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.

From Karlov Manor, To Luigi’s Mansion

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

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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

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 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!".

Every time you post a "we need to talk" I think you're breaking up with me. Stop it, Vince. I can't handle the pit in my stomach every single time.

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?

Contemporary MTG flavoring is like browsing the popular tab on Reddit

The thing about the 80’s horror theme is that it’s based on films that came out 40 years ago. What I see in this set is that things like televisions, sneakers, flashlights are commercial goods that exist in our world, things that are mundane and grounded in reality. I think this clashes hard with a magical multiverse that is filled with fantastic creatures, divine power and dark magic. Neon Dynasty at least builds on well established preexisting plane and adds some technological themes with magic. The new sets are just kind of doing referential themes without doing much to ground it fantasy or do any interesting world building. Thunder Junction was the same way as it was supposedly an empty plane (although I guess the cactus people don’t count for some reason) and characters from other planes come there but the references seem to be to spaghetti western films. They want to do all this referential stuff without really doing much hard work on worldbuilding or doing anything original or meaningful. Either way they know piggies are gonna eat this slop anyways because more powerful cards are in it. They don’t have to try hard and they know it. This is why I opted out of buying new merchandise. It’s all the same stuff and I don’t want to loyal to some company that doesn’t actually care much about the products they make.

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.

I don't hate it but it clearly lost a lot of its identity. Also that's never a good sign for the long term health of any intellectual property

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

it just makes sense given all of the universes beyond shit we've seen. like, yes, those aren't within the magic universe, but I still have to sit down at a table and play against them and see them on magic cards.

If you look at a majority of movies and TV shows in the last 5 years you'll notice that very few are original ideas. They are predominantly sequels, prequels, or remakes. It's as if truly innovative creativity is becoming more rare. Especially with MTGs ridiculous release schedule it's no wonder we seem to be recycling existing tropes and shoving MTG into them rather than designing an original MTG plane using the trope as inspiration at most.

I’m fine with a Magic set that has modern tech, but I don’t like how scattered the horror theming is in Duskmourn. It seems to be trying to do ghostbusters, zombie apocalypse, eldritch, aliens, and ghost possession at the same time. I was excited for it when I thought it was just eldritch horror, but I’m worried the set will seem disjointed trying to reference this many things. It’d be like if Murders at Karlov Manor was themed after every kind of mystery story instead of just murder mysteries

As a mono red player, I don't know if I can express how much I'm looking forward to playing Screaming Nemesis.

"Oo, this card looks really cool! So does this one! Hey! The Wanderer is here, neat! And this one- are those sneakers? ...Are those televisions? ...Are those 80s style headphones? ...I don't feel too good..." That's how my experience with the initial spoilers were.

That TV art was definitely inspired by the VHS cover of the movie The Video Dead.

My ten year old saw the TV and asked "is that a magic box?" 😂😂😂

Love MTG, played it since Odyssey, haven't bought any new stuff since OG Eldraine (some of the new Ixalan singles too) . It's not a problem though. The game has enough cards for me that I associate with it so I really don't have to engage with any of the sets since I stopped buying new releases. By the looks of it I won't start any time soon. Maybe the core set thingy. If the price is not crazy. If you love this stuff, by all means buy it and support the design team that did it. For the curmudgeon-y among us, my last comment will do.... ____ As someone that plays and collects since 2000, I never found another MTG story to be as immersive as the Weatherlight saga or sets like Odyssey (Novels were a thing then, a good thing...). Man, how I liked some of the characters... Tsabo, Gerrard, Seton, Kamahl, Urza, Ertai, Belbe, Yawgmoth, Sissay - It was an exciting, immersive fantasy setting that could offer the best strategic framework for a card game - ever! However these days it seems to be just that, a strategic gameplay framework where you can put anyhting in. Mechanics are for rent and the story went bankrupt. Apart from the cool Ixalan set, a lot of them seem like some hearthstone style gimmick. (Streets of new capenna - mean streets of Gadgetzan (almost the same set symbol), Murder at Karlov Manor - Murder at Castle Nathria (lol!), Showdown in the Badlands - Outlaws of thunder junction etc). It's "MTG meets the".... yeah, I dislike that. I dislike it a lot. Came to magic to meet magic. Stuff like that is cheap tricks in comparison. I get it, everything in MTG is inspired by something else, from folk tales to complex mythologies. I'm fine with inspiration, less fine the harder design leans in on it, and fully disinterested when there is no line between that which inspires and that which shows up on the card. If someone enjoys it and engages with it...power to them, I love them for it. Doesn't have to be me. Won't be me.

