Duskmourn - A cEDH Set Review
Greetings ghouls, ghosts, and gargoyles, Jake FitzSimons here to review the best cEDH cards from Magic: The Gathering's latest set: Duskmourn: House of Horror. We've gone straight from the cutest set of all time in Bloomburrow to what is arguably the spookiest set of all time (sorry, Innistrad), and we're looking at the most demonic tutor ever, an alternative to Abrade, a big Boros balloon, a new combo piece for Stella Lee, a Necrotic Ooze for the battlefield, and as if Wizards wanted to make sure I was happy, we have a brand new staple for Yuriko. Let's split up and look for clues good cEDH cards!
White
Unwanted Remake
Unwanted Remake might be the third best white removal spell after Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile. It's cheap, it's instant, and the downside of giving them a free creature is quite modest, with the occasional upside of ruining an opponent's topdeck tutor. This is our first (and only) card with manifest dread in this cEDH set review for Duskmourn, so a quick explanation:
Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.
It's not complicated, it's just good old fashioned Manifest à la Reality Shift, an incredibly similar card to Unwanted Remake.
I predict Unwanted Remake will only see play in decks absolutely desperate for more removal after they've exhausted the traditional options, unless of course a deck comes about that wants to use it the same way that Reality Shift was used in days gone by. Namely, if you can infinitely loop Unwanted Remake, you can mill out every opponent by manifesting every card in their libraries.
Blue
It's very rare to have a set with no new cEDH cards for blue as it's often the most stacked color, but Duskmourn: House of Horrors has managed to do it. Are there powerful new tools I'm overlooking in blue? Please let me know if so!
Black
Come Back Wrong
Come Back Wrong is a nice simple card. It's a removal/clone spell that you might consider if you want the utility of removing creatures and getting a chance to use them yourself. You don't get to keep the creature in question, but if all you wanted was to steal a Dockside Extortionist trigger and prevent your opponent from assembling infinite mana with bounce combos, Come Back Wrong is a decent enough tool. That said, it's expensive at three mana and clunky as a sorcery, so I don't think it's going to see mainstream play.
Demonic Counsel
This is the ultimate Demonic Tutor. Not because it's better than Demonic Tutor, but because when it doesn't work like Demonic Tutor, it still tutors for Demons. You know when you say a word so many times it stops sounding like a real word? I'm already feeling that way about Demonic Counsel.
Anyway, as far as Demons worth tutoring, there are only two of real note: Vilis, Broker of Blood and Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Sadly, neither see as much play as they used to, but if you're desperate to have them on demand, you can do worse than Demonic Counsel.
As for typical decks without Demons, you're going to need a way to turn on Delirium reliably. Fetchlands help, self-mill helps, wheels help, but you shouldn't expect to have Demonic Counsel online in the opening stages of the game, which are coincidentally the most important turns in cEDH. Granted, there are other Delirium cards that see play in cEDH, but the recently printed Shifting Woodland is still a color-producing land without Delirium, and it's barely relevant text on Dragon's Rage Channeler. I'd wager that Demonic Counsel sees precious little play as a result of this, but it might shine in niche decks like Kaalia of the Vast or put in some work in Dargo, the Shipwrecker decks looking to tutor up Rakdos, the Muscle.
Doomsday Excruciator
Six black pips on a single card is fitting for a horror themed set, and Doomsday Excruciator backs it up with a unique effect and incredible art. Exiling all but the six bottom cards of all four players' libraries isn't something we've seen before, and it's nothing if not flashy. But can that effect do anything worth doing in cEDH? I'm less sure.
If you already have the win in hand and your opponents don't, great! You've locked them out of the game and you're poised to win. But if you already have the win in hand, wouldn't you rather Doomsday Excruciator was a Defense Grid or a counterspell or some form of protection? Your opponents might not be able to draw into their wincons, but they can still stop yours, and given Doomsday Excruciator comes with an extra each turn, you're now on a three-turn clock before decking yourself. This makes the big fella a bit of a win-more card, something that won't make much of an impact unless you're in a dominant position already.
Red
Razorkin Needlehead
Razorkin Needlehead looks to me like what Orcish Bowmasters should have been: a powerful deterrent to mass card draw effects that isn't completely broken and an auto-include in every deck that can play it. Unfortunately, it's so much weaker that I wish it had a little more oomph. It doesn't need flash or an enter-the-battlefield trigger, but being able to hit creatures would have been really nice for red decks that can support two red pips. As it stands, it likely won't be included for the sake of ruining the Rhystic Study player because it's just a little too clunky, but its obvious home in cEDH will be in Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin decks.
