Magic: The Gathering - Duskmourn: House Of Horror's Jump Scare! Commander Deck Guide
Surprise can be a powerful thing both in Magic: The Gathering and in horror films. In both cases, surprise can elicit screams of terror from the audience, especially when your manifested card turns out to be a giant 15/15 wurm bearing down on them.
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PostsThat's the plan with Jump Scare!, Duskmourn: House of Horror's surprise-themed Commander deck. This deck is all about placing your cards face-down so your opponents never really know what they're in for. Your foes will sense your victory with a growing sense of dread just before it leaps out of the darkness to strangle their life totals.
Jump Scare! Commander Deck List
Citanul Hierophants art by Zezhou ChenHere's the full deck list for the Jump Scare! Commander deck.
Jump Scare! Commander Deck List
Commander (1)
Zimone, Mystery Unraveler
Creatures (32)
Kianne, Corrupted Memory
Glitch Interpreter
Curator Beastie
Shriekwood Devourer
Giggling Skitterspike
Citanul Hierophants
Body of Knowledge
Kefnet the Mindful
Kheru Spellsnatcher
Skaab Ruinator
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
Augur of Autumn
Deathmist Raptor
Hydra Omnivore
Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
Scute Swarm
Shigeki, Jukai Visionary
Temur War Shaman
Thunderfoot Baloth
Whisperwood Elemental
Worldspine Wurm
Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Overgrown Zealot
Beanstalk Giant
Greater Tanuki
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Yavimaya Elder
Yedora, Grave Gardener
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Trygon Predator
Sorcery (8)
Disorienting Choice
Aether Gale
Ezuri's Predation
Overwhelming Stampede
Oversimplify
Cultivate
Explosive Vegetation
Rampant Growth
Instants (9)
Zimone's Hypothesis
Cackling Counterpart
Dig Through Time
Biomass Mutation
Beast Within
Growth Spiral
Counterspell
Reality Shift
Eureka Moment
Artifacts (4)
Scroll of Fate
Arcane Signet
Sol Ring
Simic Signet
Enchantments (8)
They Came from the Pipes
Experimental Lab / Staff Room
Primordial Mist
Sandwurm Convergence
Trail of Mystery
Growing Dread
Retreat to Coralhelm
Wilderness Reclamation
Lands (38)
Castle Vantress
Drownyard Temple
Flooded Grove
Hinterland Harbor
Mosswort Bridge
Overflowing Basin
Temple of Mystery
Vineglimmer Snarl
Yavimaya Coast
Terramorphic Expanse
Command Tower
Ash Barrens
Evolving Wilds
Myriad Landscape
Quandrix Campus
Reliquary Tower
Simic Growth Chamber
Tangled Islet
Temple of the False God
Thornwood Falls
Island (9)
Forest (9)
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PostsJump Scare! Commander Deck Themes
The biggest theme of Jump Scare! is leveraging the full power of 'manifest dread,' the new keyword ability from Duskmourn: House of Horror. Manifest dread is very similar to the earlier 'manifest,' but instead of placing the top card of your library face down, you look at the top two cards, place one of them face down as a 2/2 creature, and place the other in your graveyard.
This allows manifest dread to also take advantage of graveyard recursion strategies, but Jump Scare! doesn't deal with the graveyard all that much. We'll fix that later.
Jump Scare! wants to manifest dread as many cards as it can since many cards in it take advantage of the presence of colorless 2/2 creatures. Most notably the box topper commander (which we'll discuss more shortly), but there's also Glitch Interpreter, Growing Dread, Trail of Mystery, Overgrown Zealot, and more.
CloseAlthough Jump Scare! has many cards that concern themselves with either placing cards face down or flipping them face up, the commander that sets this strategy into overdrive is Zimone, Mystery Unraveler. With Zimone, every land played triggers manifest dread, and every second (or more) land played flips over a previously manifested card.
With Zimone in play, every second land in a single turn becomes a free card played from the top two cards of your deck. That's incredible value that can be enabled through something as simple as a Rampant Growth.
Don't overlook the surprise factor of manifest dread! A manifested creature can be flipped up at any time for its mana cost, so you can ambush opponents with something like a Hydra Omnivore if you've got the mana to spare.
