Ghastly Discovery: Crafting Creative Black Combo Lines

In TCG ·

Ghastly Discovery by Howard Lyon — Shadowmoor card art

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Ghastly Discovery and Conspire: Crafting Creative Combo Lines

Blue magic isn’t just about counterspells and cantrips; it’s a genre unto itself when you start threading card advantage with the right synergies. Ghastly Discovery, a Shadowmoor-era sorcery by Howard Lyon, embodies that elegant, slightly mischievous side of blue. For a modest mana cost of {2}{U}, you draw two cards and then discard a card. It’s a crisp, tempo-friendly engine on the surface, but the real spark comes from Conspire — a keyword that invites you to copy the spell by tapping two untapped blue creatures you control. When you copy Ghastly Discovery, you get another draw-two/discard-one line for the price of mana and a couple of taps. In other words: more cards, more decisions, and a little bit of cat-and-mouse with your own hand. 🧙‍♂️🔥

Shadowmoor’s waterlogged mood—Korrigans, spirits bound to watery sources, shrieking at their drowned kin—echoes in Ghastly Discovery’s utility. The flavor text alignment isn’t accidental: this card is about dredging knowledge from the depths, even if what you pull to the surface comes with a price. The art, the rarity (common), and the timing of its release in 2008 all speak to a design ethos that rewards clever play and hand manipulation without demanding an entire deck built around it. It’s a perfect candidate for “creative lines” that feel satisfying in casual Commander or cube environments, where you can lean into the interplay of control, draw, and discard. 🎨

Two small but mighty features make this card sing in combination: its color identity (blue) and its Conspire keyword. Blue loves digging for tools, and Conspire lets you seize the moment to double down on card selection. You’re not just drawing; you’re sculpting your next turns, deciding which discarded card will fuel future plays, and which drawn card will become the answer you needed. If you’re building a blue shell with nimble card-advantage engines, Ghastly Discovery can be the hinge that turns a set of cantrips into a reliable sequence of advantage. ⚔️

Key mechanics at a glance

  • Mana cost and colors: 2U, blue-aligned, with the Conspire ability to copy.
  • Effect: Draw two cards, then discard a card.
  • Conspire: Tap two untapped blue creatures to copy the spell when you cast it.
  • Set and rarity: Shadowmoor, 2008; common in its slot, foilable, and a crowd-pleaser in cube or casual Commander.
  • Flavor and lore: The whispered shrieks of Korrigans as knowledge leaks out of watery veins—blue’s love of mindful extraction with a dark edge.

For players who like a little planning, Ghastly Discovery also plays nicely with recursions and graveyard interactions. Cards like Mnemonic Wall (blue, returns an instant or sorcery from your graveyard to your hand) enable another loop: cast Ghastly Discovery, then recur it to your hand and cast again when you’re ready. You’re not tearing up the table, but you are building a patient engine that can out-draw most generic controllers in a casual setting. Blue’s strength in replacement effects and filtering makes this combo line feel both thematic and playable. 🧙‍♂️🎲

Three creative combo lines to try in your next game night

Line 1 — Twin Draw, Twin Decisions
Turn a quiet moment into a double-dip of advantage. Cast Ghastly Discovery with Conspire by tapping two untapped blue creatures. When it resolves, you draw two and discard one. The copied spell then resolves, giving you another draw two and a discard. That’s four cards drawn and two discarded for a mana investment of four (2U for the original, plus 2U for the copy). If you then follow with a couple of cantrips like Brainstorm or Ponder, you can turn those two new cards into a deeper hand right away, setting up the next turns with options instead of dryer top-decks. If you have Mnemonic Wall on the battlefield, you can recycle Ghastly Discovery back into your hand to loop the engine over multiple turns. This line celebrates blue’s patient, value-first stance and gives your deck a reliable engine in medium-power playgroups. 🧙‍♂️🔥

Line 2 — Graveyard Fuel and Library Drain
Discards aren’t waste in this line—they’re fuel for the graveyard and the late-game draw engine. Use Ghastly Discovery to strip away a few cards you’re ready to part with, while keeping your library stocked with the draws you want. Pair it with cheap cantrips and a few bounce effects or their blue cousins to re-use the Discovery later. In decks that lean into graveyard value (think tactics that a blue shell can support), the discarded cards can be leveraged for later plays or simply help you reach the critical threshold of card advantage on the stack. The key is to balance discard with the right targets—lands you can spare, redundant cantrips, or threats you’ve already answered—so your hand remains resilient as you draw and discard into the heart of the game. ⚔️🎨

Line 3 — Endgame with Laboratory Maniac or Jace-style Finish
If your deck is built to push card-draw late in the game, Ghastly Discovery can act as the accelerator that pushes you toward a win via Laboratory Maniac or a Jace-style victory condition. The more you draw, the more pressure you apply on your own deck, leaving you in a position where you can either deck yourself strategically or assemble the pieces for a decisive win. The synergy is classic blue: you out-calculate, you out-draw, and you outlast—while the Conspire copies keep the pace steady, even when your opponents try to disrupt your turns with a flurry of counters. It’s cerebral, a little mischief-laden, and utterly blue. 🧙‍♂️💎

“Korrigans, spirits bound to sources of water, shriek when they come upon their own drowned corpses.” The flavor of Ghastly Discovery reminds us that knowledge can be exhilarating and dangerous in equal measure.

For those who crave a modern tabletop aesthetic, the card’s clean lines and Conspire-enabled loops pair nicely with a blue-focused shell that prizes control, draw, and tempo. In Commander circles, Ghastly Discovery tends to shine when you have a few ways to refill your hand and keep the clock ticking toward a win condition that rewards careful planning. In cube environments, its flexibility and guaranteed minimum card parity each time it resolves make it a reliable pick for blue-centric archetypes. And yes, it looks cool in foil—if you’re into that level of magic nerd romance. 💎

As you experiment with these lines, consider how the card’s synergy with your local playgroup’s preferences shapes your approach. The Shadowmoor-era artwork by Howard Lyon quietly anchors this spell in a moment of blue-drenched curiosity, and the Conspire clause invites you to make bold, two-creature plays that feel cinematic rather than purely technical. The result is a small, elegant engine that can surprise, delight, and—when the line lands just right—flip the momentum in your favor with stylish precision. 🧙‍♂️🎲

Ready to take this blue spark into your real-world setup? Check out the product below to level up your on-the-table gear and then dive into these five cross-network reads for broader MTG inspiration.

Blue Abstract Dot Pattern Tough Phone Case (Case-Mate)

More from our network