skyshroud (among other events across the multiverse, such as the near-destruction of Ulgrotha), have set off a chain reaction that has created ripples in the temporal fabric of the planes.

The unphasing of Shiv threatens to tear these rifts, destroying the plane of Dominaria, and in turn the entire multiverse.

Teferi, Jhoira, and Venser continue their battle to heal the time rifts that plague Dominaria.

She sets out to continue her mentor's work, and seals both the Zhalfirin and Yavimayan rifts, respectively losing Zhalfir proper and Multani in the process.

Once again in charge of her own actions, Jeska enters the Otarian rift to try to seal it with the help of both Venser and Radha.

Time Spiral reprised a number of keywords from pre-8th Edition sets, including buyback, echo, flanking, flashback, madness, morph, shadow, and storm.

The Time Spiral keywords of Suspend, Flash, and Split Second all returned in Planar Chaos, alongside the "timeshifted" mechanics of Echo, Flanking, Kicker, Madness, Morph, and Shadow.

Future Sight contains more keyword mechanics than any other Magic: The Gathering set ever printed, as of 2007[update].

Most directly, Future Sight included the "past-shifted" mechanics from Time Spiral of Echo, Flanking, Kicker, Madness, Morph, and Shadow.

Furthermore, Future Sight freely used all the keyword mechanics that debuted following 8th Edition (Bloodthirst, Convoke, Dredge, Graft, Hellbent, Scry, and Transmute).

[19] Future Sight also included five "alternate-shifted" mechanics that had previously appeared on cards in a non-keyword fashion.

These mechanics are variants on a past ability, intended to hint at possible variations that could appear in future sets:[20][21] Some cards of Future Sight have two keywords that together have a good synergy, like Marshaling Cry that has Cycling and Flashback, so that you can use Cycling and then play the card from the graveyard with Flashback.

Notable cards from Time Spiral include Gemstone Caverns,[23][24] Momentary Blink,[25] Serra Avenger,[26] and Sudden Shock.

[27] Time Spiral had a couple of notable cycles, including five totem artifacts that were references to past creatures, and a cycle of legendary creatures that were references to powerful characters in Dominaria taken from a point in their life before the character reached the peak of his or her power.

In Mark Rosewater's "State of Design 2007"[18] article, he goes on to explain reasons why the set was not as successful as they had hoped.

The most important reason was that the nostalgic theme left newer players feeling "out of the loop".