Commander Review: Best cards from Duskmourn: House of Horror

The release of Duskmourn: House of Horror is upon us! A "terror-movie" set with several incredible new cards and mechanics added to the Magic: The Gathering universe. And of course, with every new set, our not-to-be-missed Commander Review!

So here are the best cards for the format, separated by color and rarity, as usual. Hide and be careful, because we are going into the House of Horrors!

Duskmourn Mechanics

The set's mechanics can be studied in this article by our judge Antônio Faillace, who explains them in detail.

Common

For just two mana, exile an artifact, enchantment, or creature of power 4 or more: this is Exorcise. Despite being a sorcery, this entire range of options makes it very viable, mainly because it's also cheap on the mana.

Uncommon

Unwanted Remake can be a removal that heavily competes with Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile in Commander. Its "competitors" can actually exile creatures for just one mana, but because it is an Instant and destroys a creature efficiently, Unwanted Remake has a lot of space in the format.

Its drawback comes with the Manifest Dread mechanic, and if it is a creature, can be an advantage for the opponent. However, a removal at the beginning of the game plus forcing a Manifest Dread can take away two cards from the opponent at once, if you consider that a card is lost to the graveyard. Great removal for the format.

Rare

Room mechanic is based on casting the wanted side, and Unlocking the other by paying the mana cost, obtaining an immediate or static effect.

Dazzling Theater // Prop Room has two great sides: Dazzling Theater makes creature spells have convoke - a great facilitator for several Deck archetypes with a large number of creatures. The other side, Prop Room, untaps all of its controller's creatures in each player's untap step.

Decks with mechanics that generate a lot of mana, abilities activated when tapping creatures or even cards with Flash can take great advantage of both sides of this enchantment combined. Many builds can easily add Dazzling Theater // Prop Room to them.

Duskmourn brought a cycle of Glimmer-type creatures, which, when killed, become an enchantment with the same ability as creatures. Enduring Innocence is a great source of drawing cards for different types of decks: Swarm, Tokens, Weenies, etc.

Very versatile and can provide card draws even during opponents' turns, if you can create or cast creatures outside of your own turn.

Eerie is another new mechanic from Duskmourn - every time an enchantment enters the field or when a Room is Unlocked, Eerie triggers. And in this case, with Ghostly Dancers it is possible to create a large number of 3/1 spirit creature tokens with flying.

Enchantress decks are very common in Commander, and the vast majority of them are white, so Ghostly Dancers is a great addition to these builds. Not to mention its recursive ETB of returning an enchantment to the hand from the graveyard, or Unlocking a locked Room - in decks with high-cost Rooms, it can easily Unlock the other side for just 5 mana.

A global removal of just 3 mana really grabs the attention of the format. Of course, we count on even cheaper removals like Blasphemous Act or Vanquish the Horde, but the more global removals, the better!

Split Up can destroy all tapped or untapped creatures for just 3 mana, and this opens up space for several tricks: attacking with all creatures, decks with convoke, mana dorks, and so on. It can be well explored in Commander.

Toby, Beastie Befriender creates a 4/4 beast token on its ETB, and this token is not legendary - that is, if Toby is blinked, it can create several beast tokens. Additionally, it gives flying (evasion) to all creature tokens if you control 4 or more creature tokens. It easily enters Token Swarm decks due to this and makes it easier to attack your opponents.

Mythical

And speaking of Token Swarm, Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery is a guarantee star on our review. The Dollmaker's Shop side creates toy tokens. It may seem like a somewhat weak effect, but in Commander it is possible to create up to 3 toy tokens when attacking all opponents.

On the other hand, Porcelain Gallery makes creatures have base power and toughness equal to the number of creatures you control. This is a way to make Swarm decks even stronger, especially if they use cards like Scute Swarm or Field of the Dead. Very interesting card for the format.

Rare

From the Glimmers cycle, Enduring Curiosity. Basically a Bident of Thassa or Reconnaissance Mission, but with the advantage of having flash - so it can be played as a blocker, and when it dies it will maintain the card draw effect. Great card that goes into different types of creature-based builds.

