Magic: The Gathering's Massacre Girl, Known Killer brings back classic game mechanic

One of Magic: The Gathering’s most popular creatures is back in a new way: Massacre Girl! Originally released during the War of the Spark expansion, she had the capacity to whittle away an entire battlefield with the right setup. She can do something similar while appearing in Murders at Karlov Manor, but she offers value for far longer than her initial arrival on the battlefield. The original card only gave you value for its ETB trigger, but that’s not the case here.

In Murders at Karlov Manor, the next Magic: The Gathering expansion, Massacre Girl brings back a fun mechanic for players who like throwing their weak tokens and creatures at an enemy. It’s time to take a look at the classic mechanic known as “Wither”.

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Magic: The Gathering’s Massacre Girl is back in Murders at Karlov Manor

Massacre Girl, Known Killer in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

During our Magic: The Gathering’s Murders at Karlov Manor preview, we saw many cards, including Massacre Girl, Known Killer. Like her original release, she’s a 4/4 with Mence and costs 4 mana (2 black, 2 colorless). The original card version gave all creatures -1/-1 until the end of the turn - and if a creature died that turn, another -1/-1 would go out to all creatures. It was potentially quite simple to wipe a board of threats.

However, the original version of Massacre Girl’s fun stopped there in Magic: The Gathering. Unless you flickered her in and out of play or simply cast another later, that was it. You had to really carefully consider when you put her into play. The new version, however, is a bit more flexible:

Massacre Girl, Known Killer

• Mana Value: 2BB
• Creature Type: Legendary Creature - Human Assassin
• Rarity: Mythic Rare
• Keyword: Menace
• Stats: 4 power, 4 toughness
• First ability: Creatures you control have Wither
• Second ability: Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, if its toughness is less than 1, draw a card.

Wither is a classic Magic: The Gathering mechanic. Whenever a creature with Wither deals damage to a creature, it instead deals -1/-1 counters. That means that even indestructible creatures can be deleted this way. If someone transformed The One Ring - which is now owned by Post Malone - into a creature, it could be destroyed in combat.

Judith, Carnage Connoisseur in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

This is a fantastic way to use weak creatures that would otherwise serve no purpose other than to be block fodder. However, it also makes me want to partner Magic: The Gathering’s returning assassin with the new Judith, Carnage Connoisseur. A Black/Red legendary, whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery, you can create a 2/2 red Imp that deals 2 damage to each opponent when it dies.

With that in mind, you can flood the board using removal spells and instant damage spells. Then, you push your Imps aggressively into combat to ensure more damage is done to your opponents while also wiping their board of threats.

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Massacre Girl, Known Killer, will be an incredible card in Magic: The Gathering’s Murders at Karlov Manor, which launches on February 9, 2024.