The 73 Best Cards in Murders at Karlov Manor Ranked

Last updated on April 26, 2024

Massacre Girl, Known Killer | Illustration by Billy Christian

Murders at Karlov Manor has a totally fascinating mix of cards. Underneath the disguises and cloaks there are some really out-there designs that are carving up new space in MTG. I think this set will pay off for folks who like to brew and play with buildarounds across some very powerful formats..

And there’s a load of interesting cards! More than usual, I’d say, which is why this is a bit longer than I’ve done before. A part of that is the huge number of far more powerful than expected uncommons, which meant the working list of “good cards” I started with in building this piece was well over a hundred. Here’s what made the final cut.

#73. The Surveil Lands

It’s hard to evaluate how good these surveil dual lands will be. A lot better than Temples. But then? Maybe when we hit Standard rotation and the mana picture looks different we’ll know more about how these perform..

#72. Leyline of the Guildpact

There are two distant 60-card format possibilities. The first is some kind of impossibly try-hard Omnath, Locus of Creation plus General Ferrous Rokiric brew in Modern, which sounds unplayable to me right now. The second is to make Widespread Thieving work in Standard, which seems more likely, but still pretty implausible.

Leyline of the Guildpact has some utility in Commander too, where cards like The Mana Rig, Fallaji Wayfarer, Hero of Precinct One, and Rienne, Angel of Rebirth might fit together with the Leyline in a Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile deck.

#71. Izoni, Center of the Web + Kylox, Visionary Inventor + Voja, Jaws of the Conclave

Look, some fun buildaround commanders that are unplayable in the Standard of their set’s release!

#70. Persuasive Interrogators

“If I can investigate, make five Clues and then play this, all I need is 10 mana to win the game.” I think these Persuasive Interrogators have given you Stockholm Syndrome. But if you are that player, you only need this to work once to feel vindicated.

#69. Krenko’s Buzzcrusher

Blinking Krenko's Buzzcrusher feels like you’re committing a crime. So this is a buzz (for me) in Commander. Outside of that, it might see play taking out Lotus Fields in Constructed, since the ability intentionally doesn’t target.

#68. Barbed Servitor

I’m sure the Brash Taunter EDH combo decks are interested in Barbed Servitor, and that dude on MTG Arena who plays deathtouch creatures and fight spells while struggling to make Diamond is totally gonna play it. Me? I don’t really buy it.

#67. Ezrim, Agency Chief

Ezrim, Agency Chief is not the second coming of Dream Trawler, but I’d run one if I was trying to make a blink deck work.

#66. Long Goodbye

Long Goodbye is just whatever to everyone except people playing Haughty Djinn decks on the ladder, but for them this card is an existential threat.

#65. Forensic Gadgeteer

Forensic Gadgeteer feels like a new Commander staple for artifact decks of every kind.

#64. Toxin Analysis

Toxin Analysis is a combat trick that has enough value that it could find a place outside of Limited.

#63. Novice Inspector

How good is a functional reprint of the best 1-drop pre-F.I.R.E. Design? We’ll see, but I think Novice Inspector is quite playable, at least.

#62. Cryptic Coat

This is a bit like the For Mirrodin! mechanic from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, but it uses face down cards from the top of your library instead of making a token. Blade of Shared Souls sees some play, and now that there’s two reasonable blue equipments that make 2/2s out there, I wonder if blinking them for value would work?

Blinking the cloaked creature will return it face up. Which is bad for spells but is really good for expensive permanents. So blink Cryptic Coat and you get another 2/2 until you hit what you want and blink that. You have to build it correctly, but that can get you an unblockable giant creature or maybe a One with the Multiverse.

There have been some attempts at a kind of Standard “scam” deck with prototype creatures, and I think this is an interesting potential improvement.

#61. Expose the Culprit

Or you can use this card instead of blink with your Cryptic Coat deck. Expose the Culprit defends your creatures from removal while also getting you access to the cards that offer big value on flip, like Unyielding Gatekeeper or even Dog Walker. This is only as good as the disguise deck. I have doubts, but it looks fun to try.

#60. Krenko, Baron of Tin Street

With Crime Novelist and Krenko, Baron of Tin Street at the head, we might have a decent goblin commander with Goblin Welder sorts of nonsense.

