We've finally got our final and complete set list for Duskmourn. While I've selected most of my favorites, I found a few more cards that caught my eye. Let's take a look.
Overlord Balemurk
In terms of raw power, Overlord Balemurk is on the weaker side of the Overlords. However, its two-mana impending cost makes it competitive for 60-card formats. For two mana, we can self-mill, bring back a creature or walker, and then five turns later, we have a potent threat with a 5/5 that returns more if it gets the chance to attack.
This card hits the sweet spot of mana efficiency on top of value, and it won't be a challenge to cast at five mana later in the game. Unfortunately, it won't get to return other copies of itself because of its non-Avatar clause, but it's still an aggressively costed threat that will help enable delirium with self-mill and its two card types.
Overlord Balemurk is a solid card with Standard potential. However, I wouldn't expect to see it in Pioneer or beyond.
Unstoppable Slasher
Unstoppable Slasher is one of the most obnoxious cards I've seen. Maybe it's the Limited player in me, but it will be one of the scariest cards to face down in the format on turn three. I could see a world where it's not good enough for Standard since it's competing with a whole world of powerful three-drop creatures. I'm interested in testing it because it's a sticky threat that will always trade in combat and quickly clock the opponent.
There are only three attacks to deal the opponent lethal damage, and the first hit hits the hardest.
Slasher will only shine in a format where the removal doesn't exile. Depending on what removal suites look like in Standard, Slasher could be a sneaky card to add to decks when it dodges the format's most-played removal.
I would be most excited about Unstoppable Slasher as a singular threat out of something like a UB Control deck. Dealing with it requires multiple removal and it will have a mostly clear path to clock the opponent.
Unstoppable Slasher is potentially strong. I expect it to see some play in Standard play and possibly, but unlikely, in a format like Pioneer.
Ghostly Dancers
It's cool to see them lean into their new mechanics a little bit with Ghostly Dancers. The ability to unlock a door could be powerful in some situations with rooms like Awakening Hall or Fractured Realm. With Fractured Realm, you'd immediately get two 3/1 spirits, but this seems more like a meme than a competitive deck.
Ghostly Dancers is too expensive to be competitive, and it's unlikely we see many more rooms after this set. While I like the design, it's not a card I'm that interested in testing. However, cards like this are good to keep in mind when they eventually release new sets.
Balustrade Wurm
Balustrade Wurm would have been a strong card a few years ago, but five-mana cards need to do a lot these days. This one misses the mark despite its ability to sneak in through countermagic and come back from the dead with delirium. It's the perfect example of a card that would have been strong a decade ago, but it's too mana-inefficient and low-impact to see play in Modern-day Standard.
Balustrade Wurm has a chance to see play if the stars align for a countermagic-heavy control deck without removal that can exile a large creature.
I'm not a big fan of Balustrade Wurm. It may see some niche play here and there, but I'm not holding my breath.
Hedge Shredder
Hedge Shredder is an interesting vehicle. We have survival, a new mechanic that makes vehicles more compelling and gives this card some potential.
Hedge Shredder is weird in that it enables you to ramp mana relatively fast, but it has a big enough body that it threatens to close the game out quickly if it sits on the battlefield. These two are at odds with each other, as Hedge Shredder is the type of card that looks better at the top of your curve and not in the middle because successful ramp decks tend not to play many small creatures to crew the Shredder.
I'm not super high on Hedge Shredder, but it's competitively costed and will look better when we, presumably, have Llanowar Elves in every green deck. If I had to guess, I'd say we see people testing Shredder early in Standard, but ultimately it won't be good enough.
Kona, Rescue Beastie
Kona is a survival creature I've seen a decent amount of hype around, but I'm skeptical.
It's true we have access to Atraxa as a big payoff for Kona's survival, but Kona is such a fragile body for four mana. The work required to put Kona into play and get a survival trigger while having Atraxa in your hand seems like putting too many bad cards in the deck to facilitate an early Atraxa. It will happen sometimes, but you can more reliably play ramp spells and more controlling cards that better suit Atraxa and build around Atraxa that way.
We have Llanowar Elves coming to Standard soon, but I'm not buying Kona being a competitive Constructed card. I suspect I'll see it added to vintage Cube and get taken as the last pick for a few weeks until it's removed.
Kona has a powerful effect when things go well, but I don't suspect they will go well that often. It requires you to have an enabler to get a survival trigger and a payoff in hand, which is too much to ask.
Entity Tracker
Entity Tracker is another Enchantress that happens to be blue. Its biggest draw is that it can be played outside of a green deck, but without redundancy, a card like this will likely never see Constructed play. Adding flash to Entity Tracker is interesting, as it opens the door to casting it on a tapped-out opponent for an explosive turn. Regardless, I don't think Entity Tracker has enough support to see much play.
Its most interesting use would be in a deck like UW Auras in Pioneer or Explorer, but I doubt it would even see play then.
It's cool to see a color-shifted card like Entity Tracker, but it's too weak for modern Magic.
Exorcise
I'd be more excited about Exorcise as an instant, but it still may see some play, especially in sideboards since it's so flexible. Need an answer to Sheoldred or a problematic artifact or creature? Exorcise has your bases covered.
Versatility is usually punished with inefficiency in Magic, but Exorcise is competitively costed and does just enough that we'll likely see it here and there, especially in spots where sideboard space is tight and you need that sideboard slot to cover a lot of bases.
Exorcise is not the kind of card I'd usually want to main deck because games tend to slow down post-board, so you will have time to cast a Sorcery.
This is a good option for Standard and Pioneer that likely won't see much play, but you'll see a copy here and there.
That will wrap up my review of Duskmourn. The set looks fairly high-powered at the top end, but it also has a lot of cards that are not efficient enough in today's Standard, especially given it's a much larger format than usual. I'm curious to see exactly how many Duskmourn cards get played outside of Commander.
The set looks extremely fun for Limited however, and I'll be diving into that sooner than later. I could potentially use draft simulators this week, and I'm eyeing a return to streaming to play Limited and potentially test Pioneer.
Hope to see you there.
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