Upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Duskmourn is full of nods to the horror genre, and we’re a real big fan of this latest one. The Green sorcery card Say It’s Name is a reference to monsters that are summoned when you repeatedly say their name, like Bloody Mary, Candyman, and Beetlejuice.
In this case, we’re tempted to call this Duskmourn card a Beetlejuice reference, since the monster you can summon is a great big insect: in other words, a giant beetle.
Here’s how it works. Say Its Name is a card that mills you a little and lets you return a creature or land to your hand. It’s the kind of ‘glue’ card made for Limited which Green tends to get in every MTG set, and that typically isn’t very impressive.
But this one has a fun extra twist. If you exile three copies of Say Its Name from your graveyard, you can go looking for a different card: Altanak the Thrice-Called. You can grab it from anywhere (hand, deck, or graveyard) and plonk it right down onto the battlefield.
What is Altanak? It’s a 9/9 trampler that costs seven mana and draws you a card when your opponent fires a removal spell at it. It can also be discarded for two mana to help you ramp. It’s a pretty darn solid card, and an obvious candidate for any revival spell in the set.
Personally, my favorite thing about this gimmick is that Altanak is only an uncommon and Say Its Name is a common. That means it’s pretty conceivable that you’ll be able to build a draft deck around summoning the beast. It might not be very good, but I’m still going to attempt it every opportunity I get, so you all better let the cards wheel!
There’s been some debate about what specific movie ghost or urban legend Say Its Name is referencing. The mirror in the art is more Bloody Mary and Candyman, but then the beetle pun seems obviously Beetlejuice – which is where our mind originally went. Candyman does have that association with bees, however, but then again you had to say his name five times, not three.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter – the cards are an amalgamation of all three, and probably a reference to the trope more so than any particular example of it.
Right from the first Duskmourn artwork we were shown, we could see that this set would be full of horror movie references, and I think this is one of the best yet – a perfect coming together of mechanical effect and flavor.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out the MTG release schedule and our take on the best MTG commanders.
Source: Wargamer
