Over the holiday weekend at PAX West, the Wizards of the Coast team officially unveiled DuskmornNext set of cards for Magic: The Gathering. Inspired by 1980s slasher movies and classic horror tropes, the action takes place in an entirely new setting – a vast and mysterious haunted house. To sell the idea of a haunted house, designers came up with a new type of card called a “room.” Here’s how room cards work and how they help enhance the eerie theme of the set.
According to senior art director Ovidio Cartagena, the plane of Duskmorn itself has a tragic backstory.
“This was a regular plane, with happiness and people,” Cartagena said meanwhile Livestreamed presentation. “But a demon that was locked inside the house captured him. And his manner of taking over the house grew until there was nothing but him and the house. And you will feel his presence everywhere – this monster’s name is Walgavoth.”
The primary building block of Walgovoth’s realm is the room above, and that room takes the form of a two-panel horizontal card.
“The room was our biggest shot; Our most exciting mechanic of the set, you might say,” said senior game designer Annie Sardelis. “They’re magic, and they ask you to unlock things.”
For example, if you want to play Dollmaker’s Shop/Porcelain Gallery (shown above) you will first choose which side of the card you want to play. If it’s Dollmaker’s Shop, you tap one white and one extra mana to bring the card into play as magic. The other side of the card has not been cast yet and is therefore not active. But suffice it to say that the door to the porcelain gallery enters next to the dollmaker’s shop and can be opened later.
“Wherever you want, you can pay the other side a mana value to enable [it]”Sardelis said. “So it really gives you that flexibility, that feeling of moving from place-to-place. We really wanted to have two effects on the room, because we wanted to feel like we were conveying real spaciousness. [of Duskmourn]and what lies behind each door of the setting.”
Duskmorn debuted on August 19, with the first in a series of story fragments episodePublished on the official Magic website. Card previews are currently underway via multiple outlets, including here at Polygon where we’ll have some to share later this week. Meanwhile, Duskmorn comes in Magic: The Gathering – Arena on September 24 and at retailers on September 27 as a physical product.
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