Magic: The Gathering - Duskmourn: House Of Horror's Miracle Worker Commander Deck Guide

Once you enter Duskmourn, your fate is sealed. The second of Magic: The Gathering's horror-based planes is a living house that feeds off of your fear until you finally succumb to death's cold embrace. It seems hopeless without some kind of miracle.

Magic: The Gathering - What Is Miracle?

Topdeck your way to victory with Magic: The Gathering's miracle mechanic.

The Miracle Worker preconstructed deck reintroduces Aminatou, who can manipulate fate and create exactly the miracles you need to survive Duskmourn. By adding the miracle mechanic to existing enchantments, you can manipulate fate to not only survive the house but to dominate your table. It's time to pierce the veil and learn about Miracle Worker.

Miracle Worker Decklist

Here's the full Miracle Worker decklist, organized by card type.

Commander

Aminatou, Veil Piercer

Creatures (22)

Ancient Cellarspawn

Archetype of Imagination

Arvinox, the Mind Flail

Athreos, Shroud-Veiled

Auramancer

Burnished Hart

Demon of Fate's Design

Doomwake Giant

Dream Eater

Fear of Sleep Paralysis

Mesa Enchantress

Metamorphosis Fanatic

Moon-Blessed Cleric

Nightmare Shepherd

Ondu Spiritdancer

Phenomenon Investigators

Prognistic Sphinx

Soaring Lightbringer

Solemn Simulacrum

Starfield Mystic

The Master of Keys

Verge Rangers

Sorceries (9)

Aminatou's Augury

Diabolic Vision

Entreat the Angels

Ponder

Portent

Read the Bones

Redress Fate

Terminus

Time Wipe

Instants (9)

Arcane Denial

Brainstorm

Inkshield

Otherworldly Gaze

Return to Dust

Swords to Plowshares

Telling Time

Thirst for Meaning

Utter End

Artifacts (7)

Arcane Signet

Azorius Signet

Brainstone

Commander's Sphere

Mind Stone

Orzhov Signet

Sol Ring

Enchantments (15)

Bottomless Pool // Locker Room

Cast Out

Cramped Vents // Access Maze

Extravagant Replication

Life Insurance

Mirrormade

Monologue Tax

One with the Multiverse

Secret Arcade // Dusty Parlor

Shark Typhoon

Sigil of the Empty Throne

Sphere of Safety

Spirit-Sister's Call

The Eldest Reborn

Timely Ward

Lands (37)

Adarkar Wastes

Arcane Sanctum

Ash Barrens

Azorius Chancery

Bojuka Bog

Caves of Koilos

Command Tower

Dimir Aqueduct

Evolving Wilds

Halimar Depths

Hall of Heliod's Generosity

Island (4)

Obscura Storefront

Orzhov Basilica

Pains (5)

Swamp (5)

Tainted Field

Tainted Isle

Temple of Deceipt

Temple of Enlightenment

Temple of Silence

Terramorphic Expanse

Thriving Heath

Thriving Isle

Thriving Moor

Underground River

Each precon from Duskmourn: House of Horror also comes with ten scheme cards, which can be used to play the Archenemy Commander variant. The Miracle Worker deck includes the following ten schemes:

Schemes

A Premonition of Your Demise

Behold the Power of Destruction

Choose Your Demise

I Am Duskmourn

My Champion Stands Supreme

My Followers Ascend

My Wealth Will Bury You

Only I Know What Awaits

Time Bends to My Will

You Cannot Hide from Me

Miracle Worker Commander Deck Themes

The deck's name suggests that it's chock-full of cards with miracle, but there are only three in the entire deck. The real theme is enchantments, which Aminatou, Veil Piercer enhances by providing miracle to them.

Enchantments are reasonably safe permanents because most players focus on removing creatures and only run limited enchantment removal in their decks. So, while they might have an answer to one or two of your early threats, they're likely to run out soon so that you can set up freely.

Your commander, Aminatou, Veil Piercer, enhances your enchantments by giving them all miracle, with a miracle cost four generic mana lower than the mana cost. This means that not only can you cast enchantments for up to 80 percent less than their mana cost, you can cast enchantments as instants.