Entity Tracker paves the way for blue enchantment decks. Usually this ETB effect of enchantments that draw cards is very characteristic of green or white, but this time Entity Tracker delivers this same effect in blue, with the difference that it also triggers when a Room is Unlocked. It easily fits into Bant, Azorius and other decks that focus on enchantments.

Duskmourn brought several new Leylines - enchantments that go directly to the battlefield if they are in your starting hand. We'll only mention the most interesting ones to Commander, and Leyline of Transformation was chosen for our review. For Kindred decks, Leyline of Transformation can be a great help, especially if there are several creature types outside of the main focus.

There are also a number of decks that have a lot of different creature types, and Leyline of Transformation can spark the deckbuilders' imagination.

A very interesting card that already had several combos even before it was released: Marina Vendrell's Grimoire. Similar to Lich's Mastery, but with characteristics of the color blue, Marina Vendrell's Grimoire does everything and more: draws cards on ETB if it has been cast, removes your cards-in-hand-limit, stops you from losing the game , and draws cards when gaining life.

All this for 6 mana is more than one could ask for, even with its effect of discarding cards whenever you lose life. Despite the risk of losing the game by not having any cards in your hand, the card is worth it, especially while being part of several different combos.

The Mindskinner is going to be a popular and fun Commander to the community. An unblockable 10/1 creature that turns all damage sources into Mill is interesting and fun to say the least. There are probably already dozens of The Mindskinner decklists, some focused on milling, some even on taking away his ability and turning him into a very aggressive Voltron.

Silent Hallcreeper is a different and very interesting card. It can easily be a 2 mana clone, as well as buffing itself with counters and drawing a card in the process. It goes in different builds of clones, fast decks or unblockable creatures with different effects - like ninjas, for example.

It can be used to draw cards, become a copy of a ninja and then return it to your hand with ninjutsu to be used again. Going forward, we'll see players' creativity with Silent Hallcreeper.

Central Elevator // Promising Stairs is included in our review exclusively for the new Room Decks that will appear with a Commander that'll show up later.

It could be a win condition with the Promising Stairs side, or tutoring a Room that is useful at that moment with the Central Elevator side. For this new Deck archetype, it is an essential card in the build.

Mythic

Speaking of Rooms, we also have Mirror Room // Fractured Realm. The Mirror Room side creates a copy of any creature you control - a great effect for little mana to take advantage of ETB effects again. And speaking of ETB, the Fractured Realm side brings another card that triggers effects one extra time, like Panharmonicon, for example. This kind of redundancy is great in Commander, and the more the merrier!

Uncommon

Withering Torment is an instant speed enchantment removal in black. Finally, black has an Instant that removes enchantments, with the bonus of destroying a creature if needed.

3 mana is fair value, especially if we consider that there is Feed the Swarm - basically the same for just 2 mana, but at sorcery speed. Although both make you lose life in the process, it is a small price to pay for black to finally have more options for spot removal.

Rare

Demonic Counsel is almost Demonic Tutor, with the difference that to find any card you need to have Delirium. It's very easy to have Delirium in Commander, which makes Demonic Counsel another tutor for the format's list of tutors. When considering that it is black, even if it is responded to with a graveyard hate at instant speed, tutoring a demon in this color is not necessarily a bad thing as we have several demon options in Commander.

Doomsday Excruciator can be a very strong finisher in the format. For 6 mana it reduces all decks to just 6 cards, and thus puts a lot of pressure on opponents. It is possible that there are already several combos with Doomsday Excruciator, and also possible to easily Mill your opponents' deck in some builds and simply make them lose by Deck Over. It may show up a lot from now on in the format, and allow very funny plays to say the least.

The black glimmer is a friendly little snake: Enduring Tenacity. Likeseveral effects that already exist in the format, Enduring Tenacity can even be a win condition for Lifegain or Aristocrats decks. Its glimmer effect makes it even better, as it can be easily sacrificed and returned as an enchantment to maintain its effect.

