Last updated on September 20, 2024
Rain of Gore – Illustration by Fred Hooper
As far as EDH precons go, the Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander decks have struck it out of the park. Each precon has a fresh theme or a unique twist, and as a whole Duskmourn‘s Commander line-up is probably the best we've seen this year, and it’s causing some major price spikes.
Endless Punishment is arguably the best of the bunch and fully committed to its pain and punishment themes. Its face commander, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, rewards you for hurting others, while alternate commander Lord of Pain directly hates lifegain while punishing the table for casting spells.
The Commander precon also includes a reprint of one of the most popular lifegain-haters: Rampaging Ferocidon, thus far never seen since the original Ixalan outside of a Secret Lair or Special Guest slot.
This Rakdos group-slug deck is pushing lifegain-hate prices upward, with some rare lifegain-hate cards like Rain of Gore seeing a 100% price increase since last week, and a whopping 540% since before Duskmourn reveals started, according to MTGStocks. With a single printing in Dissension, Rain of Gore‘s scarcity is clearly part of the reason.
Source: MTGStocks
Leyline of Punishment, yet another “can't gain life” card with a single printing shows a very similar trend, nearly doubling its $2.80 price from a month ago to over $4 now.
Source: MTGStocks
Roiling Vortex, another popular lifegain-hating card with a lone printing in Zendikar Rising, has jumped more than 200% from around $1.30 a week ago to nearly $3 today.
Source: MTGStocks
Much Pain, No Lifegain
WotC heralded Duskmourn's painful focus three months ago with the reveal of Screaming Nemesis, a much better version of Stigma Lasher. Generating a pseudo-emblem effect that prevents lifegain for the rest of the game even if this red creature is removed, Screaming Nemesis is one of the most expensive cards in Duskmourn as we head into prereleases.
WotC's renewed interest in lifegain hate is not limited to Duskmourn, though. For all the fluffy cuteness in Bloomburrow, Sunspine Lynx brought the same “can't gain life” effect (on top of nonbasic land hate). This red elemental cat sees quite a bit of play as a sideboard card for Red Deck Wins and Gruul Aggro in Standard, and some inclusions in Modern Energy decks.
Soul Sisters season seems over.
Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:
Add Comment