Introduction

Hello guys! Márcio (@KbolMagic) here to talk about the brand new Duskmourn: House of Horror edition.

It is a bit too early for Halloween this year, but this set is already anticipating the celebrations. With a theme focused on the horror genre, it will please countless fans of classic slasher and horror house films.

If I had to choose a card to represent what this set is all about I would for sure choose 《Meathook Massacre II》. Even though it is not that good for Limited, I would give this card a 10 out of 10 in flavor, since it is a sequel of the original 《The Meathook Massacre》 and sequels are a resource used a lot by horror movies.

In this article I will talk a bit about the new mechanics introduced in this set, my favorite common cards that I think will be more impactful for Limited, a ranking of colors and archetypes, and my top 10 strongest cards for Limited.

Mechanics

First of all, let’s go through some new abilities that are introduced in this set and how they work:

Impending

Impending is a way to play your cards with time counters on them and remove them one by one in your end step until it unlocks the card’s full potential. It works like the Suspend mechanic, except the card is already in play while you are removing their counters. The “Overlord” cycle of creature enchantments, like 《Overlord of the Hauntwoods》, are the only ones that have impending in this edition.

Manifest Dread

Manifest Dread works like an improved Manifest ability. When you Manifest Dread, you can look at the top 2 cards of your library, choose one to Manifest as a 2/2 creature, and put the other in your graveyard.

This not only improves your chance of manifesting a creature card that can be flipped later by paying the mana value of the creature card but also assists in filling the graveyard for strategies that benefit from doing it.

Rooms

These are enchantment split cards that can be played on any of the sides of the “Room” and can unlock the other side by paying the other mana cost. These cards are basically two cards in one, which can be very versatile, allowing you to play any of its sides first and then unlock the second side.

Survival

Survival triggers when a creature is currently tapped in the beginning of your second main phase. It some tapping effects like crewing a vehicle might assist you in triggering survival without having to attack to do it.

Eerie

This ability triggers whenever you fully unlock a room (both sides of a room card) or when an enchantment enters the battlefield.

Glimmer Creatures

This is a new type of creature, it doesn’t show up a lot in the set, but it has some cards that interact with these creatures, so I thought it was worth mentioning it. 《Glimmerlight》 is a card that can make a glimmer creature token and 《Fear of the Dark》 is a card that might get much worse if an opponent controls a glimmer creature.

Top Commons of the Colors

Now that the new mechanics of this set are properly presented, I am going to talk about my favorite commons of each color. As usual, we are going to give a special focus to the common cards as they are the most present ones in the Draft and Sealed decks.

White

White has a nice range of removal spells and creatures, 《Seized from Slumber》 is a good removal for white, it can be played as an instant and it is even better when you target a tapped creature, costing 3 mana less to cast. 《Trapped in the Screen》 is one of the best removals of the set, being versatile in dealing with creatures, artifacts, or enchantments.

Between the white creatures I think 《Acrobatic Cheerleader》 is one that calls my attention, a 2 drop 2/2 that might get flying is both aggressive and evasive.

《Unsettling Twins》 represents at least 4 power for 4 mana, as it Manifests Dread when it enters, probably one of the best commons for white.

《Friendly Ghost》 is a card that is a little bit better than it looks, a 2/4 flyer might be hard to be dealt with while the pump is also cool to assist in passing some damage.

《Grand Entryway/Elegant Rotunda》 is a room that might put a glimmer creature token in play while also having the possibility of putting counters on the creatures you control.

Blue

The power level of the blue common cards isn’t that impressive, with that said, it has some cards that caught my attention. Talking about removal effects, blue has 《Unable to Scream》, a 1 mana enchantment that basically puts a creature offline, it is pretty decent especially when we take into consideration the mana cost.

《Piranha Fly》 is a cheap 2/1 creature with flying. The drawback that it enters tapped is not that punishing because you usually will not want to block with an evasive creature like this unless you really have to.