I dunno, the Abhorrent Oculus feels like a reference to the Eye of Cthulhu from terraria, even looks like the humans in art are gearing up for a boss fight

The dissonance in my commander deck when everything else is fantastical and then one card has trainers means I won't put it in the deck. That's the same for every universes beyond, if there's a strong dissonance with the rest of the deck, then it won't go in. But if the art blends in with the rest of flavour of the deck it will go in. That is one of the biggest issues I have with the Doctor Who cards, even though generally speaking I liked the set, pretty much every card doesn't fit in with my current decks. I was looking at the Titanic vehicle card for Edward Kenway, but a flying space ship is pretty jarring for a pirate on a sail ship

I felt like the original preview art looked more like Silent Hill or Resident Evil but this looks like Stranger Things...

$20 says the Wandering Emperor is there because the spirits have started to spill into Kamigawa Interesting note, the “digital glitching” effect seen in Neon Dynasty art was actually just portals to the spirit world-so there IS a precedent of them explaining modern motifs like these “CRT TVs” as spirit stuff

Magic has lost its essence and personality. Is the Fortnite of card games.

Not my flavour of cards I will have to buy some to stay in the game it kinda sucks that flavour is clashing so hard its like almost proxies feeling

I get how something might feel like a departure from the general feel that Magic has established over the years but at the same time canonically it's a multiverse where literally everything is possible. Technically most of the different planes' inhabitants aren't even aware that other universes exist, so for them everything outside of their plane must feel equally alien. For example I don't see how sneakers and TV's should feel more bizarre to a person from Tarkir or Innistrad than a powerstone powered construct or an anthropomorphic talking mouse. I get how Neon Dynasty's mechs might feel like as much of an impossible fantasy to someone on Ixalan as they do to us here but at the same time Ixalan feels like an impossible fantasy to us and I'm sure that technically speaking, our world exists in Magic's multiverse so it would probably feel really strange to some of the inhabitants of other planes.

I'm pretty much fine with the "tech Level" since the story of the set is that the characters are traveling there from (modern) Kamigawa. So going from rodded-out mech racers and global wi-fi to CRT television sets is fine. Works a whole lot better than "Ravnica in a cowboy hat" or "Ravnica in a fedora and trenchcoat" and "Ravnica, but it's endgame"

Oh yes. When i think of the aesthetic of MTG, I think VHS players and wood-paneling. Is the creative barrel truly tapped? What are we even doing here, man.

This is me being a grumbling curmudgeon but I am not a fan of ripping card names straight from TvTropes, and I am big TvTropes fan. I want there be little bit more innuendo.

Just finished reading planeswalker’s guide to duskmorn. I love how they’ve basically built an entire ecology into the House from house of leaves. The writing behind the concept is solid. Just wish it showed in the cards more. Anyone reading this should check it out.

the giant eyeball with teeth very much has the eye of Cthulhu from terraria vibes

@vince do you think settings like duskmourn would have benefited from a two set structure instead of a one and done? Also the explanation about the tv sounds cool, but if it doesn’t explain that on the card, either with text or through art direction, then is anyone who didn’t know that going to think it’s anything other than a tv?

Surprisingly we already have chainsaws in magic, just not a card called chainsaw. There is a draft chaff common from new capena who is weilding a chainsaw.

"modern horror" - full of 70s & 80s references. Coolio. Totally Modern. I guess they meant to say horror is coming into Modern, and they don't mean Nadu.

Thank you, btw, for mentioning that annihilator and infect are good at doing what they were meant to regardless of whether people think they are fun. They weren't meant t to be fun; they were meant to be terrifying. I'm always thankful to have been playing during the time that the Scars of Mirrodan and Zendikar blocks were in standard. Life issues occasionally push me out of the game for years on end, but I was glad to have played at a time where the mechanics of the game evoked horror so compellingly.

