BEST CARDS FOR A DISCARD CONTROL DECK?

[Oragren]

AS THE HEADER SUGGESTS IM LOOKING INTO A DISCARD CONTROL DECK AND WANT TO KNOW THE INS AND OUTS OF IT AS I HAVE NEVER BUILT ONE BEFORE?

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT.

LOOKING AT BLACK, WHITE AND BLUE AS THE MAIN LOTS OF CARDS I HAVE TO SUUIT AS FAR AS I CAN TELL.

THANKS

[Zidoco]

Hello,
I built a B/R discard deck so I don't know the best cards for U or W. That out of the way, I found that the biggest weakness of this style of deck is that when your opponent doesn't have any cards to discard your flow of damage stops. The best way to remedy this issue is to add cards that punish your opponent for having fewer than x cards in their hand. When I started out I mixed a sacrifice engine with the deck and it worked rather well. It allowed me to effectively remove my opponents field and limit solutions in their hand. https://deckstats.net/decks/52949/371194-discard-revisited/en That's the link for my discard deck. Most of its damage comes from red cards, but most of the discards are black. A quick summary of useful black cards: Quest for the Nihil Stone (dmg), Waste Not (Utility),  Megrim (dmg), Black Cat (poke and random discard), Auger of Skulls (sac on upkeep for discard 2). There are sorceries to bring creatures back and to cause players to discard. I think a B/R deck is the best way to go, but I had built with only those two colors in mind so I'm not sure how effective U or W will be.

[Mostlynotgay]

I've got a couple decks that run Blizzard Specter and Circu, Dimir Lobotomist.  They seem to be pretty fun if you want to have creatures, and they're pretty harsh, especially Circu. 

[Jabilac]

The Rack and Shrieking Affliction are some of the best ways to punish your opponent in a discard centered deck.  Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Duress, Raven's Crime, and Wrench Mind are good sorcery speed choices for hand disruption and Kolaghan's Command, Funeral Charm, Piracy Charm, Esper Charm are all good Instant speed discard choices.  Castigate and Distress are playable but not as good as the previous options.

Tidehollow Sculler, Sin Collector, Nezumi Shortfang, Ravenous Rats, Rotting Rats, and Asylum Visitor are all good creatures that can work in a Discard focused deck.

I would personally run it Mono-Black with 4 The Rack, 4 Shrieking Affliction/Quest for the Nihil Stone, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 4 Raven's Crime, 3-4 Wrench Mind, 4 Duress/Thoughtseize, 4 Victim of Night/Grasp of Darkness/Fatal Push/Go For The Throat with 22 lands.  That leaves 10-11 spots open for other options like Waste Not, Asylum Visitor, Ravenous Rats, Smallpox, more removal.

[KouriNick]

I agree with Jabilac, and would like to emphasize the cards in Esper colors (if you're sure that's what you want to stick with), primarily Esper Charm. Being able to cast it at instant speed is amazing as it lets you grab the last 2 cards out of your opponents hand after their draw step and you don't have to worry about them being in top-deck mode so much. You can also just use it to refuel your hand if they are already cardless. Funeral Charm and Piracy Charm are also nice as instant speed discard effects that can kill X/1 creatures. Running instant speed discard also means you can take full advantage of Snapcaster Mage (or even Torrential Gearhulk).

Beyond those, the cards Jubilac recommended are all great, especially The Rack and Shrieking Affliction. White seems to be a splash more than anything else, with maybe some Path to Exile, Lingering Souls, or Sphinx's Revelation (since the games will probably go long).

[Firegriff]

If you plan to have an artifact presence to the deck, Herald of Anguish can really do a lot of damage for low cost.  It would also give you creature removak in a pinch.

[Oragren]

thank you for your advice i can see some good cards that will work for my meta,

still unsure as to go with white, red or blue have anyone built a multi-colored deck before and whats your advice.

[KouriNick]

When I run a multi-colored deck, there are 3 major things I think about:

1. Can I reliably play my cards on when I want to: This sort of combines two smaller things, namely, do you have enough sources of each color needed, and are too many lands coming into play tapped when you need them untapped. For example, if you're playing a deck with a high mana curve that really turns on at 4 land, then the Fastlands (like Inspiring Vantage, Blooming Marsh, and so forth) are great for getting you your colors, but are going to be coming in tapped when you need them.  For that kind of deck, the checklands (like Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacombs and so forth) are going to be better since by turn 4 you're more likely to have a basic (or shockland) in play. If you decide to go with esper colors, and run a lot of the cards suggested, you'll want an untapped black land turn 1 for a discard spell, The Rack, or Shrieking Affliction, but after that, most of you land can come into play tapped without hurting you too much.

2. Am I completely two+ colors, or am I just splashing? If you're playing a black deck that also runs Tidehollow Skuller and Castigate, that's just a splash, as most of the time, black mana is more important that white. When splashing, it's much easier to balance the mana base and you pretty much just basics in your primary color, and your non-basics reach into your splash color. This way you'll never be short of your primary color (in your case, probably black). Splashing is also nice because it's much cheaper $$ wise (since you can run a lot more basics and probably don't even need fetches and shocks.

3. Is the Extra color or Splash worth it? There is tradeoff when going into extra colors. Without a solid mana base to support multiple colors, missing one of your colors when you need it is a real possibility. You have to ask yourself if the value you get from your other colors (cards like Tidehollow Skuller and Castigate) are worth the risk of not being able to play them (or worth the lifeloss from the lands you'd need to play them). 2 colors are usually pretty easy to pull off, but when you get up to 3, it can be a real challenge requiring expensive cards to make sure you regularly hi tall your colors.


In the end, if budget is a factor, and you just want to play a fun / powerful discard based deck, mono-black 8-rack is probably the best option, with maybe a white splash for removal and sideboard cards. If you wanted an idea what this could look like, feel free to ask