MTG Duskmourn House of Horror: Card Previews, Set Spoilers and more!
Update 02/09/2024:
Wizards of the Coast have begun the spoiler season for Duskmourn: House of Horror and boy, are we in for a ride!
First off, we've got a better look at some of the horrors within this set, including the protagonists of this story; Winter, Zimone, Kaito, Norin, and Tyvar. Not only that, but the Beast Below has been shown to be Valgavoth, Terror Eater. Almost all of the protagonists (and Valgavoth) have been revealed to have textured foils and double-exposure cards.
Not only that, but some of the creatures in this set are just...spinetinglingly terrifying! The Overlord of the Mistmoors, Razorkin Needlehead, The Jolly Ballon Man - it feels like someone at WOTC was definitely a BIG fan of traditional horror such as Hellraiser. They've done a wonderful job at capturing what we truly love about horror, and this is evident in the flavour text:
Split Up flavour text: "Whatever happens, we need to stick togeth-AAAAGGGHHH!" - Recovered tape fragment
Unwanted Remake flavour text: "not dead just gone IT WILL COME BACK" - Note scrawled on a scrap of paper
The cherry on top for us here at Total Cards is the vintage-style horror movie posters for Duskmourn Commander, where Goryo's Vengence, Living Death and Archon of Cruelty are reminiscent of films such as Night of the Living Dead, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Bela Lugosi in The Phantom Creeps. We just cannot get enough!!
If you want to check out all these spoilers, and keep up to date with deck lists and more, then click the button below to jump to our card gallery!
Duskmourn: House of Horror is available to pre-order now, and releases on September 27th.
Original 28/06/2024:
MagicCon Amsterdam is running full steam ahead right now (June 28th) and during the panels, we're getting some exclusive looks at what to expect with upcoming sets. They've announced MTG Foundations, focusing on some of the core cards that are the root of Magic the Gathering, we're expecting to see some Bloomburrow reveals too! But our main focus today is something much more sinister, set previews for their next set Duskmourn: House of Horror.
Immediately, we can see this set is perfect for horror fans. If you felt a little let down by how tame Innistrad really was, then get ready for a chill down your spine because Duskmourn is looking to be the haunted house theme we've all been waiting for! Straight off the bat, the artwork is sickeningly stunning (and we mean that!) We've got poltergeists reaching out of TV sets, terrifying twins, and that monkey doll with the cymbals that stares into your soul! (No, really.) We can see from the artwork that this set is looking to be a homage to many of our favourite horror films; The Shining, Poltergeist, The Haunting, Ghostbusters, The Wicker Man and so much more. Duskmourn: House of Horror releases on 27th of September.
The Cards
We got a good look at some of the cards to expect with Duskmourn: House of Horror, with some nice little nods to classic horror moments such as Come Back Wrong (clearly a reference to Cheryl Williams from The Evil Dead). But what really makes this set stand out are some of the frames and foils!
Double Exposure cards are looking sick in this set. These cards mimic exactly that, double exposure photographs that give an eerie feeling. They're also available in a really well done Textured Foil, shown on the Wandering Rescuer. On this card specifically, the texturing looks almost like sound waves!
Another frame, which is arguably the coolest in our opinion, are the Paranormal Frames. These cards are made to look like a little paranormal device that allows you to see ghosts, have an 8-bit style to them which mimics looking at something through a funky infrared camera! Magic the Gathering have really gone all-out on this set, and we really cannot wait to check it out!
The Set: An Overview
Duskmourn: House of Horror comes with all the essentials. We can expect 4 Commander Decks (Miracle Worker, a White/Blue/Black deck; Death Toll, a Black/Green deck; Endless Punishment, a Black/Red deck; and Jump Scare!, a Green/Blue deck), a Collector Booster Box, a Play Booster Box, and two Bundles. What's most exciting about the Nightmare Bundle, Duskmourn's play on the Gift Edition Bundle, is that it's designed to look like an old analogue TV - which is very creepy and very vintage horror!
Archenemy Revamped
Wizards have also announced that they are bringing back a highly requested game mode, Archenemy! Basically, in Archenemy three players are pitted against one - but if you're the singular player, worry not! As you will have a deck full of wicked nasties at your disposal.
But why are they bringing it back, and what's changed? Well, firstly the reason that Archenemy is coming back is due to the fact this is the perfect set to do so. As Duskmourn: House of Horror is based on Betrayal at House on a Hill, a game in which one or more players will betray their party and seek to destroy them (as the opposing players must defeat the betrayer), this slotted perfectly inline with Archenemy's mechanics. But the problem with Archenemy is that for the hero team had 20 life each, and it was counted individually. This meant that the Archenemy would just need to knock out the players one by one, and having 2 opponents instead of 3 is easier, right? This also meant that the player knocked out would have a thrilling time watching their friends finish the game, which is never fun.
To counter this, Wizards have now made it so that the Archenemy has 60 life, and the hero team have a pooled 60 life. This means the players dont need to count their life individually, it can be calculated together and no singular player is targeted to be knocked out. This gives the Archenemy more of a challenge, but also creates a much more fun environment to play in.
Another tweak is that you only need 10 schemes to play. Schemes are what reside within the Archenemy's side deck, and each scheme will indicate what will occur that round. Though you can play with over 10 schemes, this means that you can have a more tailored game.
If you're just as excited as we are for Duskmourn: House of Horror, be sure to check out the products and sign up for when pre-orders go live! You can also check out the cards below to see what to expect when this spooktacular set releases on the 27th of September!
