(Spawn Hunter | Art by Justine Cruz)

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Top o' the Mourning

Welcome back to another set review! I'm Brian, your usual host of Brew For Your Buck and we're diving into Duskmourn: House of Horror today. I'll admit, I am not a big fan of horror movies, but some of the references in this set are so iconic that even I understand them.

Anyway, we're here to look at cards and we've got some really cool ones and a couple of not-so-cool ones. So let's all group together, walk into the obvious hiding place, and look at enemy color cards from Magic's newest set!

 

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Mythics

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Kianne, Corrupted Memory

To kick things off, Wizards shockingly contradicts themselves! If you haven't followed the drama around Nadu, Winged Wisdom, it was originally supposed to allow you to cast permanents as though they had flash, but that was deemed too powerful for Commander and was redesigned into the monstrosity it is today.

Well, two sets later, they go and make that card anyway. Sure, you have to manipulate Kianne's power to do so, but savvy deckbuilders will include a bunch of instant speed ways to draw a card.

Coupled with Simic's () usual ability to ramp and play a draw-go game, this card seems like it will be miserable to play against.

Before you say "Wait, other commanders let you play at instant speed!", here they are, and none of them are as flexible as Kianne. I'm glad we get Kianne out of the way first, since it's for sure my least favorite card I'm going to talk about today.

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Rendmaw, Creaking Nest

Thankfully, Rendmaw gets the bad taste out of my mouth right away. We've never had a card that has the clause "two or more card types" on it before, and I love that Rendmaw will make for some really unique deckbuilding.

While all the Delirium payoff cards still work, Rendmaw is perfect to head up a deck built around on of my favorite archetypes: Dagger Burn. The eponymous Dowsing Dagger and Blood Seeker (included in the precon) are what the archetype is all about, punishing your opponents for having creatures.

Red is usually the best for this with cards like Repercussion, so Rendmaw works in the 99 of a Jund variant of Dagger Burn, but I'd be interested in the deckbuilding challenge of a Golgari () list.

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Winter, Cynical Opportunist

Moving to the face commander of the Death Toll precon, Winter's text box is far more straightforward than Rendmaw. While he reminded me of Meren on first glance, the notable difference is that Winter can bring back any permanent.

The finality counters matter a bit less when they're on artifacts or enchantments, and cheating a Portal to Phyrexia or Zendikar Resurgent into play seems like fun. As with all Delirium decks, make sure you're including a wide range of card types to keep it turned on.

Artifact lands like Vault of Whispers, and enchantment creatures like Courser of Kruphix all help to keep the reanimation chain flowing. Of course, Winter is fine in the 99 of any Golgari based self-mill list as a way to get a two for one out of a recursion spell. Bring back Winter then bring back something else!

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Zimone, Mystery Unraveler

Our first Zimone is another precon face commander, caring about face down cards in conjunction with Landfall. The obvious power of her ability is to flip things up for no mana at instant speed, really pushing the power of your morph, megamorph, disguise, and manifest (with or without dread) cards.

Fetchlands will be important here and while Misty Rainforest and friends are the best of the bunch, you can also get away with Evolving Wilds, Brokers Hideout, or Bant Panorama.

Topdeck manipulation like Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top really push the deck into overdrive, letting you cheat on mana costs by manifesting the card and then getting two Landfall triggers to flip it over.

Hello free Ulamog! Zimone could also go into the 99 other face-down-matters decks like Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer as a value engine, but I think she shines more as the leader of a deck.

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Rares

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Convert to Slime

While I love the flavor here, I don't think this card is nearly as good when lined up against Urgent Necropsy, Casualties of War, or even Windgrace's Judgment.

Killing three things with one card is a pretty good rate, but I'd rather play the other cards I mentioned over this, or just a board wipe.

If you're in an Ooze deck or can use the huge vanilla token, maybe this makes the cut, but otherwise I think Convert to Slime should stay in the jank tank.

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Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna

Our first and only Room of the article is something I think you only want to play for the Sauna side. Getting the extra card on the end step instead of upkeep like usual gives you some instant value, and is especially potent in decks that play more of a draw-go game.