#59 Vannifar, Evolved Enigma

Vannifar, Evolved Enigma plays in the same space, but has some other upsides. You can choose the card to cloak and throw lands at them. They’ll want to kill them because who knows what’s under there? Meanwhile you’re stocking your graveyard while working through their removal. I’m still skeptical, but I can see a version of this working.

#58. Reenact the Crime

This is the definition of sideboard power. Reenact the Crime just hoses Atraxa, Grand Unifier reanimator decks, assuming you’re passing with 4 mana up. That’s a big ask, but casting their binned Etali, Primal Conqueror for 4 mana is pretty big too.

#57. Felonious Rage

Monstrous Rage is likely still better, but boy would I rather have Felonious Rage in a Cacophony Scamp deck!

#56. Gleaming Geardrake

Gleaming Geardrake will grow fast if you’re sacrificing tokens quickly, which to me feels like this needs Treasures to really pop off. So this will be just fine in Commander, but I don’t think this will get there fast enough in 60-card formats.

#55. Pyrotechnic Performer

It’s probably too much to imagine a Pioneer morph/disguise deck with this and the Khans of Tarkir morphs that flip for free like Ruthless Ripper and Temur Charger. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying it in Explorer right off, mind you.

But 4 mana to do 3 to face while leaving a 3/2 that synergizes doesn’t seem like enough otherwise.

#54. Tomik, Wielder of Law

First, affinity for planeswalkers is just too aw, shucks! Unfortunately, Tomik’s probably not on the battlefield with Ral given their casting costs, but that's how it is, you know? Real life in Ravnica. Work is a lot and it just keeps you apart. Tomik, Wielder of Law is too busy protecting their flock of Orzhov planeswalkers, and this will absolutely help that deck finally become a thing. Maybe.

#53. Ill-Timed Explosion

We are stupidly glutted for board wipes in Standard and there’s not much Izzet action, but Ill-Timed Explosion is super powerful. In Commander, let’s go!!! But in other formats, it’s hard to say. The kinds of decks that would like to run Mizzix's Mastery would want this, so maybe I’m just too excited for my next favorite Cube card?

#52. Treacherous Greed

Treacherous Greed is only good in token decks, I think, but it turns out that Orzhov is pretty good at that, and those decks also tend to like lifegain and life loss synergies. Note that this is hard to make work on defense, if you got excited by the instant speed for a sec. Your defender has to live past combat and then you sac it.

#51. Snarling Gorehound

Snarling Gorehound gives you a lot of surveilling! It’s not exactly Stitcher's Supplier, but it’s not exactly not Stitcher’s Supplier.

#50. Connecting the Dots

So what if I told you you can get a Bomat Courier effect applied to all of your attackers, but it meant you had to take a turn off to play a 2-mana enchantment. That’s kind of Connecting the Dots. That seems a little twitchy to make work, but in a world of Orcish Bowmasters and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, this is mass card draw without the bad triggers. I think this will be cracked in one exact deck I can’t imagine just now and trash everywhere else.

Red has like four (?!!) better card draw options in this very set.

#49. Proft’s Eidetic Memory

Proft's Eidetic Memory feels important for Commander. Assuming you’ll be drawing tons of cards in your blue decks.

#48. Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth

And here’s one of those commanders! No one is letting you untap with Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth in a 60-card format if you have enough mana for the Sphinx's Revelation ability to matter.

#47. Case of the Locked Hothouse

If ever there was a card that looked like someone just straight up designed it for Cube, Case of the Locked Hothouse is it. Invasion of Zendikar is still better for most ramp decks in Standard. But in EDH, you drop this and it’s solved. Is that good enough for taking the turn off? No. But you are ramping in green and you likely cast this and a creature, and this is both harder to kill and has a way better effect than the other cards in the Oracle of Mul Daya range. Enchantments? Okay!

#46. Intrude on the Mind

So they give you four cards and a thopter. Or one card and a 4/4 thopter. At instant speed. Okay, it’s more often a 2-3 split, which is okay. But I can see the world where you can manipulate the Intrude on the Mind choice with the threat of a lethal block against something they’re swinging with. Sounds big brained and fun, albeit for 5 mana.

#45. Steamcore Scholar

Is a Champion of Wits without the eternalize playable? Yes. And you might even want to be filling the graveyard with Steamcore Scholar for some sort of payoff

#44. Judith, Carnage Connoisseur

Judith, Carnage Connoisseur smells like Commander, with an Obosh, the Preypiercer companion. But I can see this topending a kind of Rakdos removal pile that tips into control from midrange in Standard. Judith absolutely takes over if they live, which is kind of #storyspotlight, right? So maybe Grixis to protect them?

