Discarding In Commander? Here's A Few Ideas

A few tips for playing a discard theme in the Commander format.
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[@jeffreyknapper408]

Containment construct is a colorless creature and when you discard a card you intend to play you put it into exile instead until you cast it later that turn instead of getting rid of stuff you don't want. Conspiracy theorist does the same thing in red but if you attack with him and pay 1 mana he triggers his own ability by letting you draw and discard. Bag of holding is another tool I like to use in my Jaya deck by letting you keep cards for later to refuel your hand if people didn't blow it up right away. It also gives you the opportunity to draw and discard for 2 mana as well as an added bonus.

[@starmanda88]

I have that card in my Ashling Flame Dancer mono red storm deck and it goes *crazy*

[@uhfrank]

i always appreciate the added layers of perspective and thinking you bring to the MTG community demo. great video!

[@tneC0mment0r]

I have Sidar knight deck with a lot of low cost knights. The incarnations Filth, Glory, Valor, and Wonder are great to discard to the bin! Ghost town is a sick way to make sure if I’m low on cards I don’t want to discard I can trade up with Sidar’s eminence ability. Thanks for the tip!

[@metalthrashingnerdpodcast9864]

Just built a deck for a friend that cycles cards like crazy and added oversold cemetery. Works great for the deck. Consostently lets you recycle the cycle effects

[@Justrex01]

A handful of fairly budget fuckery, which fits me perfectly. Thanks, Demo!

[@Henkdetenk1899]

I run an Entomb just for Squee in my Anje discard deck. It's balls to the wall discard with silly Grafted Skullcap effects, but Squee is the grease that makes the engine run.

[@light-chemistry]

I really like Squee, The Immortal in Faldorn because Faldorn does both discard and exile. Squee cards in general seem really good in these kinds of decks!

[@JimboBango]

Shadowgrange Archfiend has been doing work in my Rona deck. 3 mana for that effect is just insane

[@renatosoares7681]

Attunement is a great card to search a specific card, discard cards and fill your graveyard.

[@starmanda88]

I really like the ghost town idea. That’s brilliant man. I find myself in that “no cards left to discard” issue a lot in my Ashling Flame Dancer deck.

[@ryanmanning2319]

I love Drownyard Temple. I put it a lot of my decks. Because not only do you get it back from your yard, it also counts as 3 mana instant speed ramp, since it doesn’t use a land drop.

[@Sparrow141420]

The lands are some great tips!! I always look for flashback/disturb/aftermath/Jumpstart type effects, and am nostalgic for madness, and anger type graveyard effects are also my go-to. I will say, personally, I'd rather not run full color hoser cards. Insight and compost are GREAT though. Tangent: I don't run Aura shards because I've had it just shut my shrine deck down 100%. They realised how good it would be, apologized as they tutored it out of their deck, and yes they even recurred it after my removal, so let's head that argument off at the pass. They weren't trying to be a dick, just playing to win. I was fine with it at first, laughed about it and how my deck was vulnerable. But by the end of the game I wasn't having a good time, and didn't wanna just scoop like a sore loser. So, for my decks, I just don't like feeling like I could make someone waste 30-45 min after getting their deck off the ground, just to be hosed. Again, that's me, and when I pull out my "Oops All Enchantments" deck I like to ask if folks have it. And I might not play that deck that game if folks are running it.

[@Sparrow141420]

Which isn't to say anything about wipes or targeted removal, etc, just those pieces that come down and say as long as this enchantment is out , and the deck is doing normal deck stuff, then you can't play. Hang out, get a drink, and draw your card per turn, pray you find uncounterable exile effects.

[@user-bh9fb2kf5m]

There is dimir squue that returns at upkeep for 1 life, good too

[@johannesek671]

Yeah Master of Death really good, also not horrible to play and surveil 2

[@TheLucluchtloper]

Got a really fun asmorano deck that is both discard/stuffydoll/artifact reanimator. Works like a charm, not very consistent winrate. But a very consistent i am able to do my things rate

[@ideshatred6295]

I have a mono black discard / madness deck with Greel at the helm. Its a blast to play through. Its really fun playing hellbent and forcing everyone else to do so as well

[@Thugzor-uk6wb]

I had this as a theme for a Mageta the lion deck i theorycrafted.You pillow fort using stuff like the spheres or circles of protection, dump them if they're useless to boardwipe and otherwise slap voltrony stuff on Mageta to close out the game.

