Suspend in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on September 30, 2025

Ancestral Vision (Iconic Masters) | Illustration by John Avon

Magic has plenty of keywords and mechanics that create quite the learning curve for new players. I remember constantly grabbing cards I’d read half a dozen times already to refresh myself on just what the heck dredge or ninjutsu was, and I know suspend was one of those.

Suspend is a mechanic like no other in Magic. It’s kind of like an investment in your future self in each game. Today I go into detail on what suspend is, what sets and cards you can find it in, and how it works in terms of responses, the stack, and counterspells, as well as how you can make it work over time for you and your deck.

Let’s get started!

How Does Suspend Work?

Ancestral Recall (Vintage Masters) | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

Suspend is a keyword ability in Magic that allows you to pay a specific mana cost and exile a card with a number of time counters on it. You remove one of these counters from the card at the beginning of your upkeep and then cast it without paying its mana cost when the last counter is removed.

Some suspend cards have regular mana values with the suspend mechanic as an alternative cost while others can only be cast after you suspend it. Suspend cards often have lower costs to suspend then they would otherwise have through their regular casting costs to balance the downside of waiting to cast it.

History of Suspend

Suspend was a mechanic first introduced in Time Spiral in 2006 and is one of the rarer keywords to see on Magic cards. It’s mostly included in compilation and reprint sets as well as preconstructed decks like Modern Masters, Time Spiral Remastered, and Strixhaven Commander.

There were 28 unique cards with suspend originally released in Time Spiral, many of which are some of the most powerful or famous cards with the keyword. Cards like Ancestral Vision, Lotus Bloom, and Search for Tomorrow to name just a few.

Many cards printed with suspend were featured in Doctor Who, which included cards like The Tenth Doctor, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, and The Parting of the Ways. Thankfully, suspend is one of those mechanics that Wizards has sprinkled in other products as well, including Standard in Taigam, Master Opportunist, and it's pretty sweet.

What Colors Is Suspend Primarily In?

Suspend is pretty well distributed among the colors. It is telling that all the multicolor spells with suspend have at least red or blue and there is some availability in green, white, black, and colorless.

Is Suspend Evergreen?

Knight of Old Benalia | Illustration by Dan Scott

No, suspend is not evergreen. Evergreen mechanics and keywords are common things like trample, indestructible, and vigilance, etc. These are core to Magic gameplay and balance, and you can expect to see them in every set release.

Suspend is instead reserved for time-altering cards, preconstructed EDH decks, sets where time is a crucial theme, and compilation or reprint sets like Modern Horizons 2.

Do Suspended Cards Have a Mana Value?

Suspended cards sometimes have no mana cost which means their mana value is zero. The suspend cost is not their mana value. Their casting cost is also zero when you play them after their suspend timer is up. This is important to know because it interacts with cards that care about card’s mana costs including discover and cascade.

If you play something like Chimil, the Inner Sun, you could cascade down into a 0 mana-value spell like Ancestral Vision and draw three cards. Many iterations of Living End decks are built off of suspend, including Temur () Cascade decks that get multiple instances of Crashing Footfalls off early on with this unique interaction.

When Can You Suspend in Magic?

Only cards that can be played at sorcery speed have the suspend keyword, which means you can only suspend at sorcery speed. You can’t suspend on your opponent’s end step (a.k.a. instant speed) to then immediately remove a time counter at your upcoming upkeep. There are a few cards that grant suspend at instant speed, like Suspend, but none with it inherently.

Can You Respond to Suspend?

You can only respond to suspended cards when they’re coming out of exile and being cast for free. You can’t respond to a card being suspended since it isn’t being cast and doesn’t go onto the stack. No priority is passed so you have no chance to respond.

Can You Target Suspended Cards?

Suspended cards are in exile, which means they’re outside the game and can’t be targeted without some specific mechanic that says you can. Usually, mechanics that target cards outside of the game refer to your sideboard or cards exiled by the same spell like with Karn, Scion of Urza.

