Warning!

The decks you are about to see are mostly untested first drafts! They were played Wednesday on the early access Streamer Event on MTG Arena and are my first stabs at the new Duskmourn Standard format. Most are brews jam packed with Duskmourn cards, while there are also a few updates to previously established archetypes, but it's important to note that these are the first steps and not finished products! Use them as stepping stones for your own deck brewing process, but play them card for card at your own risk!

Move over Bloomburrow, it's time for Duskmourn!

Sure, it's only been a month or so, but for better or worse the Magic content train moves on, and what a move from the cute and cuddly animals of Bloomburrow to the macabre horror world of Duskmourn. However, the differences are more than just skin deep, as Duskmourn is also a much more open-ended set than the somewhat strict themes of Bloomburrow.

With so many overlapping synergies, unpacking both Duskmourn in and of itself, as well as how it going to jive with the sets currently in Standard, is going to be quite the task, and I'm just getting started!

Today we are going to go over all ten decks I played as part of my Ten New Brews on YouTube and stream, briefly going over each list and my thoughts on how it was, giving it a letter grade, and talking about what kind of potential it has going forward. I played five games of best of one with each deck so the deck's record will also be included, but do note that these matches were played during the Early Access event not on the open ladder. My opponents were all other content creators also trying out all sorts of fun Duskmourn stuff.

Let's go!

Spawn More Overlords | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
• 2 Blossoming Tortoise
• 3 Glissa Sunslayer
• 4 Aftermath Analyst
• 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
• 4 Overlord of the Hauntwoods

• Instants (2)
• 2 Overwhelming Remorse

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Lich-Knights' Conquest

• Enchantments (8)
• 2 Nowhere to Run
• 2 Virtue of Persistence
• 4 Up the Beanstalk

• Lands (28)
• 3 Forest
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Hidden Grotto
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Restless Cottage
• 4 Underground Mortuary
• 4 Vinereap Mentor

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Both Overlords

When the original titan cycle of Primeval Titan and friends were in Standard, all five of them were major players for the entire time they were legal. Even the worst one, Frost Titan, saw a lot of play, specifically because of how good it was against other titans.

Well, it looks like we're going to do that again, only this time with the overlord cycle from Duskmourn.

All of the overlord cards are excellent.

They provide immediate value at a discount, create an impending threat that must be dealt with, and also are just fine to hardcast as well. The best of the bunch is probably Overlord of the Hauntwoods, which has perhaps the best spell-like effect combined with being cheap to cast and curving into itself, and Overlord of the Balemurk is also great if you're doing graveyard stuff like this deck is.

The idea of this deck was to try and maximize the synergy between these overlords and forgotten rare Lich-Knights' Conquest. You can sacrifice the impending overlords and bring them back as creatures, as well as sacrificing random junk in play to get back other big creatures as well. This sorta worked, but it felt like the mix was a bit off.

There's no doubt that overlords are going to be big players in Standard, but I'm not sure if this is the way to do it.

Red Handed | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Calamity, Galloping Inferno
• 3 Fear of Missing Out
• 3 Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 3 Magda, the Hoardmaster
• 4 Overlord of the Boilerbilges
• 4 Piggy Bank

• Instants (7)
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Volcanic Spite
• 3 Shock

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Nahiri's Warcrafting
• 2 Pyroclasm

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 The Irencrag
• 2 Bandit's Haul
• 2 Ghost Vacuum

• Lands (25)
• 20 Mountain
• 2 Fountainport
• 3 Demolition Field

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: D

Deck Potential: Low

Standout Card: Overlord of the Boilerbilges

It wouldn't be Ten New Brews if we weren't trying to build Big Red!

This time we went with a crime theme predicated on the new card Ghost Vacuum. Maindeck graveyard hate is a very reasonable thing in this format, but Ghost Vacuum is also a repeatable crime trigger as well as a big late game mana sink. Magda, the Hoardmaster can make treasures and dragons from crimes, while Bandit's Haul gives us the extra mana we need and potentially cards.

Of course, at the center of all this is another overlord, this time Overlord of the Boilerbilges which was incredible. Reasonable removal early, insane threat late, super fast clock, and big time synergy if you can copy it or give it haste. The deck wasn't great, but overlord was insane.

The biggest issue was that a Mono-Red deck can't effectively remove enchantments, which came up in almost every game, making this deck basically a non-starter.

