15 New Duskmourn Standard Decks

Hey all. Strickles here with 15 decks featuring cards from the new set, Duskmourn: House of Horror, which releases in just a few days on Magic Arena on Tuesday, September 23. I always love when a Standard legal set is released, even if they do happen in swift succession these days, as brewing up new decks is one of my favorite parts about Magic.

These decks are all untested first drafts – there is a good chance that numbers or mana bases will need to be shifted around, but I think they are all good starting places, for functional, and maybe in some cases, competitive, decks.

Alongside each deck I’ll provide a quick explanation of the game plan, so with that said let’s jump right in!

Azorius Oculus

This list is very similar to Azorius Mentor lists we’ve seen before but I’ve decided to run Abhorrent Oculus instead of Haughty Djinn. There could be room for both in this deck, but I think that in a lot of cases Abhorrent Oculus will play better than the Djinn. We don’t have many expensive instants and sorceries for the djinn to discount, and the oculus is better against spot removal as it is likely to leave behind a 2/2 or two.

This list should be pretty good at getting enough cards into the graveyard to hard cast Abhorrent Oculus, but we can also discard or mill it and then bring it back with Helping Hand.

Dimir Self-Mill

Another list looking to get Abhorrent Oculus into play, this list is all in on self-mill and is playing other self-mill payoffs like Souls of the Lost and Cruel Somnophage. We also have Overlord of the Balemurk for self-mill early and another big threat later. 

There is a bit of anti-synergy between exiling cards to our oculus and our threats that grow based on the size of our graveyard, but we have so many ways to mill that our graveyard should always be stocked up, giving us a ton of large threats to pressure the opponent.

Gruul Delirium Aggro

I’m not sure if this list is up to compete with the other aggro decks in the meta, but I think it is a good place to start. We have a lot of ways to discard cards for value, such as to Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, Fear of Missing Out, or Charming Scoundrel, which can help us get delirium thanks to our permanent that are two types, like our new threats Patchwork Beastie and Wildfire Wickerfolk.

Sentinel of the Nameless City is more of a midrange card than an aggro card, but I like that map tokens can buff up our team, and more importantly mill cards to help us get to delirium. I am excited to try The Huntsman’s Redemption, as both a way to find a threat, and to buff up two creatures on Chapter III.

Golgari Delirium Midrange

Keeping the delirium train going, this time we are trying to clog up the board with Broodspinner, The Swarmweaver, and Izoni, Center of the Web. We have a lot of good ways to self mill, including Overlord of the Balemurk, Cache Grab, and Wrenn and Realmbreaker.

This deck has plenty of removal to survive the early game, and then take over the board late game by popping a Broodspinner and or by out grinding the opponent with Izoni and Wrenn.

Survival Aggro

Calling it Survival Aggro is a bit of an oversell, since we only have two Survival creatures, Reluctant Role Model and Veteran Survivor but the rest of the deck enables them in some way.

Trained Arynx and Ornery Tumblewagg can be saddled, Unidentified Hovership can be crewed, they can be used to Convoke out Knight-Errant of Eos or tapped to give Tyvar, the Pummeler indestructible. They can also be tapped to enlist with Guardian of New Benalia, and lastly tapped to take out an opposing creature with Coordinated Clobbering.

Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero is also great with all of our tap effects, drawing us cards. And Ornery Tumblewagg and Reluctant Role Model have nice synergy, as the counters that the tumblewagg gives out can be moved around when those creatures die if our role model is in play.

Temur Ramp

This isn’t a super dedicated ramp deck, but it has a lot of ramp creatures, and big spells, so it felt fair to call it Temur Ramp. The goal of this deck is to either ramp into a big Doppelgang or Valgavoth’s Onslaught and/or buff up our board with Fecund Greenshell.

Roaring Furnace, Dreamdew Entrancer, Overlord of the Boilerbilges help slow the opponent down, and the entrancer is a great target for Mockingbird to help us continue to lock down the opponent’s board. Mockingbird is also great when copying Fecund Greenshell, giving us double triggers and a possible +4/+4 once we have 10 or more lands.

