Duskmourn has now been on MTG Arena for roughly two weeks, and we’re starting to get a good sense for how the draft format is shaking out. From Reanimator to a Manifest theme, there are a lot of different styles of decks players can draft. While that aspect of the format is fun, the overall color imbalance is noteworthy.
Recently, we covered the massive gap between black’s overall performance and the rest of the colors. Black has proven to be significantly weaker based on the overall win rates of Duskmourn cards at large, especially the creatures themselves. While this is important to keep in mind while drafting, it isn’t the only intriguing development we’ve seen in the draft environment.
Looking deeper, white appears to be the strongest color by a pretty considerable margin. Many of the top cards in the entire set are white cards at lower rarities, which is very impressive. Let’s examine further what makes the color so smooth in the format.
Elite Uncommons
- Mana Value: 1W
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Enchant creature you control. When Sheltered by Ghosts enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until Sheltered by Ghosts leaves the battlefield. Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and has lifelink and ward 2.
The most striking thing that the 17lands.com (site that tracks MTG Arena user draft data over time) data highlights is just how strong a handful of white uncommons are. Of the 12 cards with the highest win rates when maindecked in Duskmourn, five of them are uncommons. Of these five uncommons, every single one is white.
At the top of these uncommons sits Midnight Mayhem. Believe it or not, Midnight Mayhem has the second-highest win rate when maindecked of any card in the set, just behind Overlord of the Mistmoors. Another Boros uncommon, Arabella, Abandoned Doll, lies within the top five cards in Duskmourn.
From there, Sheltered by Ghosts, Splitskin Doll, and Optimistic Scavenger all sit in the top 12. The fact that these cards are on par with other bombs like the Overlords or Valgavoth’s Onslaught is truly amazing and helps explain why white overall has overperformed in Duskmourn draft.
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Easy to Use
- Mana Value: 2B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 3/2
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: 1B, Sacrifice another creature or enchantment: Popular Egotist gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it. (Damage and effects that say “destroy” don’t destroy it.) Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
Notably, all five of these white cards are relatively easy to maximize, so long as you’re constructing your deck with an aggressive slant. This is a big deal in white’s favor. When we talked about some of the issues that made black more difficult to move into, one thing that stood out was that many of the strongest black commons and uncommons only fit very specific archetypes.
For example, Popular Egotist is quite strong but gets significantly worse when you’re not pairing it with cards like Disturbing Mirth in the Rakdos sacrifice deck.
Similarly, Vile Mutilator isn’t that impressive but has high upside if you can reanimate it with effects such as Rite of the Moth. This can make it harder to pivot into black in draft if you can’t find the right support cards.
On the flip side, part of what makes these white uncommons so good as they don’t have this issue. Sure, Optimistic Scavenger needs enchantments to be great. Fortunately, enchantments are bountiful in Duskmourn, and you don’t need to go out of your way to pick them super highly.
Even the two Boros cards, which are naturally more restrictive than two-color cards, are easier to utilize than you might expect. When comparing the top users on 17lands.com, the best performing archetype by a lot is actually mono-white with a splash. This deck boasts a whopping 66.7% win rate in the hands of the top players, which is 3.7% higher than any other strategy.
Of the straight two-color decks, Azorius and Boros sit at the top. Cards like Sheltered by Ghosts and Splitskin Doll are perfect inclusions in either color pair. This flexibility contributes to their excellence in Duskmourn Limited.
With this in mind, even if you don’t open up some insane bombs in your deck, there’s no need to get discouraged. Playing an assertive white deck with some of these great uncommons is undoubtedly a recipe for success.
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