Duskmourn Set Review - Pauper/Budget
Final Vengeance by David Szabo
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied & Shards | Enemy & Wedges | cEDH | Reprints | Pauper/Budget
The Biggest Horrors in This Set Are the Price Tags
Duskmourne: House of Horror has one of the coolest themes I've seen in a while, with all its horror movie tropes and stereotypes. There's probably a reference to every iconic scary movie in this set, from aliens, to demons, to axe-wielding murderers. It's a bit cheesy at times, but Magic's been pretty cheesy for a while now, so it fits well enough. Unfortunately, a lot of the coolest cards are going to be pretty expensive, so let's try and negate the scare you're gonna get when you look at your wallet, and find all the best budget cards in the set.
Multicolored
Arabella, Abandoned Doll
We're starting off strong with both an iconic movie reference and a strong commander. This doll rewards you for doing something you should be doing anyways: having a low mana curve. Basically, all Arabella asks of you is that you play a bunch of small creatures, and she'll deal huge amounts of damage on attack. There's a few extra things you should play, like evasion and more small creature synergy, but this commander almost reminds me of Tatyova, Benthic Druid in the way it rewards you for doing something that was good anyways.
Smoky Lounge // Misty Salon
I didn't think any of the cards that cared about Rooms would ever be relevant until I saw that Wizards had printed a five-color Room commander. I guess there will be a Room meta after all, and that means this card will be played quite a bit. Both sides are quite strong when you've got a big density of Rooms, both in your hand and eventually on the board. It's a pretty obvious inclusion in Marina Vendrell, and that's about all that's worth saying.
Inquisitive Glimmer
One key thing to take note when building decks is whether your synergy pieces are synergistic themselves. For example, if you're playing a creature deck, you should play as many creatures as possible. Replace Return to Nature with Gemrazer and Reclamation Sage so that your Beast Whisperer draws a card off of them. If you're playing a spellslinger deck, don't fill your deck with enchantments, even if they're really good with your deck. You need a density of instants and sorceries to cast. And if you're building enchantments, make your synergy pieces enchantments. Replace Starfield Mystic with Inquisitive Glimmer, because Inquisitive Glimmer triggers your Doomwake Giant, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Tuvasa the Sunlit.
White
Unwanted Remake
I have to say, this is actually quite the wanted remake. Yeah, it's not Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile, but one more white removal spell for a single mana makes an untapped Plains look all the more threatening. Every once in a while, you'll wish you had the exile, but this will still deal with most creatures, and the downside is much less severe than Path or Swords. If you're already running the other two, I think this card is absolutely worth including.
Shardmage's Rescue
I almost skipped over this card until I noticed something unusual about it. It's not what it does: there are plenty of cards that give your creatures hexproof for a turn, and a lot of them also give indestructible. There's Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Tyvar's Stand, and Shore Up, all good options. The interesting thing about this one is that it's an enchantment. That's a minor detail in most decks, but in enchantment decks, it probably means that protecting a creature will also draw three cards, gain a life, and make you a sandwich. You know how Enchantment deck triggers are. It's the same thing I said about Inquisitive Glimmer. Enchantress decks want to have as high a density of enchantments as possible, meaning Shardmage's Rescue is a sure inclusion over the usual protection spells.
Sheltered by Ghosts
Upsides: this card is cheaper than most variations of the effect, like Oblivion Ring, that will cost three. That's pretty relevant, and can make a difference if you're really running short on mana. It's also just a solid Aura that grants lifelink and ward, two huge abilities when it comes to decks running anything big. Downsides: i enchants a creature, meaning your opponents can kill your stuff and get their thing back, giving them a two-for-one. That can be a big swing for relatively little cost on the other side of the board. You also need to have a creature to cast this spell at all, and often you'll be wasting the abilities of the Aura on a 1/1 token. If the bonus abilities are relevant enough for your deck, this card is possibly worth running, but otherwise, just pay the one extra mana for O-ring.
Blue
Fear of Failed Tests
Is it just me, or is drawing for damage dealt kind of a crazy ability? My main deck is a Tana, the Bloodsower Voltron build, and let me tell you, making a Saproling for every damage gets out of hand fast. I have no doubts that drawing instead of making a token is also nuts. Even in mono-blue, it's not hard to make a creature big. What's that one Fallout card? Y'know, the one that gives +10/+10 if you have ten or more cards in hand? Oh right, Nerd Rage. I think that fits here, along with Wizard Class. Not to mention the many Equipment that give significant buffs. Trust me, it's not hard to make this thing hit hard, and draw a ridiculous amount of cards.
Bottomless Pool // Locker Room
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Unsummon is a great spell. It slows down your opponents drastically, it can deal with indestructible creatures, and can even rescue your own creatures from a board wipe, something neither Swords nor Path can do. Obviously, Bottomless Pool loses a lot of that utility by being limited to sorcery speed, but it's still a decent way of temporarily dealing with creatures. Plus, it's bonded to a Coastal Piracy mimic. It's a very bad Coastal Piracy, only drawing you a single card per opponent damaged, but it's still decent... I guess. Okay, actually, I've talked myself out of this card. Neither side is very good, and tacking together doesn't make them much better. Still, play more Unsummon!
Stay Hidden, Stay Silent
This card's not all that spectacular or notable, except for the fact that it's been sparking debates about the color pie. Apparently blue isn't really supposed to get rid of creatures, and people are mad that this thing shuffles stuff into your opponents' libraries, even though it does it really badly and isn't worth playing even in Limited. I guess we'll just skip over the fact that Pongify and Rapid Hybridization exist and whine about this card. Wizards gives us a lot of things to complain about, but this is not something that deserves that.
