Hey guys, guess what? A new symbiote is in town! And she is about to make Classic Discard a good deck again! Scorn is all the rage between us Discard Enjoyers, and if you also appreciate the archetype, you can’t go without her in your arsenal.
Who is Scorn, and what does she do? I don't know much about her either. Luckily, we have a very reliable narrator to tell us.
Okay, so she is a quite unique symbiote that happened to be incubated within a super-fancy-cyber-futuristic robot arm instead of a host person like the other guys usually are. Because of that, she is a techno-symbiote hybrid who can fuse herself with not just people but with machines as well! She can fuse with any machine, from weapons of mass destruction to even a coffee machine, for that perfect espresso on the go! That's incredibly awesome! Why haven’t I heard of this character before?!
Discard Is Back for Real This Time for Sure!
Scorn will join Snap as a 1-Cost 2-Power card with the effect of returning to your hand every time she is discarded, and every time she returns, herself and a random card on your side of the field will receive a +2 power boost.
Every time you trigger her effect, it's a +4 potential power boost to your side. You need to figure out ways to discard her. She isn’t complex; Swarm is a very similar card in the game already.
They are quite redundant, as they both will be used as fuel for discard decks, but I believe that Scorn is the better card of the two. Also, having another card that finally wants to be discarded is great. I’m sure that Scorn and Swarm (hey, that rhymes!) will fit the same decks, just like Falcon and Beast are the redundancy pieces in Bounce decks.
We need to figure out how to discard Scorn consistently for her to be good. Firstly, we have three good options that can target her. Colleen Wing will probably be her best partner, as she always focuses on the card with the lowest cost, and your deck won’t have that many 1-Drops in hand. Blade’s low cost allows you to play him together with another discard card to combo discard Scorn twice in a single turn. Sword Master is a card that the player base has long forgotten, but his new Odd-focused discarding can target Scorn quite well.
We could also follow the chaos route and discard randomly, hoping for the best. The discard list gets much more significant with this approach. We have Corvus Glaive, which has the added benefit of granting us one more energy. Gambit that could make a name for himself by discarding Scorn while also destroying something important to your opponent. Lastly, we have the biggest discard card, M.O.D.O.K.; he will absolutely discard Scorn every time, while also discarding your whole hand in the process. Just try not to have anything important in hand when playing him.
We all know the recipe for good discard decks by now, right? A smidgen of Miek, a dollop of Morbius, a dash of Dracula, and finishing with a pinch of Apocalypse. Nothing fancy or obscure so far, but I need to list these guys as the obvious partners in crime for a Scorn deck. Primarily if you’re focusing on going pure discard.
But I’d like to get some attention to two obscure cards that could benefit a lot from Scorn’s endless buffing. First, there is Daken. If you have buffs and discard, he seems to be made for the deck, as every extra point of power in him could be doubled if you manage to finish his quest of deleting Muramasa Shard from existence. Second, we have Sebastian Shaw (who will be part of Scorn’s Spotlight). Surfer discard has always been tried here and there without much success, but maybe with Scorn’s addition, the deck can finally take off. I’m certainly going to try that.
Okay, now I think we are ready to check some decks out!
Dualgloves Day One Scorn Decks
Back in Purple
Starting with the most accessible deck, only featuring M.O.D.O.K. as a series 4 card. It's mostly the classic discard; it will work and carry your games, but the deck is so old that it won’t surprise anyone anymore, especially with Scorn announcing her power to your opponent after every discard.
Back in Purple - Big Boy Version
Bonus Deck. This is just the deck above, but series 4 and 5 cards replace many cards. It is way less accessible but should have more impressive powers.
S.C.O.R.N. Supremely Coordinated Rotational Novelty
Okay, this should work. This deck will live and die by M.O.D.O.K.; if you manage to get his effect off, a powerful explosion of power will surprise your opponent on the last turn. If you can’t, you will probably lose horribly. Luckily, Blink can forcibly pull M.O.D.O.K. out of the deck when he doesn’t show up. Supergiant lets you play M.O.D.O.K. on turn 5 without wrecking your turn 6 playline. If all goes bad, you can desperately play Wasp; follow her with Blink for a certified despair play.
Purple Copium
Cosmo doesn’t exist! We are trying really hard to discard Scorn at the endgame with our machine gun Gambit aided by Wong and Mystique. If you have Scorn in hand, you can play your Swarm without a worry. Ironheart is here to make power when Gambit doesn’t show up. Hopefully Scorn will get big enough for Dracula to doubletap her power on the last turn.
Purple Haze
Surfer Discard! May your Gambit strike true and your discards be precise. Magik is an extremely valuable card for decks like this; she gives you a way longer time to set up your wombocombos. We have options with this one; we could go full-Gambit with Absorbing Man, hopefully discarding your scorn multiple times, or perhaps go into the tried and true method of buffing your cards with Surfer.
PURPLE HAZE REQUIEM
You actually believed that I wouldn't give you a full hopium deck? I saved the best for last, my friend. This list is similar to the one above but focuses completely on Discard and surfing. Notice the lack of Magik in this version. We are meant to play 6 turns and win in 6 turns. Discard Scorn the most you can and get your Daken and Sebastian as big as possible!
Verdict
Finally, the moment that I try to answer the big question. “Should you spend your precious resources trying to get Scorn?” My answer to that is a solid maybe. I’m convinced that Scorn is a fantastic card; however, she has the burden of only fitting a single archetype, that being Discard. If Discard is weak, she will be weak; if Discard is strong, she will be strong. My sincere suggestion is for you to decide if you love the Discard archetype; if the answer is a resounding “yes," I’d say, “Go get yourself Scorn!”
