Duskmourn Spoilers and Set Information

Last updated on January 17, 2024

Duskmourn Key Art | Illustration by Helge C. Balzer

Duskmourn: House of Horror was announced as a future MTG Standard set at the “Magic at 30” GenCon Panel. According to WotC, it’s a different take on horror, and as a fan I’m excited. Innistrad is great, but I feel I’ve had enough of it especially after so many returns.

Duskmourn releases in late 2024, and here’s everything we know about it. Since there isn’t much information available, let’s go wild and speculate over what scary and unspeakable horrors await us in Duskmourn, shall we?

Duskmourn: House of Horror Basic Information

Set Details

Important Dates

About the Set: The Story

Duskmourn: House of Horror concept art Illustrated by Antonio Jose Manzanedo

Duskmourn: House of Horror is a horror set that takes place in a giant haunted mansion. We don’t know anything about how this is connected to the story's big picture yet. Although we can make comparisons with Innistrad sets, WotC’s already announced that the horror influence of this plane is more akin to modern horror stories.

Duskmourn is a set filled with modern horror movie and media tropes, in opposition to Innistrad’s gothic horror influence, which is more centered around zombies, vampires, werewolves, and humans in grave peril. Mark Rosewater, MTG’s lead designer, has already stated that this set draws inspiration from horror movies from the 70s and 80s.

Speculation

Duskmourn was announced, so let’s speculate hard on this one.

Something that makes sense in this set is that it will revolve around fear, like we see in slasher movies. Jump scares! That fear when you look in the mirror and see something that shouldn’t be there with you, only to look back and see nothing. Think people in a closed environment like an old mansion running away from a human killer with a knife, instead of running from an inhuman monster. That can be a lead theme from this set, since we as human beings are constantly afraid of ourselves, the evil doers, and bad guys. That’s not to say that we won’t get monsters. MTG always has monsters, horrors, giant insects and the like, and that’s not the kind of thing you’d want to run into.

Taking a clue from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, we can have something like an Ancient One as the plane’s big ruler, and we can also see the return of -1/-1 counters as a mechanical theme in the set, because in these stories, people survive mental suffering and become permanently Traumatized. In fact, both promotional art pieces from the plane are at least inspired by Lovecraftian Horror. This theme is actually huge in board games, considering titles like Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Slasher movie references will be big in this set. MTG meets Friday the 13th, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the like. Mainstream media references can include Netflix’s Stranger Things, as well as movies inspired by Stephen King’s books like It or The Shining. Video game references can include Ghostbusters or get more modern with House of the Dead and Resident Evil.

Duskmourn: House of Horror concept art Illustrated by Helge C. Balzer

I'm pretty sure the mansion will be its own character since Wizards promised eerie walls.

Mill should be a well-supported theme to reiterate that the library is like your opponent's mind, and made to go crazy.

Spirits have been around Magic in great numbers before, I'm betting there's more than one spirit lurking in the huge mansion.

Finally, speculation mainly among reddit MTG communities strongly suggest that Ashiok came from Duskmourn or is somewhat related to this plane, since they’re one of the main story planeswalkers. No doubt, Ashiok would benefit from a nightmare horror plane.    

Official Spoilers

TBA

Available Products

Duskmourn is a typical Standard set, and sold in Play Boosters and Collector Boosters. It’s a safe bet that we’ll have at least one bundle, a gift bundle and two Commander precons with the set’s main themes as well.

Get Out

Tidy Conclusion | Illustration by Bastien L. Deharme

I wish I had more to say about Duskmourn, and frankly, it’s probably the future MTG set with which I’m most interested to see what MTG designers can do. As more and more information is known, we’ll certainly add tidbits here and there.

Are you excited for Duskmourn: House of Horror? Let me know in the comments section below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Know what? This is probably one of the more appropriate times to sign off with: “Stay safe!”