Duskmourn Debut Showcases Five Flavorful New MTG Mechanics

Duskmourn spoiler season is finally among us, and there’s a lot to look forward to. The extreme contrast between Duskmourn’s scary aesthetics and Bloomburrow’s cute and cuddly environment is jarring, so if you’re looking for completely different vibes, this set may be right up your alley.

Along with a multitude of new spoilers, the Duskmourn debut stream that recently took place at Pax West gave us our first glimpse at the world of Duskmourn mechanics. A bunch of cool ideas are present that help give the set its intriguing identity. To kick things off, let’s go over arguably the flashiest mechanic in the set: Room.

Room

Mana Value 1W/4WW

Rarity: Mythic Rare

MTG Set: Duskmourn

Card Text: (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.) Dollmaker’s Shop- Whenever one or more non-Toy creatures you control attack a player, create a 1/1 white Toy artifact creature token. Porcelain Gallery- Creatures you control have base power and toughness each equal to the number of creatures you control.

For a while now, we’ve known that Rooms would be appearing in Duskmourn. However, the only information we had was that we knew they weren’t going to be a new card type. Now, it looks like we have the mechanic entirely laid out for us, thanks to the spoiling of Dollmaker’s Shop/Porcelain Gallery.

How Rooms work is that similar to cards with an Adventure, you can start by casting either half of the card. In this case, you may pay either two mana to get the effects of Dollmaker’s Shop or six mana to get the effects of Porcelain Gallery.

Rooms specifically appear on enchantments that sit on the battlefield. Whichever half of the card you cast is the side that “unlocks,” giving you access to whatever benefits await you. From there, you have the luxury to unlock the other half of the Room at any point by paying its mana value. If you do, you now get the rewards of both sides.

It’ll be cool to see how these cards play out. With Dollmaker’s Shop/Porcelain Gallery, it seems intuitive that in Limited or Constructed, you’re likely to cast Dollmaker’s Shop in a creature-heavy deck first to start building out a board. Then, if you start to flood, unlocking Porcelain Gallery can completely break a board stall wide open. Make sure to look out for common play patterns to help you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these new, sweet cards.

Eerie

Mana Value: U

Rarity: Uncommon

Stats: 0/3

MTG Set: Duskmourn

Card Text: Eerie- Whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a Room, target player mills two cards. (They put the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.)

Our next mechanic is one that specifically plays well with enchantments and rooms. Known as Eerie, the mechanic functions as follows: Whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a Room, (effects happens).

An example of how Eerie works on a new Duskmourn card appears with Scrabbling Skullcrab. Scrabbling Skullcrab rewards you for playing enchantments by letting you mill players at will when they enter.

Eerie is a rather flavorful mechanic to see in a horror set. Changing Rooms in this enormous haunted house is sure to be unsettling, and Scrabbling Skullcrab certainly reflects that.

Impending

Mana Value: 5WW

Rarity: Mythic Rare

Stats: 6/6

MTG Set: Duskmourn

Card Text: Impending 4- 2WW (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with four time counters and isn’t a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.) Whenever Overlord of the Mistmoors enters or attacks, create two 2/1 white Insect creature tokens with flying.

Impending is another mechanic that may give your opponent a sense of unease. This ability has some similarities to Suspend, but functions a bit differently. See, each card has Impending X, followed by a mana cost. If you cast the card for its Impending cost, it enters with N time counters. As long as there are time counters on it, it isn’t a creature.

The biggest difference between Impending and Suspend is that the card you cast with Impending does, in fact, enter the battlefield. As such, your opponent can use enchantment removal on Overlord of the Mistmoors while it still has time counters on it. They won’t be able to use a creature kill spell until the last time counter is removed, though.

As we see with Overlord of the Mistmoors, you do get a bonus right away when your powerful Avatar Horror enters, even if you pay the Impending cost. These 2/1 fliers can help buy you the time needed to remove all the counters on Overlord of the Mistmoors and start attacking.

It sounds like Overlord of the Mistmoors isn’t the only creature with Impending X that has an extremely strong enters and attacks trigger. If you’re lucky enough to open one of these monsters in draft, your opponent will undoubtedly feel pressured to end the game quickly before their impending doom comes to fruition.

Manifest Dread

Mana Value: 1GG

Rarity: Mythic Rare

Stats: 3/3

MTG Set: Duskmourn

Card Text: Whenever Hauntwoods Shrieker attacks, 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.) 1G Reveal target face-down permanent. If it’s a creature card, you may turn it face up.

Manifest Dread is a new mechanic that is quite similar to old-school Manifest. The difference is that whenever you Manifest Dread, you actually get to look at the top two cards of your library, then choose one to put into play face down as a 2/2. The other card goes to your graveyard.

This helps enable a couple things. First, you get a bit of card selection, making it more likely you’ll put a creature face down that you can flip up later in the game by paying its mana cost. This may add some additional suspense on your opponent’s side, since if you managed to put a big threat face down, there are plenty of ways combat can go wrong for the opponent if you have mana untapped.

Second, you get to fill your graveyard for potential graveyard synergies, which are present throughout the set. For example, Delirium is a returning mechanic, and Manifest Dread can help you get to that four-card threshold.

Survival

Mana Value: W

Rarity: Uncommon

Stats: 2/1

MTG Set: Duskmourn

Card Text: Survival- At the beginning of your second main phase, if Veteran Survivor is tapped, exile up to one target card from a graveyard. As long as there are three or more cards exiled with Veteran Survivor, it gets +3/+3 and has hexproof (It can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)

Last but not least, we have Survival. Survival is a very fitting mechanic, as all characters strive to make it out of the haunted house unscathed. The goal with Survival in practice, as showcased by Veteran Survivor above, is to be able to attack with your creature and have it live through combat. That way, your creature is tapped by the start of your second main phase, and you get a bonus.

Interestingly, though, there are other ways to get around having to attack. Let’s say you have a card like Glare of Subdual in play. You can always use Glare to tap your Veteran Survivor before your second main phase. Survival only cares that your creature is tapped, so you’ll still get your reward.

It’s amazing just how thematic every new Duskmourn mechanic is. Personally, I’m very excited to see how this set plays out. The aesthetics are simply awesome, and these abilities definitely fit the vibes.