“Telling me of times they have had.“
Duskmourn is a flavorful and super cool set, especially as we transition to fall! Duskmourn is a set that has a ton of super-powerful Pauper EDH commanders, and today, we are going to go through and rate them all from 1 to 10. There are quite a few viable commanders within the set. This is going to be a fun one! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
Table of Contents
White:
Rating for Fear of Abduction: 3/10:
Despite the rating, I really do think this is a very cool and flavorful card, sadly this card is just far too expensive for the format, and it doesn’t have that huge of an impact on the board and is certainly not worth it in the commander slot, it is essentially a Journey to Nowhere
on a six mana creature, Pauper EDH isn’t CEDH and by no means is the fastest or strongest format but this is just far too slow. Three points for that awesome art and super sweet flavor!
Rating for Glimmer Seeker 6/10:
I like this card a lot and think that with additional vehicles / convoke support, this card will be even better. When I tested and built this deck, I focused on vehicles and convoke to consistently trigger our commander and get a lot of card draws. I feel like this deck is very close but needs a few additional pieces to be super crazy. This card is quite strong because it provides quite a bit of card draw, which is something that mono-white have always struggled with. This is a deck I am going to revisit.
Rating for Lionheart Glimmer 7/10:
This commander is hard to remove and provides a pretty strong ability for a white-weenie strategy. Lionheart is a little expensive, but I like that you have time to build up a pretty decent board before you get them out, them being hard to remove is quite strong as well, although I will admit the effect is lessened because a lot of removal is cheap and the ward two really doesn’t matter into the late-game.
Rating for Moon-Blessed Cleric 3/10:
There are quite a bit of enchantment tutors within the format, like Heliod's Pilgrim
so that makes having Moon-Blessed Cleric as a commander just not really worth it; the effect already exists at common, so having that being the only thing your commander does is just not very efficient, being able to tutor cards like All That Glitters
is pretty awesome but since that effect is already prevalent within the format I personally would not run this as a commander.
Rating for Optimistic Scavenger 8/10:
I like this card a lot. There are a ton of great enchantments, and I built this deck as a white weenie enchantress hybrid, and the counters helped a ton. I’ve also been shopping a list that focuses on control enchantments and some pretty basic creatures. I think there are a ton of different paths for this card, and overall, I just think it’s plain cool. This is a very cool commander that deserves a high rating!
Rating for Orphan of the Wheat 9/10:
This card is a true slam-dunk, in my opinion; not only is it extremely strong, but it is a fun and flavorful card to play as well. Since it is a mono-white commander, it lends itself to being a strong white weenie/token deck with a ton of upside and additional damage from our commander; I’ve also seen some lists do a hybrid token/Voltron strategy that is super cool; this card is a home-run all around, I personally wish it was multicolor, but overall this is an awesome commander and a true highlight from the set.
Rating for Patched Plaything 4/10:
Patched Plaything is a pretty cool commander that fits perfectly into a +1/+1 counter-focused strategy; sadly, I rate this low because there are much better counters for that strategy within mono-white like Metastatic Evangel
, which I would much rather play, this card certainly isn’t bad as early-game double-strike can allow us to present a lot of damage but I don’t think this card is going to make a ton of waves within the format.
Rating for Savior of the Small 3/10:
Recursion is good, but I have rated Savior of the Small low because the testing games that I played with them were quite unremarkable. The recursion can be quite strong, but other than that, our commander doesn’t add much. Being tapped can be tough, as well, as we either have to convoke it or tap it. This commander just doesn’t make for that great of a deck, in my opinion.
Rating for Splitskin Doll 2/10:
This card is just bad as a commander and really doesn’t do much. The card draw is on enter, and all the blinks in the world don’t make this that good; this is not a very strong commander for the format.
Rating for Veteran Survivor 1/10:
This is another card that doesn’t really work. Our commander can be quite slow, and the payoff isn’t very strong. I’d love to see some example decklists for this one, but I find this card quite weak and just not worth playing.
