1, Oct, 24

Duskmourn Data Reveals Incredibly Underpowered Limited Color

Players have been able to draft Duskmourn on MTG Arena for roughly a week at this point, and we’re starting to see the Limited metagame take form. White and red have solidified themselves as elite colors to draft that also happen to pair well together. In fact, according to 17lands.com (a site that tracks MTG Arena user draft data), a Boros uncommon, Midnight Mayhem, has the second-highest win rate when maindecked of any card in the whole set!

That being said, the Duskmourn Draft environment still seems relatively balanced for the most part. Four out of the five colors have strong cards at every rarity that incentivize you to pivot when appropriate. Unfortunately, though, black is noticeably further behind the rest of the pack. It’s still quite early in the format, so there’s a chance this self-corrects a bit in the coming weeks. However, for now, black has proven to be noticeably weaker than the other colors by a significant margin.

Alarmingly Bad Win Rates for Mono-Black Cards

Final Vengeance
  • Mana Value: B
  • Rarity: Common
  • MTG Sets: Duskmourn
  • Card Text: As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature or enchantment. Exile target creature.

From the mythic rares down to the commons, even the best-performing black cards pale in comparison to their off-color counterparts. This gap is most astonishing at the common and uncommon level. According to 17lands.com, the black common with the highest win rate when maindecked is Final Vengeance at 54.2%.

This may not seem too bad at first glance, but this is downright atrocious when looking at the rest of the commons. This means that the best black common is only the 46th best common in Duskmourn! By contrast, the top-performing common, Glimmerlight, has a winning percentage of 57.9%.

Things don’t get any better when looking at the uncommons. The best-performing mono-black uncommon, Osseous Sticktwister, doesn’t even crack the top 50 uncommons. This is rather incredible, especially considering how strong Osseous Sticktwister looks when you read it. With this being the case, we need to look a little bit deeper to see what makes black such a poor primary color in Duskmourn Draft.

Read More: Incredible Duskmourn Demon Synergies Help Mono-Black Combo Deck Surge

The Weaknesses of Black

Disturbing Mirth
  • Mana Value: BR
  • Rarity: Uncommon
  • MTG Sets: Duskmourn
  • Card Text: When Disturbing Mirth enters, you may sacrifice another enchantment or creature. If you do, draw two cards. When you sacrifice Disturbing Mirth, manifest dread. (Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.)

One thing that really stands out when diving into the Duskmourn Draft data is just how bad the black creatures are in the set. Many of the worst-performing cards overall are black common creatures, such as Cackling Slasher, Balemurk Leech, and Fear of the Dark. While none of these cards are inherently awful by any stretch, they are all incredibly replaceable. There are virtually zero black common creatures that actively incentivize you to draft the color when open.

Furthermore, many of the black uncommon creatures that are powerful are very specific to one particular archetype. For instance, following Osseous Sticktwister, the next best-performing mono-black uncommon is Popular Egotist. This card is excellent in Rakdos as a way to fuel your sacrifice shenanigans. Elsewhere, though, the card becomes a lot worse.

Similarly, after Popular Egotist in the uncommon black creature department, we have Cynical Loner and Vile Mutilator. Both of these cards have immense potential, but only if you build around them. Cynical Loner is a mediocre card unless you have other synergies present, such as reanimation effects. Vile Mutilator is in the same boat. Seven mana is a lot to pay, but in Orzhov Reanimator exactly, the card can be one of the best in your deck.

These factors make it harder to get into black in the first place since you need a lot to go right to maximize the color. The good news is that this may open the door for players to get passed decent black cards later in the draft. There are a handful of very strong options in black. The key is finding support for them. Multi-color cards like Disturbing Mirth can be elite payoffs if you put the effort in. It’s worth monitoring how the draft format evolves and if black’s position begins to improve over time.

Read More: Duskmourn Unlocks Incredibly Flavorful New Infinite Gremlins Combo

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