Duskmourn Room SPIKES 421% Following Magic World Championship

Last updated on October 28, 2024

Ritual Chamber | Illustrated by Matteo Bassini no graph

Magic’s World Championship 30 in Las Vegas just wrapped up on October 27, but it is already affecting the price of some Standard cards. One notable card that has jumped in price recently is Unholy Annex, which went from around $3.90 to an average of $17 following this weekend’s tournament, according to MTGStocks.

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This over 400% price spike isn’t too much of a surprise, as championship winner Javier Domínguez used an entire playset of Unholy Annex in his winning Dimir Demons build.

This marked Domínguez’s second World Championship win. Players may recognize him as the face of Fervent Champion, a card modeled after Domínguez following his 2018 win.

While Domínguez may have been the most successful player using Unholy Annex, he was far from the only one. Márcio Carvalho also reached the top 8 and ran three copies of Unholy Annex in his Golgari Midrange build.

Ha Pham also reached Top 8 running Dimir Demons, and he also used a playset of Unholy Annex to help get him there.

In total, 18 players at Worlds were running either Dimir Demons or Golgari Midrange, according to Magic.gg. While these were far from the most popular builds – Gruul Prowess alone had 20 players running it – these decks will likely attract more players now that they represented three of the top 8 spots.

Why Run Unholy Annex?

Ponder | Illustration by Dan Scott

It’s no surprise why players are running Unholy Annex in these builds. This Duskmourn room enchantment offers players a lot of value. Three mana to draw a card at the end of each turn is very powerful, even if you’re losing some life to do it.

This card’s other room, Ritual Chamber, can also be a good way to get a flying creature on the board. With the popularity of Slickshot Show-Off in standard right now, that can be a big advantage. Unlocking the Ritual Chamber side of this card won’t just give you a powerful flier but will also negate any of the downside from Unholy Annex.

Both Top 8 decks running this card also paired it with Archfiend of the Dross. This turns Unholy Annex into a way to both draw cards and drain your opponent of life each turn. This, coupled with Archfiend of the Dross’ own life-draining ability, can be very punishing for opponents.

With so much in-game value packed into one card, it isn’t surprising to see the real-life value start to reflect that.