Duskmourn: House of Horror
What's New
👁️Manifest DreadNEWLook at your top two cards: one becomes a face-down 2/2 creature, the other goes to your graveyard.▶
- The face-down card is a 2/2 creature with no name, no types, no abilities, and mana value 0 — whatever's printed on it.
- You may manifest any card — but only creature cards can be turned face up, by paying their printed mana cost.
- Turning it face up is a special action: no stack, no responses, any time you have priority.
- Turning face up is not entering the battlefield — it's the same permanent, so "enters" abilities don't trigger, and Auras, Equipment, and counters stay right where they are.
- The card you didn't pick goes to the graveyard — fuel for Delirium and everything else that feeds there.
- If it leaves the battlefield (or the game ends) while face down, you must reveal it to everyone.
| Can opponents respond to me turning it face up? | No — it's a special action that doesn't use the stack. It just happens. |
| When can I turn it face up? | Any time you have priority — even during an opponent's turn, even in the middle of combat. |
| Do "enters the battlefield" abilities trigger when it turns face up? | No. It was already on the battlefield — no zone change, no ETB triggers. |
| What if I manifest an instant or sorcery? | It's stuck as a 2/2. You can never turn it face up by the normal rule — only creature cards get that. |
📖 Official rule text
Card text: (Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)
Rule 701.62a
“Manifest dread” means “Look at the top two cards of your library. Manifest one of them, then put the cards you looked at that were not manifested this way into your graveyard.” See rule 701.40, “Manifest.”
Rule 701.40a
To manifest a card, turn it face down. It becomes a 2/2 face-down creature card with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield face down. That permanent is a manifested permanent for as long as it remains face down.
Rule 701.40b
Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested permanent you control face up. This is a special action that doesn’t use the stack (see rule 116.2b).
Likely interactions
⚡ Turned face up
The permanent stays on the battlefield the whole time — same object, no zone change. "Enters" triggers don't fire, and anything attached (Auras, Equipment, counters) stays attached to the revealed card.
701.40
☠️ Killed face down
You reveal the card as it leaves. But what "dies" triggers see is genuinely subtle — the game remembers it as a vanilla 2/2, not the printed card.
701.40
⚖️ Ask the Judge →☠️ Ability removal
Effects that remove abilities (like Dress Down) don't stop you turning a manifested creature face up — that permission comes from the manifest rules themselves, not from an ability on the card.
701.40
⚖️ Ask the Judge →⚡ Graveyard hate
Effects that watch cards moving from libraries to the battlefield or graveyard (Grafdigger's Cage, Dredge-hate) intersect with manifest dread in genuinely weird ways — the card is briefly a face-down creature card while still in the library.
701.62
⚖️ Ask the Judge →🔗 copy link to this mechanic
🚪RoomsNEWSplit-card enchantments: cast one door now, pay to unlock the other later.▶
- Each Room is two halves (doors) on one enchantment. You cast one door — on the stack, the spell is only that half: its name, its cost, its text.
- The door you cast unlocks automatically as it enters. The other stays locked — no name, no text, invisible to the game.
- Unlocking the other door is a special action: pay its mana cost, only during your main phase with an empty stack (sorcery speed), and it can't be responded to.
- "Fully unlock" means the second door opens — that's what Eerie abilities watch for.
- In your hand, library, or graveyard a Room is both halves at once: two names, combined mana value.
- If a Room enters without being cast (reanimated, flickered, copied in), it enters with both doors locked — a blank enchantment with mana value 0 until you pay to unlock.
| Can opponents respond to me unlocking a door? | No — it's a special action, no stack. But any ability that *triggers* on the unlock goes on the stack normally, and that can be responded to. |
| When can I unlock? | Only during one of your main phases while the stack is empty — sorcery speed. |
| Can a door be unlocked twice? | No. Each door unlocks once; a fully unlocked Room has nothing left to pay for. |
| What's a Room's mana value on the battlefield? | The combined cost of its *unlocked* doors only. Fully locked = mana value 0. |
📖 Official rule text
Card text: (You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.)
Rule 709.5d
A permanent with a shared type line is given the “left half unlocked” designation as it enters the battlefield if its left half was cast as a spell. It is given the “right half unlocked” designation as it enters the battlefield if its right half was a cast as a spell. If it’s entering the battlefield and neither half was cast as a spell, it enters with neither unlocked designation.
