Playing the Bad Cards

I've played a lot of Duskmourn Limited the past few weeks. I'm still fond of the set and enjoy the game play. However, there is a massive difference in the quality of the deck and opponent when you bounce around various online platforms.

When I play Best of Three, the drafts on MTG Arena are often softer, and I get tons of value in each draft. When I play Best of One, it seems to have become much tougher, and its baseline is more what I'd expect with a normal MTGO experience.

Then there's the Arena Opens. Arena Opens have a massive player pool, even in the first draft of day two. It's so large enough that it's not meaningfully different from how I described the Best of One pool. However, in the second draft, it's almost exclusively strong players who will not give an inch of value.

This is the type of situation we have to know how to play with "the bad cards," which is a term for cards below the line you'd normally expect to make your deck. In a format like Duskmourn, the bad cards aren't even all that bad compared to prior formats.

Balemurk Leech is a bad card, but it's not the end of the world if you play it when you need a two-drop.

Let's look at some more interesting bad cards from Duskmourn and when and why you'd play them.

Unwanted Remake

This is probably the worst of the bunch I'm about to discuss, and my short answer to playing it is "almost never," but there are fringe cases.

I'd want to play Unwanted Remake in a situation where I'm light on removal and my opponent has a powerful creature that needs to be answered.

Duskmourn is a fast format and giving opponents free material on board isn't great. That said, you can seriously diminish the size of opponents' creatures with Unwanted Remake, but it's not enough to put into your deck.

However, let's say your opponent's deck is lackluster and mopey, but it has five or six Say Its Name and a copy of Altanak, Thrice Called. At this point, you will want Unwanted Remake in your deck. It's an efficient way to mitigate the problem and collapse their whole deck on them.

Another situation where I'd play this card is if my opponent had a creature I must answer and I have no available answers. Maybe my opponent has a weak deck with multiple Overlords or Abhorrent Oculus and I can't answer these cards. If I have no answers, this is a card I'll get for free late in a pack that can help in those fringe cases. In general, this is a bad card, and I shouldn't be putting it in my main deck since it's too insufficient.

Derelict Attic / Widow's Walk

Derelict Attic is the main draw to this card as it's a Read the Bones style of effect, which has classically been borderline playable in Limited. This effect is less desirable as the power level has increased and Best of One Limited has dominated most players' play experience.

Duskmourn is a punishing format with powerful cards. Taking a turn off, losing 2 life, to get one extra card in hand is too much of an ask in most spots. However, there are a lot of spots where this card will be solid. This card can do a lot of work for opponents who are playing slower, grindier game plans. Widow's Walk can come into effect if they're trying to pick off your creatures individually, as it will buff the one creature you're left with in play.

If my opponent is not pressuring my life total, I want to play this card when I'm on the play, as it's much easier to recover from a turn off when you're the one setting the rules of engagement.

Another situation, albeit a fringe case, is if you get three copies of Final Vengeance, which is my favorite reskin from Duskmourn.

Now let's also assume you don't have much to sacrifice to Final Vengeance. Well, this is cardboard in play that you can sacrifice while getting tangible value, so that's a spot to play this card in a pinch.

I've had people in chat tell me they like this card in Rakdos. I don't, and I don't think they do either. I think what they mean is this card is playable in Rakdos in the absence of similar cards, such as Tunnel Booth and Glassworks, of which I'm in agreement.

This card doesn't belong in a specific archetype. This is a card you play when you have to, not because you want to.

Don't Make a Sound

Quench has never been a strong effect in Limited since the games can drag on, and a card like this can go dead. It's easy to play around, especially in a world where we have rooms to unlock to spend our mana to impact the board.

So why would we play Don't Make a Sound?

The first instance when I usually end up with this card in my deck is when it accompanies a lot of instants and flash creatures.

Let's say I have an Enmity Tracker, a couple of Glimmerburst, and perhaps a copy or two of Appendage Amalgam. My deck is set up to play at instant speed, so the downside of choosing between holding up my Don't Make a Sound and casting my creature is completely mitigated.

Don't Make a Sound is also a card you can play when desperate for early plays. If you have a big hole in the early part of your curve, you can weave this into your curve. Generally, I'd only want to do this if I felt I was going to win the late game. Otherwise I'd rather play a bad creature that can close the door first.

The reason I most often have this in my deck is my opponent has Valgavoth's Onsalught in their deck. Don't Make a Sound is an efficient, clean answer to, in my opinion, the best card in the format. In the modern Limited, we come across the best rare a lot more often, and it's nice to have a common that can cleanly answer it while having other versatility.

In general, Don't Make a Sound is a sideboard card, unless you've met the flash requirements of five or more other instants or flash creatures.

Found Footage

Found Footage is a bad card. It's too inefficient for what it does and only helped slightly by being able to break up the three mana you're spending for card selection. Found Footage is a bad card that can get you most of the way to Delirium and has value in some spots.

There are specific spots where I'd play Found Footage. For example, in a deck that has four or five delirium payoffs and little in the way of getting over the hump. Another spot is a deck that has three copies of Hand that Feeds, two copies of Fear of Burning Alive, and maybe a copy of The Rollercrusher Ride but is missing ways to get lands into the graveyard. Found Footage can play a role. This will generally happen when you have a lot of creatures in your deck, few instants or sorceries, and not much in the way of manifest. In these spots, a card that has a chance to give you instant delirium is a time you can make room for a copy or two of Found Footage.

Found Footage is not a card you should play because you want to dig for bombs or anything similar because it's too inefficient.

Horrid Vigor

Horrid Vigor is the most commonly requested card I get asked to play that I have no interest in playing. It may be the best card in this bunch, but it's a bad card.

People often use Horrid Vigor incorrectly to counter a Murder or some other removal. This is the exact opposite of when you want this card in your deck. Horrid Vigor is best suited against creatures, especially large creatures.

You want Horrid Vigor in your deck when you're unable to push through the opponent's defenses. For example, you'll want this card when you have a low-curve RG deck and encounter a five-toughness creature that's nearly impossible to get through.

Another spot is because you have too many creatures. Let's say you draft a deck with 19 or 20 creatures and don't have many non-creature spells that impact the board at all. In that circumstance, Horrid Vigor can fill the role of removal, much like any combat trick.

Horrid Vigor is especially good at winning combats against green creatures, as they tend to significantly outsize other creatures, and green is always lacking in instant-speed removal to punish you for casting Horrid Vigor.

Ultimately, if both you and your opponent have a lot of creatures, and especially if your opponent's creatures are larger than yours, that is the spot you want Horrid Vigor. If your opponent has a lot of instant-speed removal, that is when you don't want Horrid Vigor. If my opponent has a lot of removal and I'm playing on curve, I won't be able to pay the required 2 mana to cast Horrid Vigor and keep my creature alive. I'd rather play a bad, two-drop creature because it's a threat the opponent has to answer.

It's okay to have a bad draft and resort to playing the bad cards, but we shouldn't convince ourselves that they are good cards because they've been good before. Most Magic cards have some uses and will look good, but we can't remember cards at their best. We need to evaluate them critically, and everything has an opportunity cost.