Duskana, The Rage Mother - An Unbearable Budget Deck Tech!

Duskana, the Rage Mother | Illustrated by Samuel Perin

Welcome to BathroomBrews! Today we'll be taking a look at $60 Duskana, the Rage Mother. This Naya Bear can be found in the new precons from Murders at Karlov Manor; it synergizes with morph and disguise creatures, but for this deck, it's all about those 2/2s. She's a powerful toolbox commander that can be built in several ways, but I wanted to lean into the toolbox, so without further ado, let's get into it!

Section One: Ramp

Ramp is the most boring section, so let's get this out of the way quickly. For creature ramp, we have Llanowar Visionary, Atalan Jackal, Kor Cartographer, Solemn Simulacrum, Deep Gnome Terramancer, and Goblin Anarchomancer. Sadly, we only ramp Plains from two of them, but ramp is ramp! As for the noncreature ramp, we have the usual green package with Explore, Farseek, Nature's Lore, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Harrow, Roiling Regrowth, Utopia Sprawl, and Fertile Ground. All pretty standard stuff here. I've been experimenting with cutting artifact ramp in green decks and putting in more enchantment ramp, hence the exclusion of Sol Ring and Arcane Signet. Overall, we have 12 pieces of ramp, to guarantee acceleration, and 38 lands, giving us a total of 50 mana sources. While Deep Gnome, Explore, and Atalan can ramp us, they isn't 100%, so I don't count them as full ramp pieces. 

Section Two: Removal

Next, let's talk about removal! I didn't include Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile in this list. I don't think their efficiency is worth their restrictive nature in lower-power games. Instead, I opted for permanent removal such as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and to a lesser extent Stroke of Midnight. These three-mana removal spells hit almost anything and are instant-speed. Chaos Warp also makes an appearance here for obvious reasons. For creatures with removal, we have Outland Liberator, Green Slime, which I'm surprised I've never seen before, Manglehorn, Skyclave Apparition, Foundation Breaker, Palace Jailer, and Acidic Slime. Altogether we have 11 pieces of targeted removal, most of which are creatures, which we can blink.

Section Three: Blink

As I mentioned about above, we can blink our removal creatures, and Duskana's draw ability is an ETB, not a cast trigger, so I wanted to add ways to blink our creatures. This is a great way to get additional value and protect our creatures simultaneously. Charming Prince lets us blink a creature, but it's only sorcery-speed. However, Cloudshift, Ephemerate, Ghostway, and Lae'zel's Acrobatics are all instant-speed blink options, and while Cosmic Intervention isn't a traditional blink spell, it is a powerful and cheap way to protect ourselves from board wipes that destroy. Sadly, this does nothing for Farewell. 

Section Four: Board Wipes

Speaking of board wipes, we only have two traditional wipes in the deck. Dusk // Dawn and Solar Tide will avoid wiping our entire board...most of the time. You could replace Solar Tide with Austere Command, but I went with Solar Tide because it's easier to turn into a one-sided board wipe. And Bane of Progress is there to destroy all enchantments and artifacts for us. And what's even better about Bane is we can blink it or use Wild Pair to cheat it into play. 

Section Five: Wild Pair

Ever since I built my Colossal Dreadmaw Deck, which you can check out over on my YouTube channel, Wild Pair has become one of my favorite cards. It lets us tutor a creature from our library that has the same total power and toughness as a creature we just cast. So, if we cast a Grizzly Bears, we can tutor up Hornet Queen or Bane of Progress. This is a six-mana-do-nothing enchantment, so make sure you're not just slamming this down without any follow-up play. Ideally, you would want to wait until you have eight or ten mana, allowing you to cast it and then two two-mana creatures. If you're unsure which creatures you want to grab, I'd use the following list as a general guide. 

1. Hornet Queen: This is the most expensive creature in the deck at seven mana and gives us some powerful chump-blocking tokens, plus we can blink it to get even more tokens. 
2. Siege-Gang Commander: Another expensive creature that generates additional bodies when it ETBs and another great blink target. 
3. Karmic Guide: This lets us get a third creature into play when it ETBs.
4. Beetleback Chief: Much like Hornet Queen & Siege-Gang Commander, this makes additional bodies when it ETBs. 
5. Thraben Watcher: Provides an anthem and vigilance for our creatures. 
6. Torens, Fist of the Angels: Gives us tokens when we cast creatures, which we will be doing a lot in this deck. 

Picking the best creature for the situation will come down to what you need at that moment, which will come as you play the deck more. Don't be afraid to grab a removal creature to take care of a problematic permanent or something for pure value. 

Section Six: Value Creatures

Before we get into the play patterns, win conditions, and upgrades, let's talk about some of the value creatures. These are the creatures that you can swap out for whatever 2/2s you want to add. Laelia, the Blade Reforged is a powerful value engine for our deck, giving us impulse draw when she attacks. Good-Fortune Unicorn helps grow our board and itself. Komainu Battle Armor is an Equipment creature that lets us goad opponents' creatures if we hit them. And Samwise Gamgee gives us Food when we cast historic spells and lets us sac Food to return historic cards to our hand. 

Section Seven: The Wrap-up

The primary play pattern of this deck is really simple. You ramp, play a bunch of creatures, cast your commander to draw a million cards, and swing in. Rinse. Repeat. I didn't include any infinite combos, however, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is a 2/2, so if you wanted to up the power level of the deck, you could add him and some nonbears, such as Village Bell-Ringer, Zealous Conscripts, or Hyrax Tower Scout as a win condition. 

There are quite a few powerful creatures you could pick up for this deck. My personal favorites are Archivist of Oghma, Charismatic Conqueror, and Magus of the Moon. If your playgroup doesn't have a lot of search effects, I'd replace Archivist with Tendershoot Dryad. As for noncreature upgrades, the three I'd highly suggest are Idyllic Tutor, to find Wild Pair, Eerie Interlude as both board wipe protection and mass blink, and finally Teleportation Circle for repeatable blink.