Duskmourn (DSK) Limited Overview — Colorless, Lands, SPG

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

Duskmourn: House of Horror (DSK) prerelease events run on September 20, 2024, with the official release one week later on September 27, 2024. Want to know more about how individual cards rate in Limited, plus some pick advice? 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 if you are in the right colors
4.0: Worth a first pick
3.5: Strong enough, but not necessarily a first pick
3.0: Above average (you would really like it in your final deck)
2.5: Average level, 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 never play it; it will only help you lose)

Card Ratings

Colorless

Score: 2.5
Comment: A three-drop curve creature with acceptable stats that can fill the three-mana slot of any color pair, and when needed can deal triple damage relative to its stats.

Score: 2.0
Comment: It flexibly improves mana efficiency, but in essence it is an inefficient removal spell, and when necessary it can be used to enable delirium.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A 4/3 for four that manifests dread has middling stats, and in a mid-to-late game stalemate it can transfer power in the form of Equipment, which is the reason to consider putting it in your deck.

Score: 4.0
Comment: A 4/4 deathtouch lifelinker for five is very good stats in Limited, and deathtouch and lifelink are both relatively high-quality abilities in Limited. Also, pairing with the fact that its equip cost is sacrificing a creature gives it better positive synergy with delirium decks, so it can be considered for a first pick.

Score: 2.0
Comment: It can serve as a component to help delirium, or be seen as a card to fill out the early curve, contributing to deck consistency to some degree.

Score: 1.0
Comment: A creature that loses card advantage. Unless you have no choice, please do not put it in your deck.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Early on it stops the opponent from reaching delirium, and late it can become an evasive threat, a highly flexible utility card. Even if you do not main-deck it, it can serve as graveyard hate in the sideboard.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A very ordinary Equipment, but it can create an enchantment entering at low cost, and with its extremely low equip cost, it adds flexibility and synergy to your deck.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A five-color ramp tool that can also turn into a strong threat late in the game, suited for mid-to-slow decks.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Early it helps find lands and enable delirium, and paired with Rooms, it has a chance to reduce the cost of opening a Room. A card whose payoff depends on the deck.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Evasive damage in the mid-to-late game, but the cost is rather high, and even if it can stop delirium it will very likely be too late.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A card that badly needs other cards to work with it. Its highest ceiling is pairing with Kaito Kaito, Bane of Nightmaresto activate loyalty abilities.

Score: 2.0
Comment: An Equipment suited to the red-black color pair; if you have a way to make tokens, its payoff improves greatly.

Lands

Score: 3.0
Comment: One of the guarantees for producing both colors in a two-color deck. As long as you have one of the two basic land types, it can always produce the second color.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Being able to stand up as a creature in the mid-to-late game means the game’s tempo will gradually speed up, and stalemates will be easier to break.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Besides helping find the colors you need, sacrificing also helps delirium, and its value in this environment is higher than ever.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Free choice of color, entering tapped is the standard setting for this kind of land, and hexproof has limited use in Limited.

SPG

Score: 3.5
Comment: A powerful bomb for the enchantment theme. Casting an enchantment makes a token, and having seven or more enchantments on the battlefield also gives creatures flying and vigilance. With enough board expansion and evasive damage, it can create a huge advantage.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Life gain is a relatively advantageous ability in Limited, but Limited also pays great attention to creature stats, which limits its strength.

Score: 2.0
Comment: High power but high cost; its ceiling depends on the opponent’s board, a top-of-the-curve card with lower priority.

Score: 3.5
Comment: An extremely flexible clone that can copy the opponent’s bombs and your own quality creatures, and also fill the two-mana curve slot.

Score: 4.5
Comment: Sweepers have always been extremely strong in Limited, and black sweepers are even rarer. A weapon that lets you turn the game around or reset its tempo.

Score: 1.0
Comment: A very inefficient card, especially since you cannot pay its cost by sacrificing tokens, which makes it more likely to lose card advantage, so it is not well suited for Limited.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A card with a fairly high ceiling. Although Limited decks generally do not run more than 6 noncreature spells, this set has an enchantment theme, so it may still have room to shine.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In this set, enabling delirium is relatively easy in red, so its ceiling goes up even more, and it is a fairly efficient removal spell.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A card you need to build around. In Limited decks with mostly two- to three-mana creatures, it has an advantage to some degree.

Score: 2.0
Comment: At instant speed, for one mana or 2 life, put a card on top of the library. Highly flexible effect, but not part of a necessary deck composition.

Conclusion

This set’s main axes are none other than delirium and enchantments, and this phenomenon is easy to see in the colorless cards and SPG too: there are many cards that work with those two themes, and some ways to disrupt them. I believe that after reading this analysis everyone will feel more confident about this set’s Limited, especially since themes and card synergy are the more important concepts in this set. And very luckily, this set’s lands are very strong, giving deckbuilding more flexibility. Dear readers, why not take this chance to try multicolor decks and experience a richer Limited journey.