With Duskmourn's release swiftly approaching I once again am looking at the best cards to add to my arsenal of Standard control deck ideas. Standard has been in a pretty solid place since Bloomburrow's release and subsequent rotation. Lots of different decks are winning events, everything from Golgari Midrange, to Rakdos Lizards Aggro, to my favorite, Azorius Control.

After winning a Bloomburrow Standard Store Championship event with Azorius Control, I'm definitely looking for new and exciting cards to add to my list in Duskmourn. Standard is going to change pretty drastically over the next few months, with Duskmourn's release and the Standard set Magic Foundations later in November. While the only upcoming Standard event is Duskmourn Store Championship, I'll be playing in the first Magic Spotlight event in Atlanta in January.

Duskmourn introduces a couple of new cards that are definitely up for consideration in Azorius and other Standard Control decks. While I first and foremost will be focusing on Azorius Control decks for the sake of this article, it's worth noting that there are a couple of interesting Black cards that deserve a look, as well as some of the new enchantment room cards from this set.

Split Up

Split Up is a pretty unique wrath effect, one that we haven't had before. Giving you the option of destroying all tapped or untapped creatures for only three mana, Split Up is pretty cheap removal at the cost of being conditional. This card shines against decks like Mono-Red aggro, when cards like Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Show-off already have haste. However, I'd rather just have Temporary Lockdown in this situation, since it protects you from Heartfire Hero's death trigger.

Split Up seems a bit awkward against the various midrange creature decks of the format. While I like that you can use it as a nice follow-up to a resolved Sheoldred, a lot of these Golgari and Dimir decks have creature lands like Restless Cottage, or cards with flash like Faerie Mastermind. Against Rakdos Lizards it does deal with threats like Laughing Jasper Flint, but it won't also sweep up the cheaper lizards that have just attacked you.

Ultimately, it seems tricky to evaluate this card due to its conditionality and inflexibility as a sorcery. I feel like this card won't actually see much play, but I do want to try it as a one or two of to see how it fares. The fact of the matter is creatures these days have so much value baked into them, or have some evasion like haste or flash that makes conditional sorcery-speed cards like these too inflexible.

Exorcise

While I'm sad this card is a sorcery, Exorcise seems like a fantastic multi-tool for Azorius Control, mainly due to the fact it destroys Urabrask's Forge with ease. With the loss of March of Otherworldly Light due to Standard rotation, Azorius has been lacking in ways of dealing with artifacts and enchantments, save for Destroy Evil and Get Lost (which doesn't kill Forge!). Tishana's Tidebinder has been a somewhat ok answer, but it never seems to fully get the job done. Exorcise is a nice answer to Forge that also is flexible enough it may be good enough to be maindeckable.

Exorcise destroys a swath of commonly found permanents in Standard, like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Leyline Binding, Caretaker's Talent, Laughing Jasper Flint, and Warleader's Call, that it could definitely see play maindeck instead of as a sideboard answer just for Forge. I do think it being sorcery-speed makes it inflexible, and it doesn't have a ton of targets against Dimir Midrange, Mono-Red aggro, and Rakdos Lizards, however.

Niko, Light of Hope

Niko, Light of Hope is missing just one keyword to make this card a fantastic inclusion in any Azorius deck. I really like Niko as a follow-up to a resolved Caretaker's Talent. I really want to live the dream of using Niko's ability to copy a Boon-Bringer Valkyrie with a fully leveled-up Caretaker's Talent on the field, but that might be too much of a pipe dream.

At the end of the day, Niko seems to be just a worse Beza, the Bounding Spring, but I'd be willing to try it as a one-of to see how much value having shard tokens has.

Unwanted Remake

This is another interesting removal spell that's hard to evaluate. While I don't think I'd ever play Bovine Intervention in my Azorius Control deck, I think this card is just worse than Elspeth's Smite in current iterations of Azorius Control. I will say there is a benefit of having this card just to blow up your own creatures, or token creatures, but Control decks historically don't have a lot of creatures to begin with, making the manifest card pretty useless.

Unwanted Remake is also just so bad in the early game, you don't gain much value by destroying your opponent's two-drop just to give them a 2/2 with potential upside. Elspeth's Smite is just the clear answer for a one-mana removal spell.

Get Out

While there hasn't been a ton of room for additional counterspells, after the printing of No More Lies and Three Steps Ahead, Get Out is the closest we've been to a playable two-mana counter. I really like this card's design for a couple of key reasons. First, it counters enchantment spells in addition to creature spells. This is useful because it gives you flexibility in some matchups like Domain, where Cavern of Souls can shut you off from countering creatures - you can still counter Up the Beanstalk and Leyline Binding with this card.

