Last-Minute Duskmourn Leaks Reveal Multiple Commander Staples

It’s been a while since the fell specter of leaks reared its ugly head in Magic. After the absolute disaster that was Modern Horizons 3, in which pretty much the entire set was leaked early, Bloomburrow and Dusmourn have gone largely leak-free. I say largely because some of Bloomburrow’s Commander cards were leaked at the eleventh hour via Whatnot, and the same has happened now with Duskmourn. While all leaks are unfortunate, getting to see these powerful new Duskmourn Commander cards early is a major boon. Some of them look good enough to claim staple status in the format.

The Lord Of Pain

Mana Value: 3BR

Rarity: Mythic Rare

Stats: 5/5

Card Text: Menace. Your opponents can’t gain life. Whenever a player casts their first spell each turn, choose another target player. The Lord of Pain deals damage equal to that spell’s mana value to the chosen player.

Kicking things off we have a character many players are excited about. We’ve seen The Lord of Pain in the background of card art and mentioned in flavor text multiple times. He’s the head of Duskmourn’s terrifying Razorkin faction and a stand-in for Jigsaw from the Saw franchise in MTG. While it’s a shame that this key character won’t be making it into the main set, this Commander version certainly delivers on all fronts.

First of all, this is yet another Duskmourn card that turns off lifegain, joining Screaming Nemesis and Grievous Wound. This is a great line of text to have in a format like Commander, where constantly gaining life over time is a common strategy. It also pairs beautifully with The Lord of Pain’s second ability, which lets you burn your opponents when they cast spells.

This is a powerful ability, but it also has a lot of counterplay to it. Your opponents can play their cheap spells first to minimize the damage dealt. It’s also worth noting that it becomes a lot worse when you’re down to just one remaining opponent since you’ll have to target yourself. Thanks to this risk factor, The Lord of Pain feels like a flavorful and balanced Rakdos Commander.

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest

Mana Value: 3BG

Rarity: Mythic Rare

Stats: 5/5

Card Text: Menace, Reach. When Rendmaw, Creaking Nest enters and whenever you play a card with two or more card types, each player creates a tapped 2/2 black Bird creature token with Flying. The tokens are goaded for the rest of the game. (They attack each combat if able and attack a player other than you if able.)

From one legend to another, the next of our Duskmourn Commander leaks is Rendmaw. Unlike The Lord of Pain, this isn’t a character anyone was waiting for or excited about. That doesn’t mean it’s not an excellent card, however. Rendaw is actually very similar to The Lord of Pain in that it sets up scenarios where your opponents damage themselves, only with Bird tokens rather than direct burn in this case.

The condition on Rendmaw’s Bird-breeding ability is an interesting one. Outside of him entering play, you’ll only get more Birds if you play cards with two or more types. This makes artifact creatures, like Rendmaw’s fellow Scarecrows, much better than usual. It also works nicely with Kindred spells, of which there are a few coming in Duskmourn Commander.

There’s no pesky ‘once per turn’ clause on Rendmaw’s ability, so you can easily create a swarm of Birds at once with the right setup. They stay Goaded for the rest of the game, too, even if Rendmaw himself gets removed. This can quickly lead to chaotic board states and softened life totals. Since his ability benefits all players equally, Rendawm is also fairly unlikely to catch removal, until it’s too late to stop him.

Into The Pit

Mana Value: 2B

Rarity: Rare

Card Text: You may look at the top card of your library any time. You may cast spells from the top of your library by sacrificing a nonland permanent in addition to paying their other costs.

Moving on from legendary creatures, we have a very spicy enchantment that may well become legendary itself in the figurative sense. Into the Pit is essentially a black Future Sight for just three mana. Granted, it doesn’t let you play lands and it demands a sacrifice in order to cast anything from the top. But the essence is there. Future Sight and similar effects are staples in Commander, and this looks like it could go a similar way.

Every card you play with an effect like this is essentially a card drawn, and there’s no ‘once per turn’ here to prevent you from doing so multiple times in a row. You can even cast spells on your opponents’ turns with this, provided they’re instants or have Flash. The extra sacrifice cost is definitely a consideration, but it’s also comically easy to accommodate in most modern black decks. Food and Treasure tokens are everywhere, and both can be sacrificed to fuel this. You can also just use one of the many expendable creatures available in Commander.

In fact, in decks like Aristocrats, the sacrifice cost can actually be an upside. Getting extra death triggers while digging through your deck is ideal for Commanders like Judith and Korvold. It can also let you cycle value creatures such as Solemn Simulacrum in the likes of Karador, Ghost Chieftain. While it’s not perfect in either respect, Into the Pit is essentially a free sacrifice outlet and a card draw engine in one. Expect to see this in lots of black decks going forward.

Ursine Monstrosity

Mana Value: 2G

Rarity: Rare

Stats: 3/3

Card Text: Trample. At the beginning of combat on your turn, mill a card and choose an opponent at random. Ursine Monstrosity attacks that player this combat if able. Until end of turn, Ursine Monstrosity gains Indestructible and gets +1/+1 for each card type among cards in your graveyard.

The next of our Duskmourn Commander leaks highlights is Ursine Monstrosity. Like Rendmaw, this is a card that promotes aggression and chaos at the table, while sneakily leaving you free from responsibility. The Monstrosity needs to attack a player each turn, but that player is chosen at random, so the target can’t really bear a grudge, no matter how much damage this beast manages to deal.

That number could, in theory, be quite high. The maximum number of card types you can have in your graveyard at once is nine. This includes creature, land, instant, sorcery, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, battle, and kindred. If you somehow manage to stack all of these up, Ursine Monstrosity will be swinging in as a 12/12 Indestructible Trampler every turn. Not too shabby at all.

Of course, that’s a pretty unlikely scenario. In most cases, you’re looking at around 4-5 card types in the graveyard, or a 7/7-8/8 Monstrosity. That’s still more than good enough for three mana, mind you. It’s not a particularly subtle or nuanced card, but Monstrosity can get a lot of damage in early in the game without making you too many political enemies at the table.

Barbflare Gremlin

Mana Value: 3R

Rarity: Rare

Stats: 3/2

Card Text: First Strike, Haste. Whenever a player taps a land for mana, if Barbflare Gremlin is tapped, that player adds one mana of any type that land produced. Then that land deals 1 damage to that player.

Now this is a particularly interesting leak. Gavin Verhey’s Commander teasers for Duskmourn mentioned “a card that combines two Alpha enchantments together,” and this is that card. Turns out the enchantments in question are Mana Flare, which doubles the mana output of lands, and Manabarbs, which damages their owners when they tap them. This greatly boosts everyone’s mana, but adds a risk element thanks to the extra damage.

Interestingly, these effects aren’t static passives, but are instead tied to the status of Barbflare Gremlin itself. Only when the card is tapped do the effects come into play. This adds a ton of depth to the card, and prevents it from being a terrible turn four play. If the effects were static, then dropping this early only to give your opponents a turn each on eight plus mana would feel awful, even with the extra damage. As it stands, however, you can control the effect in a Howling Mine-esque fashion.

The easiest way to do this is to simply ignore the Gremlin’s Haste and wait a turn cycle before attacking with it. This will let you use the doubled mana before anyone else. If you’re feeling extra stingy, you can even use another effect to untap it and deny your opponents the advantage you just gained. Alternatively, you can go full chaos and just slam it in for damage right away, hoping your opponents will get carried away and destroy themselves. Either way, this is an incredibly fun and interesting card, and one that pairs perfectly with the new Valgavoth face Commander.