《Tunnel Surveyor》 represents 3 power split into two creatures for 3 mana. The 1/1 glimmer creature might be relevant for some interactions of the set and it is always cool to make a two per one with the same card in Limited.

《Don’t Make a Sound》 is a cool counterspell effect for blue, considering that in this edition you want to be spending your mana efficiently, either casting spells or unlocking rooms I guess this card is playable.

Black

Overall, in the common slot, black doesn’t come with as many removal spells as usual in other sets. This fact alone can cause removal to be prioritized when drafting black on this edition.

《Murder》 is a classic removal for black, but it seems it found its home in Duskmourn, it has everything to do with the theme of this set and it is one of the best removals on the common slot. 《Winter’s Intervention》 is another option to deal with small creatures but might be not that useful against strategies that are not that aggressive. 《Final Vengeance》 is also a removal option, especially combined with creatures you can sacrifice.

Talking about the common creatures of this color, 《Balemurk Leech》 is one of the best ones, a cheap creature that deals damage whenever you cast an enchantment or unlock a room might assist in both aggressive and enchantment-based archetypes.

《Fear of the Dark》 is not only a cool 《Iron Maiden》 song, but it is also a solid common creature that might be thought to be dealt with. Menace and Deathtouch while attacking, might sometimes mean that your opponent will have to lose 2 creatures to stop this guy.

《Cackling Slasher》 is another creature that caught my attention as it can be a solid 4/4 deathtouch creature if a creature died this turn.

Red

Red seems to be the most aggressive color of the edition, 《Glassworks/Shattered Yard》 is a cool room card that works as a removal spell. The left side of the room would be already good enough for this card to be playable; the right side of the room is just a bonus that might assist you in passing the extra damage you need to close the game.

《Scorching Dragonfire》 is a cool reprint for this set, continues to be a really good removal spell.

Talking about red common creatures, 《Most Valuable Slayer》 caught my attention, first strike and +1/+0 to an attacking creature might allow to pass some damage in the more aggressive strategies.

《Bedhead Beastie》 and all the other Landcycling creature’s cards from this set are playable because of their versatility, they might be the land you need to develop the game or the end of the curve.

《Ripchain Razorkin》 is another interesting creature, it has a decent body and the card draw might be relevant if the board gets stalled.

Green

Green for me has the biggest number of playable creatures in the common slot, 《Monstrous Emergence》 is probably the best common green removal spell of the set. For two mana you can choose a creature in play or reveal a creature card to deal damage equal to its power to target creature.

《Bashful Beastie》 is a creature card that called my attention, a 5/4 body that leaves a 2/2 manifested creature behind when it dies.

《Spineseeker Centipede》 looks really good, searching for a land and putting it in your hand might allow you to splash some colors, while it can become a 3/3 vigilance creature when you have delirium.

《Flesh Burrower》 is good when you want to attack and is also good when you want to block. Giving deathtouch to another creature might allow you to pass some damage or force your opponent to probably trade some stronger creatures for it.

《Manifest Dread》 is the card that received the name of the ability. It basically looks at the 2 top 2 cards of the library and chooses one to put in the graveyard and another to enter the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. There are many interactions in the set with Manifest Dread, so this card seems very important to help fill your graveyard for delirium and other mechanics.

《Moldering Gym/Weight Room》 might also be a good option for fixing your mana base or just ramping for a bigger creature, and it is also a big creature by itself as you can play it for a 6-manas 5/5 face-down creature.

Color Ranking

This edition looks very close in terms of power level between the colors and archetypes, so it was hard to choose an order of favorite colors. Green takes the first position, as I really liked the amount of good and playable common cards this color has at its disposal.

Red looks like the most aggressive color, so it takes the second position, as it is balanced between good creatures and good removal spells.

White has also a good availability of removals and creatures so I will put it in third place. Black has less removal in the common slot than usual for Limited so it will take the fourth place.

Blue falls a bit behind in comparison to the other colors, so it will take the last place.

