Murders at Karlov Manor: Limited, Draft and Prerelease Guide

What's up guys, how are you?

January is finally over! We now have the first set in the year, and another series of happenings after the gigantic battle between the Multiverse and Elesh Norn and New Phyrexia. This time, we'll go to Ravnica to see what were the consequences of the war for the guilds and solve a murder at one of the most important houses in this plane.

Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM) is a set built around suspense, and its mechanics focus on hiding and uncovering whatever's hidden.

In this article, we'll discuss its mechanics, archetypes, and main cards, removals and mana fixing tools available in Limited events (Pre-release, Sealed and Draft).

Without further ado, let's go to Karlov Manor, analyze the evidence we have and find out what this set has in store for us!

Even though this set is based on what's hidden and uncovering it, this plane is still based on Ravnica. This means each guild's pairs still define the colors their archetypes are based on, so we can expect a great synergy between the cards related to each guild.

Mechanics

We have several new mechanics set around Ravnica's mysteries and their solutions, and they build the set's entire "whodunit" atmosphere. It is important we discuss these mechanics before we focus on the archetypes.

Investigate

Starting with an old mechanic: Investigate is a mechanic most players know, and is quite present in Magic. Fateful Absence is one of the most present and current cards in Standard.

Investigate is an ability that creates Clue Tokens. These artifacts draw a card after you pay 2 mana and sacrifice this token.

It is a very interesting ability for archetypes that appreciate when artifacts go on the board or that even appreciate more artifacts in their decks, which is common for sacrifice mechanics (very common for Rakdos decks).

Disguise

Our first new mechanic is Disguise, which keeps up with the "investigation" theme. Creatures can go on the board face down if they have the Disguise ability: it will be a colorless, 2/2 creature with no name or type, and it will have Ward {2}. To get this, you'll need to pay 3 as their alternative casting cost.

To "remove" Disguise, you need to pay the cost of the ability in question, and like so it will be revealed. That ability can be activated at any point as long as the player who controls the creature has priority, and, like so, can work as a combat trick.

This type of strategy provides an array of alternatives to confuse your opponent and force them to trade unfavorably. When a creature with Disguise dies or is exiled, it must be revealed. The same happens when the game is finished: all cards face down with Disguises should be revealed to show the creatures in question really had Disguises. This is useful to prevent players from cheating in tournaments.

Cloak

Similarly to Disguise, we have Cloak. Unlike Disguise, which demands the card in question has this ability, Cloak "cloaks" other cards, placing them on the board as 2/2 creatures with Ward 2. However, in these cases, they don't need to be creatures. Cloaked cards can be turned face up if you pay for their mana cost, but only if they're creatures. If they have the Disguise ability, players can turn them face up if they pay the ability cost.

This ability allows you to increase the board even if you don't have other creatures, and can grow the board with lands or spells that would not be castable at that moment in the game. Later on, these same spells can be transformed, and your opponent won't be able to do anything about it.

This is another very relevant ability for Limited which will make your attacks, and possibly even trades, more complex when your opponent has any mana available.

Suspect

We also have Suspects, common figures in "whodunits"; game designers also didn't miss the chance to create a mechanic focused on them. A creature becomes Suspect through an effect, and it remains so until the moment it leaves the battlefield or another effect alters its condition. If a creature with Suspect stops being a creature, it will still be Suspect. Creatures with Suspect can't block and gain the Menace ability.

Making your creatures Suspect might be significantly relevant for Aggro strategies because the player is more interested in dealing damage than blocking the opponent, and this mechanic will give you good amounts of damage because of Menace.

Another way to use this ability is to prevent your opponent from blocking, and like so open the way for your attacks to go through. It is an incredibly versatile ability, and is reasonably useful during matches.

Collect Evidence

Collecting Evidence is another mechanic created to set the game in a "whodunit" theme. In this case, we must exile cards with a mana cost equal or bigger than the Collect Evidence value, and like so activate the bigger effects described on the spells by paying additional costs, or even cover the cost to protect a creature.

