Last updated on November 20, 2024
Duskmourn Key Art | Illustration by Helge C. Balzer
Magic's visit to Duskmourn: House of Horror came in and hit you like a brick house, Wizards goes hard on horror. It makes you appreciate all the work on those haunted houses with skeletons in their front yard, cobwebs in the corners, and spooky things in the nooks and crannies ready the scare the living daylight out of you.
It’s a different take on horror, and as a fan, this stuff gets me excited. I like my scares to be fresh, even if they've been locked away in a basement or cursed to stay under the floorboards for generations.
Duskmourn has scary and unspeakable horrors that are born from modern horror that linger in today's horror flicks and games.
Duskmourn: House of Horror Basic Information
Set Details
| Set Symbol |  |
| Set Code | DSK, DSC |
| Hashtag | #MTGDuskmourn |
| Number of Cards | 261 |
| Rarities | 81 Commons, 100 Uncommons, 60 Rares, 20 Mythic Rares |
| Mechanics | Delirium, Eerie Impending, Manifest Dread, Rooms, and Survival |
Important Dates
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Story Begins | August 19, 2024 |
| Previews start | August 31, 2024 |
| First Looks | June 28, 2024 |
| Full gallery available | September 13, 2024 |
| Available on Draftsim's Draft Simulator | Available Now! |
| Digital release date | September 24, 2024 |
| Available on Arena Tutor | September 24, 2024 |
| Prerelease | September 20-27, 2024 |
| Paper release date | September 27, 2024 |
| Nightmare Bundle Release | October 18, 2024 |
| Commander Party | October 4-10 and November 1-7 (2024) |
| End of Year Store Championship | October 12, 2024 - January 4, 2025 |
| WPN Trick or Treat Halloween Event | October 25-31, 2024 |
| Open House | November 1-3, 2024 |
About the Set: The Story
Valgavoth, Terror Eater | Illustrated by Antonio Jose Manzanedo
Duskmourn: House of Horror is a horror set that takes place in a giant haunted mansion. Nashi of the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is a central explorer and a rescue team ventures into the House. Even more central is Valgavoth, Terror Eater, a starving moth of sorts that sits at a deep part of the house. Tie together with omenpath characters like Proft, Tyvar, and The Wanderer and you're in for a wicked ride. The horror influence of this plane is susceptible to photographs and the paranormal so it might show up in your mirror or on monitors.
This set draws inspiration from horror movies from the 70s and 80s, and Duskmourn is filled with modern horror movie and media tropes, in opposition to Innistrad’s gothic horror influence, which is more centered around zombies, vampires, and werewolves. One thing both types of horror have in common is humans are in grave peril.
Mechanics
Eerie
Eerie is a nice upgrade on constellation. You play enchantments and unlock doors then eerie things happen. Simple and sweet, single -drop crabs like the Scrabbling Skullcrab are known to be much more than eerie in the right deck.
Impending
Wait, don't time counters mean suspend? Not always, and impending has some key differences, notably, an impending card enters play the turn it is cast, meaning it does not go into exile if you paid the impending cost, and the time counters are removed at your end step rather than your upkeep like with suspend. So the first action your impending creature might see is to block an opponent's attack.
Overlord of the Hauntwoods gives you immediate benefit with a chromatic land token, and what better color than green is there to use those extra lands?
Manifest Dread
You might remember manifest, now recall that memory and add a sense of dread because you just self-milled a card. The true dread here is to give your opponent a creature they put into play and a card they want in the graveyard. Then again, there are archetypes that want Unwanted Remake to say “sacrifice a creature” and manifest dread as the upside.
The Manifest helper card is a tasteful way to remind everyone that the face-down creature could turn up at any time, as an action that does not count as an ability or spell. Thieving Amalgam is an older, notable card that manifests without dread.
Rooms
Here's an expansion on enchantments: rooms are two “cards” that can be unlocked and only take up one slot in the decklist. The rules questions are plentiful with room names and costs, so basically, you treat the card as if it has both names and both costs.
Let's learn with an example, the mana value on Dollmaker's Shop / Porcelain Gallery is eight, and if you've only unlocked the Dollmaker's Shop and clone it, the copy will have Dollmaker's Shop unlocked with the potential to have a second Porcelain Gallery unlocked.
Grand Entryway / Elegant Rotunda | Illustration by Carlos Palma Cruchaga
Moldering Gym / Weight Room | Illustration by Helge C. Balzer.
You could tell from the early art that the Conservatory, Library, and the Secret Passage from Ravnica: Clue Edition are not the kind of rooms you find in DSK. Pretty amazing to see the two sides of the rooms are markedly different in the art, well done artists!