The unique Magic aesthetic was the whole reason I even got into this game. I don't want a modern vibe, even if they're using the "but the TV isn't a TV!" cop out here.

One guy is literally wearing football shoulder pads. Kinda destroys my immersion completely

We did technically got a chainsaw in Innistrad Crimson vow card Spiked Ripsaw.

It's been shown multiple times that mechanics will trump theme. If everything plays well and we get new fun toys, it'll be ok.

I don't mind scifi in magic, i really dislike anything that could be modern in magic

I think the whole thing is trying to touch on the Campy Horror troupes so by virtue it will be referential and ‘slapstick’; It’s the reason Terrifier is so well received, because it indulges in the intrinsic comedy of slashers

When I was able to fully grasp the idea of the Multiverse many years ago, I thought to myself there must also be planes that are futuristic relative to the usual MTG settings. I was just waiting for planes with these (futuristic) themes.

Cursed Recording is a huge nod to Ring, where a cursed recording ended up with the death (20 dmg in standard) within 7 (time counters) days of watching it.

Remember when Walking Dead was announced and we all said it was a matter of time before essentially modern day imagery was in mainline MTG products? Here we are.

Looks like leftovers from a failed Ghostbuster Universes Beyond with rejected Stranger Things cards.

This and the Baldur's Gate sets (which I LOVED) should've been white-bordered, or at least some kind of non-black bordered. my final ultimate take.

Mechanically, I think the game is fine (ish). It's got some problems (novellas on every card, constant power creep), but playing the game itself is still fun. That said, from a flavor standpoint (which for the record, is the whole reason I started playing and I believe the same is true for a lot of people), I do believe there's some validity to "Magic is dead." Not the mechanical game, but the world and flavor and lore have been altered in a way that's not fixable, not able to repaired. While the story was never perfect, we're to the point now that everything is somewhat nonsensical. As you point out in the video, now that this futuristic tech is out there, it should be everywhere. That means for those of us who genuinely enjoy actual fantasy, that is either dead in the Magic universe, or requires absolute mental gymnastics to explain why it still exists. Why is anyone fighting with a sword when giant mechsuits are available to the entire multiverse? It essentially invalidates the actual fantasy that so many, many Magic players loved. And yes, we can still squint really hard and pretend it's not nonsense, and there's still enjoyment to be had, but I do genuinely believe something has been lost that we will never have back, and I do believe the game we have now is lesser for that.

I hate it i hate shoulder pads, the chainsaw i could buy at home Depot the normal ass fashion. None of it looks any type of fantasy or sci-fi

Why does it look like a TV outside of the art director wanting to make a reference. What benefits in lore is there that the portals are 4:3 aspect ratio? It just feels like member berry's the magic set. Member Evil Dead? Member Ghost Busters?

I'm liking that they removed "the battlefield" from the text box. Also not exactly sure when, but the shark has long since been jumped.

I really think the art for Doomsday Excruciator is perfect (it's regular art, not the action frame one). The demon looks imposing and all, but I love the callback to the 'Doomsday Orbs' from a25. 5 on the a25 card art for the 5 cards, 6 on Excruciator for the six cards. The mirror of the eyes and the orbs on the demon also makes me happy. The mana cost being double doomsday feels thematic and it really evokes the feeling of MTG's 'Doomsday' both mechanically, thematically and referentially. I love it.

We've had weird little tech things since the early days of magic. Then in recent eras Kaladesh gave us electricity (sorry, sorry 'energy') and airships and other vehicles. The return to Kamigawa gave us cyberpunk. This really isn't 'jumping the shark' as, if 'not being pure fantasy' is the issue, the shark has been jumped so long ago that it isn't even in the rearview mirror anymore.

