In a little less than a month – Sept. 27, to be exact – a new set for Magic: The Gathering will be releasing. That set is Duskmourn: House of Horror.
Here’s what we know about it so far…
WATCH: Duskmourn: House of Horror preview
Duskmourn: House of Horror is a top-down designed set based around the haunted house trope and seems to takes some inspirations from slasher and horror flicks form the 1970s and 80s along with a little bit of a Ghostbusters-like vibe thrown in around the edges.
This can be seen in some of the already-spoiled cards such as Cursed Recording, Nowhere to Run, and Twitching Doll (which isn’t a cat – just a bunch of spiders).
It’s quite the departure from Magic’s most recent set, the cute, cottagecore-inspired animal world of Bloomburrow.
The Story
The set takes planes in the plane of the same name and consists of (as far as we can tell) just the one plane-spanning haunted mansion seen in the set. And it takes quite a departure from the majority of Magic sets as it incorporates much more modern elements such as electronics like television sets, chainsaws, and late 20th-century aesthetics.
The realm is ruled by a demon lord known as Valgavoth whom was once imprisoned on this technologically advanced plane. As he had no escape, he used his talents to progressively expand the barriers of his prison until it encompassed the plane as a whole, hence why the entire set takes place within its walls.
As the set’s story goes, the adopted son of planeswalker Tamiyo, a Nezumi named Nashi, vanished through a mysterious door with the only clues to his whereabouts being a glitched, warped recording of a terrible world.
An ensemble cast of known characters – Niko Aris of Theros, Tyvar Kell of Kaldheim, Zimone Wola from Strixhaven University on Arcavios, and Kaito Shizuki and The Wanderer, both from Kamigawa – set off in search of Nashi and into this house of horror.
We’re not going to say anymore about the story, though, because we don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t yet read it on the Magic: The Gathering website.
The Cards
Consisting of 276 regular cards (91 commons, 100 uncommons, 60 rares, 20 mythics, and five full-art basic lands), Duskmourn: House of Horror also features alternate card frames that bump that card total up to a yet-unknown quanity.
That includes showcase “paranormal” cards (which, in our eyes, reminds us of Ghostbusters equipment), showcase “double exposure” cards, “mirror monster” borderless cards where the monster is seen in a reflection, normal borderless cards, extended art cards, “Japan Showcase” cards, and promos. There will also be textured foil versions of the “double exposure” cards, as well as alternate art cards in regular frames that add a monster to the card’s original artwork.
There will also be 10 special guest reprints that can be found in one out of every 64 play boosters on average. Foil special guest cards can be found only in collector boosters.
So far, only a handful of cards have been revealed, such as:
- Leyline of Hope (which hints at a cycle of leylines);
- Nowhere to Run;
- Cursed Recording;
- Fear of Missing Out (there will probably be multiple "fear of" cards);
- Overlord of the Hauntwoods;
- Come Back Wrong;
- Chainsaw;
- Doomsday Excruciator;
- Screaming Nemesis;
- The Wandering Rescuer,
- Toby, Beastie Befriender, and (of course);
- Twitching Doll.
Many, many more cards will be unveiled very soon, though, as Duskmourn’s spoiler season begins Saturday, Aug. 31 and runs through Sept. 12.
Be sure to keep an eye out for some of Magic Untapped’s friends whom have cards to spoil, including the Casual Magic podcast on Sept. 6 and Magic pro Andrea Mengucci on Sept. 8.
Mechanics
The set has an “enchantment matters” theme and, to that end, adds a new keyword found only on enchantment creatures: impending.
Impending works similar to suspend complete with a numerical value. When a card is cast for its impending cost, it’s put into the battlefield as normal with a specific number of counters on it. Those counters are removed each turn but, until all of those counters are gone from it, the card is only an enchantment. It becomes a creature, though, once the final impending counter is removed.
The set will also be introducing another new mechanic, though no details have yet come out from Wizards of the Coast about it at this time.
The delirium mechanic, a “graveyard matters” mechanic that was introduced in the set Shadows over Innistrad, will be returning in Duskmourn.
The set will introduce the Glimmer and Toy card types, as well as debuting a new card subtype called “Room.” As for what rooms are or how they’re used within the game has yet to be revealed.
Products
As for obtaining the actual cards of Duskmourn: House of Horror, there are a number of products being released for the set, including:
- A prerelease pack containing six play boosters, a foil year-stamped rare or mythic rare card, a Magic Arena code, and a spindown die;
- 14-card Play boosters (there are 36 boosters per box);
- 15-card Collector boosters (this is where you can find those Japanese Showcase cards). Collector boxes contain 12 packs;
- The set’s bundle, which contains 8 play boosters, a traditional foil bundle-exclusive card with alternate art, 15 traditional foil basic lands, 15 nonfoil basic lands, an oversized spindown life counter, a storage box, and a pair of reference cards, and;
- Four different Commander decks: B/R Endless Punishment, U/G Jump Scare, B/G Death Toll, and W/U/B Miracle Worker. Each deck will contain a ready-to-play, 100-card deck (that’s two traditional foil cards and 98 non-foils), a two-card Collector Booster sample pack, 10 new cards for Magic’s Archenemy format, 10 double-sided tokens, a cardboard deck box, a strategy insert, and a reference card.
There will also be something called a Nightmare Bundle coming out on Oct. 18.
The Nightmare Bundle features packaging that’s reminiscent of the 1982 supernatural horror film Poltergeist, it includes six play boosters, two collector booster, 20 full-art foil basic lands, three double-sided posters, and an oversized, glow-in-the-dark spindown die. Players will also find a Nightmare Booster including 1 of 3 possible Promo cards featuring Nightmare Bundle-specific alternate-art and 1 of 3 in a special card treatment style.
As mentioned before, Duskmourn: House of Horror releases on Sept. 27, but you don’t have to wait until then to pick up and play the cards. The set’s prerelease is scheduled for Sept. 20, so check your local game stores for their prerelease event schedules.
