There's a strange new subtype coming up in Duskmourn.
With Bloomburrow now in full swing and going full fantasy through the rest of the summer and into fall, there has been the usual creep of what is coming next. Coming in time just for Halloween is Duskmourn: House of Horrors.
While it is not to be released until September 27, significant questions around it have already come out. It is known that it will be a horror-themed expansion and will carry on the dragonstorm arc that Bloomburrow started. And, while Bloomburrow was a breather expansion in between some heavier ones, Duskmourn will go right back into being weird and creepy.
Thus enters Room. Little is known about Room, other than it will be a subtype. It won't be a mechanic, as Duskmourn has a new mechanic in it and the creators have said that room isn't it. Delerium is coming back for the first time since Shadows Over Innistrad though, so there's that. Then there was speculation that room would be a new card type, but Mark Rosewater pretty much killed that notion. Besides, Glimmer and Toy have been announced as new subtypes too.
What is known is that room card will have either two modes or sides. That's really about it. Like usual, Wizards is really good at keeping spoilers at bay and making people wonder just what the hell they are cooking up.
For the bigger picture, what will room really do for Duskmourn. Magic expansions have been hit or miss when it comes to both sales and popularity in the last few years. Pure fantasy has worked in it's favor. Modern Horizons II and Lord of the Rings were both huge hits, and Bloomburrow is on track to do just as good. All three leaned heavily into fantasy.
Horror has been hit or miss. New mechanics, and yes, new subtypes, help this out a lot when it comes to playability, but it is far from the draw of it all. Art, expansion flavor, and a ton of other factors set the winds. Nostalgia only gets you so far, as does introducing a lot of new things into the mix.
So while room is really turning out to be a fascinating new subtype, Duskmourn, and it's 70s/80s horror trope filled expansion, will need more world building to draw people in. And that's a tall order coming on the heels of Lord of the Rings and Bloomburrow
