What Happens in Duskmourn: House of Horror?

Nashi has gone missing in a plane-spanning haunted house. Can Kaito, Niko, Tyvar, Zimone, and The Wandering Emperor of Kamigawa rescue their friend before he's consumed by Valgavoth, the demon master of Duskmourn?
Find out in this recap of the Magic: The Gathering story!
Read the official story: bit.ly/MTG_Sto...

[@danalbert7166]

A new "What Happens In" video? This is the most anticipated sequel since Meathook Massacre II

[@Rococorico]

I like how Zimone and Tyvar got to twist "the body horror bit" to their advantage and even got some time to reflect on phyrexian compleation and their invasion traumas and grief. Best story perspective by far, their nerd & jock dynamic was hilarious. It's also funny to me that Magic Story has spent so many years trying to make Jace a sympathetic, likeable character and then he shows up, is called out as a jerk and... proceeds to act as a jerk. The logical choice in that moment was to help Kaito then have him help rescue Vraska and Loot. Even if he knew that Kaito could planeswalk away to safety, there was nothing to gain in getting further on the bad side of someone who already wants to punch your face.

[@VI_VA.]

I feel like Jace is in that villain phase of "well I will end the multiverse so nothing else matters anymore except those i love and the one who can help us end the multiverse"

[@eunomiac]

Nashi's such a badass. "Rat Ninja Wizard" has gotta be one of the best creature types in the game :D

[@sovietpersonman]

You left out the funniest part about the plane Valgavoth was going to send Winter as a reward was Innistrad of all places. Overall I really did like the story but the biggest thing that bugged was the Nashi stuff because you are right it isn't very clear with how it went down

[@clasherking4528]

Wait really? That's hilarious, to make it even funnier just drop him off in the middle of a zombie horde or house of vampires. Should be fun

[@mcedeias7788]

@@clasherking4528 afais it wasn't confirmed, but very much implied to be Innistrad

[@VI_VA.]

​@@mcedeias7788i think it was? The author made some notes on her blog about the Duskmourn story bits

[@clasherking4528]

I watched the videos they put up here on KZbin basically reading the story to you. My favorite part was when zimone and tyvar are fighting the cultists and zimone uses her magic on tyvar and tries to explain how it works, tyvar understands nothing that she says and just yells out "BEHOLD THE POWER OF MATH!!!!" I was rolling on the floor with that one tyvar was my favorite character through the whole story, and the reason why can be summed up in a quote from fairy tail about natsu "he seems so empty headed, but when he fights his mind moves at lightning speed"

[@CarmenCards]

My thought is either jace underestimated how dangerous duskmourn as a plane is, or that showing loot the danger of the omen paths is part of the plan

[@schmian95]

I think they did the best they could with the premise they had. The entire premise of Duskmourn feels like, "What if Innistrad, but everything makes you want to roll your eyes"

[@VI_VA.]

Btw, the author of the magic stpries of Duskmourn; Seanan McGuire has a personal blog where she expands a bit on each episode and explaining some bits, called "DvD extras"

[@MagicArcanum]

That's nice and all, but I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation that a player can understand the story just by picking up the cards and reading the official story (which has a featured url on the spotlight cards for that reason)

[@VI_VA.]

@@MagicArcanum oh no, I inderstand. I only meant it as some fun extra things in case people wanted to see

[@mrruniccross1226]

The Tyvar House mode could be really brilliant as a Chekov's Gun in a later arc by having the demon use him as a way to force open a door elsewhere in a different plane

[@Salty_Sea-Bear]

Despite the little flaws of the story you pointed out in mustache minute; I thoroughly enjoyed how you presented the story and agree with you that it did better than just jamming tvs and horror movie tropes in the set.

