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The folks over at Wizards of The Coast have left the comfort found in the lands of woodland critters and ventured into a world of creepy clowns, UFOs, horrors made of teeth, and moths with their upcoming MTG Duskmourn set. Recently, I had the chance to sit down and hear from the team behind the horrors of this upcoming release, and one thing quickly became clear to me - a lot of care has been taken to capture the spirit of '80s horror that the set’s aesthetic is based around.
MTG Duskmourn is set in a brand new plane for the Magic-verse, where a once-peaceful world was taken over by a house infinite in size and its resident boogie man, the giant moth creature known as Valgavorth. Around its endless hallways, the folks at Wizards of the Coast and Ovidio Cartagena - Senior Art Director for Dukmourn: House of Horror - have sprinkled a plethora of details and homages that will delight fans of the horror genre the world over. These details extend far beyond simply the art on the cards but also to this set’s mechanics, so they should impress fans of the best card games too.
Worldwide terror
Longtime fans of the horror genre will find many things to love about Duskmourn with the tropes and imagery you can expect from a product whose core aesthetic is classic horror, but what really impressed me was the extent beyond what you would expect. Cards that deal with nightmares, one of the many topics researched by the team for this set, or the two-tone art cards that blend one image on top of another, almost like you would see paired with retro paper 3D glasses. Inspiration was pulled from across the world, too, from the horror films of Argentina to Giallo Horror of Italy, prevalent in the 1960s and '70s for its use of bold colors, all of which make the set feel so much more than a silly B-movie callback set.
Duskmourn also comes chock-full of great showcase cards and alternate artwork that sells the '80s vibe too. The paranormal frames show glitches and video compression artifacts that anyone who has ever watched a VHS tape will recognize and technology that gave me serious “Ghostbusters movie” vibes with little lights, wires, and gizmos that I’m sure have some function but that I couldn’t tell you what they do. By far, however, my favorite alternate-style cards are the Mirror Monster and the Lurking Evil cards.
First, the mirror monster cards, which there will unfortunately only be seven of in the set, turn the camera around on the survivors. Captured in a reflection, such as in someone’s glasses or the blade of a knife, these cards art show off the moment just before the monster in question attacks and the terror in the victim's face, recreating a classic visual trope of the horror genre.
A great example of the mirror monster cards would be this artwork for Razorkin Needlehead; the creature is seen reflected in a victim's glasses and their own claws as they lunge forward.
The Lurking Evil style is far more subtle. The aim of these cards was to try and recreate that feeling moviegoers have when they know something the characters on the screen don’t - specifically when something is behind them. Seeing as cards are a still medium, Wizards went a unique route of some cards having a nearly identical version of themselves only with one important (and usually hidden) detail - a monster somewhere in the art. Some of these monsters are disguised well enough, such as a dark black monster just at the top of the art’s frame border, that it can make them an MTG version of “Where’s Waldo”.
Safety in scares
There are some lines that, even from the start, Wizards agreed they wouldn’t cross and wanted to make sure they got right, forming a panel of horror experts and specialists to help with that task. The first was that no children would be shown to be in explicit or implied danger. Next, Wizards brought in disability consultants to make sure that the art team wasn’t incorporating any specific aspect of humanity or a disability as the “horror aspect,” and instead keeping them focused on making sure the horror came from distorting a creature instead. I applaud Wizards for taking extra steps like these to avoid, as much as possible, evoking real-life trauma.
The new mechanics of this set also lean heavily into the realms of various tropes of horror with the likes of “Eerie,” “Impending,” “Survival,” “Manifest Dread,” and “Delirium.” Enchantments also get a brand new subtype with “Rooms.” These special cards, displaying things such as rotting dolls and such, are played sideways and have two different options on them that can be played. When one is played the other is considered “Locked” and on the battlefield. During your turn, you can pay to unlock the other side and gain the listed benefit, triggering something like “Eerie,” which has a “When an enchantment enters the battlefield” effect.
As a main set, Duskmourn will feature the usual Play and Collector boosters alongside four Commander decks and bundles.
From the very first pack you crack, Duskmourn treats you to jocks with spiked bats, chainsaws, creepy clowns, rooms with dolls, and more that feel as though they were pulled straight from a VHS tape. While we may know that following Duskmourn, Wizards' swinging pendulum will sway towards the beginner-friendly Foundations release, hopefully this won’t mark the last time that we have to stumble our way through the haunted house-like maze of Duskmourn.
Duskmourn: House of Horror releases on September 27, with pre-release events taking place the week leading up to it. If you're hoping to learn how to play Magic: The Gathering before then, don't miss our guide on the subject - it should help you get set up in no time.
Hoping to try the precon decks? Here's how to play MTG Commander. Not quite your style, on the other hand? Be sure to check in with the best board games - there are some excellent horror games lurking in there. You can't beat these Halloween board games, either.