Miracle costs can only be paid when the miracle card is the first you draw on a turn, so Aminatou also helps you manipulate the top of your deck. At the beginning of your upkeep, she allows you to surveil two, looking at the top two cards in your library and putting them back in any order or putting any of them in your graveyard.

Aminatou's power in Magic lore is to manipulate fate, which the deck represents with lots of options to tinker with the top of your deck. Blue staples like Ponder and Brainstorm are especially strong in this situation, and the deck even includes all three on-color temples so that you can scry just from playing your land for the turn.

Use instant-speed card draw to cast instant enchantments and enchantment creatures in response to your opponents' spells and attacks.

The Miracle Worker deck also includes several payoffs for enchantments, like Starfield Mystic's ability to grow as your enchantments are destroyed, or the growing protection afforded by Sphere of Safety as you play more enchantments. These allow the deck to function without relying on Aminatou's presence, although the deck will run best with her in play.

The Master of Keys is the alternative commander in the Miracle Worker deck. After enchantments and miracles, the deck has a tertiary recursion theme, with several ways to bring enchantments and creatures back into play from the graveyard. The Master of Keys leans into this theme by giving all of your enchantments escape, with a cost equal to the mana value plus exiling three cards from your graveyard.

Where Aminatou, Veil Piercer makes enchantments less expensive when cast as miracles, The Master of Keys makes them more expensive when cast from your graveyard. The deck already runs lots of expensive spells, relying on Aminatou to make them affordable, so she's a better option unless you're playing as the archenemy with the included scheme cards.

Miracle Worker Deck Analysis

The Miracle Worker deck builds value out of enchantments, gaining the extra benefit of being able to cast them at drastically reduced costs via Aminatou's miracle effect. You can only take advantage of that once per turn, but you are able to set yourself up to do it on your opponents' turns, too.

Preconstructed commander decks often split their focus between two themes, but in Miracle Worker we find that it has a split secondary theme: the deck is either enchantments with a miracle subtheme or enchantments with a recursion subtheme.

The recursion subtheme supports Aminatou, Veil Piercer, by making it a little easier to decide to throw stuff into your graveyard via surveil. However, the miracle subtheme doesn't do much to enhance the recursion subtheme if you put The Master of Keys in your command zone, since it becomes unreliable.

Rather than upgrading the deck for The Master of Keys, consider building a more cohesive deck with additional mill and mana acceleration for it. Meanwhile, there are some solid upgrade options for Aminatau, Veil Piercer at the helm.

Underperforming Cards

Bottomless Pool // Locker Room

Spirit-Sister's Call

Read the Bones

Verge Rangers

Thirst for Meaning

Athreos, Shroud Veiled

Brainstone

Commander's Sphere

Dream Eater

Nightmare Shepherd

Bottomless Pool is a slower Unsummon, which is already a weak removal option. Locker Room adds additional functionality, but it's limited by the fact that you only get one card draw, regardless of how many creatures you attack with.

Spirit Sister's Call is a fine recursion option if you have a bunch of extra permanents like creature tokens, but this deck doesn't include many options to enable it. In order to activate it, you'll need to keep sacrificing important permanents, and there are better options for your limited deck space.

Although the deck is starving for more card draw, Read the Bones, Thirst For Meaning, and Brainstone are all underwhelming draw options to the point that they should be replaced by more efficient options. Commander's Sphere fits into the same category: it's a three-mana rock that you can sacrifice to draw a card, and both effects have better options.

Verge Rangers does give you the ability to look at your top card but not to change it, and it only offers a little ramp in really specific situations. You'll be better off with something more reliable.

Athreos, Shroud Veiled and Nightmare Shepherd both offer a little recursion and protection against board wipes, but only for creatures. You're more worried about enchantments, which they don't protect.Keep them if you decide to add more destruction-based board wipes and enchantment creatures. Otherwise, they don't pull their weight.

Miracle Worker Commander Deck Budget Upgrades

Image

Name

Reason

Starfield of Nyx

Starfield of Nyx adds a little more enchantment recursion, allowing you to keep bringing back your most important enchantments and biggest enchantment creatures. With Metamorphosis Fanatic, it's a two-for-one. It also turns your noncreature enchantments into enchantment creatures with power and toughness equal to the mana value, which is really high on a lot of the included enchantments.