Survival
A Veteran Survivor has the word survival on it and that's what matters—if it survives. You need plenty of ways to tap creatures without attacking, otherwise, your survivor's toughness is more crucial than it already is.
Did you catch how Wizards snuck in that creature type of survivor? I've caught myself more than once thinking of how I benefit from a creature if it attacks safely, and survival just put a name and ability word to it. I think it makes perfect sense and is a fun revival of the inspired mechanic from Born of the Gods.
Delirium
I'm afraid I won't max out the use of additional combat phases, but that's me having FOMO. To send different card types to your graveyard is something every Magic player has access to. The Fear of Missing Out trigger seems ridiculously easy and is an exciting reason to bring back a little delirium into your deck.
Reluctant Role Model | Illustration by Chris Rallis
Full Card Gallery
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
Multicolored
Colorless
Lands
Alchemy: Duskmourn
Alchemy: Duskmourn is available on Arena for these formats:
Notable Cards
Meathook Massacre II
You know the horror movie marathons, well it's debatable if Meathook Massacre II is more gory than ban-worthy The Meathook Massacre but one thing is certain, the sequel is a killer card.
Impending Overlords
The massive overlords have titan/gearhulk level power and have exciting synergy with flicker and counter moving effects. The land tokens from Overlord of the Hauntwoods may be a fan favorite, but it's safe to say if you can handle the double pip costs on each except Overlord of the Balemurk, you threaten to take over the game in short order.
Japan Showcase
The artists and illustrators of Japan are world-renowned and while they lend their talents to the Japan Showcase cards, you are also treated to a fractured foiling process that brings out the incredible Duskmourn art.
Rare Dual Lands
The allied land cycle of Blazemire Verge, Floodfarm Verge, Hushwood Verge, Gloomlake Verge, and Thornspire Verge requires you to control only one of two basic land types to be a great untapped dual land. Don't confuse these with the common land cycle that includes Abandoned Campground and cares if any player has 13 or less life.
Available Products
If you pre-ordered Duskmourn to earn a cool code for a sleeve in Arena, that code is delivered when your order is shipped and has to be redeemed within the year. You can still have buy-a-box promos delivered to your house with sealed boxes of play boosters or collector boosters.
Play Boosters
WotC wants lurking evil cards to show up at noncommon rarities in play boosters of Duskmourn. These packs are built to support Duskmourn drafts, guarantee a foil, and a chance for up to four rares. One out of every five play boosters should have a foil land. As a play booster exclusive, foil signed art cards can also show up as the non-playable card.
- FIGHT TO SURVIVE IN A HOUSE OF NIGHTMARES—Dare to enter Duskmourn, a plane-enveloping House that sets the scene for your opponent’s greatest fears to come to life
- FUN TO OPEN. FUN TO PLAY—Play Boosters are perfect for Limited play and fun to open, with a possibility of Art cards, alternate art, special frames, and additional Rares and/or Mythics
- BEST BOOSTERS FOR PLAYING WITH FRIENDS—Specially balanced for Limited play, grab 6 Play Boosters to build a deck and battle your friends in Sealed games, or grab 3 packs and pass them around to build decks in a Booster Draft
- PACKS MAY CONTAIN MULTIPLE RARES—Each Play Booster contains 1–4 cards of rarity Rare or higher, including the possibility of a Borderless Mythic Rare card from Magic’s history
- SHINING FOIL IN EVERY PACK—Every booster also includes at least 1 shining Traditional Foil card of any rarity; in 20% of packs you’ll also find a Traditional Foil Land card
Commander Decks
The Commander decks for Duskmourn can operate a bit differently, kind of how the March of the Machine Commander decks had planchase, these feature 10 scheme cards each for the 1 vs. 3 variant, Archenemy. The Duskmourn Commander decks come with 10 new-to-Magic scheme cards, 10 double-sided tokens, a life wheel, and a sample of a collector booster.
- GET ALL 4 DUSKMOURN: HOUSE OF HORROR COMMANDER DECKS—See the future and cast miracles with Miracle Worker, fill your graveyard and reanimate monsters with Death Toll, cast tricky instants and mysterious face-down cards with Jump Scare!, or control monstrosities and make your opponents pay with Endless Punishment
- FOIL BORDERLESS COMMANDERS—Every Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander Deck includes 2 Traditional Foil Legendary Creature cards featuring spine-tingling Borderless art
- INTRODUCING 40 COMMANDER CARDS—Each deck introduces fresh horrors to Magic: The Gathering with 10 never-before-seen Commander cards
- 40 ARCHENEMY SCHEMES—Archenemy pits a team of three against one player who draws from an extra deck of powerful and nefarious schemes. Each Duskmourn Commander deck introduces 10 terrifying schemes; get all 40 and make the table tremble!