I hate it.

with the shoes, it might look weird but i think it kinda makes sense. in normal mtg worlds you'd be looking at having sensible footwear for day to day life, fancy high heels for ballrooms, or boots for traveling long distances. but what is duskmourn? it is entirely set indoors, there are many horror elements and monsters, and there are people surviving. in terms of shoe design you would want something that you can always run in, that is comfortable and can be versatile enough to also sneak in. heavy boots would be great for durability but would suck to run or sneak in and elegant shoes would be prone to breaking (and might also suck for running and sneaking) idk where they get their shoes from but just pretend that its dead by daylight and you can find shoes in item chests tldr, id want trainers if i were in duskmourn, and i dont know or care where they get the shoes from tbh

I personally dont see the issue with this. Magic is Magic and the beauty of the game is just how many different things the game can do. For me, as a modern horror lover, this set literally has me so incredibly excited. The tropes they are using, even down to thr basic land inspiration, is so cool. Magic can exist in tandem to tech, even recognizable tech.

RnD: What if we made a pleasant meadow set and a spooky woods set? Executive: is stranger things still popular? How about the goonies? Poltergeist? Fuck it just go with vague all encompassing “modern horror adventure” theming. Maybe we can sell the mice to furries.

"I'm not going to criticize the design decisions made here" aaaaaaaand close tab.

Ive been looking forward to this set all year.

I think its kind of silly we draw the line at an 80s TV but for some reason NInjas and Samurais are totally okay in our magic slinging fantasy land.

Glad you touched on “tropification,” Vince. I read the planeswalker’s guide and absolutely love the world they’ve created here, but I wish they hadn’t leaned so hard into the 80s aesthetics and technology. It just sort of feels like Wizards doesn’t have the faith in their own creative to create resonance without the crutch of some kind of obvious pop-culture touchstone to lean on.

I don’t like that they said that it’s modern horror but it’s 80s slasher

personally i'm excited to go to duskmourn, it looks like it's gonna be a super fun enchantment themed set and the artwork is amazing despite all disbelief being completely shattered in this set. but i don't understand why WOTC can't just use pre-existing planes in magic for sets, like we already have a plane that could've been what duskmourn is and it was already shown and teased in March of the machines. it's called Tolvada, aka Kaya's home plane and it's LITERALLY being filled to the brim with ghosts because the sky is literally breaking for reasons no one understands, driving the people of Tolvada insane. while i love Duskmourn (cause i have a softspot for the horror aspects of planes like Innistrad and now Duskmourn), why this couldn't have been a visit to Tolvada is beyond me.

For me, it's mostly mechanics and the emotional rollercoaster you get from a game of edh. I do really like a coherent aesthetic, and vibe and it does seem a card like come back wrong would feel out of place in my sauron lidless eye deck because of the art even though it fits perfectly mechanically and emotionally. Mixed feelings for sure

From Clue at Karlov Manor to Betrayal at House on the Hill in Duskmourn.

Now I see why they got rid of silver-bordered sets.

Duskmourn to me looks like what we got in Fallout in terms of looks. And while I get the idea of saying "Oh it's not a TV, yadi yadi yada", it just doesn't work. You show that art to any person with no knowledge of magic, they will be like "Oh, it's a ghost coming outside of a tv". Same with the torchlight, the chainsaw and the night googles. Saying "oh they are not what they seem" and not putting anything that can really hint at it on the art feels jarring to me. I'm sure it will have great cards mechanically and some arts will be awesome, but I'm also sure they could have made it fit better with the overall feel and look of magic.

Kinda wish WotC would just own it and say “haven’t you ever thought about if a planeswalker landed in our world? Or the Workd Tree unleashed the horrors of the multiverse onto this world?” I love the look of this set, and I really hope people can enjoy this set without feeling like it’s destroyed the world hopping narrative they love. After all, with all the possible planes of the multiverse, wouldn’t it be more weird to not have one similar to our own world?

I just like the spellpunk aethetic that most other scifi-ish sets have, like how a lot of stuff was powered by halo in new capenna duskmourn on the other hand doesn't look magical we're just being told its magical, i kinda like some of the tv stuff because having the ghosts pushing their way through looks neat but its a bit jarring to just see a chainsaw, i didn't have a problem with thunder junctions guns because it looked fantastical and was still basically a gun

I liked what magic was for the vast majority of its life. I just wish the people making the game had even the slightest appreciation for that instead of a weird and thinly veiled contempt.

I hate Kamigawa neon dynasty because I was one of the people who always filled out that I wanted to return to kamigawa in the player surveys they sent out and what I got was nothing like what I wanted to return to kamigawa for.

