Duskmourn: House of Horror Mechanics
Duskmourn awaits, with your greatest fears come to life behind every door. An entire plane within a single house invites many questions. Who built it? Why is it here? Where did all the furniture come from? We can't explore those details here, but we can introduce all the new mechanics appearing in Duskmourn: House of Horror so you can avoid at least one of those greatest fears: going to the Prerelease unprepared. (Wait, can you even have more than one "greatest fear?" I'm now afraid I'm doing fear wrong. Oh dear.)
Rooms
The House's ever-shifting nature tends to defy organization, but one does perceive individual rooms as one explores. Some of them feel familiar, like ones you'd have in your own house. Others … less so. Room is a new enchantment subtype found on a new spin on split cards.
That's right, split permanent cards. Each Room card has two halves. Each half is called a door. As you cast one of these cards, you pick one of its halves; that is, you pick one door to unlock. The abilities of that half apply. If it has an ability that triggers "when you unlock this door," it will trigger when the Room enters. If it has other triggered abilities, those will trigger as appropriate. Static abilities of that half will apply, and so on. Ignore everything about the half you didn't cast for now. That door is still locked.
For example, if you're holding the card above, you can choose to cast either Dollmaker's Shop or Porcelain Gallery, but not both. Say you cast Porcelain Gallery, paying
But what good are connected Rooms if you can't do a little exploring? Once a Room is on the battlefield, you can unlock a locked half as a sorcery by paying the locked half's mana cost. Unlocking a door this way is a special action that doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to. If that half has any abilities that trigger "when you unlock this door," those abilities trigger at that time. Other static abilities of that half are now active. Unlocking the second half of a Room doesn't affect the half that's already unlocked. It stays unlocked, and all abilities of the full card are available to you.
If a Room card enters without being cast—say, because it's returned to the battlefield from your graveyard or put onto the battlefield some other way—both doors will start locked. None of its abilities will be active to begin with, but you can unlock any locked door by paying its mana cost as a sorcery (meaning during your main phase when there are no spells or abilities on the stack).
While on the battlefield, a Room card has the characteristics of its unlocked doors. For example, if only Porcelain Gallery is unlocked, the permanent's mana value is 6. If both doors are unlocked, the permanent's mana value is 8. Similarly, if both doors are unlocked, the permanent has two names. In your library, graveyard, and hand, a Room card has the combined mana value of both of its halves and both of its names. For example, if an effect allowed you to search your library for a card with mana value 3 or less, you couldn't find Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery, even though Dollmaker's Shop has a mana cost of
Manifest Dread
Manifest dread is a new keyword action that introduces the threat of the unknown. Let's get to know it!
Manifest dread incorporates the existing keyword action manifest into a brand-new way to confound and confuse your opponents. Here's how it works. When you're instructed to manifest dread, look at the top two cards of your library. Manifest one of them and put the other into your graveyard. Manifesting means that you put that card onto the battlefield face down. It's a colorless 2/2 creature with no name, no creature types, no abilities, and no mana cost (and thus mana value 0).
The face-down creature is still a creature in every way, so it can do all the things that creatures do. It can attack, block, get hit with creature removal spells, be sacrificed, and so on.
While you can manifest either of the two cards, it might be a good idea to manifest creature cards. A manifested creature card can be turned face up by paying its mana cost. You can do this any time as a special action. It doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to. Simply reveal that the card is truly a creature card, pay its mana cost, and it turns face up. It immediately has the creature card's characteristics. Perhaps your opponent has aimed a
This helper card is an optional game accessory you can use to give your face-down permanents a little more pizzazz until their true natures are unveiled.
If you happen to manifest a card that has another ability that allows it to be turned face up, such as morph, those abilities may apply. None of those abilities appear in this set, however. Turning a permanent face up doesn't cause it to re-enter the battlefield. It's still the same permanent, so any Auras, Equipment, or counters that were on it still will be. If it's attacking or blocking, it still will be. If it was the target of any spells or abilities, it still will be, although it may or may not now be a legal target.
If you control more than one face-down permanent, they must always be easily differentiated from one another. You're not allowed to physically mix them up to confuse your opponent. The order in which they entered must remain clear. For example, if you attacked with one of your three face-down creatures last turn, it should be clear to everyone which one that was.
If the game ends, or if you leave a multiplayer game, you need to reveal your face-down permanents to everyone to ensure they came to be face down legally. This is crucial in tournament games.
Survival
Finding yourself in the House does a number on your priorities. Specifically, it reduces them to one: survive.
Each survival ability is a triggered ability that triggers at the beginning of your second main phase, if the creature with the ability is tapped. If a survival ability does trigger, that ability will check again as it tries to resolve to see if the creature is still tapped. If the creature is still tapped, the ability resolves. If the creature is untapped at that time, the ability won't do anything.
Note that survival abilities aren't too particular about how the creature became tapped. Maybe it attacked and survived. Maybe it became tapped some other way. You can even get a survival ability to trigger on the first turn a creature is on the battlefield if you find a way to tap it or if it entered tapped.
All creatures with survival abilities have the new Survivor creature type. It's an easy way to remember that you have an opportunity to outplay and outwit your opponent, if only your creature can outlast combat.
Eerie
Uh, yeah.
Eerie abilities are triggered abilities that trigger whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a Room. The first trigger condition means an eerie ability can potentially trigger twice thanks to a single Room card, once when it enters and again when it becomes fully unlocked.
Impending
With all the dangers you face in the House at any given moment, it's easy to lose focus on the dangers you will be facing in moments to come. Impending is a new keyword found on a cycle of Overlords that lets you cast them ahead of schedule.
Impending offers an alternative cost. If you choose to cast a spell for its impending cost, it will enter with a number of time counters on it. For example, Overlord of the Hauntwoods has impending 4, so it would enter with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it. As long as it has at least one time counter on it, it isn't a creature. This means it can't attack or block and it doesn't count toward anything that cares about creatures you control. On the plus side, it's not susceptible to creature removal from your opponents. Once the last time counter is removed, it's a creature and can get on with the smashing.
Of course, getting an Overlord onto the battlefield early does have advantages. Each has an "enters" ability that triggers, so you'll journey to Everywhere no matter how Overlord of the Hauntwoods was cast.
Dare to Enter Duskmourn
Now, you're ready to take on the horrors of the House with your fellow survivors! For a look at the full set, check out the Duskmourn: House of Horror Card Image Gallery.
Duskmourn: House of Horror officially releases on September 27, 2024. You can check out all of these mechanics in Duskmourn: House of Horror. The set is available for preorder now at your local game store, online retailers like Amazon, and elsewhere Magic products are sold. Happy hauntings!
