A return to the plane of Ixalan through Lost Caverns of Ixalan is bringing about a new Magic: The Gathering mechanic called Discover, providing players with a way to gain card advantage and more over opponents.
First introduced through Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI), Discover is a keyword action like the Explore mechanic. But that’s where the similarities end. Explore looks at the top card of a player’s library while Discover digs through it, exiling cards until a player finds a non-land permanent with a mana value equal to or less than the value determined through the mechanic on the Magic card.
MTG Discover mechanic, explained
The Discover mechanic within MTG will always have a value attached to it, like the minus-three ability on the Planeswalker Quintorius Kand. Players then exile cards from their library until a non-land permanent with that value or less is exiled. Then, players can choose to either cast that spell for free or put the card into their hand.
- Discover definition: Exile “X” cards from the top of your library until you reach a non-land card with a mana value of “X” or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.
In the case of an Adventure card, the creature portion of the card must have a mana value equal to or less than the Discover number. If the Adventure side also has a mana value equal to or less than the Discover number, then a player can choose to cast either for free. But if the Adventure side has a mana cost higher than the determined value and players want to cast it, they will have to put it in their hand first and will not be able to cast it for free.
Another example of how Discover works is found through an LCI Mono-Red Sorcery spell called Hit the Mother Lode, which has a Discover value of 10. This allows players to exile almost any spell from their deck and cast it for free. As an added bonus, Hit the Mother Lode creates Treasure tokens equal to the difference between the Discover value and the mana cost of the spell that was exiled and cast for free.
Players can test out the MTG Discover mechanic through the prerelease of Lost Caverns of Ixalan on Nov. 10.
