Duskmourn (DSK) Limited Overview — Black

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Duskmourn: House of Horror (DSK) will hold its prerelease events on September 20, 2024, and officially release one week later on September 27, 2024. Want to learn more about individual card ratings and advice for Limited? Then check out this series of DSK Limited overviews!

• For the mechanics, see this article: Duskmourn Mechanics Breakdown
• For a first look at the Limited themes, see this article: Duskmourn Limited Preliminary Look

Rating Scale

5.0: Unconditional first pick
4.5: Unconditional first pick in the right archetype
4.0: Has first-pick value
3.5: Strong enough but not necessarily a first pick
3.0: Above average (you would very much like it in your final deck)
2.5: Average, maybe around the 6th or 7th pick in a draft
2.0-1.0: Below average (you would rather not play it than play this card)
0.5-0.0: Unplayable (basically do not play it; playing it only helps you lose)

Ratings

Rating: 2.5
Comment: A creature with flash, in Limited, as long as its stats are not too poor, works well for gaining tempo. In the key attacking and defending turns, you will need to hold up mana and tricks in hand to make favorable trades. If the opponent chooses not to attack, you can flash in this creature on the opponent’s turn to make up the tempo or join the defense, and make the opponent misjudge your damage when racing you. In addition, the surveil 1 effect is excellent in this set’s Golgari delirium theme.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: An Eerie payoff card; unfortunately it just drains one life without gaining any, which lowers its priority. It can be a mediocre two-drop in the blue-black and white-blue themes, but other decks will not consider it.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: What deathtouch can do is trade up, or kill every creature that gangs up in a block when attacking, but I think in Limited the situations where you trade away a creature and then play this to make it a 4/4 are few, and when behind you may not even want to see this in your hand. Incidentally, among 4-mana attack abilities, the best is flying, followed by menace, and only deathtouch lacks evasion, so I suggest taking this creature a bit later.

Rating: 3.5
Comment: The reanimated creature does not get haste, so be careful not to bluff the opponent! You can simply treat it as a sorcery-speed removal spell, with the benefit that you also gain its enter and leave-the-battlefield abilities, which makes it somewhat better than an ordinary removal card.

Rating: 2.5
Comment: A sorcery-speed look at four, choose one. At first glance the efficiency is not high, but it fills the graveyard and gains life at the same time. I think it is a very good choice in the slower white-black and black-green themes, especially in black-green, where you will really want to find your key delirium payoffs, and milling three can also achieve delirium in one go. Perhaps this card’s pick order will rise as the environment changes.

Rating: 2.5
Comment: The way to use it is, after seeing and taking a key card from the opponent, to keep one of the opponent’s creatures under control so that they are reluctant to attack. At that point you really want cards like Innocuous Rat on the ground to defend; both are commons, and I recommend taking them together.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: One of the few cards that explicitly fills the graveyard, it can be an excellent creature in white-black reanimator or black-green delirium. Although survival is hard to trigger, it will be a target the opponent needs to deal with first, or it will make the opponent’s creatures choose to stay back to block it.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: A very good creature among four-mana options; toughness 5 can hold off many ground creatures. When racing a flier deck, triggering lifelink raises your life total nicely. It is a good creature in white-black and blue-black, and even the slower black-green deck will want a copy.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: White-black and black-green, which care about pulling creatures or permanents from the graveyard, will really want it. Paying an extra four mana to unlock the Room gives an extra 2/2 each time you reanimate, which is very powerful once you have control of the board. If the environment is slow, the pressure this card puts on the opponent is immense.

Author’s additional comment:
Rating: 2.5
But I personally prefer to give up the pick slot for removal or a key reanimation creature rather than this card. When building a reanimator deck, the core idea is to use reanimation spells to find your biggest creature and turn the game around; usually once you successfully reanimate, the scales of victory tip to your side, and there is no need to add this card and increase your risk of being run over by aggro.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: The Demons this environment gives are all rather subtle, with no good Demon targets. The ideal use is to reach delirium and then search for your most explosive bomb, but this is a card you take when you happen to see it; do not give up a good UC card you should take just because you want to play it.

Rating: 2.5
Comment: The left side replenishes resources, and the deathtouch granted by the right side lets you keep attacking in a standoff; it is a card that more aggressive decks will want to include.

