Duskmourn: House of Horrors: Limited first impressions

Published: 09/13/2024

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This is one of those magic sets where you really feel every one of its 30 years. "Enters the battlefield" is now simple "enters". Makes me think about how every zone change actually has its own verb. Cards are "returned" to your hand, "exiled", "die", "shuffled" or "put on top" of your library. But the only place you enter is the battlefield. It was really important to save those two words this set so they could fit "Eerie — Whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a room" onto 15 cards.

And survival: "Survival — At the beginning of your second main phase if ~ is tapped" really completes all the combat triggers. We have when it attacks, when it becomes tapped, when it deals combat damage, when it deals combat damage to a player and when it becomes untapped (inspired) and now this. I think from a gameplay perspective it's going to be pretty fun. Inspired was a little too weak and the cause and effect felt a little too disconnected. Dealing damage at all is too easy and dealing damage to a player is too hard as well as making the cards too swingy and win more. I think this iteration will be fun. It's the kind of iteration you only get to after 30 years.

Manifest was already a fairly complicated mechanic and now every time it involves an extra decision and extra public information from the card you put in your graveyard. But again despite the extra complexity I think it'll be better than the original. With original manifest it mostly felt like just a 2/2 but then sometimes you got hosed. Now it'll feel like probably a creature and sometimes you get lucky.

And the rooms. They're sort of the most complicated version of split cards ever. It used to be you picked a side and that's what you got. Then you could pick both. Now you pick one but you get to pick the other at an indeterminate time in the future. And you have to track which have been picked forever. But again I like it. Your decisions aren't as committal as og split cards because you get both eventually. But there are now more options in sequencing and more information to track.

Also the colors are a little wonky in this set. In white we have Emerge from the Cocoon . In black we have Withering Torment . In blue we have Tunnel Surveyor . Horrid Vigor looks more like a black combat trick than a green combat trick. Strange stuff. That's enough preamble; onto the archetypes.

Archetypes

The archetypes are: rooms (UR), eerie (UWB), manifest (UG), survival (GW), power 2 or less (RW), delirium (RGb) and sacrifice (BR). Things are sort of spread around and across colors and bleed into each other a bit. Every color has at least one room at common but Red and Blue both get an extra one as well as a gold uncommon. Every color except red has an enchantment creature at common but black and white have 3 and 2 respectively. Every color has commons that manifest at common but they are by far concentrated in UG and that's the only color combination that has payoffs. Survival is only on green, white and Cynical Loner . Not sure what her deal is. She has a lot of text and is uncommon but is barely better than a 2 mana 3/1. But at the same time survival isn't something you need to build around really tightly. More of a way your aggro deck could be slanted. The biggest thing it'll change in deckbuilding is push you to play more combat tricks. Of course every color has creatures of power 2 or less but all the payoffs are in RW. Again I don't think it's something you build around tightly but a way to make the set have two aggro decks that feel distinct. Delirium is only on Jund cards and in Jund is very concentrated in RG. Sacrifice, both the enablers and payoffs, is all in BR. It's probably the tightest archetype by color concentration.

Looking at the color combinations I'm not entirely sure what BW is supposed to do even though it's sort of an eerie color pair. Both their uncommons are simply expensive value cards.

I also think GB is a little weirdly positioned. I guess it's also delirium like RG but value delirium instead of aggro delirium? Maybe one deck would rather have Say its name and the other would rather have Wary Watchdog .

Rooms

I'm really excited to draft a rooms deck. It seems like every limited environment UR is pigeon holed into spells. Which makes sense and is usually a fun deck but it's refreshing to have something so different. I like the common rooms, Underwater Tunnel // Slimy Aquarium , Meat Locker // Drowned Diner , Glassworks // Shattered Yard and Ticket Booth // Tunnel of Hate and there are a few payoffs: Ghostly Keybearer , Rampaging Soulrager , Intruding Soulrager and Keys to the House . It actually seems possible to win with Central Elevator // Promising Stairs and I hope to do that. I guess the game plan is to hold on and eventually win with your card advantage. I'd guess this archetype actually won't be that great because the rooms themselves are a little clunky especially at common. But in a way that's helpful since I think some of them you can get late and a lot of the support commons like Creeping Peeper and Rampaging Soulrager could also go late.

