If you were a fan of the horror genre in 2024, there's a good chance you went nuts when preview season kicked off for Duskmourn: House of Horror. The set was a love letter to all things modern horror.

While Innistrad and its follow-up sets largely leaned into the classic gothic and cosmic horror genres, Duskmourn looked more towards the horror you might see in the 1980's. Slasher villains, killer clowns, demons, and more made the world a unique space that was fun enough that it didn't feel out of place.

The set was absolutely packed with powerful cards, particularly at the Mythic level. Today, I'm going to rank them all.

Let's head into Valgavoth's Lair and get started.

20. Hauntwoods Shrieker

When Duskmourn was coming out, Hauntwoods Shrieker had a ton of hype behind it. Three mana for a 3/3 is a fine rate and getting to Manifest Dread every turn when you attack is equally good. Being able to then turn it face up for very little mana? Just think about the huge threats you could put into play.

While this sort of card was really something the last time we saw true Manifest in the Fate Reforged era, it just doesn't work well here. Hauntwoods Shrieker is too vulnerable to the vast amounts of removal and other decks just let you do unfair things more effectively. It barely even has a home in Commander.

For what it's worth, it is a pretty big Limited bomb, but that couldn't help how overrated it ended up being.

19. The Rollercrusher Ride

In Limited, The Rollercrusher Ride is an absolute bomb. It's not difficult to blow up your opponent's entire board by casting it, thereby allowing you to go in for a lethal swing.

Everywhere else, though, there isn't much to rave about here. It's nice if you can pull off Delirium for a damage doubling effect, but we've come a long way since Furnace of Rath. These effects are readily available and often do way more for Commander, where this type of card usually shows up.

Not only that, but the other options don't require additional setup to turn on, making this feel like a much less desirable offering by comparison.

18. Charred Foyer // Warped Space

Similarly to how The Rollercrusher Ride offers a new take on damage doubling, Charred Foyer // Warped Space does the same thing for bottling/impulse drawing - an ability that lets you exile a card from your deck and play it your next turn.

Enchantments have offered players the ability to do this before. For example, Outpost Siege in Fate Reforged became a Commander staple thanks to this ability at the same cost of Charred Foyer. However, it also has some flexibility in the choice it offers.

This card goes all-in on bottling, expecting you to play Charred Foyer first and unlocking Warped Space later. Unfortunately, the space here isn't too novel.

Despite that, it offers some serious cost reduction later, provided you're willing to buy into it.

17. Niko, Light of Hope

Niko, Light of Hope is a neat card when it comes to Limited but doesn't do much elsewhere.

The problem here is only Niko cards make Shard tokens and there are two in the entire game. Their ability doesn't allow them to flicker themselves, and that leads to a card that too often won't do very much.

In Constructed, the card is too weak and too slow. If anything, you're more likely to sacrifice the Shards to draw cards. The rate just doesn't stack up well either.

The one saving grace for Niko is that they have a moderate amount of success as a Commander. The card sits around 250 on EDHREC's Commander rankings. Past that, Niko feels relatively underwhelming unless you go all-in on building a deck around them.

16. Mirror Room // Fractured Realm

Mirror Room // Fractured Realm is a really fun design. On the Mirror Room side, it's a cheap Clone effect, which can be great for doubling up on powerful abilities. Or you can just play the Fractured Realm and double up on triggered abilities.

Better still, this counts all abilities and not just "enters" effects like Panharmonicon and the like.

The real fun is in getting to play the Fractured Realm side first. If you can pull it off, you'll get twice the number of Mirror Room triggers when you unlock it. That's along with all the other triggers you'll double as well.

The real downfall for this card lies mostly in the fact that it's just too expensive to be reliable. However, it can be a real gamechanger if it's successful.

15. Meathook Massacre II

Wizards decided to really lean into the classic horror movie tropes with Duskmourn and Meathook Massacre II really shows that. Get it? Because it's the sequel to the ever popular card The Meathook Massacre .

The original is an extremely powerful board wipe where you're in control of how much you kill and you'll continue to reap the benefits later into the game. Meathook Massacre II gives you less control on what dies and what survives thanks to it being an edict effect. The cost is far more prohibitive and, although powerful, it can be halted easily if your opponents are willing to pay some life.

It's a fine card for Commander, and still a solid design, but as usual the sequel pales in comparison to the original.

14. Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery

Players love making tokens and Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery really offers that, but only if you have plenty of attackers.

