What a tonal shift!

I feel bad for all the kids that got into Magic last month because of all the cute little furry critters in Bloomburrow, only to be now assaulted by one of the most horror-focused sets Magic has ever seen; Nightmares for all!

But flavor focus aside, Duskmourn is looking like a very deep and exciting set.

Bloomburrow had a wonderful level of simplicity and flavor to it, but Duskmourn looks to take it a bit further with a wide array of mechanics that are all interwoven in one way or another. While Bloomburrow was straightforward fun, Duskmourn looks much more like a sandbox set, where there will be a lot of depth to explore mixing the various mechanics both within the set as well as with older sets.

There have been a ton of cards previewed over the last few days, so today I'm going to go over the major mechanics of the set as well as some of the highlights!

Enchantments

Duskmourn could definitely be considered an enchantment-focused set, although like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, it's also about how enchantments and other card types mix and interact. It's not just "play all the enchantments and call it a day" like some older, more cookie cutter sets; there's a lot here to take in a play around with.

A card like Inquisitive Glimmer is what you'd expect from an enchantment set - a cheap enchantment creature that helps enable other enchantments (and rooms, more on this later), setting the baseline. There's also a cycle of "Enduring" creatures like Enduring Innocence, which begin life as a creature and then return as an enchantment when they die.

Enduring Innocence is particularly interesting as a variant on Welcoming Vampire. It is a creature that can attack and block well enough, while also providing a card draw engine, but what's excellent about it is that it creates a real problem for your opponent. Killing it doesn't really work, and it's also a great blocker against aggressive starts.

We also see our first ever enchantment land (that sticks around for more than three turns, sorry Urza's Saga) in Valgavoth's Lair, and while entering the battlefield tapped stinks, having hexproof to stop cheap Stone Rains as well as triggering all your enchantment effects will be great.

Be sure to think of the enchantments in this set as more than their face value based on how they will interact with other things.

Impending

Our first keyword mechanic is an interesting one, mixing the idea of suspend with the enchantment theme.

Impending X means that you can cast a big creature for a discount, but it is only an enchantment not a creature. The impending counters count down each turn, until you remove the last one and it awakens into a creature.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods is a highlight here, especially with domain still in the format, providing a Topiary Stomper like effect that can ramp, give full domain all in one land, and even draw a card off Up the Beanstalk because of the mana value of the spell is still five when you cast it. And of course, it will also eventually just be a large creature, and casting it for five mana is totally reasonable too.

Overlord of the Mistmoors is a similar idea, as casting it for its impending cost is still a pretty good deal, netting you two 2/1 fliers for four mana as well as an enchantment and a future threat.

But why does putting an enchantment on the battlefield matter?

Eerie

Remember constellation, like on cards like Doomwake Giant? Well, it returns with a very slight buff, in a new mechanic called eerie.

Eerie is essentially "enchantmentfall" in that it triggers whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control (as well as whenever you fully unlock a room, more on that later). Constellation was a powerful effect that saw play in multiple formats, and I expect nothing different from eerie.

Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal has an eerie effect that is reminiscence of Omanth, Locus of Creation, giving you additional bonuses if you're able to trigger it more than once a turn, with each subsequent effect all being very synergistic.

And then you've got little Scrabbling Skullcrab, which is one of the more intriguing cards in the set. If you were to see Scrabbling Skullcrab by itself, you may think that the set might have some sort of mill subtheme, but you'll most often be pointing Scrabbling Skullcrab at yourself.

Why?

Delirium

Delirium returns! And this is where the set really starts to take a wild and dynamic turn.

Delirium is a mechanic that has a very strong pedigree across many formats, being an entire archetype during it's time in Standard, while also being something worth building toward in almost every other format.

It is also the common factor holding together the many mechanics and themes in Duskmourn.

With all of these enchantments and artifacts rolling around, as well as some graveyard-based mechanics too, delirium is going to be a very fun little puzzle in both Constructed and Limited.

And if the first few previewed cards are any indication, powerful too!

Balustrade Wurm is quite the beater, and while casting it is just fine it has a ton of synergy with both achieving delirium as well as getting it into the graveyard without casting it for that impressive discount. I'm sure we'll see plenty of cards like Drag to the Roots too, which is incredible with delirium but also passable without.

So, what about those rooms?

Rooms

Rooms are a new subtype (not full on type for delirium) of enchantments that bring the split card experience to more than just instants and sorceries.

How rooms work is simple enough - you select one half to cast just like any split card, and that half enters the battlefield as an enchantment and is considered unlocking a room. Then, at any point after at sorcery speed you may pay the cost of the other half to unlock it, turning it on on the battlefield.

These will often play a lot like adventure cards from Eldraine; you're usually casting the cheaper effect (and want that effect to be worth a card), but have the option to cast the bigger effect later.

Dollmaker's Shop is a cheap token maker which will play very well with all the token cards in Standard, while Porcelain Gallery will be an incredible finisher for those kinds of decks, much like a bigger Virtue of Loyalty. Funeral Room is a bit less exciting, as a Bastion of Remembrance without getting a token or some sort of other upside is a pretty bad deal, and Awakening Hall is very expensive.

Like adventure, this is a very powerful mechanic and definitely one to watch.

Manifest Dread

Next up is another good graveyard mechanic in Manifest Dread.

Manifest dread is very similar to manifest proper, in that it takes a card from your library and puts it face down as a 2/2 creature that you can flip face up for it's mana cost. The difference is that rather than just taking the top card, you get to look at the top two, put one in your graveyard and then the other face down as the 2/2.

This is obviously an awesome fit for the graveyard themes in the set, as well as giving you a better chance to hit a creature you want face down.

Hauntwoods Shrieker is a solid little creature that can make an army of 2/2 manifests, while also flipping them up on the cheap. This may not quite be good enough for Standard yet, but don't forget that Llanowar Elves is returning in Foundations later this year which is a huge deal for every three mana Green creature in the format.

Survival

The last mechanic in the set is a bit of an oddball in survival.

Survival is a simple ability on creatures that will trigger on your second main phase if the creature is tapped. The most common way to trigger survival will flavorfully be if your creature attacks and survives combat, but you could also use it to crew or saddle, or tap it to other means.

Veteran Survivor is a nice little 1-drop with the ability, with a good type and decent stats, as well as some graveyard hate potential and decent upside.

Reprints & More

Of course, that's not all that's going on in Duskmourn.

There are some big, exciting reprints like the absolute classic Pyroclasm (seriously how has this card not been in Standard for so long?) and of the most aggressive auras of all time in Ethereal Armor.

There's also a new dual land cycle with five allied duals just like Floodfarm Verge.

These lands are similar in some ways to buddy lands like Glacial Fortress, but are interesting in that they always enter the battlefield untapped and always produce at least one color. This means that each one will pretty heavily favor its base color, as Floodfarm Verge is basically a Plains with extra upside. Needing basic land types does diminish other dual lands without types a bit, while increasing the value of basic lands and lands like the Surveil lands that have types.

With less than half the set previewed we've already got so much to chew on, Duskmourn is looking like a pretty awesome set with a lot to offer.

It's also the set that will be showcased at the World Championships next month, which will be Duskmourn Draft and Duskmourn Standard, meaning this is a big one!