Mythic

Funeral Room // Awakening Hall is very versatile and goes into lots of archetypes, like Aristocrats, on its Funeral Room side. For 3 mana we have a Zulaport Cutthroat effect of in enchantment form, and on its other side Awakening Hall we have a Rise of the Dark Realms effect.

One of the advantages of Rooms is precisely to control when to Unlock the other side at sorcery speed, and in this case it is possible to just wait for all the cemeteries to fill up and Unlock the Awakening Hall side.

From the same creators of The Meathook Massacre, here comes: Meathook Massacre II. The sequel ends up being even better depending on point of view. Even if you play it without paying X, its effect of reviving creatures, whether ours or our opponents', is very strong in the format.

Despite the Finality counters, taking advantage of creatures' ETB again when sacrificing them is very strong in Commander. It will easily find decks that will play it in the format.

The set's villain is in our review: Valgavoth, Terror Eater. It can be either a Commander or part of the 99, and easily fits into different types of decks: monoblack, reanimate, lifegain and others.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater is a gravehate that steals cards from opponents , also allowing them to be cast with life instead of mana, and its Lifelink eases the pain, since it's also a 9/9 creature. It has a relatively difficult Ward to comply depending on the game, and can steal very important and versatile cards from opponents.

Overlord of the Balemurk is from a cycle of Overlords from Duskmourn, one of each color. We'll only talk about the most relevant ones to the format, and Overlord of the Balemurk is one of them. In black, it's frequent to have creatures returning from graveyard to hand or directly to the field, and in this case we have the option of returning any non-Avatar creature or planeswalker from graveyard to the hand with Overlord of the Balemurk.

Its Impending takes a while to wear off, but if you want to take advantage of its effect on the attack, just cast it directly as a creature. It can easily find space in Commander.

Uncommon

Norin, Swift Survivalist is back in Duskmourn! A great surprise appearance of the beloved coward. Norin, Swift Survivalist brings great possibilities: triggering skills from exile, or triggering again ETB's from blocked creatures.

It is interesting to note that Norin, Swift Survivalist can make opponents consider blocking, precisely because it allows blocked creatures to be cast again.

Untimely Malfunction is an incredible card with several great effects, and the possibility of being paired with or even replacing cards like Abrade. Destroy an artifact, change the target of a spell or ability and make up to two creatures not block this turn: these are the possibilities that this card provides, and all the effects are good.

It's almost a red Charm. It has the potential to be very popular and versatile in Commander.

Rare

Waltz of Rage is almost like Chandra's Ignition. Despite only dealing damage to creatures, it opens up possibilities with the exiling of cards from the top for each of your creatures that dies this way, and also allowing these cards to be played until the end of your next turn. It can work as an exile engine in certain decks, in addition to being a good global removal in red.

Enduring Courage is here to retire Ogre Battledriver. It has literally the same effect, same cost, with the difference of returning to the field as an enchantment if it dies. It's a straight up power creep. Jokes aside, decks that use Ogre Battledriver will use Enduring Courage, as redundancy in Commander is always welcome, but there's no doubt about how better Enduring Courage is in the format.

Fear of Missing Out is a great engine for extra combats. Despite depending on Delirium to actually provide an extra combat, as already stated, having Delirium active is not a difficult task in Commander. And as a bonus, it offers an ETB card draw in exchange for a discard.

It's worth remembering that Fear of Missing Out only untaps only one creature, and then offers extra combat. Several Voltron decks can take advantage of Fear of Missing Out.

Leyline of Resonance can be used very well in decks like Feather, the Redeemed and similars. We have endless possibilities with Leyline of Resonance, like with Karn's Temporal Sundering when targeting a creature you control. To infinity and beyond with Leyline of Resonance in Commander.

Cursed Recording has huge usage in Commander, even with the risk of taking 20 damage when you get to 7 counters. Copying Instants and Sorceries easily and effectively without limitations for just 4 mana is a great engine in the format, especially in Spellslinger decks.