Eerie

This theme is spread across esper. Somehow it seems more cohesive as distinct BW and UW decks though. At common there are 4 cards that have eerie: 1 white, 2 blue, 1 black. The UB uncommons, Fear of Infinity and Skullsnap Nuisance both have Eerie. One of the UW uncommons Gremlin Tamer has eerie and the other Inquisitive Glimmer is definitely an Eerie card. Outside of the eerie cards there's also Ethereal Armor as a payoff.

A lot of the eerie cards seem a little out of place though. For instance Scrabbling Skullcrab doesn't really seem like what you want to be doing. Stalked Researcher and Balemurk Leech don't really look like they belong in the same deck. I guess if you're really triggering eerie down they're both aggressive cards but I tend to see the Stalked Researcher as a defensively positioned option.

Manifest

There's manifest in every color but only payoffs in UG. At common there's Cryptid Inspector and at uncommon Growing Dread , Paranormal Analyst , Threats around every corner and Oblivious Bookworm . In particular I think Cryptid Inspector is pretty pushed as you only have to manifest once and flip to get a 3 mana 4/5 vigilance and if you're in the deck the upside is pretty uncapped.

I think this deck is going to want to play the cyclers Daggermaw Megalodon and Slavering Branchsnapper more than other decks because it's so much better to manifest a big creature than a little creature that may only be a marginal upgrade over a 2/2 anyway. Between this effect, Threats around every corner and the fact that manifest is in every color the deck may want to splash fairly often.

Survival

There are 13 cards with survival 2 of which are common, Cautious Survivor and Acrobatic Cheerleader . Neither of which are particularly good. I don't think this is something you should be building around so much as a beatdown focused aggro deck. The main thing a density of survival cards will push you to do is play more combat tricks. There are a few cute things you can do like tap your own creature with Baseball Bat . But that situation seems rare because why not tap their creature and attack? I guess the main upside is you can trigger survival on a turn you're summoning sick. Coordinated Clobbering is sort of a combo but it would probably be better if it didn't tap. There's also Fear of Exposure and Fear of Immobility which are certainly marginally better if you're in the deck.

Power 2 or Less

There are 7 cards that care about cards with power 2 or less, 3 commons: Vicious Clown , Ragged Playmate and Living Phone , 3 uncommons: Arabella, Abandoned Doll , Irreverent Gremlin and Splitskin Doll , and 1 rare: Enduring Innocence . I actually think Survival and Power 2 or less are a fun way to bifurcate the white aggro strategy clearly into go wide and go tall. Of the payoffs the only one I see as a big draw is Arabella, Abandoned Doll . If I had a few of those I'd start thinking about playing Ragged Playmate s. Playmate and clown are also best friends. The other RW uncommon: Midnight Mayhem is a great enabler.

Delirium

This archetype is similar to Eerie in that it's in 3 colors, Jund, but one of the color combinations, BR, is something else. In this case sacrifice. I think there's a value delirium deck centered in BG that wants cards like Let's Play a Game , Osseous Sticktwister , Resurrected Cultist , Spineseeker Centipede , Wickerfolk Thresher , Drag to the roots and Broodspinner and a more aggro delirium deck that wants cards like Fear of Burning Alive , Hand that feeds , Violent Urge , Patchwork Beastie , Beastie Beatdown and Wildfire Wickerfolk . Though obviously a lot of those cards are great and depending on mana both decks would want them.

I think a bigger difference will be in the enablers they are most interested in picking up. The more aggro version will want Wary Watchdog , Manifest Dread , Clockwork Percussionist and Turn Inside out the more value version will want Say its name , Found Footage and the land cyclers. Though again there isn't a bright line and in the heat of the draft most decisions will be made on power level.

Sacrifice

For payoffs there are Diversion Specialist , Popular Egotist , Sawblade Ripper and Saw . Note everything cares purely about sacrificing so things like Terramorphic Expanse are also payoffs. Note at uncommon there is a threaten: Vengeful Possession . There are also two very nice removal spells for this deck: Final Vengeance , Betrayer's Bargain .

