I know what you’re thinking. It has to be something along the lines of… 'I don’t remember that one from school.' You must have been sleeping during that lesson.

This is a very important lesson that I wish to review with you, as quite frankly, it’s a good lesson.

Discardability is something most of us cannot live without…

…as it is the best and easiest way to beat a Control player.

Do I have your attention yet?

Newton’s Theory of Discardability is something that I completely made up. It is a play off of my last name, Newton, and is not really a theory at all, except that I think it works, and it makes sense. Furthermore, Discardability is just a couple of words scrunched together to look like something important and perhaps get you to read my article.

It appears to have worked.

I must give you fair warning before we begin, I kind of gave away my Shifting Lineaments article series, so I have to use this one for this article. There is no story here; I don’t have a grandiose memories tale to tell you. I only want to teach you a lesson in the “Art of Discard,” which I guess could be more closely related to the “perspective” portion of the article title.

My lesson for you today deals with my research and the theoretical test result of a theory I had back when Time Spiral was first released. I noticed that there was an alarming number of cards that force an opponent to discard a single card at an alarmingly low cost, though I only noted it and stored it in my Magic memory box as information to keep in the case that I should find myself playing against someone trying to exploit this.

Soon afterwards, Planar Chaos was released and I noted another alarming discovery. Now, not only do I have at my disposal a great number of discard spells, but I have a good number of INSTANT SPEED discard spells also at an alarmingly low cost.

To refresh your memory, Time Spiral brought us back Funeral Charm from Visions, which forces a discard of one card of an opponent’s choosing at instant speed. Then, in Planar Chaos, Piracy Charm was created as a Blue version of Funeral Charm, but in addition, they also created Venarian Glimmer. In 12 simple cards, I could force you to discard a card on your turn. There also was Dismal Failure, which countered a spell and then forced a discard, but it costs four mana and became an afterthought at best.

The idea of forcing a discard on my opponent’s turn really got me thinking about discard in a different light. True, Stupor is a strong card as it gets rid of two cards and seemingly provides card advantage (two cards for one); however, when looked at in the bright light of the world of reality, Stupor can hardly ever be looked at like that. Without Dark Ritual, Stupor does not get cast until the third turn, and by then my opponent most likely has some sort of defense set up, which brings the pain of the discard down to being minimal at best. Further, beyond the initial rush of the game (the first four or so turns) Stupor is really not that effective, and I will tell you why as we progress through my theory.

The night that I discovered this, I remember getting into a fight with Veronica (my fiancé), because I didn’t want to go to sleep. She was probably six months pregnant at the time, and here I was sitting up, staring at playing cards. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was around three in the morning.

I don’t own any Magic cards anymore you see, so I didn’t have any to test my theory which I am about to present. The closet thing that I had was a deck of playing cards; 52 cards of numbers and faces. When I began to see the entire thing unfold before my eyes, I was lying in bed, hoping sleep would overtake me. It began to do so, but as I began to fall numbly into unconsciousness, Piracy Charm drifted before my closed eyes and I jolted back into consciousness.

Out of bed I rolled and I walked into the front room.

Piracy Charm… Piracy Charm. Did it really say instant? I logged onto my piece of crap laptop—which has since been replaced by a new laptop, thank God for income tax returns—and popped up Magic Workstation. Upon looking, I found that, sure enough, it did say instant. I began thinking about the 12 instant discard spells and trying to put myself into your shoes, the shoes of the guy playing against the Control player.

I sat in a chair and began playing some of my most memorable games over in my mind, and then doing them again from my opponent’s perspective. All of those games playing as Wake, Blue-White Control, Red-Blue Control, Wizard Opp, and Counter Post all came back to me and I tried my hardest to reverse the seating order, and sit staring at the Islands instead of relying on them.

What if…?

I lost the coin toss, you go first.

Opponent Turn 1 (O-T1): Island, go. (Six cards in hand, most likely, one to two of them are lands.)

My Turn 1 (M-T1): Draw a card, Island, go. (Seven cards in hand, Piracy Charm, Swamp, two Funeral Charms, Island, Venarian Glimmer, Spell Burst.)

O-T2: Draw a card, Island, go. (Six cards, one to two lands)

At the end of turn (EOT), I tap an Island and play Piracy Charm: choose discard and the opponent. They can either discard a card, or counter the spell, either way; they put a card in the graveyard. If they counter, they are tapped out on my turn. They chose to discard a spell. (Five cards in hand.)

M-T2: Draw a card, play a Swamp, go. (Six cards in hand, two Funeral Charms, Island, Venarian Glimmer, Spell Burst, Cruel Edict.)

O-T3: Draw a card, play an Island, go. (Five cards, most likely zero lands.)

EOT, tap Swamp, cast Funeral Charm, chose discard, target opponent. Same situation, except that now they do not have an option of discarding a land. I am getting a spell on their turn, regardless of what they chose to do. I could care less what the card is, however they have three options:

A.) They counter the spell, telling me that they have something important in their hand.

B.) They discard a counter, telling me that they have enough counters in hand to choke a horse, and do not want to tap out on their turn.

