MTG Salvation

ok, so there is a mono black dude in my playgroup that runs alot of discard. Mind Sludge, Persecute, Mind Twist, Mind Shatter, Monomania, and even the 1 for 1s like thought seize and duress. most of the time, i can somewhat recover if he hits me, but i am building teneb good stuff for next weekend, and would like to actually dedicate some slots to defend against these cards.
Leyline of Sanctity and Ivory Mask are the obvious ones, but I would only be interested in running leyline because it really doesn't do anything against other opponents. so i was interested to see if there was some neat tech out there that i didnt know about. the only thing i've comeup with so far is imp's mischief

Imp's mischief as you mentioned or running your own discard and hitting him first are your best options. Not as narrow as something like leyline.

Since your general is Teneb, you might want the "You gain hexproof" options for the added benefit of saying "Screw you, Nihil Spellbomb and Bokuja Bog." And probably a bunch of other cards.

ironically since your playing black, be proactive and play your own discard spells. i hear persecute naming black is pretty damaging vs mono black decks.

also you can just draw more cards to dig yourself out of the hole

Run more flashback/madness spells. Or other thing's castable from the graveyard. Run more recursion of any type. It's annoying, but you can work around it.

Perfect chance to use Bottled Cloister.

Witchbane Orb is almost always a useful card - stops you from being hit by Bribery, Tormod's Crypt, Mind Twist, infinite mana Fireball, and many other annoying cards as well.

True Believer, Seht's Tiger, and Genesis are some more options.

Depends on what you are running, there are many good "returns from the graveyard" cards. In Red for example you can run things like Squee, Goblin Nabob and Punishing Fire, while black gives you Reassembling Skeleton and Nether Shadow. Green can run things like Genesis, Obstinate Baloth and Vengevine.

The list goes on, if you are worried that you are losing these cards then consider something like an Eldrazi to shuffle them back into your library.

But the thing about discard is that in commander it's really considered another resource, in many of the decks that I play, having a stocked graveyard is an advantage - for example effectively turning the Regrowth in your hand into a Demonic Tutor.

Library of Leng could be good, especially if you have good draw.

Rebound, Misdirection and Mental Misstep for Duress et al.

Quote from Shinriko

Perfect chance to use Bottled Cloister.

This card is awesome, but for different reasons. It's great for drawing you cards if you tend to be able to play a couple cards during your turn (i.e. you have plenty of mana).

As a defense against discard, it's OK. The trouble is, you're defending against discard, but you're making yourself VERY vulnerable to other types of spells -permanent-bouncing spells, Shatter spells, etc.

Against mono-black, it's probably worth it, because there's not much in the way of artifact destruction or bounce. Against any other color combination, it's a really bad idea to use this card with the intention of protecting cards in your hand. It's still great for card drawing, don't get me wrong... but it's very bad at protecting your hand.

Losing CA sucks, but Yawgmoth's Will helps here.

Pure intentions would be hilarious against him, Geth's Grimoire has been said and i'll second that.

Quote from mikel123

This card is awesome, but for different reasons. It's great for drawing you cards if you tend to be able to play a couple cards during your turn (i.e. you have plenty of mana).

As a defense against discard, it's OK. The trouble is, you're defending against discard, but you're making yourself VERY vulnerable to other types of spells -permanent-bouncing spells, Shatter spells, etc.

Against mono-black, it's probably worth it, because there's not much in the way of artifact destruction or bounce. Against any other color combination, it's a really bad idea to use this card with the intention of protecting cards in your hand. It's still great for card drawing, don't get me wrong... but it's very bad at protecting your hand.

I was factoring in the mono-black opponent when I made the suggestion.

It is also great fun with Ensnaring Bridge.

Too bad you're not in red. Ignorant Bliss is a riot.

You could always lean towards graveyard mechanics in your card choices. Big Game Hunter and some good flashback cards like Sever the Bloodline, for instance.

Since your general is Teneb, you might want the "You gain hexproof" options for the added benefit of saying "Screw you, Nihil Spellbomb and Bokuja Bog." And probably a bunch of other cards.

this is actually a great point that I've never considered.. GY hate is not as prominent as it probably should be amongst my friends, but i am quite sure mr. discard at least runs Bojuka. at this point, i'm thinking leyline and witchane orb, just to mix it up. it's just too bad it doesnt protect me from things like animate dead and beacon of unrest...

i hear persecute naming black is pretty damaging vs mono black decks

personally, i'm not that big of a fun of discarding people, but this is DEFINITELY going in against him as my only one.

Gustha's Scepter

what the... what a wierd card
Genesis is in because i'm running survival of the fittest. flashback spells are army of the damned and unburial rites
Pure intentions is one of those cards i keep thinking of running, but dont. i just dont like how they still get to see your hand.. but i guess thats better than being hand-less..
thx for the great ideas!

In teneb, if you want to make someone discard, don't Persecute them.
Go the whole hog and Identity Crisis them.
It's harsh but my word does it work.

Dawn Charm should also work for stopping spell-based discard from hitting you, just throwing it out there.
Its other two uses are also both handy to have as options.

identity crisis was my first candidate for my one slot discard, and i know how powerful it is, but i really only have interest in aiming my discard spell at mr. discard, so i went with the cheaper persecute. plus with four 2cmc or less ramp spells, there's a slight chance i might be able to pull it off 3rd turn.
but dawn charm... holy crap i forgot about dawn charm! particularily my foil one that's been collecting dust in my stack of white cards. this is exactly what i was looking for thx

Run cards like Dodecapod, Quagnoth, and Wilt-Leaf Liege

Quote from Genra

at this point, i'm thinking leyline and witchane orb, just to mix it up. it's just too bad it doesnt protect me from things like animate dead and beacon of unrest...

It's too bad Ground Seal and Grafdigger's Cage affect you too

It seems to me that the best defense is a good offense, particularly if you're going to be running :symb::symg::symw:, which affords you awesome card draw and recursion. My strategy would probably be to both attempt to out-draw the discard, and embrace the discard by recurring things I'm forced to discard (i.e. Reanimate, Yawgmoth's Will etc.). Eternal Witness, Reveillark, Sun Titan, etc. all go a long way to creating advantage, even (or perhaps particularly) in the face of discard.

so i wanted to follow up on this thread with my results from this past weekend
i went with Leyline of Sanctity, ivory mask, imp's mischief, and dawn charm for the "anti-discard" and it ended up working very well for me. the enchantments never got removed after i casted them, and even forced one person to bojuka bog someone else's GY (which was quite irrelevant) rather than mine. i was able to use imp's mischief to redirect a removal spell to save my teneb at one point, and dawn charm was able to fog a lethal thraximunder swing, which kept me in the game to win a turn after.
all in all, these cards all did great things, and didn't just sit dead in my hand, and i would like to thank everybody for all the contributions

Spiritual Focus

Quote from madhatter00o

Spiritual Focus

I was about to quote this card. Since he's mono black, he'll definitely have problems trying to take out this card once it's casted. You'll have plenty of ways to tutor up this card especially since you're playing Teneb. Enlightened Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, etc...

Leyline of Sanctity and the like won't exactly protect you from non-targetted discard like Mindslicer, Ravenous Rats, Syphon Mind, etc.


Likewise, I play Sacred Ground in land destruction heavy meta.

True Believer comes down earlier than most other shroud granting cards and plays well with Reveilark and Karador, if you use them.