Budget MTG Legend Locks Opponents Down With Hand Size Restrictions

In Commander, there’s a wide array of different strategies that players can build around to great success. Typically, while counterplay and interaction are always important, the vast majority of strategies are rather self-centered. Whether you’re building around a typal strategy like Dragons, or a theme like Counters, your own game plan is usually the focus.

As fun as these strategies can be, there’s also joy to be found in messing with your opponents’ strategies instead. Control and Stax-focused decks are great at this, of course, but few things feel quite as punishing as discard decks. If this is the route you want to go down, then Winter, Misanthropic Guide is one of the most entertaining and oppressive options.

MTG Winter, Misanthropic Guide

In a vacuum, Winter, Misanthropic Guide can easily work against you, since it gives away six cards during your turn. Thankfully, you do get two cards yourself, but even then, you’re giving opponents fuel to potentially answer your threats. While this is hardly the best trade deal in MTG, Winter’s final ability changes the game entirely.

Once you clear the Delirium card type threshold, let alone push it further, you’ll want opponents to be drawing more cards. After all, the more cards your opponents have in hand, the more they’ll need to discard at the end of turn. This is where Winter shines, as there are plenty of cards like Waste Not Waste Not Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, add {B}{B}.
Whenever an opponent discards a noncreature, nonland card, draw a card. and Liliana’s Caress Liliana’s Caress Whenever an opponent discards a card, that player loses 2 life. to make discarding that much more punishing.

Beyond these staple enchantments, creatures like Tinybones, Bauble Burglar Tinybones, Bauble Burglar Whenever an opponent discards a card, exile it from their graveyard with a stash counter on it.
During your turn, you may play cards you don't own with stash counters on them from exile, and mana of any type can be spent to cast those spells.
{3}{B}, {T}: Each opponent discards a card. Activate only as a sorcery. and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal Flying, lifelink
Whenever Aclazotz attacks, each opponent discards a card. For each opponent who can't, you draw a card.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, create a 1/1 black Bat creature token with flying.
When Aclazotz dies, return it to the battlefield tapped and transformed under its owner's control. can do tons of work. To make the most of these, though, you’ll want to give opponents as many cards as possible. Thankfully, between Scrawling Crawler Scrawling Crawler At the beginning of your upkeep, each player draws a card.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, that player loses 1 life. , Seizan, Perverter of Truth Seizan, Perverter of Truth At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player loses 2 life and draws two cards. , and Spiteful Visions Spiteful Visions At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.
Whenever a player draws a card, this enchantment deals 1 damage to that player. , this is pretty easy to do.

With all this card draw going around, you can also lean into ways to punish this, like Razorkin Needlehead Razorkin Needlehead This creature has first strike during your turn.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, this creature deals 1 damage to them. and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Deathtouch
Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, they lose 2 life. . If that isn’t enough to keep your opponents on the back foot, you can also run graveyard-matters cards like Barrowgoyf Barrowgoyf Deathtouch, lifelink
Barrowgoyf's power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may mill that many cards. If you do, you may put a creature card from among them into your hand. , Necrogoyf Necrogoyf Necrogoyf's power is equal to the number of creature cards in all graveyards.
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player discards a card.
Madness {1}{B}{B} (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.) , and Polygoyf. Hell, you can even run Reanimate and Valgavoth, Terror Eater Valgavoth, Terror Eater Flying, lifelink
Ward—Sacrifice three nonland permanents.
If a card you didn't control would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
During your turn, you may play cards exiled with Valgavoth. If you cast a spell this way, pay life equal to its mana value rather than pay its mana cost. to pull cards out of the grave.

No Cards for You

While Winter’s core game plan revolves around forcing additional draw and discard, that’s not the star of the show. Instead, Winter, Misanthropic Guide’s party trick is to push Delirium further, reducing your opponent’s hand size to zero. To get this online as fast as possible, there are self-Mill engines like Stitcher’s Supplier Stitcher’s Supplier When this creature enters or dies, mill three cards. (Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.) , not to mention every supertype possible.

Thankfully, you don’t have to force in every supertype, as there are plenty of powerful discard-focused Planeswalkers. Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted Whenever an opponent draws a card, Ob Nixilis deals 1 damage to that player.
−2: Destroy target creature. Its controller draws two cards. , for instance, can be a real menace, while Grist, the Hunter Tide’s ultimate packs a mean punch. Even Battles aren’t forced additions, as Invasion of Zendikar Invasion of Zendikar (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. provides strong ramp while Invasion of Eldraine Invasion of Eldraine (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, target opponent discards two cards. forces discarding.

Alongside these, you can also run Tarmogoyf Nest Tarmogoyf Nest Enchant land
Enchanted land has "{1}{G}, {T}: Create a Tarmogoyf token." (It's a {1}{G} Lhurgoyf creature with "Tarmogoyf's power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.") , Lignify Lignify Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is a Treefolk with base power and toughness 0/4 and loses all abilities. , and Formless Genesis Formless Genesis Changeling (This card is every creature type.)
Create an X/X colorless Shapeshifter creature token with changeling and deathtouch, where X is the number of land cards in your graveyard.
Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.) to hit Kindred. Naturally, cards with multiple supertypes, like Haywire Mite Haywire Mite When this creature dies, you gain 2 life.
{G}, Sacrifice this creature: Exile target noncreature artifact or noncreature enchantment. and Osseous Sticktwister Osseous Sticktwister Lifelink
Delirium — At the beginning of your end step, if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, each opponent may sacrifice a nonland permanent of their choice or discard a card. Then this creature deals damage equal to its power to each opponent who didn't sacrifice a permanent or discard a card this way. , are also solid inclusions. Even artifact lands like Drossforge Bridge Drossforge Bridge This land enters tapped.
Indestructible
{T}: Add {B} or {R}. and Slagwoods Bridge Slagwoods Bridge This land enters tapped.
Indestructible
{T}: Add {R} or {G}. aren’t bad inclusions, either, honestly.

Since all of these cards are just good in a discard-focused strategy, getting at least seven supertypes in the graveyard is surprisingly doable without forcing it. If you do want to push things even further, however, then you can also run Gnat Miser Gnat Miser Each opponent's maximum hand size is reduced by one. and Locust Miser Locust Miser Each opponent's maximum hand size is reduced by two. . While these cards can work wonders, notably, you do have to work around timestamp order.

Since effects like Reliquary Tower Reliquary Tower You have no maximum hand size.
{T}: Add {C}. are popular in Commander, it’s entirely possible for Winter’s big flashy effect to be nullified. To get around this, you can use cards like Conjurer’s Closet Conjurer’s Closet At the beginning of your end step, you may exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control. to ensure Winter is the most recent hand-affecting effect that entered.

Strong Yet Surprisingly Cheap

All in all, since Winter, Misanthropic Guide gets consistently stronger throughout the game; he makes for a stellar Commander. This power doesn’t come at a great cost, either, as you can pick up a near-mint copy of Winter for just $0.13 on TCGplayer. Even the showcase variant will only cost $0.25 if you’re a fan of that art treatment. With this in mind, Winter, Misanthropic Guide is a great pick for a discard-focused Commander.

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