Delirium Breakout | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (28)
• 2 Balustrade Wurm
• 3 Fear of Being Hunted
• 3 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 4 Evolving Adaptive
• 4 Fear of Missing Out
• 4 Patchwork Beastie
• 4 Stubborn Burrowfiend
• 4 Wildfire Wickerfolk

• Instants (6)
• 2 Turn Inside Out
• 2 Violent Urge
• 2 Witchstalker Frenzy

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Break Out

• Lands (23)
• 6 Forest
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Fabled Passage
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Karplusan Forest
• 4 Thornspire Verge

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: B+

Deck Potential: Surprisingly High

Standout Card: Wildfire Wickerfolk

I was very excited about the prospect of jamming Wildfire Wickerfolk and Fear of Being Hunted in an aggressive green/red deck and just getting in with above rate haste creatures, but didn't really expect it to be that good.

I was wrong!

The delirium-based aggro trio of Pathwork Beastie, Wildfire Wickerfolk, and Fear of Being Hunted provide some pretty beefy stats compared to their mana costs, while also all being two types themselves to help get delirium. This self-synergy is awesome.

However, some of the best enablers were actually not from Duskmourn, showing the set's ability to draw from other sets and synergies. Break Out was the big winner, putting a sorcery in the graveyard and a threat in play with haste, awesome in a deck with so many good 2-drops, while Inti was as good as ever.

This deck getting delirium and attacking for 10 damage on turn three surprisingly often, and there's something very real here.

Power Rooms | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Ral, Crackling Wit

• Instants (4)
• 2 Excavation Explosion
• 2 Stern Lesson

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Pyroclasm
• 4 Ill-Timed Explosion

• Enchantments (22)
• 3 Central Elevator // Promising Stairs
• 3 Charred Foyer // Warped Space
• 4 Glassworks // Shattered Yard
• 4 Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna
• 4 Smoky Lounge // Misty Salon
• 4 Underwater Tunnel // Slimy Aquarium

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 The Irencrag

• Lands (24)
• 4 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 2 Mirrex
• 3 Demolition Field
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Thundering Falls

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: C-

Deck Potential: Low, Medium If Jeskai

Standout Card: Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna

Rooms are one of the most jarring new mechanics in Duskmourn, presenting us with the first ever split cards that are permanents. The design is very cute, allowing you to unlock the other half you didn't initially play, making these good for card advantage and being mana sinks.

So why play a lot of rooms? Check out Central Elevator // Promising Stairs. Whenever a card has "you win the game" on it you should take notice, and the kill condition on Promising Stairs isn't really that difficult to pull off. Rooms naturally tend to lean towards a longer game, which gives plenty of time to get your rooms in play and set up.

The big rooms here are Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna, which provides early removal as well as card draw late, and Charred Foyer // Warped Space, which also provides you cards and potentially a mana boost. The big enabler however is Smoky Lounge // Misty Salon, which is one of the few strict room synergy cards, giving you a crazy double mana boost every turn to work with for your rooms.

Ill-Timed Explosion is awesome here as essentially a Wrath of God because it counts both halves of the mana value of the rooms you discard, but not having an answer to enchantments or very large creatures was a huge issue. We played against a few Jeskai versions of rooms with Restricted Office // Lecture Hall as well as White removal for both exile effects as well as enchantment removal, and those seemed great. Some also used Ghostly Dancers to great effect too.

Being Izzet meant we couldn't kill artifacts, and because of the sorcery-speed nature of rooms you'll struggle against combo too.

Trap Reanimator | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 2 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
• 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 3 Valgavoth's Faithful
• 4 Splitskin Doll

• Instants (7)
• 2 Bitter Triumph
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 3 Cut Down

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 No Witnesses
• 2 Beseech the Mirror
• 2 Duress
• 2 Lively Dirge
• 4 Rite of the Moth

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Collector's Vault

• Lands (24)
• 3 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 2 Hidden Grotto
• 2 Restless Fortress
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Shadowy Backstreet

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Valgavoth, Terror Eater

We haven't seen a four-mana Zombify in Standard in a long time, and Duskmourn brings us two!

Rite of the Moth is literally just a hard to cast Zombify with upside, while Valgavoth's Faithful is a little more narrow as it is a Zombify you can kill fairly easily. But when it comes down to it, some of the best huge creatures ever printed in the history of the game are legal right now in Standard, and putting them into play on turn four is going to be lights out against a lot of things your opponent can throw at you.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater, the face card of the set, was as good as advertised. Very difficult to kill and an absolute monster, there's a lot to be said about being a 9/9 lifelinker with a serious ward protection, but the ability also means that your opponent really can't do much without removing it. Atraxa also needs no introduction.

