Rulings

• 2013-06-07
  As the second triggered ability resolves, you must cast the card if able. Timing restrictions based on the card’s type are ignored.
• 2013-06-07
  Although originally printed with a characteristic-defining ability that defined its color, this card now has a color indicator. This color indicator can’t be affected by text-changing effects (such as the one created by Crystal Spray), although color-changing effects can still overwrite it.
• 2013-06-07
  A creature cast using suspend will enter the battlefield with haste. It will have haste until another player gains control of it (or, in some rare cases, gains control of the creature spell itself).
• 2013-06-07
  If the spell has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those if able. However, if an additional cost includes a mana payment, you are forced to pay that cost only if there’s enough mana in your mana pool at the time you cast the spell. You aren’t forced to activate any mana abilities, although you may do so if you wish.
• 2013-06-07
  If you can’t cast the card, perhaps because there are no legal targets available, it remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended.
• 2013-06-07
  You can exile a card in your hand using suspend any time you could cast that card. Consider its card type, any effect that affects when you could cast it (such as flash) and any other effects that could stop you from casting it (such as Meddling Mage’s effect) to determine if and when you can do this. Whether or not you could actually complete all steps in casting the card is irrelevant. For example, you can exile a card with suspend that has no mana cost or requires a target even if no legal targets are available at that time.
• 2013-06-07
  If the second triggered ability of suspend (the one that lets you cast the card) is countered, the card can’t be cast. It remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended.
• 2013-06-07
  When the last time counter is removed, the second triggered ability of suspend will trigger. It doesn’t matter why the last time counter was removed or what effect removed it.
• 2013-06-07
  If the first triggered ability of suspend (the one that removes time counters) is countered, no time counter is removed. The ability will trigger again during the card’s owner’s next upkeep.
• 2013-06-07
  If the spell requires any targets, those targets are chosen when the spell is finally cast, not when it’s exiled.
• 2013-06-07
  Exiling a card with suspend isn’t casting that card. This action doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.
• 2016-09-20
  This has no mana cost, which means its mana cost can’t be paid for effects such as replicate from Djinn Illuminatus or flashback from Snapcaster Mage.
• 2021-03-19
  As Restore Balance resolves, first the player whose turn it is chooses the appropriate number of lands they control, then each other player in turn order does the same knowing the choices made before them. Then all the lands that weren’t chosen are sacrificed at the same time. Then, starting with the player whose turn it is again, each player chooses the appropriate number of creatures they control, then sacrifice their other creatures after all choices have been made. Finally, players choose cards in hand without revealing them in the same order and discard the remaining cards.
• 2021-03-19
  If a spell is suspended, that spell's targets are chosen when the spell is finally cast, not when it’s exiled.
• 2021-03-19
  If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” such as with suspend, you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those to cast the card.
• 2021-03-19
  As the second triggered ability resolves, you must cast the card if able. You must do so even if it requires targets and the only legal targets are ones that you really don’t want to target. Timing permissions based on the card’s type are ignored.
• 2021-03-19
  When the last time counter is removed, the second triggered ability of suspend triggers. It doesn’t matter why the last time counter was removed or what effect removed it.
• 2021-03-19
  If the first triggered ability of suspend (the one that removes time counters) is countered, no time counter is removed. The ability will trigger again at the beginning of the card’s owner’s next upkeep.
• 2021-03-19
  The converted mana cost of a spell cast without paying its mana cost is determined by its mana cost, even though that cost wasn’t paid.
• 2021-03-19
  You can exile a card in your hand using suspend any time you could cast that card. Consider its card type, any effects that modify when you could cast it (such as flash) and any other effects that stop you from casting it (such as from Meddling Mage’s ability) to determine if and when you can do this. Whether you could actually complete all steps in casting the card is irrelevant. For example, you can exile a card with suspend that has no mana cost or that requires a target even if no legal targets are available at that time.
• 2021-03-19
  Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that allows you to exile the card from your hand with the specified number of time counters (the number before the dash) on it by paying its suspend cost (listed after the dash). The second is a triggered ability that removes a time counter from the suspended card at the beginning of each of your upkeeps. The third is a triggered ability that causes you to cast the card when the last time counter is removed. If you cast a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of that creature (or, in rare cases, you lose control of the creature spell while it’s on the stack).
• 2021-03-19
  You are never forced to activate mana abilities to pay costs, so if there is a mandatory additional mana cost (such as from Thalia, Guardian of Thraben), you can decline to activate mana abilities to pay for it and hence fail to cast the suspended card, leaving it in exile.
• 2021-03-19
  Any abilities that trigger during this process will wait to be put onto the stack until Restore Balance is done resolving.
• 2021-03-19
  If a card with no mana cost is given an alternative cost equal to its mana cost (by Snapcaster Mage, for example), that cost cannot be paid and the card cannot be cast this way.
• 2021-03-19
  A card with no mana cost can’t be cast normally; you’ll need a way to cast it for an alternative cost or without paying its mana cost, such as by suspending it.
• 2021-03-19
  If an effect refers to a “suspended card,” that means a card that (1) has suspend, (2) is in exile, and (3) has one or more time counters on it.
• 2021-03-19
  Any abilities of the creatures sacrificed may modify or trigger on the lands being sacrificed, but won’t modify or trigger on the cards being discarded. Abilities of the sacrificed lands won’t modify or trigger on the creatures being sacrificed or the cards being discarded.