[@kchopaN4E]

Just built a Raffine deck, but using it around the cycling ability, just put the 5 rune of protection on the deck, if I don't need one I can cycle it to get another card. Actually I'm using lost of cards that are very specific but with cycle so that I can throw them away if I don't need em

[@Hobbyman1234]

I got a Chainer nightmare adept deck and some of these cards can easily be slotted in. Thank you.

[@nathanpavolko5861]

I love the idea of self discard and hellbent mechanics just wish there were better payoffs. I recently built a Olivia, crimson bride deck which puts in some work!

[@Isaiah4DJT2024]

I’m pretty sure Ghost Towns ability only works from the battle field. 7:50

[@edhdeckbuilding]

of course it does. you play it from your graveyard with crucible of worlds then return it to your hand again.

[@uhfrank]

@@edhdeckbuilding you described the correct action in your video very clearly. works exactly as your described. i think because it came immediately after downyard temple's explanation, they might have accidentally blended the two explanations together

[@chompyumyum4615]

@@uhfrank likely, happened to me too. I saw Ghost Town right after Drownyard Temple, read it, and thought "oh I guess this one is errata'd to work like Drownyard" (incorrect) The "opposite" effects of those two cards are a little unintuitive but Demo's explanation was good and it corrected my understanding.

[@MetallicMutalisk]

Yeah, I have a Jaya Ballard, Task Mage deck and I am already running these in it but I've never heard of Ghost Town so that's neat. Basically I just want to make Jaya indestructible or immune to damage and get lifelink and keep activating the last ability till everyone is dead lol.

[@brendans1983]

The best card to discard, and the worst one to see discarded by an opponent, is a counterspell.

[@xxgrey_ravenxx2950]

Would you happen to possibly do a discard build around Flubs, The Fool? I played against a Flubs last night and it was insane, cause they were running 18 Slime Against Humanitys in the deck. I was gonna do a Madness build around Flubs, but I feel discard would be better. I’m not sure, I’m still a bit new to Commander

[@uhfrank]

he shared a deck tech for flubs a week ago, check it out! its pretty great

[@xxgrey_ravenxx2950]

@@uhfrank oh sweet! I didn’t know he had done so. Thank you!!

[@jasonferguson9052]

Gotta run the rage baby art for anger.

[@slyness4688]

Another one for you is Krovikan Horror: At the beginning of the end step, if Krovikan Horror is in your graveyard with a creature card directly above it, you may return Krovikan Horror to your hand. {1}, Sacrifice a creature: Krovikan Horror deals 1 damage to any target.

[@aprofessionalateverything7585]

Graveyard order is a cool mechanic, I get why they abandoned it but I wish they didn't

[@20x20]

Oskar is my self-discard deck and always runs out of cards

[@MisterWebb]

Ashling, Flame Dancer

[@ZesTheMaze]

Squee goblin Naybob

[@kingmric]

Is there a list of color specific cards like compost and insight?

[@crawdaddy2004]

Like, specifically that draw cards?

[@kingmric]

@@crawdaddy2004 yeah. I can't think of any better examples.

[@crawdaddy2004]

@@kingmric There’s Reap. Otherwise, if you’re willing to expand your definition to just “a lot of card advantage and/or board presence,” Llawan, Cephalid Empress; Stromgald Cabal; Order of the Sacred Torch; Northern , Southern, Eastern and Western Paladins cycle; Anarchy; Deathgrip; Lifeforce.

[@kingmric]

@@crawdaddy2004 That is awesome. Thank you for that list.

[@crawdaddy2004]

@@kingmric Happy to help

[@obadijahparks]

Didn't realize the amount of red discard options.