Time-Tinker Tips and Tricks Guide – Best Cards, Treasures, Equipment!

Time-Tinker is one of the monster hunters you will get to choose from in the new Monster Hunt mode. We’ll be listing all of the tips and tricks, best treasures and equipment, for you to make your way through some fierce beasts on your way to the final nemesis and then to Hagatha!

Monster Hunt is very similar to the Dungeon Run from Kobolds and Catacombs. So if you enjoyed that, then you will very likely have a good time with this single-player roguelike mode.

Time-Tinker (Toki) Info: Hero Power, Starting Deck

You might recognize Toki, Time-Tinker as one of the Mage legendaries from The Witchwood expansion. Toki’s starting deck combines some classic Mage cards with a bit of randomness. You start with a single copy of the following cards:

• Arcane Missiles
• Mana Wyrm
• Mad Bomber
• Primordial Glyph
• Shimmering Tempest
• Unstable Portal
• Spellslinger
• Tinkmaster Overspark
• Water Elemental
• Blingtron 3000

The Time-Tinker’s Hero Power is Temporal Loop (0 Mana): Start your turn over. It’s basically a large Control-Z you can use to undo any misplays. More importantly, however, is that it lets you re-roll any of the random-effect cards you’ve played in a turn. Did you cast Arcane Missiles, but the targets you wanted to hit are still alive and well? Don’t worry, Toki’s got your back. Just hop back in time and try again! Except for which cards you draw – those are in a specific order and will not change – you can try to up your luck with anything, from Discover to randomly summoned minions.

Below you can see what the Hero Power looks like when you use it.

Time-Tinker (Toki) Card Choices

Toki’s card buckets consist of similar tools as Mage’s buckets in the Kobolds and Catacombs Dungeon Run, although there are a few new ones too:

• Magical Friends: All that synergizes well with spells. Think good-old Mana Wyrm, but also Arcane Giants and Spiteful Summoner can be found in this bucket.
• Elementalist: The Elementals are calling from the bottom of this bucket. The mighty Pyros, Tar Creeper and Blazecaller are eager to show their power!
• Mechanical: Mech Mage might be well past its glory days on Ladder, in the Monster Hunt Toki calls upon her rusty friends to fight for the board. From Goblin Blast Mage to Sneed’s Old Shredder, all can’t wait to get those gears running.
• Knowledge: You don’t become a Time-Tinker without studying thoroughly. And what do you learn? Well, according to this bucket, drawing cards. Loot Hoarder, Novice Engineer and even a Gadgetzan Auctioneer are some of the cards found here.
• BOOM!: Big explosions everywhere! If you’re aiming for a slower deck, consider this bucket. With Flamestrike, Blizzard and Dragoncaller Alana there’s no board intimidating enough.
• Wild Magic: With a Hero Power designed to give you a second chance, a bit of randomness can’t hurt. Deck of Wonders, Cabalist’s Tome and Unstable Portal are just a few of the cards you can try your luck with.
• Frosty: It’s probably not a huge shock, but if you’re looking for Freeze-effects this bucket of ice challenges you to take it. Breath of Syndragosa, Frost Nova and Blizzard, all is ready for the next cool game.

Monster Hunter Guides

Learn more about the Monster Hunt and the rest of the Monster Hunters with our in-depth guides!

• Full Monster Hunt Guide: Bosses and Treasure List
• Houndmaster Tips and Tricks Monster Hunt Guide
• Time-Tinker Tips and Tricks Monster Hunt Guide
• Tracker Tips and Tricks Monster Hunt Guide
• Cannoneer Tips and Tricks Monster Hunt Guide

Time-Tinker (Toki) Best Treasures, Equipment

Aside from the ‘neutral’ Passives and Treasures Toki can choose from, she has a couple that are unique to her character.

• Stroke of Midnight – 2 Mana Spell: Echo. Destroy a random enemy minion.
  An incredibly powerful removal tool. If your opponent all of a sudden generated a menacing board (we’re looking at you, Face Collector), Stroke of Midnight is a fantastic tool to clean it up. Don’t get too greedy with the card though; using it to extend your board lead might be an even stronger play, depending on the boss you’re facing.
• Gattling Gunner – 4 Mana 5/3 minion: Whenever you play a card, deal damage equal to its Cost to a random enemy minion.
  A less reliable removal tool than Stroke of Midnight, but comes with the upside that this card can push damage himself once his effect has removed the most menacing minions of the opposing boss.
• Clockwork Assistant – 1 Mana 1/1 minion: Has +1/+1 for each spell you’ve cast this game.
  Somewhat reminiscent of the Dungeon Run’s Loyal Sidekick, this helpful bot has the potential to be a large minion for a very low price. An upside to the Clockwork Assistant is that it continues to grow while it’s on board, posing a big thread.
• Rewind – Passive: When your hero dies, restart the game and remove this from your Dungeon Deck.
  If you thought Toki’s Hero Power was the only big ‘undo’ button in her Monster Hunt, you made a grievous error. Rewind gives you a second chance at an opponent. Did you not account for a specific card, or were your draws just that unlucky? Don’t worry, try it one more time. Just once, though.

Time-Tinker (Toki) Tips and Tricks

Hero Power – Temporal Loop

It takes a while before you get accustomed to Toki’s play style. While many turns will go like any game you’d play as Mage,  it gets tricky when there’s randomness involved. Although you’re not likely to calculate the exact odds of all the RNG cards you’ve played, it is crucial to think hard on the turn that has just passed. How good was it, and what could’ve gone better? More importantly: If you reset the turn and let the dice roll again, what can go worse? Using Toki’s Hero Power is fun and games for a while, but replaying entire turns that have little impact quickly becomes.. eh.. repetitive. Be mindful of that if you want to progress with decent speed through the Monster Hunt.

Building a deck

Much like with most Dungeon Run and Monster Hunt decks, opting for a Midrange strategy is the way to go. Trying to take control over the board from turn 1 might be difficult against some opponents, but it’s rarely impossible when the right choices have been made prior to the encounter. It might be counter-intuitive for a class so rich in spells, but the fight for board control with most opponents happens through sheer minion pressure. Pick up a Blizzard, Volcanic Potion and maybe a Flamestrike along the way, but don’t go overboard and create a Big Spell Mage deck. Similarly, targeted removal like Polymorph is good as a one-of, but it’s an expensive tool.

The same balance between cost and pay-off should be kept in mind when picking random effects. Yes, a Yogg-Saron can be hilarious (especially when you can play him twice), but it’s rarely going to do much of significance. Cards like Deck of Wonders and Cabalist’s Tome have the same footnote, though the latter one of those two can be justified if all the other options are downright horrible. On the contrary, Discover cards like Primordial Glyph and Ethereal Conjurer can be of great value. Their ‘controlled’ randomness scales massively with Toki’s Hero Power.