Rule 709.5e
A player who controls a permanent that has one or more locked halves may pay the mana cost of a locked half of that permanent to give that permanent the appropriate unlocked designation. This cost is referred to as an “unlock cost.” This is a special action (see rule 116). A player can take this action any time they have priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of their turn.
Rule 709.5i
Some abilities trigger when a player “fully unlocks” a permanent with a shared type line. Such an ability triggers when that permanent has one of the two unlocked designations and gets the other, or when it has neither designation and gains both.
Likely interactions
☠️ Countered
On the stack a Room spell is just the door you cast — counter it and the whole card goes to the graveyard, both halves.
709.5
🔄 Reanimated or flickered
Any Room that enters without being cast comes in fully locked — a nameless, textless enchantment with mana value 0. You'll need to pay unlock costs from scratch, and anything that cares about its mana value sees 0 until you do.
709.5
🪞 Copy
Copies of Rooms get strange fast — what a copy has unlocked depends on *how* it became a copy (entering as one vs. becoming one), and spell copies keep the chosen door.
709.5
⚖️ Ask the Judge →☠️ Enchantment removal
Rooms are enchantments everywhere — Disenchant effects hit them normally. You can't respond to the unlock itself, but you can respond to any unlock *trigger* by destroying the Room; the trigger still resolves if able.
709.5
⚖️ Ask the Judge →🔗 copy link to this mechanic
⏳ImpendingNEWPay less now — it arrives as an enchantment and becomes a creature when the last time counter falls.▶
- Impending is an alternative cost — cheaper, but the permanent spends its first few turns as a non-creature.
- On the stack it's still a creature spell — even cast for the impending cost. Creature-counters like Essence Scatter work.
- It enters with N time counters and is not a creature while any remain (it keeps its other types — for the Overlords, that means enchantment).
- At the beginning of your end step, a trigger removes one time counter. When the last one leaves — for any reason — it's a creature immediately.
- "Enters" abilities still trigger when it arrives, even though it isn't a creature yet.
- Cast for full price, none of this happens — it's just a creature.
| Can it be countered like a creature spell? | Yes — on the stack it's a creature spell regardless of which cost you paid. |
| Can creature removal hit it while it has time counters? | No — it's not a creature on the battlefield until the last counter is gone. Enchantment removal works. |
| Is it summoning-sick when it becomes a creature? | Usually not — if it's been under your control since your turn began, it can attack the moment it turns on. |
| Can I speed it up or slow it down? | Yes — anything that removes counters accelerates it; proliferate and friends can add counters and delay it. |
📖 Official rule text
Card text: (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with N time counters and isn't a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.)
Rule 702.176a
“Impending N—[cost]” means “You may choose to pay [cost] rather than pay this spell’s mana cost,” “If you chose to pay this permanent’s impending cost, it enters with N time counters on it,” “As long as this permanent’s impending cost was paid and it has a time counter on it, it’s not a creature,” and “At the beginning of your end step, if this permanent’s impending cost was paid and it has a time counter on it, remove a time counter from it.”
Likely interactions
☠️ Countered
Essence Scatter can counter it on the stack (still a creature spell there). Once it resolves with time counters, Murder can't touch it — it's not a creature yet — but Disenchant can.
702.176
🔄 Flicker
Exile it and return it, and it comes back as a new object that was never "cast for its impending cost" — a full creature, no time counters, immediately.
702.176
🪞 Copy
A copy wasn't cast at all — so the impending conditions are never true for it. But exactly what a copy looks like as it enters has layers.
702.176 · 707.2
⚖️ Ask the Judge →☠️ Ability removal
If an effect like Dress Down strips abilities as an impending permanent enters, the whole impending package can fall apart in surprising ways — this is deep layers-and-replacement territory.
614.12
⚖️ Ask the Judge →🔗 copy link to this mechanic
👻EerieNEWTriggers when an enchantment you control enters — or when you fully unlock a Room.▶
- Eerie is an ability word — a flavor label, not a rule. Each Eerie ability is an ordinary triggered ability.
- It watches for two events: an enchantment entering under your control, or you fully unlocking a Room (its second door opening).
- Every enchantment counts — Auras, Sagas, Rooms, enchantment creatures, and enchantment *tokens*.
- Casting a Room gives one Eerie trigger (an enchantment entered). The fully-unlock trigger comes later, when you open the second door.