BLUE:
Rating for Fear of Failed Tests 8/10:
I like this card a lot; when I tested it I played this deck I played a control shell and quite a few unblockables effects that allowed us to fully control the game and draw a ton of cards and deal some additional commander damage; I like this card a lot and while a little expensive think it works very well for a control shell like I did, or I could see this deck going to a Voltron deck with all of the unblockable in blue. I certainly am a sucker for commander damage and like this deck a lot!
Rating for Fear of Falling 4/10:
Fear of Falling is a pretty cool card, but one that doesn’t do all that much. I love the flavor of this card, but minus-ing the power on a creature only when it attacks does not do too much to further the overall game plan. Being able to guarantee damage can be nice since it takes away flying from that creature, but against a lot of decks, it won’t be very relevant.
Rating for Fear of Impostors 0/10:
I don’t really like this card as a commander; you don’t get an element of surprise as opponents know it’s coming, and the manifest dread isn’t that effective against most decks; in my opinion, this is a skip.
Rating for Fear of Isolation 7/10
Fear of Isolation is a very interesting card and the deck I built with him focused directly on bouncing permanents like crazy with a light proliferation package, there is so much unblockable and strong ETB’s within blue that this card is a true slam-dunk. Fear of Isolation is a strong creature with upside and perfect in a deck full of ETB’s.
Rating for Floodpits Drowner 1/10:
I like this card a lot and think its ability is very cool and unique, but having to shuffle away your commander is just pretty bad overall; I so wish you could just shuffle all of the creatures with stun counters, which would make for a very cool stun counter and proliferate focused deck, but sadly, this card just isn’t it, and I would not run this as a commander.
Rating for Ghostly Keybearer 0/10:
With only two legal rooms for mono-blue, this card just doesn’t work. Im not sure how many more rooms we will see but hopefully a lot more so this card gets better because I really like the design overall.
Rating for Paranormal Analyst 0/10:
Just like Ghostly Keybearer, this card has almost no support and is pretty unplayable.
Rating for Scrabbling Skullcrab 7/10:
While unlocking rooms isn’t much of an option, there are so many awesome enchantments and enchantment creatures, as well as a decent amount of mill spells. I love playing this as a mill deck and as a long-time lover of mill this deck is pretty fun. With support cards like Jace's Phantasm
and Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper allows us to mill and present a decent amount of damage while we likely cant mill out every opponent, we can deprive them of key resources while building up the creatures we have.
Rating for Unwilling Vessel 7/10:
Just like Skullcrab there isn’t many rooms to unlock, but this deck is super fun when built into an enchantment theme with a proliferate sub-theme, being able to proliferate the possession counter and make a huge creature can be an amazing way to close out games, I like this card a lot and feel like this is one of the most interesting commanders within the set.
Black:
Rating for Cynical Loner 5/10:
I feel like this card has some combo potential and a ton of cool lines, but I just am not totally sure about it; this card is cool, but I’m not sure it would be as effective as many other CPDH options. I’m not huge into CPDH, so for casual, this card is a resounding no for me.
Rating for Dashing Bloodsucker 8/10:
Mono-Black Aura Voltron is the direction I took with this deck and being able to gain a ton of life in the same colors as Gray Merchant of Asphodel
allows us to stay alive for a very long time and overall this card is just pretty strong, combine it with cards like Endless Scream
for a ton of extra damage and hit like a truck! I am a big fan of this card.
Rating for Miasma Demon 9/10:
My mono-black control dreams have been answered; I think this card is super sweet and a very strong piece of control; I envision this deck as being a control deck with madness and other benefits from our commanders discard while following a typical mono-black blow up the world gameplan and ending the game with big creatures like Rot-Tide Gargantua
I like this card and having a “board wipe” readily available is very strong.