Collecting Evidence, usually, improves a spell as the game goes on, and transforms your graveyard into a way to improve your spells.

Cases

Cases are 3-step enchantments. On step 1, we have the enchantment's effect; on step 2, we have the requirement to solve the Case, which should be met at the beginning of your end step. When the Case in question is solved, this enchantment will get its step 3 ability. Some enchantments have some pretty hefty effects when they're solved, and can change the course of your matches.

In Limited, we'll usually focus on each Case's primary effect. If it is too easy to solve it, it might be interesting to consider its effect after it is solved, such as, for instance, Case of the Crimson Pulse.

Most times, cards like Case of the Shattered Pact will be played because of their first ability, considering it is extremely difficult to solve this Case in Limited.

Split Cards

Another mechanic that returns in MKM is Split Cards, which work exactly as they did the last time we visited Ravnica. To pay for their effects, we add, outside the stack, the cost of the two spells on the card in question. When we're about to play this card, we'll need to choose which spell we'll use; like so, it will go on the stack with the side you choose, and their mana cost will be the one described on that side.

Split Cards allow us to vary our strategies, considering usually there are cheaper spells on one side, and the other side has a threat with an effect that pairs up with its cost.

Additionally, their hybrid cost helps us take advantage of these cards in different archetypes.

Archetypes

Now that we've seen the mechanics featured in this format, it is time to see the main archetypes.

Azorius Detectives

In Blue and White, we have the archetype connected to the Detectives. In this archetype, we'll consider Detectives who interact between themselves, and provide abilities to other creatures, such as Projektor Inspector or Inside Source.

With the Detectives on the board, this deck works like a Tempo deck, considering it creates plays that disrupt your opponent while you develop your board. It also connects damage through evasion or even because your opponent is just severely behind. It is important to consider your creatures' effects, and mostly abilities like Disguise, so you're not surprised by a Flying creature when your opponent (apparently) didn't have any on the board.

A critical card for this archetype is Private Eye because it is a Lord and has an interesting ability that allows us to connect damage while we draw cards.

Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth, Ezrim, Agency Chief and Tenth District Hero are excellent pieces in this archetype.

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Orzhov Disguise

In Black and White, we'll take advantage of Disguises, considering this archetype wants to take advantage of creatures with abilities that check if the power of the creatures in question is equal or less than 2.

Delney, Streetwise Lookout is a good example for this type of mechanic. Like so, by casting creatures with Disguise, we can take advantage of these effects, and, whenever we need to, we'll transform them into stronger creatures.

Aurelia's Vindicator is a good example of a creature with two conditions that will be useful to us.

Another trait featured in this archetype is that we'll avoid effects that trigger when our creatures enter the board. Considering revealing the Disguised creature isn't an action that places them on the board, these abilities don't trigger. Like so, we can cheat abilities from creatures like Hunted Bonebrute and Nightdrinker Moroii if they go on the board under a Disguise. With this, we can take advantage of the effects related to 2-power creatures and also transform them into stronger creatures.

Wispdrinker Vampire is one of this deck's main synergies because it allows us to, at the end of the game, transform small creatures into removals if they're blocked recklessly.

Teysa, Opulent Oligarch and Kaya, Spirits' Justice provide us with creature fuel and bring synergy to this archetype.

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Boros Aggro

As usual, White and Red bring us an Aggro strategy. This archetype will trigger abilities when you attack with 3 creatures, which resembles the "Gatecrash Batallion" ability, which was an ability used by Boros creatures.

Karlov Watchdog, besides making your creatures stronger, prevents your opponent from untapping their tapped creature cards, which will help you not get caught off guard by your opponents in battle. Seasoned Consultant, Meddling Youths and Aurelia, the Law Above are other examples that take advantage of this strategy.