A big question of the deck is what are you sacrificing? One answer is rooms since I don't think you need to get full value from the black or red rooms. The back halves give combat boosts that are a little clunky. Other answers are Fanatic of the Harrowing , Fear of Lost Teeth , Innocuous Rat , Resurrected Cultist and Clockwork Percussionist . And of course at uncommon: Disturbing Mirth . This archetype looks pretty good to me.

Miscellaneous

Normally the enchantment or artifact sets have a disenchant at common and it's sort of a funny inversion where most limited sets it's a marginal but in this one it's main deckable and usually very good. But this time they just skipped that and all 4 disenchants are at least uncommon: Break Down the Door , Insidious Fungus , Exorcise (feels not very white that it gets artifacts. Also this one may not belong in the list since it also gets creatures) and Cathartic Parting .

There's a few equipments that manifest and equip themselves to the manifestation. Sort of a new take on living weapons.

Commons Ranking

First some meta notes: a big part of the reason I rank commons is to get a sense of the baseline power level. Especially as the power level goes up I often read a common think "this is pretty good" but then when I sit down to rank them I have it in the bottom quartile. Your actual decision of whether to draft or include a common will depend a lot more on context.

The other reason I do it is because it often makes disagreements very legible which is the first step to changing my mind. It happens occasionally that I misrate a card because I misread it and people point that out.

Also you sort of need a reason to play a common. After a draft you'll have on average ~12 uncommons, 3 rares. There are a few unplayable higher rarity cards but probably you should walk away with ~13 cards that are better than any common. So you just need ~10 commons. But on average you took ~20 commons. So to play a common it either has to be relatively premium or fit very well in your deck.

White [+]

Oblivion ring is still good.

Split card between efficiency and versatility.

It's a real delirium card being an enchantment creature that also mills you. Which is a shame because delirium is jund in this set. You get a lot for 2 mana but it doesn't really fit in with any theme except the 2 power theme.

It plays well with manifest and power 2 or less. It's a decent amount of stats for 4 mana. It's a little out of place as the only white card that manifests for you. At higher rarities there are two cards that manifest for your opponent.

Blocks well. Attacks well. Plays well both with survival and 2 power or less.

5 mana for 3/3 worth of stats. But you get to split it up and it plays well with Eerie. I think it's a good card.

This card is templated strangely. I saw it before I saw survival and wondered why it even let you tap your own creatures. I wish they templated it as "you may put a stun counter on it" which would be a nice little upside for when you wanted to trigger survival twice. But you gotta save clicks online.

At two mana it's not exactly free to play the cycler. And 6 on the back half is pretty clunky. Also of note being double white means you probably don't want to play it in a deck where you're splashing white which is where plainscycling is most valuable. I rate the green and blue ones a little higher because I think they fit best into their color's themes but they're all a little medium.

Survival and Eerie both push you to attack a little more which I think makes combat tricks a little more valuable.

It's nice to have a card that trade for value with manifestations. I don't think the rate is that good though and it's not that hard to miss. You need 5 other targets to get to 50/50 and at 10 you're 80%.

+2/+4 is a weird boost. Plays well with survival and the 2 power theme. I'm never that high on the common 4+ drops though.

In the world of manifest I don't think you particularly want to be playing this card. It's an okay rate and slightly scary on turn 2. But it falls off and the impact is never that high.

These 1 drops just get more and more text. This one is more of a 3 drop. I don't think it's great because it's so little impact until you activate it. But it's not really worth a card and 4 mana for a 4/4. It is an interesting split card and fun design though.

Weird that this is a white card. I don't typically like the black version and don't see why this would be an exception. Three life isn't enough upside for the situational 5 drop.

Blue [+]

Flash enchantments have a little extra value in the eerie set. And this is smack in the middle of esper the eerie colors. There's no spells or flash theme in the set supporting it but there are two common counter spells which matters at the margin. It's possible I'm grossly overrating Inspiration but tacking on a body is a lot of value.

This is a nice Hill Giant . It'll be a pretty skill intensive card to play with. Do you run out the Tunnel T1 to setup and use mana? Or do you wait to not expose your hill giant to disenchant? Also there's a secret 5 drop mode to maximize the odds of hitting something sweet for your manifest. Though you also get that benefit if you cast it T3 assuming you're okay drawing the other card. I think assuming your draw is functional you'll often want to play Tunnel after the Aquarium because filtering is more valuable later in the game when you know more clearly what you want.