Rating for Osseous Sticktwister 10/10:
The flavor, the effect, and everything else about this card are awesome. I love this card and the graveyard synergy it has; being able to get delirium is pretty easy. Forcing an opponent to sacrifice or discard and deal damage if they choose not to sacrifice is a great piece of removal and is super strong against Voltron decks, which are decks that focus on one creature; I like this card a lot and think it’s going to be very strong at casual tables.
Rating for Popular Egotist 9/10:
This card reminds me of Mayhem Devil
a lot but has a little more upside that makes it pretty strong, giving our commander indestructible very easily not only helps keep them on the board but furthers the overall gameplan; this is a straight-up aristocrats deck but I like it a lot!
Rating for Valgavoth’s Faithful 7/10:
This is a cool card that I think is pretty fun; being able to recur big things is also pretty fun; sticking your commander in this deck can be pretty tough because as soon as it drops, your opponents are going to want to take it out, black does these have protections but having to protect your commander forever every turn can be quite difficult. This deck is also very weak to graveyard hate, while not super prevalent in the format a Bojuka Bog
while you have good stuff in your graveyard can be quite devastating.
Rating for Vile Mutilator 5/10:
I like this card and think it’s pretty cool, but it gets a low rating from me because it is extremely mana and resource intensive and you really don’t get much since you don’t have access to a lot of ramp having to wait till turn seven or six can leave you in a really bad position for not that much payoff, this deck is not a great candidate for a commander in my opinion.
RED:
Rating for Diversion Specialist 8/10:
I like this deck a lot and feel like it works super well for a midrange deck focusing on a lot of creatures and some strong utility enchantments. Diversion Specialist is a little pricey at four mana but provides a very great ability that can help you have a ton of card advantage, which addresses one of mono-red’s biggest weaknesses.
Rating for Fear of Being Hunted 3/10:
This card is just not that great as a commander; they re quite aggressive and can take good creatures out of combat, but overall, I just think there are so many better options for an aggressive mono-red deck.
Rating for Fear of Burning Alive 8/10:
This is a great card and has so much mono-red support; I love using ping cards like Kessig Flamebreather
or Thermo-Alchemist
as great ways to deal damage and combine that well with the deck, Delirium is pretty easy to get in this deck as well. I like this card a lot, and while it’s certainly a casual deck, I think it will be pretty cool.
Another deck that is super good when you put Fling
in it! This deck is pretty cool, and I love throwing down a ton of strong enchantments and buffing your commander and flinging them around; this card is really cool and seems to be a lot of fun, I did some basic testing, and I found this deck to be quite strong. I am excited about this one and think it can be brewed in many different ways.
Rating for Irreverent Gremlin 8/10:
I like this card and think its pretty strong and a strong general for a very aggressive deck that wants to do nothing but turn creatures sideways. Being able to have consistent draw and discard allows the deck to take advantage of some of the strong madness cards in red giving it an extra leg up over traditional mono-red decks.
Rating for Norin, Swift Survivalist 10/10:
This card is really well designed and is so cool and different; this deck loves to abuse ETB’s and go crazy with cards like Manic Vandal
or even token producers like Goblin Instigator
work super well with Norin, this deck is super cool, and something new and different for mono-red is always welcome, i really like the idea of just jamming the best ETB creatures at common in this deck and going hard!
Rating for Piggy Bank 1/10:
If this was common, it could be a strong support piece for mono-red decks, but as a commander, this card is just straight-up bad. I love the design and art of the card, but this card is just not a commander.
Rating for Razorkin Hordecaller 4/10:
This card is pretty aggressive, which is on-par for mono-red, but it gets a low rating from me mostly because its quite expensive; a lot of the aggressive decks are quite close to killing opponents by turn five or six, and in this deck, we will just be playing out our commander, This card is just far too slow.
