Jump Scare! Upgrade Guide - Duskmourn
September 13, 2024 by
Andy Zupke 
Welcome back to another precon guide here on EDHREC. We're starting our week of Duskmourn guides with Jump Scare!, the Simic deck full of dread. In case you missed it, go check out my review here.
I gave this precon a solid grade, due to the strength of its Landfall and face-down synergies. But what the deck really needs is more ways to close out the game, and fewer non-permanent spells.
Let's tune up.
What's in the Original Deck?
Jump Scare! Is blue and green and led by Zimone, Mystery Unraveler, a 3/3 Human Wizard with a Landfall trigger. The first time it triggers each turn we manifest dread, meaning we look at the top two cards of our library, put one into the graveyard and one onto the battlefield as a manifested 2/2 creature. For each trigger beyond the first, we can turn a permanent we control face up.
Our backup commander is Kianne, Corrupted Memory, a 2/2 Illusion that gets a +1/+1 counter for every card we draw. She also lets us cast creature spells at instant speed if her power is odd, and noncreature spells at instant speed if her power is even.
Here's the original deck list:
(DSC) - Jump Scare!
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What Budget Cards Can We Add to Jump Scare!?
As always, we'll break our upgrades into two parts, one for budget cards (less than $5 each) and one for non-budget ($5 or more).
The bulk of our additions will be creatures that have valuable effects when they're turned face up. First up is Chromeshell Crab. This is a fun little effect that will be especially potent in our deck. We're likely to have manifested creatures that aren't anything great on their front face, or can't be flipped at all (instants and sorceries). These are the ones we're giving away with Chromeshell. In return, we'll take the best creature on the board.
Experiment Twelve gives each creature +1/+1 counters equal to its power when it's turned face up, while Greenbelt Radical puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature we control when it's flipped, in addition to giving them trample. An army of creatures with increased power will certainly improve our chances of winning.
Flourishing Bloom-Kin fetches up a land onto the board when it's flipped, which is nothing but synergy for Zimone. There's also Thousand Winds, which returns all tapped creatures to their owners' hands when it's flipped. Timing is key here, as we want to make sure to do this at a time when we're untapped and the biggest threats are tapped. Last is Vengeful Creeper, which blows up an artifact or enchantment when it's flipped.
To give us another way to flip permanents, we're adding Ixidor, Reality Sculptor. Zimone is great, but it's always nice to have redundancies. And to get more face-down permanents on the board, we're adding Vannifar, Evolved Enigma, who also boosts our army with counters. And to get more bonuses from face-down permanents entering, we'll throw in Threats Around Every Corner and Secret Plans, as well as Paranormal Analyst, who puts cards into our hand instead of the yard when we manifest dread.
I felt the precon needed more recursion, so we're giving it an Eternal Witness and Splendid Reclamation. Splendid is especially good, since a lot of the time that we'll be manifesting dread we'll be pitching lands in favor of putting creatures on the board.
We'll also toss in a fun way to not only save our little 2/2s, but also get back stuff we know we won't be able to flip. That's Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar, who lets us return creatures to our hand if they're blocked. Grazilaxx is a huge win-win scenario, because if an opponent blocks the 2/2, we just put the card safely back to our hand, and if they don't block, we draw a card. It's perfect for this deck.
Our last additions are lands, with Branch of Vitu-Ghazi giving us a bit of ramp when it's flipped, and Rogue's Passage for helping our giant creatures, like Kianne, Worldspine Wurm, and Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, break through the enemy lines.
These cards from the precon are getting locked in the cellar: Aether Gale, Arcane Signet, Ash Barrens, Beast Within, Biomass Mutation, Cackling Counterpart, Cultivate, Deathmist Raptor, Dig Through Time, Greater Tanuki, Growing Dread, Mosswort Bridge, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, Simic Signet, Skaab Ruinator, Zimone's Hypothesis
Here's our budget upgraded list:
Jump Scare Budget Upgrade
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And a few more cards to consider: Become Anonymous, Crop Rotation, Hide in Plain Sight, Hooded Hydra, Icefeather Aven, Insidious Fungus, Overrun, Panoptic Projektor, Printlifter Ooze, The Tale of Tamiyo, Valgavoth's Onslaught
What Non-Budget Cards Can We Add to Jump Scare!?
Now we'll take our budget list and beef it up a bit with some pricier cards, several of which are from the main Duskmourn set (as I'm writing this during preview season, some of these new cards may be budget-friendly once prices drop after release). First up is Tyvar, the Pummeler, who has an Overwhelming Stampede effect as an activated ability, which is precisely what we need in this deck.
Hedge Shredder is one of my favorite cards previewed from Duskmourn so far, and I'm excited to throw it in my Hobbits in Cars deck as soon as I get my hands on it. While this precon is certainly not a Vehicle deck, it definitely throws a lot of lands into the yard from the library. Getting them onto the battlefield instead is beyond powerful with the manifest dread mechanic.
We've also got Hauntwoods Shrieker, which manifests dread whenever it attacks, and lets us flip face-down creatures for just two mana. And then there's Overlord of the Hauntwoods, which will give us a free land whenever it enters or attacks. Zimone likes that very much.
For a slightly older card, let's recruit Kozilek, the Broken Reality, who'll turn our face-down creatures into 5/4s, not to mention its sweet cast trigger. And let's not forget about Ancient Greenwarden, who doubles all of our Landfall triggers.
Our last expensive addition is Guardian Project. Because drawing cards is good (sources say).
These cards are getting the axe: Eureka Moment, Explosive Vegetation, Glitch Interpreter, Oversimplify, Overwhelming Encounter, Sandwurm Convergence, Splendid Reclamation
And here's the full list for our non-budget upgrade:
Jump Scare Non-Budget Upgrade
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And a few more cards to consider: Abhorrent Oculus, Akroma's Memorial, Craterhoof Behemoth
Might As Well Jump
That's it for our first Upgrade Guide for Duskmourn. We took this deck of face-down creatures and turned it up to help it get across the combat finish line.
What do you think? Did I make this deck better? Any cards I missed? What's your favorite scary movie? Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter. And don't forget to check back soon for more Duskmourn precon guides, right here on EDHREC.
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Andy Zupke
Andy's been playing Magic on and off since Fallen Empires. He loves to travel, drink, eat, and spend time with family and friends.
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