Phyrexian ObliteratorPhyrexian Obliterator | Art by Todd Lockwood

It's the most horrifying time of the year, so plenty of folks are making horror-themed decks. Vampires, spiders, and zombies prowl gaming stores and home games alike. Across all of the various sets and releases, decks are drawing from the most horrifying commanders available.

Some are even running capital "h" Horrors.

For those of you who want to horrify your pod with a horrible deck, look no further.

What Is Playing "Out Of Type?"

If you want to run Horrors in a way that will be competitively viable, check out Jeremy Rowe's deck tech for a Captain N'ghathrodCaptain N'ghathrod deck here! It's a great demonstration of exactly what you can do with Horrors, supplemented by the absolute shenanigans you can impart by playing Dimir.

That said, there's more ways to play Magic than just optimizing.

Across multiple brackets and with varying degrees of intensity, decks can be constructed to achieve all manner of goals. Almost always that goal should involve "winning," but that doesn't mean you can't take the scenic route there.

Playing "Out Of Type" is all about rejecting the simplest solution in order to make convoluted, needlessly complex overhauls to existing mechanics and systems, all so that you can feel like you're playing a brand new game again!

What Horrors Do Well

You might think Horrors would be overwhelming black-aligned, given their connection with nightmares and fear, and you'd be absolutely correct: the majority of Horrors are mono-black. But not all of them!

Many Horrors are multi-colored with a black anchor, though a nonzero amount of them are mono-colored in anything from red to green to white. Blue certainly takes second place, but it's feasible for any color to include Horrors in their deck.

Just don't expect too many outside of Dimir.

They're Big

Many Horrors have high power and toughness. Now, they often end up being highly costed or come with some other negative to balance their stats, but that's really not a big deal!

GallowbraidGallowbraid costs you one life per upkeep? Take two, on the house.

Not to mention that as a color, black loves its short-term gains at the cost of sacrifice. Phyrexian TowerPhyrexian Tower and a chump or two will bankroll your heavy-hitters in no time. Or something like Crypt GhastCrypt Ghast can double your mana production without even needing sacrifices.

Horrors usually don't have trample, so they can absolutely be blocked by tokens or chumps, but it's rarely a bad thing to have board presence, particularly when they come along with additional effects.

They're Bad

Horrors tend to pack devastating effects. You might have an Elder BrainElder Brain that simply allows you to steal an opponent's hand. It doesn't even require dealing damage, it's simply as a result of declaring an attack. On top of being a 6/6 with menace, mind you!

Or you might have Fume SpitterFume Spitter, which really leaves something to be desired.

The following creatures have caused so much strife that I really struggle to consider them "just" a Horror. Atraxa in particular was everywhere, and for good reason!

These effects rock!

They're... Horrifying!

By no means strictly tied to the creature type, menace and fear tend to come up quite often with them, which makes sense, as Horrors are meant to represent the unknown and frightening.

However, there's also always other ways for them to signal that they shouldn't be messed with. Phyrexian VindicatorPhyrexian Vindicator simply ignores damage done to it and throws it back at another target.

First of all, rude.

But it really goes to show just how commonly Horrors circumvent traditional methods of removal: because they're scary! Which is a nice integration of theming and mechanics.

Also Domini

I do love Phyrexians, and the various Domini are no exception. Each represents the twisted ideals of Phyrexia's interpretations of the different mana colors. Solphim, Mayhem DominusSolphim, Mayhem Dominus may be the most oppressive out of them, though I've certainly had some fun with Mondrak, Glory DominusMondrak, Glory Dominus.

In essence, each allows you to do what their Phyrexian faction is known for. These factions are often aligned within the bounds of their color but more narrow in focus. While blue is no stranger to proliferation, its Dominus' effect is more specific to the blue-aligned Progress Engine.

Nevertheless, each has the ability to become indestructible. Again, this is related to the Phyrexian faction's interpretation of their color. The green Dominus sacrificing your creatures certainly checks out for the Copper Host, but green as a whole doesn't usually want to self-sacrifice.

Also Also Overlords

While I wasn't as invested in Duskmourn: House of Horror as I was in the Phyrexia sets, its Overlords are nothing to sneer at.

Each is high-costed but comes with impending, allowing you to pay for them much cheaper at the cost of them having time tokens on them for a few turns which prevents them from attacking. While this is unfortunate, they aren't considered creatures for this duration, which actually adds to their protection.

Then, of course, each of the Overlords has an effect that triggers when they enter the battlefield as well as whenever they attack, so even with their impending cost, it's immediate value.

And wow, is it value.

But What If You Only Ran Li'l Guys?

It sounds like I'm joking, but I promise, some of these Horrors aren't exactly frightening.

Just look at this thing!

This is less a mechanical angle to pursue and more so just vibes. In fact, the art is probably the largest determining factor on how scary a Horror is or isn't.

But that opens you up to some quite interesting combinations.

Look At Them

Look at how Stitchwing SkaabStitchwing Skaab runs in its art.

This is a completely subjective scope, but that's kinda the fun of playing Out Of Type.

Horrors don't really have much synergy with one another, Captain N'ghathrodCaptain N'ghathrod being one of the few exceptions, so it isn't even really avoiding well-established synergies to participate in such a vibes-based deckbuild. It's closer to choosing the coolest-looking Pokémon team while ignoring type-advantage.

It's not ideal, but it's fun! Plus, it can add a unique challenge if you already are finding great success in your games.

Lord of the Rings

Though it should be mentioned that in the various Lord of the Rings cards printed, both Sméagol/Gollum as well as Sauron himself are considered Horrors, and both of them allow for their own synergies separate from Horrors while not being particularly horrifying themselves.

Sauron, the Dark LordSauron, the Dark Lord is already an internally consistent Ring machine even without any external involvement. Meaning it's a fine commander to amass your own army of small gremlin creatures that want to be seen as horrifying beasts.

Horrors Do Their Own Thing

And by that, I mean each individual Horror is usually really good. Some struggle more than others to find their value, but whether it's a regenerating 4/1, like Rusted SlasherRusted Slasher, or a 4/5 blocker, like Lurking RoperLurking Roper, they mostly have their own place.

Except for Fume SpitterFume Spitter. It might be cheap, but it should feel bad for its incompetence.

The thing that surprised me most about Horrors is their almost complete lack of synergy with one another, which makes sense when you remember that "Horror" as a creature type encompasses "anything scary outside of the predefined creature types." But it felt odd to me given how many Horrors of varying colors and sets there are.

Certainly there are the Eldrazi Horrors that synergize well, but they tend to be Eldrazi first, Horror second. Same with the Phyrexian Horrors. Anytime there was a degree of Horror synergy, it almost felt accidental. A byproduct of the fact that some other creature type had a sub-theme of Horrors for a set.

Which is a shame, given that this creature type could find a place in just about any deck. The only niche it really lacks is in low-cost aggro or creature spam, which can be more than made-up for in just about any color. Having just a few high-cost Horrors can really shake up the mid or end game when no one's expecting it.

Just be careful not to scare them too bad, either with your horrifying cards or horrible strategy.