Archetype Analysis and Ranking

Duskmourn archetypes are in general very balanced, I think you can build a deck around any of the listed strategies and succeed while doing it. With that said, Manifest Dread is a very present ability in many of these archetypes, and cards with Manifest Dread might be prioritized to make these mechanics work.

In this section, I will analyze the archetypes for Limited, talk a little bit about their game plans, and rank them in the order of my favorite archetype to the least favorite archetype.

#1 RW Aggro

Red-White is trying to play cheap and fast creatures with power 2 or less. 《Arabella, Abandoned Doll》, 《Midnight Mayhem》, and 《Splitskin Doll》 are cards that might assist in making this strategy work.

The format in general is trying to be very grindy and this takes time to do. An aggressive Red-White strategy might go in the other direction, playing 2/1 creatures for 1 mana like 《Veteran Survivor》 and using removal spells to finish the game quickly.

#2 BG Delirium

Black-Green is trying to achieve delirium by adding different types of cards to the graveyard. A good mixture of sorceries, instants, artifacts, and enchantments might assist in doing it, while Manifest Dread is really important in this set to make it easier to drop some of these cards in the graveyard.

《Broodspinner》 and 《The Swarmweaver》 are cards you really want to see in this archetype while cards like 《Under the Skin》n that Manifest Dread are going to help you to achieve delirium.

#3 BW Reanimator

Black-White in this edition has some cards with reanimator effects like 《Rite of the Moth》, 《Emerge from the Cocoon》, and 《Live or Die》. This strategy is very resilient, especially because of the Manifest Dread ability that allows you to put cards in your graveyard.

Some cool targets to reanimate are 《Shroudstomper》, 《Vile Mutilator》, and even a 《Valgavoth, Terror Eater》.

#4 RG Delirium

Red-Green is another of the aggressive strategies in this set. It has aggressive cards like 《Wildfire Wickerfolk》 and also some good removal like 《Beastie Beatdown》 that also benefits from the delirium ability. Cards that Manifest Dread might work really well with this strategy too as it will be a good assistance to fill your graveyard with some different card types.

#5 GW Survival

This strategy is trying to trigger the survival ability of your creature in the second main phase, 《Shrewd Storyteller》 and 《Rip, Spawn Hunter》 are cards that you want to see tapped in your second main. 《Baseball Bat》 is a card that is very versatile for this archetype, it will usually tap an opponent’s creature when you are attacking but, not so intuitively, it might tap your own creature so it helps on triggering the survival.

Also, Vehicle cards like 《Unidentified Hovership》 are good options to trigger survival besides attacking.

#6 UG Manifest Dread

Blue-Green 《Oblivious Bookworm》 is a creature that might benefit from the Manifest Dread ability and 《Growing Dread》 is a card that Manifests Dread while also giving some advantage from turning your creatures face-up.

Other good Manifest Dread cards in this archetype are 《Unnerving Grasp》 and 《Under the Skin》.

#7 BR Sacrifice

Black-Red is trying to take advantage of sacrificing the permanents you control. 《Disturbing Mirth》 and 《Innocuous Rat》 are permanents you want to sacrifice and 《Final Vengeance》 and 《Sawblade Skinripper》 are some cards that might enable it. It is nice to have these interactions but overall this archetype is trying to remove a lot of the opponents’ creatures and passing some damage every turn to end the game.

#8 UW Eerie

White-Blue is trying to play enchantments while benefiting from it. 《Optimistic Scavenger》, 《Gremlin Tamer》 and 《Inquisitive Glimmer》 are the creatures you want to see in this archetype, while some rooms like 《Underwater Tunnel/Slimy Aquarium》 and 《Surgical Suite/Hospital Room》 and some auras like 《Sheltered by Ghosts》 are enchantments that might assist you during the game.

