MTG fans complain Discover is more broken than Cascade, not less as WotC intended

Immediately after the official launch of Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Lost Caverns of Ixalan, players started brewing spicy new decks focused around the untried Discover mechanic. The results are unexpected, to say the least.

MTG announced the Discover ability as a sort of “fixed” Cascade, but many players claim that it has accomplished quite the opposite. On MTGO, players have discovered a frantic combo for both Explorer and Pioneer formats that seemingly just keeps going.

The combo in question uses Geological Appraiser, a new uncommon human creature card from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, for its Discover ability. The card will exile a clone spell such as Glasspool Mimic, Saheeli Rai, or Mirror Image to make copies of Geological Appraiser. Each copy of Geological Appraiser triggers its Discover ability on entering the battlefield.

This can go on for a while until one clone finally hits Eldritch Evolution with Discover. The player can then tutor for Trumpeting Carnosaur, which, you guessed it, also has Discover. For the low investment of four mana, the player has now summoned an army of clones and a giant dinosaur. Players can finish their opponents by tutoring for Doomskar Titan, a Giant Berserker that enables haste on all creatures.

This game-winning combo has been featured on MTGO’s official website. The decks piloted by JMM and triosk reached first and third place, respectively, in the Pioneer Showcase Challenge on Nov. 19. By using Quintorius Kand’s passive ability that deals damage to all opponents for each spell cast from exile, JMM was able to work his way to first place by dealing tons of direct damage.

Whilst Twitter users are known for their slightly exaggerated stance on just about any subject, their Reddit counterparts usually take a beat to articulate coherent explanations as to why we all should calm down. Reddit user Winter_File_405 explains on a MagicArena thread: “Discover is tied to mana value. You can’t cast a spell with higher mana value. If it says discover 2 you can’t cast the backside of Valki.” While this is true, and it is thoroughly explained on MTG’s website, the Discover mechanic remains a very powerful tool, offering players the ability to strategically access specific spells from their library, potentially ending the game.

The infamous Companion mechanic is the only mechanic that has ever been “nerfed” for being too powerful in all of Magic’s history. For now, it is too early to say how greatly Discover will alter formats such as Explorer and Pioneer to the point that WotC will have to intervene. We have seen emergency bans in Standard and MTG Arena in recent years, although these bans always targeted a single card that warped the format on its own.