Best Duskmourn Cards in Pioneer & Modern
Duskmourn is an awesome horror-themed set with many excellent pioneer cards and even a few cards that could even see Modern play! With the Regional Championship season fast approaching, pioneer is especially relevant. Brazil’s RC is this weekend and, the US RC is during the following. For this article I will primarily focus on Pioneer and competitive Pioneer decks going into the Regional Championships but I will also include some mentions for Modern or Jankier things to do in Pioneer.
Leyline of Resonance
This new Leyline is incredibly powerful. With Rakdos aggro being one of the best decks in Pioneer at the moment Leyline of Resonance is a very cool new card. It enables turn 2 kills in the deck, but in turn makes it far weaker to removal spells. I doubt Leyline of Resonance will be played in the deck for the RC because it makes the midrange matchups worse, but if Lotus or another combo deck arose to great prominence in the future, then Rakdos Aggro with Leyline of Resonance could easily take advantage of that metagame to find great success. In Modern Leyline of Resonance could also see some fringe play, but because creature removal is so efficient it is unlikely that it makes any real impact.
Pyroclasm
Pyroclasm is an incredibly powerful card that at the moment is not playable despite the hype around it. RB Aggro has multiple prowess threats that easily can exceed 2 toughness. Between Monastery Swiftspear, Emberheart Challenger and Pump spells that grant toughness it will be incredibly easy for aggro opponents to read that you have a Pyroclasm in hand and then play around it the whole game. Even the one additional damage on cards like Brotherhood’s End and Anger of the Gods are far better because they then require more resources to save the creatures.
Overlord of Boilerbilges & Overlord of the Hauntwoods
These two very powerful enchantment creatures can cheat their mana cost, and if there is anything that is always good in competitive magic it's the cheating of manacosts. These two cards fit very well in Enigmatic Incarnation in pioneer. Overlord of the Hauntwoods can enable Leyline Binding and has a mana value of five so can easily grab a six drop like Linvala, the Preserver, Bonny Pall, Clearcutter or even Ruric Thar for a phoenix opponent. Overlord of the Hauntwoods can also grab Overlord of the Boilerbilges which is very powerful as it triggers on both entering and attacking, however Overlord of the Boilerbilges can also grab Atraxa! These two cards are very very good. I think Overlord of Boilerbilges will be a one-of but Overlord of the Hauntwoods will see play as a 4-of.
Cynical Loner
Cynical Loner is a creature that can repeatedly do one of the best things in legacy: cast entomb. Loner is a two mana 3/1 that demands removal or threatens to gain incredible amounts of advantage. Graveyards are incredibly easy to abuse and there are tons of cool things loner can grab. Putting Kroxa directly into the graveyard or a combo piece like Tree of Perdition or Parhellion makes Loner a threat with or without help. If you want to go down a more janky route, Loner can grab Narcomaeba, Creeping Chill, Forsaken Miner, or Undead Sprinter. Flashback and Disturb cards are an option aswell! I believe Loner is a card that is just waiting to be broken and it can be enabled so easily by attacking or with Vehicles, Springleaf Drum, or lands like Survivor’s Encampment.
Valgavoth
Valgavoth is going to be one of many Indomitable Creativity hits available in Pioneer. It gains life which is incredibly important against aggro decks and its strength over Atraxa is it’s ward ability and graveyard hate. A common way Atraxa Creativity decks lost was a removal spell and then a swing for lethal. Valgavoth doesn’t allow a removal spell to kill it unless your opponent sacrifices a lot of permanents. The graveyard hate is very relevant currently aswell. Valgavoth does not gain immediate card advantage but has a static effects that can accrue far more value than Atraxa in the long run. Valgavoth is essentially unkillable by phoenix. Their best answer is Brazen Borrower because multiple Removal Spells triggers ward repeatedly.
Withering Torment
This card is 3 mana and 3 mana is too much mana for most decks. Feed the swarm being 2-mana makes it far better. I think this card will see little to no play.
Say Its Name + Altanak, the Thrice Called & Omniverous Flytrap + Patchwork Beastie
Say Its Name is very cool. A graveyard enabler that can also grab a massive creature for free if you fill the yard enough is pretty crazy. Cache Grab was also just printed giving a sorcery-speed and instant-speed graveyard enabler which both enable delirium efficiently.
Flytrap and Beastie are both cards that benefit from Delirium as well. I think that its unlikely these cards are a competitive deck but the package seems very strong.
Kona, Rescue Beastie
Kona is a card that can do incredibly broken things. The question will be if its downsides, having to be tapped, and three toughness are enough to keep it out of contention. I think that Kona is not enough to enable a deck and a second source to cheat cards into play like Reenact the Crime will be necessary. Putting things like Atraxa, Valgavoth and Omniscience into play is very good and powerful. Kona could also see some modern play, but Bolt being in the format makes it a bit more difficult.
Reluctant Role Model & Twitching Doll
Counters decks in Pioneer have always been missing some pieces to see real success. Payoffs like Cauldron like good enablers, things like Steel Overseer are not good enough. Reluctant Role Model and Twitching Doll provide powerful synergy pieces that may push the deck from the fringe and bad range into the fringe and slightly playable range. Combinations like Voldaren Thrillseeker or Twitching Doll under an Agatha’s Soul Cauldron can create very large boards of 2/2s or present a lot of damage to the face.
I wrote a Tree Guide last week so this is my updated Tree list that I'll be testing post Duskmourn.
Cynical Loner is an incredible upgrade for the deck. Throwing both Kroxa or Tree in the yard is very impactful and means that loner needs to be killed. Loner also poses a Turn 4 Kill against uninteractive decks alongside Cauldron. Previously to combo you would need to draw a Creature, Discard Outlet, Tree, Cauldron and Thrill seeker to kill for sure. While most creatures in the deck are a discard outlet aswell it still ended up being a good amount of pieces, not too hard because the deck is a pile of good cards and a combo, but Loner + Cauldron being a kill is an upgrade for sure.
The play pattern is as follows
Turn 2 Play Loner
Turn 3 Attack with Loner, Entomb Tree, Cast Cauldron and Exile Tree
Turn 4 Tap Loner to set opponents life total to 2, Post combat tutor for Voldaren Thrillseeker, Exile Thrillseeker with Cauldron, Fling for 5 at their face.
This is obviously no interaction and blocking but the ability to threaten the combo is what makes it good.
What cards do you think in Duskmourn will be good in Pioneer and Modern? I am curious to know what you think! Comment your thoughts down below!
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