The 34 Best Discard Outlets in Magic Ranked

Last updated on July 8, 2024

Bazaar of Baghdad | Illustration by Christopher Moeller

As weird as it sounds, sometimes you’d rather have a card in your graveyard than in your hand. The main culprits are Golgari Grave-Troll for dredge 6, Griselbrand alongside Animate Dead, or Arclight Phoenix in spellslinger decks. So, how do we put these cards in the graveyard?

Enter discard outlets, or cards that allow us to effectively discard other cards, often reaping benefits or filtering through our deck. There are plenty of ways to discard cards if we want, so let’s see which ones are the most relevant and efficient for Constructed formats. 

What Are Discard Outlets in MTG?

Oona's Prowler | Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

An outlet in MTG is a card that allows you to do an action, and for that you usually have to pay mana, tap something, or both. A discard outlet lets you pay a cost to discard cards. You see, you can’t discard a card whenever you want, so there need to be discard outlets.

The main ways to discard in MTG is to discard to hand size during the cleanup step or to discard via your opponents’ abilities. Discard outlets allow you to control when you discard a card. Also, since discarding is a resource disadvantage, a discard outlet usually allows you to get a little benefit at the same time.

The main payoffs for discarding are graveyard interactions, and many mechanics explore that space: dredge, unearth, threshold, delve, and flashback are just a few examples. There’s also the madness mechanic, and cards with madness are often better when you discard them and cast them for the madness cost.

#34. Olivia’s Dragoon

Olivia's Dragoon helps to tie a madness deck together, as a 2/2 flier for 2 mana isn’t the worst. Getting to discard at will is also a strong proposition.

#33. Wild Mongrel + Noose Constrictor

Wild Mongrel is one of the original free discard outlets that saw Constructed play. You can even change the card’s color to dodge removal like Doom Blade. It’s a bad card by today’s standards, so play it if you need to discard cards for madness or reanimator.

#32. Putrid Imp

Putrid Imp is played as a discard outlet for aggressive decks, usually with madness spells. The best factor about this black creature is that it costs only 1 mana.

#31. Oona’s Prowler

Oona's Prowler is played as a super cheap 3/1 flying creature for only 2 mana, and you can discard as many cards as you like. Your opponents also can, but then you’re trading 2 damage for one of their cards. If you want to discard, you may attack first, deal combat damage, and then discard what you want.

As a drawback, this black creature could enable your opponents’ discard synergies, but that’s rare to happen.

#30. Chart a Course

Without attacking, Chart a Course is basically draw two discard one. It’s a strong move to put an Arclight Phoenix in the graveyard before the attack. Or wait until after you attack and draw two.

#29. Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel bridges the tempo and control archetypes, as you’re hitting with a 2/1 and getting to loot. Once you have enough counters, you can play the discarded card, but a 2/1 is at the same time very fragile, so it’s hard to reach that state.

#28. Pack Rat

Pack Rat allows you to discard extra cards at instant speed and turn them into copies of Pack Rat. Cashing a card for a rat is often a good play, especially if you’re already playing something like a rat typal deck. Even if they manage to kill the original, you can make a copy and start it all over.

#27. Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Chainer, Nightmare Adept is a Rakdos commander that allows you to freely discard cards, and if you do, you get to cast a creature from your graveyard. You’re not even losing the creatures you discard; you’re just stashing them for a later turn.

#26. Demand Answers

Demand Answers is an instant-speed upgrade to cards like Tormenting Voice. You can also cash in an artifact or artifact land for the effect. It’s an interesting addition to affinity decks or spellslinger decks alike.

#25. Tortured Existence

Tortured Existence mainly sees play in Pauper and graveyard-based EDH decks. It lets you exchange two cards, one in your graveyard and one in your hand, and you can do it as many times as you have black mana. You can get a Spore Frog, sacrifice it to prevent damage, discard a dredge card like Golgari Brownscale, get your frog back, and in the next turn you recur the dredge card and some life to start it over. And that’s one of many locks the deck can apply. There are also synergies to be had by discarding Grave Scrabbler and casting it with madness.

#24. Psychatog + Psychic Frog

Psychatog is the OG discard outlet that had huge success in Standard/Extended formats. You can manipulate its size at will with cards from your hand and exiling cards from your graveyard, while turning on a powerful counter like Circular Logic. Psychic Frog is a little bit stronger, seeing as you can turn cards into +1/+1 counters, and you also get a card while hitting with the frog. Discarding two cards, turning the frog into a 3/4, hitting and drawing an extra card to replenish what you lost is strong.

#23. The Modern Age

The Modern Age is a saga that offers two loot effects for just 2 mana. This blue enchantment enables your graveyard interaction and combos well by filtering through your deck twice. 

#22. Daretti, Scrap Savant

Daretti, Scrap Savant is the perfect discard outlet to reanimate expensive artifacts, because its -1 does that. You’ll filter through your deck via the +2, and the -10 does a good Tinker impression.

#21. Collective Brutality

Collective Brutality is a powerful black sorcery that sees play in formats like Pioneer and Cube, and it allows you to trade your cards for theirs. The most common way of playing this is to discard one card and get the first two modes, sniping a card and a small creature.

#20. Thirst for Knowledge

Thirst for Knowledge (there are other thirst cards, like Thirst for Meaning and Thirst for Discovery) can be an excellent way to filter through your deck at the end of the turn. You can discard just one card or two, and that depends if you want raw card advantage or more cards in your graveyard.

#19. Big Score

Being an instant definitely helps here. Big Score is very good with copy effects, as you’ll discard one card but get two cards and two Treasures back. This red instant is mostly a value card for Limited/Standard power level. It gets better if you have Treasure synergies.

