Hey all. Strickles here with another deck guide, this time a new Standard deck featuring Duskmourn: House of Horror cards. I wrote about this deck in my 15 New Standard Decks article, but have since had a chance to play a decent number of matches and tune the list a bit.

But first, a history lesson: This deck is titled Bogles in honor of the card Slippery Bogle and the Modern deck that was built around it. The goal of that deck was to play Slippery Bogle or Gladecover Scout on turn 1, and then pile a ton of good auras on it and kill the opponent in two or three big swings. 

Thanks to Hexproof, most decks had no way to remove the big creature, as even sweepers could be negated thanks to totem armor on some of their auras like Hyena Umbra and even Liliana of the Veil could be beaten by fetching out Dryad Arbor. 

(I had a Bogles player in my local meta back then and started sideboarding in Crackling Doom in my Domain Zoo deck, but that is a story for another time.)

This deck does not have any cheap hexproof creatures, but we do have plenty of creatures that feature the “fixed” hexproof: ward. While ward is not the same as hexproof, it can usually buy us enough time to create a lethal threat.

With that background out of the way, let’s dive in and breakdown the deck.

Key Cards and Game Plan

Creatures

Our creatures fall into two categories: those with Ward and those that buff. 

Toadstool Admirer and Armored Armadillo get us started as our Slippery Bogle stand-ins.

Toadstool Admirer has a whopping ward 2, making it very difficult for opponents to remove. Cut Down and Shock can’t take it out until turn 3, and by then we hopefully have buffed it to the point that those removal spells won’t work. Go for the Throat and the adventure of Virtue of Persistence can’t take it out until turn four, and by then we hopefully have another threat or protection.

Armored Armadillo only has ward 1, but its large toughness makes it great early against aggressive decks, and just one aura will take it out of Cut Down range. Armored Armadillo is also great in the late game if we have a lot of mana in play, activating to get quite large.

Our other Bogle is Tomakul Honor Guard. While it can feel a bit clunky to cast it on turn two and pass hoping to untap, ward 2 does a lot of work here as well. On the play they still can’t take it out with Cut Down or Shock, and on the draw it is safe from Go for the Throat.

Our other creatures distribute counters when enchantments enter, helping us spread out our power. Optimistic Scavenger comes down on turn one as a must answer threat, or can come down on turn two in combination with a one mana aura to buff up a bogle.

Calix, Guided by Fate also distributes counters whenever an enchantment enters, including himself, but also has an awesome ability that says whenever he or an enchanted creature deals damage to a player, we can copy an enchantment we control. This can lead to huge swings, were we copy one of our removal enchantments (more on that below) or copy an Ethereal Armor to buff up one of our other creatures.

These creatures form the base of our gameplan. You should mulligan if you have a hand with no creatures in it, as we really need to get on the board on turn one or two to be successful.

So, how are we buffing up our creatures? Let’s go over our auras and their role in the deck.

Auras

We have several great auras, most of them new from Duskmourn, that help us create large scary creatures to take down our opponents with.

Ethereal Armor is the best aura ever printed for this type of deck. One mana lets it come down early, and outside of pumping for each enchantment you control, it grants first strike, letting our creatures attack into opposing creatures like Preacher of the Schism and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse without fear of trading.

Audacity is great because not only does it give a nice buff to power, it gives trample. In many games the opponent is going to have several small creatures that they don’t mind chump blocking with, making trample critical if we are going to get through damage. It also replaces itself if our opponent does manage to remove our creature that it is attached to.

Shardmage’s Rescue gives us a way to protect our creature at instant speed, and does provide a nice small buff. It can feel awkward at times, when you want to use all of your mana in a turn to put as much power into play as possible and your last aura is Shardmage’s Rescue. Do you save it to counter a removal spell or use it to go all in? It won’t surprise you that the answer is “it depends.” 

When making that kind of decision think about the clock you are putting your opponent on. If playing it out shortens the clock by a turn, such as taking it from three turns to two turns, it could be worth it, as an extra turn could give them a chance to draw an answer. 

You should also try to get a read on if your opponent has had removal but hasn’t been able to pay for ward. Arena plays a lot different than paper Magic because your opponent will get priority if they have a spell and open mana. So if they have a stop with just two mana, it could be that they have a removal spell but can’t cast it because of the ward on your creature. In that case, you may want to consider holding onto your Shardmage's Rescue for the future.

