The 31 Best Discard Payoffs in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 25, 2023

Bone Miser | Illustration by Antonio Jose Manzanedo

Discarding your own cards in MTG is usually a bad idea because it's card disadvantage. Making your adversaries discard is awesome, but what if they don’t have any cards in hand? There are cards however that change this dynamic, either giving you a huge benefit when you discard your own cards or by punishing people for having few or zero cards in hand.

Once you have powerful discard effects at your disposal, it’s time to benefit from them by knowing what the best discard payoffs in MTG are. There are lots of EDH decks that operate along those lines, like Rielle, the Everwise or Nath of the Gilt-Leaf.

If you’re looking for extra ways to punish your opponents while they discard cards, look no further!

What Are Discard Payoff Cards in MTG?

Containment Construct | Illustration by Julian Kok Joon Wen

Discard payoffs are cards that benefit you and your discard strategy. That can take a lot of different forms, like discarding your own cards, making your opponents discard, or benefitting you when players are left empty-handed.

In terms of MTG color pie, black is the color that benefits from discard the most, and it’s usually the color that makes people discard the most too. Due to their aggressive nature, Rakdos often applies this strategy, since discard is usually a black thing in MTG. Since red doesn’t care about the long game, red usually casts all their cards.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a list of the best discard effects in MTG. If it were, cards like Hymn to Tourach or Mind Twist should be considered. Today’s focus is cards that get better when you or other players are discarding cards and that either benefit you or further harm your opponents.

#31. Nihilistic Glee

If you have no cards in hand, Nihilistic Glee is an awesome card draw engine. You can pay some life and draw lots of cards in a single turn because you can activate the hellbent ability (no cards in hand) as many times as you have extra mana or life to pay. Or you can activate the ability once, see what you’ve drawn, play, and decide if you want one more card.

#30. Containment Construct

Containment Construct allows you to play cards you’ve discarded this turn. It’s a weak creature and very limited in what it does, since you can’t use that to play cards your opponents made you discard. That said, it has synergies here and there with loot effects or effects that require you to discard a card to play, so it’s a nice role player in a discard-heavy strategy.

#29. Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer

Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer is much better than Containment Construct since you can cast any cards you’ve discarded without any time window as long as Oskar remains alive. It can also be your commander, and you can plan a discard-heavy strategy with it at the front. With Oskar you can either force everyone to discard cards while being able to play your discarded cards, or you can benefit twice from loot and wheel effects.

#28. Brallin, Skyshark Rider

Brallin, Skyshark Rider is a commander that gets bigger when you discard cards, and you’ll even damage your opponents directly while doing so. Playing a wheel effect with Brallin in play deals 7 damage to each opponent and leaves you with a 10/10. To make this commander more effective, you can also consider other mechanics like madness or Fling variants, which will be very strong if you have a giant Brallin at your disposal.

#27. The Haunt of Hightower

The Haunt of Hightower is a mill/discard synergy creature. When you cast it, it’s only a 3/3. But if you make opponents mill or discard, it can grow bigger than most dragons. Plus, it has lifelink, and whenever you attack an opponent, they’ll discard a card to further grow this vampire. It also works with small creature sweepers since you only grow your threat while not losing creatures in the process.

#26. Bedlam Reveler

Bedlam Reveler is a strong card if you cast it when you have zero cards in hand or a bad hand, since you’ll get rid of some bad cards and draw three cards anyway. Bedlam Reveler saw plenty of Standard and Modern play in spellslinger and midrange strategies, and it’s a nice card in decks that want to be hellbent (zero cards in hand) or near that threshold.

#25. Court of Ambition

I’m putting Court of Ambition here because it’s an interesting card. Your opponents have to discard a card or lose life, and it gets worse if you’re the monarch. When played in a discard-heavy deck, your opponents won’t have the option to discard and will lose a bunch of life instead. And if they discard cards to prevent life loss, it’s only upside to you. Things get ugly for your opponents if you’re the monarch and they start to lose 6 life a turn, and at this point, Court of Ambition becomes a win condition.

#24. Painful Quandary

Painful Quandary goes along the same lines of Court of Ambition. You'll severely hurt people that can’t or won’t discard a card just to cast a spell because they’ll have to pay five life for it. Against spellslinger or combo players, that can put a halt into their plans. Unless they have lots of life to play with or they have Aetherflux Reservoir by their side.

#23. Rielle, the Everwise

Rielle, the Everwise makes it so that the first time you discard a card each turn, you’ll automatically draw an extra card. That’s huge with effects like discard X cards, draw that many cards. You’ll cast Faithless Looting, draw 2, discard 2, and draw 2 again. Cards like Cathartic Reunion make you draw five cards, and so on. This eventually grows Rielle into a big threat that can be your win condition, and you can play cards like Crackling Drake to complement this strategy.

