Best MTG Duskmourn Rares for Draft, Commander, and Standard

Wizards of the Coast has designed another stellar Magic: The Gathering Standard and Limited Draft set for 2024 in Duskmourn: House of Horrors.

Tapping into nostalgic and modern-day horror themes, the Duskmourn: House of Horrors set looks fantastic. Much like Bloomburrow, players are excited to play Limited Draft and Prerelease, although the gameplay is night and day when compared to the previous creature-type focused set. But the horror set does feature some new creature types, like Toys and Enduring Glimmers, and there are more than a few solid Rares to be excited about.

Rare Verge lands

Five Rare dual-color lands were added to Duskmourn that enter untapped and can tap for a second color if a land identifying either color is already in play. If the Verge is Blue and Black, for example, it will tap for Blue, but can only tap for Black if you control an Island or Swamp on the battlefield.

The Verge lands are great mana fixers and will speed up MTG formats like Standard and Limited. Only the allied colors were included in Duskmourn, and I’m predicting we’ll see the enemy color cycle sometime in 2025.

Balustrade Wurm

Spells that can’t be countered, like Balustrade Wurm, are one of my favorite types of MTG cards. At a cost of 3GG, you get a 5/5 creature with Trample and Haste, which is good value. Not being able to counter the creature is another bonus. And if you have Delirium activated, you can pay 2GG to return Balustrade Wurm to the battlefield from the graveyard with a finality counter on the Wurm.

Dissection Tools

Dissection Tools is an Equipment worth playing in Sacrifice-themed decks. Don’t less the mana cost of five Colorless mana scare you, because the Artifact is a sacrifice engine through the Equip cost. And the stats plus keywords will support a Sacrifice deck nicely through Deathtouch and Lifelink. Dissection Tools will perform well in Commander and Limited.

Dollmaker’s Shop//Porcelain Gallery

Token decks want at least one or two copies of Dollmaker’s Shop//Porcelain Gallery. The Enchantment Room creates tokens when you attack, which provides chump blockers on your opponent’s turn or helps the board state grow twice as fast. When you’re ready to swing with everything, unlock Porcelain Gallery.

Doomsday Excruciator

Doomsday Excruciator slots into Mono-Black decks as a finisher. The Demon costs six Black mana to cast, but is a 6/6 with Flying. Doomsday Excruciator also has an ETB trigger in that opponents must exile all but the bottom six cards on their library, essentially putting all players on a six-turn clock. And as a bonus, you get to draw an extra card at the start of your upkeep, while your opponents are on a six-turn clock (not including damage).

The cost of six Black pips could restrict the use of Doomsday Excruciator, but the Demon can get cheated out, whether through reanimation or even Manifest Dread in conjunction with Hauntwoods Shrieker.

Ghostly Dancers

Ghostly Dancers is a sneaky good card in Duskmourn. The five-drop’s stats are fine, especially with a big butt of toughness to prevent most attacks when on defense. The Spirit has Flying and can unlock a Room upon entering the battlefield, which is a big deal depending on Room synergies within a deck. Ghostly Dancers also creates a 3/1 Flying token spirit whenever a Room is unlocked or an Enchantment enters the battlefield, allowing you to defend with the Spirit while having your tokens apply pressure each turn.

Hedge Shredder

Go-wide and token creature decks can take full advantage of Hedge Shredder. The Vehicle only takes one to Crew and has the option to mill two cards when you attack for Delirium synergy. Lands tossed end up on the battlefield tapped.

Kona, Rescue Beastie

Cheating cards from hand to the battlefield is always powerful. Kona, Rescue Beastie is a great card for the Commander and Pioneer formats, using mechanics like Convoke to gain the most value from the Beast Survivor.

Overlord of the Balemurk

Overlord of the Balemurk is great because it mills four cards as early as turn two, which is stellar for graveyard shenanigan decks. As a creature it is fine. No keywords are a downside, but in Limited, the Avatar Horror might pull some weight as a finisher. Overlord of Balemurk pairs nicely with Walk-In Closet//Forgotten Cellar.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods

Another solid Overlord from the Duskmourn cycle is Overlord of the Hauntwoods. As a five-drop, the Avatar Horror has decent stats, although no keywords like Balemurk. You’ll more than likely cast Overlord of the Hauntwoods for its Impending cost, so you can mana fix and Ramp. The Avatar will do well in any multicolor decks across multiple MTG formats.

The Rollercrusher Ride

Dealing double damage if Delirium is activated is cool but The Rollercrusher Ride is more of a board wipe spell. The X in the casting cost applies to damage and the number of creatures you target, giving you the flexibility to wipe a board however you want while leaving behind a powerful Enchantment. The Rollercrusher Ride is a great answer to Aggro and go-wide decks in Standard.

The Wandering Rescuer

The Wandering Rescuer is a solid, well-designed Legendary MTG card. It’s a bomb in Limited with the Survivor mechanic. In Standard, the Legendary Samurai slots into Midrange builds, and The Wandering Rescuer should perform well in Pioneer and Commander through Convoke builds.

Unholy Annex//Ritual Chamber

Standing out as a Limited bomb is Unholy Annex//Ritual Chamber. With a few Demons in your deck, you’re likely to get at least one card draw of Unholy Annex and gain life. But even if you don’t control a Demon, you can still draw a card once per turn (losing two life points in the process). And five mana for a 6/6 Flying Demon is bonkers good in Draft. The Room may also see some Standard play.

Walk-In Closet//Forgotten Cellar

The best part of the Room is Walk-In Closet, which is essentially a Crucible of Worlds in Green. Forgotten Cellar is fine as a more expensive Yawgmoth’s Will, but I see players leaning into Walk-In Closet heavily within decks that utilize the graveyard and want to Ramp.

You can start testing and crafting MTG cards with the launch of Duskmourn: House of Horrors digitally on Sept. 24 and globally on Sept. 27. Prerelease events start on Sept. 20.