Our last aura is Sheltered by Ghosts, which is just incredible in this deck. Not only is it removal, it gives a small buff to power and lifelink to help us race against aggressive decks. Oh, and a casual ward 2 on top of all of that. This is critical because ward stacks. So if you put this aura on a Toadstool Admirer, it will have two instances of ward 2, so, essentially ward 4. That is pretty much hexproof, as you should be able to end the game before an opponent has six mana to cast a Go for the Throat.

Our last card is not an aura, but is an enchantment that plays a key role in the deck. Hunter’s Talent gives us additional removal, letting one of our buffed up creatures deal damage equal to its power to an opposing creature. While that is great, the real reason I like the talent here is for its level 2.

For two mana we can level it up to level 2, and at level 2 we get to give one of our attacking creatures +1/+0 and trample until the end of turn. As I mentioned earlier, trample is so powerful in this deck. Having access to trample can be the difference between forcing through lethal or getting chump blocked until your opponent can find an answer or establish their own game plan.

Mana Base

Our mana base is pretty straight forward. I do think that Thran Portal is necessary, just because we have both white and green one drops. It also will count as a forest or plains when in play, making our Hushwood Verge into a dual land. Otherwise, we do play more plains than forests because Hushwood Verge is essentially a forest unless we have a typed land in play.

Sideboard

Our sideboard gives us a lot of great tools to combat our opponents. When we sideboard with this deck we usually only want to bring in one set of four cards, because our strategy is so synergy based, we can’t afford to remove too many of our main deck cards.

Elspeth’s Smite is a great tool against aggressive decks looking to play an early Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp, as its cheap mana cost lets us continue to deploy our own strategy while just leaving up one mana on turns two and three. I usually take out Hunter’s Talent against these decks, as we usually don’t have time to deploy it effectively.

Royal Treatment is our answer to decks playing a lot of removal. The cool part is that while it does give hexproof, it leaves behind a royal role token. This is an enchantment for the purposes of Ethereal Armor and our Optimistic Scavenger and Calix, Guided by Fate, triggering their abilities. It also gives our creature ward 1, which again stacks with other ward abilities, making it more difficult to remove.

This card is great against Dimir and Golgari Midrange, and I usually remove two copies of Hunter’s Talent and two Calix against them. Hunter’s Talent is just clunky a lot of the time and unnecessary, and Calix has no ward, making it very easy for them to remove it with their high number of removal spells.

Invasion of Gobakhan is a great tool against slower decks that we expect to have sweepers like Temporary Lockdown or Sunfall. Temporary Lockdown is by far the best answer against our deck, as it sweeps up everything except Calix, so if we expect the opponent to have it the invasion can buy us some time. 

In those scenarios we usually aren’t going to bother flipping it, but instead just use it to buy time and keep attacking them to get over the finish line. If you ever do flip it, it is quite good in this deck, as the flip side is an enchantment triggering our scavenger and Calix and buffing up our Ethereal Armor. And its ability to buff up our creatures that attacked makes it easier to close out games.

Against decks that are going to rely on sweepers, we don’t need Hunter’s Talent as there is usually nothing to fight. Sheltered by Ghosts is similarly not great, but it can remove a Temporary Lockdown that is already in play, or any blocker they might have.

Lastly, we have Rest in Peace, which is great graveyard hate and an enchantment. We will want it against any deck trying to mill themselves, like the Azorius Helping Hand decks.

One cheeky copy of Get Lost is our last card. I also bring that in when we are expecting our opponent to be on Temporary Lockdown, as it gives us an instant speed way to remove the enchantment and then untap and make a big swing.

Wrapping Up

This deck has been a blast so far, and it really was created by the addition of Duskmourn giving us a lot of tools to make it work. I always love when draft commons like Toadstool Admirer, Armored Armadillo, and Tomakul Honor Guard get a chance to shine, which is probably why I’ve taken such a liking to this deck.

I hope this deck guide was helpful. The deck is quite wildcard friendly outside of the mana base, so give it a try! Standard still has a lot of room to explore, but the best decks are either blisteringly fast or heavy on control. This deck is good at taking on other aggressive decks thanks to our creatures getting big and our good removal, and can still kill by turn four, making it good against controlling decks as well.

I’ll be back on Monday to review the first results of Duskmourn Standard, and back again next Friday with another deck guide. Until then, best of luck in all of your matches!