If you're not familiar with the big Rakdos mob boss, the name of the game is repetitive damage effects to trigger Ob's +1/+1 counter and exile effect. Razorkin Needlehead is perfect for this as it guarantees three triggers a cycle just from natural draw steps. Anything beyond that is gravy. Beyond that, Razorkin Needlehead could see some play in red stax decks looking to fight all the draw effects running rampant in cEDH, but unfortunately stax isn't in a great spot right now as it can't put the clamps down fast enough to punish all the turbo decks.
Untimely Malfunction
Untimely Malfunction is a sidegrade to cEDH removal staple Abrade. If you've ever played a low-color red deck, you'll be more than familiar with Abrade as both modes are always relevant. The vast majority of creatures in cEDH are three toughness or lower, and you'll rarely go wanting for a good artifact to remove. Untimely Malfunction trades that Smelt effect for the ability to redirect a spell in pseudo-Deflecting Swat fashion or a chance to make up to two creatures unable to block.
Stopping blocks isn't especially relevant unless you really care about a damage trigger or you're going for a lethal swing on a low health player, but redirecting a spell is consistently useful. You can throw a Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares back at the caster, protect a noncreature permanent from a removal spell, and, most importantly, counter a counter by redirecting it to itself. We already have that in the form of the aforementioned Deflecting Swat, and by virtue of being free Swat is much better, but we don't have this effect stapled to creature removal. Overall I think Untimely Malfunction is a tad worse than Abrade, but if you're low on colors and need more flexible interaction that can remove a creature as easily as it can protect one of your own, Untimely Malfunction is your answer.
Vengeful Possession
Threaten effects see precious little play in cEDH and are usually relegated to draft decks, with one key exception: Stella Lee, Wild Card. In Stella's case, the ability to take control of a creature isn't the selling point because you're always going to be targeting Stella. The benefit of Vengeful Possession is that it untaps the targeted creature, enabling Stella Lee, Wild Card's primary combo of copying and untapping and copying the cowboy infinitely. Follow the link below from our friends at Commander Spellbook for more information on this combo.
What makes Vengeful Possession interesting is that it draws and discards with each iteration. This is weaker than similar cards like Crimson Wisps, Cerulean Wisps as it is card neutral rather than card advantage, but as long as you have one card in hand, it'll allow you to dig all the way to Twisted Fealty, the actual win condition for the deck. It also feeds Underworld Breach lines thanks to the discard. If you want more information on playing Stella Lee, Wild Card in cEDH, Josh LeBlanc from ElderDrunkenHighlander has a comprehensive writeup on the deck available right here.
Green
Kona, Rescue Beastie
Are you a big fan of massive permanents? You're probably a green mage, and Kona, Rescue Beastie is going to be your best bet in cEDH. It's not like green lacks mana production, but in a post Orcish Bowmasters world, mana dorks are worse than they've ever been, so why not just cheat those massive permanents into play? For just four mana, you'll have a 4/3 that puts a permanent into play for free at the beginning of your second main phase. Granted, you need to tap the beastie, but with Vehicles, like Clown Car, mana-producers, like Springleaf Drum and Relic of Legends, and newer options, like Coordinated Clobbering, it won't be hard to get a trigger the same turn you play Kona.
As for what you want to actually cheat in, there is a glut of backbreaking options that'll have an immediate impact on the board. Creatures like Void Winnower, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Nullstone Gargoyle and even It That Betrays can disrupt your opponents and quickly take over the game, while artifacts in the vein of God-Pharaoh's Statue and Portal to Phyrexia will do much the same. Heck, just cheat a Kodama of the East Tree into play and keep the value train rolling.
Having said all that, it won't be easy to recover if Kona, Rescue Beastie is removed on sight. At four mana to put into play, it'll be one of the slowest mono-green commanders, and as nice as the payoff for keeping Kona alive is, it's not strictly a win condition. Having enormous permanents in play is good, but will Kona, Rescue Beastie be able to get them out faster than turbo decks can force through a win? Short of beating your opponents to death, it's not obvious how a mono-green deck without an associated commander combo can actually win, particularly compared to existing options like Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
The biggest issue that Kona, Rescue Beastie has in my mind is that it falls apart when you compare it to Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. The chubby Simic commander costs half as much and has an extra color, it produces a ludicrous amount of mana, it has more efficient card advantage and interaction and win conditions, and a lot of these massive permanents I've brought up are just as easy to get into play. A commander doesn't need to be better than an existing option to see play in cEDH, and there's nothing wrong with playing something a little weaker, but if all you care about is the strongest version of a deck that plays Timmy cards, stick with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy.
Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar
If you're in green and Crucible of Worlds isn't enough land recursion for you, Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar will do just the same job, with the addition of functioning as a Yawgmoth's Will when you have five mana to spare. Having said that, if you're in green and you're in the market for Crucible of Worlds and Yawgmoth's Will, I'd love to know what deck you're playing, because whatever it is, I'm not familiar with it. I can't see this Room doing too much right now, but it's a card to keep an eye on because it's two powerful (albeit expensive) effects on the same card.
Multicolor
Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
Well well well. I never thought I'd see the day that Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow wanted to play a planeswalker. They're a rare enough permanent type in cEDH, and a tempo/aggro deck is not where you'd expect one to show up, but Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is an instant staple for everyone's favorite design mistake. This is a card that does everything we Yuriko players are looking for. To begin with, at the very floor, it's a Ninja with ninjutsu. As a 3/4 for three mana (nijutsued), it's one of the bigger Ninjas available for Yuriko at that price, and four toughness keeps it outside of Abrade range. Better yet, it has hexproof on your turn, meaning it's untouchable when your opponents would most like to remove it. It's also blue and black, which is tremendous for a deck that runs every pitch spell it can get its hands on, such as Chrome Mox, Flare of Malice, Force of Will, Force of Negation, Contagion, Commandeer etc.
But the best part of Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is that all three planeswalker abilities are extremely useful. To begin with, the +1 is an emblem that gives all your Ninjas +1/+1 permanently. If all you get out of Kaito is a flat creature anthem, it's still providing significant value. What's more likely is that you get to tick him up a few times, making your board much more resilient to removal, less likely to be blocked, and more likely to deal damage, which is ultimately the name of the game with Yuriko. Remember that emblems stack, and, to my knowledge, there's zero way to remove them. As a 1/3, there are plenty of cEDH creatures that can profitably block Yuriko. There are fewer when she's a 2/4, and very few when she's a 3/5 and beyond. If you've played or played against Yuriko, you know how valuable Silver-Fur Master can be, so just imagine how powerful a stacking Silver-Fur Master will be.
As to the second ability, it has two uses. If you surveil 2 before swinging in with your board, you can setup better topdecks to improve your draws and deal more damage, which is always a welcome effect. If you do it after swinging in with your board, as long as you flipped a single nonzero card with Yuriko, you're drawing three cards unless one player is already dead. Going three cards deep for a +0 activation cost is a fantastic rate, particularly given you can do it turn after turn without any fear Katio will run out of loyalty counters.
The final planeswalker ability is certainly the weakest of the bunch, but not without its uses. Yuriko pilots will sometimes find themselves in situations where they just need one more Ninja to connect, where they know that a single extra trigger is going to make the difference between a win and a loss. If there's a crucial blocker standing in your way that simply must be dealt with, Kaito's -2 is the perfect answer. Placing two stun counters also means that if you don't get there this turn, you've got a lot of time before you have to worry about that blocker again. It can even save your bacon if you're on the back foot and anticipating a swing from an enormous creature!
Overall I think Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is one of the sweetest cards Yuriko has been blessed with in a long time, which is really saying something given how often she gets upgrades.
The Jolly Balloon Man
I'm always interested in Boros commanders, and The Jolly Balloon Man but as much as I want to like a card with such deeply unsettling art, I'm not feeling too jolly about its prospects in cEDH. Let's look at the upsides first. Double dipping on any creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects is great in Boros thanks to Imperial Recruiter, Recruiter of the Guard, Ranger-Captain of Eos, and Dockside Extortionist. This is already possible with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, but the meatball Goblin is mono-red whereas this balloon head has access to a whole extra color. You can also setup wins with Combat Celebrant or Village Bell-Ringer as long as you have a mana dork in play, you'll just need to dip into the two mana dorks, like Ornithopter of Paradise or Hedron Crawler, to make it happen.
Unfortunately, I think that's where the upsides end. The activation cost is a shame, the sorcery speed is a real restriction, and given it lacks mana advantage or card advantage, it all hinges The Jolly Balloon Man's combo potential. Two card combos involving a commander are nothing new, and the ones I'm aware of so far aren't especially resilient or efficient. I'm sure there are lines that I'm missing and further brewing will surely come up with something a little smoother, but right now it looks like a challenging deck to make work in the average cEDH pod. Having said that, I'm a diehard Koll, the Forgemaster fan, a "cEDH" deck that requires four different cards for its primary combo, so don't let me discourage you!
