Sand Timer for Arena Planning Phase

[Chicken the God]

So , obviously, an arena game has the capicity to be long and I've been thinking about trying a timer during the planning phase. In my opinion, this is one of the most strategic part of MW and I think it would be cool to limit both players time to 2-3 minutes with a wooden sand clock.

Now I know tornement games have time limits, but I'm not really into ending a game early based on time alone, but this could be a way of jointly speeding up both players during that phase. In the end, I'd rather have a long good-game then a bad short one.

Now, some rounds players don't need anywhere close to 2-3 minutes in that phase, but sometimes I find myself slowish in that phase, considering my play style. Now, I'm not fully invested in timing all aspects of the game with, say, a chess clock, not to mention all the other ways a chess clock doesn't really work in MW.

PLUS a wooden sand timer is cool but I'm still deciding which sand-timer to buy. I'll test it out with a stop-watch at 1st. In the end, I'll find a sand-piece that I feel will add both flavor and pragmatism to my game.

Anybody else do something like this? Or maybe just have opinions on the topic? Discuss!

[Tyrnan]

I used this technique when playing casually for the exact reasons you mentioned (although I did not have a cool wooden sand timer but a simple timer app on a tablet). And I found it to be really helpful, because I tend to suffer from Analysis Paralysis and the clock really helped me to stay focused. Meamwhile I'm using it less often and I can say that it helped me to generally improve my skills to plan in a timely manner. So i can only recommend using this if you play with an opponent that also agrees to use it.