First Look at Duskmourn

It feels like Bloomburrow just hit the shelves (it did), and we're already onto yet another new set!

I'm excited about Duskmourn for a couple of reasons. First, I will be back into the swing of things and playing more Magic now that I'm settled into my new house and the kids are back in school. Second, Bloomburrow seems to be a fun set for 60-card Magic, but I was not feeling it for a 40-card format. I've never had fun in typal formats since Lorwyn. The lack of activated abilities on creatures at common forces formats to focus too much on combat, and it's not as enjoyable as putting fun synergies together.

Let's look at some of the newly previewed cards.

Dollmaker's Shop/Porcelain Gallery

First, let's look at a cool new mechanic called rooms.

Rooms let you cast either side of the card, which will "unlock" on the battlefield, and then at sorcery speed you can pay the other side's cost to unlock that side of the room.

This room is held back with the non-toy clause since it would otherwise be quite strong. It would mostly be playable in an archetype like Boros Convoke where you're playing a lot of one-drops, but it doesn't fit the ideal Convoke plan, as it's essentially a two-mana creature under good conditions and bad if you're unable to trigger the room on turn two.

Conceptually these cards are super neat, and I'm hoping we see some of them become more pushed to have a higher impact in Constructed.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

I absolutely love this card. It is so well put together from top to bottom—flavor, power level, just everything.

Kaito shows us that ninjas will be back as a thing, and Kaito is the first planeswalker with ninjutsu. Kaito will play well in a deck like that old low-curve Dimir deck with Spyglass Siren and similar creatures, allowing it to hit the battlefield on turn three. You have tons of great options depending on the board state, including drawing an extra card, making an emblem, or stunning a creature for two turns.

I hope Kaito is strong enough to see play in Standard. There's some world where it would see play in Pioneer if a low-curve, aggressive Dimir deck was ever playable, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

My wish is that we have the supporting cast to push Kaito to the limits because it looks like it will be fun to play with and against, as positioning your battlefield against it will often be on your mind in early turns if you suspect your opponent has it.

Come Back Wrong

I've been waiting for a design like this for quite some time. The time has come and gone for where this would be playable. However, it will depend on how strong two- and three-drop creatures become.

Come Back Wrong allows you to kill creatures with ETB triggers and not lose value. When your opponent plays a creature that draws a card, spending the same amount of mana to kill it and not get a trigger feels bad. This design pushes closer to not feeling as bad, but not all triggers are made the same and won't be as useful as they would in a deck designed around them.

Come Back Wrong also triggers death since the token is sacrificed at the end of the turn. It has a small chance of seeing play depending on which creatures players are using. That's not just now, as Come Back Wrong is in the catalog of cards that can be brought back if everyone is casting Mulldrifters every turn.

It's a cool card, but it's not good enough to see staple play. There are situations I could see playing this, especially as a one-of with any kind of tutors in your deck. Oddly enough, I'm more drawn to this card because it happens to be better on the draw.

Leyline of Hope

Leyline of Hope means one thing. Soul Sisters are back! Just kidding. It means Leylines are back. Leyline of Hope seems like it would be strong in a Soul Sisters-style deck because it plays well with that style of lots of cheap one-drop creatures that gain life, ultimately making them quickly grow very sizable.

That deck style will be bad without Leyline of Hope in the opener or without any pressure on the opponent in the early game on the life total.

While I'm not the biggest fan of this Leyline, it's not useless. I'm excited to see what I assume is the rest of a cycle of Leylines. After all, zero-mana spells are always the most fun spells, and they almost never go too far with them, right?

Overlord of the Hauntwoods

Overlord of the Hauntwoods has two new mechanics, kind of. I remember when I did the Pro Points podcast with Sam Black and Paulo Vitor that Sam was a huge proponent for having WotC design land tokens to reduce shuffling. This seems to be more the case as we see fewer cards like Evolving Wilds and more lands that come in tapped and you choose a color as they enter. We now have Overlord of Hauntwoods that makes "everywhere" tokens, which are domain lands.

Speaking of domain, this card turns on domain immediately and as early as turn three with impending, the other new mechanic. Impending is a twist on suspend, where you get the card into play, but it doesn't turn into a creature until the time counters are gone.

I like this implementation of suspend, as it lets your suspend cards have an effect on the game before they hit the ground running. It's worth noting that the time counters are removed on the end step, so while they won't have summoning sickness when they lose their last counter, there will be no confusion as to whether they can attack or not.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods is an upgrade to a card like Topiary Stomper but just barely. For any spot where you'd see Stomper, I'd suspect it will be replaced by Overlord because it has bigger stats and doesn't require you to play an excessive amount of basic lands.

Screaming Nemesis

Boros Reckoner has come a long way. Screaming Nemesis is a fully upgraded 2024 power-level Boros Reckoner. It's easier to cast, has haste, and while it can't keep targeting itself repeatedly with lifelink to gain infinite life, it can make sure the opponent won't gain life ever.

Screaming Nemesis looks like a reasonable top-end in a low-curve, aggressive, red deck, but the card will be match-up dependent. It won't play as well against decks with black removal, but it will be excellent against creature decks and decks with damage-based removal. Screaming Nemesis isn't a bad turn-two play off of a Llanowar Elves, but we can probably do better.

Ultimately, Screaming Nemesis will likely see some play, but I don't think it's going to perform well unless the Standard format is pushing combat a lot. If that's the case, Nemesis will be a great addition to most red decks.

New Common Dual Cycle

Lastly, I wanted to call out how much I love this design. We are finally starting to see some designs that benefit the player who's on the draw or losing, rather than cards that pile up advantage and benefit the lucky die roll winner. While this is a subtle addition, I hope we see more cards like this in the future.

It's worth noting that there will be spots in Limited where you want to use your opponent's life total as a resource and potentially leave them at 14 rather than 13 on early turns so they can't play their land untapped. That makes for some interesting, sweet plays but don't get too fancy about it, as it will require knowledge of the opponent's deck or hand.

Next week, we will likely look at more Duskmourn cards. With the set's release, I'm hoping to get back to streaming. I'm excited to have more time to engage with Magic, and I hope this set is a banger that will reel me back into the game.