[@tactlesswordace9711]

If the cultists now understand, there’s a Multiverse and have loot they can navigate the Multiverse causing a complete chaos

[@aaron9797]

i like when niko sees nashi and thinks that its weird that there are no rat folk on theros

[@brotquel1592]

While I overall enjoyed the story I still wish we had two sets worthy of time to develop the plot. I feel like the buildup was good and thrilling, but the resolution was really rushed. "Team Wanderer is in place X facing these horrors, Team Zimone is in place Y doing research and uncovering the history of the plane, Kaito is back on Ravnica where they are theorizing how to open artificial omenpaths... and then they are all together, big final battle, Tamiyo dies AGAIN, spooky sequel bait." It's like having a great dinner at a restaurant only for the waiter to come up when you are still midway through your seconds with coffee and dessert and forcibly shoving them down your throat all in one big gulp wrapped in the check. It could have been good but... holy manoly, what has just happened? Also prompt to Tyvar for being an icon and his hatred for any form of shirt and for how adorable Zimone is for calling Niv-Mizzet "Mr Guildpact".

[@TwoTonTiger]

I agree with your view that marketing kind of gutted the mysteries aspecy of this set. Even something inconsequential like "what's behind the beasties' masks?" is just unceremoniously answered before the set dropped.

[@ty_sylicus]

I like the idea of Valgavoth being able to somehow escape Duskmourn and invade other planes. Perhaps it can do so unnoticed at first and build a large army....

[@FettFan42]

I hadn't made the Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar until you brought it up and now I need to make a Valgavoth food deck.

[@punahougirl84]

As a newer player, I do appreciate Story Time! I am one who would have enjoyed more time on Bloomburrow LOL. I cannot keep up the pace of releases. Thank you for doing these!

[@Dlark17]

The Emperor *finally* can stay on Kamigawa instead of being randomly blipped to another plane against her will (the ONE good outcome of the desparking)... and she's immediately dragged away into some BS on another world. There is no justice in the modern Magic story. It died with Gideon.

[@manadorkuk]

The flavour text on coordinated clobbering is so good

[@MM-lv7iy]

24:18 A theory that could excuse this weird plot point is that Loot had an old map: the area that Duskmourn now encompasses could have been safe when Loot was locked away however many eons ago.

[@MagicArcanum]

So unfortunately, when Jace first meets Loot and reads his mind, he sees the map, and notices it updates in real time. He literally sees a new omenpath open while their minds are connected, and Jace realizes how incredibly helpful this ability will be, as he and Vraska navigate the multiverse.

[@MM-lv7iy]

@@MagicArcanum Oh. Well then this plot point is actually kinda stupid. I guess maybe a mcguffin that Jace is too cryptic to tell people about is the only reason why they would travel to this swanky hellhole.

[@cobyisley3774]

Creepy evil haunted house? Check. Band of heroes fighting against evil? Check. New BBEG? Check. 80s horror tropes in cards and promo materials that didn't translate to the story (for me), digital ghosts in television sets in a primarily high fantasy genre, and a meta-ish debut trailer featuring Nashi asking for help through a tv set? Time for a new Magic Arcanum video 🙌

[@BrensExhausted]

I agree with most of your points - perhaps especially about Bloomburrow. Duskmourn is an interesting concept solidly executed with some very creative gameplay, interactions, and story bases for them, but has the poor fortune to come immediately after an adorable and well executed tail that seems to be one of the most popular years..

[@alexwilliamfisher]

Okay as someone who loves playing mtg and looking at minimal spoilers, this video is where I'm finding out the whole plane is a giant haunted house and your right the twist is super dope

[@CenJohan]

You know, despite the majority of Planeswalkers having lost their sparks, the omen paths really don’t make it feel like that big of a deal. Instead it basically opens up everyone to being “planeswalkers”, trouncing around the multiverse with seemingly minimal difficulty.

[@BreakingPtuck]

I think Magic stories are suffering from only one set per Plane. Imagine a two-set Duskmourn block that starts with Jace, Vraska and Loot looking for something on the original Duskmourn plane as Volgavoth is starting to expand. The second set is this current set with others entering the house as doors open on other Planes. This helps not only solve the questions of why Jace & co. are there and how Volgavoth knows about the multiverse. I didn’t pay much attention to the story of Murders at Karlov Manor or Bloomburrow, but I imagine it would be similar for those stories as well.