What Are Some Ways to Remove Suspend (Time) Counters?

Certain effects remove counters from cards which effectively accelerates you ahead one turn in terms of casting those suspend cards.

Clockspinning will do just this and even give you the option of buying it back and getting a suspended card out two whole turns early. Deep-Sea Kraken removes suspend counters from itself whenever an opponent casts a spell, which you may think is awesome until you realize it comes in with nine counters total. Fury Charm has an option to remove time counters from a permanent or suspended card. This is great if you have something like Ancestral Vision or Riftwing Cloudskate to get out on turn 2 or 3.

Greater Gargadon is sort of like Deep-Sea Kraken in that it comes in with a lot of time counters, but it can get ramped out much quicker if you have fodder to sacrifice. Rift Elemental has an activated ability for that removes a time counter from a permanent or suspended card you own. Jhoira's Timebug is a permanent option if you’re running a lot of suspend cards in your Commander deck. It can effectively half the time counters on the cards. Timecrafting is also a very potent effect.

Can You Proliferate Suspend Counters?

No, while the proliferate mechanic only hits counters on permanents, there are some options to get more time counters on cards. If you look to do this, then your options are Shivan Sand-Mage, Suspend, Venser's Diffusion, Timebender and Timecrafting.

How Can You Mess with or Counteract Suspended Cards?

A strategy revolving around adding time counters or delaying your opponent’s suspended spells is just about as niche and specific as you can get, which makes it much more of a sideboard plan. Cards like Timebender disrupt opponent’s spells that you know will be suspended early just isn’t something you can main deck unless you’re drafting something like Time Spiral Remastered.

Do You Have to Cast Suspend Cards?

Suspend | Illustration by Lake Hurwitz

No, you no longer need to cast a suspended card when it's final time counter is removed.

Previous rules did require the card to be cast, but with Murders at Karlov Manor in February 2024, this was updated to be an option.

There are very infrequent reasons to not cast Mox Tantalite, but it is an option like printed on Charnel Serenade.

Can You Attack Right Away with an “Unsuspended” Creature?

You sure can attack with a creature coming out of suspension! Part of suspend is letting you access the card immediately after the time counters are all removed. Creatures that have been suspended and are then played gain haste when they enter the battlefield according to the Comprehensive Rules section 706.62a.

Does Cascade Work with Suspend?

Sol Talisman | Illustration by Volkan Baga

Cascade does work with suspend, which makes it one of the most unique and fun mechanics in MTG. You still cast these cards even if you do not pay the mana value on the card (if there is one), which means the cascade mechanic still fires off.

There are a few combos and special interactions that makes this mechanic pair so powerful, and even some powerful Modern decks that you might have some interest in. More on this later!

When Do You Choose the Targets for a Suspend Card?

The targets for a suspended spell are chosen when the card is cast after the time counters have been removed. This is important because if you were to choose the targets for spells when you suspended them, those creatures/players/spells may not be legal targets X turns later when the spell is cast and it would just fizzle.

Is Suspend “Cast from Exile?”

Yes, suspended cards are played from exile when they’re done being suspended. They remain in exile while their time counters are removed. When all of the counters are finally removed and the card is being cast, it’s still in exile right up until it’s put into the stack. For practical purposes, a suspend card is not cast from your hand, graveyard, or anywhere else.

What's the Difference Between Plot and Suspend?

Plot differs from suspend in that it does not deal with time counters. So if we look at rhinos for example, Railway Brawler does get a small discount in cost and is great for double spelling a future turn. Crashing Footfalls is restricted to how fast you can remove time counters, and would be very difficult to cast during a postcombat main phase, unlike the Brawler. Of course, you'd want both of these cards in the same deck and a way to grant haste since neither card on it's own results in a hasty rhino.

Is Suspend Face-Up or Face-Down?

