Pulling TeethPulling Teeth | Art by Jim Pavelec

Various polls exist out there on the internet trying to definitively rank the scariest horror subgenre. None of them seem to agree, which might be the scariest genre of all considering how fickle they reveal human nature to be.

To a person, the answer of what truly is the most terrifying variety of horror comes down to many, many factors. And then there are all the coulrophobic folks who skew the numbers against innocent clowns.

In Magic: The Gathering, horror has always been an arrow in the quiver of world-builders and artists. We've got entire settings devoted to the genre in Innistrad and Duskmourn, and even decidedly non-horror areas of Magic canon can't seem to help themselves in dabbling, just a little bit, into horror.

That's the result of a game in which Zombies, Vampires and other classic horror monsters are part of its fabric. Magic's a quilt of influence, and many squares are bloody.

And speaking of the aforementioned horror sets above, there are plenty of ghoulish cards contained within that players know and love. Many of them are rares and mythics, showcases for artists and designers to show exactly what kind of mess characters on those planes are getting into. We're all familiar with stuff like The Meathook MassacreThe Meathook Massacre, Come Back WrongCome Back Wrong, Army of the DamnedArmy of the Damned, and any number of other trope-heavy inclusions.

But there are also currently 30,554 distinct Magic cards that exist in physical form, with more being added every day. Sometimes even more frequently than that.

Sure, horror as a trope and genre from which to pull inspiration is relevant in Duskmourn or Innistrad. Horror abounds beyond those sets, however. And some of Magic's most macabre cards aren't tentpole mythics. Let's take a look at seven commons that went too hard into horror.

MurderMurder

Can't get much more on-the-nose than Murder. There have been a number of versions of Murder, but every time an artist is tasked with creating the art, we center around a familiar motif.

And yes, I tagged the one version of the card that's not a common, but I also like that one the most. Sorry.

As for horror, most versions of Murder harken to the subgenre of Slashers. As the name implies, those center around a killer stalking a group of people. The killer's usually human, though often they feature supernatural elements that prevent them from being impeded by common means.

Jason Voorhees doesn't usually get stopped by traffic or the need to go to the bathroom, for example.

It's where the trope of the Final GirlFinal Girl comes from, and resonates with horror fans for the mostly believable and "possible in real life" aspect of it generating the terror. Slashers are not to be confused with occult horror, which also often features a person murdering teens but does so for the glory of Crom, or movies about assassins which are really just occupational narratives.

There's something very viscerally alarming about the possibility of your life being snuffed by anyone, anywhere, at any time. And that's what Murder evokes.

Pulling TeethPulling Teeth

There are two things we all have in common: We all have bodies, and we all don't want bad things to happen to those bodies. That's the crux of body horror. There are microgenres within this subgenre that really get under the skin (pun intended), involving teeth, fingernails or eyeballs, but you can use your imagination. Or don't.

When it comes to Magic, though, body horror's actually pretty well represented. There are many cards that depict bad things happening to perfectly good body parts, and they're not all from Duskmourn. Though, to be fair, that set did lean heavily into the subgenre in its effort to shamelessly represent every horror subgenre there is.

Most commonly, body horror in Magic can be attributed to the influence of the Eldrazi, who warp and mangle bodies with no regard for their natural structure. But it's not just the Eldrazi who like to tinker with flesh.

And then there's Pulling Teeth. There's no reason Jim Pavelec had to go so hard on a common from Morningtide, a set inspired by Celtic fairytale. However, if you dig into Pavelec's body of work (which you can do if you click that link), you'll see that he probably couldn't help himself.

In fact, Jim's one of Magic's horror flag-bearers, and any card assigned to him will likely have that edge.

Citizen's ArrestCitizen's Arrest

What if your loved ones aren't really who they seem? What if there's something... off?

What if you aren't...you?

It's a question asked by plenty of horror media over the years, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Fallout 4. The idea that what you understand to be yourself, and what you understand to be the people closest to you, is inherently wrong: That's foundational to horror, and embodied most wholly in Magic by Phyrexia.

