It’s not every day that Magic gets a brand-new card type, but Duskmourn has given it just that. Well, subtype technically, but it’s still a big deal. Rooms are two-sided enchantments that can be unlocked in any order. There are even plenty of fun synergies with the new Eerie mechanic.
Pretty much all of these cards are interesting in their own way, but as always some are better than others. If you want to see the best this new subtype has to offer, we’ve got you covered. These are all the best Rooms in MTG.
Dollmaker’s Shop/Porcelain Gallery
Starting off with an absolute doozy, Dollmaker’s Shop/Porcelain Gallery is a card I can see being a very real player in both Standard and Commander. As with most rooms, the order of play here is pretty clear. You drop Shop early and start racking up tokens, then turn on Gallery when the time is right to overwhelm your opponents. Attacking isn’t hard at all for an aggressive white deck, so this card can do a very passable Bitterblossom impression. Bitterblossom, however, never had a late-game win condition stapled to it.
It is worth noting that Gallery can become a liability if your board gets wiped since it prevents you from developing a single big threat afterward. In the kinds of go-wide decks that would enjoy a card like this, however, that should be a non-issue. With the prevalence of white token-based strategies in Standard right now, and how popular they always are in Commander, I think it’s very unlikely that this won’t find a home immediately.
Bottomless Pool/Locker Room
As the only sub-rare Room on our list, Bottomless Pool/Locker Room represents the best of the low-rarity Rooms of MTG Duskmourn. There’s a common pattern with the best Rooms, in that many of them work perfectly well as standalone spells on their cheaper sides. That’s definitely the case here, where you’re getting an Unsummon effect at the going rate on Bottomless Pool.
This makes the card a solid tempo tool in any blue deck, helping to get problem creatures off the board or recycle your own. Cards like these don’t always see competitive play, but they also typically pay for their high-tempo potential with negligible impact in the late game. Thanks to Locker Room, Bottomless Pool doesn’t do this.
Five mana is an awful lot to, at best, draw one extra card a turn. When you’re flooded out and struggling to round the corner you’ll be pleased to have the option, however. Blue is getting another nice Curiosity effect this set in Enduring Curiosity, so this Room can provide some nice redundancy in a deck looking to capitalize on that. As well as a way of clearing the way to get your damage in.
Funeral Room/Awakening Hall
The best of the black Rooms from MTG Duskmourn feels like a celebration of two distinct archetypes. On one hand, you have Funeral Room, which plays like a slightly worse version of Aristocrat staple Bastion of Remembrance. On the other, you have Awakening Hall, which is a much worse Rise of the Dark Realms. Surprisingly enough, Awakening Hall is actually still one of the better options for this kind of effect, even if it pales in comparison to Rise.
Despite having a ton of tools at the moment, including Bartolomé del Presidio and Braids, Arisen Nightmare, Aristocrats decks haven’t really taken off in current Standard. Will this Room push it over the edge? Quite possibly. It’s a very powerful effect, gaining you life to stay in the game as your expendable creatures die. This gives you a lot of extra time, which may let you get to eight mana and bring all of your sacrifice fodder back with Awakening Hall.
Standard play is far from guaranteed for this one, but in Commander, it’s an absolute slam-dunk. Both Aristocrats and Reanimator decks are going to want this yesterday, and possibly even all black decks in general. Flexibility is king in Commander, and this gives you lots of it with very little cost in terms of efficiency.
Spiked Corridor/Torture Pit
Each of the Duskmourn Commander decks has its own Rooms too, and the red one is a clear standout. This is mostly due to Torture Pit, which is a kind of effect you see a lot in Commander these days. Boosting all of your noncombat damage to players by two is huge in certain lists, particularly those reliant on Impact Tremors and Purphoros to wear down opponents over time. This plays particularly well in the new Endless Punishment Commander precon, which is all about the ping damage.
Torture Pit is the star attraction here for sure, but Spiked Corridor is no slouch either. Three 1/1s that ping for one when they die are probably worth around three to four mana, so you’re not paying much of a premium here. Naturally, these play very well with Torture Pit once it’s open, letting you aim three Lightning Bolts at your opponents if you so wish.
Despite its considerable cost on both sides, this looks like an excellent Room for aggressive deck in Commander. Like the black Room we just looked at it plays great in Aristocrats, and also in straightforward Burn/Ping decks too. It doesn’t look too exciting compared to other options, but I foresee this Room being one of the most-played in Commander when the dust settles.
Walk-In Closet/Forgotten Cellar
Picking the best green Room in Duskmourn wasn’t a particularly difficult task. When one half of a card is pretty much the Eternal staple Crucible of Worlds, it’s hard for anything to get in the way of its victory, even a bad second half. The second half of Walk-In Closet is far from bad, however. In fact, it’s a new version of Yawgmoth’s Will, another eternal staple. Put it all together, and you have a new green Commander staple for the rest of time.
Crucible of Worlds sees plenty of play as-is in multiple formats, and this is almost a strictly better version. Sure it needs green but it’s also an enchantment, which is harder to remove than an artifact. Anywhere Crucible sees play, this has a pretty good chance of seeing play instead for that reason.
As for the Forgotten Cellar side, it is admittedly a bit slow at five mana. That said, like most of the pricey Room sides, it’s more of a nice extra than anything else. One in 10 games you’ll unlock it and get some nice late-game value. The rest of the time, it’ll just sit there making your opponent sweat as you rake in value from the Closet side. Take a good look at this card because you’ll be seeing it in your Commander pods, and probably at your Standard tables, for many years to come.
Read More: The Best MTG Commanders From Duskmourn