Black
Cynical Loner
Woah, this card is pretty good. Yeah, it's fragile, and has no real evasion, but still, if you can figure out how to get it tapped (literally anything that gives unblockable, Paradise Mantle, Springleaf Drum, every single Jaspera Sentinel variant, etc...), you get an Entomb every single turn. I don't know if anyone's realized it, but Entomb is a really good card. Even if you can't afford Reanimate, if all you're running is Unburial Rites, you can still do some ridiculous stuff. How about tutoring a Zacama, Primal Calamity into your graveyard and then bringing it back to life? Cynical Loner can enable that every single turn. Sure, there may not be a lot of overlap between decks that want to tap creatures and graveyard decks, but I'm sure I can count on this card being messed up in at least one deck.
Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk
This card continues the pattern of Rooms just being two worse versions of other cards, but I think I like this one better. Derelict Attic is pretty much just Read the Bones and Diresight but without the scry/surveil. Not a bad card at all, especially with some modality. Widow's Walk is over-costed, but not terrible, giving a creature you control what is usually unblockability. For four mana, that's not great, but since you're already running a good card on the other half, it may be worth it if your deck likes deathtouch.
Final Vengeance
Dang, we're getting some good removal cards in this set. Unwanted Remake is a Swords to Plowshares that doesn't exile, while Final Vengeance is a Bone Shards that does. Final Vengeance is still a bit worse than Bone Shards, since you can't discard, but sacrificing a token is a relatively small cost, especially when it comes to desperately needed removal.
Red
Fear of Burning Alive
This is pretty expensive at six mana, but I think in the right deck this can be absurdly powerful. It's clearly a burn card, right? It needs damage dealt to opponents, so all the cards that deal damage to face are in. The value of this card is that it saves you the choice of bolting an opponent's creature or their face. With Fear of Burning Alive giving you bonus damage to your opponents' creatures, there's no need to waste a good Jaya's Immolating Inferno on a creature. What concerns me the most about this card, however, is the Delirium. Imodane, the Pyrohammer and Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might aren't really playing much beyond instants and sorceries, and because they're mono-red, they're not going to be running fetches. Getting four card types in your graveyard is going to be quite the challenge in the average burn deck, and a six-drop that just deals four damage on ETB is no good.
Norin, Swift Survivalist
Red blink has never really been an archetype, but it might be one now. Exiling one-drops with ETBs, then recasting them when they get blocked can net you a load of value. Recasting Goblin Engineer, Mogg War Marshal, and of course, Dockside Extortionist, is spectacular, and can absolutely be abused. What I'm most concerned about is the likelihood of your opponents blocking. It's going to be very clear to them that you will be getting value, and since you want to be playing small creatures, they'll often choose to take one or two damage rather than block. I guess you could always run Combustible Gearhulk, and incentivize them to block by attacking for a lot, but that's certainly clunky. I'm curious to see if people will be able to harness Norin's full potential.
Untimely Malfunction
I'm always on the lookout for potential second copies, or even replacements of staples. I've been roasted in the past for forgetting that Over the Edge is an instant, unlike Return to Nature, but this time I've checked, and Untimely Malfunction is an instant and therefore competes with Abrade. The question is what's more important to you: dealing three damage to a creature or redirecting a spell? Everyone who's ever had their removal spells bent by a Deflecting Swat knows just how powerful that ability can be, but is it worth giving up the ability to kill small creatures? Honestly, it's probably a preference choice. Because all modes on both cards are reactive, the deck itself doesn't matter. Some people's meta will have more spells to redirect than dudes to kill, or vice versa, and that will decide their choice.
Green
Greenhouse // Rickety Gazebo
I'll start by saying Rickety Gazebo is no good; it's just a really inefficient draw spell with some mediocre graveyard synergy. But Greenhouse looks pretty worthwhile. There's a few really good cards with the same effect, like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and Chromatic Lantern, but not enough to make Greenhouse unplayable. Budget five-color decks without perfect manabases will be glad to play this card, eliminating all their color fixing woes with just three mana.
Threats Around Every Corner
I don't know if there's really much of a Manifest/Facedown meta, but I do know that there's one deck that really wants this. Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer allows you to play a face-down creature every turn for no mana cost, meaning that, every turn, this card lets you search your library for a basic and ramp by one. That's extremely strong. There's not too much great facedown support, even with the prevalence of the mechanic in Tarkir and Ravnica, but this card really shines in the archetype.
Altanak, the Thrice-Called + Say Its Name
It took someone pointing it out for me to realize that this card is just Beetlejuice, but now I see it. If you say Altanak's name three times, you can summon him from your library, which is kinda nuts. Unfortunately, Say Its Name is not one of those cards that you can run multiple of in EDH, meaning the whole summoning thing is kinda useless here. Still, it's worth noting that Say Its Name is a sorcery-speed Grapple with the Past, and perfectly playable on its own.
Lands
Bad-Luck Lands
A lot of people have been hyping up these lands, saying they're spectacular as a cycle of common lands. I have to disagree. Yeah, they can come in untapped, and yeah, they probably will, because it's really easy to get one person to below 13 life. The problem is, they won't come in untapped when you need them to, in the early game. Late game, tapped lands just don't matter that much. Very rarely are you going to lose tempo by having your seventh land come in sideways, but you will lose tempo when your second land comes in tapped, and these don't help with that at all. Even in 20-life formats, these will still only enter untapped by turn three at the earliest, and that's not soon enough.
Well, that's Duskmourn: House of Horror. I have to say, I'm impressed with the set's commitment to its theme and the incredible number of allusions throughout. The cards themselves are pretty decent as well, and I noticed quite a few cards that I'll be running in my decks. What did you think of the set? Too cheesy, or just right?
