It’s October, so I can watch all the horror films I usually watch, fitting into the macabre nature of the month. Fittingly, Wizards of the Coasts’ latest Magic: The Gathering set is also perfect for us horror fans, as Dusmourn: House of Horror is inspired by all manner of haunted houses and slasher films.

As far as playing towards my sensibilities, the art and way that Duskmourn has been marketed and released are my favourite sets this year. The art on show in this set is a perfect mix of odd and violent oddities paired with 90s-inspired aesthetics and genre-inspired vibes. Before this set’s release, I only had to see a picture of the ‘Nightmare Bundle’ to know it would be speaking to me with the analogue TV box.

NEW CARD TYPES

The TV inspirations go deeper with Japanese horror films from the 1990s and early 2000s, like Ringu and Ju-On. The Grudge seems to be an inspiration on the set as well, with TV boxes surrounding ghoulish-teen-looking creatures in what’s called ‘Paranomrla Frame’ cards.

Japan is also heavily involved in this set, as Western fans experience ‘Japan Showcase Cards,’ found in Collectors Boosters. These cards are homages to the art style often seen in Japanese cards.

‘Double Exposure’ cards are, as the name suggests, in a style of photography that can give a very ghostly appearance. This technique happens when you take a photo and let it see some light again, hence the name double exposure, which leads to ghostly images in the background of these photos. These are the standout art styles in Duskmourn, and opening one in a booster will instantly grab your attention. The ‘textured foil’ versions of these cards are even more so.

Playing into the horrific nature of some of the creatures you could come across while exploring the Duskmourn Manor, the ‘Mirror Monster’ cards are alternative art that features the monsters only seen through a mirror in that art. This plays into some great monster movie tropes and classic movie moments.

MECHANICS

Duskmourn House of Horror features some intriguing mechanics and different takes on stuff we’ve seen before.

MANIFEST DREAD

It’s all in the name for ‘Manifest Dread’, a new keyword that perfectly fits this ‘house of horror set.’ 

When a card tells you to “manifest dread,” you’ll look at the top two cards of your deck and place one in your graveyard and the other facedown on the battlefield. That facedown card is now a 2/2 Manifest Creature; however, you can reveal that it’s a creature card by flipping it face up and paying its mana cost. Your opponents are left with a consistent feeling of dread as they have to consider if taking a 2/2 attack from the ‘Manifest‘ could turn into a lot more damage if you revealed it to be a lot stronger creature. Basically, having a Manifest and untapped mana is the most significant feeling of dread you can give your opponents in this set.

IMPENDING 

You can scare your opponent with what they don’t know with ‘Manifest,‘ but also with what they do know with ‘Impending‘ cards.

This alternative casting cost is found in the ‘Overlords‘ in this set and allows you to cast them cheaply, but they enter the battlefield with time counters. You can’t do anything with them until those time counters disappear, but as turns tick by and the numbers lower each turn, your opponent starts at a powerful creature and potential, their impending doom.

ROOMS

Room cards are split cards, which is something we’ve seen before. There are two different ‘cards‘ on one card, and usually, you’ll have an option to either card one side or both, but only in specific scenarios. Room cards are different in that their card types are all enchantments, not sorcery or instant spells, which is what we’d usually see for these cards.

When you cast a Room card, you pick one side, and it’ll enter the battlefield. But you’ll then have the option to ‘unlock the door‘ to the other side of the card. This is a lot of fun to play because you have lots of options, either saving up to cast the most powerful/expensive side of the card or casting its cheaper side and having the other ability starting at your opponent as they know you’ll be able to unlock it soon.

EERIE

Teaming up with ‘Room‘ cards is the ‘Eerie‘ keyword, which triggers whenever an enchantment enters your battlefield and again when you fully unlock a room (both sides of it). 

SURVIVAL

Finally, it all comes down to surviving all of the above, with the new triggered ability’ Survival.’

When you have a creature with ‘Survivor‘ on the battlefield and enter your second Main Phase with that card tapped, it’ll trigger the survivor in that creature and the ‘Survivor‘ ability, which is different on each creature with this word.

ARCHENEMY

We haven’t had any new Archenemy cards since 2017, so it’s great to see this format get some love in Duskmourn with a bunch of new cards for the format.

If you don’t know what Archenemy is, at its simplest explanation, it’s 3v1. A team of ‘heroes’ take a combined turn as you would in 2-Headed-Giant and move through the phases of a game as one. Regarding the ‘archenemies’ turn, that player can attack whichever of the three heroes they would like, but anyone can block to protect, use instant spells/actions, etc. However, what makes the Archenemy format fun and a pain for the heroes is an Archenemy Deck that is flipped over one card at a time every time the Archenemy has a turn. And these cards are powerful actions that will balance this 3v1.

Four new Commander decks, each with an Archenemy 10-card deck, are a part of the release of Duskmourn. You can collect them all and shove them into a forty-card Archenemy deck if you’d like, but they come ready to play as they are.

DUSKMOURN: HOUSE OF HORRORS

Wizards of the Coast has been having a good year regarding the release of Magic: The Gathering sets. There’s some debate to be had behind AI in the art that’s stirred the pot recently. Recent changes to Commander have some of the fanbase ready to storm the games, but as a core product, going from something like Bloomburrow to Duskmourn is the kind of whiplash that should be celebrated and is what makes the planes-walking of the MTG Universe so unique.

As a horror fan, this will be my favourite set of the year, as it’s just very ME-coded, but even if you aren’t, the mechanics are great; as a limited format, it’s fantastic, and with the new Archenemy cards and decks, there’s plenty of friendship-breaking game nights ahead to be had.

[Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for sending over some of the new set to get my collection started.]