We Need To Talk About Duskmorn

My main problem with these later sets is that instead of feeling like magic's take on (thing), they feel more like magic characters shoved into (thing). If people like it that's cool, but I feel like the flavour I used to enjoy from this game is gone. I feel less like a wizard in a magical duel and more like a funny funko pop collector.

The Phyrexians actually destroyed the mtg multiverse and everything after that are just fever dreams

From Karlov Manor, To Luigi’s Mansion

I feel like they didn’t make the motifs their own Like brothers war and kamigawa felt like their own thing this feels like magic the gathering brought to you by Netflix

I feel like Wotc have stopped trying to adapt concepts into mtg. Like back on Theros for example the greek myth influences were very obvious. But they weren't copied 1 to 1. The characters and gods had their own names, designs and even backstories. There were clear references but it didn't seem like Elspeth just went through a portal into actual greek mythology. Now it feels like they have a list of things that belong to whatever trope they want to adapt and instead of trying to come up with Mtg in universe equivalents of points on that list they just literally turn those points into cards. Like for example in Capenna they could have used a "Getaway Carriage" or whatever instead of Getaway Car and instead of that Traffic Light card they could have maybe had some Imp trapped in a cage forced to regulate traffic.

Somebody should have told WotC that "80s horror" didn't mean "literally set in the 1980s"

My issue isn’t that it’s high tech, we went past that point back in mirrodin, I don’t think it’s a problem. My issue is, that they are completely fine with what we can identify as modern tennis shoes, but they wouldn’t give us guns in Thunder junction. Legit they’ve had cannons on dominaria for centuries but they weren’t okay with giving cowboys a boomstick?

'It's actually a magic portal', explained the WotC employee, with a confidence usually reserved for 'she's actually 500 years old'

I have to agree on the fact that a bunch of the latest sets are pretty much the definition of "tropification", with the worst offender probably being Thunder Junction. Having said that, I still have some hopes for future sets. At the end of the day, Innistrad itself was a very trope-y setting, yet they managed to create something great by virtue of fleshing it out and making it feel "alive", in a sense. Bloomburrow might be a good one, but who knows.

more and more of regular sets start to feel like universe beyond by itself

I think the issue is that it lacks a proper style so to speak. Neon Dynasty worked visually as well as it did because the designers didn't just adapt the tropes of the genre they were working with. What they did was adapting their art-style to the genre, integrating it into the overarching visual identity MTG has (to some degree). Duskmorn on the other hand just feels like someone took screenshots from some random, forgotten, cult-favorite, low-budget horror flick from the 80ies. This can be charming and nostalgic, but the designers did honestly nothing with the setting really, which is why it feels really hollow. There is no reverse engineering done on, say, the not-TV or the gear of the characters which is normally what MTG did style-wise. It's missing some oddness, for a lack of a better term, that signals "This is a design from the larger MTG mythos". If properly translated people wouldn't mind the 80ies boots and what not, but, with how it is, it really sticks out a bit too much. This feels undercooked, like the designers needed a bit more time to give Duskmorn its own identity. P.S.: Also, is it just me, or is the plot of the plane basically just Castlevenia minus Dracula?

I will not be surprised if we see another Stranger Things or Last of Us secret lair get announced after Duskmorn comes out.

it was okay the first time wizards did this with ravnica, but the whole "the entire plane is a mansion, or desert, or school, or art deco city" routine is running really thin for me. can they not make another dominaria? can't they explore other areas of planes to tell more interwoven stories? I just feel like the opportunities for storytelling are incredibly limited when they narrow their focus to just one mansion.

This is a refreshingly good take on the issue. I've seen entirely too many people in favour of Duskmourn take the incredibly blind stance of "Magic has always had variety, so this is perfectly in-keeping with what we've seen before!", as if the difference between a Greek hoplite and a Medieval knight is the same as the difference between those things and a dude in sneakers and a sports coat. Nice to see someone who likes the look of the set while actually understanding the complaints and concerns.

What has always drawn me into Magic as a game is it's unique worlds, flavor, and how that translates into card design. Duskmourn seems to be pretty interesting in terms of having a unique setting, a bit silly, but a whole plane that is a haunted house is novel enough to get me, and the card designs themselves seem pretty cool as well- but the set's flavor is a travesty, it makes me want to claw my eyes out. I may be a bit hyperbolic, but the current era of top down design only manages to evoke a groan- every other card seems more on the nose than the last, prodding the player with it's mouth agape. No longer do cards tell their own story beyond a joke or piece of pop culture that could be gawked at like a wall of funko-pops. Magic isn't dying, but it's much less interested in itself and the stories it can tell.

My favorite part so far is the art on "come back wrong" with the white sneakers. Because you see, these sneakers may look like ordinary sneakers from our world. But don't be fooled because they don't work like sneakers in our world, these are special artefacts made by the Jordan gods that create portals allowing you to travel trought them. Jesus, wizards really decided to starting putting real world things like tv's and flashlights into magic, and then gaslight you into believing that it's not what it is.

I wish that the alternative artworks could be the 80s/present day theme and style, while classic frames show art with close to the older school era of magic where there’s only up to a Ravnican-standard level of technology. Does that make sense?

I got into Magic entirely for it's aesthetic and stuck around for it and the game's mechanics being fun. For me and many others, this change of aesthetic will in fact begin to kill the game for us. If I wanted ghostbusters and 80s tech I'd watch 80s movies, I want a fantasy card game that doesn't depict televisions and converse, or the fantasy styled story and characters being turned into a netflix team of teenagers that are ghost hunting. Magic used to feel like they took cool modern concepts and incorporated those things well into their own story, characters and settings, now it feels like they're shoving the characters into those worlds and saying "Look consumer, your favorite character is a ghost hunter with cool sci fi tech, buy our stuff!".

Innistrad is one of my favorite planes, so I was really into the idea of duskmourne, and while the horror and spooky stuff seems to be everything I wanted, I'm constantly irked by the psuedo-80s art direction they have taken in so many cards. A girl vanquishing monsters in jogging pants and a sweatband, Tyvar with a nailbat and a fanny pack, it all feels like suits chasing that stranger things popularity by cramming it all in here long after the hype has died down.

Contemporary MTG flavoring is like browsing the popular tab on Reddit