Rating: 1.0
Comment: Note that its enter-the-battlefield effect only triggers if it was cast, clearly intended to fit the white-black reanimator theme. If you happen to see it and have good reanimation cards, this Demon will be the key to your victory! At other times, do not pick it.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: This version has almost no life gain payoffs, which means this card can be seen as a vanilla 4/3; do not pick it too early just because it is a rare and has a cool ability. Its greatest value is that it is itself an enchantment creature, and after it dies it is still an enchantment, so it can trigger Eerie twice.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: The biggest pain point of this card is that you may accidentally help the opponent reach delirium, and for four mana its toughness is very poor, so it can barely defend against any creature. It contributes nothing on offense either, and from a graveyard-filling perspective it is very inefficient.

Rating: 1.0
Comment: In Limited, the reason most people do not want to pick one-mana creatures is that these creatures are too small to participate in attacking or defending.

Author’s additional comment:
Rating: 1.5
But I think this card’s value lies in being able to join in defending against creatures with 2 power or less, making it a good creature against aggro decks; in a slow deck that touches black, having it is not bad, and it is itself an enchantment creature that can trigger Eerie. You can bring in a few more from the sideboard against aggro.

Rating: 2.5
Comment: This is the top-end creature of the deck, and you will pick it fairly late in the draft. For five mana it has strong evasion, and is a good creature that serves both offense and defense.

Rating: 2.5
Comment: For sacrifice outlets look to Innocuous Rat, and if you picked Vengeful Possession it can also be used together. If you keep seeing these cards during the draft, consider whether to go into red-black sacrifice; it is a deck that becomes very strong once the archetype comes together.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: Once this card comes out, the game is like a countdown: if the opponent does not kill you quickly, they must prepare to face a large number of creatures crawling back. It performs very well in black-green, and you can pair it with the defensive creature Grasping Longneck to keep you alive until you have 8 mana.

Rating: 1.0
Comment: In the past, similar cards that granted indestructible plus lifelink scored very high. But this time it only gives +2/+2, and without indestructible it is much worse; if your deck needs life gain, you can consider including one.

Rating: 1.5
Comment: At first glance it looks powerful, but it is a card you only play when far ahead, and when far ahead, wouldn’t casting the common Fear of the Dark for five mana just win the game? When behind, seeing this will only make you regret picking it, or even putting it in the deck.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: The drawback is that its body is too poor against survival decks, making it easy for the opponent to attack and trigger their ability.

Author’s additional comment:
Rating: 3.0
But I think this card is an excellent creature on the defensive end that can block twice, which will be very annoying. After it dies, it manifests dread while filtering away cards you do not need. Also, there are not many usable creatures among black commons, so taking it early ensures you are not run over in the early game; if you take quite a few, you can also pick up common removal like Final Vengeance along the way when you see them.
This seemingly harmless little mouse has infinite possibilities after it dies!

Rating: 2.5
Comment: Menace is a good ability second only to flying, but considering that black in this set encourages slow decks, if it gave lifelink it would score higher; this card suits a faster deck type.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: Delirium is easier to achieve in black-green and red-green, so you can consider including one as a key to pulling ahead on resources, but just take it when you happen to see it and have no better removal or creature.

Rating: 1.0
Comment: You would never play it in the main deck, but since this environment has many decks that use the graveyard, there is a slim chance to bring it in from the sideboard, but you only pick the Leyline when there is nothing else left to pick. Imagine your opponent picks a deck that reanimates big Demons, and you open with the black Leyline on the battlefield?

Rating: 3.0
Comment: In the past, five-mana removal in Limited was too slow and therefore terrible, but considering that this set slows the game down, and this card combines reanimation with straightforward removal, its pick priority may rise as the environment changes.

Rating: 3.5
Comment: Slamming this down when ahead or even on the board, if the opponent has no enchantment removal, is equivalent to winning outright, and you can choose to just hard cast it for four mana. Although its strength is lower than The Meathook Massacre 1.0, it is still quite excellent in Limited. I personally would not want to first-pick it; it is a card you take along the way if you already have many quality black removal spells and happen to see it. Four black mana will require changing your mana base for this card, which means your other black cards need to be very powerful.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: A good target for white-black reanimator, it comes with evasion while handling some small creatures, and is also quite excellent as a top-end creature for decks that touch black. When you have not seen removal, it is a good creature worth picking early.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: In a slower environment, three-mana straightforward removal can handle most threats. Also, this removal’s pick order falls after excellent 2-3 mana creatures and before ordinary other creatures. Simply put, when you pick this kind of removal, do not overlook other quality 2-3 mana creatures.

