My Top Cards from Duskmourn
My Top Cards from Duskmourn
Blue Devotion, Fecund Greenshell, some interesting interactions, and my top 6 cards
The Duskmourn full preview is out and there are ton of exciting new cards for us brewers. As usual this will be a list geared towards the kind of interactive decks I like to brew. So let’s hop in.
If you are here for Blue Devotion content
Duskmourn has an abundance of cards for one of my favorite archetypes, Blue Devotion.
Bottomless Pool
I play Fading Hope a lot, losing the instant speed and the scry hurts, but having it add a devotion is a big deal for a strategy that wants to build devotion while interacting.
A lot of this card will come down to how useful the Locker Room part is. If Locker Room is worth a third of a card I could see Bottomless Pool being worth it, but I suspect Locker Room will be worth less than that.
Unable to Scream
This is a nice upgrade to Witness Protection for Blue Devotion strategies. Witness Protection was already borderline playable, but one of its weaknesses was the 1/1 could still easily end up doing 3 to 4 damage over the course of the game. This made it not great against aggro, which is not where you want your one mana creature interaction to be.
Turning it into zero power instead makes a real difference that I could see making Unable to Scream feel meaningfully more powerful even if it looks very similar.
Fear of Impostors
One of the main Blue Devotion issues is how do you interact while building devotion. Another issue is that Collected Company is one of the best ways to build devotion, but that further limits you to wanting to run creature based interaction.
Fear of Impostors while not strong on its own, fits those roles perfectly. It is relevant interaction that builds devotion while working with Collected Company.
In my Collected Company versions of Blue Devotion, I tend to run 2-3 counterspells because you need some counterspell interaction to buy time for your plan or to protect it. But they always feel off plan. Now I can comfortably run 4 on plan counterspells, which might quietly prove to be a huge upgrade.
Floodpits Drowner
Merfolk Trickster is one of my favorite cards. But I have had to accept that it is a card that has not kept up with the increasing power level of the format.
Floodpits Drowner is an amazing upgrade on Merfolk Trickster at a power level for where the format is today. It will serve a similar role of slowing down the opponent, chipping through some damage, all while building up devotion.
Allowing Blue Devotion to shine in the way it does best by attacking on multiple different angles while disrupting the opponents plan just enough.
If you are here for Fecund Greenshell Content
Overlord of Hauntwoods
Let’s not bury the lead, this is the card I am most excited for in the set and the one I think will be the biggest add for Greenshell strategies (which is saying something given it doesn’t trigger Greenshell).
Being able to be meaningful on 3 or 5 is huge for a ramp strategy. It both triggers Up the Beanstalk and can be grabbed off Storm the Festival.
The land it provides fixes mana, which unlocks more splashing possibilities. The land can even open up domain opportunities.
Insidious Fungus
This card is fits with everything my Greenshell decks are trying to do, both triggering Greenshell and providing the ability to play multiple lands in a turn.
The flexibility of also acting as artifact and enchantment hate means it will almost certainly be a 1 or 2 of in the deck.
However, I am worried is not quite mana efficient enough, so we will have to test to see if it can be a full 4 of.
Overgrown Zealot
There is a chance this card is better than Sylvan Caryatid.
Zealot does not have hexproof, but the higher toughness makes it hard for Red removal to kill it.
But the big thing is four toughness is a massive difference in how good it is as a blocker. Aggro decks will frequently attack with three power attackers, but will need an additional trick to get through the Zealot. And even in the situation where that trick is likely Monstrous Rage, Zealot at least absorbs an additional damage over Caryatid.
We are also already running Arboreal Grazer, so we will frequently have a three toughness blocker, so adding a four toughness will help our blockers line up better.
Zealot is clearly worse against Fatal Push, but still I am not convinced it is worse against Fatal Push decks.
A common bad position against Rakdos is be on the draw, they play Bloodtithe Harvester on two, I play Caryatid, they attack, I take 3, they play Fable. Now I am under pressure both on the board and against my life total. Being on the back foot like this is one way the deck can lose by preventing my deck from being able to translate its ramp into board advantage.
If I am running Zealot in that situation, I can block the Bloodtithe Harvester, removing a chunk of the pressure on my life total, giving me room to eventually take over the game with my higher value cards.
Running cards that play better on the draw is a way I look to increase my overall winrate and I could see Zealot being a card that fits that mold.
We will have to see how it plays. At the very least Zealot gives us the dimension of now having access to 8 “Caryatids”, which could matter especially as I am playing them in Yorion decks that have a bunch of deck slots.
Overlord of the Mistmoors
I have grown to realize the issue with the Selesnya Turtle list I discuss here is that Storm the Festival is not particularly good in it.
So I need to find a new card to help the deck go over the top and I have not been able to. I am hoping Overlord of the Mistmoors when paired with Up the Beanstalk will be that card for my Selesnya Turtle list.
