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Could this Duskmourn MTG card be Red’s version of Sheoldred?

A Magic: The Gathering card has been previewed for the upcoming haunted house set which looks a lot like a mini version of multi-format all-star Sheoldred.

A hellspawn clown-masked guy with hooks and spikes

A new Magic: The Gathering card has been revealed for the upcoming set Duskmourn, which looks a lot like a color shifted version of Sheoldred. Razorkin Needlehead is a human assassin that can dish out pain whenever an opponent draws cards. Oh no, not another one!

This powerful Duskmourn card slipped past us amidst all the excitement at the PAX debut on Saturday, when the face commanders, Room cards, and new Kaito planeswalker were revealed. It looks like a strong red aggro card that can punish controlling decks which do a lot of drawing.

The MTG card Razorkin Needlhead

While it does half the damage (only dealing one point of pain at a time) Razorkin Needlehead is also half the cost of Sheoldred, The Apocalype – an infamous creature who has terrorized Standard for ages, and one of the most expensive MTG cards Wizards has put out in recent years. Put two Needleheads together and they do a decent impression of the black Phyrexian praetor. Has Red found its very own Sheoldred?

Well, not quite. I wouldn’t put money on it, but I think Razorkin Needlehead is nothing like as scary as Sheoldred, in essence simply because its home is in mono-red aggro rather than midrange.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse’s abilities are great in a midrange deck. She puts your opponent on a clock, is a fantastic blocker, and as you gain life whenever you draw cards, it becomes almost impossible for your opponent to race you.

Meanwhile, Razorkin Needlehead will be a lot easier to ignore or negate with life gain, as it only does half the damage of Sheoldred, and it doesn’t gain its player anything. A 2/2 with first strike on your turn is a pretty solid attacker, but it’s probably not the best option mono red has right now.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this guy flashing his pearly whites in an aggro deck next month, but I also don’t expect him to be an apocalyptic threat. He’ll be great with the new Valgavoth MTG commander, though, and maybe there’s a combo deck or two he could work in?

For more Magic content, check out our MTG release schedule guide, or our list of every single MTG set ever released.