[@nerdaccount]

I'm not sure I would leave my mom's magical research in the blind eternities. I also think someone needs to go to Nico Bolas and tell them a dumb demon took over a whole plane... why couldn't you? LOL

[@lanibentz9976]

Something that just occurred to me, what was the point in desparking all the planeswalkers if they were still just going to be using planeswalkers as characters for the entire thing? Like of the named natives to the plane we see three, and only one of them assists the main group, before betraying them. We could have had Rip or Toby show up, why instead fill the group with just the same characters we’ve seen before

[@MagicArcanum]

Because now we get to explore how they each handle having lost their spark. Some take it well (Tyvar, The Wanderer) while others do not (Niko, Vraska). We also get tension between the haves and the have-nots (Kaito vs the rest of the party, since he could flee the house at any time while they couldn't) We'll probably also see some people motivated by the loss (Bolas, for sure) and other non-planeswalkers get dragged into bigger conflicts (Oko's band out outlaws) so I think overall it does improve the variety of stories Magic can now tell, while keeping a thread of familiarity, which is important in a game 30+ years old.

[@7Alberto7]

I was waiting for this so much ! Thanks Ryan!!!! Cannot wait to see why Loot is so important! I hope they do not trash it😅 thank you!!!!

[@Hacibeyrocks]

Well, during the marketing period before revealing the set, sharing cards that has movie references and whatnot THEN not showing those in the story is a real bummer for me. Feels like a dirty trick to be honest...

[@Dailytrueevil]

I don’t get how Aminatou got so nerfed. I get the spark thing but she could control fate so much she decided when she wanted to have parents or not. She created them out of nothing at a whim. Even if she couldn’t influence so many fates during the phyrexian invasion, she could at least have changed fate so her spark is safe,no? Or forsee the events? I would have totally accepted it if she had said: I did help. This was the only outcome where the my didn’t win. Dr Strange style. But I do like the idea that she’s careful to not take agency from people.

[@Ardenemhazik]

Bloomburrow. More Bloomburrow please.

[@gigipianuz97]

Time to understand what’s going on!

[@JainusVt]

It's good to see vlog rat is home safe from therapy 🙏🙏🙏 Valgovoth best therapist

[@aquaticdemon1]

This story really makes me want another one fast. Like the ending, oooh mysterious!

[@mrruniccross1226]

Of course Niko hates the idea of their choices being taken away. If Aminatou wishes she could make Niko get rid of that stupid goatee and Niko refuses to lose their dumb facial hair decision.

[@jonasp.1830]

I think you touched on a general problem here that Magic is currently facing, the way Magic is promoting their recent Plain settings is trough a lot of tropes which in itself I think is acctually not the problem, nothing wrong with Cowboys, Detectives, or Horrorhouse but make it Magic, but because we only spend so little time on a plane the design team trys to fit such a huge number of tropes into a single set, that people start to feel the set is just a parodie of these tropes in magics frame of reference, thunder junction and and karlov manor had this particularly bad imo even tho i actually like the idea of murder mystery but ravnica a lot, why not a single detective instead of a detective society and focus on a small scale murder that turns out to be more then that agatha christie style, idk. But to touch on the thing you mentioned here, by the time we have spoilers for the set and play with the cards, we have had preview panels, blogs and advertisments that take so much wind out of the sails of these storys and because its a lot of tropes and we get told a lot of details about the setting many know these tropes from just consuming the settings previous work, A detective set needs faulty wittnesses, framed innocent folks, etc. a western needs a train heist but also duels at noon etc etc. a horror house needs clowns... To advertise us these products magic trys to put its own spin on these and also tells us that very spin ahead of time to get us excited, but now you dont have anything new to reveal anymore the time before spoiler season leaves little speculation to what the focus of the set is because the focus is just "all of western" "all modern horror", when we then get to see the cards we point at cards and shout "ha told you so" at cards we knew would make some kind of apperence in the setting, with only a fraction of the players actually reading the story which imo has not been 10/10 but very decent, there is little to be discoverd the few bit that are relevant for the overarching story are drowned out by references to TVs and Baseball the recent Planes of Magic felt much more like a stage in a play then actually living worlds, with planeswalkers (some desparked) as our lead actors and lots of props flying around maybe its because these settings are a play on fiction itself and older sets played more with different human culture, for me Ixalan felt more organic then a lot of the other recent sets idk. A lot of this has been noted my Wizards already according to Rosewaters blog and it will take a year or so to actually make changes in the big production magic is so i dont share to much of the pessimism that is floating around on social media on this topic, this time feels like magic having the mid season cooking filler anime episode while setting up more grander stories for the future which is fine imo, im sure we will see some of these ideas refined and polished in the future maybe better hopefully... :D wups a bit of a TedTalk here sorry for any bad grammer haha

