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Outside of when the mechanic was Standard legal, cards bearing the Suspend keyword haven’t fared well—particularly in fast paced formats like Modern. Whatever advantage might be on offer is vastly outweighed by the time lost waiting for it to materialize. I wanted to try and design a deck that can capitalize on the payoffs of suspend cards without playing the waiting game.
Here’s what I’ve come up with; it was fun to build and when it works it’s rather enjoyable to play!
Simple stuff. Everything is either or colorless, so basic Mountains are all we really need.
Now there is a case to be made regarding the inclusion of fetches, but I opted to forego them in favor of crippling the opponent’s mana production (and to keep this very budget friendly). We run a full playset of Blood Moon in lieu of the aforementioned fetchlands as it has zero effect on us but will be potentially devastating to the opposing player. Modern is historically rife with non basic lands, so hobbling the opposition is the way to go.
We not only want to speed things up on our end, but also try and slow our opponent down as well. The spells cited below don’t do anything for us in particular but they do hinder our opponent’s designs, so you could say we’re buying some time.
•Lightning Bolt will zap most early game creatures played for any useful abilities they may have, slowing down opposing strategies.
•Rift Bolt is basically another 2 Lightning Bolts for us since we have the means to make them immediate. One sideways artifact creature and our opponent won’t be able to tell the difference.
•Spellskite is another No brainer. Anything we can’t electrocute we can redirect to this selfless hero.
In order to perform as needed, the deck needs cards falling into one of two categories: Enablers and Payoffs. As addressed above, cards bearing the suspend keyword usually have a decent upside yet underperform owing to the time lost in waiting for the payoff. Our enabler subset of cards are those which either speed up or simply melt away those time counters responsible for making us wait.
Read: we want instant gratification, and we want it now. Let’s detail the cards that allow us to circumvent the suspend mechanic below.
•Rift Elemental is a fine one drop as it allows us immediate access to a method of hastening a suspended card’s resolution. We don’t need to become overly attached to the little guy either, since we have multiple different means to achieve the same thing. So the fact it gets a +2/+0 buff each time we use its ability can be capitalized on by attacking with it to take out some of the opponent’s fodder.
•Jhoira's Timebug makes for a great Turn 2 play, setting up the following turn’s option to use its ability to whittle down time counters. Special thanks to user Coughlincohen for clarifying a rule related misinterpretation regarding this little guy.
•Timecrafting operates much like when you pay extra for the expedited shipping. It’ll cost you, but if you absolutely have to have it right away then this is how to do it. If the mana is available to end the game immediately, then that’s the correct decision.
•Fury Charm is perhaps the best support spell in this deck. An array of options permits us to destroy a foreboding artifact; grant one of our larger creatures +1/+1 and Trample; or more often than not we’ll be choosing to remove—not one—but two time counters from one of our suspended spells!
Remember: it’s a gentle, controlled squeeze and not a forceful pull.
Having enumerated on the different ways to drastically reduce or outright remove time counters, let’s discuss how best to take advantage of this.
•Gargadon is a little smaller than his older brother, but is a better fit. For two measly, stinkin’ mana we get a 7/5…that’ll come into play 4 turns later. That would otherwise be rather poor, but with a Fury Charm and two extra mana dumped into a Timecrafting or maybe two Jhoira’s Timebugs in play, that becomes a one-turn-or-less 7/5 Trampler. Not too shabby!
•Boros Reckoner presents a perfect target for Shivan Meteor. Suspend it for , follow up with a Fury Charm and target the Minotaur. That’s enough damage to obliterate almost any creature in Modern, or more pointedly that’s almost 3/4 of your opponent’s life force stamped out in one play.
•Cast Rift Elemental and/or Jhoira's Timebug in preparation for our suspend spells.
•Cast Boros Reckoner to create a viable target for massive incoming damage.
•Cast Shivan Meteor and/or Gargadon, removing their associated time counters with Fury Charm, Timecrafting or one of the creatures mentioned at the outset.
•Pithing Needle can help aid us in the fight against specific problematic abilities.
•Surgical Extraction ensures detrimental spells are removed from being a threat.
•Relic of Progenitus reduces the effectiveness of Reanimation decks.
•Apostle's Blessing can be used to augment our defensive capabilities, but be wary you don’t lock yourself out of being able to interact with the card that turn if necessary.
•Dismember for quick and effective creature removal that skirts around potential obstacles like indestructible.
”So keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, buying out the opportune time for yourselves…”
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Casual
98% Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 2 years |
| Last updated | 2 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 14 - 7 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 6 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.80 |
| Folders | Cool Modern Decks, Modern, Cool |
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