Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



120x90 Ad Space
For Rent!



BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Volkan's R/U suspend deck
May 15, 2007

Dear BMoor,

I was looking for some useful suspend cards and i found out,there are 59 cards in MTG with suspend ability or in combo with it.That's enough to build a deck by itself.
I picked the cheapest cards in suspend costs to turn it into a cheap/considerable as fast creature deck that's really unusual for izzet decks.

creature


3 Rift Elemental
4 Jhoira's Timebug
4 Keldon Halberdier

3 Errant Ephemeron
2 Shivan Sand-Mage
2 Deep-Sea Kraken

non-creature

4 Fury Charm
3 volcanic hammer
3 Rift Bolt
3 Ancestral Vision
2 Timecrafting

artifact

4 Izzet Signet // prismatic lens
3 lotus bloom

land

4 Shivan Reef
3 Izzet Boilerworks
7 mountain
6 island

The opening idea is to get Rift Elemental or Keldon Halberdier by turn 1 and Jhoira's Timebug by turn 2.That can be followed either with
Errant Ephemeron or an early Deep-Sea Kraken by turn 3.
Volcanic Hammer and Rift Bolt are for early creatures that can collapse my whole stand.
The rest are time counter accelarators.
At first,i'd built this deck in u/r/w just because of Dust of Moments but i decided to drop w to also to drop the mana issue.
I couldn't build a sideboard yet but some counter spells instead of direct damage cards can be handy agains control decks.Maybe whole sideboard should be concentrated against control decks cause the main deck is kinda aggro  that's so very vulnurable against  Molten Disaster or Wrath of God.
There is a tournament next mounth in Turkey.I want to join with this deck.I hope you can answer me within this time.

Volkan
 
Well, today is an unusual day in the Garage, isn't it?  Not only do I get to help an aspiring tournament player prepare for The Big Day, but I also get to add Turkey to the list of foreign countries where I have fans!  One of these days I'll have to start sticking pins in a map.
 
Anyway, let's get right down to business.  For this deck to take all comers in a high-scale event, we're going to have to go over this deck with a fine-tooth comb.  Is there anything in this deck that just feels... sub-optimal?  I will say right now that it's already a good deck, but we need it to be better than that.  All the cards here are playable, but you can't expect to win with a jack if your opponent has a deck full of queens.
 
The first red flag I see here is Lotus Bloom.  It looks good on the surface, but remember: it can't hit the board until turn four.  Which means it accelerates you to seven mana.  Yes, a Jhoira's Timebug could speed up the process, but if you're in a position to be able to power out suspended cards, then you likely are already set for mana or you'd rather be using that capability on suspended creatures or other business spells.  Plus, I don't see anything in this deck that really requires a burst of mana like that besides Timecrafting.
 
And Timecrafting is another card I want to pull.  You've already got Rift Elemental, Shivan Sand-Mage, Jhoira's Timebug, and Fury Charm to speed up the suspenders.  I think Timecrafting is surplus.  Yes, it's an X spell, but how often will you need to Timecraft for more than 2 time counters (the same amount Fury Carm and the Sand-Mage can remove)?  The only instance where this outperforms any of your other time counter tinkerers is if your opponent has a big nasty suspend spell you want to keep out of the game for a long time.  That relegates it to sideboard material.  If you really need more time counter shenanigans, just add more Shivan Sand-Mage.
 
So, what can you add in those slots?  Well, you mentioned a vulnerability to board sweepers like Wrath of God.  Quite frankly, I wouldn't wait until after sideboarding for an answer; I'd say a few choice counterspells in the maindeck could be a great boon.  But which ones?  Well, your deck is already prepared to get great mileage out of Delay.  You could also try the old reliables Mana Leak and/or Rune Snag.  And of course Cancel is the final word, but in a two-colro deck you might not want to leave two blue mana open.  Obviously no countermagic will save you from a Molten Disaster if the kicker cost is paid, but I think you'll find having an answer to nearly any type of spell at the ready can be useful.
 
Now, I dropped five cards, which means that countermagic can only fill 4 slots at most (unless you pick more than one countering card).  What else can you add?  Okay, suggestion time.  The first card that came to mind was Electrolyze-- solid burn, plus an extra card.  It'd be a fine addition, but you do already have both card draw and burn, so I'll throw out some more ideas. 
 
My next consideration was Sage of Epityr.  Yes, it's a dinky little 1/1 with a little card filtering ability, but it makes sense for two reasons.  One, you're playing you're game three turns in advance, meaning you're going to need a warm body on the table that actually HITS the table on turn one as opposed to coming down on turn five or six.  And also, if you're counting on future turns, it could help to be able to exercise some control over what you're going to draw.  Not the most exciting card, but it might fit in. 
 
Another contender would be Paradox Haze-- now THAT would really hit fast forward on this deck.  Of course, I did drop Timecrafting on the grounds that you had enough accelerants, but the Haze is arguably better than the Timecrafting.
 
Then I thought of Infiltrator il-Kor.  You can always use more aggressive suspend creatures, right?  And this may be beter than Keldon Halberdier because while the Halberdier is a 4/1, this guy has shadow, meaning his 3-power will actually get dealt to the oppoent much more often.  Then again, the Halberdier does cost less to suspend, and cna kill a good deal of creatures in combat.
 
Finally, there's Haze of Rage.  Haze of Rage is excellent in a suspend deck for two reasons: suspend creatures count as being played towards storm the turn they hit play (not the turn you suspend them) and they always have haste when they come into play.  With all your "time management", it shouldn't be too hard to get two creatures to suspend into play on teh same turn, right?  Then you play Haze of Rage, to give them both a minimum of +3/+0 for their fist attack.  And of course you have the option of buying it back, and maybe playing it again for an even higher storm count?
 
Well, you've got a month until that tournament, Volkan.  I purposely let you cut in line at the Garage to make sure you'd have time for playtesting, so you could figure out which option you feel gives you the most power, the most versatility, and the most chance of winning that tournament.  Go forth and make me proud!
 
~BMoor



 

Copyright© 1998-2007 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.