Hello happy casual MTG and horror movie fans! I hope your day is going super mega well! Today I wanted to knock out my first list of Top Ten for the newly released set called Duskmourn. Please note that I don't really watch many horror movies since I prefer atmospheric horror of Let the Right One In or The Blair Witch Project over jump scares and blood packs that are cheaper and easier to do. I do read tons of horror though, usually older short stories which I review along with fantasy and science fiction on my YouTube channel (See a note below for more).

This set is deep in quality stuff for mono-Black and Green as well as a huge number of quality cycles for the kitchen table stuff I look at. Three of those cycles will be making the cut today alone, so get ready! Less so for mono-Blue (no hits today) and to a lesser extent White and Red (just one hit each) which have a few good mono-colored options, but not as much as you'd think.

As a reminder, this looks at new cards not repeats like Leyline of the Void and then not the Commander set that'll be in its's own set. Ready for multiplyer, Type Four, Highlander, Pesant, Pauper, Five Color and Commander? I got you!

Honorable Mention #1. (#13. Overall) - The Jolly Balloon Man

This 3-drop Boros colored hasted 1/4 blocking body is our highest charting gold legendary dork from the set and I adore him as a Commander or in the 99. (We will have two mono-colored legendaries hitting a bit higher). You can tap him for a single mana to make a token copy of (another) dork you control with haste, flying and it's a 1/1 Ballon too, and dies EOT. Just as a sorcery though. That should remind you of a fun harder to cast mono-Red Goblin that everyone loves called Kiki-Jiki. Or his Reflection too. If played as your Commander, this adds White to your copy colors. This is a bit worse since the dorks are smaller, but also a bit better since they have flying too. Love this reconfiguring of the beloved classic!

Honorable Mention #2. (#12. Overall) - Overgrown Zealot

This 2-drop uncommon mono-Green 0/4 Mana Elf ramper is next! Note it taps for any color of mana with the first abililty, and it's not a defender so it can swing with Equipment, Aura pumping, or Anthems. Then this can tap for two mana to unflip stuff like morph or disguise. That's a nice adjunct to those abilities, but an 0/4 two mana can block most early attackers in multiplayer so they'll head elsewhere ramper is already playable in all sorts of formats. Don't just assume this is for those decks and not run it, you'll lose out!

Honorable Mention #3. (#11. Overall) - The Overlord Cycle

Baby's first cycle! First are the mythic rare Titan-esque cycle with sizes on curve and then an ETB and attack trigger for their key ability and then impending as an alternate cost to drop them early but temporarily. Note that's an alternate cost for Type Four, so you could cast them turn 1 normally (infinite mana but one spell/turn barring alternate costs) or one termporarily with your normal stuff. Let's look at them in color order! The White one costs seven for a 6/6 with a trigger to make two 2/1 White flying Insects. Better than Grave Titan; same power, but it flies. The Blue one costs two less for a flying 5/3 body. Your trigger awesomely draws two and then discards one. The discard is great for this set's delirium, recursion, or threshold. The Black one also costs five for an on-curve 5/5 which will mill four and then Raise Dead a non-Avatar dork or planeswalker to your hand. Note that the recurred to your hand dork/planeswalker is not from the milled group, but anything there. Love the Blue and Black ones in the graveyard or just recurring dead 'walkers.

Let's finish with the Gruul two-set! The Boilerbilges six-drop has a 5/5 body and trigger to Lightning Blast any target. It's way better than Flametongue Kavu that only could be aimed at critters. The Hauntwoods Green five-drop has a huge 6/5 body. Then you'll make a tapped coloress land that's all basic lands types. That's great free ramp when you do what you want to do anyway! This mythic cycle will dominate all kitchen table and likely Standard too, so I am sure why you can see they made my first list but just outside of the Top Ten proper since they are pricey. Note that this cycle are enchantments for those decks.

