Standard: 5 New Decks with Duskmourn!

As is tradition whenever we get a new set, we prepared five new Standard decks with the new cards from DSK. This time, we want to show you entirely new lists, or, at least, very different lists from what we are seeing in the format right now. I believe these decks have can conquer some space in the metagame in the next few days, and they're excellent options if you would like to test out new cards in this new phase Standard is going through.

Azorius Oculus

Abhorrent Oculus stood out to me during spoiler season: this is a 5/5 creature with Flying and some synergy with graveyards. But it's also a bit restrictive because of how much mana it costs, so I asked myself, how can I make the most of this creature in Standard?

This deck is the most efficient way I found to do that. We'll use self-mill and Helping Hand as engines to get the most out of this flying giant eye.

To put Oculus in the graveyard, we have Fallaji Archaeologist and Picklock Prankster, besides the new The Tale of Tamiyo, which gives you a way to self-mill and also recursion (quite useful in this build). The rest of the deck is interaction to protect your strategy. Reanimate your 5/5s and attack to win.

Rakdos Prowess

Gruul Prowess is one of the popular decks in Standard right now, so, considering how solid this strategy is, and using Undead Sprinter as inspiration (my favorite creature from this set), I developed a Rakdos version of it. It now has access to some powerful black removals, and also, as a bonus, plays Callous Sell-Sword, which has performed well in Pioneer in a strategy similar to this one.

Its greatest strength is that it can remove annoying threats and blockers more efficiently, and plays a recursive creature with Sprinter, which, in turn, can deal a lot of damage with its Trample. Sell-Sword adds an element of surprise to this version, as it lets you finish the game out of nowhere. It also gets stronger whenever your other creatures die that turn.

Its mana base is more solid with the new Verge Lands. Blazemire Verge can create naturally, and, if you control a Mountain, it will give you . Furthermore, a dual land that goes into play untapped is excellent for a deck that needs a fast mana base to get the most out of its spells.

With black, this deck can also access disruption, which can be very useful. Green gives Gruul protection like Snakeskin Veil, and black gives Rakdos something similar: Duress.

Mono-White Humans

I was very excited to test out Humans. DSK brings two creatures to this deck that can put it on the competitive radar again.

Veteran Survivor and Reluctant Role Model are the center of this build. Both have Survival, which gives you a bonus effect when you meet certain conditions. Veteran can become a 5/4 creature with Hexproof, and Role Model can gain +1/+1 counters, lifelink or flying.

To explore these two creatures even more, we'll use other powerful creatures with decent synergy, like Warden of the Inner Sky, Knight-Errant of Eos, and The Wandering Rescuer. They can all enable Survival and give you double the value.

Azorius Auras

As Ethereal Armor is now in the format, a new Auras is possible. In this build, we can access not only powerful creatures and auras, but also effective interactions that combine the best Azorius colors can give you.

Veteran Survivor is, without a question, one of the most fun creatures in this set, and, as it can potentially get Hexproof, we couldn't forget him while building this list. It is also graveyard hate.

Optimistic Scavenger can turn any creature into a threat, even if you're not adding auras to it, which allows you to get more value out of them and put pressure on your opponent more effectively. Silent Hallcreeper is also quite interesting in this build, as it has evasion and three abilities that make it an effective threat.

Auras play a fundamental role in this archetype. Shardmage's Rescue is an aura-shaped protection that you can play at instant speed, and Sheltered by Ghosts is the same. It offers you not only protection but also lets you remove an enemy permanent and gives lifelink to the enchanted creature.

This deck's best feature is that your creatures can potentially become powerful threats, so you don't need to create a megazord like you'd usually have to with decks that focus on auras. Furthermore, your sideboard will exclusively center around protecting your game plan, which can be great for this deck even if you have to play around multiple removals.

Abzan Survival

The Survival mechanic, to me, seemed like one of the most interesting features in DSK, as it lets you explore different bonuses through your creatures. For this reason, I decided to build a deck entirely around it and bring the aforementioned Veteran Survivor and Reluctant Role Model, besides Kona, Rescue Beastie, which can give you a lot of value in the right build.

The idea is to explore your creatures' Survival to use their abilities faster, like with Veteran Survivor, or create extra value with Kona.

To do that, we have a few tools that let us tap our creatures before they even attack, like the Saddle mechanic in Caustic Bronco. It lets us tap our creatures to enable Survival. Furthermore, the list also plays Coordinated Clobbering, which taps your creatures to deal damage equal to their power to another creature for just , which is quite useful in this build.

The coolest interaction in this deck is tapping Kona so that, in the second main phase, we can put an Atraxa, Grand Unifier in play for free.

Duskmourn brought us interesting mechanics and added even more new features to Standard. I enjoy the shape this format has been taking on as of late, and I'm anxious to see where it will go.

Did you like these lists? Which one was your favorite? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!