#18. Cathartic Reunion

This red sorcery costs 3 mana, but Cathartic Reunion can discard two and draw three, and it really fuels graveyard synergies. When you discard first and draw later, you can set up a nice dredge turn, too.

#17. Careful Study

Despite not having flashback, Careful Study is an excellent way to draw 2 and discard 2 for just 1 mana. This blue sorcery‘s playability is limited since it hasn’t been reprinted in Modern-legal MTG sets.

#16. Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy / Jace, Telepath Unbound

As a 2-mana looter that needs a full graveyard to flip, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy thrives in discarding instants and sorceries to play at a later turn with the planeswalker version. Once it transforms into Jace, Telepath Unbound, you can defend via the +2, or get card advantage with the -3. Flashback on a card means that in formats like Cube and Vintage, you start flashing back your Ancestral Recalls and Time Walks.

#15. Faithful Mending

Faithful Mending is one of the most played discard outlets in Standard, and there are some reanimator decks there with Reenact the Crime and Invoke Justice. You even gain some life in the process.

#14. Collector's Vault

Collector's Vault can be an effective card in reanimator decks in Standard, discarding strong cards like One with the Multiverse or Portal to Phyrexia while generating Treasure that ramps you to your big reanimation spells. It also creates artifacts and Treasure if your deck cares about them.

#13. Rona, Herald of Invasion / Rona, Tolarian Obliterator

Rona, Herald of Invasion sees play in Standard as a way to draw and discard consistently in legend-heavy decks. A card you don’t mind discarding is Dennick, Pious Apprentice to get it back via the disturb ability. Or excess lands when you're land-flooding.

#12. Raffine’s Informant

Having a connive ability on a 2/1 means that Raffine's Informant is often a 3/2, as well as an easy way to dump a card from your hand into your graveyard. Decks built around Greasefang, Okiba Boss use this card to discard expensive vehicles while maintaining a board presence.

#11. Raffine, Scheming Seer

Raffine, Scheming Seer has been a protagonist in Standard since its printing. It’s got nice stats to fight against aggro, it has ward , and lets you churn through your deck by discarding and drawing many cards. You know a match is going south when your opponents start attacking with three creatures, looting away three cards, and putting three +1/+1 counters on their creatures.

#10. Anje Falkenrath

Anje Falkenrath is a very interesting discard commander. It costs 3 mana and you can use it right away, and if you keep discarding cards with madness, you get to untap Anje and do it again. There are many vampires that work well with the madness mechanic, so this card is another take on a vampire commander for a typal deck.

#9. Shorikai, Genesis Engine

With Shorikai, Genesis Engine you can make 1/1 Pilots that crew vehicles as if they were 3/3’s, and you can make them constantly. It’s a vehicle, so it’s hard to interact with. Once you have enough vehicles, you can go on the offense. Shorikai is a good Azorius card to use in a vehicles-heavy deck, because you’ll often have pilots to offset the vehicle drawback. As a discard outlet, Shorikai provides many synergies with madness, reanimator, flashback, disturb, and other related mechanics.

#8. Lightning Axe

Lightning Axe’s main mode is to be cast for 1 mana and also discard a card. This red instant combines efficient, instant speed removal with a discard outlet, often letting you cast a madness card. Be it a Fiery Temper or an Arclight Phoenix being discarded, you’re getting something back.

#7. Dack Fayden

Dack Fayden is an Izzet () planeswalker who mostly sees play in Legacy, Cube and Vintage, which are formats with wildly different power levels between cards. Stealing an artifact is always a good option if they have a good one, and the “draw two, discard two” mode rips through your deck and finds what you need. Sometimes making them discard two is what you want, too.

#6. Liliana of the Veil

Liliana of the Veil is a black planeswalker that provides discard on demand. Each turn you can +1 it to make it stronger and have each player discard a card. It works very well with cards like flashback that you don’t mind discarding, or cards like Tarmogoyf that grow when both players fill the graveyard.

#5. Ledger Shredder

Ledger Shredder is a powerhouse in many Magic formats. The combination of a good-sized flier for just 2 mana and the free connive triggers quickly take it out of range of direct-damage removal and speeds up the clock. Plus, if you cast two spells, you get to connive, which is another free loot for you.

#4. Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun is one of the better 2-drop red creatures, allowing you to discard a card each attack step for free and turning it into a +1/+1 counter, trample, and a fresh card. You don’t even need to attack with Inti itself.

#3. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker / Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is a very interesting value engine, giving you a 2/2 token that makes Treasures, a discard two/draw two effect, and a mini Kiki-Jiki of sorts. This red enchantment was so strong in Standard that it had to be banned.

#2. Faithless Looting

Faithless Looting is one of the best graveyard enablers. For 1 mana, you can draw two cards and discard two, acting as a good filter for your cards. You can later flashback this red sorcery, and when you do, it’s not even card disadvantage. Looting is also a good tool for midrange decks to draw into action and get rid of bad cards like excess lands or dead removal.

#1. Bazaar of Baghdad

Bazaar of Baghdad is a land that only sees play in Vintage, as it’s banned in most formats and, as a Reserved List staple, is an extremely expensive card. If you have it on your opening hand, you can start dumping your cards into the graveyard, three per turn. If you discard dredge cards, you can draw two or them and mill a huge chunk of your library. Yes, it’s card disadvantage, but in this case you care more about cards in the graveyard than in your hand.

Wrap Up

Faithless Looting | Illustration by Douglas Shuler

And there we have it folks, the best discard outlets in MTG!

These are the most efficient ways to discard cards that end up seeing play. Red has a strong discard outlet machine in its many looting effects, while black mages usually can dump their hand for free if they need. I avoided expensive cards that cost too much mana to be considered efficient discard outlets.

What do you think about my list? Do you play discard outlets that aren’t here? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!