Discard

Discard is a control archetype built around forcing opponents to discard cards from their hand, often gaining additional benefits when opponents discard cards and/or when opponents have no cards in hand.

Discard decks almost always contain the color black.

## **Popular Cards & Commanders**

**Common cards found in discard decks include:**

* Megrim
* Waste Not
* Sangromancer
* Geth's Grimoire
* Painful Quandary

**Common discard commanders include:**

* Tinybones, Trinket Thief
* Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
* Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

## **Strategy**

Discard decks seek to disrupt their enemies by preventing them from having enough cards in hand to cast spells or make a meaningful impact on the battlefield. These decks usually rely on a combination of the following categories to achieve victory over their opposition:

### **Hand Disruption**

The most straightforward way that discard decks can accomplish their agenda is through instants and sorceries that directly cause opponents to discard cards, such as Mind Twist, Arterial Flow, or Syphon Mind.
In combination with one-time sorceries, decks may also employ creatures, artifacts, and/or enchantments to cause opponents to discard cards over time, such as Fell Specter, Necrogen Mists, and Oppression.
### **Discard Synergy**

Discard decks not only seek to force opponents to discard cards from their hand, but to accumulate additional value as their opponents' hands whittle down. Commanders like Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and enchantments like Liliana's Caress help discard players advance their own board state while simultaneously disrupting their enemies.
Discard decks may also use cards that specifically provide benefit when enemies have few or no cards left in hand. Shrieking Affliction and Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage are examples of this type.
### **Symmetrical Discard**

Many discard decks will use effects that force each player to discard cards, rather than just opponents. Examples of this include Cunning Lethemancer, Delirium Skeins, Sire of Insanity, and Mindslicer. Such decks will usually employ cards that compensate for their own losses, such as Archfiend of Ifnir and Bone Miser, to dodge the downsides of symmetrical discard effects.
Some discard decks will also utilize recursion and reanimation as a means of breaking the symmetry of discard effects, so that they may continue to take game actions such as casting spells even without cards in hand. Kess, Dissident Mage and Chainer, Nightmare Adept are examples of commanders that may follow this discard strategy.
## **Common Deck Categories**

* Discard Effects
* Discard Payoffs
* Punisher Cards (Rack effects) / Punisher Cards (Discard)
* Card Draw
* Ramp
* Removal
* Board Wipe Cards
* Graveyard Hate

**10 cards** will probably give you **2 cards in a given game** from that category, and a good chance to **start with 1** in your opening hand. Critical categories for your deck may require a similar or larger number than this, depending on expected levels of Counterspells or Removal.
**5 cards** will probably give you **1 card per game** of that category. Cards you don't want to overload on but still want access to (*board wipes in a tokens deck for instance*) may want a similar figure to this... Going smaller than this number makes receiving a card of this category very unlikely without Tutors or some other Toolbox approach.

## **Strengths and Weaknesses**

### **Strengths**

* Discard decks have a unique strength over other control archetypes, because they are able to remove threats from their enemies before those threats are ever able to be played.

* Discard severely restricts enemy plans by eliminating their resources. Opponents who carefully plan their turns and the sequence in which they will deploy their cards are often unable to maintain those plans from turn to turn, often because they are forced to choose between discarding powerful cards or discarding the resources that would allow them to play those powerful cards in the first place.

### **Weaknesses**

* If discard decks do not find 'payoff' cards that synergize or deal damage to their enemies after cards have been discarded, the lack of cards in players' hands can stall the game in a way that is not usually enjoyed by most players.

* It is very easy for graveyard-based commanders to avoid the negative downsides of discard effects, as discard players may accidentally provide those players with the fuel their decks need to win the game.

* Discard decks can be less effective against aggro strategies that already plan to quickly play all the cards in their hand in the first place, leaving them with little to discard. Because so many cards in discard decks affect players' hands, rather than the battlefield, this can leave the discard player vulnerable to on-board threats.

## *Discard in non-standard colors*

EDH is known for unusual deckbrewing, for instance taking a mechanic and using magic's long history to demonstrate ways of doing it in a highly unusual color combination. Below are details on replicating Discard decks without Black

For **White** cards see: **Balance, Balancing Act, Magus of the Balance, Restore Balance, Spirit Cairn**
For **Blue** cards see: **Amnesia, Dismal Failure, Frightful Delusion, Mind Bomb, Mindculling, Piracy Charm, Riptide Pilferer, Serum Raker, Venarian Glimmer, Wistful Thinking, Vendilion Clique**

For **Red** cards see: **Land's Edge, Skullscorch, Sirocco**
For **Green** cards see: *no cards.. yet.*
For **Colorless** cards see: **Disrupting Scepter, Scroll of Griselbrand, Wand of Ith, Shrine of Limitless Power, Specter's Shroud, Sword of Feast and Famine, Geth's Grimoire, Jester's Mask**
Some unusual commanders to consider for this purpose: Arcum Dagsson, Mageta the Lion, Rielle, the Everwise, Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Hofri Ghostforge, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound, Rielle, the Everwise, Kaho, Minamo Historian

### **Reanimator**

When utilizing Symmetrical Discard, why not break the symmetry by cheating the discarded cards into play?
### **Stax**

If Discard is a theme in your deck to disable your oppponents, then it may be worth investigating in other ways of disabling their gameplans
### **Tokens**

They may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but there are some specific cards that create a bridge between the archetypes of Discard and Tokens:
**Example Cards:**Nath of the Gilt Leaf, Bone Miser, Waste Not, Drake Haven, Spirit Cairn, Wharf Infiltrator, Sadistic Hypnotist, Larceny
**References:**

* EDHREC Discard theme
* Discard tagged articles on EDHRec