#43. Case of the Gateway Express

White aggro decks have cheaper removal than a Hobbit's Sting, but Selesnya enchantments in Standard might add a few of these to supplement their Ossification package with Calix, Guided by Fate (am I the only one who only ever sees Freddie Mercury here?). But this easily solves into an anthem in go-wide decks, and multiple copies will stack.

#42. Axebane Ferox

Axebane Ferox is mostly worse than Questing Beast, which it obviously calls back to. But if you’re eating their graveyard this is hexproof.

#41. Expedited Inheritance

Expedited Inheritance has to be better than I think it is, but symmetrical effects give me flashbacks to the 90s. I’m sure this has some kind of broken Thassa's Oracle possibilities in cEDH, and I’m sure you’ll get better use out of it than your opponent in your Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival deck, and I’m also sure someone’s gonna use this with Drannith Magistrate to ruin your life, but I don’t see this making it in most decks. Just that one deck we’re not thinking of yet that will get this banned.

#40. Trostani, Three Whispers

Savage Knuckleblade numbers are always welcome, and Trostani, Three Whispers will make your opponent regret they let you get to a big board stall. But how often does that happen in 60-card formats? This feels like WOTC’s thesis project, trying to see if they can make activated abilities matter again. Not quite. I do think this is reasonably busted in some kind of Bant Training Grounds deck, but that feels like a deck a YouTuber wins with but when you try it, no luck.

#39. The Pride of Hull Clade

The Pride of Hull Clade is a cool new defender deck commander lurking in a Standard set. Now to adjust the decklist so that I can give it trample ….

#38. Tenth District Hero

A 4-mana 4/4 that you can play in Lurrus of the Dream-Den decks. So, a Cube card. Tenth District Hero is probably fine in an aggro deck, where it’ll often be that 4/4 on installment. Open mana makes blocking a challenge for your opponent, but aren’t you winning by then? And it can protect against the least good board wipes in Standard, so that’s something.

#37. Cease // Desist

Green and black have never had huge access to cheap card draw at instant speed. Note that you can exile zero cards with Cease / Desist and still gain two life and draw a card, and how far is that from Revitalize, which has always been marginally playable in white-based control decks? All of that with graveyard hate when you need it and putting a huge card for your collect evidence strategies? I’m sold without even caring about the Desist side, although that’ll come down more than you think to hilarious effect.

#36. Case of the Uneaten Feast

White lifegain always wants this kind of effect, and getting a turn to do some kind of Lurrus of the Dream-Den/Underworld Breach stuff to get back your Voice of the Blessed that met its fate far too soon is reasonably big game for those decks.

#35. Case of the Stashed Skeleton

As far as 4 mana tutors go, Beseech the Mirror is often going to be better than Case of the Stashed Skeleton. And because the skeleton can’t block, this isn’t like an installment plan against aggro. Does this replace Tenacious Underdog in your black aggro decks? I dunno. But it does allow you to play beat down and then use this to grab a board wipe when the plan goes south.

Seems like a Commander staple, though.

#34. Rakdos, Patron of Chaos

Rakdos is solid. 6/6 with flying and trample for 6-mana, and it's got a massive bonus of forcing opponents to sacrifice permanents if they don't let you draw two cards. It's a solid bomb that has a lot of potential, and I'm interested in seeing it's impact in Standard.

#33. Break Out

Let’s say your deck is almost all small creatures. And let’s say it’s some kind of typal deck without quite enough support. Four Break Outs is like four more creatures of your type. With haste.

Or let’s say your most expensive creature is Territorial Kavu and you’re Domain Zoo. Let’s say Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Orcish Bowmasters are also in there. Where do you put this card in the list? Not sure, but it’s literally a better topdeck than all of those cards, usually, if you just need one more turn of beatdown.

Or imagine you’re playing the kind of deck where you find yourself just wishing Inti, Seneschal of the Sun had haste….

#32. Lost in the Maze

So Lost in the Maze is a super expensive pre-combat Fog effect. Okay. Or you can flash it in for two to Tamiyo's Safekeeping your tapped beater. You can also toss in another mana to tap it as needed. That seems really good, especially for the kind of control decks that’ll take over if they manage to get the game to turn 6.

