I took a stab at building Bant vigilance tribal in my last “New Perspectives” article, which you can find here, with Tamiyo, Field Researcher. I always love to see what different brews/recommendations players have to share after reading these articles, and I was particularly curious to see what players would have to say about a newer archetype like vigilance tribal. Reddit user CaptainAntiHeroz recommended I try out Odric, Lunarch Marshal, given the number of redundant keywords in my original list. They also shared their own take on the deck (linked here), which includes a number of cycling cards, as well as a toughness-matters subtheme. My favorite spicy inclusion in their list is definitely Hold the Gates, a card I had never even heard of before, but it seems perfect for their version of vigilance tribal. Thank you to CaptainAntiHeroz for sharing your list and suggestions with me!
For this week’s article, I’ll be taking a look at a much more traditional archetype, albeit through a slightly less-than-traditional lens. I’ve never gone over a dedicated Discard Deck in an article before, and this week’s decklist takes the best parts of typical discard strategies and mixes them with a little extra blink-based value.
The Oathbreaker & Signature Spell
Most discard spells used in other formats are targeted discard spells used to remove specific cards from a single opponent’s hand, but there’s more to “discard decks” as a deck archetype. Discard-based strategies look to empty their opponent’s hands entirely and proceed to punish them even further for having an empty hand with cards like The Rack. These kinds of decks are most often either mono-black or black/red, in my experience, though there are certainly other variants of the strategy out there.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin is a great Oathbreaker to build a version of this strategy around, especially since Oathbreaker is a multiplayer format. It’s a bit surprising to me that this iteration of Kaya currently only has 47 decks built around her (according to EDHrec) since she was specifically designed for multiplayer gameplay. Kaya, Ghost Assassin is unlike most planeswalkers in that instead of building towards an ultimate ability, she’s actually built to tick down in loyalty and eventually reset herself using her first ability. The deck we’re going to look at today is particularly interested in capitalizing on her first and third abilities.
As for a Signature Spell, most players tend to lean towards discard enablers like Dark Deal and Mind Rake, but I’ve opted to go with a payoff instead. Torment of Hailfire is going to come at a bit of a high cost in order for it to be effective, but if our deck’s gameplan works out then we won’t have to cast our Signature Spell more than once to end the game. Since Oathbreaker life totals only start at 20, it shouldn’t be too difficult for us to finish our opponents off with Torment of Hailfire after we empty their hands.
The Deck
Decklist: Orzhov Hailfire
The main difference between this list and most other discard decks is that a lot of our discard effects are stapled to our creatures, mostly via enter-the-battlefield triggers. Kaya’s -2 ability is one way to make our opponents discard, but by having creatures that force discard upon entering the battlefield, we can also functionally use Kaya’s 0 ability as an additional means of forced discard. White also happens to be the best color at blinking its own permanents, so we’ll have access to plenty of other redundant blink effects. It also doesn’t hurt that white is one of the best colors for a prison-style deck. Although I wouldn’t call this list a dedicated prison deck, there are a number of hindering effects in white that contribute to our deck’s main goal; slowing down our opponents through attrition in order to give ourselves the time to set up a game-ending Torment of Hailfire.
Now that you have a general idea of what this deck is trying to do, let’s look at some of the specific card choices.
- The Discard: The creature side of our discard plan is partially made up of numerous little blink targets like Burglar Rat, Rotting Rats, and Liliana’s Specter. Orzhov colors also gives us access to Basilica Bell-Haunt, a decently-sized creature that offers us some incidental lifegain. Rankle, Master of Pranks is another sweet discard enabler that can also be used to peck away at our opponents’ board presence, if need be. We’re also running Yarok’s Fenlurker as an honorary discard creature, despite the fact it doesn’t technically make our opponents discard, per se. Even though this deck has its own focus on creatures, we are running a handful of noncreature discard enablers as well. Vicious Rumors, Syphon Mind, and Unnerve each force all of our opponents to discard, and the added card advantage from Syphon Mind is particularly helpful.
- The Staples: Even with the power of our Signature Spell, we’ll want some redundant payoffs for our strategy. There are a few different kinds of payoffs this kind of deck can run; cards that punish our opponents for having an empty hand, and cards that punish our opponents for discarding cards. Shrieking Affliction and Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage are both great examples of the former, and their incidental damage will help ensure our Signature Spell proves lethal. This list runs even more cards that actively hurt our opponents when they discard, such as Bloodchief Ascension, Liliana’s Caress, Raiders’ Wake, and Fell Specter. My personal favorite payoff for this archetype is good old Waste Not, a cheap enchantment that will generate more than its fair share of value over the course of a game.
