Spooky season is almost upon us with October right around the corner. Fittingly, Wizards is gearing up to release the latest Magic: The Gathering expansion Duskmourn: House of Horror in just over a week. As the name implies, it features all kinds of scary horror tropes inspired by the plethora of 80s horror classics. Personally, I love horror as a genre, and 80s horror in particular holds a special place in my heart thanks to classics like the Evil Dead trilogy, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, Near Dark, Poltergeist, Videodrome, and so many more. But you know what else holds a special place in my heart? Pauper!

As per usual with a new set comes a whole slew of new common cards, which means there's a ton of fresh fodder for the Pauper format. With a whole 88 brand new commons entering the format, there's sure to be some goodies along the way. I'm going to be covering a large chunk of the set starting by discussing the mechanics and their impact on Pauper, and then some of the other ones that either may be impactful (or explaining why others won't be). There's a ton to cover, so let's get right into it!

Rooms

The big new addition to the Pauper format with Duskmourn is the enchantment subtype of rooms. These enchantments provide you with an opportunity to get some upfront value and then cash in on an additional effect later. At first glance, none of the seven rooms that are Pauper legal read particularly well. Let's take a look at a few of them to see what I mean.

• Grand Entryway // Elegant Rotunda - There's a possible use for this with Bogles, as it allows you to get two enchantments and later you can get a minor buff too if you have excess mana. That two mana could just as easily be a Malevolent Rumble or Spirited Companion which can find you a more game-ending card.
• Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk - The front side of this is just worse than Read the Bones (or now Diresight) which already makes it not that great of value. The back side doesn't make up for it much either, providing only minimal value each turn. Good for Limited, but less so in Constructed.
• Glassworks // Shattered Yard - Yeah the front side is a burn spell, but do you really want to be paying three mana for your removal effect? And then do you really want to be paying five mana for a Curse of the Pierced Heart after the fact? It's not great value on the whole.
• Moldering Gym // Weight Room - Much like Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk, the front side is a worse version of most ramp effects and the back half isn't really that spectacular for the mana you're investing in it to get it off the ground.

These four are the more playable of the bunch. There's some possibility that Ticket Booth // Tunnel of Hate has some utility in the Tunnel of Hate side giving double strike every turn, but it seems too expensive to reliably pull off. Most of these just don't seem good enough to ultimately make the cut in a format like Pauper unless you're trying some nonsense involving having high mana value permanents. It's an interesting new enchantment type that will be worth watching to see if it does anything in the future, but here it's not that exciting.

Oh, and if you do play these, never try to flicker them. It won't end well for you, as neither side will be unlocked when it enters again.

Manifest Dread

Manifest is officially back! It's been many years since we last saw the mechanic in Standard with Fate Reforged (not counting the similar variant cloak from Murders at Karlov Manor). This time it comes with an extra bit that makes it much more interesting: the benefit of choice. This variant of the mechanic allows you to choose between two cards, giving you more opportunities to find something valuable. The other goes to your graveyard as well, providing you plenty of options for decent synergy.

Most of these cards are a bit hard to utilize effectively here, though. Unsettling Twins and Bashful Beastie are too pricey to be worth trying to take advantage of, and the rooms are largely too little for the overall value. I'm much more partial here to Innocuous Rat, which gives you a blocker that turns into a 2/2 and fills up your graveyard in a color that likes doing this a lot. Turn Inside Out continues the trend of recent effects like this, though this giving you choice of target compared to a plain 2/2 via Felonious Rage is way better.

The other aspect of this is it's actually pretty difficult to find a meaningful creature that you actually want to flip over. I talked about this in my Murders at Karlov Manor review as well, but historically morph cards never get utilized outside of fringe cases with Birchlore Rangers (rarely ever morphed) and Gathan Raiders. The logic applies here too: if you wouldn't normally play a morph creature face-down to flip over later, why would you play it here with manifest dread? Additionally, most of the good creatures you want in the format are either a.) too expensive to flip over and are played due to cost reductions or b.) have an enters ability that doesn't trigger when turned face-up.

Given all of this, I wouldn't expect much - if any - of these manifest dread cards to make a real splash in the format. If, however, we ever get cards worth turning face up with ease like this, these cards may need to be revisited down the line.

Survival

Survival is a pretty cool mechanic that has some potential for doing nutty things at higher rarities. Kona, Rescue Beastie got a lot of attention over the possibility of putting something like an Omniscience or an Atraxa, Grand Unifier into play for free. Unfortunately, there's only two here for Pauper: Acrobatic Cheerleader and Cautious Survivor. Neither of these is the most appealing, though if you can get the Cheerleader to be tapped into your second main phase, getting a cheap flier isn't the worst. However, there are far better ways to do this already in the format (see Kor Skyfisher, Glint Hawk, Refurbished Familiar, etc.) so I wouldn't count on it making a major splash.

Eerie

Eerie is the newest riff on constellation from Journey into Nyx, giving you benefits if enchantments enter and now when you fully unlock rooms as well. Most of these aren't too great. Cult Healer and Erratic Apparition both have ho-hum stats and get extremely minor buffs while Stalked Researcher can sometimes attack if you happen to play an enchantment? None of these sound very appealing.

