Is there something lurking behind that door? Is there a bump in the night? Is there a lump in your throat? Fear not, my friends I’m here to give you a glimpse of what lies inside Duskmourn: House of Horror. In this article I will focus on the new and returning mechanics coming in this frightfully good looking set.
The Set Contents
Before we get to scary stuff, let’s look at the details.
Duskmourn (DSK): The main set, featuring a huge assortment of cards, kindred (typal) choices, and some cards you defiantly will recognize.
Commander (DSC): Great cards to add horror to your 100 card monstrosities.
Special Guests (SPG): Ten reprints of old favourites like “Damnation” and “Sacrifice” are included in this set.
Card Treatments and Set Notes:
Double Exposure and Textured Foil Double Exposure
These new card treatments appear on select cards in the set and are reminiscent of classic horror photography techniques. You can find these special treatment cards in the play and collector boosters. With additional rare finds appearing in textured foil only available in the collector boosters.
Paranormal Frame
This new card treatment features amazing art with a static crackle effect. The cards are found in both play boosters and collector boosters and feature mysterious messages in the flavour text.
Mirror Monster
Mirror monster cards are borderless cards that highlight pieces of artwork that focus on the fears of the characters in the set and the specific horrors within the house.
Nightmare Bundle
In addition there will be a
Nightmare Bundle arriving in store mid October that will contain 2 collector boosters, 6 play boosters, a glow in the dark spindown die, and a selection of borderless Manor Basic Lands. You also have a chance to open one of the three Movie Poster themed and borderless promo cards.
Dual Lands
Finally, I thought it was important to note that besides the beautiful full-art Manor Lands, there are two types of dual lands coming in this new set. One set of lands is rare and the other is common!
The common Duals known as the "13" Lands are actually a cycle of 10 lands. The 13 comes from the: "enters tapped unless a player has 13 or less life." text in the mechanics of the lands. As seen in the example below. Also making an appearance are 5 dual lands that are rares , but can provide a second colour if you have one of the listed lands already in play.
Common Land Full-Art Manor Rare Land
So What’s the Story?
The plane of Duskmourn exists inside a House of Horror, with demons, horrors and a team of heroes. That’s by no means the limit of the creature types, but that’s another story. Here is a look at the lore and story behind the set: “Nashi, the son of the Planeswalker Tamiyo, has vanished through a mysterious door. There's only one clue to his whereabouts: a glitchy, warped recording of a new world full of terrors. Inspired by horror media of the '80s through the modern day, you'll join the ensemble cast of Niko Aris, Tyvar Kell, Zimone Wola, Kaito Shizuki, and the Wanderer as they fight for their lives on a plane unlike any other. In their journey through the House, the rescue team will encounter many of the spooky inhabitants of Duskmourn: Magic's take horror plane, combining creepy aesthetics with the epic worlds that players know and love. But even in a harrowing plane like this, there is always a light of hope.” Jubillee Finnegan, “A First Look at Duskmourn: House of Horror Jun. 28th, 2024.
Themes and Mechanics
Duskmourn brings back some older mechanics and introduces players to some new ones. Let’s have a quick look shall we?
Delirium
Please welcome back, the
delirium mechanic. We first saw delirium back in Shadows Over Innistrad, this mechanic looks for you to have four or more card types in your graveyard. This set has a lot of synergy and card types that tie into this ability. From limiting opponent’s hand size with “Winter, Misanthropic Guide” or gaining an additional combat phase with “Fear of Missing Out”.
Impending
We’ve all heard of the feeling of impending
doom… Well in Duskmourn: House of Horror the new keyword Impending is found on Overlords (Avatar Horror) and this alternate casting cost can allow you to cast them ahead of schedule.
If you choose to cast a spell for its impending cost, it will enter with a number of time counters on it. For example, Overlord of the Mistmoors has impending 4, so it would enter with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it. As long as it has at least one time counter on it, it isn't a creature. This means it can't attack or block and it doesn't count toward anything that cares about creatures you control. On the plus side, it's not vulnerable to creature removal cast by your opponents. Once the last time counter is removed, it becomes a creature. The nice thing is that the Overlord’s ETB effects trigger once the impeding casting cost resolves. So you get those flying insect tokens right away!
Manifest Dread
Manifest Dread is a new take on Manifest
that was introduced in Fate Reforged. It works like this, when you Manifest Dread you'll look at the top two cards of your library and ‘Manifest’ one of those cards, putting the other card into your graveyard. The card you chose to Manifest is placed face-down onto the battlefield as a 2/2 colorless creature - it doesn't have a name, typing, no mana cost, or abilities. It can however, attack, block, become targeted by removal spells, and so forth. Any card type can be manifested into a creature with Manifest Dread, but the advantage to manifesting a creature allows you to later turn that creature face up for it’s mana cost as a special action. This means your opponents can’t respond to it and it doesn’t go on the stack.
Survival
Survival is a triggered ability that triggers at
the beginning of your second main phase, and only if the creature with this ability is tapped. If a survival ability does trigger, that ability will check again as it tries to resolve to see if the creature is still tapped. If the creature is still tapped, the ability resolves. If the creature is untapped at that time, the ability won't do anything.
It’s important to understand that the survival ability only looks at the fact of whether the creature is tapped or not, it doesn’t care how it became tapped. So whether it attacked and survived, or was tapped another way through an ability or effect it still triggers if it is indeed tapped in the second main phase. All creatures with survival abilities have the new Survivor creature type on the cards.
Rooms
Welcome to ‘Rooms’, a new enchantment subtype that appears only on split permanent cards. Now, split permanents are nothing new in Magic the Gathering, but what is new here is how the mechanic works.
Each Room card has two halves and each half is called a “Door”. As you cast one of these Room cards, you declare which room you are casting (unlocking a door) and that effect occurs once it enters the battlefield.
Using Dollmaker's Shop as our example,
if you cast Dollmaker's Shop and pay the two mana, you'll receive the benefits whenever you attack with a non-Toy creature. However, you can pay the other half (Porcelain Gallery) of the card for six mana at sorcery speed which then unlocks that room, and you'll receive the effects of both sides of the card.
Here are a few points that are important to remember about Rooms:
- The mana value of the Room card depends on how much mana you've spent on it. So, if you only cast the Porcelain Gallery half of Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery, the mana value of that card will be six. But if you unlocked the other half of the card, the total mana value would be eight.
- This doesn't apply in areas that aren't on the battlefield such as the graveyard, library, and hand. Where Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery would have a combined mana value of eight.
- If you happen to copy a Room card, it will keep the same “unlocked” doors as the original.
- If you happen to blink or return a Room card to the battlefield without casting it, both doors will start locked. It will just be an enchantment on the battlefield with no abilities until you unlock those rooms.
Eerie
Eerie abilities are triggered abilities that
trigger whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a Room. The first trigger condition means an eerie ability can potentially trigger twice thanks to a single Room card, once when it enters and again when it becomes fully unlocked.
Archenemy Returns
Making a return to MTG is Archenemy! First seen back in 2010 this version of Archenemy is in Commander Form. Each Commander Deck Box also contains a special deck of scheme cards that allow you and your friends become the Archenemy.
A Look at Archetypes for Limited:
So you are going to draft? Good for you, but having a plan going in is important, so let’s look at the main Archetypes in Duskmourn.
Well my friends I fear it’s time for me to leave the house, have fun inside …oh and don’t worry I will lock the door behind me …….
WT Magus
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