Suspended Sentence
Instant
Destroy target creature an opponent controls. That player loses 3 life. Exile Suspended Sentence with three time counters on it.
Suspend 3—
(Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay and exile it with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander
- Price
- $0.54
- EDHREC rank
- #4994
Suspended Sentence exiles a creature and puts the threat on a clock — but that clock is a liability: the suspended card comes back, and your opponent knows exactly when. The card earns its slot only in shells that can manipulate end steps or punish opponents for having creatures suspended, most famously under Obeka, Splitter of Seconds, who can skip the end step entirely and strand that creature in exile forever.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is the reason Suspended Sentence sees 44% inclusion — Obeka's ability to end the turn before the suspend trigger resolves converts a temporary exile into a permanent one, turning a mediocre removal spell into unconditional elimination at instant speed for two mana.
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls wants opponents losing life on their own turns, and Suspended Sentence contributes by threatening a creature's return while Valgavoth taxes every card drawn — the suspended card dangling over the game pressures opponents into decisions that feed the engine.
Sygg, River Cutthroat
Sygg, River Cutthroat triggers off opponents being dealt damage, and Suspended Sentence removes a blocker cleanly so your attackers connect; the temporary nature barely matters when Sygg is drawing cards every combat anyway.
The Lord of Pain
The Lord of Pain pings everyone whenever a player draws, so the longer the game runs the better — Suspended Sentence buys time by parking a dangerous creature in exile for several turns, which is exactly the kind of delay The Lord of Pain needs to accumulate enough pain triggers to close.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Suspended Sentence is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and it's essentially a Commander card — the suspend mechanic's delayed drawback is irrelevant in formats where games end before the card returns, but in 100-card singleton the politics and timing matter enormously. In Legacy and Vintage, two-mana sorcery-speed removal that gives the opponent their threat back is unplayable when Fatal Push and Swords to Plowshares exist; nobody is casting Suspended Sentence in those formats. Commander is where it actually functions, and even there it's format-conditional: it's a role-player in end-step-manipulation decks and a liability in everything else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.54 bulk tier
At $0.54, Suspended Sentence is firmly bulk — low enough that picking up a copy costs nothing, high enough that it's not pure throw-in filler. That price is stable: demand is narrow and tied almost entirely to Obeka, Splitter of Seconds decks, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.