GREEN:
Rating for Altanak, the Thrice-Called 9/10:
While I have criticized a lot of commanders on this list for high cost, I won’t criticize this one mostly because we are in mono-green, and ramp is plentiful; while we don’t really have any use out of their second ability, there is nothing wrong with a 9/9 and some card draw, in my testing games with ramp I was able to cast my commander on turn four which is quite hard for our opponents to deal with. I personally played this list as a stompy deck and found it to be quite overwhelming, and we were dealing a crazy amount of damage.
Rating for Defiant Survivor 10/10:
I’m a huge fan of this card; there are a ton of ways to tap our commander for our benefit, and being able to manifest dread allows us to cycle through our deck quickly and find the best of the best for the situation. I also really like packing this deck full of deathtouch creatures for the surprising flip in combat. This card is a cool design and is a cool build for the format.
Rating for Fear of Exposure 8/10:
Since spoiler season, I thought this commander would be perfect for a stompy deck as they are quite aggressive and since we have so many mana dorks, we can easily drop this early, and having a 5/4 with trample at the early-stage of the game can be very strong and put a lot of pressure on our opponents, I’m also a fan of buffs like Larger Than Life
and in testing commander damage was a very real possibility in a lot of my games and I pulled it off quite a few times.
Rating for House Cartographer 4/10:
Im not a very big fan of this card; I don’t think there are enough super valuable non-basics to make this deck a real possibility, it can be good for ramp, but then it is just another mono-green deck, this one is more personal preference as I think this is a decent source of ramp but I think there are better commander options.
Rating for Insidious Fungus 3/10:
This is another card that just isn’t very strong as a commander; green doesn’t have a ton of artifact enchantment removal but still has enough and doesn’t justify having this card be our commander; I just don’t think having this in the command zone is worth it.
Rating for Obsessive Skinner 6/10:
I think this commander is pretty good; I by no means think it is better than commanders like Raucous Entertainer
, but it is a cool option. Delirium can be a little harder to get in green because there aren’t a ton of ways to discard or sacrifice, but it certainly is possible. I am not a huge fan of this card, but it’s serviceable and would be perfectly fine as a commander.
Rating for Overgrown Zealot 2/10:
There isn’t a lot of ways to get cards face-down so having a commander that directly focuses on that doesn’t lend itself very well, I don’t think this card is very strong.
Rating for Patchwork Beastie 6/10:
Since this card has a built-in mill, Delirium is pretty easy to get. I liked this deck as a Voltron shell and spent the turns while I waited for Delirium as free turns to ramp and buff up the beast until we had Delirium and were ready to attack; this card isn’t the strongest Voltron option, but it is an interesting take on the archetype.
Rating for Rootwise Survivor 10/10:
As discussed previously green has a ton of different ways to tap down our creature and buffing up lands and swinging hard is just a ton of fun. This commander is weird and wacky and I am here for it! I didn’t go too crazy on non-basics within this deck and opt-ed to buff up forests and send the might of mono-green at my opponetns. Let’s be real. This card is not as good as some of the other land-based commanders, but it is a cool piece of fun.
Rating for Wickerfolk Thresher 3/10:
While this card can be a great piece of ramp, it is a little pricey and needs Delierum, which can be a little tough to get going without dedicating a ton of cards and mill effects to get it and gain a ton of advantage; in testing this deck, I found that by the time I was routinely able to use my commander, I already had quite a bit of mana at my disposal, weakening their effect.
Multicolor:
Rating for Arabella, Abandoned Doll 10/10:
Wow! This card is a powerhouse. The drain and gain given by Arabella rivals that of even Gray Merchant of Asphodel; this card is crazy strong and can deal a shocking amount of damage to our opponents. The damage from Arabella also hits all of our opponents allowing us to whittle everyone down and put them all in a bad position.
Rating for Broodspinner 7/10:
I like this card a lot; I mean, how could you not look at that art! Goofy spiders aside this card is a pretty cool design I built it as a Golgari Aristocrats list focusing on sacrifice which works very well with our commander and can allow us to put a ton of creatures onto the board, this card is cool, a little weird and janky but still very cool.
