Hareruya Pros Blog
Limited
Solving the Case of the Murders at Karlov Manor: A Limited Set Review
Marcio Carvalho
Introduction
Hey folks! Márcio (@KbolMagic) here again to talk a little bit about the new set: Murders at Karlov Manor and what I think about it for Limited.
The lore of this set is based on a Murder Mystery theme, with plots and plans going on, disguised as mysterious characters and some cases to be solved.
New Mechanics
There are five new mechanics in this set. In general, they are not very complex, but they need to be understood so you can get all the small advantages while playing with them.
Disguise
Disguise works the same way as Morph, you can play a card with Disguise face down on the table as a 2/2 mysterious creature and then pay the disguise cost to reveal it face up. The big difference here is that the disguised card has Ward 2 when it is face down, making it much harder to deal with than a morphed creature.
The great issue with creatures with Morph was that you never knew the conditions for it to flip, as there were a lot of different ways and mana costs for it to turn face up, causing a lot of trouble when choosing how and when to block a morphed card.
The tip is that all creatures with Disguise that have flip cost lower than 5 mana will not have toughness more than 2 (except 《Coveted Falcon》 and 《Essence of Antiquity》, but both only have 1 power, so you will rarely be punished) you need to keep that in mind because it will help a lot to predict what to expect during combat. 《Aurelia’s Vindicator》 is a good example of a card with Disguise, notice that it flips for at least 4 mana but its toughness is only 2, by the tip about disguised creatures.
Cloak
Cloak works the same way as Disguise, it is a face down card that is a 2/2 mysterious creature with Ward 2, the difference here is that the card with Cloak might or might not be a creature in the face up side. The cost to turn it face up, if it’s a creature, is equal to its mana cost. 《Cryptic Coat》 is a nice card with a cloak that creates an unblockable creature with Ward 2 and a total of 3 powers for just 3 mana.
Suspect
Suspect is an ability that gives you the option for your creatures to get Menace, if they do, it also has the downside that they can’t block. It is a very simple but versatile mechanic that might give you an extra advantage when you are being aggressive but it also might not harm you when you are defending. 《Clandestine Meddler》 is a good aggressive creature that can suspect a creature you control when it enters the battlefield.
Cases
Cases are enchantment cards that have a condition to be solved and a bonus that comes into effect at the beginning of the end step after you solve them. 《Case of the Crimson Pulse》 is a case that resolves when you don’t have cards in hand and has a really good static ability when it is solved.
Collect Evidence
Collect Evidence is the last of the new mechanics of this set. It implies removing cards from your graveyard with a mana value equal or greater than the total number of Collect Evidence that your card has. When you do Collect Evidence, a card can do many different things such as 《Lamplight Phoenix》 that can come back to the battlefield.
Top Commons of the Colors
Now that we know how the new mechanics work and what you need to pay attention to when using or facing them on the other side of the table, let’s take a look at my favorite commons of each color. The common cards are the cards that will be seen the most in Limited so it is very important to pay attention to them.
White
I like White in this edition, it has a nice range of small and strong creatures, making White a really fast color. 《Novice Inspector》 is 《Thraben Inspector》 reframed. It is as good as its predecessor, a body that can get you another card. This creature does 3 things very well: increase the artifacts in play, draw an additional card when you need to cash in the Clue and fill your board with a cheap creature.
《Marketwatch Phantom》 is another super-fast creature and lots of creatures in this edition have power 2 or less, making it considerably easy to make the Phantom gain flying and connect damage.
《Inside Source》 is a card that puts 3 powers on the battlefield for 3 mana. Usually, it wouldn’t be a card to call that much attention, but it is so synergic in this edition with 2 different archetypes: RW attacking with 3 or more creatures and WB having creatures with power 2 or less. This alone makes it a high pick for me in the common slot.
In the removal spells of this color, 《Makeshift Binding》 is one of the best ones of the set, it removes a creature from play and also gains life for only 3 mana.
Blue
Overall, I found Blue a bit weak for Limited in this edition. It is a very good support color and I might change my mind in the future as the draft tables go deeper, but for now I find Blue to be my least favorite color.
《Cold Case Cracker》 and 《Crimestopper Sprite》 are creatures to look for in Blue. You should also keep an eye for 《Reasonable Doubt》 and 《Dramatic Accusation》 as they help to deal with some problematic situations.
Black
Black is packed with some of the best removal spells of the set, 《Murder》 and 《Slice from the Shadows》 are both premium ways to deal with creatures in the common slot. 《Murder》 has been awesome in Limited since its first print and 《Slice from the Shadows》 is especially good here as it can’t be countered, therefore, it can go over the Ward ability of mysterious creatures.