Taking several extra turns or copying several large spells with Cursed Recording is something very easy to do in Commander.

Mythic

Charred Foyer // Warped Space has two interesting sides, but for Commander the Warped Space side is much more effective than Charred Foyer.

Charred Foyer provides good card advantage, mainly because it doesn't limit you to using just one of these two cards. Warped Space provides free casts from exile, whether cards exiled with Charred Froyer or with other effects from other cards, which will usually be frequent with decks that use Warped Space.

There is a lot of potential in the format when considering the exile archetype.

Despite looking niche, Screaming Nemesis has great potential in Commander. There are few cards in the format that stop life gain, and even fewer that stop it permanently, and Screaming Nemesis is one of them.

In different builds, it is very easy to make Screaming Nemesis hit all your opponents, and in this way guarantee that each one's life points will be the only ones. Very strong card for the format.

Inferno Titan has a cousin: Overlord of the Boilerbilges. Whether cast with Impending cost or its normal cost, it can easily slot in a lot of decks, especially if it can be copied. Overlord of the Boilerbilges is great removal in monored decks, and in other archetypes as well.

Uncommon

Cathartic Parting may seem like a weak card, but it is very simple and straightforward. It deals very well with indestructible enchantments or artifacts by shuffling them back into the deck, with the bonus of returning up to 4 cards from your graveyard back into your deck. It may not be popular in the format, but it is still deserves a highlight in our review.

Insidious Fungus is quite interesting. Although we have several other more effective options in the format, it is still a great one-off removal, with the bonus of having the possibility of being a small ramp plus drawing a card.

Rare

Enduring Vitality is the green glimmer, with a similar effect to Cryptolith Rite. Making all your creatures become mana dorks is very strong in several decks, especially those with Tokens and Swarm.

Because it is a glimmer and returns as an enchantment when it dies, it makes it even stronger. It will be very welcome in Commander.

Hedge Shredder is a very interesting and strong vehicle for Commander. Several Self-mill decks focusing on lands can easily use it to ramp frantically, especially when combined with cards like Altar of Dementia. It has great potential to be popular.

Kona, Rescue Beastie is a very strong card for the format. By not limiting ourselves to just the color green and expanding to all possibilities, putting any permanent on the field just by using Survival is a very strong effect.

It's very simple to tap a creature without needing to attack, like with the aforementioned Enduring Vitality to generate mana, or other cards that do the same. Kona, Rescue Beastie has a lot of potential in Commander in basically every color build.

Twitching Doll is a very interesting mana stone. It costs just 2 mana, generates one mana of any color, and can create several 2/2 spider tokens with reach. It can easily replace signets or mana stones like Fellwar Stone or Mind Stone depending on your build.

Even if it's at Sorcery speed, not paying any mana for this effect makes it even better.

Mythic

Tyvar, the Pummeler has lost his spark and returns as a strong and interesting legendary creature. It easily protects itself when tapping another creature to gain indestructible, and has the potential to buff creatures with a lot of power thanks to its activated ability. Direct and straightforward as in his personality, Tyvar, the Pummeler has great potential in the format, even if it doesn't provide evasion with his activated ability - which would be asking too much.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods is the green overlord, and creating lands when entering the field or attacking is an extremely strong effect. It can be easily inserted into different builds by creating a land token of all basic types, and can be used very well both in Impending for 3 mana and in creature form for 5 mana. Very strong creature that has a lot of space to be popular in Commander.

Even with a niche ability, Hauntwoods Shrieker fits into several Commander archetypes. Manifest, Morph, Manifest Dread and Cloak - for just 2 mana it makes a creature turn face-up, and we have several Commanders that work with face-down creatures. Turning creatures up for such a low cost to trigger their abilities is something very strong for these archetypes.

Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar has two very good effects. The Walk-In Closet side can reuse lands frmo graveyard, whether normal lands or Fetch Lands fordeck filtering.

