Unveiling the Shadows: Duskmourn: House of Horror Set Release

Overview of Duskmourn: House of Horror

We’re officially in spooky season, so what we need is a terrifying new Magic: The Gathering set to sink our fangs into…

Duskmourn couldn’t be more different to the cutesy summer release of Bloomburrow, giving us a 1980s inspired horror – think slasher flicks and Ghostbusters. Let’s enter, if you dare…

Explore Key Features and Themes

The entire plane of Duskmourn is a creepy mansion filled with demons and other horrors. But this is no ordinary giant house, it’s a living plane, tormenting all those who enter. It’s governed by Valgavoth, a demon who was once imprisoned on the plane, but has since taken control. Now, due to the opening of the omenpths, the demon can lure others to the plane, including Nashi, who a band of heroes including Kaito Shizuki, Niko Aris, Tyvar Kell, Zimone Wola, and the Wanderer, must now rescue…

Highlighting Notable Cards and Spoilers

There are plenty of spooky card and valiant heroes to get excited about in Duskmourn House of Horror, let’s take a peek at some – if you’re brave enough?  

Overlord of the Mistmoors

The overlords are a new cycle that are reminiscent of the iconic ‘titan’ cycle, each is a powerful creature with an ability that triggers when they enter the battle and attack. The twist this time is that they are enchantments and have the new ‘impending’ mechanic, which allows you to cast them for cheaper as an enchantment (not a creature) with time counters on it so it’ll turn into a creature later. Overlord of the Mistmoors is clearly a powerhouse, brining two 2/1 fliers when it enters and attacks, much like the dangerous Grave Titan from back in the day.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater

The ‘big bad’ of the set, Valgavoth is an elder demon who controls the plane of Duskmourn. A huge 9/9 flyer with lifelink is already a dangerous card, but the ward ability of ‘sacrifice three non-land permanents’ makes it incredibly hard for your opponents to interact with profitably. A powerful reanimation target, Valgavoth also enables you to turn the life you gain via lifelink into cards by playing cards exiled with its other ability. I expect this to crop up in both Standard and Commander reanimator decks.

The Wandering Rescuer

The Wanderer is back, but this time desparked and featuring as a legendary creature. Still featuring flash, The Wandering Rescuer can take your opponents by surprise by coming down at any time, and via convoke when seemingly tapped out. It also provides valuable protection to any tapped creatures, including those which tapped to convoke it into play. Double strike adds up fast as an attacking threat, too.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

The single Planeswalker of the set, Kaito has the unique ability of being able to come down as a creature with ninjitsu. Able to do so much, Kaito can be aggressive by pumping ninjas (including himself), draw cards, enable graveyard synergies with surveil, and can lock down creatures with stun counters

New Gameplay Mechanics and Strategic Impact

Duskmourn House of Horror features mechanics from Magic’s past (including with a twist), and some that are brand new.

Delirium is a returning mechanic, and perfect for a set based around horror, fear and going a little crazy. First appearing in Shadows Over Innistrad (again, a perfect home), Delirium cares about the number of card types in your graveyard, specifically hitting the threshold of four card types for something to happen. Thankfully, the set is filled with cards to make sure hitting delirium isn’t an issue (enchantment creatures, for example). Delirium cards in MTG Duskmourn will add extra depth to any graveyard deck 

Manifest Dread is a new twist on the old mechanic of manifest. When manifesting dread, you’ll look at the top two cards of your library – then put one into play, face down, as a 2/2 manifest creature (which can be turned up later for its mana cost), while the other card goes into the graveyard, fuelling synergies like delirium and reanimation.

Impending is a new mechanic but very similar to the old mechanic of suspend. With impending, you pay a cheaper cost to play a creature as an enchantment (triggering any ‘enters’ abilities) with time counters on it, which are removed at end of turn. When the final is removed, the card becomes a creature and can now attack and block as usual. Impending is both fun, and very flavourful for a set about scary things lurking around the corner!

Rooms are similar to the split card spells of the past, however rather than being instants and sorceries, the room cards are enchantment permanents. You choose which half to cast when you play it (one is usually much cheaper), and this side of the card (room) is considered ‘unlocked’. Later, you can also unlock the other room on the card for paying its mana cost, which also triggers cards that care about unlocking rooms. Proving natural two for ones, rooms are bound to see competitive play

Eerie – if you’ve not gathered already, there are a lot of enchantments in MTG Duskmourn, working well with the creepy theme of unseen magic lurking around. Eerie features on many cards in the set and triggers either when an enchantment is played, or a room is unlocked, tying in especially well with the room enchantment cards

Survival – this mechanic focuses on those managing to survive the horrors of MTG Duskmourn. Survival triggers in the post combat main phase if the creature is tapped – it lived through combat, or has been busy in some other way (i.e. it’s survived). A particularly nice and flavourful synergy is with vehicle cards – the creature becomes tapped by crewing a vehicle, which then lets the creature escape from whatever was coming after it!  

Duskmourn’s Influence on the MTG Meta

There’s no doubt Duskmourn will have an impact on the MTG meta, most likely in Standard. As we’ve just had a rotation, Standard is currently smaller than usual due to a recent rotation, and the new cards we’ve looked at in the article will make an appearance. Perhaps we won’t see a brand-new deck, however the powerful Duskmourn cards will start to appear in the popular decks, and I’m excited to see the new opportunities for reanimator. Looking wider, there are lots of nice options for Commander decks too, especially those based around enchantments and the graveyard.

Purchasing Duskmourn: House of Horror Cards

Good news – or perhaps bad, considering the monsters that await – Duskmourn House of Horror is available to purchase right now! Right here on Magic Madhouse you can buy single cards, including those highlighted above, and sealed product, from Play Booster Boxes to Bundles, Prerelease Packs to single boosters, and of course the four new commander decks too. Duskmourn looks like a blast to play, especially with Halloween on the horizon, and any way you want to delve into the horrors in the dark, Magic Madhouse has you covered! Any questions? Just drop the team an email and they’ll be happy to help!