4 Keldon Halberdier
3 Errant Ephemeron
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Burning Wish
4 Pentad Prism
4 Rift Bolt
4 Seething Song
3 Sway of the Stars
2 Decree of Annihilation
10 Mountain
8 Island
4 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
SIDEBOARD:
1 Sway of the Stars
1 Decree of Annihilation
1 Exhaustion
1 Compulsive Research
4 Pyroclasm
1 Mana Geyser
1 Volcanic Hammer
1 Slice and Dice
1 Seize the Day
1 Pillage
1 Overmaster
1 Lava Spike |
  Sway
of Annihilation.
Description of deck by it's author
(quoted):
As anyone with a knack for describing things
in the dullest way imaginable will tell you, Magic is a game of resource
management. While I still can't understand why no one mentions this in
the Magic: The Gathering promotional materials, it is undeniably true.
Once you have a friend and a deck, let the resource managing begin! The
suspend cards just give you another resource to manage: time. For an
inveterate procrastinator (and incorrigible thesaurus user) like me,
time is the most easily mismanaged resource.
To give you an idea of how a timeline can be mangled,
last week I wrote about Dom Camus' Greater Gargadon deck that used Second
Sunrise to allow you to accelerate your Gargadon without ruining your
board position (among other things). Due to a stunning lack of foresight,
I failed to realize that this week was Suspend Week and that Greater
Gargadon is a suspend card that also happens to combine well with another
suspend card: Restore Balance. Several readers picked up on this combo,
including Jacois, Peter Wright, Noel deCordova (again!), Jordan “Fitz”
Fitzpatrick, and David VanDusen. In addition, Jordan and David both
suggested adding Mogg War Marshal to the deck. For two mana, the Goblin
effectively provides you with three permanents, and therefore shaves three
turns off of the Gargadon's Suspend time. Unfortunately, I have a feeling
that the Greater Gargadon + Restore Balance deck would end up looking a
heckuva lot like Dom's deck. As a result, I'm going to do something
different.
The next idea also came from Noel deCordova. Sure, it's
fun to manage your various Magical resources. We all know that. However,
there are times when you'd just rather win in one turn and skip all the
bean-counting. What if, for example, you started the game with a
twenty-power haste creature in play on your side? That might simplify
things and save you some number-crunching. And that's basically what
happens when you play Sway of the Stars (or, to a lesser extent, Decree of
Annihilation) while you have creatures suspended. With Sway resetting the
life-totals to seven, all it'll take is one hit from a Greater Gargadon to
kill your opponent. Some combination of Keldon Halberdier, Errant
Ephemeron, and Rift Bolt will also do the trick. For the record, it's
tough to Remand a cycled Decree, and even tougher to Remand the spells
that follow it.
This basic concept can be reworked to include just about
any dramatic board-sweeping effect like Apocalypse, Obliterate, Upheaval,
or Soulscour. When I previewed Paradox Haze, I mentioned a certain white
“board sweeper” that would work well with the Haze, and that's Dimensional
Breach. Since Paradox Haze also has a great effect on suspend, I can
definitely see a deck arising from these cards.
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