The Forgotten Cellar side is basically a Past In Flames for any card in your graveyard. This opens up possibilities for all types of plays in basically every type of Deck - spellslinger, creatures, planeswalker, any type of card will be playable from the graveyard when this Room is Unlocked. Great and strong card for the format.

Uncommon

Arabella, Abandoned Doll has the potential to be a strong and fun Commander. Well-rounded effects - deals damage to all opponents, gains life and relies on creatures with power 2 or less. It has the potential to be a Commander of a deck of small creatures to slowly overwhelm opponents, showing the anger of the abandoned doll!

As stated before, Delirium can easily be active in Commander. With that in mind, Drag to the Roots removes any nonland permanent for just 2 mana. Even if you don't hit Delirium, it's still a reasonable removal for the format.

Rare

Restricted Office // Lecture Hall is very versatile. On the Restricted Office side, it's a global removal. On the Lecture Hall side, it protects your other permanents by granting Hexproof. It can easily be used to deal with opponents' large creatures at a time, and later it can protect your other permanents well.

This is the advantage of Room enchantments: Unlock the other side whenever you want at spell speed, and this card delivers this mechanic very well to the Commander.

Another card with the possibility of being a cool and fun Commander: The Jolly Balloon Man. A clown human that creates copies, except they are 1/1 balloons with flying and haste. Basically a Jaxis, the Troublemaker in white. It can be very popular, strong and fun in Commander!

And now we have the protagonist of the Room Decks: Marina Vendrell. It brings a great card advantage with the ETB - the deck is all about enchantments, so you can get many enchantments to your hand at once. And its second effect is very good: Locks or Unlocks a Room. Even at Sorcery speed, the fact that Rooms can be locked again is very interesting to trigger effects. We have lots of permanent tap and untap options, and these will definitely be used alongside Marina Vendrell in a fun Rooms deck!

Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal is another great candidate for Commander. Its Eerie has different effects each time it triggers, and on the third it revives a creature. It can be a great Commander for a mix of Reanimate, enchantments and some Rooms, but let's not get carried away.

It's worth remembering that the effects stop triggering after the third effect, so it's good to know how to manage your Eerie.

Winter, Misanthropic Guide is an interesting card that'll bring despair to opponents. Winter, Misanthropic Guide reduces the limit of opponents' hands in relation to the number of card types in their graveyard, depending on the quantity, the limit can be 0. It protects itself well with its Ward 2.

However, it is easily bypassed with cards like Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel, but it is still very interesting.

Mythic

Niko, Light of Hope finally brings utility to Shard tokens. It can be a great Commander of the blink archetype to create more and more Shard tokens, apart from other cards that create these tokens. Its ability to transform Shards into a creature can be well exploited with different types of creatures that trigger effects in combat, or just to have the exiled creature's blink.

Rare

Marvin, Murderous Mimic has huge combo potential, being a creature that lives up to the fear it causes, and can easily play in even more competitive Commander formats, given the speed of colorless decks. Very strong and can easily be a Commander or join the 99, as a combo piece.

Ghost Vacuum is a great gravehate for very little mana, and gives a purpose to exiled cards in the long term. It is worth mentioning that it exiles any card, not just creature cards, even taking advantage of only creature cards in its activated ability. It fits easily into any deck that wants to deal with graveyards effectively.

Rare

The Verge land cycle is very good for Commander. It brings more diversity to the mana base of basically any deck, they stand up - which helps a lot with the mana curve, and they easily generate any of the two colors available. I sincerely hope they bring the rest of the cycle, so everyone has access to literally any deck in any color combination.

Finally, here we have Valgavoth's Lair. The second enchantment land released in Magic, it can enter in any Enchantress archetype deck to trigger Eerie or Constellation easily - with the bonus of choosing any color when entering the battlefield to tidy up your mana curve.

Personally, I expected a slightly more terrifying plane in Duskmourn. It still has an incredible aesthetic, even though it's not as scary as it looked in its previews. It was a collection very focused on enchantments, and brought incredible cards for Commander.

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