#31. Doppelgang

5 mana for a clone is an okay rate, but This! Is! Simic! Where 5 mana is for noobs. For ramp decks from Standard to Commander, here’s your Doppelgang math moment: 8 mana nabs you two copies each of two things and 11 gets you three of three. That’s a metric ton of ETBs, especially if one of the things is like Atraxa, Grand Unifier. You probably don’t want any more lands by then, but dropping 11 mana can create nine lands, three of which can be Field of the Dead in the formats that allow it.

Note that this all works with Haughty Djinn and Case of the Ransacked Lab. With both out, you pay and you get two of two.

Of course, you know what this is going to be like in Commander. Can’t you just feel the Simic player’s long pause for maths?

#30. Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact

Kitty is sitting pretty with that swag new collar. I’m sure this will be yet another weird Commander buildaround, but I think Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact mostly wants to hang out in the graveyard waiting to get pulled along by your Lazav, Wearer of Faces, like Weekend at Bernie’s 2: Guildpact Edition. Maybe that’s what they were both doing during the Murders at Karlov Manor story, doing a graveyard dungeon crawl for their DM?

#29. Drag the Canal

Dimir control can be the best deck in a format when it can play everything at instant speed. Think Standard Rogues a few years ago. Drag the Canal is no Soaring Thought-Thief, but when you follow removal with this on their end step, that’s a ton of value, especially against aggro decks. This with a solved Case of the Pilfered Proof makes two creature tokens and two Clues in addition to the other stuff. That makes me want to try to make Esper detectives work.

This seems low impact in Commander and older formats.

#28. Insidious Roots

What’s happening with the uncommons in this set?? Ignore the tap for mana text for a sec. Imagine two Insidious Roots out. There’s enough ways to reanimate, exile, put into play and return to hand that you could feasibly activate the plant growth effect a few times in a turn. Three times and you get a lot of swole plants. They all have whatever Agatha's Soul Cauldron stuff you’re doing. And then you can tap them for mana.

This is how Golgari reanimator starts competing in a meta. They can’t just eat your graveyard for fun and profit. You get paid off for that.

#27. Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy

I believe this adventure’s only good on turn 2. And that attack trigger is powerful when you’re worried about a Urabrask's Forge in Standard or almost anything in Commander or just want to draw a card, but I’m as suspicious that Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy will work as I am suspicious that Kellan’s suddenly a detective and stuff.

#26. Aftermath Analyst

This is shockingly close to World Shaper at uncommon! Aftermath Analyst allows you to Splendid Reclamation at instant speed, which feels like something I want to do, given how easy it is to recur creatures in the mill decks that want this. Since I don’t have to tap the Analyst to do this, even better. This is an uncommon by the way, so it’ll fit nicely in some new designs around another fave green uncommon, Wilderness Reclamation.

#25. Undergrowth Recon

Wow. Undergrowth Recon has to be absolutely busted in some Commander combo I don’t know about yet.

#24. Deadly Cover-Up

It’s been a while since we’ve had a black board wipe that mattered. Deadly Cover-Up is still no Sunfall, but it does a lot. Would you pay 1 more mana for The End at sorcery speed to kill Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and their entire family of, well, themself? I mean, that sounds like a pretty good deal.

#23. Warleader’s Call

Impact Tremors is legal in Pioneer, folks, and it still doesn’t really see play, even with Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival decks running around. And this set looks like it’s going to upgrade Boros in Standard, which may not have time for this, but it’s hard to believe that a strategy of dropping this and then a huge Song of Totentanz doesn’t have a future. Of course, I’ll try this out with a blink deck, using Golden Argosy to blink the entire team of things like Spirited Companion. It’s janky enough you might not even be mad when I beat you with it.

In EDH, there are decks that are crying for another copy of Impact Tremors, and Warleader's Call is it. Tough call if you’re Rakdos, but in my Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter deck, we are five by five.

#22. Fugitive Codebreaker

I think Fugitive Codebreaker is officially handing Feldon, Ronom Excavator the retirement watch from mono red. Prowess with haste is awfully good, and just when you run out of gas, you can drop this and flip it for a total of 4 mana in the right deck, and draw three cards.

#21. Vein Ripper

The giant flying mythic vampire from this set is here, and Vein Ripper seems like it’s quite a bit better than normal. It’s a big ask to make a 6-drop you have to untap with work in Standard, but if you’re the kind of Commander deck that runs Dreadhound for more Blood Artist effects, this is a powerful upgrade.

