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Recently, we took part in a preview of Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov Manor. Quite a few cards have been revealed, and frankly, there’s much to be excited about. Instead of a world-shattering, dimension-hopping affair, this is something a bit more grounded in reality - as much as something in MTG can be considered “grounded in reality”, that is. Here we have a murder mystery setting known as a “whodunnit”. If you like the popular board game Clue, you’ll enjoy this setting.
Quite a few familiar faces from the Ravnica plane are back as well. In particular, some of my favorite cards have returned with shiny new forms. As a part of this Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov Manor preview, I’ll highlight my favorites from among the many cards I saw.
Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov Manor preview - which are our favorite cards?
This Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov preview will highlight some really interesting cards. Why not start with one of the most important? The planeswalker we got a sneak preview of is Kaya, Spirits’ Justice. Although she’s no Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator, I’m a huge fan of her just in general.
She’s big on temporarily enhancing the power of your tokens, which I find interesting. Whenever one or more creatures you control and/or creature cards from your graveyard go to exile, you can choose a creature from among them to transform a token into until the end of the turn. However, it also gains flying. She also has the following Planeswalker abilities:
- +2: Surveil 2, then exile a card from a graveyard.
- +1: Create a 1/1 white and black Spirit creature token with flying
- -2: Exile the target creature you control. For each other player, exile up to one target creature that the player controls.
All Kaya needs is a way to steal control of creatures to really make this a fun experience. On the topic of “really fun” in this Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov Manor preview, I’m so glad Krenko, Baron of Tin Street is in this set. Krenko, Mob Boss is one of my favorite goblins, and I love this version for “Red Deck Wins” decks, too. I think he'll be used in the Standard meta in 2024.
A 3/3 with Haste for 3, you can tap him and sacrifice an artifact to put a +1/+1 counter on each Goblin you control. On top of that, you can create a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste for the turn whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield - provided you pay 1 red mana.
I’m also a big fan of the new Etrata, Etrata, Deadly Fugitive. She’s a 1/4 with Deathtouch and grants all Face-down creatures the ability to be turned face-up for a specific cost. However, if you can’t, you exile them, and then you can cast the card without paying the mana cost. That could be a very interesting way to get powerful creatures into play.
Unfortunately, this card doesn’t explain one of its mechanics, so we’ll have to look into it. Whenever an assassin deals combat damage to an opponent, you “cloak” the top card of your opponent’s deck. I’m very curious to know what that does after this preview of Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov Manor.
Izoni, Center of the Web also highlights another new Magic: The Gathering mechanic: Collect Evidence. Whenever Izoni enters play or attacks, you can choose to “Collect Evidence 4”. That means you exile any number of cards from your graveyard with a total mana value of 4 or greater.
If you do, you create a pair of 2/1 black and green Spider creature tokens with menace and reach. She also lets you sacrifice four tokens to Surveil 2, draw 2 cards, and gain 2 life. As a green/black creature, she’ll be focused heavily on putting cards in the graveyard, so I can see this creature being popular.
Are you a fan of spell decks? Kylox, Visionary Inventor is for you, then. It is a 4/4 with Menace, Ward 2, and Haste. Whenever it attacks, you can sacrifice any number of other creatures and then exile the top X cards of your library. X stands for their total power. Then, you can choose to cast any number of Instant or Sorcery spells from among those cards without paying their cost.
That means you’ll want a source of lots of tokens for this Magic: The Gathering deck or to simply steal plenty of creatures from your opponents. That way, you can cast plenty of powerful spells for free.
Finally, I want to highlight a Red/White enchantment: Warleader’s Call. You can defeat your opponents without ever actually swinging at them, which I find to be appealing.
It grants your creatures +1/+1, which is already useful. However, whenever a creature enters play under your control, this enchantment deals 1 damage to each opponent. Since it doesn’t specify tokens, you can deal much damage in one shot.
Magic: The Gathering’s Murders at Karlov Manor launches on February 9, 2024, and will feature a wealth of interesting cards and mechanics.