Rating: 3.5
Comment: It is itself an enchantment, so while clearing the board it can also trigger Eerie, with excellent tempo and functionality, making it quality removal for picks 1-3. In addition, against white decks, it can render the opponent’s Shardmage’s Rescue completely useless.

Rating: 3.5
Comment: A very strong two-mana curve play. Lifelink suits slow decks, and after delirium is triggered, hitting for 2 and gaining 2 each turn is very powerful; even sent to the graveyard it provides 2 card types. A good creature worth grabbing at picks 1-3.

Rating: 4.0
Comment: Two mana for milling without losing a card, which can speed up delirium or reanimation. In the midgame you can hard cast the 5/5 directly, first gaining a creature, and if the opponent cannot remove it you keep gaining resources. Note that against aggro decks you should try not to play it naked on turn 2, and instead tend to build a defensive formation first before gaining resources.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: A trigger plus payoff for red-black sacrifice; other decks that touch black will not want to use it. The payoff from sacrifice is only indestructible for itself, which is actually not very good, and killing the opponent in Limited by constantly draining one life is also quite difficult; if you can pick up several at the same time it may be very powerful.

Rating: 2.0
Comment: A 4-power creature is only wanted by aggressive decks, and considering that this time black mostly encourages slow themes, I do not like this card much. After delirium it can only crawl back once, and it cannot be a stable ingredient for red-black sacrifice.

Rating: 2.5
Comment: This kind of landcycling is a jack-of-all-trades in Limited, never too bad, and with white-black reanimator it can reach a very high ceiling. If hard cast late, a 6/5 with ward lacks evasion, and the opponent can offset the ward’s drawback by discarding excess lands, making it slightly worse than the cycling cards of other colors.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: A very powerful enchantment. In the blue-black theme, you can use it to trigger Eerie and build offensive tempo, and sometimes you can also attach it to your own creature to deal with the opponent’s only big creature on the battlefield.

Rating: 4.0
Comment: Using the right side first, the 5-mana 6/6 flying Demon, has a chance to crush the opponent outright; when the game is even, using the left side can win through the extra resources.

Rating: 4.5
Comment: The king of racing creatures: the opponent cannot afford not to block you, but after blocking it crawls back over time. Note that in a mature draft environment, you will not play this card on time on turn 3; you will definitely wait until both sides have traded resources, and then use this card to crush the opponent. Deathtouch is a good ability for both offense and defense. If you are facing it, remember to hold up Scorching Dragonfire waiting for it.

Rating: 3.5
Comment: Clearly intended to go with the reanimation theme; once you reanimate it a single time you can declare victory. Black has plenty of removal and life gain, so it is not impossible to drag the game to the very late game and actually hard cast it.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: Its pick priority is higher in white-black and black-green, and in particular you can use the black-green self-mill approach to directly reanimate many big green creatures and take over the game.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: Although it is an uncommon, it has strong evasion. There is a saying: when playing reanimator, first find your reanimation target, then look for the means to reanimate. This card is the signal that you want to enter the reanimator approach.

Rating: 3.0
Comment: In the previous aggro environment, BLB, a similar card, Savor, took the crown as the common with the highest win rate! But considering that DSK will be a slightly slower environment, it may only perform well against archetypes like red-white and white-green, but it is still a good removal spell.

Rating: 3.5
Comment: Coming to the last black card, it directly gives black the ability to deal with enchantments! It means black is not helpless against Room decks. The side effect of losing two life is acceptable in most situations, and it is a good removal spell you can pick at picks 1-3!

Conclusion

In summary, the early creatures black gives this time are rather weak, with insufficient offense but plenty of defense. The highlight is a large number of quality removal spells, along with 5- and 6-mana UC late-game creatures that I think are second only to green. For this set’s themes, the defend-and-counterattack approach such as black-green and white-black will be very good: use removal and small creatures to survive the early game, then dominate the board with big creatures. In the blue-black archetype, black plays the role of clearing obstacles, providing a tempo advantage, using fliers and Eerie to get through the opponent. For red-black, strength depends on whether you get the core sacrifice cards, whether you have sacrifice outlets and sacrifice payoffs, so it is relatively difficult to build.

Looking at it from another angle, if you take many creatures but never see a single removal spell, you will lose the greatest advantage of choosing black.