One of the most powerful mechanics to appear in Pioneer over the past couple years is definitely Discover. Geological Appraiser in particular was extremely problematic as a combo piece, resulting in the card getting banned rather quickly.
Interestingly, though, the card remains legal in Standard and hasn’t really made much noise at all recently. Neither have any cards featuring the mechanic, for that matter.
Yet, yesterday, a neat Boros deck built to abuse Discover had a strong showing in a Magic Online Standard Challenge. This deck features a bunch of new cards that make maximizing the mechanic even smoother. If you enjoy generating value, this is the shell for you.
Gameplan
The idea behind this version of Boros Discover is to get a lot of value out of each Discover trigger. Your three main Discover sources are Geological Appraiser, Etali’s Favor, and Quintorius Kand. Unlike Quintorius decks that show up in Pioneer from time to time, there aren’t any Spark Double-esque combo shenanigans to be had in Standard.
Regardless, that doesn’t mean you can’t gain a pretty big advantage out of the mechanic. See, the way this deck is built, there are only three cards with mana value four or less: Geological Appraiser, Etali’s Favor, and Sage of the Skies.
This way, whenever you Discover 3 or Discover 4, you’re guaranteed to hit either another card with Discover or Sage of the Skies, netting you two 2/3 bodies with Flying and Lifelink. If you exile another card with Discover, you simply cast it, Discover again, and eventually you’ll cast Sage of the Skies
Sage of the Skies is an excellent stabilizer for this deck against aggro. You’re naturally well set up in grindy matchups with all of your Discover cards, you really just need ways to catch up against the red decks. Adding two creatures each with Lifelink that outsize Burst Lightning is a great start.
With a full playset of Sage of the Skies in the deck, you can add a lot of extra power and toughness to the board over time by Discovering multiple times. Of course, you won’t always have Geological Appraiser or Quintorius Kand in your opening hand, so you need things to spend your mana on in the interim.
Other Plays
Fortunately, there are a bunch of cards that have mana value five or greater but still can be cast in the early turns. For removal, both Ride’s End and Twinmaw Stormbrood function as turn two pieces of interaction. As games go long, casting Twinmaw Stormbrood as a six-mana Dragon is an option, but it’s mainly in here just as a way to answer burly threats without messing with the Discover gameplan.
As for creatures, Riling Dawnbreaker, Autonomous Assembler, and Virtue of Loyalty all give you a 2/2 for two mana. This isn’t exciting by any means, but it at least helps you apply pressure while simultaneously giving you targets for Etali’s Favor. If you get to untap with your 2/2, casting Etali’s Favor and Discovering into Sage of the Skies adds a ton of board presence in short order.
Sideboard Shifts
As you might expect for a deck that doesn’t do a great job applying pressure, game one against combo and control decks can be a bit difficult. You don’t have much in the way of disruption for Azorius Omniscience combo. Meanwhile, even if you resolve Geological Appraiser or Etali’s Favor and get your value, Jeskai control and four-color Zur decks are capable of wiping your board with Day of Judgment.
All hope is not lost in these matchups, however. This is because your sideboard really comes in handy. Depending on the matchup, you’re free to board in cards with mana value four or less that are situationally strong, and your Discover cards let you find them more frequently.
Versus Omniscience combo and Jeskai Oculus, Rest in Peace works wonders. Adding Rest in Peace to your deck messes with the Sage of the Skies plan but hitting your silver bullet instead of Sage in matchups where it shines is a great way to steal games.
When facing control or four-color Zur, Imodane’s Recruiter is a premier three-drop option. Sage is stronger in most matchups, but against decks that don’t pressure your life total much, Imodane’s Recruiter helping you pour on damage by giving your team Haste makes it much easier to beat board wipes.
Wilt-Leaf Liege lines up incredibly well against Hopeless Nightmare decks. Sure, you may exile it off Quintorius Kand’s -3 ability, but that’s totally fine. After all, it can’t be taken down by Nowhere to Run, and it makes all of your other white creatures beefier.
Even adding in Beza, the Bounding Spring as an option to hit off Quintorius Kand’s -3 ability improves the mono-red and Izzet Prowess matchups. In this sense, as important as the Sage of the Skies tech is versus the red decks and midrange archetypes game one, you still get to improve an array of matchups despite your deckbuilding restrictions.
All in all, this shell is still far from tier one from a competitiveness standpoint. Nonetheless, it’s a lot of fun, and gives you a place to use some Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards like Sage that haven’t really found a home elsewhere.
