It's spooky season once again, which means it's time to break out your favorite horror films and do some awesome movie marathons! When Halloween rolls around, I always find myself checking out old favorites like The Exorcist and, well, Halloween as well as finding new films via various streaming services. It's been a tradition ever since I was a teenager and stems from my many years prior to that enjoying stuff like Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the various works of Bruce Coville that would really lead to my love of all things spooky and creepy.

As it happens, Magic as a game loves to utilize horror quite a bit and dips its toes into the creepier side of things every now and again. It's what's made the many Innistrad sets, the Phyrexians, and certain elements such as the Cult of Rakdos so endearing. Along the way, this has also meant many seriously creepy art pieces over the years. Today, I wanted to talk about a handful of these. Creepiness is subjective, and many of these are the ones that I find personally scary, so know that your favorites may not make this list. Will your favorite spooky cards make the list? Turn out the lights, grab some popcorn, and read on to see for yourself! Just make sure you actually peek through your fingers when your hands cover your eyes from fright!

Macabre Waltz

Danse Macabre - or the Dance of Death - is a commonly referenced element throughout history, often used in religious texts and art, as well as modern day spaces like film. A notably famous modern example of this is the classic Swedish film The Seventh Seal, and even Magic: The Gathering's own Rhystic Studies did a video recently that covered the topic in part. Here, though, we see a very realistic and grisly depiction of this dance, caked in blood and gore. It's a wildly horror-driven piece that was so notable for the artwork, and the Eldritch Moon reprint featuring Liliana, while fun, felt like it sterilized so much of what made the card memorable to many.

Claustrophobia

Several of Magic: The Gathering's creepiest cards come to aspects such as blood, gore, or a generally gooey vibe that just feels uncomfortable to look at. When it comes to Claustrophobia, you get none of that. What you do get is a simple yet deeply horrifying concept: that of being buried alive. It's the idea that you're trapped, that your air supply is diminishing, and that you're buried so deep that you'll never be found and will die a slow and painful death. This concept drives home the horror and terror in such a simple and effective manner that has had a lasting impact on many who have played with it.

Phyrexian Unlife

It's those eyes. Those pleading eyes begging you for death, to put an end to their misery. The notion of being forcibly turned into something that you're not in a gruesome and horrific way, all with a new face of porcelain that doesn't even allow you the satisfaction of screaming. The horror of Phyrexian Unlife feels rather muted - in spite of the blood-like glistening oil all over the piece - and yet it is tremendously effective.

Necrite

Necrite isn't a great card, but it felt interesting as a kid playing casually in the 90s with janky decks both as a decent little creature and also as a way to have access to removal. It just so happens that one of its three artworks, the Ron Spencer piece, has haunted me ever since I was that kid nearly 25 years ago. The bugs crawling all over, the blank lifeless eyes, and the tongue and fingers bleeding as they're cut by the knife were all more than enough to make me unable to look at this piece for years, opting instead to play the muddy and dull Drew Tucker version instead. To this day, it's still an incredibly creepy piece.

The Fallen

The Dark is one of my favorite sets on atmosphere alone. Most of the cards in the set are actively bad, but there's just a whole vibe that makes going through the set always feel like a genuine joy. Despite this horrific and pitch-black dark tone that would make most Innistrad sets blush, very few cards in the set are actually very creepy. But then we have The Fallen. If Phyrexian Unlife depicts eyes filled with pain and horror, The Fallen depicts the eyes of a monster that haunts your nightmares and keeps you awake at night for fear it's going to get you. It was also actually a decent card - at least in a casual sense - once upon a time, which means it's not terribly unreasonable to have seen this face of genuine horror across the table in the game's earlier years.

Village Cannibals

Even without the context, the first-person notion of a group of people just standing at the edge of your bed staring at you is creepy enough. Knowing that they're cannibals and are going to feast on your flesh makes it all the more terrifying, even if it's in a very subtle way. This is made all the better by the notion being turned on its head somewhat with the Core Set 2021 printing of Village Rites - and its Kaldheim blood eagle art reprint, while featuring a different context, is no less disturbing in its own way.

Sensory Deprivation

Do you remember going to movie rental stores? I sure do. The concept feels weird being roughly 15 years since the majority of Blockbusters and similar closed up shop, but once upon a time they were all the rage and me personally, I was hooked. I'd roam the rows of films scoping everything out as a kid, and would occasionally find myself in the horror aisles. One film that would always catch my eye was one called Strangeland, a movie by Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider. The reason was that it depicted a woman with her mouth sewn completely shut. The movie isn't good, but that image stuck with me because of that subtle horror it displays. Sensory Deprivation is that same sensation cranked up to 11. It's horrifying, taking away your senses and your ability to communicate effectively while also doing it in the most painful way possible. A true masterclass in what made the original Innistrad so damn creepy.

Peer Into The Abyss

Faces on faces within other faces. That alone is creepy enough, but then it's also just so wet gross as well on top of that. Just a card that simply gets under your skin.

Citizen's Arrest

Sleeper agents were a big part of the original Weatherlight Saga, but were something we almost never saw depicted in card form. We only ever saw Xantcha and beyond that, we only usually saw the full Phyrexian side of things. When Dominaria United came around they revisited this concept and showed in graphic detail how this process looks visually and it is terrifying. Imagine someone you know or someone you love and is revealed to be something else entirely and then have it revealed in such a monstrous manner. Truly one of the scarier pieces to come out of the New Phyrexia arc.

Abomination

A lot of early Magic: The Gathering art was wild, vividly depicting the world in a myriad of unique ways. Some were abstract, others cartoony, and more still dripped with that distinct 90s-era fantasy cool. Some, however, were just downright unsettling to look at, and one of the kings of this was undoubtedly Mark Tedin. Even relatively tame cards and ideas like Cocoon or Balduvian Conjurer have a distinctly creepy look about them. Few capture that true horror essence for me like Abomination, though. It's just a large blobby looking thing, but with creepy eyes, a semi-humanoid shape, and a mouth that's clearly meant to come off like a skull, it's a standout amidst a set of great art because of how downright horrific it looks.

Crawling Chorus

You know a card is creepy looking when the first thing you say when looking at the art is to go, "Oh yeah, I've seen that horror movie poster before!" That's exactly how I felt when I saw this, reminding me once more of the sorts of hand drawn/painted posters for classic 70's and 80s horror films that would adorn boxes in rental shops growing up. Capturing that vibe is great, but it's even better when the art itself is actually creepy, with the multiple lifeless faces, the figure lurching toward you, and the many creatures hidden in the background. Definitely one of the more modern pieces that gave a lot of people heebie jeebies.

Also, while I'm not covering too many of the Phyrexians on New Phyrexia here necessarily, I do also want to shout out the White faction during the revisit in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Seriously, what was with all the teeth?!

Pulling Teeth

I don't think I even need to explain this one. Just looking at it makes me wince, and I think that feeling is mutual for many Magic: The Gathering players.

That's my list for top creepiest cards. Many were left on the cutting room floor here as well, like Carrion Beetles visibly feasting on a corpse or Nightmare's Thirst referencing the famous Henry Fuseli painting "The Nightmare." Horror and terror take on so many forms in this game and there are so many options to choose from. With that, which cards send the most shivers up your spine? Hopefully they won't haunt you too bad this Halloween season.

Oh, and if you're looking for some good scary flicks for your Halloween viewing you may not know about, I highly recommend checking out The Beyond, The House of the Devil, and Hell House, LLC. You won't be disappointed.

Paige Smith

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