Of course, there are probably cheaper effects to increase your card velocity, but having this stapled to a removal spell increases its value significantly.

I like Rooms for the same reason I like Adventures for Commander: You're sneaking "extra" cards into your deck. All that said makes this a nice addition to an Izzet () control deck.

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The Jolly Balloon Man

He's not quite Kiki-Jiki, but he still goes infinite with almost a ham sandwich. I expect our Jolly Man here to be the most popular commander from Duskmourn for a number of reasons.

One, a Boros commander that doesn't care about Equipment or attacking gives the color pair some new design space (see Osgir).

Two, he does care about copying things, and people (me included) love that sweet enter-the-battlefield (ETB)/death trigger dopamine injected directly into their veins from the command zone.

And three, killing your opponents with 99 red Balloons is now the newest achievement for Commander players everywhere. Don't believe me? At time of writing he's in the lead by almost 200 decks on the site. Look out for a Balloon Man article soon.

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The Swarmweaver

I love this card despite it having a very obvious home in typal decks with Insects and Spiders. I do think it's better in the 99 of a deck like Zask or Ishkanah, as its two types help enable Delirium if you mill it instead of playing it.

It can also go in a Scarecrow deck of course, and with our return to Lorwyn on the horizon, maybe there's something coming for that soon. As a commander, I don't think it does anything unique, but perhaps you can take advantage of the tokens or reduce its cost with Foundry Inspector or similar cards.

Golgari Insect Artifacts anyone? The art on this guy is also really sweet, and I hope I open this thing in my prerelease pack.

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Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal

While we have some great options for Auras in my favorite color pair, we don't really have good options for generic enchantments. Daxos the Returned is fine, but Neva leaves much to be desired.

Victor changes all of that! Note that the end of his Eerie ability says "a graveyard", so the first two triggers help enable the third to reanimate the best creature from any graveyard. Cards like Conviction can help you repeatably trigger Victor, or use Spellbook Vendor to pop out a few Role tokens.

Victor also seems like a good spot for one of my favorite infinite combos featuring Screams from Within, and either Warehouse Tabbyor Knight of Doves. Couple with Wicked Visitor or the new Balemurk Leech, and you've got a game-winning combo!

 

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Zimone, All-Questioning

I'm going to give Wizards this one card. Build your prime-number themed deck and have fun. After this, I never want to worry about prime numbers mattering AGAIN.

Also, this version of Zimone is a stinky commander. There are better commanders for tokens, +1/+1 counters, and lands in Simic, hence why I think they included the gimmick.

If you're a math nerd and you love this, I'm happy for you, but I'll be skipping class. (Disclaimer: don't skip class, it costs you knowledge and money you can't get back.)

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Uncommons & Commons

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Arabella, Abandoned Doll

Anyone remember Amazing Ally? It was a doll that talked and shared a name with my sister, so she had to have it. Years after it went into the attic, I was up there looking for something, and it started to talk again.

That's the vibe I'm getting here: creepy animated doll that never actually dies. Gameplay-wise, Arabella is a sweet commander for "power 2 or less" matters, and finding ways to make her unblockable so she can attack with impunity will be key.

Also, Boros lifegain anyone? Also, also: I think that doll is still alive in my parents' attic, but I will NOT go up there to find out.

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Drag to the Roots

What a card! If you're in any kind of graveyard-centric deck, this is an easy swap for a less flexible removal spell. It reminds of Mortality Spear, just way easier to turn on for most decks.

I want my single-target removal to be cheap and flexible, so I'll be dragging many opposing permanents to the roots in my future.

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Rite of the Moth

What an insult to one of my favorite cards of all time. And if you're thinking "why not run both?", run Rites and my literal favorite card of all time instead.

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Well, a relatively short list for this time around, in part because I think Wizards is finally hearing the community feedback amount not blasting us with tons of legends in every single set.

Duskmourn seems like a sweet set, and I'm excited to build it, draft it, and write about it. Let me know down in the comments if there is a commander you want to see featured in an article, or if I missed anything in my review.

You can also check out my previous articles, or follow me on Twitter for when the newest one goes up. Until then, happy brewing and I'll see you next time!