Quick Hits on cards at the margin
Cynical Loner
As a noted Reckoner Bankbuster enthusiast I had to include this card.
It is worth trying with Greasefang, particularly in something like my Orzhov Greasefang list that is already built around 4x Bankbuster.
But I could also see running Cynical Loner with cards that self contained provide efficient value from the graveyard like Rattlewurm.
Clockwork Percussionist
A solid add for Oni-Cult Anvil Strategies.
Disturbing Mirth
This is a curve I am interested in:
The Jolly Balloon Man
This is a “combo” I am interested in, particularly because it involves one of the most powerful cards in the format.
Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
Really cool card that could open up a new kind of tempo UB deck. Also, obligatory note that Mutavault is a Ninja that will likely be the heart of any kind of Kaito, Bane of Nightmares deck.
Victor, Valgavoth’s Seneschal
The one thing that makes this card interesting is a Yorion flicker in a WB enchantment deck could fairly reliably trigger all three modes.
Nashi, Searcher in the Dark
I got a couple 4-1’s with Dimir Rats on the back of some of the Bloomburrow Rat cards. The deck did not feel quite there and I am hoping Nashi is enough to push it over the edge.
Niko, Light of Hope
I wasn’t going to include Niko, but then I thought “what if I am way underestimating how much better Shards are than Clues”. Also, three relevant game objects for 4 mana is not bad rate.
Likely too fair of a card, but worth trying in some kind of enchantments matter UW Yorion midrange deck.
Rite of the Moth
The best unrestricted reanimation effect we have had in the format (not that reanimation has been viable yet). The flashback in particular makes it attractive for a midrange style deck, where the reanimation is something of a B plan.
Skullsnap Nuisance
It has been a minute since I have played a Disinformation Campaign Yorion deck. Skullsnap Nuisance instantly triggering Disinformation Campaign is likely going to get me to try one again. This time paired with Corpses of Lost which has all four of Skeleton, Enchantment, Surveil and Yorion synergies.
Top Cards in the Set
6. Ghost Vacuum
Ghost Vacuum fills a similar role to Unlicensed Hearse: targeted graveyard hate with an ability for helping close out the game if the game goes late. Overall it is lower impact than Hearse, but costs less.
I suspect Unlicensed Hearse will in general be better because of how much better it is against Phoenix.
But there is a big difference between 1 and 2 mana. If you are playing a deck that is crowded at two mana, like in a Reckoner Bankbuster deck, playing an Unlicensed Hearse can slow down your ability to deploy your hand.
Ghost Vacuum could be a good upgrade for decks where it is way easier to thread it in at one mana. I could also see a mix in the board like two Ghost Vacuum’s and one Hearse.
5. Valgavoth’s Onslaught
A lot of the Green decks I play will frequently get to 12+ lands in play. For those kind of decks a card like this that scales well with the game is particularly interesting. It can be a 3/3 if needed as a blocker early, but late game can be 6 8/8’s to finish off the opponent.
It has the added benefit that if you have any cards with Flashback, Escape or the like, the multiple Manifest Dread will allow you to dig for them and add them to your graveyard. So if you build your deck with this in mind there is a hidden “draw a card” on Onslaught.
4. Unstoppable Slasher
This is another in the line of Graveyard Trespasser and Preacher of the Schism of “good black three mana midrange card.”
I suspect Slasher will prove to be the best of these three, since it puts the most pressure on the opponent. However, the design of these three is great where they all fill a similar role, are similar power levels, but have some key differences, so it will be deck and meta dependent for which one is best in a given situation.
3. Pyroclasm
Pyroclasm has the award for the card I have double checked most often to see if it is legal in Pioneer, and now it finally will be.
This will be a very meta dependent card, but in the right meta it will be one of the most powerful cards in the format. And when looking for top cards you want to keep an eye out for cards like this that have a huge potential ceiling.
2. Overlord of the Hauntwoods
Discussed above, but I see this as one of the most powerful cards in the set that will potentially play a role in a wide range of decks both existing and new.
1. Shardmage’s Rescue
Some of Shardmage’s Rescue is that a color shifted Snakeskin Veil would be an upgrade for White over existing protection spells of Gods Willing and Loran’s Escape that do not add damage.
But the enchantment synergies are what makes it particularly interesting. There are some obvious applications here for existing Auras decks.
However, I think the bigger opportunity is that this feels like the core to a strong Boros aggro deck:
Particularly with all the Heroic+Valiant in Boros.
You could also imagine Shardmage’s Rescue in a more midrangey deck paired with Enchantress effects.
Conclusion
This a set with an enchantments matters theme. There have been a limited number of sets like that, so it should create a lot of opportunities for powering up enchantment synergy decks.
Beyond that there are a large number of interesting synergistic cards in other areas and a few straight up powerful cards.
All in, this a recipe for a large amount of brewing potential. Taking existing decks in different directions as well as creating entirely new decks.