My Top 10 Cards for Duskmourn: House of Horrors
Duskmourn: House of Horrors is upon us. This set promised a classic horror feel and it definitely delivered, even if the references to 1980s horror movies feel a bit jarring compared to the usual Magic fare. Even though I’m an ‘80s child, I don’t feel like I’m in the target demographic for this set. That makes it easier to focus on the mechanical side of these new cards. In this article, I’ll highlight my top 10 cards from Duskmourn.
Marvin, Murderous Mimic
While it’s no Necrotic Ooze, Marvin can definitely pull off some interesting shenanigans with activated abilities under the right circumstances. It’s only a matter of time until something gets printed that completely breaks this card and I’ll be waiting patiently for the day that happens. Until then, Marvin will probably be involved in some of the coolest janky combos at Commander tables where it makes an appearance.
Ghost Vacuum
Who ya gonna call? Ghost Vacuum! Commander players often don’t pack much in the way of graveyard hate, so I’m all about cards that can come down early to deal with reanimation targets and the like and then provide a big upside later in the game. While I definitely don’t think that this card is as good as Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, it looks like a fun way to answer grayeyard threats and then use them on your opponents later.
Withering Torment
Color pie traditionalists might scoff at black getting access to quality enchantment removal, but it really doesn’t bother me as long as they make sure that it remains the third best color at dealing with that permanent type. This card won’t push out the best green and white cards that can remove enchantments, but it does offer flexible removal at instant speed that can help deal with a Rest in Peace when you need it.
Screaming Nemesis
Life gain enjoyers beware. If you’re playing a red deck focused on burning down opponents, it can feel like an uphill battle if someone is able to keep gaining life every single turn. Screaming Nemesis is here to help. The easiest way to make it work is to swing it at someone other than the life gain player and convince them to block it, allowing you to shoot the problem player and shut off life gain for good.
Kianne, Corrupted Memory
I love casting sorcery speed spells at instant speed and I always try to include ways to do it in my decks when I can. With this commander, you don’t need anything special to do it, as long as you keep track of whether her power is even or odd. It shouldn’t be too hard to make a cohesive deck with plenty of spells of both types in Simic, so I might even throw this together myself if I feel like playing a deck outside of my usual wheelhouse.
Dollmaker’s Shop // Porcelain Gallery
Rooms are an interesting new enchantment type with a ton of potential. This one lets you cast Dollmaker’s Shop early to start churning out tokens and then unlock Porcelain Gallery later on to pump up your entire team and swing for big damage. As a huge fan of Adeline, Resplendent Cathar in Commander, I’m definitely not against white getting a finisher like this one for go-wide decks in casual Commander.
Tyvar, the Pummeler
Tyvar’s back, and he brought his fanny pack and spiked baseball bat with him! This card feels like an excellent finisher for mono-green decks because it can come down early, survive certain types of targeted removal and board wipes, and then buff up your entire team to a game-ending threat for five mana. You might even be able to activate the ability more than once since green is so good at creating huge amounts of mana.
Split Up
This is a cheap board wipe that can easily become asymmetrical with very little effort. It’s not overly difficult to untap and spend three mana during your first main phase after your opponents have dedicated all of their best creatures to swinging at other players, which means that Split Up is likely to be an instant classic of the board wipe genre. I’ll be adding this to a ton of my own decks and I expect many others will be doing the same.
Untimely Malfunction
I love modal spells because of how important flexibility and versatility are in formats like Commander. This Uncommon instant has three modes that are all pretty useful in their own right, even though I believe the second mode will wind up being the most popular. You can even use this card politically to enable an opponent to get through for damage on a player that’s starting to become a threat to the rest of the table.
Mirror Room // Fractured Realm
This room represents a three-mana Clone spell and an ability doubler for all triggered abilities on a single card. While I think that seven mana is expensive to get something that does nothing on its own, you can always cast Fractured Realm first and then cast Mirror Room in order to make two Reflections for the price of one. Assuming that the creatures that you copy also have triggered abilities, you might get a ton of value!
Duskmourn: House of Horrors might not be my favorite set from a thematic perspective, but it’s a mechanically solid outing with plenty of cool cards for players of all stripes. This is the last major set release of 2024 aside from Foundations, so I hope that you’ve enjoyed playing Magic this year as much as I have.
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