Zur, Eternal Schemer

Zur gives all of your enchantment creatures deathtouch, lifelink, and hexproof, making them a much bigger threat as soon as he comes into play. He also turns enchantments into enchantment creatures for just two mana, allowing you to build up an army without Starfield of Nyx.

Inquisitive Glimmer

A lot of the enchantments in the deck are prohibitively expensive without Aminatou, Veil Piercer in play, so you may struggle if your opponents keep targeting her. Inquisitive Glimmer can help by reducing the casting and unlock costs of your enchantments, along with providing a decent early-game blocker. With Aminatou, Veil Piercer in play, it still reduces enchantments you don't play as miracles.

Entity Tracker

Classic green/white enchantress decks use cards like Mesa Enchantress to replenish their hands while casting lots of cheap enchantments. Miracle Worker does include Mesa Enchantress in the 99, but no other similar effects. This provides thematic redundancy so that you can keep your hand full more easily.

Mind Unbound

Mind Unbound's effect is a lot like "cumulative upkeep: draw a card." In a big deck like Commander, it's a really strong draw effect, but expensive at six mana. Aminatou, Veil Piercer lets you get it out for just two blue mana, which should really make up for the lack of reliable card draw in the original decklist.

Aminatou, the Fateshifter

The original Aminatou is a fantastic addition, allowing you to draw a card and put a card from your hand on top of your deck on each of your turns. You should use this to set up the next card you want to miraculously cast before your turn ends. She also allows you to flicker one of your permanents at the cost of a loyalty counter, so you can trigger enter effects, untap a land, or recover missing stolen permanents.

Talisman of Dominance

The biggest hurdle the Miracle Worker deck faces is that it relies on the commander to function properly. Without Aminatou, Veil Piercer in play, a lot of the enchantments are too expensive to cast before you fall way behind your opponents. Additional mana rocks in the form of Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Hierarchy, and Talisman of Progress will help you get her out early and stay in the game when she's stuck in the command zone.

The Reality Chip

The Reality Chip is a solid addition just for the ability to peek at the top of your library. Then, if you reconfigure it into an Equipment and attach it to a creature, you functionally get an extra card in your hand. You can play lands and cast spells from the top of your deck, allowing you to get rid of the low-mana spells and lands while looking for bombs to cast via miracle.

Escape Tunnel

Any precon that includes either Evolving Wilds or Terramorphic Expanse should immediately swap it out for Escape Tunnel. It maintains the exact same functionality but includes the extra ability to make a creature with power two or less unblockable. Even if you only have a couple of creatures that you can target, that functionality detracts nothing from the primary effect and can be used to negotiate with other players who need to attack with small creatures.

Other Upgrade Options

• If you have the budget, Sensei’s Divining Top is a must-add card. The ability to rearrange the top three cards of your deck for just one mana as many times as you want is vital to a miracle deck.
• Any tutor that puts a card on top of your library is an excellent addition, especially as an instant. Enlightened Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Mystical Tutor all do his in Aminatou's colors, allowing you to put the cards you need on top of your deck immediately before drawing them.
• Smothering Tithe is a much more reliable piece of Treasure ramp than Monologue Tax, since your opponents will almost always draw at least one card each turn but may not always cast multiple spells.
• The Miracle Worker deck is a little short on card draw, so Rhystic Study is an excellent addition.

Playing The Archenemy

The schemes that come with Miracle Worker synergize better with The Master of Keys than with Aminatou, Veil Piercer. The loss of Aminatou's miraculous cost reduction doesn't hurt as much when My Wealth Will Bury You generates piles of Treasure tokens, and Only I Know What Awaits and I Am Duskmourn allow you to cast free spells.

Three more of the schemes buff your commander or another creature, encouraging you to play more aggressively. The Master of Keys also benefits more from these schemes, allowing you to rack up damage fast with your flying Horror.

The schemes that most benefits from Aminatou, Veil Piercer is Time Bends to My Will, which gives you an extra turn but does not allow you to untap on that turn. Lacking in ways to untap or creatures with vigilance, this may not seem useful. Aminatou benefits from it by getting another opportunity to cast a miracle, though at a steep cost reduction.

Magic: The Gathering - How To Play Archenemy

The best way to gang up on one specific friend.