Impending

Impending is a keyword ability introduced in Duskmourn: House of Horror. It conveys the feeling of knowing doom is coming.
==Description==
Impending functions similar to suspend. It offers an alternative cost. If you choose to cast a spell for its impending cost, it enters with N time counters and isn't a creature until the last counter is removed. At the beginning of your end step, you remove a time counter from the enchantment card.
In Duskmourn: House of Horror, impending is exclusively featured on the Overlord cycle, five Avatar Horrors that oversee the major zones of the Duskmourn under Valgavoth's will. They represent the trope of the feeling that something is out there, similar to how film characters feel something isn't right, but there's nothing there that they can see. The monsters eventually take form over time.
Five cards is the line where it’s up to the set lead (and creative team) to decide if a mechanic will be named. This cycle was impactful enough, and adding the name helped give it extra flavor, that Jules Robins chose to name it.
==Rules==
==Rulings==
*"Impending N–[cost]" is a keyword that represents multiple abilities. The official rules are as follows: (a) You may choose to pay [cost] rather than pay this spell's mana cost. (b) If you chose to pay this spell's impending cost, it enters the battlefield with N time counters on it. (c) As long as this permanent has a time counter on it, if it was cast for its impending cost, it's not a creature. (d) At the beginning of your end step, if this permanent was cast for its impending cost, remove a time counter from it. Then if it has no time counters on it, it loses impending.
*If you choose to pay the impending cost rather than the mana cost, you're still casting the spell. It goes on the stack and can be responded to, countered, and so on.
*If you choose to pay the impending cost of a creature spell, it's still a creature spell on the stack. You can cast that spell for its impending cost only when you could normally cast that creature spell. Most of the time, this means during your main phase when the stack is empty.
*If an object enters as a copy of a permanent that was cast with its impending cost, it won't enter with time counters, and it will be a creature.
==Examples==
==References==