Summary
Time waits for no one inMagic: The Gathering, unless, of course, you choose to make it wait. Certain spells in Magic have a unique keyword called suspend, which acts as an alternate casting cost, often times cheaper than its regular one, at the expense of having to wait a few extra turns to finish casting it.
This ability has resulted in a few powerful cards coming to the game, that even with the added cost of time can turn the tide in a game. If you’re looking for impactful cards but don’t mind waiting a bit for them to resolve, you can’t go wrong with these.
10Resurgent Belief
Part of a series of cards with suspend and no actual casting cost, Resurgent Belief can’t actually be cast through normal means. You have to either cascade into it, a common approach for many deck builders, or suspend it.
Either way you cast it, once it resolves Resurgent Belief returns all your enchantments from the graveyard back to the battlefield. While a little more narrow than other suspend cards, in the right deck you can go from being wildly behind to back on top for just two mana and two turns.
9Sol Talisman
Much like the coveted Sol Ring, Sol Talisman taps to add two mana to your mana pool. As another suspend card with no casting cost, you have no choice to either wait the three turns to cast it or to cascade into it. It only costs one generic to suspend it though, mirroring Sol Ring’s cost and guaranteeing you’ll be able to suspend it on your first turn.
You won’tgain access to the extra manaSol Talisman provides until turn four, but when it does, you may have at least six mana available to you, assuming you hit your land drops and didn’t play any other mana artifacts, giving you a huge mid-game advantage over your opponents.
8Search For Tomorrow
On its own, Search for Tomorrow is a kinda weak ramp card. For three mana you get to search your library for a basic land and put it into play. It enters tapped, which is nice, but only gets you a basic.
Suspending it is where the real power is. For just one green mana you get to suspend it with two time counters on it. Once it finally resolves on your turn three, it’ll give you an extra land, giving you at least four mana to play your bigger spells earlier.
7Inspiring Refrain
If you want an explosive turn later in the game, you may’t go wrong with Inspiring Refrain. You can cast it for five mana or suspend it for just two, putting three time counters on it and saving it for later. Once it resolves, you add one red mana for each card in an opponent’s hand, that mana sticks around through phases until the end of the turn, and then Inspiring Refrain resuspends itself with another three time counters, letting you cast it again later.
Inspiring Refrain is a card that benefits greatly from any cards that let you accelerate your suspend cards out faster (all suspend cards do, but especially Inspiring Refrain)like The Tenth Doctoror Clockspinning since you just get to resuspend the card again.
6Living End
So powerful that it has an entire deck archetype designed around it, Living End is an incredibly impactful card that can quickly secure a win. When it resolves, all players exile all creatures from their graveyards, sacrificing all the creatures they have in play, and then putting all creatures exiled from their graveyard and putting them all back into play.
The power behind Living End comes from building your deck around putting as many creatures in your graveyard as possible, while your opponents might only have a few. Once Living End resolves you will have a massive board state while your opponents likely won’t have much in play.
5Hypergenesis
Similar to Living End comes Hypergenesis, a card that has had entire decks built around getting cards into play quickly to overwhelm your opponents. When Hypergenesis resolves each player gets to put an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land from their hand into play.
Then, you repeat it until no one puts a card onto the battlefield. While your opponents are very likely to take advantage of this as well, you can jam all sorts ofpowerful spells in your deck like the Eldrazi Titansor a Griselbrand to make the battlefield decidedly one-sided.
4Wheel Of Fate
Drawing cards is important in Magic and if you’re able to disrupt your opponent while you’re at it you might as well. Wheel of Fate costs only two mana to suspend it with four time counters, putting a clock on your opponents cards.
Once the last time counter falls off, Wheel of Fate has each player discard all cards in their hands and then draws seven more. You can use Wheel of Fate to punish your opponents with cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to damage them for each card they draw, or to turn it into a pure discard spell with the planeswalker Narset, Parter of Veils since she prevents your opponents from drawing more than one card each turn.
3Profane Tutor
Tutors are a vital component to Magic, especially in Commander. Being able to go find any card from your deck whenever you want instead of waiting to draw it can help you assemble the pieces to a game-winning play.
Being able to set up an all but guaranteed tutor in the future is both great and a bit of a risk but sets you up to get ready for powerful plays. Profane Tutor lets you search your library for a card and put it into your hand. Your opponents can always counter Profane Tutor, but if they do, you can feel safer casting whatever other spells you have in hand, helping to make it a win for you either way.
2Inevitable Betrayal
A card that is as strong as the strongest creature in your opponent’s deck, Inevitable Betrayal steals one of your opponent’s creatures for your own use. When it resolves, you get to pick an opponent and dig through their library until you find a creature you want and you put that card directly into play on the battlefield under your control.
Since it costs three mana and suspends with three time counters, you generally won’t be able to cast Inevitable Betrayal until turn six in most cases, but that’s still fine depending on which card you get from your opponent.
1Ancestral Vision
Drawing cards is always good, and Ancestral Vision helps you get there after a few turns. For just one blue mana you can suspend this card with four time counters on it. During that time you can be a little more aggressive with your removal or counter spells, since once turn five rolls around, you’re drawing at least four cards that turn.
Ensuring that you have a few extra cards coming up in the near future is a great way to keep yourself in the game, especially when your opponents are running low on cards in hand, you get to start the turn with a fresh grip of cards.
