Pointed Discussion

Feels like Ertai's Meddling, which actually uses Delay counters.

Good against other counterspells. Delaying a counterbore, only to resolve it later with no effect is pretty nice. Still, it's just not Counterspell (Avoids Rant).

With Riftsweeper, Pull From Eternity, or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, the spell isn't just delayed, it's out-and-out countered.

Extremely underestimated counterspell. I use this as hard counter for U in my bant control deck featuring Grand Arbiter Augustin iv and teferi, mage of zhalfir. Worse case scenario it gives you time to develop and build up card advantage/board postion, or in the late game it might as well be a hard counter since there shouldn't be 3 more turns for your enemy.Also it makes other counterspells and combat tricks essentially hard countered. Lastly i have to mention that these days with cards like Harrow being rampant (no pun intended), it brings a smile on my face to delay their harrow and watch them sac a land and set themselves back instead of accelerating! By the time the delay counters are gone if they want to play harrow they have to sac AGAIN, which u can once again delay/cryptic, setting them back significantly in their land/board development, and preventing their fatties from even dreaming about hitting the battlefield. 4.5/5

...must...use...on...phage...

I love how the French version of the card says "Retard" at the top. Because the dude in the art couldn't compliment that title any more than he already does.

Using this to target your own spells with cascade.... hmmmm.... :)

also combos with Kaervek the Merciless

What this spell lacks in power, it compensates for in fun.

Not meant for true control decks, Delay shines in aggro-control.
The opponent will be long gone before the counters wear off!

This isn't exactly a super-efficient use of a card in two-player Magic, but you can cast this on your own spell to prevent an opponent's counterspell (play Delay targeting your spell after they've played their counterspell, your Delay resolves first and moves the original spell out of their counterspell's reach). Of course, you could always Delay their counterspell instead.

Also true of Memory Lapse. This is a lot more important in multiplayer games, as you can play ally to somebody and offer to help them recover their spell. Delay & Lapse are EDH friend-makers.

Step one: blast their spell with this cheesy counter.
Step two: blast them with Isochron Scepter plus Orim's Chant.
Step three: ???
Step four: Profit!!

Yeah, you can cast that...later.

The idea of Delay on a stick appeals to the troll in me. Counterspell is almost always a better choice for that, of course, but imagine your opponent's face as they see their best spells exiled over and over, and the rest of their spells resolving many turns after they were most needed. Warms me cruel, cruel heart, it does.

Neat usage: You can suspend, say, your Aeon Chronicler for 1 or 2, then Delay it when it resolves. Compared to Ancestral Vision, it costs {1} more and gives you three cards over three turns instead of three on the fourth turn (plus with a timebug you can drop it at instant speed on your opponent's end step).

Its the same principle as remand, its more to slow there tempo then to deal with the spell. But what hurts this spell, in 3 turns they dont have to pay the mana cost. With remand they have to repay it, and you get to cantrip.

Remand is way stronger.

Could you use this to counter a counterspell, then remove the last suspend counter at an oportune moment to force the other player to counter their own spell?

As in:
P1: (Spell)
P2: Counterspell
P1: Delay counterspell.

Later

P2: (Spell)
P1: Clockspinning the suspended counterspell

The suspended counterspell is now cast w/o paying its mana cost, but the only valid target for it is P2's own spell, and suspend doesn't give you an option to not play it. Would this work (just for the lulz, not out of any plan to do this regularly)?

The most important difference between this and Ertai's Meddling is that Delay has to be able to counter the spell. Ertai's meddling does not, and it can suspend an uncounterable spell until it might be useless... it just has to not be countered itself.

It's also good for delaying a kill spell. There are better counterspells for the types of decks that like this I think, but this is good enough.

Works well with Nix.

Sometimes it's useful to use this on your own spells. Like if you're going to cast a board wipe, you can time it so you have the only x on the field

The French version of this card is much funnier.