Good mix of tempo and card advantage.

Enchantment or manifest flip is a lot of things in this set. Maybe I have it too high because typically variants of this card haven't been too good but all the rooms are pretty mana intensive. And you really want to be manifesting your Daggermaw Megalodon s. Also mana intensive.

Blue being a manifest color I think gives this a boost.

The 0/2 is a fair bit of value. But the rate is good enough.

Weird that this card is blue. It feels very white. It's alright.

Now this is a cancel. The fallback is actually pretty valuable. There's no flash or spells theme in the set so it has to make it on rate and I think it does.

It's possible the most important thing is efficiency and this should be above the previous card. I don't like falling off in the late game though. The consolation prize isn't that great.

I'm always a little low on these cards even though I think you're supposed to have them higher. It just never gets rid of something you actually need to get rid of and rarely will get you a mana advantage. But it's a fine card.

We all know a clammy prowler or 2. Sort of a survival card but that's a GW mechanic. Sort of a power 2 or less card but that's WR. 4 mana for a 2/5 that needs to attack for upside seems a little meh.

For once the UR deck isn't a spells deck it's a doors deck. So this card seems a little out of place. Replaces itself so you can always play it. But now much upside.

They just keep making these. I count at least 6. I'll be honest I'm pretty sure I've never played one. Not once. Okay I played Piston-Fist Cyclops if you count that. I don't think I'll play this one either. They can't be that bad. But they don't have synergy and I'm never that desperate for the 2 drop.

Black [+]

The main thing you'd want to sac besides creatures is rooms. This isn't really the rooms color and the rooms often have valuable statics so I think you'll generally sac creatures. But that is the BR theme and this is very efficient.

I love the discard plus a little bit of value cards. Since the second ability is also a trigger you can live the sac dream with Betrayer's Bargain , Diversion Specialist , Popular Egotist or Sawblade Ripper for max value. At the end of the day the card is very weird so I may be overrating it. Interesting that there's actually a second card with this kind of effect at uncommon: Sporogenic Infection .

Eerie gives all the flash enchantments a little boost. This is also a great delirium card. Not great but solid in a lot of decks.

Maybe crazy to put this above murder but there are so many small creatures in the set between manifestations and the 2 power theme.

Getting worse all the time. I think you'd rather play all three of the other black common removal spells over it for greater efficiency or value.

Ye old Doomed Dissenter . Great with the sac theme. I think a manifestation is a fair amount better than a 2/2.

These cards are a little hard to evaluate because there's just so much text. I think it's mostly a Night's Whisper that turns on sac cards. Which is alright. It's possible I'm underestimating all the synergy and situations on this thing.

Sort of a delirium card. Some card advantage.

4 cards make glimmers and 7 cards are glimmers (mostly at higher rarities). So it'll trigger a lot. I'm not the biggest fan of a 5 drop that needs to attack to make value. Also being an enchantment is probably a liability at this cmc. But it's fine.

A little too aggressive. I don't think it's generally what the eerie deck wants to be doing. Maybe there's some kind of BW aggro deck that tries to get as many of these to pair with Fear of Lost Teeth , Fear of Surveillance , Grand Entryway // Elegant Rotunda and Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk . But I don't really see it.

This is notable for being the only reason at common besides delirium to mill yourself. I don't think the rate is that great though.

Great art. Reasonably combat trick.

I'm not a big fan of this card. It's trying to be some kind of sacrifice card but the payoff isn't really there. It isn't that big and deathtouch is more valuable on a small thing.

Red [+]

The exile isn't hugely relevant since creature is one of the easier types to get in the graveyard and there aren't many other reasons to get things in the graveyard. But when that's relevant it'll be super annoying.

It's a very inefficient removal spell by modern standards. But it plays well with all the enchantment and room themes.

This'll pay you off for going turbo delirium. Great flavor too.

Typically the 5 mana red removal spell is super low. I think the clean 2 for one is enough upside to make it this high.

