Though Magic: The Gathering has tried some strange, new aesthetics in recent years, like the art deco of Streets of New Capenna or the cyberpunk stylings of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the final Standard set of 2024 looks set to be one of the most out-there so far.

Duskmourn: House Of Horror is set to be based on 1980s horror movies, games, and other media, offering up cheesy spooks and scares in a haunted mansion when it launches in Q4, 2024.

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Revealed at the Magic 30 panel at Gen Con, Duskmourn is perhaps the set we currently know the least about. What, exactly, “1980s horror” means could be anybody’s guess, as that covers everything from The Thing to The Monster Squad. It being set in a haunted house certainly sets us up for a more tropey, kitsch experience than the hardcore horror of the latter, but there is a lot of room to explore the decade and its themes.

Duskmourn: House Of Horror Key Art via Wizards of the Coast

It almost feels like this set is another attempt at 2022’s infamous Innistrad: Double Feature. Innistrad already holds the position of Magic’s horror-themed plane, and Double Feature (ostensibly) gave it a move makeover with greyscale filters to mimic the silver screen. Before that, we also saw Secret Lairs released alongside Innistrad: Crimson Vow that reimagined cards as horror movie posters, albeit from the ‘50s and ‘60s rather than the ‘80s.

If we discount Kamigawa and its futuristic stylings, Duskmourn looks set to be the release based closest on the real world. Streets Of New Capenna was inspired by half a century earlier with 1920s mobsters, while the also-just-announced Outlaws Of Thunder Junction looks back at the 19th century with a Wild West cowboys theme. Duskmourn being based on the ‘80s means it’s the first time it’s reasonable anybody playing Magic now was alive at the time it’s inspired by.

We don’t know where Duskmourn is set. The ‘80s flavour also makes it incompatible with the 1700s feel of Innistrad, our main horror world. Perhaps it will be an entirely new world, opening the door to more ‘80s style away from horror in the future?

Thematically, Duskmourn is filling a hole in the Standard format that was left by the rotating out of the two Innistrad sets with the release of the previous set, Bloomburrow. We could see least some of the mechanical hooks of Innistrad to appear here, such as double-faced transforming cards (to ensure March of the Machine and its transform-matters theme isn't left on its own) and graveyard-matters themes.

Duskmourn: House Of Horror is currently the final confirmed launch for 2024, and should launch sometime in October or November for both tabletop paper play and digital clients like Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Online.

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