I love the magi-steampunk-ish-ness of Duskmourn. I cannot complain. I loved all of the weird Ghost Tech in Innistrahd, and the Weird-MagiTech of Ravnica. I can forgive WoTC for this.

Screaming Nemesis should create an emblem saying you can not gain life, stops any confusion and I forgot issues.

I remember when everyone was talking about guns in magic well thats long past now we have 📺

MTG already has distinctive magic tech style for Ravnica, Kaladesh, Kamigawa and even Urza stuff. They literally could have drawn on any of those instead of using a rl aesthetic. The art from this set is great, but please don’t ruin it by giving the otherworldly horrors fidget spinners and having them do tic tok dances.

Maybe this is like a discworld situation where its a lot of traditional fantasy but things from different worlds and universes leak pieces of their reality into other planes?

It's a bit strange to jump from the bunnies and squirrels set directly into a horror set. Like they could have eased us into it. 😅

It's absolutely wild that the only two announced Magic sets THIS YEAR that feels like Magic is Ixalan and Bloomburrow. This whole set just makes me roll my eyes aesthetically speaking, it's just the most surface level lip service to certain tropes and that's it. Can't wait for the inevitable Back to the Future secret lair or Chandra wearing Ray-bans or something like that. Ugh.

I'm still not convinced that this isn't a Universes Beyond set 😂

I don't understand why people are fussing over this issue. There is a whole subgenre of fantasy literature involving people from modern times being transported to fantasy settings: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Doomfarers of Coramonde, the 80's Saturday morning D&D cartoon, Erfworld, Army of Darkness, etc... there are LOTS of examples of modern people/things showing up in fantasy settings. Even Tolkien alludes to modern times in the Hobbit. So if Boomsticks and chainsaws and a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale can be summoned into medieval times by a wizard, then it should be pretty easy to explain how a pair of Converse All-Stars show up on Ravnica.

so far i love everything thats monsters and environments in duskmourn. everything with humans on it feels like universes beyond for something that doesnt exist.

Tbh, Magic did evolve, yes however, Im really looking forward to this set! Yes there are 80th vibes however, in the art there is much more than the few mundane items. Further I hope the set will really dive into the horror aspect, where actual almost real life items transport the vibe better for the younger audience which grew up with modern horror films.

It makes sense from a lore perspective. If you have infinite realities/planes of existence it would be silly to expect every reality to be medieval euro-centric fantasy world, especially if canonically WE the players are planeswalkers ourselves. Why can’t there be a sci-fi setting or modern fantasy setting? It can still fantasy.

I think what the designers are probably trying to do is a partial inverse of Clarke's third law - instead of "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" it's "Some sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology". There are a notable number of times where they struggle or fail to reach that point and it comes off as soulless attempts to grab people's interest by replicating a thing they like. Or it is just a soulless cash grab. Take your pick. Probably some of both honestly.

So, the reason why the technology from Duskmourn hasn't spread to other realms has been explained in universe!! Duskmourn is effectively a plane that is a trap: before the omenpaths, it was incredibly difficult to get in there, and even harder to get out! With the advent of Omenpaths, doors to Duskmourn are opening up in more places, but it is still brutally hard to get out - the whole house of Duskmourn is controlled by the demon, almost all of the plane is controlled by it, meaning that an omenpath opening up that leads OUT of duskmourn is both hard to have happen, and extremely hard to reach! Easy to get in, hard to get out.

As Clint Eastwood once said “don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining”. Magic’s once rich themes and visual motifs have become whatever generic trope that can sell.

I can't hate Outlaws and Duskmourn that much, they got me really into Premodern.

I think my big issue with sets like this is that its all just more and more references to other things. I don't want references to other things. I love magic for what they were able to create in flavor and gameplay. We have lost that flavor going to all these new places. Now it just feels like Ready Player One fantasy edition on cardboard. There are so many interesting stories to tell and so many cool fantasy places we can explore. We aren't creating new memories, we are just subsisting on all of our old ones.

I much prefer the planes having a few sets on their own to tell a story before influence from other planes get introduced. That’s why I think the old block structure worked so well.