Do You Know How Good Discontinuity Is?

Introduction

Hi everyone!

Core set 2021 is out and it brought with it a lot of sweet cards and a breath of fresh air to the Standard format. But today I wanna focus on a particular card. It’s blue, it’s unfair, it’s fun, it’s versatile, it’s 《Discontinuity》.

It was love at first sight. This card is awesome, and the more I play with it, the more I find new interactions, new shells, and new scenarios in which it shines even more than I could have imagined.

End the Turn

Why would you want the turn to end? What can happen if it does? It’s weird, right? But trust me, these three words are stronger than they look. It is not something we see often and it might not be the most intuitive effect we know, but it is really unique and powerful.

There are only 5 cards in the history of Magic that have this kinda effect:

《Time Stop》 is the most similar since the other ones have other restrictions or uses, and when I say similar I mean it, they are not the same. If you pay a closer look at 《Discontinuity》 it has more text, and it’s very relevant, but we are going to get into that later.

So, why would we pay mana to end the turn? Isn’t that something that will eventually happen for free? Well, the trick about this card is timing, and if you can manipulate when that will occur, you can get a great advantage. 《Discontinuity》 is a very tricky card that can be useful in multiple different scenarios. The more creative you get, the more uses you will find.

Let’s see some examples:

Get an Extra Turn

Those who know me a little bit will know that I love playing more turns than my opponent, so the first thing that came to mind when I saw this card was playing it at the upkeep of my rival’s turn so I can go again. It’s not as clean as getting an extra turn, but it is as close as it gets. The downside of doing this is that they will be untapped, so they can use instants or abilities.

Fog

An expensive one I have to say, but none the less it happens quite often that you’d rather not cast 《Discontinuity》 in their upkeep phase, so your opponent attacks and taps their creatures, letting you attack on your next turn without having to worry about blockers. To compensate for the expensive cost of this use, it rewards you not letting the opponent do anything else that turn.

Counter

If the turn ends, nothing else can happen. So, if your opponent is playing any spell and you respond casting 《Discontinuity》 that spell will be exiled and their turn finish.

《Stifle》 Triggers

Same as above, there are a lot of situations in which your opponent might want to active/trigger an ability and you will be able to “《Stifle》” it.

Imagine letting your opponent sacrifice 2 creatures for a 《Priest of Forgotten Gods》 activation and you end the turn on that spot killing those creatures for no extra value. But let’s dream bigger, how sweet it is to end the turn in response to your opponent activating 《Bolas’s Citadel》? Another great scenario to do stuff like this is to end the turn when 《Yorion, Sky Nomad》 is trying to return everything that was exiled that turn.

All the situations we described before are on our opponent’s turn, and just to interact with one effect/spell, but we can still extract more value to 《Discontinuity》 if we manage to combine some of those scenarios.

Let’s End My Turn

This card has the more relevant text: As long as it’s your turn, this spell costs 2UU less to cast.

This means that we only have to pay 1U to cast 《Discontinuity》 on our turn. But why we would wanna do that? Again, creativity and timing is everything with this card and that will allow you to find a lot of different uses.

I wanna share with all of you a decklist created by an Argentinian friend, Juan Pablo Quetglas(@walrusmadness88), to illustrate the power behind casting 《Discontinuity》 on our turn.

Simic 《Discontinuity》

Juan Pablo Quetglas
– Simic 《Discontinuity》

Sampl List
(Standard)

6 《Forest》
3 《Island》
3 《Fabled Passage》
4 《Breeding Pool》
4 《Lotus Field》
4 《Temple of Mystery》
1 《Castle Vantress》
1 《Blast Zone》
1 《Mobilized District》
-Land (27)- 4 《Arboreal Grazer》
3 《Elvish Reclaimer》
3 《Fae of Wishes》
2 《Hydroid Krasis》
3 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》
1 《Brazen Borrower》
-Creature (16)-

4 《Growth Spiral》
1 《Tale’s End》
4 《Discontinuity》
3 《Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner》
2 《Tamiyo, Collector of Tales》
3 《Nissa, Who Shakes the World》
-Spell (17)-

3 《Aether Gust》
1 《Negate》
1 《Cry of the Carnarium》
1 《Shatter the Sky》
1 《Mass Manipulation》
1 《Flood of Tears》
1 《Planar Cleansing》
1 《Thought Distortion》
1 《Planewide Celebration》
1 《Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner》
1 《Tamiyo, Collector of Tales》
1 《Chandra, Awakened Inferno》
1 《Ugin, the Spirit Dragon》
-Sideboard (15)-

Text for MTG Arena（Click to Expand）

Here are some powerful interactions that help us to maximize the value of our cards.

《Discontinuity》 + 《Lotus Field》

《Discontinuity》 + 《Lotus Field》: we play the land, and with the trigger of sacrificing two other lands on the stack, we cast 《Discontinuity》 to prevent that.

《Discontinuity》 + 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》

《Discontinuity》 + 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》: if you cast the Elder Giant from your hand two different triggers will go to the stack. You can arrange those to have the good one (gain 3 life, draw a card and put a land on play from your hand) resolve and cast 《Discontinuity》 to prevent the bad one (sacrifice it) by ending the turn, and let us keep our dear 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》 on the battlefield.

Why not both? It often happens that the land that you put into play with 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》 is 《Lotus Field》, so ending the turn on that sweet spot will prevent both triggers (if you are playing on MTGA remember to use the Full Control Mode so you can respond in the correct moment).

《Discontinuity》 + End of Turn(EOT) Spells

《Discontinuity》 + End of Turn(EOT) Spells: for only 1U we can counter our opponent’s spells or abilities on our turn, such as the dreaded 《Nightpack Ambusher》 or a Cycled 《Shark Typhoon》 (preventing both the card drawing and the token). It gets even better if we have an 《Elvish Reclaimer》 in play, since we can search for 《Lotus Field》 and not only counter what our opponent is trying to do but also the trigger from our land.

Here are some examples of those situations that happened while streaming:

Quated from Twitch

Cards that go well with 《Discontinuity》

Time will tell if this deck is fact or fiction, but I’m currently playing it on the ladder with good results and lots of fun. This build ramps very fast and since we are playing 《Lotus Field》 we have access to all five colors, so 《Fae of Wishes》 provides all the tools we need for every situation.

《Discontinuity》 has been around for a short period of time, and I imagine there will be a lot of new interactions to discover. For the time being these are other two strong examples: