It’s been exactly two weeks since Duskmourn: House of Horrors released, bringing newfound terror to our tables. The Standard metagame is still settling down, but we’ve seen a lot of exciting developments already. Brand-new decks like Azorius Enchantments have taken the stage, while old ones like Domain Ramp have gained some powerful new toys. The same can be said, in a very literal sense, for Boros Convoke in Duskmourn Standard. Thanks to the terrifying haunted toys from the set, this classic brew may still have what it takes to face the format.
The Toys Are Back In Town
Boros Convoke received a number of great new tools in Duskmourn. Two of these, Clockwork Percussionist and Arabella, Abandoned Doll, come with the brand-new Toy creature type. Practically this doesn’t mean much, but the fact that they’re both artifacts certainly does.
Percussionist is an absolute slam-dunk card for the deck. Of all the new cards it’s testing right now, this is the one I believe has the best chance of sticking around. A one mana 1/1 with Haste is perfectly fine for the deck, coming down early, getting some chip damage in, then powering your Convoke plays later on. Where it really shines is alongside Gleeful Demolition, however. Percussionist is a cheap artifact to sacrifice and even Impulse draws you a card on death, mitigating the tempo loss.
Arabella is the other new Toy in the deck, and she’s as terrifying as her artwork suggests. Boros Convoke is all about small creatures, and with a full board of those Arabella can dish out a huge life swing every turn. Those other creatures don’t even need to be attacking, so you can Convoke with them instead if you’d rather.
Speaking of Convoke, The Wandering Rescuer is perhaps the most obvious new addition to the deck from Duskmourn. While not a Toy like the other two, there’s still plenty of fun to be had with this one. This is a Convoke card that sits at the same spot as Knight-Errant of Eos, so you already know the deck can cast it. The Hexproof aspect isn’t super relevant here, but dropping a 3/4 with Double Strike as a surprise blocker certainly is. This is a great card against opposing Aggro decks, and a solid threat against slower ones too.
Better Than The Original?
These are some exciting new additions, but as with all good things they come at a cost. The existing Boros Convoke deck was very well-established, so these Duskmourn newcomers, by necessity, push some of those old cards out. Are the trade-offs worth it? Let’s take a look.
To start, ex-staple Yotian Frontliner has been pretty much subbed out for Clockwork Percussionist. Both fill the ‘cheap artifact creature to fuel Gleeful Demolition’ role, but Percussionist just fills it a little bit better. Frontliner can sometimes get you a nice damage boost, but Impulse drawing a card is better in almost every situation. Haste doesn’t hurt either.
There’s a bit of a theme of ‘subbing out cards that buff power’ in general with this new version of the deck, actually. Both Case of the Gateway Express and Imodane’s Recruiter are out, making way for creatures that are better on their own. This is an interesting shift in direction for the deck, away from a dedicated go-wide strategy to something more balanced.
Is this shift paying off? So far, it certainly seems like it. Pretty much all of the Boros Convoke lists on MTGDecks recently have been running the new cards. They’ve been doing very well, too, posting positive winrates that look a lot better than those the ‘classic’ version of the deck was getting. It’s early days, of course, but this new ‘Toy Package’ could be a core part of Boros Convoke going forward.
Conquerors Of Convoke
Even with these hot new upgrades, Boros Convoke still has some fierce competition in Duskmourn Standard. The format has a lot of very powerful strategies, some of which are absolute nightmare matchups for the deck.
Gruul Prowess is probably at the top of that list. As a fellow Aggro deck, it can race Boros Convoke well, but it also has the combo potential offered by Leyline of Resonance to finish things quickly when needed. Even without that, the abundance of combat tricks allows for explosive Slickshot Show-Off plays that Boros Convoke can’t really respond to. The best solution to this is to add cheap removal like Lightning Strike.
As an aside to this, it’s worth noting that less board-dependent Aggro decks like Gruul Prowess can also sideboard in Pyroclasm, which is absolutely devastating against Boros Convoke. A lot of red decks in the format are doing so, actually, which makes it tricky for Convoke to compete. The new cards from Duskmourn actually play pretty well against Pyroclasm, however, so a possible sideboard plan is to sub in to the maximum copies of each, while ditching some of the more fragile stuff like Resolute Reinforcements.
Boros Convoke also has a tough time against value-driven lists like Orzhov Midrange. These decks can stabilize the board and heal up effectively with Beza and Sheoldred, and they have removal that can deal with your key threats like Arabella and The Wandering Rescuer. There’s not a ton you can do about these bad matchups, other than try to get lower to the ground and under their stabilizers. Bringing in more cheap creatures, for example, Frontliner alongside Percussionist, could be the play here.
