The official Japanese Magic: The Gathering website spoiled two new creatures today, introduced the Impending mechanic, showcased the Japan Showcase style frame, and revealed a new fracture foiling process.
Also announced is a “first look” that will release more details about Duskmourn: House of Horror tomorrow. In addition to the new cards, four new pieces of card art were revealed.
The following are all the spoilers that dropped today.
Duskmourn Spoilers: Overlord of the Hauntwood
First up, we have Overlord of the Hauntwood in the new Japanese Showcase frame.
This is a new mythic rare from the Duskmourn: House of Horror set. It introduces a new mechanic called Impending. MTG has not yet told us what Impending is, so we can only guess.
Based on the format of the ability, it appears to involve Time Counters of some sort. This makes sense given the name Impending, which implies something is about to happen.
Time Counters were previously used on abilities like Vanishing, Suspend, and Time Travel from the Doctor Who Universes Beyond product.
Our best guess for what Impending could be comes from Reddit:
My unsubstantiated theory on what Impending does is that you can pay the impending cost to cast it as a normal enchantment that enters with that many counters. Every turn during your upkeep remove a counter and when there are no counters left it becomes a creature.
Tapirking1 via REDDIT
This is a plausible explanation given the mana cost and power level of Overlord of the Hauntwood.
Another thing we notice about Overlord of the Hauntwood is the introduction of the Everywhere keyword. This is reminiscent of the Everything keyword that Omo, Queen of Vesuva, introduced in the recently released Tricky Terrain MH3 Commander Precon.
Duskmourn Spoilers: Enduring Tenacity
Next up, we have the enchantment creature Enduring Tenacity. It’s also the first-ever glimmer creature type printed in MTG, not including Changelings, of course.
Since we don’t know the lore behind these creatures yet, here is some fantasy lore on glimmers from another fantasy game, Warhammer:
Glimmers steal the images of those they encounter, living or dead, and then enter their lives. They prefer the dead because they thrive on strong emotion, and it removes the possibility of being exposed by the original. Those who have their image stolen suffer no adverse effects, and Glimmers are not inherently malicious. They simply wish to inhabit their host’s image as long as possible, and some will do anything to ensure that. Glimmers can be detected by shining fire in their eyes, which reflect the light as if from a mirror. Likewise, the sun gives away their nature as shimmering reflections, and they vanish at dawn to avoid this. Of course, in the north, the dawn may not come for weeks, and many a ghost story tells of the damage a long-staying Glimmer has done.
via Warhammer wiki
If MTG glimmers have lore as epic as that, I look forward to seeing what this creature type has to offer the game.
As far as card abilities go, Enduring Tenacity appears a lot like a spinoff of Myrkul, Lord of Bones, which turns your dead creatures into enchantments.
Enduring Tenacity’s life ability is another version of Sanguine Bond and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. It’s also a popular combo piece that goes infinite with Exquisite Blood.
Duskmourn: Fracture Foil Treatment Revealed
According to MTG Japan, Japanese showcase cards will be available in the following two versions.
- A traditional foil borderless design, carefully crafted to highlight the beautiful artwork.
- A new fracture foil treatment that breathtakingly stands out and is only available with Japan Showcase
See the new fracture foil treatment of Overlord of the Hauntwoods below.
Details for nabbing your own fracture foil copy are as follows:
Japanese-language Collector Boosters will include Japanese-language versions of traditional foil and fracture foil Japan Showcase cards, while all other languages of Collector Boosters will contain either English- (67% of the time you open one) or Japanese-language versions (33%).
MTG JAPAN
The Japan Showcase art style will also be available on MTG Arena for Duskmourn: House of Horror.
According to MTG Japan, Duskmourn isn’t the only set that will feature the new Japanese Showcase style.
Like in Duskmourn: House of Horror, our current plan is for sets to feature 10 Japan Showcase cards, available in both treatments. The exact cards selected for Japan Showcase will vary by set, but our aim is to pick cards that are exciting to own, are good representations of a set’s theme, and work well with the intended art style.
MTG JAPAN
MTG Japan spent over two years developing this new showcase style and testing different foiling processes until they completed the fracture foil design to meet their goal of “bringing the most unique and eye-catching cards to tables”.
Duskmourn Spoilers: New Artwork
MTG also revealed six total pieces of artwork, including the previously spoiled cards.
Overlord of the Hauntwoods Artwork by AOGACHOU
Enduring Tenacity Artwork by TAPIOCA
Overlord of the Boilerbilges Art by AKIO
Enduring Curiosity Artwork by D-SUZUKI
Enduring Innocence Artwork by KAWASUMI
Enduring Courage Artwork by NUISUKE
That’s everything for spoilers! As we can see from the card names, there is a cycle of “Enduring” cards in Duskmourn.
Based on name and artwork similarity to Enduring Tenacity, it’s reasonable to assume these will be the glimmer enchantment creatures that return to the battlefield when they’re killed.
Finally, we can officially confirm Duskmourn: House of Horror has a release date of September 27, 2024 . Preorders will open up tomorrow, June 28.
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