Kona Legends

I’ll be honest and say that this was the decklist I struggled with most. I’m not great at putting together these synergy combo-ish decks, but I think this is a good place to start and see what works and what doesn’t.

The main goal is to get Kona, Rescue Beastie into play, and then tap it immediately, either to crew Unidentified Hovership or to make a mana with Relic of Legends, and then put an Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Vaultborn Tyrant, or even Virtue of Persistence into play.

The rest of the deck plays like a normal legends deck, with Skrelv, Defector Mite and Melira, the Living Cure, to protect our Kona and Rona, Herald of Invasion to help find our payoffs and as a way to generate extra mana with Relic of Legends. Beza, the Bounding Spring and Get Lost help us survive against aggro decks long enough to get our big plays down.

Jeskai Room Control

This deck is looking to win with Promising Stairs, by getting a bunch of rooms into play, using them to slow the opponent down, and sweeping the board if necessary. Our rooms have various effects to help us survive. Roaring Furnace and Glassworks are spot removal, and Meat Locker can tap a creature down. Pyroclasm and Sunfall sweep our opponent’s board, and Smoky Lounge helps us cast our enchantments and unlock our rooms.

Inquisitive Glimmer discounts all of our rooms, as they are all enchantments, and discounts our unlock costs, helping get to eight rooms unlocked for our alternative win-con, and Ghostly Dancers unlocks a room for free when it enters, and makes us an army of 3/1 fliers to either take down the opponent, or stall until we have enough rooms to win with our alternate win condition.

The exact numbers of each room and which rooms to play are likely to change, and this deck may just end up being too slow and clunky in a format filled with aggro, but I wanted to at least give it a shot.

Selesnya Aura Aggro

No I didn’t misclick and import my draft deck, Toadstool Admirer and Tomakul Honor Guard earned a spot in this deck for one reason and one reason only: ward. We don’t have any cheap creatures with hexproof in Standard, such as Slippery Bogle or Gladecover Scout, so we have to make do with creatures that have ward to stack our auras on.

While it is always nerve racking to stack auras on a creature just to have it removed, we have some good cards that can help keep our creatures alive. Shardmage’s Rescue gives us a one shot of hexproof to negate a piece of spot removal, and Sheltered by Ghosts stacks up the ward cost even higher, making a card like Go for the Throat cost more like 5 or 6 depending on which creature we’ve stacked it on.

Ethereal Armor makes our creature huge, and Hunter’s Talent gives us removal and a way to grant trample to get our large attacker through. Audacity is our other way to grant trample and Virtue of Loyalty gives us an instant speed threat to then untap and stack our auras on, as well as a late game payoff. Lastly, we have Optimistic Scavenger, new from Duskmourn, to buff up itself or our other creature whenever our enchantments enter.

Rakdos Sacrifice

The goal of this deck is to get Popular Egotist or Funeral Room into play, and then start sacrificing our creatures until the opponent is dead. We have a lot of good creatures to sacrifice, Greedy Freebooter and Harried Spearguard can block early and give us something when they die, Undead Sprinter can be sacrificed over and over again, and Case of the Stashed Skeleton gives us a creature we want to sacrifice and then a Demonic Tutor when we have time.

Urabrask’s Forge gives us a token each turn that can attack and sacrifices at the end of turn, triggering all of our sacrifice effects. Our ways to sacrifice include Final Vengeance, which gives us a cheap removal spell, Disturbing Mirth, which draws us some cards, and Popular Egotist can activate to sacrifice something and protect itself.

Overall I like the look of this deck, although we may have to wait until we get Blood Artist in Foundations later this year to really put together a powerful sacrifice deck.

Simic Manifest

The theme for Simic in Duskmourn limited is manifest dread, but they care about any permanent entering face down or being turned face up, so we can also make use of cards from Murders at Karlov Manor to cloak cards, giving us a ton of ways to get face down cards into play.

All of our cards either make a face down creature or buff up our face down creatures, such as Growing Dread, Vannifar, Evolved Enigma, or Railway Brawler which can all put counters on our creatures. Hauntwoods Shrieker manifests dread when it attacks and can flip up our face down creatures for cheap.