Collector's Vault continues to feel like a trap card to me, but performed well enough as far as just doing our thing, although it does stand to get worse in post-sideboard games. However, what really impressed me were the small Beseech the Mirror and Lively Dirge packages. Beseech the Mirror can obviously just get a Rite of the Moth, but having a few silver bullet four-drops was great. Furthermore, Lively Dirge was just fine as an Entomb, but also had a lot of utility getting 4-drops or returning Splitskin Dolls.

This deck needs to have a good plan against sideboard hate, but is a great level zero deck.

Render Impender | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Nashi, Searcher in the Dark
• 2 Harvester of Misery
• 2 Slickshot Lockpicker
• 4 Inquisitive Glimmer
• 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
• 4 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 4 Zur, Eternal Schemer

• Instants (2)
• 2 Bitter Triumph

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Render Inert

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Nowhere to Run

• Battles (6)
• 2 Invasion of Tolvada // The Broken Sky
• 4 Invasion of Amonkhet // Lazotep Convert

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Gloomlake Verge
• 4 Meticulous Archive
• 4 Shadowy Backstreet
• 4 Undercity Sewers

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Medium To High With Some Work

Standout Card: Render Inert

More overlords!

One really cool synergy with Overlord of the Balemurk and Overlord of the Mistmoors is how Render Inert is able to remove all of their time counters in one shot, allowing them to attack immediately while also drawing a card which is great. Zur, Eternal Schemer is another oddball old rare that's still legal that has a similar effect, as you can use Zur's ability to animate Overlords and get that big attack in with lifelink as well.

The other thing that Render Inert can do is clear battles like Invasion of Amonkhet // Lazotep Convert and Invasion of Tolvada // The Broken Sky. Invasion of Amonkhet is a very solid card that can reanimate your overlords or opponent's creatures, while Invasion of Tolvada can do it directly and then flip over into an amazing token maker that gives a ton of lifelink too.

That all being said, this deck has a ton of moving parts, needing good counts of creatures, enchantments, graveyard enablers, lands, and interaction. There's a lot of great stuff happening here but finding the right mix will be tough.

Dread It Coming | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Vannifar, Evolved Enigma
• 3 Paranormal Analyst
• 4 Abhorrent Oculus
• 4 Oblivious Bookworm
• 4 Overgrown Zealot

• Sorceries (12)
• 2 Hard-Hitting Question
• 2 Manifest Dread
• 4 Unnerving Grasp
• 4 Valgavoth's Onslaught

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Growing Dread
• 4 Threats Around Every Corner

• Lands (24)
• 7 Forest
• 5 Island
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Restless Vinestalk
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 5-0

Deck's Grade: B?

Deck Potential: Medium?

Standout Card: Threats Around Every Corner

Our next deck was perhaps the most perplexing of the entire lot.

Most manifest dread decks we played against were playing the mechanic as a vessel for cheating big dumb stuff into play, by blinking or cheaply flipping up face down copies of Portal to Phyrexia or Valgavoth with things like Scrollshift or Splash Portal.

We just played fair, crushing along the way!

The uncommon duo of Oblivious Bookworm and Growing Dread are going to be a huge deal in limited, but bring this efficiency to Constructed by drawing cards and augmenting your facedown cards very well. However, the real winner here is Threats Around Every Corner, allowing you to pull all the basic lands out of your deck pretty easily and get a ton of mana, which is great with your Restless Vinestalks, as well as...

Valgavoth's Onslaught was awesome! On pure rate alone this card is excellent as two 4/4s for five mana or three 5/5s for seven mana, and that's not even accounting for all the synergy it creates. Abhorrent Oculus was as good as advertised, being an amazing hit off manifest dread as well, while Unnerving Grasp was surprisingly effective too.

Is this fair approach better than the unfair approach? I'm not sure, but the deck certainly played well.

Toads & Armadillos | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 3 Armored Armadillo
• 3 Calix, Guided by Fate
• 4 Elvish Archivist
• 4 Optimistic Scavenger
• 4 Toadstool Admirer

• Instants (2)
• 2 Royal Treatment

• Enchantments (18)
• 2 Innkeeper's Talent
• 4 Audacity
• 4 Ethereal Armor
• 4 Shardmage's Rescue
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (21)
• 6 Plains
• 2 Forest
• 1 Valgavoth's Lair
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Razorverge Thicket

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 5-0

Deck's Grade: A-

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Sheltered By Ghosts

Bogles returns!