[@Thatposer444]

I really like the set and the story articles aren’t bad either, but I do really wish we had more Bloomburrow.

[@MeronPurin]

Aminatou LITERALLY brushed off the Tyvar question like someone saying "ITS OBVIOUS", but she answers none of the questions. If she was able to manipulate fate for literally one minute, she could have turn the tides everywhere, and could have produced those Fateshifters for lots of key characters. It's almost like the writters inserted this question for us, the audience, instead of the plot, so we could see how big of a plothole this is.

[@MagicArcanum]

Strongly disagree. Tyvar says why did you let us go into battle without these (meaning an armful of fateshifters) and she says "that's not how my powers work, and even before I lost my spark, (my power) wasn't without limits." We can assume it takes her a long time to make each individual fateshifter and then they only prevent one death for one person one time. That would hardly change the course of the invasion, and that still assumes she had enough forewarning to start making the shifters far enough in advance for them to matter - but she didn't, because she can't see that far into the future. She just told us that's not how her powers work.

[@MeronPurin]

@@MagicArcanum She literally sparked because she foresaw herself as a planeswalker, and if she can see that far in the future (and even multiple possibilities of futures, as she states that one of her destinies is to be trapped in the Meditation Plane) I think its safe to assume she could have predicted the recent invasion and helped. Even so, if she could only produce a small amount, those fateshifters in the hands of Karn, Ajani or Tamiyo would be enough for them to be saved, or even prevent the whole plan of invasion.

[@twisterzz4]

I have very similar opinions about Duskmourn. I *love* the concept. But I feel like the execution is kinda plagued by the horror movie gimmick

[@aceghostrus122]

We actually know tamiyo's scroll was stolen and he followed her voice in hope he would find her. That being said, the story is actually enjoyable, but it has the same problem as some older sets. The deus ex machina ending just doesn't work that well and i think they need more chapters for the stories. It would give the writers more freedom and let them make the story better.

[@MagicArcanum]

Do you remember where in the story it said that? It mentioned other scrolls that had belonged to Tamiyo being taken after she died, but I don't remember reading anything about the house entering Kamigawa to get the scroll that actually held Tamiyo's ghost.

[@aceghostrus122]

@@MagicArcanum in the first chapter: Kaito paused. It had been … "Months," he admitted. "I've been focused on recovering his mother's scrolls. They should never have been taken, and I hoped that having them might ease his heart a fraction, even if it could never be enough." The Wanderer nodded. "You see? We were all grieving in our own ways, and he slipped away like ripples in the water. Three months ago, he told some of the other Reckoners that the scroll containing his mother's living memory had vanished. He was distraught." He should have come to me!" "He was a heartbroken child, and when he started hearing her voice calling him to come and find her, he answered it. He followed her call to a door covered in strange carvings, one that had no place in Kamigawa

