Readers!

In a bit of a departure from my typical column, today I'll be talking about underrated discard outlets. Make no mistake, for the purposes of SEO, we're going to pretend I am writing about the "best" discard outlets. That was all a pretense to trick you into clicking on this link. Before you leave, though, give me half a paragraph to make the case to you that underrated discard outlets ARE the best outlets because it's more fun to use a card that's either uniquely good in your deck or that your tablemates will have to pick up and read. Discarding cards is a disadvantage, but like most well designed games, Magic has given us plenty of ways to spin that disadvantage into an advantage. Also, what kind of effects need a disadvantage? Effects that would be seen as much too good without them. If you're stuck discarding a card to do something, it better be worth it. I want to talk about all the ways I like to make it worth it. Did we lie by marketing this as a "best" discard outlet article? You be the judge!

Spellshapers

I really should have built some suspense by saving my favorite for the end, but I am really too eager to extoll the virtues of this entire cycle. A top 10 of just Spellshapers could be its own entire article, I think they're that underrated. Spellshapers require the discard cost in the activation because otherwise I would never not play Hammer Mage in a Red deck, for example.

Nevermind how this weirdo is dressed, check out his ability. Maybe it's not groundbreaking to tell people Hammer Mage is good, but I'm not making the case for Hammer Mage here. I am making the case that if you need a way to discard cards, spellshapers are reusable and very potent. They're also fragile and summoning sick, but the thing about a card like this is that games where people can easily pick off a Hammer Mage, you're not going to accumulate a ton of problem artifacts because people are running removal. If no one is running enough removal, congrats, you brought a set of Wolverine claws to a pillow fight. Your role in slapping a bunch of artifacts off the face of the board is an important one.

You don't have to be entirely offensive, either - Dawnstrider was played in Legacy at one point. I personally love to bust out Overtaker in a game - it's a second Chamber of Manipulation. Every color has at least one good one and having a creature that's capable of fogging every turn, blowing up every Artifact or every Creature or in the case of Divining Witch, just being another way to win with Thoracle means people might not overextend into a threatened wipe, conceding you a bit of tempo advantage.

Bottomless Pit

A lot of people assume Bottomless Pit is only good in decks like Tinybones where you get a trigger off of them discarding a card. We don't care that Bottomless Pit makes them discard, per se. We're doing it so every turn for 0 mana we can pitch a card for free - the fact that our opponents follow suit is just gravy. They'll make assumptions about your deck when you play this card, and by the time they notice you're doing whatever shenanigans you're up to that require you to discard cards, it will be too late. Let their own assumptions about the kind of deck that would play a card like this distract them so you can enact your master plan.

I could talk about wheels here. The thing is, wheels do in one big turn what Bottomless Pit does slowly over the course of the game so people don't notice they're getting wheeled, but the kind of wheel that doesn't let them redraw a new hand. A Bottomless Pit and a Debtors' Knell alone are enough to give you a pretty significant advantage. Sure, wheels are splashy and Wheel of Fortune costs more than a lot of entire decks, but even if you're super new to Magic, I'm not sure you need me to tell you that Dark Deal is a good way to discard cards. What I will instead propose is thinking about cards like Bottomless Pit as wheels that do not allow them to redraw. Sure, you don't redraw either, but you're playing a deck where you need to discard cards, which means you're doing something unfair, which means even fair cards that hit everyone are unfair to your opponents. Windfall is a very good Magic card, but so is Bottomless Pit and that card really only gets talked about when they print the most boring, overpowered and one-sided commander. Let's not wait for them to screw up and print the next Tergrid before we appreciate Bottomless Pit, the card that has been there for you since 1997, waiting for you to use it to dump a big fatty in the yard so you can tap your Hell's Caretaker to put it into play as Dr. Garfield intended.

Looting/Rummaging

Faithless Looting is banned in a format where Primeval Titan is legal. Any card that draws two so that it replaces both itself and the card you discarded seems like it is a wash. Except you got 2 cards deeper into the deck, Looting is reusable, and you got to pick the card you discarded. If Faithless Looting for then again for is too broken for a format where you're allowed to have 4 Amulet of Vigor in play at the same time, consider a card like Merfolk Looter. Really throw your opponents for a loop by running out a The Locust God in a deck where all it does is loot (well, that's not ALL it's going to do). Even rummaging at will is powerful, especially if you're trying to mill yourself to do something big and splashy with that nice, juicy graveyard. It's not just creatures, either - Nahiri the Harbinger is a good example of a card that rummages every turn and has a big payoff, also. Nahiri is honestly fun enough to get its own subheading instead of being lumped in with cards like Looter Il-Kor, but I didn't want to imply that Nahiri is slumming it with Hapless Researcher. I'm saying the ability to replace the card you had to discard makes Nahiri a card that can do a decent impression of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in a deck that has no access to Blue.

Grimoire of the Dead

Grimoire of the Dead is the kind of Commander card I want introduced to a game. It creates a race to deal with it before you use it to win the game, essentially. Introducing a ticking clock to a game can foster some co-operation between other players, and that adds a subgame, which I am always in favor of. It can do work in a proliferate deck where you can cast and activate it on the next turn, and getting all creatures from all 'yards is usually the ball game. Ending the game is good, if people let you dither around with a dumb artifact that made you discard a bunch of cards with no guarantee it would not get blown up before you could pop it, the game needed some help ending.

Key to the City

It's rare to see an effect that makes a creature unblockable without specifying that creature's power and toughness. Key to the City is a good way to draw cards, too, especially if you can tap it and untap it through Artifact shenanigans. Reanimator decks love to discard cards and they also love for their big fatty to be unblockable. I don't know if you're desperate to use this as a really bad rummage Artifact in a deck where you have no intention of ever attacking, but if you've got creatures and like to hit with them and also you want to discard cards, for basically any reason, there is no excuse for not running this.

This list is by no means exhaustive; however, I did my best to add some value and try to sell you on some cards you might not have immediately thought of. If you're a new player, even better, a lot of these cards are cheap and cheap but potent cards are what every new player needs. Thanks for reading, until next time!