Okay, they ain't pretty, but Toadstool Admirer and Armored Armadillo both have a job to do - come down on turn one and wear auras well while being annoying to kill - and do it well. Toadstool Admirer is definitely the better of the two, but both were surprisingly potent thanks to the quality of the auras.

This new trio of auras is well worth the effort, providing a superb trio of sizing from the classic Ethereal Armor, protection from Shardmage's Rescue (alongside Royal Role), and removal as well as protection and lifelink from the excellent new Sheltered by Ghosts. You can't play cards like Ethereal Armor or Sheltered by Ghosts unless you are able to protect your creatures, but the ward costs plus the protection spells were very impressive.

Add in some more forgotten awesome rares like Calix, Guided by Fate as well as a little +1/+1 counter subtheme with Optimistic Scavenger and Innkeeper's Talent, and you've got quite the synergy aggro deck!

Something Eerie | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 2 Enduring Innocence
• 2 Fear of Impostors
• 2 Ghostly Dancers
• 2 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Silent Hallcreeper
• 4 Entity Tracker
• 4 Gremlin Tamer
• 4 Inquisitive Glimmer
• 4 Optimistic Scavenger

• Instants (2)
• 2 No More Lies

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Proft's Eidetic Memory
• 2 Trapped in the Screen
• 4 Ossification

• Lands (24)
• 5 Plains
• 5 Island
• 2 Adarkar Wastes
• 2 Fabled Passage
• 2 Valgavoth's Lair
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Seachrome Coast

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 5-0

Deck's Grade: A-

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Entity Tracker

A blue enchantress? Duskmourn really is a horror set!

This deck ended up being quite a surprise, being to come together from all angles; it was solidly aggressive, had good interaction, could draw cards, and could play a bit of a flash game too!

Entity Tracker is incredible, drawing cards at an uncapped rate and being able to come down at the end of your opponent's turn to almost guarantee value. Enduring Innocence is cut from a similar cloth, also providing lifelink and an excellent level of resilience. And both cards combine awesomely with throwback Proft's Eidetic Memory, which was excellent and is definitely worth more copies.

There's a lot of synergy among all the new early eerie creatures, with Gremlin Tamer going wide and helping to trigger Enduring Innocence, Inquisitive Glimmer providing a solid body and cost reduction, and Optimistic Scavenger helping you size up as needed all over the board.

Add in some counterspells and interaction, like No More Lies and the excellent and synergistic Ossification, and you've got quite the tempo deck! Fear of Imposters also played much better than expected, as the extra synergies it created were great.

This deck was awesome!

Dino Riders | Duskmourn Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Reluctant Role Model
• 2 Rip, Spawn Hunter
• 2 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 2 Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero
• 4 Kona, Rescue Beastie
• 4 Seraphic Steed
• 4 Vaultborn Tyrant
• 4 Veteran Survivor

• Instants (2)
• 2 Get Lost

• Artifacts (9)
• 2 Mobile Homestead
• 3 Unidentified Hovership
• 4 Collector's Cage

• Lands (24)
• 1 Forest
• 6 Plains
• 1 Restless Prairie
• 2 Lush Portico
• 2 Mirrex
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Razorverge Thicket

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B+

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Rip, Spawn Hunter

Green/White mounts was heavily pushed in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, but just couldn't quite get there. Well, reinforcements have arrived!

The survival mechanic from Duskmourn is tailor made for vehicles and mounts, giving you a clean way to safely tap these creatures for their effects while still getting a board impact. We've already got some good saddle creatures available, but adding Unidentified Hovership to the roster is a big upgrade for removal. However, that's to say nothing of how awesome Rip, Spawn Hunter is. Rip crews Seraphic Steed, but more importantly can draw a few cards every turn which is awesome.

But that's not all!

Kona, Rescue Beastie is one of the scariest cards in the entire set, allowing you to just put stuff into play for free. Vaultborn Tyrant fits the bill perfectly, as it is castable if the game goes long but also great to cheat into play and we've got a good number of 4 power creatures. To add some redundancy to the equation we've got Collector's Cage, a powerful card that hasn't quite gotten there, giving this deck an unfair angle as well.

This deck was awesome and I'm very excited to work on it more.

The 2024 Magic World Championship

Duskmourn looks like it is going to be an awesome set. There's a ton of sandbox/legos style stuff happening with many synergies and moving parts which makes it a deck-builder's dream.

It's also going to be the most important set of the year competition wise as well, as it is the format of this year's World Championship! Next month I'll be playing Duskmourn Standard and Duskmourn draft against 100 of the best Magic players in the world in Las Vegas seeing if I can make my mark as Magic's newest World Champion.

What's not to be excited about?