Magic: The Gathering is about to get scary (scarier?), as the next expansion is all about horror. Duskmourn: House Of Horror brings all kinds of '80s-style horrors to the tenured trading card game, including some that will add a jump scare or two (literally in one card's case).
We have a slew of exclusive reveals from the upcoming set, ranging from a novel way to remove a troublesome creature in white to a spontaneous damage dealer in green. All five are commons, but they have a chance to make an impact in both limited and constructed formats.
Let's start with a new artifact creature, Living Phone!
- Living Phone (Artifact Creature - Toy)
- 2 power/1 toughness creature
- Costs two generic and 1 white mana to cast
- Ability: When Living Phone dies, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card with power 2 or less from among them and put them into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
While paying three mana for a two-power, one-toughness creature isn't a great rate, being able to potentially load your hand with another creature when it dies softens the blow a bit. Imagine following this up with an Esper Sentinel or Grand Abolisher; your opponent will fear the phone if that ever happens.
Next we have a burn spell in…green? Here's Monstrous Emergence!
- Monstrous Emergence (Sorcery)
- Costs one generic and one green mana to cast
- As an additional cost to cast this spell, choose a creature you control or reveal a creature from your hand.
- Monstrous Emergence deals damage equal to the power of the creature you chose or the card you revealed to target creature.
Ever draw a big and beefy creature in your opening hand, only to look at it for the entire game without it making much of an impact? Monstrous Emergence here allows it to make a brief appearance, while also taking out a pesky opposing creature at the same time. Revealing a bomb in your hand is risky, but it takes out an opponent's bomb, it's worth it.
After that, we have a demon in goat's clothing with Possessed Goat!
- Possessed Goat (Creature - Goat)
- 1 power/1 toughness creature
- Costs one white mana to cast
- Pay 3 generic mana and discard a card: Put three +1/+1 counters on Possessed Goat and it becomes a black Demon in addition to its other colors and types. Activate only once.
While the ability gives Possessed Goat a demonic upside in the mid or late gate, as a one-drop, we don't necessarily trust it; after all, considering the cost of the activated ability, this means the goat here is a vanilla 1/1 for at least the first two turns. Much like the demon within the goat, keep Possessed Goat in your hand until you can turn the demon loose.
We follow up with a novel removal spell in white, Seized From Slumber!
- Seized From Slumber (Instant)
- Costs four generic and one white mana to cast
- This card costs three generic mana less to cast if it targets a tapped creature.
- Destroy target creature.
Spot removal for five mana stinks. Spot removal for two mana on a creature that attacked last turn (or, if you were able to tap it before it could do anything) is quite good. Mix this with Orphans Of The Wheat and you'll be sitting pretty.
Finally, we have another of the new Room enchantments in Ticket Booth // Tunnel Of Hate!
- Ticket Booth // Tunnel Of Hate (Enchantment - Room)
- You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.
- Ticket Booth
- Costs two generic and one red mana to cast
- When you unlock this door, manifest dread.
- Manifest Dread: Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.
- Tunnel Of Hate
- Costs four generic and two red mana to cast
- Whenever you attack, target attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn.
The new Room mechanic offers two effects, for two different costs, with some sort of connected strategy. Here, you make a 2/2 creature for three mana, and then you can give it or any other creature on the board double strike for six mana. It's slow, and it may be better to cast the bigger side first if you can, but double strike on any creature is nothing to sneeze at.
Duskmourn: House Of Horror launches September 27 in local game stores. Prerelease events are set to take place September 20-27.
