If you have played in the early years of Competitive Magic: the Gathering TCG, I am pretty sure you are familiar with this particular combo deck that existed during the Mirage-Tempest block Type 2 constructed format. The deck was called the Cadaverous Bloom combo and revolves around the strategy of assembling the combo card pieces and winning from there.

The Cadaverous Bloom combo deck revolves around a specific combo involving the cards Squandered Resources, and Recycle. Here’s a brief overview of how the combo works:

Cadaverous Bloom: This enchantment still allows you to exile a card from your hand and add black mana to your mana pool equal to the exiled card’s casting cost.

Squandered Resources: This card allows you to sacrifice a land to add one mana of any color to your mana pool. It synergizes with Cadaverous Bloom by providing additional mana resources.

Recycle: This enchantment remains in the combo, allowing you to skip your draw step and draw an additional card whenever you play a card.

The combo sequence is as follows:

• Have Cadaverous Bloom, Squandered Resources, and Recycle on the battlefield.
• Exile cards from your hand with Cadaverous Bloom to generate black mana.
• Use Squandered Resources to sacrifice lands, adding mana to your pool.
• With the generated mana, cast a creature with a converted mana cost of three or less, triggering Recycle to draw a card.
• Repeat the process, using Cadaverous Bloom, Squandered Resources, and Recycle to generate mana, cast creatures, and draw cards.

As before, the deck aims to cycle through its library, accumulate mana, and ultimately win the game with a potent spell or combo. The specific card win condition, Prosperity, involves forcing your opponent to draw their entire library, leading to their game loss due to being unable to draw a card. Another way of winning is via a huge mana spent on X in Drain Life sorcery spell aimed at the opponent’s dome.

The powerful consistency of the deck led to the banning of Squandered Resources in June 1997 in the constructed format.

A Magic: The Gathering discard deck, also known as a “discarder” deck or a “hand disruption” deck, is a strategy that focuses on forcing the opponent to discard cards from their hand, disrupting their resources and game plan.

The goal of a discard deck is to strip the opponent’s hand, leaving them with limited options and making it difficult for them to execute their strategy effectively.

Here’s an example of a discarder deck:

Decklist:
Creatures:
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Liliana’s Specter
2 Shrieking Affliction
Spells:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
Enchantments:
4 The Rack
2 Waste Not
Other:
22 Swamp (lands)

This deck utilizes creatures and spells that force the opponent to discard cards. Ravenous Rats, Hypnotic Specter, and Liliana’s Specter are examples of creatures that have effects that make the opponent discard a card when they enter the battlefield or deal combat damage. This provides ongoing hand disruption while also providing a body on the board.

The spells in the deck, such as Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Hymn to Tourach, and Duress, directly target the opponent’s hand, allowing you to selectively remove their most threatening cards or disrupt their overall strategy.

The enchantments in the deck, such as The Rack and Waste Not, provide additional ways to punish the opponent for having a reduced hand size. The Rack deals damage to the opponent each turn if they have fewer than three cards in hand, while Waste Not generates additional value by giving you benefits whenever the opponent discards a card.

The land base consists entirely of Swamps, as this deck is typically mono-black. This ensures consistent mana production.

The goal of a discarder deck is to establish early hand disruption and maintain pressure on the opponent’s hand throughout the game. By forcing them to discard valuable cards, you can disrupt their plans and limit their options, ultimately gaining a significant advantage. The Rack and other punishing effects can then capitalize on the opponent’s limited resources.

Another relevant Discarder deck I have faced in the past was the Black-Green Rack with the Tarmogoyf.

Here below is an example decklist in the Modern format.

It’s important to note that the specific cards and strategies used in a discard deck may vary depending on the format and the metagame. Adjustments should be made to suit the current environment and the decks you expect to face.

The Magic: the Gathering Yorion, Sky Nomad built-around Standard decks continue to be a significant part of the metagame because of the major card advantage it can provide to your other creatures. The initial build in the past few months started with Jeskai Ultimatum and Blue White control, and later on it continues to evolve.

One interesting Yorion Standard deck that I am sharing today is the piloted by Japanese Pro player Ken Yukihiro. His take is that of the Abzan (Green-White-Black) colors with the Food strategy as the startup route.

Here below is the full list of the Abzan Yorion deck.

Reference: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=31353&f=ST