#22. Raiders’ Wake

Raiders' Wake combines the passive effect of punishing players for discarding cards with a nice raid effect. If you attacked someone this turn, you can choose any player to discard a card, further triggering your discard synergies. In a Nath of the Gilt-Leaf EDH deck, you can even throw away a token to trigger raid because you’ll get another token back.

#21. Null Brooch

Null Brooch offers you a free counterspell every turn by discarding all your cards, which is really a steep price to pay. But what if you have no cards in hand? Or maybe one card? If you discard a single card, it’s almost like you’ve cast a counterspell. It’s also a way to discard big creatures to reanimate or instantly activate hellbent abilities.

#20. Faith of the Devoted

Faith of the Devoted can be a big role-player in a deck filled with cycling or discard effects. You’ll deal damage to players and gain life while discarding cards, and that can add to other strategies and engines, be it in a lifegain deck or an deck that cares about your opponents losing life.

#19. Drake Haven

Drake Haven is a strong fit for blue discard/loot-based strategies since you can pay one mana to create a 2/2 token with flying whenever you discard a card. These are already good creatures, but when they come attached to a card, it’s even better. If you have some extra mana laying around, you can profit when other players make you discard cards, especially when playing against wheel commanders. Throw in a “flying creatures get +1/+0” effect and you’ve got a route to victory.

#18. Fell Specter

The next few cards do the same thing: make opponents lose life when they discard cards. Fell Specter isn’t strictly worse than Megrim or Liliana's Caress, it’s just that it costs more and it’s more vulnerable to creature removal and/or wraths. Still, you’ll get to make someone discard when Fell Specter ETBs, and it’s better in blink strategies.

#17. Megrim

Megrim is an enchantment that complements a discard strategy well, and it’s devastating with wheels alongside a Nekusar, the Mindrazer commander. With Megrim and Nekusar together, you’re not only dealing damage while people draw, but also when people discard. Plus, you’ll have extra incentives to play effects that make everyone discard like Dark Deal.

#16. Liliana’s Caress

Liliana's Caress is an almost strictly better Megrim since it does the same and costs one less to cast. The only difference is that this card causes loss of life, while the other causes damage. In a discard-heavy strategy in EDH you should play both cards, but in a 60-card format I’d stick to 3-4 Liliana's Caress.

#15. Geth’s Grimoire

Drawing cards consistently makes every strategy better since you’ll have a resource advantage and more options, reducing variance. Geth's Grimoire gives you a card each time an opponent discards a card. Every deck can play it since it’s an artifact, but black decks probably want it the most. Plus, it mitigates the downside of symmetric discard effects like Liliana of the Veil’s +1 ability because you’ll have to discard but often get more cards than you discarded.

#14. The Raven Man

The Raven Man gives you some 1/1 birds if your opponents discarded cards on a given turn. You can even force them to discard by paying some mana and tapping it, which is probably the better part of this card. The Raven Man doesn’t look like much, but it gets better if you have a card like Necrogen Mists that can make people discard every turn.

#13. Asylum Visitor

Asylum Visitor is a vampire that allows you to draw cards when players have no cards in hand. This incentivizes you to play a proactive strategy, effectively playing all your cards and making your opponents discard all cards. It’s a nice card to counteract your opponents’ discard-heavy strategies since it has madness and you’ll profit if they don’t have cards in hand. Suddenly, a card like Awaken the Erstwhile makes you draw a card on each of your opponents’ upkeep steps. In this case, you’ll not even care if they made some zombies here and there.

#12. Toluz, Clever Conductor

Toluz, Clever Conductor allows you to get back all the cards you’ve discarded while it was in play. That has synergies with lots of effects that discard cards like the connive ability, wheel effects, and looting effects. Toluz gets played alongside Raffine, Scheming Seer in Standard, and you can play it in discard-heavy strategies. It can also be a nice Esper commander. This card is usually seen with the likes of Viscera Seer or Village Rites so that you can retrieve the cards at will or avoid it getting exiled.

#11. Liliana, Waker of the Dead

Liliana of the Veil is a big blank if your opponents don’t have cards. This version of Liliana makes the list for a few reasons. Liliana, Waker of the Dead can make people discard cards or lose life if they can’t, which is an awesome discard payoff. Plus, you’ll get removal with its -3 ability, and its emblem is a free reanimate effect every turn from any graveyard. Eventually you’ll get to use all these good creatures that were discarded along the way.

#10.Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf is one of the first commanders to support a elves EDH deck. It supports both elf tribal and discard themes. Each time an opponent discards a card, you get to make an elf token, and you can also make a player discard a random card each turn just by having Nath in play. Suddenly, each card says “each opponent that discards a card can make you three elf tokens.” This commander is a discard payoff, and it’s a nice combo with Sadistic Hypnotist since you can sacrifice the elf tokens to make them discard more cards and make more elf tokens.

