<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tinybones, Bauble Burglar" href="#" target="_blank">Tinybones, Bauble Burglar</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/leossart">Leonardo Santanna</a></p>
<p>Welcome back to <em>Best At, Worst At</em>. In this series, we look at some of Commander's most popular strategies, see which legendary creatures lead the most decks for them, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of those cards.</p>
<p>In today's edition, we'll be looking at <a href="https://edhrec.com/tags/discard">Discard decks</a>. Discard decks are among Commander's most popular. With 33,524 decks on EDHREC, they currently sit as the 26th most popular strategy in our format! Let's see what makes this strategy work.</p>
<h2>Why Play Discard?</h2>
<p>Discard decks seek to strip resources out of opposing players' hands, winning the game by preventing other players from taking meaningful game actions consistently.</p>
<p>Discard effects are primarily found in <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, and cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Syphon Mind" href="#" target="_blank">Syphon Mind</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dark Deal" href="#" target="_blank">Dark Deal</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> see heavy play. There are also some great payoffs for opponents ditching cards from their hand, like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Syr Konrad, the Grim" href="#" target="_blank">Syr Konrad, the Grim</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Waste Not" href="#" target="_blank">Waste Not</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Syphon Mind"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Waste Not"></div></div>
<h2>Who's The Most Popular Discard Commander?</h2>
<p>The most popular discard commander is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tinybones, Bauble Burglar" href="#" target="_blank">Tinybones, Bauble Burglar</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This little guy leads 9,607 decks, and while other commanders may have more decks to their name overall, Tinybones has the most tagged with "discard" in EDHREC's database.</p>
<p>For <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-1" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, he's a 1/3 Skeleton Rogue that provides us with easy access to the cards that our opponents discard from their hands. He also lets us force each of our opponents to discard a card from their hand for <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-3" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> with an activated ability.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tinybones, Bauble Burglar"></div></div>
<h3>What Makes Tinybones So Powerful?</h3>
<p>Tinybones gives us consistent, "fair" access to our opponents' discarded stuff. We can view him as a friendlier version of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tergrid, God of Fright" href="#" target="_blank">Tergrid, God of Fright</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Tergrid can inspire fear in opponents, and is frequently the target of removal spells. She's widely known as a "kill on sight" commander, and her pilots are treated with a good degree of hostility at most Commander tables.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards side-by-side"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tergrid, God of Fright"></div></div>
<p>Tinybones may not give us the same amount of free value that Tergrid does, but this Skeleton Rogue does let us access our opponents' stuff in the same way that Tergrid does. In fact, Tinybones gives us access to a bit more than Tergrid! That five-mana God only lets us steal permanent cards from our opponents' hands, while Tinybones provides us access to permanents and nonpermanents alike.</p>
<p>Another advantage that Tinybones has is his low mana cost. He can be cast for just <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-1" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, allowing him to hit the board and start making an impact on the game early. That low mana cost also allows this commander to be recast with ease, disincentivizing our opponents from removing him.</p>
<p>Finally, this creature's activated ability is nice to have. We'll often have more efficient discard effects available, but it's great to have this ability as a fallback. This <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-tap" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> ability makes our commander into a neat card advantage engine, in a roundabout way. We can spend <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-3" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> to get three new cards from our opponents' hands to play with.</p>
<h3>What's in a Tinybones Deck?</h3>
<p>These lists include tons of effects that force our opponents to play with very few cards in hand. Effects like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Painful Quandary" href="#" target="_blank">Painful Quandary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Oppression" href="#" target="_blank">Oppression</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cunning Lethemancer" href="#" target="_blank">Cunning Lethemancer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> feature heavily.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Painful Quandary"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Oppression"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cunning Lethemancer"></div></div>