C.) They discard a spell; remembering that counter decks do not win the game with the counters, they win with the spells that they have in addition to the counter, making this the desired result. (Four cards in hand.)

M-T3: Draw a card, play an Island, go. (Five cards in hand, Funeral Charm, Venarian Glimmer, Spell Burst, Cruel Edict, and Shadowmage Infiltrator.)

O-T4: Draw a card, play a land (assume they would draw another land by this time), play a spell? (Assume they would try to cast a spell by this time too.) If the spell does not net them cards, it most likely does not impact this game at this point. Consider it a blank card.) Go. (Three cards in hand)

EOT, tap down to cast Venarian Glimmer, X = 2. Most likely I will nab a Mana Leak or Rune Snag type counter. This brings them down to two cards in hand, and I now know what they hold. Oh, and I have not had my fourth turn yet.

M-T4: Draw a card, play a Swamp (drawn) and cast Shadowmage Infiltrator, leaving a Swamp open. Go. (Three cards in hand, Funeral Charm, Spell Burst, and Cruel Edict.)

O-T5: Draw a card, play a spell to draw cards like Compulsive Research. They discard a land to keep an extra card, go. (Brings them up to four cards)

EOT, I tap Swamp and cast Funeral Charm. They discard a spell, bringing them back down to three cards.

You can see where this is very strong against a Control deck. Where it would appear to be weak is against Aggro. Considering that Aggro plays less lands, therefore their opening hand will most likely have two lands tops, you are sure to snag either direct damage or creatures in the first two discards. Follow that up with the fact that Black really likes creatures a lot with their Edicts, Sudden Deaths, Terrors, Mutilates, Damnations, and Decrees of Pain, and you can see why Aggro would have a tough time as well.

But to focus on this type of match-up for a second, let’s look at another spell that forces a single card discard: Smallpox.

Typically, Smallpox is a home wrecker. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that if I go first, and if I cast Smallpox on my second turn, you are in a world of hurt. What could you possibly have in play? Maybe one creature and now you are forced to sacrifice it. You probably have one land and now you have to sacrifice it also. Follow that with the one card discard. We know you can’t possibly discard a land, because you only had two in your opening hand, and one is now in the graveyard. So you are forced into discarding a spell or creature.

Against a Combo deck, the theory is just loaded with proof. A Combo deck needs stability and acceleration to be successful. Hand hate has traditionally been the bane of the Combo deck, as you need to hold your opening hand until the time is right and unload the combo. The best combos will be unleashed by around turns three or four. According to our hand test earlier, by the end of their turn three, the opponent only held four cards if they did nothing at all except draw cards for a turn. As we all know from experience, they are going to be playing mana acceleration spells as well as card drawing spells. Most important to them in those crucial turns will be to hold onto the acceleration, as they can draw into card draw.

If you remember Dragonstorm decks of yore, the deck wanted to drop out a few Lotus Blooms and get those counters falling off in order to go off on the forth turn. Say they suspend two Lotuses (Loti? Is that plural for Lotus? Crazy English language!) and play a single land on turn one. They have only four cards in their hand, and you are playing discard. Those cards are probably one or two lands, one Dragonstorm, and hopefully for them, a Seething Song + Rite of Flame combination. When you start pointing Piracy Charms at their heads, what are they going to discard? They need Dragonstorm to win an early game. They need the Seething Song to get to nine mana, which makes Rite of Flame and/or the lands expendable. The other way would be to hold the two lands and drop the mana acceleration, and just Dragonstorm for three Hellkites on turn four. That is alright, but what about when you cast Smallpox on the second turn, and by now they have played an additional land? Now they are going to lose one of those lands, and they have the same decision on which cards are most important to their combination.

Most likely, you will end up knocking the Dragonstorm out, and they will rely on hard-casting Hellkites for the kill, which becomes a problem, as you will have your win conditions in place before that time comes. Most likely, they could get a first Hellkite out via the Lotus, but your Edicts and Smallpoxes can easily take that out, and you may take ten damage in the exchange. Now what about the second Dragon? How are they getting it out before you deal 20 damage to them?

That is the beauty of discard. You design a deck with the intent of being able to utilize the 60 cards in your deck. Normally, mulligans suck, and so does getting Hymn to Tourach’ed on the first turn, so playing with small hands really does cause an issue.

Are you convinced yet? Card quality is more important than card quantity. Are you a believer? No? All right, then join me next week when I bring you the second part of this theory, the strength of mental warfare. Why nailing a card strategically is more important that attempting to knock five cards from their hand.

-cpn

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Articles Spotlights from 2008:
How to Win with Milling: A Guide to a Slow Painful Death
Memories of an Old Magic Player 10: The Outsiders Journal #3.
The Apprentice Magician, Part Three.
Class-Wars Deckbuilding Contest Results!
Tribal Coffee: The Smaller Tribes.
[Mini-Article] Controlling the Game: Without Blue.
Raiding the Dollar Bins: Return of the Vault Ninja.
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
More Evil Than Evil.
Memories of a Jarhead.