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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
U/B Suspend deck
August 20, 2007

From August 8th through 18th, the Pojo webmasters were out for summer
inventory, and so there were no updates to the site. I worked on this deck in the interim, though.

My name is Matt and my Deck was supposed to be a U/B Suspend Deck but
it is losing to too many aggro and control decks please help me in anyway
possible thx.

7x Islands
6x Swamp
4x Dreadship Reef
2x Zoetic Cavern
3x Terramorphic Expanse
4x Paradox Haze
4x Clock Spinning
1x Careful Consideration
2x Cancel
2x Venser's Diffusion
1x Leaden Fists
4x Infiltrator il-Kor
4x Looter il-kor
1x Ophidian Eye
2x Drifter il-dal
1x Walk the Aeons
1x Whispers of the Muse
1x Nihilith
1x Corpulent
Corpse
3x Mindstab
2x Deadly Grub
1x Twisted abomination
1x Haunting Hymn
3x Ichor Slick
2x Augur Skulls
2x Call to the netherworld
1x Sengir Autocrat
1x Death rattle

Thanks again in advance for any help possible

____________________________________


Well, this is a new one. I've see plenty of U/R suspend decks, but
this is the first U/B one! I didn't think Black got all that many
suspend cards...

...and I was right. I checked, and there's only eight black cards
with suspend. Black in general doesn't really care about time
counters; it's more interested in getting its cards now. But the
suspenders it does have are pretty good, so let's make this deck work.

As it stands, I have to say this deck still looks awfully "shoebox".
You've got 4 each of Paradox Haze and Clockspinning, which is a step
in the right direction, but everything else is all over the map. One
Ophidian Eye, one Leaden Fists, one Walk the AEons, one Sengir
Autocrat? You know, I don't do this often, but I think to really
make this deck hum, we need to start from stratch. Build it right from the
ground up!

To start, we'll keep the Paradox
Haze and Clockspinng, and we'll also
add in a few Timebender for added temporal manipulation (and because Morph creatures make good bluffs).

+4 Paradox Haze
+4 Clockspinning
+3 Timebender

Next, we'll take the best suspend cards we can find from both black
and blue. We'll start with black:

+4 Nihilith
+4 Corpulent Corpse
+3 Phthsis
+2 Mindstab
+2 Curse of the Cabal

The two Fear creatures are the real heavy hitters here--
Corpulent Corpse for being a "one-drop", and Nihilith for being able to
accelerate out as your opponent's creatures die. Phthsis and Curse
of the Cabal will help that happen; with even one Paradox Haze out, your
opponent will have to sacrifice something every turn to keep the Curse
suspended. And Phthsis (pronounced "TIE-sis") will at the very
Least make your opponent think twice before playing any big creatures to the
board.

Mindstab also suspends on turn one, but isn't a four-of here because
your opponent can usually plan around it, by either playing out their
hand or holding onto extra lands.


Next, the best of the blue:

+4 Riftwing Cloudskate
+4 Ancestral Visions
+3 Deep-Sea Kraken

The Cloudskate may not look like much, but adding an attacking creature to your side of the board while removing one from your opponent's side is a strong advantage, as well as an answer to artifacts and enchantments. The Visions are just good card draw, and the Kraken, like the Phthsis, encourages your opponent to think twice before playing
spells. Being a 6/6 unblockable creature doesn't hurt, either.

That brings us up to 26 spells. We can make room for some more. And since most of your spells will be on layaway during your first three or four turns, the rest of your deck should be cheap controlling cards, or as the pros call it, "defensive deck speed". The obvious
example would be Mana Tithe, which allows you to start countering your opponent's spells as early as turn 1. Mana Tithe is white, unfortunately, but we'll find something just as good.

In blue, the best options seem to be Piracy Charm, Sage of Epityr,
and Delay (and it helps that a Clockspinning could help to further
delay a Delayed spell). In black, Slithering Shade, Feast of Flesh, and
Terror are the best options. You'll definitely want a way to kill
creatures and/or counter spells that come down early, and a few early
blockers can't hurt either. Add any of the cards I just listed, up
to a total of ten cards. That'll give you 36 spells, with room for 24
lands. The lands you've already got look fine, though I'd add the
fourth

Terramorphic Exanse and maybe a Dimir Aquaduct as well.

That ought to make for an excellent U/B suspend deck, Matt. I hope
you like how it came out, and I hope it gives you better luck than
your current build!

~BMoor