Overlord of the Hauntwoods | Duskmourn: House of Horror | Art by Aogachu
27, Jun, 24

Surprise MTG Duskmourn Spoilers Reveal Infinite Combo Piece!

‘Twas the night before Pro Tour, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a 1/1 Mouse. Or at least, that’s how the Magic community thought things would go. Instead, seemingly out of the blue, the first-ever spoilers for the enigmatic MTG set Duskmourn: House of Horrors have been dropped. These came via a post on Magic’s Japanese website, and they give a welcome glimpse into the mechanics of the set. As well as a look at a new ‘Japan Showcase’ style. Before you hunker down to watch the pros duke it out, let’s take a look at some spicy new cards.

Overlord Of The Hauntwoods

Overlord of the Hauntwoods | Duskmourn: House of Horror

The first Duskmourn card revealed is Overlord of the Hauntwoods. As confirmed in the post, this is part of a five-card cycle, so keep that in mind as we go. It’s a five mana 6/5 (solid stats) enchantment creature, with a Titan-esque ability. When it enters the battlefield or attacks it creates a tapped land token called Everywhere, which has all Basic land types.

First thoughts: this looks a bit like a “Primeval Titan at home.” Sure it’s one mana cheaper, but it only gets you one land each time, and doesn’t thin your deck or give you access to utility lands. Granted, Primeval Titan is banned in Commander, so a less powerful version is probably a good thing. It also brings five land types to the board in one fell swoop, which is extremely relevant for Domain decks and the like.

The big question mark on this card is the Impending ability. Like Plot and Crime from Thunder Junction, we’re being shown this ability without context in the first case. Overlord of the Hauntwoods has Impending 4, for one and two green mana. Based on the name, this is likely a Suspend-esque mechanic that lets you set a play up early and get it for free later on. Maybe it also lets you access the ‘enters’ ability when you exile the card via Impending, thus providing some early value.

Obviously it’s impossible to evaluate this card without knowing what Impending does. As it stands now, however, it seems very solid in Commander, as a color-fixing ramp piece. Standard and Modern viability will hang in the balance until we know more information.

Enduring Tenacity

Enduring Tenacity | Duskmourn: House of Horror

The next of our MTG Duskmourn spoilers for today is one we do have all the information on. Enduring Tenacity is a 4/3 Snake Glimmer (New creature type!) for four mana. Like Overlord, it’s an enchantment creature that’s part of a five-card cycle. It has a passive effect that you may recognize from combo all-star Sanguine Bond, which damages your opponent whenever you gain life.

Already this seems fairly strong, if fragile. At least until you read the second paragraph on the card. When Enduring Tenacity dies, it returns to the battlefield as a pure enchantment. This is like an inverted version of the Theros Gods, which begin as enchantments then become creatures later. With this in mind, you can essentially treat Enduring Tenacity as a Sanguine Bond that comes with a 4/3 token attached for four. Not a bad deal at all.

The card will clearly be a staple in Commander lifegain decks. There’s also combo potential if we get an Exquisite Blood-type effect in Standard. What’s really interesting, however, is thinking about what the other four cards in the ‘Enduring’ cycle will be. The post spoiled the name and artwork for three of them, these being Enduring Curiosity, Enduring Innocence, and Enduring Courage. These will likely be the blue, white, and red members of the cycle, respectively.

Sanguine Bond is a fairly well-known enchantment, so it’s likely the other Enduring creatures will feature effects from Magic’s past as well. Rhystic Study would make sense for Curiosity, and would help drive down that card’s prohibitive price for Commander. Innocence could be something like Rest in Peace or Intangible Virtue, while Courage could be a damage-doubler like Furnace of Rath or a Haste granter like Mass Hysteria. All pure speculation for now, of course.

The Japan Showcase Style

MTG-Duskmourn-Spoilers-Japan-Showcase

The post also included details on the new Japan Showcase style as well. Both of the revealed cards are in this style, and the other four cards in each of their cycles will be too. The post confirms that these 10 cards will be the only ones available in this style in Duskmourn. It also confirms that you’ll only be able to open Japan Showcase cards in Collector Boosters.

There will also be new foil type for these showcase frames named Fracture Foils. We don’t know much about what these will look like yet, but we do know that this foiling will only be available in the Japanese Showcase style.

Though we admittedly haven’t seen enough of Duskmourn to judge, I doubt many players were expecting Japanese-style Showcase cards in the set. Certainly not ones as cute as the Enduring cycle appear to be. So far the marketing around the set has leaned into the horrific and the mysterious, so this new style is a surprise to be sure. It’s nothing new in the context of Magic as a whole. We’ve seen anime art cards in War of the Spark and Jumpstart 2022. It just doesn’t seem in keeping with the idea of Duskmourn we’ve been working with so far.

Throw in the fact that these initial spoilers imply an enchantment theme, and Duskmourn really could be a set that catches us all off guard. We won’t need to wait long to find out; the post also confirms that the First Look article for Duskmourn will be dropping tomorrow, Friday, June 28th. This will likely include even more spoilers, and hopefully an explanation of what Impending does. Stay tuned for the latest Duskmourn news as and when it drops!

Read More: Duskmourn: House of Horror – Everything You Need to Know

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