Timebender | Illustration by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Suspend is a face-up mechanic. The list of cards in exile is available to all players unless explicitly mentioned otherwise. The suspend card is revealed when put into exile and players can respond to the time counter removal trigger every upkeep.

This is very important because if a player isn’t able to see a card being suspended, they’re at its mercy when it comes out at an unknown time with unknown consequences. This would be too powerful and hard to balance.

Can You Stifle Suspend? How Can You Counter It?

Stifle can stop the final time counter removal of a suspended card. This would leave the card in exile forever without a time counter to remove. Since suspend is cast for free when the last counter is removed, it would never give the player the option to be cast if that trigger is missed. Very powerful.

Can I Choose the Order in Which Suspend Cards Are Cast?

Yes, as the active player, if you have two or more suspended cards that have their last time counters removed at the same upkeep, you choose the order in which they go onto the stack.

Is Suspend Good?

Suspend is a powerful mechanic and is specifically balanced with the knowledge that the card is publicly shown with a timer until it’s revealed. This downside for the casting player results in the cards being extremely powerful for their invested mana cost. These cards are even stronger if they’re abused and cast for free with the use of the cascade mechanic or other combos.

Best Suspend Cards

#7. Delay

Delay is a great rate for an unconditional counterspell. The only way an opponent gets their spell back is to wait three turns which is forever in most games, and irrelevant if they're eliminated.

#6. Search for Tomorrow

Search for Tomorrow takes the turns 1-3 that some decks use to ramp, and makes it more explosive on turn three, and the best part is, you learn more information about what your opponent is trying to do. This helps multicolor decks get the best basic land, rather than having to guess on turn one. That and the land comes into play untapped, so it's essentially Rampant Growth for less mana.

#5. Profane Tutor

One of the things I dislike the most about tutors is not having the mana to cast both the tutor spell and the one I search for, but Profane Tutor circumvents this neatly. So as long as you're not too far behind, this tutor is excellent.

#4. Living End

Living End is one of the most infamous suspend cards ever printed and carries some of the highest amount of power in a non-power card. It was even the flagship card in some successful Modern decks earlier in Magic’s history. The strategies revolved around milling powerful creatures into your graveyard while Living End slowly ticks down, spelling doom for your opponents.

#3. Inevitable Betrayal

Put Inevitable Betrayal into play and watch your opponent sweat. Maybe you bait them into attacking you, which is a natural reaction of a Magic player who has their cards used against them. Three mana to cheat into play one of your own creatures from the library to the battlefield would be excellent, but taking that creature from your opponent is incredibly slimy yet satisfying.

#2. Crashing Footfalls

Crashing Footfalls is one of the best suspend cards printed in Modern Horizons and is an incredible piece for some Modern cascade decks.

#1. Ancestral Vision

Ancestral Vision is an incredibly potent mimic of Ancestral Recall that offers the same trade of cards for mana with the drawback of waiting a few turns. This downside has proven to be too weak for the formats it’s legal in, but it’s still one of the best suspend cards.

Decklist: Jhoira of the Ghitu Commander Deck

Jhoira of the Ghitu | Illustration by Kev Walker

Jhoira of the Ghitu has expensive taste but puts things on layaway and pays a cheap price for them. You give your opponent four turns or less to come up with answers to your massive game-ending cards like Cresting Mosasaurus, Rise of the Eldrazi, and Emrakul, the World Anew.

Mix in some board wipes that don't bother you because your cards are suspended, and some counter manipulators and extra turn cards that let you throw off everyone else's timing and you're in for some chaotic action.

Time's Up

Search for Tomorrow (Time Spiral Remastered) | Illustration by Greg Staples

That’s everything you could possibly need to know about the suspend mechanic. I really like the mechanic if I can suspend something early on. It makes me feel safe knowing I have some good stuff coming my way and I can get some value by biding my time.

Did this make you want to look up historic spells? Do you like suspend as a keyword? Would you want it to go evergreen? Let me know down in the comments or over in our Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, take breaks, and stay healthy!