The one that does seem a little decent, though, is Balemurk Leech. Now, I'm not going to sit here and pretend this is the best thing we've ever seen. However, we have seen people try brewing with Grim Guardian before to no avail. A cheaper version that also acts as copies 5-8 of this effect might prove a little better, though. With recent common additions like Hopeful Vigil and Hopeless Nightmare - as well as other enchantment synergies - in Wilds of Eldraine, maybe there's a new deck here for people to try brewing up. Probably nothing that'll be a top contender, but something worth trying out for those that like their jank.

Unlucky Lands

I've already had a chance to talk about these lands previously. In fact, I was given the opportunity to preview these cards right here for CoolStuffInc.com! You can find that article here if you want some of my initial thoughts, but I'll sum them up here as well.

These ten lands provide Pauper with the first ever set of dual lands that can enter untapped. Sounds enticing, right? Well the unfortunate reality is that most of the time, you're not going to be getting to 13 life until you're already a couple turns deep into the game, by which point you likely don't care whether this comes in untapped or not. That makes the cycle a bit less than ideal for your average Pauper deck, even if it does something many players have wanted out of duals for years now.

The simple reality is that other duals that come in tapped usually come with some kind of bonus. The bridges are artifact lands, which have all kinds of synergies attached to them as a result. The Dominaria United and Kaldheim duals can both be found off of land-cyclers. Gates fuel, well, the gates deck. Even the Khans of Tarkir and Outlaws of Thunder Junction duals benefit from causing minor life swings. While each of these comes in tapped, they offer far more utility than the unlucky lands. As such, it's unlikely that these new duals will replace the existing ones, though you may see them from time to time in the right meta.

Landcyclers

The landcyclers have been showing up more and more over the past year or two. The ones from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth are still the best at only one mana to cycle and being decent cards on the front end as well. These ones, by comparison, are about as plain as it gets. You either cycle for two mana or you just get a big dumb French vanilla creature. None of that sounds very appealing, particularly when you can use the cards from Tales of Middle-earth instead.

Bear Trap

Springjaw Trap is pretty similar and doesn't see any play. This costs one less mana to activate the damage ability, but that's likely not enough to really matter and make this playable in a format like Pauper. It's Limited fodder and little else.

Clockwork Percussionist

Well, hello there. This is about as much of a slam dunk card as I can imagine for Kuldotha Red decks. Not only does it act as another Experimental Synthesizer and Kuldotha Rebirth fodder, but it also turns on your Goblin Tomb Raider with ease as well. The biggest issue becomes what you cut from your lists to play this, but make no mistake: it's getting played.

Creeping Peeper

There aren't really many decks wanting to take advantage of this right now. There simply aren't the degree of enchantments, morph-like cards, or especially rooms to make it a very viable option. However, it's the sort of card with long-term appeal that may have uses in the future. It's a safe bet we'll see more of those kinds of cards printed in the future, so a veritable mana dork could be useful for the right build eventually.

Cryptid Inspector

Right now, this card is awful. If Pauper ever gets a strong density of morph-like effects that are viable in the format, though, this can be an engine to use alongside them in a meaningful way.

Don't Make a Sound

Quench variants are interesting to see more of, but are rarely useful enough to make work. I'd much rather play the classic Miscalculation or Phantom Interference over this for the better value. You're simply not going to be getting the best value out of this one if you're not able to actually counter something.

Enter the Enigma

Slip Through Space and Artful Dodge have both seen infrequent play, so that pretty much assures this has uses as well. They're all cards you'll only rarely see, though, so don't put too much stock in it.

Fear of Lost Teeth

Footlight Fiend has seen some competitive play in the past, though not so much in Pauper. It was much bigger in the Standard Rakdos Sacrifice deck of the time. This one, though, allows you to gain a life in addition to a ping and has enchantment synergies as well. Probably not something that's going to take over the format, but it will no doubt fill a very specific role in a niche kind of deck here and there.

Final Vengeance

Bone Splinters and Bone Shards aren't really used much anywhere. This provides a different take on this effect, though, allowing you to sacrifice a creature or an enchantment. Remember earlier in the eerie section where I noted how both Hopeful Vigil and Hopeless Nightmare were pretty good enchantments to make use of? Turns out they're great options to sacrifice to this! Given the history of similar cards of the past, it's unlikely this is going to make a big splash, but if it does, it'll be in an enchantment-heavy deck using those two cards.

Flesh Burrower

The only other creature I can find that would give other creatures deathtouch is Toxic Scorpion, and that only did it once when it entered the battlefield. This one does so repeatedly, turning your attackers into dangerous threats. The body is likely still far too frail to be meaningful, but it's offering some interesting strategies that we haven't seen before. That alone is noteworthy.

Frantic Strength

From what I can tell, Feral Invocation never saw any play in Pauper. This one stands a bit more of a shot on the grounds of offering trample as well. A simple +2/+2 buff means little if there's no extra damage getting pushed through, but Frantic Strength enables this well. Three mana is quite a lot, but this is the kind of card that I could see showing up in something like Stompy should that ever make a comeback.