#9 UR Rooms

Blue-Red is one of the archetypes that are most focused on playing with rooms. 《Roaring Furnace/Steaming Sauna》 and 《Smoky Lounge/Misty Salon》 are some examples of the rooms you are willing to play with. While 《Intruding Soulrager》 and 《Ghostly Keybearer》 might assist you in taking advantage of those rooms.

#10 UB Eerie

Blue-Black is a midrange-control archetype that tries to take advantage of enchantments. The cards that represent this archetype are 《Skullsnap Nuisance》 and 《Fear of Infinity》. In this archetype you need to prioritize some enchantment and removal spells, so you can control the game.

Top 10 Most Powerful Cards

#10 《Niko, Light of Hope》

Making two Shard tokens that are basically improved Clues and having the possibility of them becoming copies of your best creature in the board, is pretty strong for Limited. Enough for this card to enter the top 10.

#9 《Overlord of the Floodpits》

This is the first of the overlords in the list, they are all very powerful and this one is a 5/3 flyer that draws cards when it enters. The impending ability might allow you to play it earlier in the game and the fact that it has flying might help you to close the game pretty quickly if it is not dealt with.

#8 《Tyvar, the Pummeler》

This guy is very strong. The indestructible by tapping a creature makes it really hard to be dealt with, summed up with the +X/+X effect, this might be deadly threat on the table.

#7 《Dollmaker’s Shop/Porcelain Gallery》

This is card is a 1/1 token generator with every attack you make and as the game develops you can transform all your creatures into 《Scion of the Wild》.

#6 《The Swarmweaver》

Getting to Delirium is not that hard with many Manifest Dread cards in the set. 《The Swarmweaver》 is basically 3 creatures and 2 of them have flying. The possibility of getting the flyers +1/+1 and deathtouch makes this card a powerhouse.

#5 《Overlord of the Balemurk》

The impending for 2 mana is just really good here, you can start ticking these counters so you can have a 5/5 in no time. Also, the ability of return a creature or planeswalker from the graveyard might give you the card advantage you need for those grindy games.

#4 《Overlord of the Boilerbilges》

The cycle of the overlords in this set is pretty good in general, but 4 damage to any target when it enters or attacks makes me think of this card as a mixture of 《Flametongue Kavu》 and 《Inferno Titan》, both excellent Limited cards.

#3 《Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber》

The 5 manas 6/6 flyer is already very nice, but the possibility of drawing extra cards every turn while draining 2 life is a very cool cherry on the top. It might be a bit risky if you lose the 6/6 demon so the first door needs to be unlocked wisely.

#2 《Valgavoth’s Onslaught》

This card escalates very quickly, for 3 mana you can make a 3/3, for 5 mana you can make two 4/4s and for 7 mana you can make three 5/5s. The games might be very grindy in this edition, so if you have enough time and mana to cast this card it might just win you the game.

#1 《Overlord of the Mistmoors》

If you have been playing Limited long enough to know how out of control 《Grave Titan》 could be in Draft or Sealed, you will understand how strong this overlord is. Creating two 2/1 flyers for 4 mana would be already a really good Limited card, but in some turns you will have to deal with a 6/6 creature that will keep creating more tokens if not dealt with. This summed up with the fact that you can just cast it for 7 mana, makes this card spooky enough to take the first spot of this set.

Conclusions

In general, the power level of the common cards in this set is not that high, this might result in some games of friction between creatures, where the rare and mythic cards might stand out a lot. Prioritizing cards that give you card advantage might put you ahead in the more grindy matchups.

Manifest Dread is a key mechanic in this set, many archetypes benefit from it, so giving special attention to those cards might assist you in building a synergic deck. It is pretty easy to splash colors in this set due to the amount of common dual lands, 《Terramorphic Expanse》, and even the rare land cycle, so don’t be afraid of splashing as it might raise the power level of your deck.

With that said, Duskmourn seems to be a really good edition for Limited, I can’t wait to dig deeper into the strategies and archetypes in the weeks ahead. Hope you guys had fun reading the first thoughts about this set and see you all next time!

Marcio Carvalho (X)