I dunno. This effect is Tendrils of Agony territory, so it wins the game with the kind of destructive board wipe no one plays anymore after things like Sunfall.

#20. Kaya, Spirits’ Justice

Kaya, Spirits' Justice can drop, exile your Cityscape Leveler from your graveyard (while also surveilling 2) and turn a Clue or Food token, not just a thopter or spirit into a copy of it that flies. Not to mention the almost 200 creatures in Standard right now with attack triggers or even just Yargle and Multani.

And there’s all sorts of weird value here if you’re blinking things. Or creatures with ETBs that get Oblivion Ringed by an opponent.

Oh, and Graveyard Trespasser can no longer freely eat the best beater in your graveyard as long as you have something like a Treasure lying around.

Oh, and mass graveyard exile only nets you one creature, but Lion's Sash can do it one at a time and end the game.

You can tell I like this card. This is the most interesting planeswalker they’ve made in a really long time.

#19. Lazav, Wearer of Faces

And guess who Kaya’s hanging with now? Lazav, Wearer of Faces just needs you to be attacking with a token, and with Kaya out, both can be your Cityscape Leveller for a turn if you’re also snacking on that Clue. That’s likely enough and that’s only turn 5. In the meantime, Lazav is eating that Atraxa, Grand Unifier out of the opponent’s graveyard on turn 3, and maybe even as a 7/7 lifelinking flyer.

Like every Lazav, this one seems great in Commander.

#18. Doorkeeper Thrull

Doorkeeper Thrull is a cheap stax piece with flash. You love it and hate it.

#17. Anzrag, the Quake-Mole

You have to untap with Anzrag, the Quake-Mole and it has to attack. That’s not an insignificant ask. But most Gruul decks in Commander have plenty of haste, and cards like Bitter Reunion are in Standard, so I can see this card making a new deck archetype.

#16. Pick Your Poison

This answers like a million problems in Timeless, and Pick Your Poison seems like an awesome sideboard answer in other formats. A tiny part of the impact of Invoke Despair was that it prevented decks with one key enchantment from happening, for example Arcane Bombardment. So any format with a powerful deck that uses one key enchantment or artifact now has that deck on notice. And in Commander, how hideous is this on turn 2 to pop the table’s mana rocks?

#15. Officious Interrogation

Officious Interrogation can be an ungodly amount of artifacts at instant speed in Commander. With an Ingenious Artillerist on the battlefield and a go-wide opponent at the table, this can just win for 2 mana. It seems a reach to imagine this working in Standard, but I’m looking at Mandible Justiciar, Thousand Moons Smithy, and even Dowsing Device.

#14. Outrageous Robbery

Instant speed, y’all! And the cards stay there forever and you can spend your mana any way you like. Come on! It’s not exactly Dig Through Time, sure, but people play Siphon Insight and this is way better. And I’m positive this will help mill decks, as you’re basically Fireballing the top of their library. Outrageous Robbery indeed. This is what it takes to make Villainous Wealth playable in multiple formats.

#13. Aurelia, the Law Above

Flying, vigilance and haste is probably good enough for an angels or Boros beatdown top end in Standard. Aurelia, the Law Above swings, blocks, and against aggro probably draws a card and dissuades them from swinging in with the fifth weenie. If you look at the text, you can get this trigger from your attacks, too, which is wicked.

But this is much better in Commander, where the attack triggers will flow from all directions.

#12. Unyielding Gatekeeper

So you’re telling me I can pay 5 mana to basically Generous Gift something in Standard? And I also get a 3/2? Tell me more, Unyielding Gatekeeper.

#11. Illicit Masquerade

Illicit Masquerade has flash. So it’ll often just be a reanimator spell for 4 mana at instant speed when you block with a token. It also preps your other tokens for reanimation! This is a lot!

#10. Demand Answers

This is the first time a Thrill of Possibility variant lets you sacrifice an artifact instead of discarding, and that’s bonkers. At instant speed, you can just Deadly Dispute a doomed artifact creature for two cards in decks that don’t run black. And Demand Answers in a world of tons of artifact tokens gives red something besides impulse draw for 2 mana, which Izzet decks would rather have.

This drops as one of red’s best ever card draw spells.

#9. Case of the Crimson Pulse

Oh, look. Another one!

