Every Magic: The Gathering set has a theme to distinguish it, nevertheless it’s uncommon to see a distinction as stark as that between the lovable birds and bunnies of Bloomburrow on one hand and the fashionable horror of Duskmourn on the opposite. This can be a Magic set a couple of haunted mansion that fills a complete dimension that references useless teenager films and killer clowns. It is like submitting your A. A. Milne subsequent to your Stephen King.
Mike Turian, a former skilled Magic participant who’s now certainly one of its developer/designers, calls the incongruity “each a coincidence and deliberate,” saying that, “Whereas we do not essentially purpose for such large momentum swings in tonality between units, we positively attempt to come across a number of themes per yr. That is to make sure there’s somewhat little bit of one thing for everybody. Cute critters to creepy horrors is actually the acute finish of that scale however as we discover an increasing number of settings and themes for Magic, that is certain to occur.” This was the right time to launch Duskmourn, he explains, that means the set could possibly be out in time for Halloween.
Every set options particular visitor artists suited to its theme. David Petersen, creator of the comedian e-book Mouse Guard, illustrated a number of Bloomburrow playing cards for example. Among the many artists on Duskmourn are Tim Jacobus, well-known for his Goosebumps covers, and Masahiro Ito, monster designer and artwork director for the unique Silent Hill video games. Ito contributed artwork for a reprint of Damnation, an iconic card with the succinct guidelines textual content: “Destroy all creatures. They can not be regenerated.” Which is scary sufficient by itself, however now it is accompanied by Ito’s rendition of Valgavoth, a moth-like demon who lords over Duskmourn and has means too many arms.
“An elder demon of monumental energy that turns a complete aircraft right into a feeding floor?” Turian says. “Positively one thing Ito might assist us depict. It was an honour to see such an excellent thoughts at work designing the paintings for Damnation and it is a course of we hope to proceed into the longer term. Working with artists such Junji Ito and Yoshitaka Amano lately has made us notice that we at Wizards (in addition to Magic followers) love seeing further exterior influences on our paintings. We hope to work with Masahiro Ito once more sooner or later.”
By way of mechanics, Duskmourn is all about enchantment playing cards like the brand new Rooms, which have two results representing adjoining areas of the haunted home. You pay the associated fee for one, however can unlock the opposite by paying its value later to open the door and set free no matter’s inside.
“The idea of doorways and the horror trope of ‘select your personal doom’ is one thing we latched onto pretty early within the design course of,” Turian says. “From a taste perspective, doorways make loads of sense to depict ‘exploring the haunted home’. Enchantments merely made probably the most sense when it got here to representing that concept on the battlefield. Mechanically, gamers love flexibility of their playing cards. An impact they will play early whereas nonetheless having endurance within the late sport is extremely valued amongst extra aggressive gamers and can be a feel-good for these much less competitive-minded.”
The opposite new enchantments in Duskmourn are additionally a brand new creature kind, known as Glimmers: glowing animal spirits who’re the one pleasant factor you are more likely to meet within the infinite haunted home.
“These are enchantment creatures that characterize the hopes and persistence of Duskmourn’s survivors,” Turian says. “The horrors of the aircraft are balanced out effectively by these small sparks of hope. Glimmers provide a cycle of Enduring creatures who begin as creatures with skills and in the event that they die, they return simply as enchantments (they’re not creatures). It isn’t all doom and gloom on Duskmourn!”
Magic’s finished horror-themed units earlier than, just like the gothic Innistrad units with their vampires and werewolves, and the physique horror of Phyrexia. Personally I believe Phyrexia is the creepiest one they’ve finished, however Duskmourn actually has some unsettling stuff in it, particularly when it attracts inspiration from actual fears like having your tooth fall out. Turian’s personal fears embrace a bunch which are based mostly on the cardboard sport he is devoted a lot of his life to.
“From a Magic perspective, my largest nightmare is opening a sick uncommon in my first pack of a draft after which simply being laborious reduce from these colours. One other frequent piece of nightmare gasoline is sitting down for a sport of Commander in opposition to three jail decks such that I by no means get to play a single card. As a former professional participant, I’ve additionally positively had nightmares of waking up too late for a event or misregistering my decklist.”
Duskmourn: Home of Horror is on the market now in each paper magic and digitally in Magic: The Gathering Enviornment.