The effect of the Dollmaker's Shop side is modest, but decent enough. It does some killer work in Limited and put in rare showings in Standard as well. After all, it's not hard to get a token turn after turn.

Despite this, it's a bit underwhelming until you can flip to Porcelain Gallery. If you still have a high number of Creatures by then, the effect will dominate whatever game you're playing.

13. Funeral Room // Awakening Hall

Players love a good Blood Artist style ability in games of Commander, and Funeral Room // Awakening Hall is excellent for that.

Enchantments are harder to kill than Creatures, which has made Bastion of Remembrance a beloved card. Sure, this doesn't give you the small token to go with it, but that's fine for the solid rate you're getting.

The best aspect is Awakening Hall. If you can fill up your graveyard with enough threats and get to eight mana, you'll be able to swarm the board for a devastating assault. It's not quite Rise of the Dark Realms, but it still gets the job done.

The only thing that holds it back a bit is that Blood Artist abilities have become a dime a dozen, which dampens its impact. Thankfully, they're always popular enough that there's sure to be a home for it somewhere.

12. The Wandering Rescuer

There was some very real hype behind The Wandering Rescuer given just how powerful The Wandering Emperor was. Similarly, you could Flash her in, save your board, and have a potent Double Striker after.

The issue here is that most decks can't fully utilize her. As a result, she ends up just being fine a lot of the time.

The Rescuer still had a memorable impact on Standard at the time alongside Boros Convoke/Tokens. Since March of the Machine rotated - and with it Knight-Errant of Eos - The Wandering Rescuer has languished in relative obscurity, aside from the most all-in Go-Wide Commander strategies.

11. Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar

Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar could be the best of the Mythic Rare Room cards for one reason: the Crucible of Worlds effect.

These abilities are extremely sought after among Commander players. While cards like this are more plentiful now, they're not released often; when we get one, it's sure to standout and this is no exception.

Oh, and if you can unlock the Forgotten Cellar side, you basically get a Yawgmoth's Will for the turn. That's really powerful for closing out a game and makes this easily the most potent of the bunch, even if none of them showed their faces in competitive circles.

10. Overlord of the Floodpits

One way or another, all five of the Mythic Rare Overlord cycle cards have been powerful Competitive players. However, some performed better than others.

Overlord of the Floodpits is definitely the least popular. For most formats, card draw is so ubiquitous that this Creature looks paltry by comparison. Still, it shows up a few places, including in the Enigmatic Overlords deck in Pioneer.

9. Overlord of the Boilerbilges

By comparison, Overlord of the Boilerbilges is far more of a staple in Enigmatic Overlords. This card often winds up being the game ending threat, tutored up with Enigmatic Incarnation.

Not only will you get a trigger when it enters, but you can then get another when it attacks the following turn. That's a brutal swing that can end games fast. That's even more true if you have an Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines on the board to grant you an extra trigger.

Past Enigmatic Overlords, this card has only seen fringe play in Constructed. Despite that, Overlord of the Boilerbilges remains impactful enough in both Commander and Cube all the same.

8. Tyvar, the Pummeler

Tyvar, the Pummeler is another card with some modest Competitive play but is a house in Commander. After all, who doesn't love a repeatable Overrun effect?

This kind of effect has made the likes of Kamahl, Fist of Krosa a Commander classic. It's also the reason that Ezuri, Renegade Leader was the de facto Commander for Mono-Green Elves lists for years. That's also considering that players famously love getting to use copies of Craterhoof Behemoth and Finale of Devastation in those same lists.

As a result, Tyvar, the Pummeler tends to fall prey to being "just another Overrun," but a very good one. It even had its run in Standard Green Ramp decks until players rediscovered Craterhoof Behemoth. Even then, it still shows up as a fringe option in Elves decks across various Competitive formats.

7. Valgavoth, Terror Eater

Players love having huge threats to cheat into play. Since Duskmourn, Valgavoth, Terror Eater has really become one of those threats.

Once in play, Valgavoth is incredibly difficult to take down thanks to a fat Ward cost. Even worse, he's a stat giant that can gain you nine life again and again. This gave Valgavoth some modest play in formats like Modern and Pioneer.

With cards like Indomitable Creativity and Transmogrify, this can be a snap. The place he has really shone, though, is Commander, where you have more life to cast spells with and his competition - namely Griselbrand - is banned.