CloseJump Scare! does have a few other potential commanders, but none of them have the same kind of synergy with the rest of the deck as Zimone. Kianne, Corrupted Memory is an incredible card that would shine in her own deck, but there's nothing in Jump Scare! that enables her (like instant-speed card draw to have the flash you'd want at any given moment).
Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Straight is a great card for the deck, but simply drawing cards on landfall isn't the same as playing them for free. Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle likewise needs Zimone to sneak into play, otherwise you're waiting for five turns. And Tatyova, Benthic Druid is just as disappointing in the commander slot as Aesi.
Jump Scare! works best with Zimone, so stick with Zimone as your commander.
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Posts 1Jump Scare! Commander Deck Analysis
Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar (Dominaria) - art by Ryan YeeWith Zimone taking center stage, Jump Scare! wants to have lots of creatures to manifest and lots of land to trigger manifest dread. Thankfully, Jump Scare! has plenty, with 32 creatures (besides Zimone herself) and 38 lands. The remaining 30 cards support the overall strategy of flipping cards up or down, tossing lands onto the table, or providing on-demand removal/card draw.
On the creature side, there'sa cavalcade of threats and sneaky answers. Hydra Omnivore, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, Worldspine Wurm, and Ashaya, Soul of the Wild are big monsters that can be played the hard way but are much better to cast using Zimone and an extra land drop courtesy of some of the supporting spells, like Rampant Growth, Cultivate, or Explosive Vegetation.
Sneaky answers include things like Kheru Spellsnatcher, who can steal a spell for its morph cost, and Trygon Predator, who can conceal its true identity as a 2/2 face-down card until it's time to spring into action to destroy an artifact or enchantment.
CloseRemoval is typically difficult to accomplish for blue/green decks, but Jump Scare! makes the most out of several spells. Beast Within and Reality Shift pair with Counterspell for some targeted answers, while Oversimplify, Aether Gale, Ezuri's Predation, and the new Zimone's Hypothesisprovide mass removal.
Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, and Myriad Landscape are all-star lands in Jump Scare! With Zimone on the table, playing one of them triggers manifest dread, and then cracking it to find another land to put into play triggers Zimone again to flip that manifested card over.
Jump Scare! is somewhat limited in terms of card draw. Glitch Interpreter, Body of Knowledge, They Came from the Pipes, and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait help, but the deck could use some extra sources of card draw to ensure your hand is full.
Jump Scare! could also use more ramping spells that search out more lands. Zimone's ability works best when you're playing two lands on a single turn, which is typically best enabled by cards like Cultivate. We'll be looking to enhance Jump Scare!'s land-planting abilities in the next section.
CloseCards To Replace
Kheru Spellsnatcher
Beanstalk Giant
Greater Tanuki
Kianne, Corrupted Memory
Cackling Counterpart
Biomass Mutation
Skaab Ruinator
Retreat to Coralhelm
Kefnet the Mindful
Giggling Skitterspike
Sandwurm Convergence
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
To make room for some improvements, we're going to cut some underperforming cards. Kheru Spellsnatcher isn't a bad trick to play, but it's a tad expensive and doesn't play well with Zimone.
Beanstalk Giant and Greater Tanuki do some land-fetching, but there are better land-fetchers that also offer greater power. Biomass Mutation is a fine card, but the deck already has Overwhelming Stampede and there are other game-ending spells we could add that better fit the overall theme.
Cackling Counterpart, Retreat to Coralhelm, and Giggling Skitterspikedon't really fit the overall theme of Jump Scare! now that we're focusing on Zimone. Skaab Ruinator isn't a bad card as we're certainly likely to have cards in the graveyard due to manifest dread, but we're not likely to have that many early on, risking Skaab Ruinator being a dead card if it's drawn in your opening hand.
Kiannt, Corrupted Memory is also a card that just doesn't really fit. Having flash is great, as well as an escalating threat, but Kianne would really thrive as the commander of a deck full of instant-speed card draw so you can have the flash you want when you want it.
