ENTRY 14: GREMLINS!

Of course a horror setting full of 80's movie references is going to have gremlins in it, and of course they're going to take after the Spielbergian kind! Irreverent Gremlin is the first of two gremlin type creature cards in Duskmourn, depicted as a furry little imp with batlike ears, circular black eyeballs and a wide mouth full of little piranha teeth. It's a lot cuter to me than mogwai are, probably because of the more froglike noseless face...sorry Gizmo! You can see it's a pretty tiny little fella, too judging by the size of that discarded key and the candle that it's snacking on like a burrito, but it has menace. We saw a card with menace earlier, but I realize not all of you know how magic works, and you might assume creatures can directly attack each other like in Pokemon or something.

In Magic, creatures only attack players, but players can "block" attacking creatures with their own, and that's when creatures damage one another. So the menace ability means that a creature can only be blocked by two or more enemy creatures at once, which can symbolize a lot of different scenarios depending on the card, but it's most commonly given to terrifying demon whatsits who are just so scary, you can't possibly face them down without a friend to back you up. Honestly, what could represent a gremlin more perfectly? "Oh, it's just one gremlin, piece of cake," says the lonely night watchman about to live out a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Better wake your buddy up or your job is toast!

Irreverent Gremlin is also 2/2, which as we've established is a standard spread for the average human, so this little bastard is at least as strong and as resilient as you are. It also has an ability that lets you draw an extra card every time you send out another creature with 2 attack or less, so the gremlin's very presence speeds up your gameplay the more little friends it has!

But wait! There's another one! Barbflare Gremlin is noticeably bigger and meaner than the Irreverent Gremlin, now a much hairier thing with long, powerful looking forearms, tiny luminous eyes and a much, much deadlier looking mouthful of needle-thin teeth. It's obviously the "metamorphosed" gremlin to the previous card's "mogwai," and it looks basically like one of the Universal Studios gremlins got bitten by a werewolf, or perhaps a werecat. I feel like its fire whip is kind of overkill, really.

Barbflare has a single extra point of attack than Irreverent, it has that "haste" ability that lets it attack immediately on entering play, and while it doesn't have menace, it does have first strike, which is equally suitable! Normally, an attacking creature and a blocking creature damage one another simultaneously, and can therefore mutually destroy one another if they've got enough attack power for it. First Strike circumvents this, allowing a creature like Barbflare Gremlin to inflict its damage first, then only sustain damage back if their adversary survived. So remember, you're probably a 2/2 creature, so you technically have enough strength to kill a Barbflare Gremlin with your bare hands, but it will unfortunately murder you before you even see it coming. Unless, of course, you also have first strike, then you can go ahead and throttle one another to death, or if you have four points of defense, you can endure its three points of attack. As someone now reading your fifth paragraph about Magic The Gathering Gremlins, I'm sure you're as skilled in combat as the guy currently writing that paragraph. Gremlins!? No sweat! Just ONE little gremlin, at that?! Child's Play! In fact, I bet you and I could survive Child's Play, too. It's just one little doll!

That's it for dedicated Gremlin Type Creature Cards, but it's not the end of Gremlin presence! Razorkin Hordecaller is another Human Clown card, like yesterday's Balloon Man, because of course Duskmourn has more killer clowns. Of COURSE it does! They've got a whole circus, in fact, associated with its red-mana environment! This clown is absolutely nuts looking, too, their entire head concealed in a cracked, egg-shaped white mask with unkempt blue hair, one of those big white frilly neck collars I forget the name of, a big bulky body with gigantic claws and a wheel instead of legs. This permanent unicyclist's main draw, however, is that they generate a 1/1 gremlin token creature every time you attack! You don't even have to attack with the Hordecaller itself, you just get yet another free gremlin to join your minions as long as Hordecaller is present at all. I really like how the gremlins are styled in this art, too, with flatter heads and big batlike teeth compared to Barbflare.

Another card generates gremlins, too; the red and white sorcery Midnight Mayhem! It drops three little gremlies into play at once, and until the end of that turn, ALL gremlins have menace (oh no!), plus haste, plus lifelink, an ability that means you, their boss, gains health equal to all the damage they do. Their design subtly varies again in this artwork, too, by another different artist who gives them a very slightly more catlike flair to me, or maybe that's just because of the one prowling around with the fish in its mouth. That's so cute!

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