- COLLECT SPECIAL TREATMENT CARDS—Each deck also comes with a 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack containing 2 cards from the Duskmourn: House of Horror set, including 1 alt-border Rare or Mythic Rare and at least 1 Traditional Foil card
Collector Boosters
If you want collector boosters of Duskmourn you have a chance at getting textured foil, double exposure photograph cards. WotC gives a new fractured foil process to Japanese Showcase cards which show up in non-Japanese collector boosters at a 1 out of 3 rate. These packs are stacked with five shiny commons, four foil uncommons and at least five rares or better.
- FIGHT TO SURVIVE IN A HOUSE OF NIGHTMARES—Dare to enter Duskmourn, a plane-enveloping House that sets the scene for your opponent’s greatest fears to come to life
- FRIGHTENINGLY GOOD FINDS—Collector Boosters are a shortcut to the coolest cards in a set, with packs full of Rare cards, shiny foil cards, and special alt-art, alt-frame cards
- HORRIFY YOUR FRIENDS IN STYLE—Collect more hard-to-find Duskmourn: House of Horror cards with 5 cards of rarity Rare or higher and a total of 5 alt-border cards in every Collector Booster
- COLLECTOR BOOSTER-EXCLUSIVE TREATMENTS—Collector Boosters are the only place you can find certain coveted card styles, including the possibility of extended-art cards or even a card with the special Textured Foil Double Exposure treatment
- COLLECTOR BOOSTER BOX CONTENTS—12 Duskmourn: House of Horror Collector Boosters, with 15 MTG cards in each pack
Bundle
Build yourself a little suspense with the Duskmourn bundle, you get a box, cycles of lands, and die (the spindown kind). Of course, you never know what the nine play boosters mean to your collection.
- HARROWING CARDS AND HAUNTING ACCESSORIES—Explore the set and build decks packed with chills and thrills with a Bundle full of cards and exclusive play accessories
- FIGHT TO SURVIVE IN A HOUSE OF NIGHTMARES—Dare to enter Duskmourn, a plane-enveloping House that sets the scene for your opponent’s greatest fears to come to life
- BUILD A DECK THAT FRIGHTENS YOUR FRIENDS—Great for Limited play and fun to open, each Bundle contains 9 Play Boosters, with a possibility of multiple Rares and at least 1 shining foil card in every pack
- FULL-ART LANDS & SPECIAL ALTERNATE-ART CARD—Every Bundle also comes with 1 Traditional Foil promo card featuring Bundle-exclusive alternate art, and 10 of the 30 included Land cards feature spine-tingling Full Art
- BUNDLE-EXCLUSIVE ACCESSORIES—Each Bundle comes with exclusive accessories, including a special die to track your life total and a sturdy Duskmourn: House of Horror box to store everything in
Nightmare Bundle
Don't sleep on the Nightmare Bundle of Duskmourn: House of Horror which was released about a month after the main set. Give yourself shiny dreams about the special bundle‘s contents. This has two collector boosters along with six play boosters to justify the increased cost, 20 full art lands, an alternate art promo card, plus, three scary double-sided movie posters, and a glow-in-the-dark spindown die can tip the scale toward your horror fandom.
- FOR THE GHOUL WHO HAS EVERYTHING—You’re channeling the most spirited bundle a Magic fan can get, boasting a ballroom-sized bounty of special goodies, including a special glow-in-the-dark Spindown, in case you get too scared of the dark
- THIS TV IS ALWAYS ON THE HORROR CHANNEL—Don’t touch that dial; every Nightmare Bundle contains 1 of 3 stylized Movie Poster-themed promo cards, 1 of 3 spine-tingling Borderless promo cards, plus 3 double-sided movie posters featuring promo card art
- COLLECT THE COOLEST DUSKMOURN CARDS—Get 2 Collector Boosters for a shortcut to the coolest cards in the set; each pack is full of Rare and/or Mythic cards, shiny foil cards, and special alt-art, alt-frame cards
- BUILD A FRIGHTENING DECK WITH PLAY BOOSTERS—Great for Limited play and fun to open, this Bundle contains 6 Play Boosters, with a possibility of multiple Rares and at least 1 shining foil card in every pack
- EXPLORE A HOUSE OF NIGHTMARES—Set the scene for your opponent’s greatest fears to come to life with 20 Traditional Foil Full-Art Manor Lands
Get Out
Zimone, All-Questioning | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak
Duskmourn cards are a flex of what MTG designers can do. The house as a plane is so cool and I get almost as excited about this set as discovering a Magic collection at a garage sale.
Stay together, keep your friends close, and try out Commander with a variation on the multiplayer format with schemes. If you tried it out, what's a memory you made while playing Archenemy? What gave you goosebumps from 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!”
Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:
Add Comment