Valgavoth’s Onslaught and Hide in Plain Sight both give us two creatures, and Cryptic Coat gives us a constant stream of 2/2s as long as we have the mana. Splash Portal can blink any of our face down creatures to return them face up, which can give us a nice discount on our more expensive creatures like Railway Brawler or Overlord of the Hauntwoods.

Esper Blink

Alright, this one is a bit sus but I really wanted to get Fear of Isolation and Nurturing Pixie into the same deck, but there wasn’t enough value in Azorius to make it worthwhile. So I’ve decided to just splash Fear of Isolation into Orzhov Blink. It might not be worth it, but it is worth trying.

Our new awesome blink/bounce targets are Toby, Beastie Befriender, to make big 4/4 tokens, and Nowhere to Run as targeted removal, as opposed to Tithing Blade that gives the opponent the choice.

Azorius Eerie

Built around the new Eerie mechanic, the goal of this deck is to get Gremlin Tamer into play, and then make a wide board and grind the opponent down. We have a lot of ways to draw cards between Entity Tracker, Enduring Innocence, and Caretaker’s Talent. All of them draw cards in different conditions, but it is likely that we will be able to make use of one of them to eventually get the others going.

Optimistic Survivor gives us a threat that grows throughout the game, and Inquisitive Glimmer helps us get our enchantments into play while triggering our Eerie effects itself.

Silent Hallcreeper is an enchantment creature to trigger our Eerie effects, but also can draw a card and then copy our Gremlin Tamer or Entity Tracker depending on what we have and what we need. Overlord of the Mistmoors gives us a late game threat that can be cast for its Impending cost early to give us some tokens to buy time. And Virtue of Loyalty gives us a threat early and a great enchantment later in the game.

Boros 2-Power Aggro

You: “Strickles I want a Convoke deck.” 

Me: “We have Convoke at home!” 

Boros 2-Power Aggro is probably just worse than Boros Convoke, but Arabella, Abandoned Doll is too sweet not to try. The goal of this deck is to get a bunch of small creatures into play and then burn our opponent out with Arabella.

The deck’s early game will play similar to Convoke, playing small creatures, deploying a Knight-Errant of Eos, or Sanguine Evangelist, etc. We do have some awesome new tools though. Enduring Innocence gives us some more card draw, and Splitskin Doll is likely to just draw a card on turn two thanks to our abundance of one drops. 

Our last new toy is Norin, Swift Survivalist, which is particularly sweet with Arabella, letting us attack with her, and then exile and recast her if she is blocked. Delney, Streetwise Lookout doubles up all of our triggers and helps us force through damage.

So this deck may just play worse than Convoke, but the best part about Standard is that you can try different strategies to find which ones play best, so I’m excited to give Arabella and friends a try.

Golgari Lands

I should start this deck with a confession: I misread Hedge Shredder when it was first spoiled, and I thought it put lands that were put into your graveyard from anywhere into play. It does not. It only puts lands that were put into your graveyard from your library into play. I thought that with Hedge Shredder in play you could sacrifice all of your lands to Pitiless Carnage and they would all come back.

With that embarrassing confession out of the way, I still think the deck has a lot of cool synergies and will be a blast to play. The goal is to get Iridescent Vinelasher into play and then get as many lands into play as possible to burn out the opponent. The deck has a slight delirium theme, with Patchwork Beastie helping us close out the game while milling one each turn, and Drag to the Roots is unimpressive at four mana, but is insane at two mana.

Our other synergy is Hedge Shredder and Cynical Loner. When we crew the vehicle with the loner, the loner’s survival trigger will search our library for a card to put into our graveyard. If we choose a land, it will go into play thanks to the shredder.

Nowhere to Run gets our enchantment count up for delirium purposes, and Aftermath Analyst and Lumra, Bellow of the Woods gives us a way to get all of our lands back after we sacrifice them to Pitiless Carnage.

Wrapping Up

I can’t wait to start playing with the new cards on Tuesday and give some of these decks a spin. Until then, check out my previous article about the best cards from Duskmourn for Standard if you want to do some brewing of your own. I’ll also be back on Monday to put a ribbon on Bloomburrow Standard as we look forward to Duskmourn’s release.

As always, best of luck in all of your matches and all of your brewing!