#10. Demonic Counsel

This two mana mono-Black sorcery is next! It's kindred for the type of Demon since it will search your library for that creature type, reveal, and put it into our hand. Then if you have delirium you'll just get a tutor and fetch anything. That's so easy to get, with any milling, fetchland, artifact dork like Solemn Simulacrum, looting in Blue, rummaging in red or the Dimir colored Avatar above! And even without any trying just randomly! They basically reprinted an easy to make Demonic Tutor an iconic Commader Staple and it's just 10th. That's how strong this set is!

#9. Kona, Rescue Beastie

I change the name of this to "Bestie." This uncommon overstuffed four-drop 4/3 legendary mono-Green dork is our middle scoring Commander eligible on this list! It has just one ability for your second main phase if she is tapped. She'll drop any sized permanent for free to the battlefield from your hand! That's anything and it doesn't have a finality counter or a bounce or death trigger. We all know how powerful dropping things for free is in the Command Zone like Narset or Kaalia. Here you don't have to build around it, it just has to be a permanent, but it's just one color of broken or colorless. Green can win all of the games though on it's own from Blightsteel Colossus to Craterhoof Behemoth.

#8. Norin, Swift Survivalist

This uncommon 2/1 legendary dork is our final Command Zone dork! Note uncommon for Pauper Commander to be your leader. This new take on Time Spirial classic Norin also cannot block. We've all built a Norin-Pandemonium Commander brew! (Me too, it's for MTGO - it's here: https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/the-kitchen-table-382-norinmonium/). This time he'll only flicker out and back when your stuff is blocked, and this is a may effect so it's not required! I love that powerhouse here loads. If you want to build a new version of Pandemonium + Norin and Warstorm Surge and Purphoros and more you can! You just need to ensure that he is blocked, and since Lure is in Green, you'll need equipment like Nemesis Mask! Win fast! Punch hard!

#7. Come Back Wrong

Next is this sorcery speed spashable three cost Murder! The destroyed dork comes back as a dork under your control that'll die this turn, and then also no haste, naturally, but if you add it with Fires of Yawimaya, Anger or Lavaspur Boots that'll swing in the turn of opening. Or maybe this is all about getting their awesome ETB trigger like Mulldrifter or Eternal Witness. Or maybe you just need to off them all day long and then you don't really need the recursion. Love this being sped up to instant speed with flash enablers! Then it'll be a combat trick to kill an attacker and thene rturn it into a blocker to stop two attacking dork and ideally trade.

#6. The New Leylines

When I was doing my first review of reviewing the spoilers on WOTC after they posted everything, a monoWhite card we'll see later started in the #1 spot and then the White Leyline above was #2. Then more and more quality pushed this four card (Leyline of the Void is a reprint) to outside of my Top Five to #6 overall! These are enchantments that cost four mana for an okay slate of abilites that are free if they start in your hand! The best was White or Green in Five Color! Let's turn to them now. The Hope one will increase life gain by +1 and then if you have more than 7 life than your starting total this is a double Anthem for your dorks. The Transformation one will let your dorks become that chosen creature type no matter the zone.

The Resonance one will copy a spell you cast that only targets one of your dorks and will be amazing in places like Heroic or Cantrips or Poison. The Mutation one will let you cast your spells for one of each mana, so that's a Leyline-able Fist of Suns! Very strong in the Five Color format or 5C decks in Commander. The White one is best in Commander considering how popular life gain there is! Ditto Blue in decks looking for a Conspiracy or Red in self-target decks like Feather. It's the least powerful of this new cycle though, to my mind.

#5. The Enduring Cycle

Next are the enchantment dorks that have a strong ability and then come back once when they die as just an enchantment, just like undying or persist. The Black one was so good it put this cycle at #2 but got dropped as more cards were added from the set's spoilers. The White one is a three-drop 2/1 with lifelink and then is a Welcoming Vampire but smaller and no flying. The Blue one costs four for a flashable on curve 4/3 body with the Coastal Piracy ability, and we know how powerful that is Commander aggro decks or with flyers. With a flashable body? Nasty! You can cast it when your stuff is not blocked.

