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Say. Its. Name.
Confession time. While I've seen both, "Beetlejuice: The Musical" and the movie, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" in the last few months, I've always found the idea of calling out to a demon by name a little unnerving. Like you're inviting in evil. I'm a grown adult and yet I've never stood in front of a mirror and said, "Candyman" five times. I've never carried a candle into a dark bathroom to call upon the ghastly specter of, "Bloody Mary."
Look, I know that nothing is going to happen. I know it. Know it. Absolutely. Just like I know that I can leave my foot hanging off the end of the bed at night and a hand, with fingers too long and nails caked with the soil of the grave, absolutely will not extend from the shadows beneath my bed and grab my ankle.
Never going to happen.
But...
And that's one of the alures of horror, isn't it? That nagging feeling at the back of your mind that you can't drive away, crawling around the back of your skull like a legion of spiders. Your waking mind knows that the power went out because of the storm, that the dog is barking in your back yard because it saw a racoon, that a mirror in a dark room is just a mirror. But your lizard brain doesn't listen to your waking mind. It REALLY knows what's going on.
Honestly, it's a lot like building a Magic deck.
I know that building a deck based on the graveyard feels like a losing proposition. I know that I'm destined to get blown out by Rest in Peace, or a turn 0 Leyline of the Void. But, I look at Altanak, the Thrice-Called and my lizard brain starts whispering to me from the shadows. This may be the most flavorful pair of cards in Duskmourn: House of Horror and I couldn't resist trying to make them work.
Altanak is its Name | DSK Standard | Travis Hall
- Creatures (19)
- 2 Insidious Fungus
- 2 The Swarmweaver
- 3 Titania, Voice of Gaea
- 4 Aftermath Analyst
- 4 Altanak, the Thrice-Called
- 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
- Instants (9)
- 2 Drag to the Roots
- 3 Go for the Throat
- 4 Cache Grab
- Sorceries (5)
- 4 Say It's Name
- 1 Gix's Command
- Enchantments (2)
- 2 Nowhere to Run
Export Arena
Altanak, the Thrice-Called and Say its Name
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This is the combo the deck is built around. Altanak, the Thrice-Called is a ridiculously pushed uncommon. At a 9/9 trample for seven mana, it's bigger than anything else seeing play right now, and sneaking it into play for free in the first few turns could be enough to win the game in a couple of attacks. It's got a measure of protection in that it replaces itself if targeted for removal. And, if that's not enough, it can function as the best Rampant Growth effect in the format with its discard ability. If you're going to try to build a deck around a card, there are much worse options!
Say its Name barely makes the line of playability on its own. Milling three cards is below par, but its balanced by the fact that you can return ANY creature or land card, not just from among those milled.
Overlord of the Balemurk
A decently-sized threat that can fuel the deck strategy in the early game. At 
, this has the cheapest Impending cost of all the Overlords, and fits nicely on the curve. Between Overlord, Cache Grab, and Say its Name, we should always be able to start filling the graveyard on turn two.
Aftermath Analyst and Titania, Voice of Gaea
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As I said, the deck is built around Altatank and the combo with Say its Name. It looks to get as many cards into your graveyard as fast as possible to hopefully land the three necessary copies of Say its Name to bring Altanak into play for free. But, if we're going to be dumbing a ton of lands into the graveyard in the process, why not capitalize on this and set ourselves up to cast Altanak from hand as a failsafe? I originally had Lumra, Bellow of the Woods in this slot, but Aftermath Analyst should be better, fueling our early game mill options.
Titania is a way to gain a little bit of life and presents a different game-ending threat should she flip into Titania, Gaea Incarnate.
The Swarmweaver
This is another card I'm excited to try out from Duskmourn: House of Horror. With the amount of mill we're running, Delirium should almost always be online by turn four. Without Delirium, this provides 3 bodies for four mana, and is above rate. With Delirium, it can take over a battlefield.
Insidious Fungus
I'll be honest, this is the card I'm least sure of, and there's a chance this should just be Valgavoth's Faithful. But, the deck needs some way to interact with artifacts/enchantments in the main, and I think this is subtly one of the best cards in the set. Cache Grab, Overlord of the Balemurk, and Say its Name can all find this and it can also serve as a chump blocker that cycles into a new card. I'm extremely high on this card seeing play in Standard, so I expect it'll find its way into a bunch of my decks.
Nowhere to Run
I'm testing this out as a removal spell that can be found with Cache Grab. If this didn't have flash, I'd cut it in a heartbeat for Virtue of Persistence, but the Mono-Red decks demand instant speed removal or you'll die on turn three.
Duskmourn looks like it will bring a ton of new cards to the format, and I can't wait to play with the set. This is my first pass at an Altanak deck, but it won't be my last. I'm already looking at a Simic version for Jace, the Perfected Mind, and a Sultai version. This set looks like a homerun.
You can find more of my musings about Magic on Twitter/X: @travishall456