How good is Gray Ogre ? I think manifest is enough better, as well as playing well with eerie, doors, 2 power and sac on top of random late game value. So it adds up to a pretty good card. Also why is the second room templated differently than Tunnel of Hate ? This is in a rooms color so it gets to be a little better?

I like this card. It's pretty unique. It plays well with delirium. You get a couple points in and then cash it in. But at the end of the day it's not that great since you need to play what you hit right away so it's pretty situational. Plays great with Turn Inside Out .

Plays well with the previous card. The 5 drop commons all feel more pushed in this set than normal.

I think the RW aggro deck would like one of these for reach and the survival angle.

Another card that would be middling if it made a 2/2. But i think the manifestation is a lot better. It's possible this should be higher. I feel like I'd love to draft a deck with 4 of these and 4 Clockwork Percussionist s. Paired with as many Hand That Feeds as I can get.

Interesting 2 power creatures. Has a little bit of haste. Pairs well with Clockwork Percussionist and Hand that Feeds . At the end of the day it's a common 4 drop but I wouldn't mind playing one.

Doesn't seem too hard to trigger twice in a turn at which point it's hitting pretty hard.

No real synergy but it's a fine rate.

A 3 mana 4/4 isn't even the most exciting thing. It plays well with the 2 power matters cards like Living Phone but not the red ones. It doesn't deserve to be the worst red common. I always feel like red commons have one of the flatter power levels.

Green [+]

Now you don't even have to play your creature for Rabid Bite ? Why not? It only doubles the words on the card. But who's counting? Since Monstrous Emergence deals the damage instead of the creature you can't disrupt it with removal regardless of which mode you choose. Which makes it a fair bit better even though it's generally the best green common either way. And killing two drops even when you're not curving out is also pretty huge. It covers all the downsides of what, again, would already have been the best green common.

This is notable for being the only common room which actually makes a two for one on its own. This seems like a pretty mana intensive set where you'll want to splash a fair bit because there's so much fixing and the themes are spread across the colors so the Gym has a fair bit of value. And once that's attached the Room almost feels like it should be evaluated like a 5 mana 5/5. Great card. The biggest downside to rampant growth is there's no late game impact. All the green cards get their downsides removed this set.

This card gets right to the question: how good is a manifest? I think pretty good. Well worth 2 mana. This card is also a great delirium enabler potentially getting you 3/4 of the way there on its own.

Clean two for one. Fixes. Great card.

What happened to acidic slime? I guess that was always an uncommon. Destroying a room doesn't seem like a huge upside as mostly they get their value on ETB. Preventing people from getting the second half of their rares could be nice though. At the end of the day it's strictly better Giant Spider so it's a fine card.

There are 28 cards that manifest and 9 at common, 3 of which are green. The fact that it double triggers off of a single manifest is nice. A 3 mana 4/5 vigilance that can keep growing is pretty incredible.

Colossal Dreadmaw is looking good.

I tend not to play common 5 drops too much. That is sort of what you want to have in your deck if you're manifesting dread though. Flipping your 2/2 into a 2 drop is likely not a huge upgrade but flipping it into this could swing a game. I think the green manifest deck will want this.

Sneaky delirium card. There are three different green commons that get you potentially 3/4 of the way to delirium on their own. I don't like the one toughness against glimmers and potential Fear of Lost Teeth . But there have been worse sets for X/1s.

Good when you need lands and also good in the late game since you can rebuy your best creature. Altanak, the Thrice-Called is an uncommon so it's not impossible to get that last clause.

I don't like playing 3 mana 2 toughness creatures but perhaps this one does just enough.

+∞/+∞ in combat. Also counters removal spells.

Sort of a survival card. Not really a manifest card. It's not the worst.

Another flash enchantment, remember they're extra good with Eerie. I like this one. Plays well with Bashful Beastie and Grasping Longneck .

Artifact [+]

A little +1/+1 may come in handy in the manifestation wars.

I think this card is a sneakily very valuable role player. It'll turn off your opponent's delirium, make you never deck and is a really good thing to manifest. Probably you mostly shouldn't play it though (which is true of most artifacts in non-artifact sets).

Now this is a delirium enabler.

This is another card they keep making but I never play. Sets are too deep to play the marginal artifact. It's rarely a struggle to get a 23rd in your color which ought to be better.