GOG Workshop - Duskmourn

Welcome to the latest iteration of the GOG workshop series. In this iteration, we will be looking at upgrades for the new Commander Precons from the upcoming Horror set, Duskmourn: House of Horrors.

These upgrades are curated as such that it is cheap for the new players to start with and at the same time, provide a good boost of performance to the decks.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Descriptions of the upgrades are listed below:

[Death Toll]

Objective: A classic Golgari-theme deck (Black-Green) where the graveyard matters and milling is the way. Its commander, Winter, Cynical Opportunist, is the epitome of a golgari commander. Mill more cards and recur them with Winter’s ability by just exiling cards with a total of 4 or more card types. Ideally, you would only want to exile 2-3 cards for it to work.

Upgrades:

Syr Konrad, The Grim
Old Rutstein
World Shaper
Shigeki, Jukai Visionary
Lilana, Death’s Majesty
Ripples Of Undead

The above cards all provide a form of recursive mill while also having additional benefits. Syr Konrad deals damage when a creature enters or leaves the graveyard. Old Rutstein provides a few different types of tokens whenever a card type is milled. World Shaper returns lands to play. Shigeki, Jukai Visionary is a mana sink to return cards from the graveyard to hand. All of liliana’s abilities interact with the graveyard either by milling or returning creatures into play. And Ripples Of Undead provides card selection.

Journey To Eternity // Atcal, Cave Of Eternity

This enchantment has the benefit of incentivizing you to block with your creatures as you can return the enchanted creature when it dies as well as it being a mana sink when you flip it into Atcal, Cave Of Eternity.

Undergrowth Stadium

These lands are just upgrades in terms of giving the appropriate colors as well as entering untap.

[Endless Punishment]

Objective: If tormenting your playgroup is what you want, this deck is just that. Instead of playing creatures to attack via combat, punish your opponents by making them lose life or sacrifice creatures when they draw cards or cast spells. Share the pain by playing cards that have table-wide effects.

Upgrades:

Chandra, Awakened Inferno
Underworld Dreams
Sulfuric Vortex

These 3 cards have a common theme. They deal damage without the opponent casting any spells. Chandra +1 ability gives opponents an emblem where they are dealt 1 damage on each upkeep. Underworld Dreams deals opponent damage whenever they draw cards and Sulfuric vortex deals damage on upkeep with the added bonus that prevents opponents from gaining life.

Painful Quandary

For each spell your opponent cast, they would need to value life or cards. Painful Quandary forces your opponent to make tough decisions, Prioritize life or number of cards in hand.

Goblin Bombardment
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin

Goblin bombardment and Ob Nixilis work in tandem. Sacrifice a creature and deal 1 Damage to an opponent, this action triggers Ob Nixilis which exiles the top card of your library and you could play it till the end of your next turn. This gives Rakdos decks (Red-Black) recurring cards advantage and selection. Ob Nixilis works together with Chandra as well.

Phyrexian Arena

Good Ol’ Phyrexian Arena. Simple and recursive card advantage at a cheap cost to the wallet as well as mana cost.

Arena Of Glory

New Card from the Modern Horizons 3 Set. This card gives creatures you control haste from mana generated from Arena Of Glory. Exerting the land (unable to untap on the next turn) is a small price to pay for giving creatures such as Tectonic Giant or Star Athlete haste.

[Miracle Worker]

Objective: Miracles. At first glance to newer players, the miracle mechanic falls flat as it feels like very luck based. However, what if you could manipulate the top of your deck. See into the future and sculpt the top of the deck to perform miracles and cast powerful enchantments at a reduced cost.

Upgrades:

Zur, Eternal Schemer
Zur The Enchanter

When speaking of enchantments, Zur is always one of the few creature cards that is an auto include. The ability to search for enchantments as well as turning them into creatures with Deathtouch, Lifelink and Hexproof. That is a lot of keywords for very little investment.

Grave Betrayal

As the deck does not have a high amount of creatures, Grave Betrayal lets you have your opponent creatures when they die. Its high mana value could be a downside but if you can use aminatou’s ability to miracle it, 3 mana is really not a big price to pay.

Search For Azcanta
Thassa, God Of The Sea
Aminatou, The Fateshifter

These cards help with filtering your draw as well as letting you see what cards you will be drawing. Don't like the card on top? Just put it into the graveyard with Search For Azcanta or put it at the bottom with Thassa, God Of The Sea. This won’t be a Aminatou deck without the first iteration of Aminatou. The fateshifter is a planeswalker with a relevant +1 ability that lets you set up Miracle cards as well as an ultimate ability that can introduce some form of chaos into the game.

Rivendell
Fetid Heath

These lands are just upgrades in terms of giving the appropriate colors as well as entering untap. Rivendell has the extra ability to scry so you can set up Miracle cards.

[Jump Scare!]

Objective: Morphs have come a long way. From sets such as Onslaught (2002) till Murders Of Karlov Manor (2024) where Cloak was introduced. And now a new type of Morph-type mechanic is introduced in the form of Manifest Dread. This mechanic is a play on the old Manifest mechanic first appearing in Fate Reforged and adding a card selection flavor to it.

Upgrades:

Oracle Of Mul Daya
Courser Of Kruphix
Garruk’s Horde

While playing lands from the top of the library is a good thing, Oracle and Courser in this deck has the added benefit of being cards selection mechanic whereby you can see what is the top card of the deck, making manifest decisions much easier. Garruk’s Horde also allows you to cast creatures off the top as well which helps you clear the top of the library as well.

Vesuvan Shapeshifter

Works together with creatures that have morph abilities or just big creatures in general. You can rebuy turn-face up effects such as Deathmist Raptor or Kheru Spellsnatcher.

Ugin, The Ineffable

Ugin’s ability doesn’t create manifest tokens but its passive abilities makes casting morph creatures cheaper and it provides small and incremental card advantage.

Entish Restoration
Splendid Reclamation

With the card selection from the Manifest dread ability, you could put lands into the graveyard then return it into play with splendid reclamation. Entish restoration is a way to get more than 2 lands to enter the battlefield on your opponents turn. You can turn up to 2 manifest creatures face up all for the cost of 3 mana and a land.