We’re close to the release of upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Duskmourn, and Commander previews have just finished up. If you’re itching to get your hands on one or more of the devilish precons coming out of this set, then you’re probably also spending some time thinking about how you could improve them.
Whichever Duskmourn deck you’ve plumped for, we’ve provided two top picks for improving your premade package. Some people like to bling out their Commander precon decks, whilst others just want a cheap, easy upgrade. With that in mind, for each deck we’ve picked out one card you can pick up on a budget and one more expensive inclusion.
Endless Punishment
Cheap Upgrade: Roiling Vortex
This is the card that prompted us to write this piece. Roiling Vortex seemed a shoe-in for the Endless Punishment precon. Endless Punishment wants you to deal damage to your opponents on each of their turns, and Roiling Vortex is a very cheap way to enable that, while also punishing strategies like cascade and providing a defense against lifegain decks.
But for whatever reason, perhaps because there are plenty of cards in the deck that can ensure you get your Valgavoth triggers – from Mogis, God of Slaughter to new creations like Persistent Constrictor – it was left out.
If you’ve got one in your collection you should definitely pop it in. It’s not expensive to pick up either – at least for now.
Expensive Upgrade: Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
Sure, Valgavoth is more about life loss than damage specifically, but there are lots of damaging cards in this group slug deck, and Solphim, Mayhem Dominus is going to make them all work so much harder. Playing this deck, you’re probably going to be the bad guy at the table, and Solphim will help you kill your opponents before they finish you, while also providing an indestructible blocker to fend off retribution.
Jump Scare
Cheap Upgrade: Threats Around Every Corner
Alongside Endless Punishment, Jump Scare is one of the more cohesive precons. It’s doing Simic stuff competently, drawing cards and ramping while also featuring plenty of scary big creatures to flip up and ruin your friends’ days. So rather than patching any holes, we’ve looked for really synergistic inclusions you could swap in.
Threats Around Every Corner from the main Duskmourn set is one of them. The ETB is pretty small fry, but what’s great about this card is how it interacts with Zimone. When a land comes in to trigger Zimone you manifest dread. At which point this enchantment fetches you a land and activates Zimone again, letting you flip up the creature. Basically, it ensures every single manifest card can be flipped instantly.
Expensive Upgrade: Ancient Greenwarden
Ancient Greenwarden does two things for this deck – it lets you play lands from your graveyard, bringing back cards like Evolving Wilds (or Fetchlands if you’re rolling in it) for numerous Zimone triggers.
Also, it doubles your landfall triggers. With Zimone that means your manifesting dread and flipping facedown cards twice each turn, but there’s also loads of other cards in Jump Scare that will benefit from this.
Miracle Worker
Cheap Upgrade: Starfield of Nyx
For a deck that’s all about playing big enchantments, the enchantment count in Miracle Worker is surprisingly low. Starfield of Nyx is one we’d definitely want to include in our version of this deck, as it’s an expensive enchantment card that’s great alongside other expensive enchantments.
Being able to pull your best cards out of your graveyard once your opponents have dealt with them is going to feel great, and in the best case scenario you’ll be able to turn your enchantments into an enormous board of creatures.
Expensive Upgrade: Omniscience
For our slightly pricier pick we’re choosing Omniscience, as the classic big enchantment card for the top-end of your deck. True, it’ll cost six mana even with Aminatou’s discount, but if you’re able to get it to stick on the board, you do pretty much win the game. Also it’s the perfect target for Starfield of Nyx.
Death Toll
Cheap Upgrade: Ripples of Undeath
A new card that’s really useful here for just making your deck function more smoothly, Ripples of Undeath mills you a little each turn, helping you get cards in your graveyard for Winter to exile or reanimate. There are too many one-off self-mill effects in this deck, and replacing one of them with this enchantment is a good choice.
Nothing feels worse than your self-mill hitting the one instant or sorcery that would’ve really saved your bacon, and it’s really nice that Ripples of Undeath lets you pay to pop one of those pig-preserving cards back into your hand.
Expensive Upgrade: Sheoldred, Whispering One
Of all the Commander precon decks released for Duskmourn, Death Toll is probably the one that could really use a little more focus. One of the things Winter really wants is a few more awesome cards to reanimate.
We chose Sheoldred, Whispering One as a good top-end pick to stick in there. Not only does it put pressure on your opponents, forcing them to keep sacrificing their own creatures, it also plays into the reanimate theme further, letting you bring more of your own stuff back into play.
For more Magic: The Gathering content covering the EDH format, check out our list of the best MTG commanders, and our cEDH tier list.
Source: Wargamer