This archetype focuses on playing creatures on curve, and filling the battlefield to activate their advantages as soon as possible and look for creatures with some sort of evasion. Like so, we won't lose our board, and we'll have as many attacks available as possible.

To keep overfilling the board, we have Neighborhood Guardian, which is an incredibly powerful card, particularly if combined with cards like Inside Source. Assemble the Players is the type of card we want to save our resources.

Another option is cards with evasion, such as Frantic Scapegoat or Wojek Investigator.

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Disguise Selesnya

In Green and White, we have the mechanic focusing on effects that happen when creatures under Disguises are turned face up.

Sumala Sentry is an important piece because it grows the creatures themselves, which will give you significant value on the board. Cards with effects that happen when creatures have their face turned down or when creatures are turned face up will eventually be important. Tunnel Tipster, besides working as ramp, gets value out of every creature that goes on the board under a Disguise.

Vengeful Creeper can remove an artifact or enchantment that is troublesome for you, so you won't need to worry about filling a slot with removals of this kind.

Flourishing Bloom-kin, Greenbelt Radical and Essence of Antiquity are some examples of creatures with Disguise that work really well in this archetype.

Case of the Trampled Garden allows you to improve your board, and it isn't difficult to solve this Case as this archetype develops, which will guarantee your creatures more power.

Tolsimir, Midnight’s Light and Trostani, Three Whispers are incredibly strong cards that don't depend on any synergy.

Relive the Past can be an excellent threat on later turns. It places 15 power on the board in 3 bodies at once if you fulfill its demands.

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Dimir Clues

In Blue and Black, we have an archetype that wants you to sacrifice Clues. Like so, this archetype provides you with different ways to Investigate, and can save you resources, control the board and take advantage of tokens.

Lazav, Wearer of Faces, Curious Cadaver, Persuasive Interrogators are some examples of cards that focus on this archetype. Lazav can retroactively feed itself, but, for the other ones, we must find ways to create tokens.

Out Cold, Curious Inquiry, Mistway Spy and Homicide Investigator are some ways to feed this archetype. Another way is equipment cycles, which are also Clues, Candlestick and Lead Pipe.

Long Goodbye, Murder, Deadly Cover-Up and Extract a Confession are efficient cards to preserve your health points until your decisive cards can impact the board.

This archetype demands you to control the board very strictly. In Limited, considering resources to remove cards are more limited, it is important to protect your health points with creatures, swapping them in combat until you can fit on the board bigger pieces that force your opponent to reduce their rhythm or start burning their removals. Like so, you'll play your key pieces on the board without much risk or with several ways to protect them.

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Izzet Artifacts

In Blue and Red, we have an archetype that focuses on the interaction between artifacts and sacrifice.

Detective's Satchel is an efficient source of resources that can feed Gleaming Geardrake to transform it into a proper threat.

Forensic Gadgeteer is an excellent piece for this archetype because it creates Clues that are also artifacts. This reduces its activation cost and allows us to optimize this deck's entire build.

Harried Dronesmith is also another way to get resources to sacrifice them later.

Benthic Criminologists is an efficient way to keep the resources in your hand and activate this deck's mechanics.

Case of the Filched Falcon is an excellent card to develop this archetype, considering it has excellent synergy with other cards and provides us with the power we need to close out games.

Gearbane Orangutan offers us a more aggressive approach in the shape of a 4/4 which stops Flying creatures.

This archetype focuses entirely on interactions, and we'll constantly need to find pieces that can make us spend one card and force our opponent to spend 2 cards, so we can keep the resources in our hand.

An interesting synergy we can explore are Goblins. Considering we can access Krenko, Baron of Tin Street and Crime Novelist, we can create more tokens by paying the mana required by Krenko's ability with the mana created by this Goblin Bard.

Reckless Detective is another efficient card so we can control our resources.

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Simic Collect Evidence

In Green and Blue, we have an archetype focused on the Collect Evidence mechanic.