#9. Bone Miser

Bone Miser is a nice role-player in black strategies interested in discarding cards, since you’ll either get two mana, a 2/2 zombie, or an extra card. All that while filling your graveyard for other purposes, like reanimator, or while looting to your heart’s content. Plus, you can fit Bone Miser in a zombie tribal strategy, especially if your opponents love to make you discard cards.

#8. Surly Badgersaur

Surly Badgersaur is like a red Bone Miser. The benefits are a little bit better though, and red gets plenty of discard effects, like Faithless Looting or Big Score. Discarding lands to a Big Score can get you plenty of Treasure, ramping you into bigger threats. It’s also a dinosaur for decks that want it, and you can use your Badgersaur to remove small threats or inconvenient commanders by fighting them.

#7. Ensnaring Bridge

If you have Ensnaring Bridge and no cards in hand, people simply can’t attack you. As long as you’re discarding cards or playing your cards as you draw them, you’re safe from enemy creatures. Maindeck artifact removal is much more common these days, but just a few years ago, Ensnaring Bridge was a lock in prison/stax decks, at least in game 1. Bridge was a nice complement to The Rack strategies, since you could make your opponents lose life each turn and they couldn't even attack you.

#6. Tourach, Dread Cantor

Tourach, Dread Cantor is a powerful threat that sees Modern play, and it can be a nice commander too. It grows whenever opponents discard cards, and just casting it with kicker casts a Hymn to Tourach on someone, foiling their plans while bolstering yours. Besides being a nice discard payoff, it’s a human for typal purposes. It also has protection from white, very relevant considering that white has a lot of good creatures and spot removal.

#5. Waste Not

Waste Not is a pillar of any strategy that cares about your opponents discarding cards or denying them resources. It’s very similar to Bone Miser, the enchantment version, except that Waste Not cares for your opponents discarding instead of you. It’s also way cheaper, and with this card in play, just casting cards like Burglar Rats already gives you a big resource advantage. It gets crazier in decks with access to wheels.

#4. Hazoret the Fervent

Besides being indestructible, Hazoret the Fervent is a 5/4 haste that allows you to turn any card into damage. It can’t attack unless you have one or fewer cards but in Hazoret decks this is almost never a downside, since most of the time you’ve already used your cards. Hazoret saw plenty of Standard play and currently sees some Explorer / Pioneer play as well. It packs a strong punch, offers reach via the discard ability, and it’s really difficult to deal with for most decks.

#3. The Rack

The Rack offers its name to tier 1,5 – 2 Modern decks (8-Rack, 12-Rack), and those are decks that want to make opponents keep their card count low and deal damage to them. If an opponent has two or fewer cards in hand, they’ll constantly take damage from The Rack. You’ll rip through your opponent’s hand with cards like Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and put them into a clock. Cards like The Rack are strong in multiples, and there’s a huge difference between taking 2-6 damage every turn.

#2. Tinybones, Trinket Thief

Tinybones, Trinket Thief is a cheap creature that’s a huge incentive for making opponents discard. Every turn you have a possibility of losing a life and drawing a card, and later in the game you can punish them real hard for not having cards in hand at all. This card is a very strong commander to lead a discard strategy since it gets into play early, it’s cheap to recast in a Commander game, and can be a reliable win condition later on.

#1. Tergrid, God of Fright

Tergrid, God of Fright is a commander that can steal cards that opponents discarded or sacrificed. Granted, it only works for permanent cards discarded this way, but these make up the majority of a deck anyway. Filling a Tergrid deck with symmetric sacrifice or discard effects benefits you immensely, so it’s a great fit in Stax strategies. In formats like Explorer where you can have more than one copy of a given card, you can have Tergrid plus the other side of the card (Tergrid's Lantern) in play at the same time, and that’s a nasty combo. Tergrid's Lantern in EDH is very powerful if you need a mana sink, and it gets ridiculous with cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Cabal Coffers.

Wrap Up

Hazoret the Fervent | Illustration by Chase Stone

Discard strategies can be very powerful in almost any MTG format, from Standard to EDH. Decks with cards like The Rack and Ensnaring Bridge are always on the edge of playability, and black-based decks in EDH have plenty of ways to punish people by making them discard. WotC prints cards that make everyone discard on a regular basis, and there’s always a new commander that gives a new spin on this theme. One thing’s for sure: no matter the format, people hate to have to discard cards, and if you’re one of those people that like to make people suffer, this list has plenty of options for you.  

What do you think about this list? is there some card you’ll add to an EDH deck? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it in Draftsim’s Discord.

Thanks for reading folks, and don’t get attached to your cards in hand.