During PAX West, we got the chance to take a look at the new Magic: The Gathering set, Duskmourn: House of Horror. Additionally, we spent the day speaking with developers and artists who worked on the set, and one thing that stood out the most clearly to me was that they just want people to play Magic.
I didn’t get into playing Magic: The Gathering until about a year ago when The Lord of The Rings set was released. Until then, I had felt intimidated by the longstanding and iconic card game. With Lord of the Rings as a grounding property, I felt like I could pick up the game for the first time. If I didn’t know how to play, I at least knew J.R.R. Tolkien’s world and lore. That was the bridge I needed to explore the depth of the card game, the beauty of its arts, and the devout care that the writers have put into the stories that the cards represent and how thoughtfully key elements of the books I loved were adapted into existing and new mechanics of the game.
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That was my entry point, and with multiple other Universes Beyond sets that have adapted franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Fallout, I could see how Wizards of the Coast and the Magic: The Gathering teams were trying to open the door as wide as they could meet new players. While we sat and listened to three panels about the latest set, Duskmourn, I couldn’t help but keep a comment from the first panel in front of my mind. “There isn’t a single audience that Magic isn’t for.”
While this can be looked at from a cynical way, in recognizing how large IP deals have helped the company branch its collection’s revenue even larger, the truth is that there was a kindness with which each developer and employee spoke about the game. The truth was, the teams we heard from deeply wanted to bring new people into the world of Magic, and by expanding the cards, their settings, and the IP connections, they have been able to do that.
Duskmourn: House of Horror marks another step into a new genre for the team at Magic: The Gathering. The first purely modern horror-focused set reaches deep into the horror genre and the tropes that have defined it, from Italian Giallo to 80s slashers. The depth that the artists and writers have focused on highlighting with the individual cards and focus on lore development speaks to how dynamic horror and stories around fear are to those who love it. This is a set for people who love horror; no Magic experience is needed to jump right in, whether you’re using the Commander format or standard.
Duskmourn’s story focuses on survivors of a great evil, the demonic Valgavoth, that has morphed the entire plane into one unending haunted house. The set takes place within the walls of the house as we follow a group of survivors who have not fallen to Valvgavoth. The Expansion’s icon is a moth, and that is represented through its demon as he evolves over each card, becoming more powerful and terrifying. The moth motif also allows the set to reach not only into iconic horror films that have used moths but also to highlight cryptids as well.
But how do we find ourselves in Duskmourn? Well, Nashi, the son of the Planeswalker Tamiyo, vanishes through a mysterious door, leaving behind a glitchy, warped recording of a new world full of terrors. With Nashi, you 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. Each character represents a different horror archetype, from Final Girl to jock and everything in between. Nashi’s recording also sets up the unique paranormal researcher element to the card set, with VHS distortion and paranormal recordings as a basis for frames and collector variants.
To fit with the horror theme, the set’s focus on Enchantments makes it stand out. First is with Rooms, cards designed in a landscape format with two halves. Each side of the room requires a mana cost to unlock when they are played. The Room cards showcase the horror taking place in the walls of Duskmourn as you peek between the walls separating the rooms, while each room’s theme captures a different horror theme. Rooms also have a new ability word: Eerie. This variation on constellation also triggers when its controller fully unlocks a Room. Of course, it will keep in line with the theme.
Other keywords in this set include Impending, which notably refers to all enchantment creatures. Leaning into the set’s focus on enchantments. When a card is cast for its impending cost, it’s put onto the battlefield with time counters equal to its impending value. Until all the counters are removed, it’s not a creature. This is a clever play on the moments in horror films where the audience knows something the characters do not. We may see the impending doom coming from the slasher in the woods, but the characters around the campfire in the first act don’t. We can see it coming, and the suspense that builds before it happens is a part of the joy.
Additionally, the set reintroduces the Delirium mechanic. First appearing in the Shadows over Innistrad block, delirium cares about having four or more card types in your graveyard, perfect for a theme known for its extremely high number of casualties. Other returning elements include the Doctor creature type, as the first appearance outside of a Universes Beyond set, and the first appearance of the Balloon and Clown creature types outside of an Un-set. It features the first-ever non-token card with the Survivor creature type, as well.
It’s this last note that really highlights the cohesive theme of the set survivors. In addition to Eerie and Impending, Survival is a new ability word similar to how Inspired functions in other sets. Taken from the core trope of the set that focuses on survivors of the manor, it signifies an ability that triggers if the creature with the ability is tapped during your second main phase, representing that they survived the terrors of combat.
But of course, horror needs some hope, even if it is small. With Glimmers, the team has injected glimpses of joy into a set marked by terror. A Glimmer of Hope, if you will, taking on the appearance of calming innocent creatures like a lamb. The Glimmers run parallel to the creation of Fear cards that exist as manifestations of fear that players may feel, interpreting phobias in strange ways as you explore the cards. The weirdest and most unsettling of which was the “Fear of Lost Teeth” for me.
The stars of the set really are how the art team defined horror elements in a still medium. Chief among them is how the team tackled bringing jump scares to life with Lurking Evil variants. It’s a variant theme that expertly captures the nature and impact of jump scares, highlighting the attention to horror elements and tropes that have taken root in Duskmourn. Add in the borderless art variants that show dangerous horrors reflected in their victim from a different angle, and the art of Duskmourn has taken inspiration to the next level.
I could have listened to the developers talk all day about how they brought horror to life in-game mechanics. It’s a practice to understand what fans love about the genre, and because of that thoughtfulness, Duskmourn is the perfect entry point for new players. It’s something that I think I can say for every set at this point, but that’s what’s amazing about Magic: The Gathering. Its constant expansion just keeps growing its audience. It’s an inclusive experience when it comes to the characters on the cards, but more importantly, it’s a wide-open door for anyone to start playing, not a tightly guarded gate.
Looking at each card, had I not been pulled into the game with The Lord of the Rings, this may have been where it got me. Horror is a way to tell stories that expand across every medium; it’s only natural it has made its way to Magic, too. The team behind Duskmourn didn’t just capture the surface level of the genre, instead, they studied it across countries, decades, and looked at the archetypes and tropes that made it click. While some horror fans may have come into the card game with Shadows Over Innistrad, Duskmourn’s modern tilt and its exploration of the haunted house concept are bound to bring even more into the fold.
Duskmourn may be horrific, but the ways that I got to experience Magic during this preview event were wholesome. It’s rare to see the kindness and excitement that comes with introducing people to something you love; that was the guiding force at this preview event. While I may have started collecting cards in 2023, I hadn’t started playing. But after previewing Duskmourn: House of Horrors, I started making my deck immediately.