Yeah, I get that this means mono red draws three cards a turn if they take turn three off. But they couldn’t successfully do that for Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, so will there be time for Case of the Crimson Pulse? I don’t think so. But there are other, slower decks that’ll find this effect amazing, like a Baby’s First Necropotence Plushy.

#8. Assassin's Trophy & Lightning Helix

Key reprints of really efficient removal spells, both Assassin's Trophy and Lightning Helix will shore up their rising color pairs in Standard. And the Helix added to Pioneer will have an impact. It’s not clear what home it’ll have aside from the dedicated Niv to Light grinder lists, but I imagine something new.

#7. Massacre Girl, Known Killer

Obviously this is a party with the original Massacre Girl in Commander, but in Standard this comes down and refuels your hand in your black aggro deck on just the turn you need it. There will often be times when you have Massacre Girl, Known Killer and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse in your hand on turn 4 and you’d rather cast this.

Massacre Girl is a human, and in a Cavern of Souls and Secluded Courtyard world, I can see this as a new top end to a multicolor humans deck in Standard.

#6. Delney, Streetwise Lookout

I mean, you can just feel the decks abrew with Delney, Streetwise Lookout as a commander! This is the cheapest Panharmonicon card we have, and even if this is just a Spirited Companion or Virus Beetle type of deck, that seems worth exploring. In a humans deck with Inti, Seneschal of the Sun? Blinking the team with Golden Argosy seems amazing here, but I have a weakness for that card.

#5. Case of the Ransacked Lab

Haughty Djinn primarily works to make your 2-mana spells cheap enough to afford to cast enough card draw to stay solvent. Baral, Chief of Compliance does the same but also loots. For a control deck or spellslinger deck, this is functionally better by baking the card draw in, and it’s also a lot harder to remove. Drop this on turn 4 with a 2-mana answer waiting, pass through turn 5, and you quickly turn the tide.

Making it that far is the question, so I can see this anchoring a Jeskai burn deck to suppress the creatures and then turn the tide. And this is a must-have in Commander. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker showed us that we can take a sec for a 3-mana enchantment if it pays us back. Case is not Fable, but it is very, very good.

#4. No More Lies

Cavern of Souls is making people sleep on this spell a bit, I think. It’s obviously going to help the rising tide of Azorius control in Pioneer, but with this set, Standard may have all the pieces for functional Azorius control. When that deck works it doesn’t need to counterspell creatures all that often. And I hear white has some good board wipes at the moment.

#3. Analyze the Pollen

Worst case, Analyze the Pollen has a Bushwhack vibe, and I see that card every so often in Standard ramp decks. But if you’re in the business of sending Magma Opus to the graveyard on turn 2 in older formats, you can play this and fetch a 3-drop creature that turn. Let’s say it’s Nissa, Resurgent Animist. Omnath, Locus of Creation decks aren’t quite doing that just yet, but I think they’d rather run only the one Nissa.

In Commander, it’s pretty trivial for this to be an amazing topdeck tutor as the game goes on.

#2. Crime Novelist

Crime Novelist goes infinite in Commander with, well, pick something. In Modern all you need is Goblin Bombardment and Animation Module. But even if infinity isn’t on the menu, this gives you 2 mana for each sacrificed Treasure, which is sweet. Still, this seems like a late-game play to take advantage of existing Treasure piles in faster Constructed formats.

#1. Archdruid’s Charm

Fetching any land at instant speed and putting it on the battlefield is unprecedented. You can see the appeal in Modern’s Amulet Titan, but finding a spot in the list is hard. It can also drop a Bojuka Bog at instant speed, by the way. In Commander, there’s so many things to get, including nonsense like Looming Spires, okay stuff like the Streets of New Capenna fetchlands for two landfall triggers, and good stuff like Field of the Dead. Again, at instant speed. And there’s always the two other modes for funsies.

Wrap Up

Analyze the Pollen | Illustration by Anna Christenson

For me, the big story here is red. Murders at Karlov Manor has the largest number of decent red card draw spells of any set ever released in Magic. And a lot of those are not classic impulse draw. It feels a bit like a sea change in how red is designed in this space. And red has a number of powerful synergistic cards, not just at the Red Deck Wins level.

That, coupled with some quite good blue spellslinger cards makes me feel like Izzet is going to break out in some format because of this set. We’ll see.

Did I miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord.

Happy brewing and keep an eye on those Arena wildcards!