Glimmerburst

What really sells this spell is the fact that it's an instant. Control decks can just sit on the mana to cast this on an opponent's end step and not only draw some cards, but also get a small creature as well. That's some good value, though it faces competition from the likes of Quick Study, Behold the Multiverse, and Meeting of Minds. Unlike those cards, though, this one gives you an actual threat - even if it's only a small one - so if you're in the market for something that gives you card draw and a win con, here you go.

Glimmerlight

Now that All That Glitters has been banned, I can't see a world where you want both an artifact and an enchantment. Kami of Terrible Secrets from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty cared about this, as did certain higher rarity cards from that same set. However, that card isn't very good, and to my knowledge there's no other cards that care about both. If we do see that space revisited again in the future, this card has the potential to see some play at that time.

Grab the Prize

Thrill of Discovery variants have been all the rage lately, so it's interesting seeing Wizards go back to Tormenting Voice variants instead. You'd think this being a sorcery would be a pretty hard turn off, but it's actually not that bad when the discard is allowing you to Shock your opponent as well. Playing this in Rakdos Madness just means you get extra value for pitching your copies of Kitchen Imp or Fiery Temper, which already has players of that deck dying to try the card out. Without that synergy, it's a lot more mediocre, but the fact that it slots really well into an existing archetype means you can expect to see plenty of it in the coming weeks.

Hand That Feeds

Clever card name and art combination aside, can we talk for a moment about how nuts this card can be? Delirium is really easy for a Red deck to turn on, using lots of artifacts in addition to their creatures, instants, and sorceries. It's not hard at all to have an artifact and creature in your graveyard and then go Fireblast to turn on the delirium, making this into a veritable threat for very little cost. You absolutely need to build your deck with this in mind, but if you can pull it off, this can be a real beating.

Living Phone

This is a sort of reverse Militia Bugler, giving you the extra creature when it dies rather than when it enters. That makes it a lot harder to justify as you would rather have the creature up front so you can swarm your opponent. As such, just keep sticking to Militia Bugler if you want this sort of card.

Monstrous Emergence

Sorcery speed bite effects normally aren't that great, and even the instant speed ones can't quite hack it in Pauper. This card presents some new design space, however, as it lets you reveal a creature from your hand to dish out the beatings rather than something on the board that can be removed in response. This allows you the possibility of revealing an Annoyed Altisaur or Avenging Hunter for some serious beats. In most cases, this probably still isn't that great of a play, as the decks that run those cards also play Black or Red, which provides better removal options. The fact that this plays in new space is relevant, though, and is worth watching to see if Wizards does more of this in the future.

Possessed Goat

It's not that hard to make the discard ability work in your favor here. Most White-based decks don't utilize self-discard synergies, but there's enough cards in the format that can make use of it, you could see something come of this all the same. If you can make use of the discard effectively, getting a 4/4 for four mana over multiple turns can be rock solid value. If you can't, the card will feel somewhat middling, which will likely be the case the majority of the time in regards to Pauper.

Spineseeker Centipede

Civic Wayfinder and Borderland Ranger haven't been playable in years, and even the cheaper version of Sylvan Ranger has fallen off over the years. This leaves Spineseeker Centipede feeling like a card that shouldn't see play anywhere. However, if you can manage to pull off the delirium, getting a 3/3 vigilance creature out of the deal doesn't seem too bad. Unfortunately, that rate compares pretty similarly to Contagious Vorrac, which is a baseline 3/3 but lacks vigilance. That card sees no play and given the hoops you'd need to make this work, it won't either.

Trapped in the Screen

Last time in Bloomburrow, I noted how neat it was to see Banishing Light getting downshifted to common, though it wouldn't see much play because we already had Oblivion Ring which sees zero play. Sure enough, Banishing Light isn't seeing any play. Given that, you might think Trapped in the Screen will be doomed to a similar fate. However, this one having ward makes it harder to pick off once on the board, which gives it a little more usefulness than the earlier cards. I still think it's a bit too pricey for removal, but maybe you'll see it a bit here or there.

Unable to Scream

Typically with effects like these, they cost two mana and leave the creature a basic 1/1. This being so cheap means it's among the best of the bunch. Even if it makes your opponent's creature a bit more defensive, it's still going to prove hard to do anything with that creature. The last line is largely flavor text, given how morph cards just don't see play in the format, but the value is good enough I could see Blue decks running it - particularly Mono-Blue lists.

At the end of the day, it's hard to say if this set is going to be all that impactful on Pauper as a whole. Some cards like Clockwork Percussionist and Grab the Prize seem like easy choices for highly playable cards, while others feel more niche. Perhaps some of those ones will be used to find new brews, like the kind of enchantment-based deck I brought up a few times throughout this review. Still, Duskmourn: House of Horror seems like it'll be a fairly interesting addition to the game and to Pauper as well. The set becomes legal this weekend with prerelease, so get those cards and start trying things out! Foundations is right around the corner so I'll see you next month to cover the game's newest core set variant.

Paige Smith

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