There comes a time in every Magic player's tenure where they are simply fed up with everything that they are seeing in the meta. Some move to playing decks that remove everything, or decks that counter everything - sometimes both. Some of us simply don't let our opponents have any cards in hand, and that's what I've opted to do today. There's something that just feels right about making the opponent have zero cards in their hand while we continue to draw and play threats onto the board. Discard went well in the meta a few months ago before Duskmourn came out, and I think it is possible for it to be good again. The win rate so far with our deck is solid, but it is different from the one we played before. This time we are looking to add some card superiority into the list, and the same card that accomplishes that allows us to play fewer creatures to focus on more discard spells, and efficient removal. Let's take a look at the new discard deck in the Foundations Meta.
This deck got a little bit more consistency and some extra win conditions from Duskmourn, and it is refreshing to know that we have more threats to draw, and we now have a higher likelihood of drawing them. We want to try and draw as many cards as we can with this deck, because some of the better lists that are out there will also draw a ton of cards. We look to punish our opponent for drawing cards, and for not having cards in their hand. We also look to benefit from drawing cards while punishing our opponent simultaneously. The list has a ton of removal, because frankly there are some cards that are just too difficult to deal with in Standard and I got sick of waiting to sideboard and hoping that I drew the answers. We will go over the key changes from previous versions, and then we will go over the sideboard guide!
New Additions to Mono Black Discard
The annex has done so much for the format, and also sees a ton of play in Pioneer. We will use this to gain some card advantage with our discard list, while also casually making 6/6 demons when necessary. We don't have any other demons in the list, so it isn't considered a demon deck. We more so just want this card in the list so that we can draw an extra card each turn, and we have a few ways to offset the life loss if it becomes a problem.
This is the only Foundations card in the list. The newest set unfortunately did not give us many cards that work well in discard decks, but it did give us one of the best creature lands that we've seen in Standard. has basically become an auto-include in creature-based decks as long as they can afford a little less consistency on mana fixing. I would pay attention to the market prices of this card. I expect it to skyrocket soon!
I had to do it. I'm sorry. The End allows us to deal with some of these creatures in the format that simply will not go away. The biggest one that has been an issue for me both digitally and in paper is Enduring Curiosity. It is also a problem against this deck. We do not want to allow our opponent to draw cards, but we also use our life total as a resource by taking some punches from opposing creatures. We have to limit the card draw, so removing the recursive creature in one shot is our best bet.
Sideboard Guide
The main archetypes that we will focus on are Domain/ Mana, other midrange decks, and aggro lists. We are equipped to deal with most of it, and our deck has a ton of answers. We will start with Domain/Big Mana Decks
For Domain and Big Mana, we are definitely removing all of our copies of Cut Down unless they are a deck that plays Llanowar Elves or some other mana dork. We will bring in our two copies of Dreams of Steel and Oil. Along with that, we will also generally bring in our two copies of Withering Torment, because we need a way to deal with Leyline Binding. Being able to exile some of the problematic creatures is also incredibly helpful. If the decks are also going wide, but the creatures are still fairly large, we do have two copies of Deadly Cover-Up to bring in, and we could remove the two of copies of The End in that case, since we would rather spend higher amounts of mana to clear the board.
For midrange decks, we will look to bring in Gix's Command, and Preacher of the Schism. We have three copies of Preacher and one copy of Command. These are just super valuable cards, so we want to be able to grind when needed. Command allows us to have some awesome two-for-ones, and Preacher demands removal, which frees up space for our other threats. If Preacher goes unchecked, he can run away with the game. We will take out both copies of Thought-Stalker Warlock, and then remove one Duress, and one Unholy Annex. Sometimes you might take out a Cut Down instead of Duress, but play it by ear for the matchup.
Lastly, we have our aggro decks that need to be answered. For these, it probably immediately sticks out that we want all three copies of Malicious Eclipse. Along with those, I like to bring in one or two Cover-Ups, and two Steel and Oil. For this, you will take out all three copies of Liliana of the Veil, and then take out one Unholy Annex. We can also remove one to two copies of Duress as needed, but just be mindful with some of the prowess decks that Duress is valuable against them too. Some of the aggro decks will have us wanting to remove Cut Down. Some of the convoke decks get the creatures that we care about too big to be in Cut Down territory, and this is where we can make an even swap on those for Dreams of Steel and Oil.
I hope this deck plays well for you! It has done well for me so far on ladder, and I think it is going to be my new deck for the upcoming season on Arena. Cheers!
