In recent polls, horror themed sets and expansions of Magic: The Gathering have ranked pretty low. When comparing it to Universes Beyond, Mark Rosewater said that horror was less popular.
"We did a survey a while back asking about genres and “I dislike horror” was higher on that survey than the percentage of “I dislike Universes Beyond” was on its survey," said Rosewater. "Now those were separate surveys asking different audiences, so I’d take it with a grain of salt, but the idea that Universe Beyond haters outnumber all other negative opinions simply isn’t true."
However horror in Magic has had more of a mixed history. While horror has always been a part of Magic, the more modern era of Magic has it's horror kickoff with New Phyrexia in 2011, capping off the Scars of Mirrodin Block. While story was seen as pretty good and some notable cards came out, it was largely seen as a missed opportunity, with many fans not liking the 'Compleation' theme.
But what really proved horror as a set and expansion concept was the very next one, Innistrad, in 2011. And it couldn't have done better. Critically it was seen as one of the most amazing in series history, with horror tropes permeating through the set and highlighting vampires and werewolves. Financially it did great, and finally, legacy-wise, it has been called the expansion that revolutionized the draft, with it being called the best draft format ever. Rosewater also called it his tightest set ever.
The Innistrad block itself did well too, with Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored completing the block. Innistrad, and horror, proved to be so popular that the Innistrad plane got a low number off the bat. And it only took five years before Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon came out. Not many planes have that kind of turnaround, with Shadows also coming back as pretty popular as well.
Since then, horror has become more and more mixed. In 2021, the Innistrad plane came back one again with Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Midnight Vow, trying to reignite the old block system. However, this didn't pan out. The werewolf-centric Midnight Hunt did ok sales-wise, but the vampire-centric Midnight Vow saw a huge dropoff. The trying again of the block system was largely blamed by Magic, although players cited release fatigue and cards having noticeably lower values. A Phyrexia return in 2023, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, was also mixed, with the story being blasted by many players as being rushes and players hating the usage of oil counters in the game.
Duskmourn in 2024 tried to reinvigorate horror yet again in 2024 with a new plane, and while sales did better, they still were not great. Being released during the Halloween season helped, but many players were still more interested in Modern Horizons III and Bloomburrow at this point. Since Duskmourn, Magic hasn't returned to horror, with the five year cycle of an Innistrad plane set being released being broken in 2026.
Currently, the plane of Duskmourn is at a "5" on the Rabiah Scale, with Phyrexia/New Phyrexia being firmly at an almost impossible "9." Interestingly, Innistrad still sits at "1", meaning it can come back at any moment. However, this all then comes back to Maro's comments on horror not standing up well to Universes Beyond and other themes. Horror seems to be in a holding pattern, with a return to a horror plane, most likely Innistrad, not coming until the earliest of 2027. Higher ups at Magic seemed to have learned that they put out too many horror sets at once.
Horror will be back in Magic, likely with at least one expansion by the end of the decade. However, a dropoff in sales and popularity, as well as a more selective Magic-centric release schedule, means that the team will wait a bit like they did in the early Innistrad years between releases.
