10 Duskmourn Cards to Keep an Eye on Post-Rotation

Standard rotation is coming. Starting with the prerelease of Edge of Eternities, the sets from Dominaria United to March of the Machines: Aftermath leave the format and, with them, a range of preexisting options and staples that have solidified in recent years: Temporary Lockdown, Cut Down, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Monastery Swiftspear, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, the pain lands and half of the fast lands are just a few examples.

With this blank space and the clear changes in the Metagame caused by them, it is natural that some cards that were previously irrelevant may gain more space in Standard, whether due to their individual power level, interaction with a specific mechanic, or simply because their deck becomes more viable without certain cards in the Metagame.

In this series of articles, we've listed cards from each set that will remain in Standard that are worth a second look for the next season, and today we're going to cover cards from Duskmourn.

Split Up

Without Temporary Lockdown, Midrange/Control decks require other cheap tools to deal with Aggro decks in the new Metagame. Split Up is perhaps the best we have at the moment and also a card that can be used even in Aggro mirrors, where we deal with the opponent's tapped/untapped creatures while preserving our own — and without Heartfire Hero to punish us, destroying all creatures now is much better than it was last season.

The Wandering Rescuer

Between vehicles, mounts, and spaceships, tapping creatures to protect them with The Wandering Rescuer is easier now than ever before, and since these archetypes naturally want creatures to crew artifacts, we can imagine some list wanting to cast The Wandering Rescuer while protecting one or two creatures from removal, and then constantly protecting them with vehicles.

It seems like a bad idea, but it's the kind of interaction we tend to underestimate in the past, and shouldn't be overlooked now.

Silent Hallcreeper

Dimir Midrange is making strides toward becoming the best deck in the format post-rotation, and the two-drop and three-drop slot is lacking a bit with the absence of Faerie Mastermind and Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor.

Silent Hallcreeper is a possible replacement for this slot, both for the triggers it triggers when dealing damage and for the ease of putting Kaito, Bane of Nightmares into play on turn three. Competition for these slots will likely be fierce, but it has some mid-range qualities and flexibility to merit some testing.

Unstoppable Slasher

The Unstoppable Slasher and Bloodletter of Aclazotz combo is now the fastest and most efficient way to perform a combo kill in Standard with just two pieces, and in an archetype that can control the opponent's resources well and have an effective fallback plan, as long as the mana base allows for easy payment of the costs of .

Even outside this deck, a threat that forces two-for-one trades and offers a fast and efficient clock against the opponent on a fair deck is more than enough to deserve more attention if we don't have enough maindeck-worthy removals to deal with it.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater

Atraxa, Grand Unifier has finally left Standard, which opens up the possibility for other creatures in archetypes to cheat on mana costs with Zombify, Rite of the Moth, Smuggler’s Surprise or any other card that can interact with this type of mechanic in the future.

Right now, the best of them is probably Valgavoth, Terror Eater because of its body with built-in protection, two or three turn clock, Lifelink, evasion and the potential to steal any card from the opponent.

Chainsaw

A few decks around Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms have appeared in the format since the release of Final Fantasy, and Chainsaw is one of the tools that make this strategy viable. Additionally, a permanent that we can find with United Battlefront to interact with the board can complement Perilous Snare and Unidentified Hovership in Boros/Jeskai Artifacts lists.

Overlord of the Boilerbilges

Overlord of the Boilerbilges was the least played of the Overlord Cycle last season, but the absence of Zur, Eternal Schemer and its replacement by Yuna, Hope of Spira may give it the spotlight during the new season.

With Yuna, Boilerbilges transforms into a Warleader’s Helix every turn while its body gains more relevance due to evasion, totaling between the attack trigger and combat damage, nine life every turn for its controller, in addition to being reanimated by Yuna as removal the turn she enters.

Untimely Malfunction

Untimely Malfunction offers a rare protection effect coupled with a modal spell, whose main use may be to deal with vehicles and spacecrafts in the next season, but also ensuring that your creatures can, in addition to dodging removals, remove blockers from the path.

Insidious Fungus

Just like Untimely Malfunction, Insidious Fungus has a lot of flexibility for a low cost and solves both the rise of artifacts that can come with Edge of Eternities and the troublesome enchantments of Bounce or Unholy Annex decks, and if neither of these effects are satisfactory, it is still a draw and ramp effect for three mana at instant speed, which benefits from the absence of Monstrous Rage to make chump blocks.

Marvin, Murderous Mimic

Agatha’s Soul Cauldron has been gaining traction lately due to its interaction with Vivi Ornitier and the ability to make creatures generate extra mana. Marvin, Murderous Mimic can also copy Vivi’s ability — or that of other creatures — to generate mana. Perhaps, with the right combination of cards, it could enable some combo alongside the Final Fantasy mage and some way to make him a new object every turn.

While this combo doesn’t exist, it is, like Soul Cauldron, a card that now has dangerous precedents, and should be watched closely.

That’s all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!