[@aceghostrus122]

​@@MagicArcanum This is from the first chapter: Kaito paused. It had been … "Months," he admitted. "I've been focused on recovering his mother's scrolls. They should never have been taken, and I hoped that having them might ease his heart a fraction, even if it could never be enough." The Wanderer nodded. "You see? We were all grieving in our own ways, and he slipped away like ripples in the water. Three months ago, he told some of the other Reckoners that the scroll containing his mother's living memory had vanished. He was distraught." "He should have come to me!" "He was a heartbroken child, and when he started hearing her voice calling him to come and find her, he answered it. He followed her call to a door covered in strange carvings, one that had no place in Kamigawa.

[@aceghostrus122]

@@MagicArcanum "I know we both feel responsible for Nashi," she said. "And at the same time, he blames us both for his mother's death, to varying degrees, and I think we both blame ourselves as well. It's been easy to keep away, thinking that was what he wanted. When was the last time you went to see him? Or spoke to Genku?" Kaito paused. It had been … "Months," he admitted. "I've been focused on recovering his mother's scrolls. They should never have been taken, and I hoped that having them might ease his heart a fraction, even if it could never be enough." The Wanderer nodded. "You see? We were all grieving in our own ways, and he slipped away like ripples in the water. Three months ago, he told some of the other Reckoners that the scroll containing his mother's living memory had vanished. He was distraught." "He should have come to me!" "He was a heartbroken child, and when he started hearing her voice calling him to come and find her, he answered it. He followed her call to a door covered in strange carvings, one that had no place in Kamigawa. He was clever enough to send in a series of drones through it before attempting to enter on his own, and they transmitted footage from the other side before breaking, one by one. That was when he took a few of his closest friends and traveled through." The Wandered paused. "They never came back out. Worse, the door vanished as soon as Nashi passed through. We have drone recordings of the area. I reviewed them and went to where the door should have been, but there was nothing, only a whisper on the edge of my planar awareness, like something terrible had brushed against our world in that spot.

[@MagicArcanum]

Hm! I guess I saw the bit from Kaito about "recovering his mother's scrolls" and assumed it was just the scrolls Tamiyo had authored that vanished. I missed the Wanderer pointing out that the actual Tamiyo scroll was also gone - but, the story still doesn't tell us who took it, or how they knew to look for it, so I think my point about things being unclear still stands. Thanks!

[@NovaWolfPrime]

I just want to play minor Devil's Advocate and say that the word limit imposed on the writers for Magic Story means that things need to be tight and hand-wavy, plus the expectations that this is kind of how the story has been presented for a while now. However, if Wizards wants to keep doing this style of "throw as many story lines into the water, see what hits, maybe we'll come back to it in the future" PlanesChase runaround, it would really benefit to slow it down, even just a little bit. If they went back to two set blocks, giving us that small amount more time with settings and characters, I think it'd be beneficial to everyone involved.

[@iTzDritte]

28:01 I definitely could’ve gone for more time on Bloomburrow

[@Gzilla313]

I was turned off by this set because I want Bloomburrow to be expanded, but this feels like the first time the Omenpath Saga story is really moving forward. Now we have a threat with a way to affect the planes.

[@nik700]

16:27 This is my issue as well. People complain about the '80s nostalgia and references (a baseball bat here is the equivalent of DJs and skyscrapers in Kamogawa, but somehow NEO was beolved? even when cyberpunk is filled with '80s nostalgia and it's born from it? But to be fair, people did complain about NEO during preview season), but those things in themselves are not a problem for me. I have a problem with references diluting and hiding the cool and unique stuff from Duskmourne, like the wickerfolk and the beasties

[@pvtpain66k]

I'm also very disappointed that we got "remember 80's and 90's horror?" the plane, instead of revisiting a plane that exists or going to one that exists and has not yet been in a set (lots of commander cards). I know Alara was smashed back together, but how's Grixis these days? Seems like a scary place we could go back to...

