For all its faults, you can’t deny that WotC has really mastered the art of showmanship over the years. Duskmourn previews wrapped up yesterday, and rather than end on the usual common/uncommon dump, we got a couple of pretty excellent Mythics to cap things off. One was Overlord of the Balemurk, and the other was the MTG card we’ll be discussing today: Walk-In Closet/Forgotten Cellar. This is not only the best Room card from Duskmourn, but it may also be the best card from the set in general. The two effects it brings to the table really are that good.
Walk-In Closet/Forgotten Cellar MTG
- Walk-In Closet
- Mana Value: 2G
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: (You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.) You may play land cards from your graveyard.
- Forgotten Cellar
- Mana Value: 3GG
- Card Text: (You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.) When you unlock this door, you may cast spells from your graveyard this turn, and if a card would be put into your graveyard from anywhere this turn, exile it instead.
Walk-In Closet is almost identical to a card many of you will recognize: Crucible of Worlds This is a three-mana artifact with the same text as Closet, and it sees play way back into Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. The fact that you get the same effect for the same price on Closet is kind of ridiculous.
Sure it requires green mana rather than purely generic, which is a notable downside, but most of the decks that want an effect like this have access to green anyway. As evidenced by the existence and popularity of Ramunap Excavator, the same effect on a creature.
The other half of the card, Forgotten Cellar, also mirrors an iconic spell from Magic’s past. That card is Yawgmoth’s Will, and it’s even more notorious than Crucible. It’s a combo piece so powerful that it’s banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. The fact that it’s still legal in Commander is likely down to the high price tag keeping it out of reach for most.
The text on Cellar isn’t exactly the same as Will, mind you. It only lets you cast cards from your graveyard, not play them. This prevents you from playing lands, though that shouldn’t be an issue if you already have Closet open. It also costs five mana instead of three, which is a major leap, especially for a combo starter like this.
As a result, I don’t expect Cellar to end games nearly as often as Yawgmoth’s Will does. It doesn’t need to, however. Getting a fairly-costed Crucible of Worlds on the side is enough for this card to see play; the rest is pure gravy.
The King Of Commander
I don’t thunk it’s hyperbolic to say that Walk-In Closet/Forgotten Cellar will probably be the best new Duskmourn card for the MTG Commander format. There are a lot of strong contenders, to be sure, but none with the kind of guaranteed impact this card is likely to have. We know how strong each of its component parts are in isolation, and having multiple effects tends to multiply a card’s value and power by a lot.
Perhaps the best endorsement of this card is considering how well it would perform in a generic green deck. Not one that relies on land or graveyard synergies, just a basic green deck. Even here, you’d be able to get a lot of value out of the card. Recycling Fetch Lands is a solid use of Closet, while Cellar can provide a big value burst in the late game, given how much mana most green decks end up with in Commander.
Of course, the card gets a lot better when you do have land and graveyard synergies going on. Just having an extra copy or Crucible/Excavator in Landfall decks is huge for redundancy, which is key in singleton formats. There are plenty of ways to make infinite mana too, which can turn Cellar into an easy combo win condition in any kind of self-mill deck.
Walk-In Closet/Forgotten Cellar feels incredibly pushed, to the point where I honestly can’t see a reason for every green deck not to run it. Perhaps not if you’re running no self-mill or Fetch Lands at all, but even then it will likely do something for you. Like Yawgmoth’s Will, the main reason I foresee for people cutting this card in Commander is its inevitable high price tag.
Boundless Potential
Commander aside, I think Walk-In Closet/Forgotten Cellar could grow to encompass many other MTG formats as well. As discussed above, Crucible of Worlds sees play in all kinds of formats, and this is as close to a strict upgrade as we’re likely to get. Not only does it come with a whole second card stapled to it, but it’s also an enchantment. These are typically harder to remove than artifacts, which makes Closet more resilient in decks that really need the effect.
Whether it’s Tron in Modern, Lands in Legacy, or Prison Shops in Vintage, Crucible of Worlds has many a home. Prison Shops does actually care about Crucible being an artifact, so Closet may not be able to sub in there. But in the other two cases I see it being a no-brainer swap. Even if you never use the Cellar half, the opportunity cost of running it over Crucible is so low that you might as well.
Forgotten Cellar, as we’ve covered above, is really more of a fun bonus than a main draw here. Five mana is a lot even for a Yawgmoth’s Will effect, and were it printed alone I doubt it would see much play. For that reason, I don’t expect to see this Room in decks like Paradoxical Outcome in Vintage, which rely heavily on Will to win. Instead, I think it’s best to think of this as a Crucible of Worlds with upside, rather than a Yawgmoth’s Will with land synergy.
That said, the Cellar half is still very powerful, and not to be underestimated. That a card like this was printed at all really speaks to how far Magic has come in terms of pushing effects in 2024.
Read More: The Black Overlord Is The Perfect Embodiment Of MTG Duskmourn