Apart from the removal spells, 《Unscrupulous Agent》 also caught my attention as it works similar to 《Ravenous Rats》 and it is a good way to exchange a card for a card and leave a 1/1 body as a bonus.
Red
Red is a very solid color in this edition, 《Galvanize》 is a decent tool to deal with medium to large-sized creatures. 《Shock》 is also really good because it hits disguised creatures, which are pretty annoying to deal with because of Ward 2; a 1 mana spell that can do the job is awesome here.
《Person of Interest》 is one of the best common creatures of Red as it gets 4 power on the table in the form of 2 different creatures (one of them having Menace), it can get you ahead of a race quickly.
Green
Overall Green stays in the middle of my favorite colors, 《Nervous Gardener》 is a very solid creature and so is 《Tunnel Tipster》 as they help you with your mana. 《Topiary Panther》 is also very versatile as it works both as a mana fixer and a big creature for late game.
Apart from those creatures, 《Bite Down on Crime》 is a solid removal spell that you should keep an eye on.
Color Ranking
After analyzing the best commons in each color, I would give White the first place as it has a lot of good, cheap creatures and great synergies.
Red would be my second pick; it has good removal spells and solid strategies when combined with the other colors.
I think Green has a bunch of heavy hitters and good creatures overall, it gets the third place of my favorite colors.
Black and Blue would be my last picks. For this format, Black has a good set of removals and Blue is a good support color, but they just fall a little short of the other 3.
Archetype Analysis
Black Red Suspects
Black Red is an aggressive archetype, it plays small creatures that are hard to block while having one of the best removal toolkits of the format. It is a very decent strategy to go with and 《Rune-Brand Juggler》 represents a lot of what this archetype is trying to achieve.
Black Green Collect Evidence
Black Green is an archetype that does not synergize very well in this set, it tries to do things with Collect Evidence and gain bonuses when you exile cards from your graveyard. Despite Collect Evidence being a good mechanic, this color combination is for sure not one of my favorites. 《Insidious Roots》 is the multicolored card of this archetype. I don’t think it is very great in Limited and I’m still having a bit of trouble building a deck that can use it.
Red Green Big Creatures
Red Green is a heavy creature-based archetype, you can use Green as a way to fix and ramp your mana while Red has some removal spells to help you reach a state of the board when you can cast bigger creatures than your opponent. 《Tin Street Gossip》 is a large 4/4 creature for 4 with vigilance that also helps you to flip disguised creatures mid-combat after 《Tin Street Gossip》 has attacked.
Red White 3 Attackers
Red White is trying to attack with 3 creatures at the same time to gain different kinds of bonuses. It is a very fast archetype and one of my favorite picks of the edition. Going fast and wide in my opinion is a good choice for the format.
Usually, I like to choose an uncommon card to represent the archetypes but here I think 《Dog Walker》 is the card that best summarizes what this archetype is trying to achieve, swarming the board with small creatures and trying to take advantage of attacking with 3 or more creatures.
Blue Black Clues
Blue Black is trying to gain an advantage by drawing more cards than your opponent. It has Blue’s Evasion creatures and Black’s good removal toolkit to make this a solid color combination. 《Curious Cadaver》 is the card to represent this archetype as it comes back from the graveyard every time you sacrifice a Clue.
Green White Creatures
Green White is about going wide with creatures, it wants to get as many creatures in play and make them more powerful as the game goes on. It also takes advantage of disguised creatures. 《Sumala Sentry》 is the perfect card to represent this archetype.
White Blue Detectives
The detective Archetype is just very sweet, it feels basically like playing with a tribal deck as there are cards like 《Case of the Pilfered Proof》 that work well with other detectives. 《Private Eye》 is a very strong creature that gives +1/+1 to all your detectives, pretty much the detective lord.
Green Blue Collect Evidence
This archetype is all about using the Collect Evidence mechanic. As much as I like it, the same way it happened with the Black Green archetype, I don’t think Green Blue is a really strong color combination. 《Evidence Examiner》 is the card that represents this archetype, creating Clues as you collect Evidence.
Blue Red Investigate
This Archetype is about creating artifacts on the battlefield, especially Clues, and gaining little advantages by having artifacts in play or cashing in the Clues. 《Gleaming Geardrake》 is multicolored which represents very well what Blue Red is trying to do as it keeps getting bigger the more Clues you cash in.
White Black Small Creatures
White Black is all about trying to put creatures with power 2 or less on the battlefield. This archetype is pretty good and I’ve been having a good experience playing with it. It has a pretty good synergy between the common and uncommon cards and can be pretty aggressive when curving out creatures. 《Wispdrinker Vampire》 is the card to represent this archetype and you should always play with it in your White Black decks.