The Black one also costs four for a non-ability 4/3 and then turns life gain into a foe losing that much so that's a life gain win con just like beloved Sanguine Bond. The Red one also costs four for a smaller 3/3 body. It's a multiplayer powerhouse reprint of In the Web of War to give your team haste and power boosts! The Green one is best in the Five Color format too since your dorks can tap for any color of mana, love this in 4C and 5C Commander brews! Love this five set loads! This is our highest charting cycle, I'm sure you can see why!

#4. Split Up

The mono-White sorcery that began at my #1 spot but dropped more and more as I dug into more colors! This will destroy either all tapped or untapped dorks. You can cast it pre-combat to destroy many tapped that swung your way but it won't likely destroy blockers, or you can tap your stuff down with things like Enduring Vitality above or Earthcraft to destroy all other untapped blockers and such, you can strength it out to minimize your pain and maximize your foes! On a three-cost mass removal spell like this that's amazingly well done! It also plays well with this set's survival mechanic since you'll need to be tapped post combat and then you can sweep all untapped stuff!

#3. Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

Our highest scoring gold card is this four-drop planeswalker with an on curve 4 loyalty! It has a massive five abilities! The first is to Ninjutsu it out for three mana. A free way to cast a planeswalker to avoid counters? Nasty! The second is that on your turn it's a 3/4 hexproof Ninja! Hexproof is rough to answer! His +1 will give you an unanswerable emblem to pump him and other Ninjas with a +1/+1 anthem. His 0 ability will surveil 2 and then draw a card for each foe that lost life, which scales up in multiplayer and Commander as just one life lost from a Subversion or Zulaport Cutthroat will draw you three or more cards! Then you can -2 him twice with his starting loyalty to tap lock a blocker or other dork and toss two stun counters so it'll be tapped for a while. This five ability planeswalker for four mana is nasty at the punching the throwing and the winning and can do all abilities on arrival to the battlefield.

#2. Withering Torment

This three-cost instant is next and my penultimate card! It's one more mana than Commander Classic Feed the Swarm. That's a two-cost sorcery that destroys a creature or enchantment and loses the mana value in life. Here you are just losing two life and at instant speed for another mana. It's totally worth it, since Black was judged to be the third best color in enchantment destruction. And you'll save life loss there too. This is uncommon and my highest rated non-rare in the set! Ready for the top card? What could be more powerful than these three powerhouses? Let's look!

#1. Unstoppable Slasher

This rare three-drop 2/3 deathtouch mono-Black dork is tops! Here are the letters that I said as soon as I saw this spoiled and posted it in our playgroups MTG section on Discord. "WOW." It's definitely "Wowzer Bowzer," but I don't feel it gets the respect it should, so let's break it down:

• It has a combat damage trigger to force the damaged foe to lose half their life rounded up. In 40 life or 20-life formats, that's a fast kill.
• It has deathtouch, so when you swing at people won't want to trade down. Do they take the damage or lose a card? Neither choice works.
• You can also help by giving it trample with Green like Rancor or equipment like Sword of Vengeance. If chumped or traded with you'll deal extra damage and still trigger.
• If you give it trample then increase its power to potentially kill all chump blockers and still trigger, like instants like Howl from Beyond or Auras like Feast of the Unicorn.
• It comes back once like persist/undying/or Enduring Tenacity with two stuns counters and tapped.
• You can abuse the latter with removing counters after it comes back like in color Hex Parasite.
• Or you can untap it with colorless Sword of the Paruns or Umbral Mantle or in other colors with instants.

See why this card is tops in a dense list and set? I hope so!

What did you think of my first list from the set? I hope you liked it too! See you next week for more fun antics here!

Your Help Needed!

Hello happy folks! I hope your day is going super mega well! In case you didn't know, I have a YouTube channel called "TheWorstThingAboutNewBooks" which you can find here. I typically do reviews of older Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror stuff. I am trying to monetize it to help with local costs living back home with parents. I never wanted to when I was working since I wanted to keep things pure. Anyways, I have enough of a sub base, but not hours. In the past year my hours are around 2.8k and I need 4k. I try to keep my three videos/week smaller in length to avoid people spending too much time. To monetize it, I need to get the view count up - I really need your help, so if you could please take a look at some of my older videos that would be awesome possum!

Have an amazing day and thanks so much I appreciate your time!