[@davidotto7324]

Wait, why is Marina Vendrell's Gromiore an Artifact - shouldn't it be an Echantment since all her abilites care about Enchantments? Would be somehow more fitting.

[@TommyCombs-gm9cm]

Just like how you cant trust the Duskmourn house you cant trust WOTC either. They said we cutting back on the Gatewatch characters in the stories and Jace and at least two others have been in each set sence then😂😂😂😂

[@HexproofAnarchist]

More Bloomburrow please...

[@lilithhenderson]

I feel like the dragon thing has to be Tarkir. Lots of dragons and time magic like teferis, like the fates restored ark, goung back in time and bringing back the dragons for Dragons of Tarkir

[@ty_sylicus]

This story really took 3 months?!

[@eddyesdras]

I was waiting sooo much for thiiis!! 🥺🥺🤧 I have been visiting Magic Arcanum everyday in search of this installment haha 😎 Now let's enjoy it! 🥂

[@Obsidianandstone]

Aminatu showing up here is just out of left filed. I don't think she's ever had any backstory.

[@dlemming888]

More time on Bloom Burrow would have been nice.

[@klolwut]

The creative bankruptcy of magic the gathering continues, at least I get my favorite mtg KZbinr to make a video

[@fancytoxicsoda]

My problem with wizards is them trying to incorporate pop culture into the sets through marketing and universes beyond nonsense. If they focus on creating a good story and fun cards the player base (and profit-which is what they really desire) will come too.

[@curtissmith2815]

The fateshifter is the laziest writing I’ve ever heard. If you want a cool death then commit damn it!

[@MetPhD]

I just want more time on Ravnica 😂

[@jesussermeno685]

Amazing video!. Sounds like the “Infinity Castle” from Demon Slayer.

[@manictop8457]

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@matmcmann3159]

Why is it with every set since like.. the whole end of phyrexia there's just plot holes and points to no where that just get summed up with "eh, is what it is" or somehow loopholed via plot armor device of convenience? am I just out of touch with story writing now a days or something? Man, i wish Bloomburrow was a 3 set block.. remember block contructed? Man, what a fabulous time for mtg..

[@marcoluciani4790]

Haven't seen the video yet but let me guess. The protagonist(s) is here because they are deceived/looking for something. Jace is also here looking for something. The villain is so strong the protagonist(s) ca never hope to oppose and/or escape it. They subsequently oppose and escape it by exploiting a previously never found weakness after finding the thing they came here for, which possibly gets stolen by the bad guy/Jace.

[@Ramperdos]

I still have no idea how Kaito doesn't have Red in his identity in any form! The amount of "x thing suddenly appears/happens" in this story is so bland, even when jump scared are a party of this genre... Dragonstorm thing made absolutely no sense in here. To me, this set and story was a complete miss. I even liked Karlov Manor better, which feels kinda wild to type out.

[@obadijahparks]

If they didn't use the 80s themes, or went harder with them, this set would rock. Sadly they couldn't commit either way.

[@icholi88]

TLDW: Nothing, nothing happens and it takes a long time to happen. You could completely glaze over the narrative of this set and nothing important will be lost. No one dies in the horror movie theme set because that would make sense and you can't have that.

[@noahmanweiler8833]

Hey look I’m first to arrive for class!

[@obadijahparks]

Professor Onyx finds this acceptable behavior.

[@chrismarcoux3990]

Spider-Man and Jace team up to fight DrDoom and Ben 10 on the plane of Alice In Wonderland.

[@demoncushion9600]

So.... the setting could have been a castle... it didn't need ANY of the future tech. WoTC really just threw DECADES of lore building away because "Err mer gerd references!!!!" Na, I'm pissed off enough to never buy a mtg product again.

[@dmv99]

Just more bad story telling… wizards is slowly killing their game and it is such a sad thing to see.

[@c9bepis939]

buh wuh muh puh cuh ruh