6. Overlord of the Hauntwoods

People were immediately wowed when they first saw Overlord of the Hauntwoods in Duskmourn's first previews. Making a Land that counted as all Basic Land types seemed perfect, especially since Domain already existed. What's more, it didn't matter when you cast it, you'd have a winning option.

Ultimately, Overlord of the Hauntwoods was a key aspect of Domain as expected, however Domain left the format just a few months later with the release of Edge of Eternities. Since then, the card has seen very little play outside of Pioneer Enigmatic Overlords, though it's a natural fit for just about any Commander deck.

5. Overlord of the Mistmoors

By contrast, Overlord of the Mistmoors has continued to see a decent amount of play since its printing.

It gained its footing as a mainstay of Standard Domain and Pioneer Enigmatic Overlords decks. Unlike Overlord of the Hauntwoods, though, it went on to find homes in various Standard Control decks as a game ender.

Some Azorius Control lists run it, though these decks have plenty of options. Instead, you're most likely to see this card in a Mono-White Control brews, and Commander.

4. Abhorrent Oculus

When Abhorrent Oculus was first previewed, many players - myself included - were worried we were going to get fooled again. This design reeked of Skaab Ruinator, an infamously overhyped card from Innistrad that crashed and burned/ The similarities were immediately apparent.

Thankfully, Abhorrent Oculus is a much more worthwhile card to get onto the battlefield. Not just by doing it the correct way either. It creates a fast board presence that scales as the game goes on and it's a great card to cheat into play via reanimation or cards like Birthing Ritual.

The versatility in play has made the big eye a mainstay of numerous formats, including Standard, Pioneer, Modern, and even Legacy. It's been on a bit of a downturn as of late but make no mistake: Abhorrent Oculus is very much the real deal.

3. Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

A Planeswalker card with Ninjutsu? That sounds wild, but it's Kaito, Bane of Nightmares.

This card has proven to be a powerhouse during its tenure throughout Standard, helming variations of Dimir Midrange to great effect. While his potency has gone down in the wake of Izzet and Landfall decks taking over, he still shows up from time to time.

Kaito's impact hasn't just been on Standard, though. He's shown up in Pioneer, Modern, and even Legacy because he's so easy to sneak into play. These days he's showing up the most in Modern, albeit in somewhat lower tier decks like Dimir Midrange.

It's clear that this powerful card has some real staying power and isn't going anywhere.

2. Screaming Nemesis

Few cards in modern-day Magic have been quite as polarizing as Screaming Nemesis.

The one-two punch of this powerful Creature and Monstrous Rage, blocking was nearly impossible in Standard when staring down a Red Aggro deck. If you blocked it, you'd still take damage. Additionally, you'd lose your ability to gain any life for the rest of the game, making it impossible to stop the deck.

This play pattern led to a real damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for those going against it. It eventually proved so egregious and oppressive that Wizards banned it from Standard alongside Vivi Ornitier and Proft's Eidetic Memory.

Even though it's been banned there, it continues to tear up the Pioneer format to this day. Both Kaito and Abhorrent Oculus might have this one beat in multi-format play, but nothing beats the intense emotions that Screaming Nemesis has caused players since it was printed.

1. Overlord of the Balemurk

I waffled pretty heavily on where to put things towards the top of this list, but in the end, something had to win out. Ultimately, I picked Overlord of the Balemurk.

This card has played in nearly every format it's legal in. It's fueled various graveyard-based synergies in Standard and Pioneer, as well as being used in a bunch of different Modern decks. You haven't lived until you've seen this powerful Avatar bringing back a Solitude turn after turn with ease.

It's so good that it's even been seeing play in Legacy and - perhaps most of all - is arguably one of the best bombs you could hope for in both Commander and Cube. Nothing beats this multi-format all-star..

Conclusion

Duskmourn: House of Horrors is a wildly powerful set with some of the most impactful cards to hit Standard in recent years. Not only that, but many of the cards see play in a variety of other formats as well.

Just look at the top four of this list and you'll see what I mean. There's a strong argument that you could put any one of them in the number one spot. Each is a multi-format all-star that has seen tremendous amounts of play. I came up with this order based on my own observations, but you could easily make sound arguments to the contrary.

That really just goes to show how sweet of a set Duskmourn ultimately was. It has a lot to offer for players of just about every level, and it's well worth your time to check out everything it has on tap.

Paige Smith

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