It's extremely unlikely that Kefnet the Mindful will ever be able to attack or block, making it an expensive option for card draw and bouncing your own land. Rashmi, Eternities Crafter is likewise a convoluted source of card draw that could be replaced by something superior.
Finally, Sandwurm Convergence is a good way to generate a lot of pressure, but Zimone should be able to do that on her own with something that places an extra land on the table every turn.
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PostsJump Scare! Commander Deck Budget Upgrades
Oblivious Bookworm art by Josh NewtonLet's kick up Jump Scare! with some upgrades that improve the deck's ability to play more lands and draw more cards, while also adding some potent new tricks that work well with Zimone.
Image
Name
Reason
Bonny Pall, Clearcutter
Bonny Pall, Clearcutter is perhaps the the best card for Zimone and Jump Scare!. She comes alongside a giant bull to provide a huge amount of power, she draws cards, and she plays an extra land from either your hand or graveyard. Considering how often you'll be pitching lands into the graveyard via manifest dread, this is a perfect solution.
Den Protector
As mentioned with Bonny Pall, Zimone's manifest dread ability will mean cards are going to wind up in your graveyard. Den Protector allows you to retrieve at least one of those cards. It'll even work if it enters as a face-down 2/2 courtesy of Zimone.
Ixidron
Ixidron is a potential game-ender that also serves as an unlikely answer to some of Magic's most powerful threats. Akroma or an Eldrazi got you down? Just flip 'em over with Ixidron! Now you've got a giant monster, and you can even use Zimone (provided you weren't forced to flip her over) to help flip your cards back up.
Kodama's Reach
It's another Cultivate, but that's great. Cultivate guarantees a manifest dread gets flipped with Zimone, and you get two lands out of the deal.
Oblivious Bookworm
Oblivious Bookworm provides all-upside card draw so long as you manifest a card or flip one up every turn. Even if you can't, drawing a card and discarding a card every turn isn't the worst thing in the world.
Omenpath Journey
Omenpath Journey gaurantees Zimone triggers every turn for five turns. It works best when you've already got lands in hand to flip over the cards Zimone manifests, but even if you can't, it's free manifests for five turns.
Paranormal Analyst
The downside to manifest dread is putting cards in your graveyard. It'd be better if those cards were in your hand, right? Paranormal Analyst agrees.
Ramunap Excavator
Again, it's highly likely you'll be pitching land into your graveyard via Zimone's manifest dread triggers (unless Paranormal Analyst arrives first), so Ramunap Excavator
Secret Plans
Secret Plans isn't so hard to understand. Your 2/2 manifested cards get a little tougher, and whenever they flip up, you draw a card. For a deck that's likely to have a bunch of face-down critters, it's a win-win.
Threats Around Every Corner
Threats Around Every Corner can really enable some Zimone shenanigans. Play this card to manifest dread, then search a land card to play, then Zimone triggers to manifest another card, which then triggers another search for a basic land, which then Triggers Zimone to flip over a manifested card. You then get to repeat this process every turn.
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Even without escaping, Uro draws a card, gains three life, and plays a land from your hand to trigger Zimone. If you don't draw Uro until later in the game, then you can use its escape ability to gain a 6/6 in addition to all those other good things. Either way, Uro is a winner.
Vannifar, Evolved Enigma
Cloaking a card is similar to manifest dread, but you get to choose a card from your hand rather than between two cards from your library. That's great to pair with Zimone, but you could also just make all your 2/2 manifested cards bigger by giving them a +1/+1 counter. Thus, even if you never flip up a card, you can have an escalating army to take over the game with.
Other Budget Upgrades To Consider
- Dig Through Time only draws two cards, whereas Treasure Cruise could draw three. Or you could just play Harmonize or Concentrate and not have to worry about removing cards from your graveyard.
- Reality Shift isn't bad, but Pongify or Rapid Hybridization might be preferable if you don't want to risk manifesting an even worse threat.
- Don't like Aether Gale or Oversimplify? Curse of the Swine provides excellent mass-removal in blue.
- If you want even more land-fetching (in place of Disorienting Choice or Wilderness Reclamation), consider Entish Restoration, Harrow, Wayfarer's Bauble, and Crop Rotation.
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