To be considered for this list, a keyword ability has to be just that - both a keyword and an ability. Keyword actions and ability words don't count. I chose three criteria to judge all keywords abilities:
- Innovation. When this keyword ability was first released, did it add something fundamentally new to the game of Magic? Since then, has the ability been used in new and different ways?
- Endurance. Has the keyword ability aged well? If a number of cards were printed today showcasing this ability, would players welcome those cards? Do players remember the keyword fondly?
- Playability. Perhaps the most important criterion, does the keyword ability play well? Is it fun? Does it lead to interesting and exciting games? Can it make for powerful, memorable cards?
#5 - Suspend
If you didn't see this coming, maybe you just weren't paying attention to the time counters ticking away from it! Earlier in the countdown I highlighted one revolutionary keyword ability - flashback - but it was by no means the only keyword ability to fundamentally change what it means to play Magic... and how much more revolutionary can you get than the keyword ability that first allowed you to control time itself?
I was an early and vocal detractor of the "removed from the game" zone (now exile). I believed that the name itself was pretty disingenuous - if I can pull a card from this zone mid-game with my Ring of Ma'rûf and cast it, how far "removed from the game" can it really be? Furthermore, I believed that there was nothing that "RFG" could do that a player's library couldn't do better, or at least approximately. Need to make a creature disappear? Don't Swords to Plowshares it: put it on the bottom of its owner's library. Need to choose a few cards in your hand and store them for later? Forget Memory Jar: put them on the top of your library. Need to dig for a particular card? That's why they print tutors. OK, I had to admit that Ertai's Meddling would be hard to duplicate without the exile zone. But it's just one card, and a silly counter at that. Can't WotC just get rid of this worthless zone and design around it?
I have never been proven more wrong-headed than when WotC printed suspend. Here was a keyword that pioneered a resource that most players never even knew existed: patience. Suspend required players to take the long view of the game, when most other mechanics required only that they think, "What spell can I cast right now?" Suspend remains - without a doubt - the most strategic keyword ability in the game of Magic. For every card with suspend a player holds in his or her hand, that player must play the role of a general surveying the upcoming turns as though they were a global field of battle. If I suspend my Petrified Plating now, am I going to have a creature worth enchanting with it two turns from now? Or should I just wait and pay its mana cost? The gulf between the reward for correct play and the penalty for incorrect play has never been so wide as with suspend - it is the quintessential expert-level keyword ability, and emphatically not for beginners.
More amazing still was the unmatched depths the mechanic explored in Time Spiral block. Cards such as Pardic Dragon, Deep-Sea Kraken, and Curse of the Cabal each contained its own minigame, with its own rules and dangers. Benalish Commander and its cycle brought cards that affected the game from exile each turn. Cyclical Evolution and its cycle introduced an entirely new mechanic through which to reuse spells. The most famous cards with suspend were the first cards since Evermind to be powerful even though they could never be cast. And of course, Delay reminded me of long-forgotten Ertai's Meddling, and just how impossible all of this would have been without the exile zone. Suspend is a keyword ability designed for players who really know and love Magic, and who want the most that Magic has to offer.
- Innovation: A+
- Endurance: B+
- Playability: B+
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Posted Mar 18, 2011-
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Posted Dec 21, 2009