In Dominaria United, Dominaria was united, yes. Reading the set name explains the set name. Dominaria was united against the Phyrexian invasion, during which anyone, at any time, could have been an agent of the invaders, corrupted and only themselves by facsimile. They're Sleeper Agents, and they've been around for awhile.

There are actually several examples of Sleeper Agents in Dominaria United, but none of them are quite as alarming in their depiction as we see on Citizen's Arrest.

Sorry if that last one's a story spoiler.

BreathstealerBreathstealer

We've talked about getting murdered, getting your teeth pulled out by a dirty rope, and finding out your mom's actually an invading robotic horror from another dimension. But what if you're somehow able to protect yourself from all that, only to be perforated by the ethereal blade of otherworldly boogymen called Breathstealers?

There's nothing really all that scary about the card Breathstealer, obviously. As far as Mirage-era commons go, it's subpar, which is saying a lot. But what it represents, and the lore behind the creature, is where the horror derives. Breathstealers can enter any abode undetected, noiselessly, and kill with impunity.

Each life taken by a Breathstealer extends their own, and victims are nothing more than fuel - unless, of course, the victim's a child, in which case that child becomes a Breathstealer themselves, doomed to perpetuate the cycle of slaughter.

There's horror in other people, in our own bodies. But true horror might be the inexorable approach of death. And that's what Breathstealers represent.

Also, the card's one of very few in Magic that shows a decapitated human head, which is pretty gruesome in its own right. And since we're talking horror, here's some more!

Fanatical OfferingFanatical Offering

This one could be considered murder like that depicted on, well, Murder, but if you know anything about the story of Ixalan you know there's an extra wrinkle involved.

Horror comes in many forms, but the one that likely resonates the deepest in today's world is horror surrounding the fanatical, as depicted on this particular card.

We all crave purpose. But when the pursuit of that purpose eclipses the rational, the result is the capacity to inflict great evil on the world. All it takes is a little misplaced conviction to turn man into monster. Or, in Vito's case, Vampire into monster. Monster into monster. More monster. You know what I mean.

There are several such examples of this in Magic, where blind zealotry justifies cruelty, spreads terror, and weaponizes obsession. Often this manifests with a sharp knife and an unwilling parting with a vital organ.

Dutiful ReturnDutiful Return

What if death isn't the culmination of horror, like it's been in previous entries? What if instead of a grand finale, you're cursed with a perpetual denouement?

That's a bit of what allows Zombie-themed horror to shamble on in perpetuity: the thought of knowing the eventuality of your body - your "self" - existing as a mindless monster causing harm to those you love. Or, in the case of Dutiful Return, serving as set decoration in the court of a fat dragon.

But like Zombies themselves, zombie horror has decayed into a shell of its former self, and in many cases today serve as a workaround for writers and filmmakers who seek to depict wonton violence against humanoids without all that pesky morality getting in the way. However, the inherent horror of ending up like the sad sack on Dutiful Return will always be the frigid heart of the subgenre.

In fact, Khans of Tarkir block is highly underrated when it comes to an interesting, more macabre take on the zombie trope. There are several examples of why if you're going to be reanimated into an undead thrall, it's probably best to avoid that happening on Tarkir.

Initiates of the Ebon HandInitiates of the Ebon Hand

Sure, there's the body horror trope of getting your teeth pulled, like we saw above. But there's an entire subsection of body horror exclusively dedicated to having eyes where eyes shouldn't be.

So much so, that over on Scryfall there's an entire art tag dedicated to that very trope. Granted, many of those card selections are related to eyeball monsters like Phantasmal VisionPhantasmal Vision or Horror of HorrorsHorror of Horrors, or being tormented by disembodied eyes like on Eyes EverywhereEyes Everywhere, and not so much the body horror of extra eyes on your person.

Think about it, though. What would you do if you woke up with a big ol' eyeball in your chest like Heather Hudson's version of the Initiates of the Ebon Hand? Think of how itchy a shirt would be.

And don't even get me started on gloves.

Unveil What Lies Beyond, One Horror at a Time

Thanks for coming along through our little journey of horror in Magic you might have missed.

And with how vast the game is, and how little of it comparatively discussed today, what would you include in this list? What's your favorite lesser-known horror from the depths of Magic?

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