Duskmourn has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride when it comes to player perception. Most were turned off at the first signs of TVs and sneakers in the set, but then things flipped when the Planeswalker’s Guide revealed more of the lore behind the plane. As previews continued these opinions continued to fluctuate, with one aspect of the set in particular coming under constant scrutiny: the Survivors of MTG Duskmourn.
A good Horror set would be nothing without a heroic faction like this. That said, many have raised issues with how the Survivors are handled, particularly with regard to their visual design. This may sound like a load of shallow criticism at first, but it goes down deeper into some very real problems with Duskmourn as a set and a world.
I Will Survive
Players have been raising this issue in different card discussion threads all throughout preview season. It really came to a head a couple of days ago, however, in a lengthy thread started by Master-Environment95. They kicked things off with a paragraph discussing their problems with the Survivors in the set. A lot of it boiled down to problems with consistency of tone.
“…you’d think people wouldn’t look so clean and confident waltzing through the house. As you could imagine, it’s probably hell. While some of the art does showcase the terror, I think many of the pieces just make it feel like it’s no big deal.”
Master-Environment95
This really cuts to the heart of the problems many MTG players had with the Survivors of Duskmourn. The world was billed as one continuous haunted house, completely under Valgavoth’s control. There’s little to no reprieve from the horror, and the Survivors barely get a moment’s rest in between it all. Given all that, the fact that many of them have immaculate clothing and hairstyles doesn’t make a ton of sense.
To make matters worse, the Survivors actually seem to be enjoying their time on Duskmourn in many cases. Many are seen smiling or adopting cocky stances as they deal with the horrors of the house. Protagonists like this are a staple in certain kinds of Horror, think The Evil Dead et al, but they’re far from the genre norm. They’re far from what you’d expect given the world design of Duskmourn as a whole, too.
“I think it’s honestly overkill then that so many survivors are having a great time. Especially as people have mentioned, a lot of the lore is them wearing bits of house and ambushing and hiding, that isn’t the feel from half the survivor cards.”
DeLoxley
You can see why character designs like this were used when you consider the ’80s tone of the set, but it’s hard to deny that they have a detrimental effect on the darker side of worldbuilding. As the ‘good guys’ in the set, the Survivors are surrogates for the audience. If they’re not scared, then we’re unlikely to be scared either.
A Tale Of Two Sets
As with a great many creative projects, Duskmourn suffers from feeling like two separate sets mashed together. You have the cheesy ’80s Horror-Comedy romp on one side, and the genuine nightmare world stuff on the other. When the two come together, some tonal dissonance is inevitable.
“They wanted to do Horror Movie Set, which is totally fine with me, I’m not complaining about tech or clothes or anything, but they made Horror World Set so a lot of the tropes don’t make as much sense.”
boomfruit
New Magic sets, especially those that debut new planes, are always complex affairs. Multiple teams work on each, all with ideas that pull the final result in different directions. Sometimes the seams are harder to see, but Duskmourn isn’t one of those times. Granted this was a particularly difficult design situation, since the Horror theme has already been perfected by Innistrad, one of Magic’s most popular settings.
“They chose superficial aesthetics over art direction that makes sense for the setting. The biggest influence for this seems to have been the desire to differentiate Duskmourn from Innistrad, which I think is a point they were a bit too worried about.”
inkfeeder
This isn’t just fan conjecture, either. In his series of design articles humorously titled ‘Top of the Duskmourning,’ Magic’s Head Designer Mark Rosewater discussed the struggles the team faced when developing a new spooky set in the shadow of Innistrad.
“While we’d normally use surveil in a set with graveyard mechanics like Duskmourn, it didn’t have those during vision design. We were trying hard to not be Innistrad, so we avoided things that Innistrad was specifically known for mechanically.”
Mark Rosewater
Rosewater is specifically discussing mechanics here, but it’s not hard to imagine that this remit extended to visuals too. Innistrad is very similar to Duskmourn in a lot of ways. Both employ a lot of Horror tropes and make extensive use of top-down designs. Both also take place on worlds where humanity is vastly outnumbered, and prospects are pretty dire for the living.
Innistrad took these elements a lot more seriously than Duskmourn did. The Humans we see are almost always terrified, in ragged clothes with desperate eyes. The Survivors of Duskmourn are anything but. It’s not just the colorful ’80s clothes, either, but the attitudes of the characters wearing them. Sure, it’s easier for Innistrad to create a serious tone with its medieval gothic setting and style, but Duskmourn doesn’t even really attempt it.
The Worst Timeline?
A lot of this issue also comes down to the storyline of Duskmourn. For the most part, Horror movies are about protagonists falling from everyday life into terrifying situations and frantically dealing with them as best they can. Duskmourn is different, however. Given that the story picks up after Valgavoth has conquered the plane, it’s essentially a post-apocalypse narrative. This is reinforced by the existence of the Survivors themselves, who are pitched as long-term residents who have managed to stay alive despite the unending horror all around them.
“I think it was a mistake to not have this set be happening as Valgavoth took over the plane. A lot of the art, art direction, tone, etc. makes a lot more sense if this is an emergent situation rather than the way life is.”
boomfruit
This is a great point, and a big reason for the ‘two sets mashed together’ feel we discussed above. Based on the story, the Survivors of MTG Duskmourn should all be hardened, rugged warriors by now to have endured the house for so long. Not fresh-faced high school students who look like they’ve just sauntered in from an afternoon sports lesson.
Interestingly, Mark Rosewater has offered a potential explanation for this phenomenon. Responding to a question regarding the appearance of the Survivors on his Blogatog, he revealed some intriguing new information about the set’s narrative timeline.
“I believe the cards are stretched across a long period of time in the house. Everything isn’t “today”.”
Mark Rosewater
If this is true, and Duskmourn as a set takes place both before and after Valgavoth’s takeover, then this does explain a lot of the issues players have voiced regarding tone. The reason we see cocky teenagers alongside unimaginable horrors is because we’re seeing the evolution of the plane in real-time, and the growth of Valgavoth’s influence.
Of course, we still don’t see the kind of haggard Survivors you’d expect from the final stages of this story. Ultimately this feels like a confusing explanation and one that may not be lore-official. It may help some players enjoy Duskmourn a little more, however.
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