- It's a normal trigger: it uses the stack, and opponents can respond.
| Does casting a Room trigger Eerie twice? | No — once, for the enchantment entering. Fully unlocking it later is the second trigger. |
| Do enchantment tokens trigger it? | Yes — Eerie watches enchantments *entering*, however they arrive. |
| Can opponents respond? | Yes — standard triggered ability on the stack. |
📖 Official rule text
Card text: (Eerie — Whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a Room…)
Rule 207.2c
An ability word appears in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Ability words are similar to keywords in that they tie together cards that have similar functionality, but they have no special rules meaning and no individual entries in the Comprehensive Rules.
Rule 709.5i
Some abilities trigger when a player “fully unlocks” a permanent with a shared type line. Such an ability triggers when that permanent has one of the two unlocked designations and gets the other, or when it has neither designation and gains both.
Likely interactions
⚡ Rooms
The two halves of Eerie chain naturally: cast a Room (trigger one), later pay to fully unlock it (trigger two). A flickered Room re-enters fully locked — that's another enchantment-entered trigger, and its doors can be opened all over again.
709.5i
⚡ Simultaneous entries
If several enchantments enter at once (a board wipe recovery, a mass reanimation), Eerie triggers once for each of them.
603.2
⚖️ Ask the Judge →🔗 copy link to this mechanic
🏕️SurvivalNEWAt the start of your second main phase, if this creature is tapped, you get the bonus.▶
- Survival is an ability word: an ordinary triggered ability that fires at the beginning of your second main phase — right after combat.
- "If it's tapped" is checked twice (the intervening 'if' rule): once when the phase begins, and again when the trigger resolves. Fail either check, get nothing.
- How it got tapped doesn't matter — attacking works, but so does crewing a Vehicle, convoking a spell, or tapping for any cost.
- That means you can trigger Survival without ever attacking — tap the creature during your first main phase for some cost and it's still tapped after combat.
- Untapped at the start of the second main phase? No trigger at all — you can't tap it "in response" to force one.
| Does the creature have to attack? | No — it just has to be tapped. Crew, convoke, or any tap-cost counts. |
| Can my opponent stop it? | Yes — untapping the creature in response makes the trigger do nothing (it re-checks on resolution). |
| What about extra main phases? | Only the second main phase of the turn triggers Survival — not the third or beyond. |
| Does a summoning-sick creature work? | It can't attack, but tap it for a cost (like crewing) and Survival still triggers. |
📖 Official rule text
Card text: (Survival — At the beginning of your second main phase, if this creature is tapped…)
Rule 207.2c
An ability word appears in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Ability words are similar to keywords in that they tie together cards that have similar functionality, but they have no special rules meaning and no individual entries in the Comprehensive Rules.
Rule 603.4
A triggered ability may read “When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect].” When the trigger event occurs, the ability checks whether the stated condition is true. The ability triggers only if it is; otherwise it does nothing. If the ability triggers, it checks the stated condition again as it resolves. If the condition isn’t true at that time, the ability is removed from the stack and does nothing.
Likely interactions
⏱️ Untapped in response
The intervening 'if' cuts both ways: the creature must be tapped when the phase begins and when the trigger resolves. An instant that untaps it in between blanks the trigger entirely.
603.4
☠️ Killed in response
If the creature leaves the battlefield with the trigger on the stack, whether the effect still happens depends on the ability's wording — last-known-information questions get fiddly.
603.4
⚖️ Ask the Judge →🔗 copy link to this mechanic
What's Returning
🧠DeliriumRETURNINGRewards four or more card types in your graveyard — and Manifest Dread keeps the graveyard fed.▶
- Delirium counts card types, not cards: creature, instant, sorcery, artifact, enchantment, land, planeswalker, battle, kindred.
- Four different types among all cards in your graveyard turns it on.
- One card can supply multiple types (an artifact creature counts artifact *and* creature).
- Duskmourn's whole engine feeds it — Manifest Dread puts a card in your graveyard every time.
| When is delirium checked? | Whenever the ability needs it — continuously for static abilities, on trigger/resolution for triggered ones. If your graveyard changes at instant speed, delirium can switch on or off. |
📖 Official rule text
Card text: (Delirium — …if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.)
Rule 207.2c
An ability word appears in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Ability words are similar to keywords in that they tie together cards that have similar functionality, but they have no special rules meaning and no individual entries in the Comprehensive Rules.
Likely interactions
⚡ Counting types
Double-faced cards, split cards, and cards with multiple types make the count trickier than it looks.
207.2c
⚖️ Ask the Judge →🔗 copy link to this mechanic
Set Timeline
Lorwyn Eclipsed
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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