- The Spice: Aside from enabling our blink subtheme, playing white gives us access to a number of prison effects that will slow our opponents down on board, giving us the time to decimate their cards in hand. Blind Obedience and Thalia, Heretic Cathar both slow our opponents’ creatures down, with the former gaining us a bit of extra life and the latter making our opponents’ mana much more awkward. After emptying our opponents’ hands, we can even attempt to steal one of their threats with the final chapter of The Eldest Reborn. Kunoros, Hound of Athreos will also come in handy by shutting down any graveyard shenanigans of our opponents’ we may unintentionally fuel with our discard spells. As far as cards that work well with our Oathbreaker specifically, we have Forge of Heroes to give Kaya a bit of added loyalty, which is especially handy since she only ticks down on her loyalty count.
The Brainstorming
Although I’m familiar with the discard archetype as a whole, building this list has actually been my first time trying out a discard deck in Oathbreaker. I’ve also never tried mixing blink and discard themes together like this before, in any format. Needless to say, there’s been a lot of trial and error with this deck thus far, but it’s certainly come quite a ways since my first draft of the list. Even still, I’m sure this deck could use a bit more tweaking. Balancing the amount of traditional discard enablers/payoffs with the amount of blink support has been particularly challenging for me, and I suspect this area is where the deck still needs the most work.
In addition to discussing some other possible inclusions for the list, let’s take a look at the current inclusions that I’m most skeptical of, previous inclusions that I cut from the list, and the cuts that I may end up putting back in the list.
- Cards I’m skeptical of: Of all the blink enablers currently in the deck, Felidar Guardian feels the most awkward to me. It hasn’t felt very good to me to pay four mana for this card in this particular list, though it could be that I just need a few more decent blink targets. It is also kind of nice how Felidar Guardian can reset Kaya’s loyalty and allow me to get two activations out of her in a single turn. Thorn of the Black Rose is another four-drop I’m not completely sold on for this deck. As much as I love the Monarch mechanic, I suspect having another discard enabler or payoff in this spot would likely be better for the deck overall. Elspeth Conquers Death is another generically strong card that may just not be right for this deck. The first chapter of this saga is an effective piece of spot removal, but the second chapter’s impact is somewhat limited by the fact that this deck is supposed to be leaving its opponents with few cards in hand anyways. Kaya is also only able to blink creatures, not enchantments, which limits the number uses we can actually get out of this saga.
- Cards I cut: I ran The Rack, a classic tool for discard strategies, in an earlier iteration of the deck; that is, until I realized The Rack can only affect a single chosen opponent, which isn’t exactly ideal in a multiplayer format like Oathbreaker. Doom Foretold is a newer piece of tech for black/white discard strategies, but I’ve found that the rest of the list isn’t geared very well towards supporting it. As for other ways to hinder our opponents, I ran Deafening Silence in the deck for a while, but it was a bit at odds with the rest of the deck for reasons similar to those of the second chapter of Elspeth Conquers Death. I also tried out Cliffhaven Vampire early on as another card that works well with Kaya; however, similar to Doom Foretold, the rest of the deck just isn’t built in a way that supports Cliffhaven Vampire well enough.
- Cards I may try again: I’ve decided to take Kambal, Consul of Allocation out of the list for the moment, though it could be that I’m underestimating just how much damage/lifegain Kambal is capable of netting over the course of a game. Two other cards I may try again in the future are Kaya’s Guile and Oath of Kaya, even though they don’t really fit the deck’s theme. Aside from being flavor wins, each card provides its own form of utility. Oath of Kaya is a decent removal spell, and it can do a nice job of deterring our opponents from attacking Kaya. I also like how the modal nature of Kaya’s Guile makes it a very versatile spell, especially since it’s an instant.
- Other Considerations: Megrim and Quest for the Nihil Stone are two other discard payoffs that I haven’t tried out yet, but I’ll likely try running one or both of them in the future. As for discard enablers, there are still a handful of creatures that may fit well somewhere in the list. Miasmic Mummy, Ravenous Rats, and Sibsig Icebreakers all have enter-the-battlefield triggers that could be useful for this deck’s strategy. There also may be an argument for simply running more creatures with generically strong enter-the-battlefield triggers, such as Blade Splicer, Forbidding Spirit, Lazotep Reaver, and Palace Jailer. Another more unusual card I’ve considered trying out is Kaya’s Ghostform, and not just for flavor reasons. This one-drop aura happens to pair very well with Kaya herself, and it could be a convenient way to guarantee getting more value out of Kaya’s abilities.
Which Card? Discard
It still kind of boggles my mind that Kaya, Ghost Assassin doesn’t have more decks built around her. She certainly isn’t the most powerful black/white Oathbreaker out there, but she does seem to be pretty well designed for multiplayer. I chose to go the discard route with this particular build of her, but she could definitely lead a more dedicated blink strategy, or even a lifegain/life drain deck.
Have you built any Oathbreaker decks around Kaya, Ghost Assassin? Are there any particular cards you would try out in this kind of deck? Send me your Kaya and/or discard brews and suggestions in the comments or on Twitter, and I’ll highlight my favorite responses at the beginning of my next “Brainstorming” article!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com