Second, it has lots of versatility when you pair this card with the various creatures and enchantments you play in Azorius Control. Besides rescuing your creature or enchantment from removal, you can use Get Out to do some tricks, like reuse a Temporary Lockdown if you need to sweep up some new targets. Get Out can rebuy your Caretaker's Talent to get some additional card draw in, if needed. Get Out can recycle a Tishana's Tidebinder, or a Boon-Bringer Valkyrie, or it can bounce back an early played Dust Animus so you can replay it as a 4/5 lifelinker. Maybe you're short on life and chump blockers, so recasting a Beza, the Bounding Spring is your jam.

Overall, I think Get Out has some unique applications which make this card pretty versatile, and definitely one I want to try out as a 2-of in some builds of Azorius Control.

Meathook Massacre II

Speaking of enchantments you can bounce, Meathook Massacre II is definitely a powerful card, yet way more inflexible than its Innistrad: Midnight Hunt counterpart, The Meathook Massacre. I like that this card can pressure your opponents' life total, while also protecting midrange creature threats like Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal or Chrome Host Seedshark. Since Dimir Control doesn't have a two-mana counterspell as powerful as No More Lies, I think there is a world where you can pull off some shenanigans with this card and Get Out.

The larger issue with this card in a Control shell, however, is that you might have a limited life total when trying to rebuy creatures with finality counters. I think Meathook Massacre II is a powerful card, but might be a card you'd put in Golgari Midrange, or a Dimir Midrange deck more heavily focused on abusing Chrome Host Seedshark.

Dual Lands

Luckily, Duskmourn gives us access to a new Azorius and Dimir land. Similar to the old core set cycle that included Glacial Fortress and Drowned Catacomb, these new lands seem like nice upgrades, especially since they work off of the surveil land cycle from Murders at Karlov Manor. Floodfarm Verge's wording in particular making it always add White mana is important in that it'll help smooth out your mana for a turn three Temporary Lockdown or a turn four Beza, the Bounding Spring, whereas Gloomlake Verge's wording can help cast your Get Outs on turn two more efficiently. These lands are fantastic upgrades to the painland cycle from Dominaria United and will pair nicely with the Karlov Manor surveil lands for the remainder of their Standard life cycle.

Dissection Tools

Dissection Tools is an interesting card to evaluate from a Control perspective. I think what has me so interested in a card like this is that it pairs so well with Fountainport and Chrome Host Seedshark. On its surface, for five mana you get a 4/4 deathtouch lifelinker, with the potential of that creature secretly being a Chrome Host Seedshark, Tishana's Tidebinder, or some other Control value creature. However, unlike a Boon-Bringer Valkyrie, which can get easily out-tempo'd by a Go for the Throat, Dissection Tools hangs around.

In a deck with multiple Fountainport and access to cards like Beza, the Bounding Spring and Season of the Burrow, it can be pretty easy to pay the equip cost while retaining access to a lifelink resource. While the deathtouch keyword may not be as relevant for a Control deck, it's at least nice to have a bit of pseudo evasion tacked onto a creature with lifelink. Dissection Tools may be my underdog for best Control card from the new set.

Central Elevator // Promising Stairs

Before I wrap things up, I did want to pay attention to this new room card. Central Elevator // Promising Stairs is a room card that can win you the game if you have eight different unlocked rooms. This means you just need to have four different room cards in play (with both rooms) unlocked for you to win the game. Decks that win games of Magic without attacking have always had a special place in my heart, ever since the Standard Maze's End deck.

However, a room deck seems way more difficult to set up, since you need to tap out for multiple room cards, pray they stick around, all while staving off your opponent's game plan. This can be difficult in the face of decks with countermagic or disruption, like Deep-Cavern Bat and Ertai Resurrected, but I think there's a potential build out there worth looking at. I think for that I'm going to wait until Duskmourn is out on MTG Arena, so I can do some experimenting myself...

Overall, Duskmourn: House of Horror doesn't provide the best upgrades to Control decks, but it does give some new interesting removal spells as well as a better alternative to Adarkar Wastes. Get Out is my clear winner from the set, as its bounce ability gives some interesting value to decks that utilize enchantments or creatures with enter the battlefield abilities, like Tishana's Tidebinder and Beza, the Bounding Spring. I'm interested to see what shakeups Duskmourn brings to Standard and how Standard will shift up until the next set release in only two months.

Until next time!