The Master of Keys
At first glance, The Master of Keys looks like a much worse version of Underworld Breach as it can only escape enchantments, a far cry from being able to recast anything and everything. Sure, it's nice to bring back a Mystic Remora you stopped paying for or a Rhystic Study that got removed or a Dress Down that went to the bin, but are enchantments valuable enough to warrant running The Master of Keys in the command zone? I think so!
Remember that some of the best reanimation spells in Magic are actually Auras, like Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy. This means that, while The Master of Keys is technically limited to enchantments, it's actually very good at bringing creatures out of the graveyard as well. Being Esper, that opens up classic win conditions, like Hullbreaker Horror with mana-positive artifacts. Just do the usual Hullbreaker shenanigans to create infinite mana, then use The Master of Keys as your infinite outlet. This works because you can bounce The Master of Keys and choose to have it go to the command zone, at which point you can cast it for as much mana as you like, milling your entire library and then reanimating Thassa's Oracle with an empty library. The same style of combo works with Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, a reanimation enchantment, and any mana rock. If you're not familiar with that combo, look below:
That all sounds like a perfectly playable and respectable cEDH deck, but if you want to get spicier, take a look at Second Chance.
You don't need me to tell you that spending three mana for an extra turn every turn until you run out of cards to pay the escape cost is good; that much goes without saying. The challenge with making Second Chance work is getting your life total down to five or less. It's not likely that it'll happen naturally, particularly if this line proves good enough, as your opponents will be sure to keep you above five or take you out in one fell swoop to avoid it. Thankfully, Ad Nauseam exists! It helps find Second Chance, it gives you some semblance of control over your life total, and filling your hand means filling your graveyard when you move to the cleanup step. I'm not positive this'll prove strong enough, but boy oh boy do I want to try it out.
The one thing that doesn't look super appealing with The Master of Keys is that it'll take a hot minute to get rolling, as it costs three to get in play and even sinking some spare mana into it doesn't result in a lot of mill. You're not going to get much incidental value out of the horror unless you put some work in with support cards, but thankfully esper has plenty of tools like Intuition, Stitcher's Supplier, and Brain Freeze. It's a low bar and I feel disloyal to my beloved Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, but The Master of Keys is an easy choice for the best card in Duskmourn: House of Horrors.
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls is bizarrely similar to an existing and much superior Rakdos cEDH option: Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. They both fly, they're both four mana, they have the same power, and they both provide card advantage when an opponent takes damage.
Unfortunately for Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, while drawing a card is much better than exiling one for a turn, it's a lot harder to do. It's limited to the first time on each opponent's turn, putting a hard ceiling of three cards a cycle, whereas Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is only limited by how many pings you can do.
Beyond that, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin has the distinct advantage of going infinite with All Will Be One, an expensive but efficient win condition. The Elder Demon in question can do no such thing. If the mob boss didn't exist, this might've been an interesting fringe option, but there's no real reason to play it that I can see.
Colorless & Lands
Marvin, Murderous Mimic
If you love assembling one big creature with a crazy amount of activated abilities, Marvin is like an on-the-battlefield version of the build-your-own-combo creature classic Necrotic Ooze. Marvin, Murderous Mimic is better in that he's cheaper than the Ooze and available in all colors, but it can be easier to get creatures into your graveyard than it can be to bring them to hand and cast them.
Marvin, Murderous Mimic in cEDH seems perfect for Stella Lee, Wild Card, as a way to backup her combo with a second activation on the combo spell or a chance to copy a counterspell and force the initial win attempt through. As a two drop it also provides a neat curve for a win by essentially using it as a haste enabler. As long as Marvin is in play a turn before Stella Lee, Wild Card, you can activate Marvin when she enters and lends her activated ability. Of course a two mana haste enabler isn't enough to warrant a slot, but a haste enabler that can provide protected wins sure is.
I can see Marvin, Murderous Mimic putting in work for any commander with a tapped activation cost, like Oswald, Fiddlebender or Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, and I have no doubt it'll see play somewhere in Tayam, Luminous Enigma decks, because of course it will. It feels a lot like a slightly worse Agatha's Soul Cauldron in most instances, but the cauldron enables countless combos, so Marvin, Murderous Mimic is worth keeping an eye on.
Scary? Not really...
Duskmourn: House of Horrors is among the weaker sets I've reviewed for cEDH. I'm thrilled with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, I have no doubt that The Master of Keys is going to be a popular commander for reanimation fans, and Marvin, Murderous Mimic has boundless combo potential, but there's not a lot of meat on this bone. From a cEDH perspective, this set feels less like The Exorcist or The Thing and more like Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey: bad. But as I'm always at pains to point out, that's okay! Magic sets aren't designed with cEDH in mind, and despite the ever increasing popularity of our weird little subformat, I don't think they should be. Until next time...