<p>There are also a few effects that pay us off for all the cards we'll rip from opponents' hands. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bandit&#039;s Talent" href="#" target="_blank">Bandit&#039;s Talent</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tinybones, Trinket Thief" href="#" target="_blank">Tinybones, Trinket Thief</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Entropic Battlecruiser" href="#" target="_blank">Entropic Battlecruiser</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> all see significant play.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Bandit&#039;s Talent"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tinybones, Trinket Thief"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Entropic Battlecruiser"></div></div>
<p>Here's the average Tinybones decklist, according to EDHREC's data:</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Tiny Bones, Big Dreams" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
[/Commander]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Charcoal Diamond
*1 Entropic Battlecruiser
*1 Geth&#039;s Grimoire
*1 Jet Medallion
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Swiftfoot Boots
[/Artifacts]
[Creatures]
*1 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead
*1 Burglar Rat
*1 Crypt Ghast
*1 Cunning Lethemancer
*1 Elderfang Disciple
*1 Fell Specter
*1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
*1 Hecteyes
*1 Mindslicer
*1 Necrogoyf
*1 Nezumi Informant
*1 Plaguecrafter
*1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
*1 Sangromancer
*1 Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid&#039;s Lantern
*1 The Raven Man
*1 Thieving Varmint
*1 Tinybones, Trinket Thief
*1 Tinybones, the Pickpocket
*1 Tourach, Dread Cantor
*1 Virus Beetle
[/Creatures]
[Enchantments]
*1 Bandit&#039;s Talent
*1 Bottomless Pit
*1 Hopeless Nightmare
*1 Liliana&#039;s Caress
*1 Megrim
*1 Necrogen Mists
*1 Oppression
*1 Painful Quandary
*1 Tinybones Joins Up
*1 Waste Not
[/Enchantments]
[Instants]
*1 Dark Ritual
*1 Deadly Rollick
*1 Defile
*1 Fake Your Own Death
*1 Go for the Throat
*1 Imp&#039;s Mischief
*1 Infernal Grasp
*1 Withering Torment
[/Instants]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]
[Sorceries]
*1 Arterial Flow
*1 Dark Deal
*1 Delirium Skeins
*1 Duress
*1 Feed the Swarm
*1 Let&#039;s Play a Game
*1 Mind Rake
*1 Pilfer
*1 Rankle&#039;s Prank
*1 Reanimate
*1 Sign in Blood
*1 Syphon Mind
*1 Thoughtseize
*1 Toxic Deluge
*1 Vicious Rumors
[/Sorceries]
[Lands]
*1 Bojuka Bog
*1 Cabal Coffers
*1 Cabal Stronghold
*1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
*1 Reliquary Tower
*29 Swamp
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]"></span></div>
<h3>What Are Tinybones' Shortcomings?</h3>
<p>Tinybones is a discard payoff and a way to force discard, but doesn't do either of those things in a stellar manner.</p>
<p>He gives us access to our opponents' cards, but those cards may not fit our game plan. If we steal a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wood Elves" href="#" target="_blank">Wood Elves</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> from an opponent's hand, that doesn't really do much for us. Because our decks aren't built around our opponents' game plans, it can sometimes be difficult to do anything meaningful with the cards we steal from them.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wood Elves"></div></div>
<p>There are other commanders that force discard in slightly more efficient ways, too. <span class="edhrecp__link side-by-side"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Liliana, Heretical Healer" href="#" target="_blank">Liliana, Heretical Healer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>'s flip-side can cause discard every turn without any mana investment, and cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Victor, Valgavoth&#039;s Seneschal" href="#" target="_blank">Victor, Valgavoth&#039;s Seneschal</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can cause discard naturally as we enact our game plan.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Liliana, Heretical Healer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Victor, Valgavoth&#039;s Seneschal"></div></div>
<h2>How Can We Shore Up Tinybones' Weaknesses?</h2>
<p>I chose to stick with a mono-<span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span> commander here, as the best discard effects tend to be concentrated in this color. We'll be taking a closer look at <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal" href="#" target="_blank">Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Much like Tinybones, this flying beater both causes our opponents to discard cards and provides us with a payoff for when they do so. This Bat God costs <span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-3" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-b" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>, but he's pretty hard to get rid of permanently once he's roosted on the battlefield.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards side-by-side"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal"></div></div>
