It seems like just yesterday that Bloomburrow spoilers were making their way out of the woodworks. Yet, before we knew it, a handful of Duskmourn spoilers were on their way. In fact, the Duskmourn release date is just barely over a month away.
In preparation for the wave of Duskmourn spoilers that await us, head designer Mark Rosewater recently revealed his teaser list for the set. From exciting new abilities to wild creature types never seen before in a premier set, Duskmourn clearly has a lot to offer. Let’s dive right in and examine some of the most intriguing parts of the teaser.
Meathook Massacre II
In the final section of Mark Rosewater’s teaser, he revealed a handful of card names for players to be on the lookout for. Undoubtedly, the card name that caught everyone’s attention is Meathook Massacre II. It’s very unusual for a card name to appear twice with just a number following the new copy.
Naming a card like this in a horror set of all places is also just flat-out hilarious. Horror movies are known for having sequels that borrow a ton of ideas from the original film. Using a rather lazy title in “Meathook Massacre II” and basing it off one of the most iconic and scary cards printed in a recent premier set is quite the nod to horror movie trope.
It will be cool to see what The Meathook Massacre II ends up looking like. With the first card being banned in Standard, Wizards of the Coast could always have gone the route of simply making a more balanced version of the card. This would further fit the horror movie sequel vibe of making the new version worse than the first by most metrics.
Perhaps they will go a different direction, though, and make Meathook Massacre II into a Room with frightening artwork. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.
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Un-Set Frame Revolutionized
Mark Rosewater also states that a specific part of Duskmourn will feature a frame “using technology first designed in an Un-set.” With the implication being that a group of cards specific to Duskmourn utilize a distinct frame idea, it would make a lot of sense that the new Rooms are the cards receiving this treatment.
One scenario that Reddit user themiragechild suggested is that the new Room cards borrow the design from Host/Augment cards from Unstable and Unsanctioned. The way these cards work is that you can pay a card’s Augment cost and reveal it from your hand to add its effects to a Host creature on the battlefield. The frames featured on cards like Humming- allow you to essentially “attach” the Augment card to a Host, showcasing a funky design (similar in some ways to Meld cards from Eldritch Moon).
The reason this frame style makes some sense based on what we know about Rooms thus far is that Room card art, like the artwork shown above, clearly depicts two different styles split vertically down the middle. As such, there’s a chance that players can combine Room cards together for multiple effects.
The teaser did also reveal the rules text “unlock a locked door.” Perhaps that allows you to enter and expand your Room in some way. There’s a lot of different directions Wizards of the Coast can go with this. It’ll be cool to see if this train of thought is on target or not.
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Three-Mana White Wrath?
Another interesting hint given in Mark Rosewater’s teaser tells us that there will be a new, three-mana modal mass removal spell in white. Obviously, three mana for a full-on Wrath of God would be a bit too much. Yet, we’ve seen mass removal variants at three mana before, including Temporary Lockdown.
There are a few different options here that all seem reasonably plausible. First, we could see a variant of Harsh Mercy that gives players options about what creature types do or don’t survive the Wrath. We could also see a new take on Archmage’s Charm in white. After all, a card that costs WWW could have a restrictive mass removal mode (such as “destroy all creatures with power 1 or less”) and not be outrageously powerful.
This modal mass removal spell could even have a similar design to Final Showdown. This way, you get access to multiple modes, but if you want to wipe the board, you have to spend extra mana. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for a new card that fits the bill during spoiler season.
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Unusual Creature Types
Finally, one of the aspects of Duskmourn that I find personally amusing is the introduction of strange creature types to Standard. For example, we now know that there will be an artifact creature with the types “Monkey Toy.” Toy is an entirely new creature type for Duskmourn.
The card Twitching Doll had already been spoiled, boasting the Toy type as well. Given that Twitching Doll is also an artifact creature too, it’s entirely possible there is a cycle of dolls, with at least one in each color.
Another example of a funny creature type appearing in a premier set for the first time is with the new Human Clown Berserker. Human and Berserker are not abnormal creature types in the slightest. Clowns, on the other hand, have only shown up in Unfinity up to this point. Clowns do fit the Horror aesthetic, especially after Stephen King’s “It” made waves at the theaters.
These teasers provide us with a sweet baseline for the upcoming set. More spoilers will be coming our way soon enough, so make sure to check out the full list of hints to get a better sense of what Duskmourn is all about.
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