User:MrVariant/Discard Deck

A discard deck is a type of deck that specializes in making your opponent lose cards in their hand. There are many variants of this type of deck, and it was popular with the Yata-Garasu Lockdown before essential cards like Delinquent Duo got banned because it punished players for going second.

Detonation Discards

There are quite a few cards that combine well with discarding by destroying them through effects. Smoke Grenade of the Thief is an Equip Spell Card which can revolve an entire deck around it by using Breaker the Magical Warrior, Mobius the Frost Monarch or Kuraz the Light Monarch (remember to equip your opponent's monster first). Don't use Gearfried the Iron Knight or Cyber Raider because the other cards are a lot more versatile by destroying your opponent's cards.

Other cards that can detonate are: Dark Coffin, Blast with Chain, Big Bang Shot

The equip spells can even be further supported by Power Tool Dragon or Hidden Armory.

Reveal Discards

These types of discards need you to know what is in your opponent's hand. D.D. Designator can banish cards sent back to hand by Neo-Spacian Grand Mole and Compulsory Evacuation Device. This won't be useful on monsters from the extra deck or are hard to summon, so you can always use Exchange with something useless like Thunder Dragon or Dragged Down into the Grave with The Fabled Cerburrel or Peten the Dark Clown to know your opponent's hand, remove their best card and get a special summon. I don't recommend Mind Crush because of the graveyard combos (won't stop Plaguespreader Zombie and drawing it is useless if you already know your opponent has Gorz the Emissary of Darkness.

Amazoness Chain Master is a good card to make your opponent sweat when they have a large hand. Monsters (like Don Zaloog) that rely on Battle Damage for discard effects are nearly impossible to use since they can be stopped without even being destroyed by cards like Scapegoat. Use Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch or Evigishki Gustkraken to be successful by just summoning them.

X-Sabers

X-Saber Airbellum is an exception to Battle Damage for discards being a bad thing because it is also a tuner monster with X-Saber support like Gottoms' Emergency Call. Either ability is more reliable than synchro monster X-Saber Urbellum, which you'll probably need to play bounce cards like Compulsory Evacuation Device to possibly use. There also is XX-Saber Gottoms which turns Gottoms' Emergency Call into Delinquent Duo, or you can use XX-Saber Faultroll for an easy tribute to discard.

Water Discard

Fill up the graveyard to get exactly 5 monsters with water monsters like Mermail and summon Moulin Glace the Elemental Lord. Spiritual Water Art - Aoi with Treeborn Frog and Evigishki Gustkraken (and Gishki Abyss or Gishki Shadow are also nice combos. Using Atlantean Dragoons, Moray of Greed, and combining Mobius the Frost Monarch or Mobius the Mega Monarch to combine with Return of the Monarchs (search for Evigishki Gustkraken and then destroy it to use extra deck) speeds up your deck.

Abyss-sphere and level 7 Mermail cards like Mermail Abyssteus and Mermail Abyssleed help fuel Sacred Sword of Seven Stars, and Mermail Abyssleed is another way to make the opponent discard. Abyss-scale of the Kraken and Abyss-scale of Mizuchi can possibly lock down an opponent for 1 uses spells/monster effects, but Mobius is a lot better to use for traps than Abyss-scale of Cetus.

Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi/Cyber Dragon

This is a bit more challenging to run, but you can use special summons like Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Dandylion, Instant Fusion and Cyber Dragon to help summon Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi. Being able to make your opponent lose their entire hand outweighs the risks of needing battle damage, though strategy is needed for the 2 tributes and spirit downsides. Fortunately, Onslaught of the Fire Kings also helps clear the field when you use either Fire King High Avatar Garunix for monsters or Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys for spells/traps.

If Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi is dead weight, you can always use Trade-In or fuse with Cyber Dragon Core for Blaze Fenix, the Burning Bombardment Bird; it salvages to fuse with Cyber Dragon in Main Phase 2. Synchro summoning with Rose, Warrior of Revenge helps, especially if you can reuse her or revive Crimson Blader with Blue Flame Swordsman. Other helpful cards are Reborn Tengu, Treeborn Frog and Yamata Dragon (if you use Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos).

Strengths

• Can quickly force opponent to topdeck. A first turn Royal Tribute from a Gravekeeper's deck can be devastating.
• With few options, even a card like Magic Drain works stronger in a discard deck. Drastic Drop Off is best here too.
• Makes your opponent more hesitant about destroying spells/traps because cards can chain or make the attempt backfire.
• Disables nasty surprises in the hand such as Honest or Gorz the Emissary of Darkness.

Weaknesses

• Dark World, Fabled any other decktype that combos off these discards. You may want to use alternatives that bypass the discard effect such as D.D. Designator or steal the card like Amazoness Chain Master, which works with Creature Swap too; this guarantees things against discard combos, unlike random discards.
• An overwhelming field advantage by the opponent makes their hand irrelevant. The detonation and bouncing mentioned should help take care of things, but targeting protection like Obelisk the Tormentor can stop that.
• Infernity requires no cards in the hand, so it's a matter of who gets shut down first.

Final Thoughts

Yu-Gi-Oh is a game in which deckbuilding should not be completely strict to 1 theme; it can simply use several cards for one of these discard themes as well as anything to add to the general synergy for more consistency. If you have dark monsters, by all means use Dark Armed Dragon, Escape from the Dark Dimension and Allure of Darkness. Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning is great if you use Kuraz the Light Monarch and Breaker the Magical Warrior. Call of the Haunted can help Kuraz serve as a timed detonator; much better than Valkyrian Knight. Trap cards to special summon outside of the deck are too slow unless you have a monster that can use its effect in a chain for removal, like Kuraz, or Jinzo. Constellar Pleiades is one of the few viable for XYZ Reborn given its quick effect to remove.

Cards that compound upon synergy are a blessing too, because they multiply your combos. Reborn Tengu helps offset Big Bang Shot if you need to equip your monster, makes Dark Simorgh and tribute monsters like Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch more playable, and using Fire Formation - Tenki is an easy draw when Kuraz the Light Monarch detonates it after getting Reborn Tengu or a Beast-Warrior Tuner like Shiba Warrior Taro.