<p>Aclazotz is more expensive to cast than Tinybones, but has some significant advantages over the Skeleton.</p>
<p>First, he provides us with a consistent way to force cards from other players' hands. His attack trigger causes each opponent to discard every single turn, and provides us with card advantage if they're unable to do so. It's entirely possible that our opponents will run out of cards, so it's nice that this commander can still give something tangible in that edge case.</p>
<p>Second, Aclazotz provides us with concrete, on-board advantage as our opponents discard land cards. He may not give us as many cards to play with as Tinybones does, but 1/1 flying creature tokens are great as attackers and blockers, and often opponents are more likely to pitch lands first, rather than spells. We can even use effects like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grim Hireling" href="#" target="_blank">Grim Hireling</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor" href="#" target="_blank">Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> to augment those Bats further.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Grim Hireling"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor"></div></div>
<p>Finally, it's a nice bonus that Aclazotz actually allows discarded cards to go to the graveyard. That lets us use <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reanimate" href="#" target="_blank">Reanimate</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> on some juicy creatures or steal something enticing with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dauthi Voidwalker" href="#" target="_blank">Dauthi Voidwalker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Reanimate"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Dauthi Voidwalker"></div></div>
<p>Decklists built around this five-drop are somewhat similar to those built around Tinybones. But, we can take advantage of the fact that Aclazotz is a great attacker with effects like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Raiders&#039; Wake" href="#" target="_blank">Raiders&#039; Wake</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. We can also use <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Valley Rotcaller" href="#" target="_blank">Valley Rotcaller</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> to great effect, leveraging our growing Bat battalion to drain opposing life totals.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Raiders&#039; Wake"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Valley Rotcaller"></div></div>
<p>For comparison's sake, here's the average Aclazotz decklist according to EDHREC's data:</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Batman, but no Robin" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead
[/Commander]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Charcoal Diamond
*1 Entropic Battlecruiser
*1 Geth&#039;s Grimoire
*1 Jet Medallion
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Swiftfoot Boots
*1 Thought Vessel
[/Artifacts]
[Creatures]
*1 Asylum Visitor
*1 Burglar Rat
*1 Crypt Ghast
*1 Cunning Lethemancer
*1 Elderfang Disciple
*1 Fell Specter
*1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
*1 Hypnotic Specter
*1 Liliana&#039;s Specter
*1 Mindslicer
*1 Necrogoyf
*1 Nezumi Informant
*1 Plaguecrafter
*1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
*1 Sangromancer
*1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
*1 Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid&#039;s Lantern
*1 The Haunt of Hightower
*1 The Raven Man
*1 Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
*1 Tinybones, Trinket Thief
*1 Tourach, Dread Cantor
*1 Virus Beetle
[/Creatures]
[Enchantments]
*1 Bandit&#039;s Talent
*1 Bottomless Pit
*1 Court of Ambition
*1 Liliana&#039;s Caress
*1 Megrim
*1 Oppression
*1 Painful Quandary
*1 Phyrexian Arena
*1 Quest for the Nihil Stone
*1 Raiders&#039; Wake
*1 Waste Not
[/Enchantments]
[Instants]
*1 Bitter Triumph
*1 Dark Ritual
*1 Defile
*1 Go for the Throat
*1 Imp&#039;s Mischief
*1 Infernal Grasp
*1 Withering Torment
[/Instants]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Liliana, Waker of the Dead
[/Planeswalkers]
[Sorceries]
*1 Dark Deal
*1 Delirium Skeins
*1 Duress
*1 Feed the Swarm
*1 Mind Rake
*1 Rankle&#039;s Prank
*1 Reanimate
*1 Sign in Blood
*1 Syphon Mind
*1 Torment of Hailfire
*1 Toxic Deluge
*1 Vicious Rumors
[/Sorceries]
[Lands]
*1 Bojuka Bog
*1 Cabal Coffers
*1 Cabal Stronghold
*1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
*1 Myriad Landscape
*1 Reliquary Tower
*28 Swamp
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]"></span></div>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these commanders are quite similar. Aclazotz does the same thing as Tinybones, but has more powerful abilities at a higher mana cost. Both of these creatures provide interesting ways to force consistent discard and add some meaningful payoff for our efforts. I may be partial to Aclazotz due to my love for everything to do with bats in real life, but I'd take this commander over Tinybones any day of the week.</p>
<p>Which of these two legends do you think is stronger? Let me know in the comments down below, and I'll see you soon for another <em>Best at, Worst at</em>!</p>


https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/fdn-72-tinybones-bauble-burglar.jpg

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