Rating for Fear of Infinity 2/10:
I have mixed feelings about this card. The return from graveyard ability really doesn’t matter, and the flying and lifelink is nice, but there are a lot better options for Voltron within Dimir, and I don’t think this is a great option. I’ve seen some control lists with this as a finisher with some buffs, but overall, I’m just not sure I like this one that much.
Rating for Gremlin Tamer 8/10:
Huge reminder that this is a casual deck! I like this deck a lot, truthfully I don’t think its the best option for an enchantress-style deck, but I do think it is a lot of fun, and there are quite a few big buffs within Azorius with cards like Silverflame Ritual
and Inspiring Roar
there’s also a ton of awesome enchantments which can make additional tokens and give us great benefits like unblockable and we have access to strong defensive enchantments like Minimus Containment
.
Rating for Inquisitive Glimmer 3/10:
There are not many rooms, and because of that, this doesn’t do much more than discount your enchantments. I don’t think this card will see a lot of play within the format. There are a ton of better options, and I just don’t think this card does enough to justify it being your commander. The art goes crazy, though!
Rating for Intruding Soulrager 0/10:
There are only four legal rooms in Izzet, so I’ll leave it there.
Rating for Oblivious Bookworm 2/10:
I dont like this card a lot, Simic certainly doesn’t need any more card draw, and since there isn’t a ton of manifest dread or overall morph support, this card just doesn’t do much, it being in Simic arguably makes it worse since there are a ton of awesome options as commander in that color combination.
Rating for Sawblade Skinripper 8/10:
I think this card is pretty cool, and in my testing games not only were they a strong source of damage they also got huge pretty quickly and were a great attacker, there’s many different ways to approach this build, and I focused more on commander damage and sacrificing tokens and smaller creatures, I think is decently strong no matter what way you build it. It does have tough competition with cards like Mayhem Devil, but I think it’s a cool and strong option.
Rating for Shrewd Storyteller 6/10:
I like Shrewd Storyteller and think it a cool card, and it is pretty easy to tap and get its buff. I just don’t think it does that much, especially with cards like Conclave Mentor
in Selesnya as well.
Rating for Shroudstomper 4/10:
Don’t let the four rating get you down, I really do love everything about this card with the exception of the mana-cost its just far too slow for an Orzhov deck to reliably cast early and for it to have a huge effect if it was just a couple mana cheaper it would be so much better and certainly a candidate for one of my favorites in the set.
Rating for Skullsnap Nuisance 1/10:
Consistently surveilling just doesn’t do that much; this commander just kind of does nothing, Dimir already has a ton of awesome discard, card draw and graveyard interactions so this commander adds almost nothing.
Rating for Wildfire Wickerfolk 9/10:
I think this card is just quite strong and efficient whether you have Delirium or not. This card is pretty good; this card is quite strong in combat and can be great in either a stompy strategy or Voltron; I like this card a lot. I have been testing a ton of games with it and they have been growing pretty well, I have been pretty all in on the Delirium and found it was quite strong.
Colorless:
Rating for Attack-in-the-Box 2/10:
Colorless is extremely hard to play since you don’t have access to most of the base effects and things within the game; it’s pretty bare bones, and giving a creature +4/+0 and having to get rid of our three-mana commander is just not efficient or strong. I think this card is pretty bad.
Rating for Suspicious Bookcase 4/10:
I like this card a lot, but I just don’t think it’s very good; there is a ton of mana needed to get this going, and even so, unblockable really doesn’t change that much.
Conclusion:
Thanks for reading to the end! I hope you enjoyed the list. A ton of time and testing went into this, and it was so much fun toolboxing and playing around with all of the commadners! Who is your favorite commander from Duskmourn? Stay tuned as this weekend, we will have a Duskmourn common review upcoming!