To take advantage of this mechanic, we need to bring the self mill mechanic. This will feed our graveyard and will bring us recursion by removing key-cards from the board and using others to boost the effect of our spells. Aftermath Analyst allows us to do exactly that because it enters play relatively early and will later on bring an aggressive ramp tool into the battlefield.

Candlestick and other cards that bring us Surveil can be a way to speed up the game while we feed the graveyard.

Chalk Outline has a very strong synergy with this archetype, considering it can create tokens as we "Collect Evidence" by exiling creatures.

Topiary Panther can place itself in your graveyard when the game starts, and it guarantees us the lands we need to play. Afterward, it will be used to feed this archetype.

Cards that draw cards and discard them are also effective in this deck.

Vannifar, Evolved Enigma is a strong card regardless of synergy, and can grow our board, place creatures on the board even with land cards and then grow all of them together at each battle.

Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy is also a relevant card because it allows us to create Clues and increase our land availability at the same time. It can also be cast on turn 3.

Evidence Examiner allows us to transform the cards in our graveyard into cards in our hand because it reuses all the resources we used on them by transforming them into Clues.

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Aggro Rakdos Suspects

In Black and Red, we have an aggressive combination with the Suspect mechanic. This mechanic provides evasion to our creatures while we develop our board, and makes our curve quite aggressive.

Frantic Scapegoat, Rune-Brand Juggler and Clandestine Meddler is an example of a reasonably aggressive sequence that is difficult to keep up with, considering all creatures have Menace.

Convenient Target allows us to increase the number of Suspect creatures on our board, and can return to our hand. As for Deadly Complication, it provides us with 2 effects with just a single card because it removes a blocker and increases the power on the board.

Barbed Servitor is an excellent way to recover resources.

Even though the Aggro approach is more appropriate for this deck, Judith, Carnage Connoisseur can be an excellent creature at the top of our curve, considering it transforms all our removals or burns into creatures.

Another option this archetype provides is Rakdos, Patron of Chaos, which is an excellent creature. Its ability will usually draw you cards and get you ahead because you'll stack resources while your opponent will need to deal with it.

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Golgari Graveyard

In Black and Green, we have interactions with cards coming out of the graveyard, so we'll mainly focus on the Collect Evidence mechanic to trigger these abilities.

Flotsam//Jetsam can be a way to feed our graveyard or use resources in our opponent's graveyard.

Insidious Roots is a way to increase this archetype's mana availability, and speed up the game. Izoni, Center of the Web can develop this enchantment well and also use the tokens created to increase your resources in hand.

Festerleech, when played on turn 1, will probably feed the graveyard with 4 cards, minimum.

Macabre Reconstruction or It Doesn't Add Up are ways to feed this archetype and preserve our resources.

Massacre Girl, Known Killer is an extremely strong card in Limited, considering we can barely access removals at all, and most trades happen between creatures. It is quite interesting to reduce the power of your opponent's creatures with small creatures, or even draw cards because of the trades.

Overall, the green cards listed in Simic will be as important in Golgari.

Aftermath Analyst, besides feeding our graveyard, activates this archetype's interactions by removing lands from the graveyard and moving them to the battlefield.

Chalk Outline works even better in Golgari, considering it enables even more mill tools, and it is more efficient to remove cards from the graveyard.

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Disguise Gruul Stompy

In Green and Red, we have an Aggro archetype more focused on the top of our curve, which uses the Disguise ability to build a board presence early on. Like so, it reduces your costs so that your cards can be untapped as soon as possible.

Like so, some key pieces will be cards that reduce mana costs or provide more mana. For this archetype, we have Tin Street Gossip, which gives us 2 mana, Tunnel Tipster and Goblin Maskmaker, which are also ways to speed up the game on the first turns.

Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods has a very strong synergy with this archetype by drawing us cards when we connect damage. Like so, face down creatures that end up dying will return face up, which will save us mana and will also give Haste to all our creatures.

Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, besides having a very relevant body, allows us to restart the combat if it is blocked.

Pyrotechnic Performer allows each creature with a Disguise to work like burn when they're revealed, which fits excellently into this deck.

Bolrac-Clan Basher, Offender at Large, Greenbelt Radical are some examples of efficient creatures in this archetype.

This deck's goal is to play threats under a Disguise, and, eventually, you'll have the mana necessary to reveal these creatures.

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Mana Fixing

In this set, we have Surveil Lands, which give us two colors, and besides them, we have Public Thoroughfare and Scene of the Crime, which give us mana of any color. These are the most viable land options, considering the others are rare cards.

Another option to fix mana are artifacts like Gravestone Strider and Cryptex. Even though Cryptex is more efficient, the fact it is a rare card means it is almost impossible to use it, so the mana filter listed above will be more popular.

Besides these options, we have some ways to access the lands we need, such as Topiary Panther, They Went this Way and Nervous Gardener. However, the greatest problem is that all these cards depend on green mana to look for other lands. The most common option for all decks is Case of the Shattered Pact, which allows us to correct the mana curve in our hand.

Removals

Removals are very relevant in this set. Let's see some of them and analyze the main removals of each color.

White

Among the removals we have available, Makeshift Binding and Make Your Move are one of the most efficient removals in White. One will give us life gain while it exiles a card, and the other provides us with versatility.

We have to discuss the presence of a global removal in White, which is No Witnesses. It can turn games against distracted opponents, so it is important to pay attention to it.

Push//Pull deserves to be mentioned because of its versatility, considering it can both be used in White and in Black with Push. On later turns, its heaviest version can be used.

Blue

In Blue, besides traditional Tempo plays, such as bounces and spells to tap creatures and counters, we have a way to remove from the board creatures with abilities that keep affecting the game even if the creature is out of combat: Dramatic Accusation.

Black

Long Goodbye is a removal that can become more effective in this Limited format, considering it can ignore Ward in creatures with Disguise. The same goes for Slice from the Shadows, but it is more versatile, considering it covers a wider array of creatures.

Murder is a definitive removal, and is probably the most efficient one in this format.

Extract a Confession can be effective to control the board early on, and it becomes very efficient when your graveyard already activates Collect Evidence.

In the same situation as White, we have Deadly Cover-Up, a global black removal that can win games if your opponent is too greedy.

Red

Speaking of efficient removals, it's worth remembering that most creatures with Disguise can be removed by Shock. If we remove these creatures out of the equation, it hits 40.6% of this set.

Case of the Burning Masks and Galvanize cover 62.3% of this set. Galvanize removes 93.5% of it when it deals 5 damage.

Suspicious Detonation removes 85.5% of the creatures in this set.

We only have 9 creatures with more than 5 resistance. From these, only 2 are common and the other 2 are uncommon, so it will be difficult to find a target that Galvanize can't remove from the board.

Green

Pick Your Poison has an interesting design because it doesn't target the creature, considering your opponent won't be able to protect the creature in question with Hexproof. Only counters will be a viable option.

Hard-Hitting Question hits planeswalkers, something that usually Green removals can't hit.

Murders at Karlov Manor presents game dynamics that focus on solving mysteries as the key to your victory. The Cloak and Disguise mechanics are very interesting and make attacks more uncertain, forcing your opponent to move carefully.

I missed common dual lands and other ways to fix mana. I believe it will be a two-color format, so it will be quite difficult to migrate to a third color, even with synergies.

Let's anxiously wait for this set's prerelease, and try to solve the mysteries that surround the events at Karlov Manor.

In your opinion, which archetype seemed most interesting?

I really enjoyed Rakdos and Boros, so I hope I can build one of them at a prerelease event.

I hope you liked this article. Leave your questions in the comment section.

See you in the next article!