Archetype Ranking
It is time to rank my favorite color combinations. Keep in mind that this ranking is based on my first experiences with the set and might change in the future. Here are my favorite archetypes until now in order from 1 to 10.
Archetype Ranking
1. RW 3 Attackers
2. WB Small Creatures
3. BR Suspects
4. UR Investigate
5. WU Detectives
6. GW Creatures
7. RG Big Creatures
8. UB Clues
9. GU Collect Evidence
10. BG Collect Evidence
Top 15 Most Powerful Cards
Here is the part that matters for Limited, right? Who cares about commons and uncommons and building a synergic deck? It is all about opening big bomb rares that are powerful enough to win the game by themselves.
Jokes aside, there are just too many powerful cards for Limited in Murders at Karlov Manor. It was a pretty hard task to choose only 10 so I will leave you with a top 15 instead because some cards just deserve more attention.
15. 《Teysa, Opulent Oligarch》
This creature has an amazing variety of things that it can do, it gets artifact Clues in play, it is a creature with 2 power and it creates more creatures while drawing cards. Altogether it made me mention Teysa here.
14. 《Cryptic Coat》
A 3/2 unblockable creature that can be played multiple times, sign me up! And if you are lucky enough, it might even disguise a creature card and flip it later.
13. 《Anzrag, the Quake-Mole》
All hail the mole God! A huge 8/4 creature for 4 mana that has the possibility of attacking twice with his buddies. A very powerful card that can’t be left unchecked.
12. 《Trostani, Three Whispers》
A crazy powerful mythic card that does so many things and only costs 3 mana. A very versatile and strong creature, it gives double strike and Deathtouch to any of your creatures during combat, which is enough to make any of your opponents not want to block.
11. 《Vannifar, Evolved Enigma》
This creature can get out of control quickly, there are many disguised creatures in the format and being able to just cloak a card from your hand or put +1/+1 counters on every colorless creature, which includes your cloaked and disguised creatures, is just broken.
10. 《Ezrim, Agency Chief》
This card reminds me a bit of a more balanced version of 《Dream Trawler》. It might be not that good in comparison to one of the bests card of Theros Beyond Death Limited, but it is good enough to make the top 10 here and pretty hard to deal with.
9. 《Tolsimir, Midnight’s Light》
This guy is just amazing, it gets a 5/5 creature with Trample and a 3/2 creature with Lifelink for just 5 mana. The cherry on top is that if they both attack, you can make the wolf token be blocked by a target creature creating pretty sweet combat options.
8. 《Massacre Girl, Known Killer》
Giving Wither to all of your creatures while drawing cards and being a 4/4 body for only 4 mana, Massacre Girl continues to be a powerhouse for Limited.
7. 《Kaya, Spirits’ Justice》
The solo Planeswalker in the set, Kaya is pretty good at defending herself, creating a spirit token every turn while also being able to remove creatures from play, definitely a card you want to see in your boosters when you open them.
6. 《Warleader’s Call》
《Glorious Anthem》 is still really good in the Limited format, a lot has changed since the release of the original card, but the additional color for it to deal damage when a creature comes into the battlefield seems like a worthy deal.
5. 《Aurelia’s Vindicator》
You can flip this card to remove a bunch of creatures from the battlefield, it gets better because when it gets killed, the creatures go to the owner’s hand instead of straight back to the battlefield. You can also remove your creatures from the graveyard as an insurance policy in case your opponent kills the 《Aurelia’s Vindicator》.
4. 《Vein Ripper》
A very hard creature to deal with as it requires a Sacrifice as the ward cost. It can take the game by itself if not taken care of.
3. 《Rakdos, Patron of Chaos》
In this set, Rakdos himself makes yet another appearance. As strong as always, this time it makes the opponent sacrifice nonland permanents for you not to fill up your hand, while being a very powerful treat to be dealt with.
2. 《Izoni, Center of the Web》
In the rare slot, we have Izoni as one of the best cards for Limited. Be prepared to see this card a lot, as it can be easily splashed in decks. It reminds me a lot of 《Grave Titan》, it is such a powerhouse that creates 3 or more creatures for the price of 1.
1. 《Incinerator of the Guilty》
A massive Dragon that has the potential to clear the opponent’s board, be sure to have a removal spell to deal with one of these big boys or else it will take the game.
Conclusions
Murders at Karlov Manor looks like a very fast-paced and dynamic edition; synergy and knowing what to expect from mysterious creatures are key here, so I suggest taking a look at all the possible options for disguised creatures whenever you can.
I hope that I could help at least a little bit with this set analysis and wish you the best of luck with your own experiences with this new set. I’m excited to solve some cases and find out who are the mysterious creatures hiding under the cloaks.
See you next time!
Marcio Carvalho (X)
