Choose Your Champion: Top MTG Archetypes and Combos

Choose Your Champion card art from Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Choose Your Champion and the politics of Duskmourn Commander

In Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander, a card like Choose Your Champion turns the table on conventional combat math and dynamics. This is a Scheme—an eerie convergence of plan and theater—released in a set built around political intrigue and macabre elegance. With zero mana cost and a single, chilling line of oracle text, it declares a window of control that makes every table feel like a courtroom, and every round a referendum on alliance and ambition. When you set this scheme in motion, target opponent chooses a player. Until your next turn, only you and the chosen player can cast spells and attack with creatures. That’s not just a rule on a card—that’s a narrative beat you can lean into in every game 🧙‍♂️🔥💎⚔️🎲.

Flavor isn’t the only thing Choose Your Champion has going for it. It’s a rare example of how a colorless, cost-free scheme can become the heartbeat of an archetype, letting you steer the political ship while you build engines and threats that prosper during your turns. The card’s common rarity in a black-bordered Commander set belies its potential as a pivot point for several distinct archetypes. The art by Pavel Kolomeyets and the flavor text—“I am nothing if not fair. I’ve chosen my champion. Now you must choose yours.”—invite a mood of calculation, bluff, and drama that are quintessentially MTG at its best 🧙‍♂️🎨.

Archetype 1: Political Control and Lockdown

One natural home for Choose Your Champion is a political control shell—think a white-blue peppering of pillowfort and permission styles that thrives on dictating terms. In this lane, you use the scheme to nominate a player who will share your spellcasting fate, effectively turning the table into a two-player dueling match for a turn or two. You lean into tap-down effects, countermagic on your own turns, and targeted removal that protects your board. Think of classic staples like Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, and Blue-white prison elements such as Ghostly Prison or Rule of Law to keep everyone honest between generous political trades. The beauty is that on your turns you still have agency to develop the board, install a new threat, or set up a lock that buys you time to draw into the real win condition 🧙‍♂️💎.

Key cards to consider: versatile counterspells, early stabilizers, and a few win-cons you can assemble on your own turns.
Strategic pick: align with one player as your “champion-ally” for the duration of the scheme, then pivot if the political winds shift.
Win condition vectors: resilience through recursion and value engines that you control entirely on your own turns.

Archetype 2: Prison and Stax-leaning Tempo

When your table is a mosaic of actions and reactions, a Stax-y cadence can be devastating under the right circumstances. Choose Your Champion becomes a keystone that calibrates the tempo: other players can’t cast spells on their turns, so your mana yields more impact per turn, and you’re free to deploy a carefully curated handful of accelerants and engines. Add mana-denial, taxing effects, and catch-all removal that keeps the battlefield friendly to your threats while you stall the rest of the table. The result is a game where being efficient on your turns—not simply big on paper—wins the day. Imagine a board state where Winter Orb, Cloistered Youth, and Smokestack-style effects slowly tighten the noose while you deploy value engines that cash in on every pause 🧙‍♂️🔥.

Core components: lockdown pieces, repeatable value engines, and resilient threats you can protect with your own spells.
Playstyle cue: maximize your own turns; use the scheme’s restriction to prevent de facto board blows from opponents’ turns.
Wishlist: consistent ramp, card draw on your turns, and a way to close out once you’ve set the tempo.

Archetype 3: Solo-Engine Combos and Tutor-Heavy Power

Zero mana cost invites a tutor-heavy approach: you fetch answers, threats, and the critical pieces you need to go over the finish line on your own terms. In a world where only you and the chosen ally can cast spells during a given window, you can assemble a compact combo that you execute entirely on your turns, minimizing risk from other players’ interruptions. Pair Choose Your Champion with draw-a-turn engines, tutoring staples like Enlightened Tutor or Demonic Tutor (where legal in your group’s rules), and a well-timed win condition that doesn’t rely on the opponent’s actions. This archetype thrives on efficiency and precise timing—your patience pays off when the scene is set for a single, decisive moment 🎯🔥.

Key inclusions: tutoring lines, one-turn win enablers, and protection for the finish line you’ll navigate on your own turns.
Environmental note: while only two players can act, the board presence you curate in that window can be overwhelming in a single swing.

Archetype 4: Thematic Horror-Driven Midrange

Duskmourn’s vampire-haunted halls lend themselves to a midrange, value-forward build that leans into the drama of the scheme. Choose Your Champion acts as a narrative pivot—suddenly the table is negotiating who gets to act while you leverage the fear, charm, and inevitability of your threats. In this lane, include efficient grindy creatures, removal that hits the things you care about, and a few “blooming” value engines that outgrind opponents on your turns. The art and lore weave into gameplay here: every spell you cast becomes a chapter, every creature a chorus line, and choosing your champion feels like choosing the household horror you’ll host for the night 🧙‍♂️🎨.

Considerations: high-impact creatures, sustainable card draw, and a plan to close out from a position of gathered advantage.
Narrative payoff: aim for a story-like arc where the scheme’s moment becomes the turning point of the game.

Archetype 5: Hybrid Comfort: Colorless Command with Thematic Supports

Because Choose Your Champion is colorless, you can lean into a colorless or mono-colorless frame and blend in your favorite supports—artifacts, mana rocks, and utility creatures—to keep a steady cadence. The deck remains flexible: you’re not locked into a single color’s identity; you can weave in green for mana ramp, black for removal, or red for extra reach on your own turns. The scheme’s dramatic sting—“only you and the chosen player may cast spells”—lets you choreograph a chorus of supportive effects that you can deploy piece by piece, ensuring that your board presence remains robust long after the scheme has rotated out of motion 🧙‍♂️⚔️.

Build spine: reliable tutors, repeatable value, and a few win-conditions you can fetch when you’ve created your window.
Flavor payoff: embrace the eerie aura of Duskmourn with theatrical plays and dramatic reveals that keep your table engaged.

Design, flavor, and the moment in your draft

Choose Your Champion embodies a rare moment where a card’s text acts like a micro-plot twist, guiding a whole game state. Its scheme-based trigger emphasizes political acumen—trust, bluff, and timing—in a format built on that exact dynamic. The card’s art and flavor text reinforce this sense of a fair verdict that hides a deadly cunning. It’s the kind of card that invites you to tell stories at the table: who is your champion, who do you choose next, and who will be the one to steer the final arc of the game 🔥🎨.

If you’re curious to explore the broader universe of Duskmourn and related Commander splashes, you’ll find a host of strategies waiting to be tested. And if you’re in the mood for a different kind of upgrade after your games, check out this engaging cross-promotion: phone-case-glossy-polycarbonate-high-detail-for-iphone—because even legendary decks deserve legendary accessories. And yes, it’s a wink to the real world that makes MTG fans grin while the boards glow with magic 🧙‍♂️💎.

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