Following preview season tradition, Magic: The Gathering Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, has shared a list of hints and teasers of what to expect from the upcoming set, Duskmourn: House of Horror, to his Blogatog.
What to Expect
Starting off with a few “things you can expect…” to find within Duskmourn: House of Horror, there will be a character, first referenced in flavor text from Alpha, that will appear in the set as a legendary creature, as well as a modal, three-mana sweeper spell in white. Next up, there will be a variant of a mechanic that it itself was a variant of another mechanic, and the first ability word that will reference the “second main phase” will appear as well.
Creature Types
Next up, Rosewater shared a ton of creature types from Duskmourn: House of Horror, including Shark, Goat, Elder Demon, Rat Ninja Wizard, and most interestingly, Human Doctor. While we don’t know anything about the card, this will be the first time the Doctor creature type will be printed in a Standard-legal set – having previously only appeared in the Fallout and Doctor Who Universes Beyond Commander decks.
A few more interesting creature types from the set can be found below:
- Creature – Eye
- Creature – Fish Insect
- Artifact Creature – Monkey Toy
- Creature – Human Clown Berserker
- Creature – Kor Survivor
Rules Text
Without context, a lot of rules text for new Magic sets can be difficult to decipher, however one teaser makes it very clear that a beloved character who was thought to have died during the Phyrexian incursion will be making an appearance in the set. The text reads: “Exile any number of target instant, sorcery, and/or Tamiyo planeswalker cards from your graveyard.” Even the main story hasn’t covered how or why Tamiyo will be returning, but it’s definitely something to look forward to (or is it…)! Here are a few more rules text you can expect to find in the set:
- “You have no maximum hand size and don’t lose the game for having 0 or less life.”
- “Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only a single creature you control, copy that spell.”
- “unlock a locked door…”
- “Search your library for a Demon card…”
- “Shards you control become copies of it until the beginning of the next end step.”
Card Names
Closing things out, Rosewater shared the names of a few cards in the set, hands-down the most notable from the list being “The Meathook Massacre II,” which is assumed to be the successor to The Meathook Massacre from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. This card name alone already has the internet abuzz with speculation, but there are plenty of other card names to pour over as well, many of which are references to iconic horror movies. Check the names out below and let us know which references you find:
- Acrobatic Cheerleader
- Don’t Make a Sound
- Exorcise
- Friendly Ghost
- Jump Scare
- Let’s Play a Game
- Orphans of the Wheat
- Split Up
- Unsettling Twins
Duskmourn: House of Horror is scheduled to release on September 27. View our official preview gallery.
