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Hey out there Magic players! It’s that time again! There’s a new set, dropping soon.
That’s right, it’s Clue! Magic’s latest new format!
And also Ravnica is back! Murders at Karlov Manor! The entire set is spoiled, and card prices have stabilized and I have some reactions to the whole thing. Let’s go!
Ravnica Reax #1 – The Lore is Not For Me
I’ve been told a number of times that the story quality is improving, and that Magic hired name writers, and I should read in, but I have no plans to. Why? There’s a few big stumbling points that I can’t get over.
First off, Ravnica is a plane where ghosts exist, and interact with the locals. Why would any murder be a mystery?
Oh sorry, I forgot, they probably killed the ghost too. It was likely just a 1/1 token anyway.
I’m not a Ravnica fan. I find it’s simultaneously the size of a village and a planet whenever convenient for storytelling, and never seems satisfying. This set also feels a lot more like New Capenna than Ravnica of the past. Apparently that’s a prominent complaint.
Another of Magic’s big complaints right now is how many mistakes get through quality control. Which has completely put me off from pursuing any aspect of the ‘Mystery,’ which players can unravel through the cards and stories and websites and posters and secret lair drops and suggestive winks from MaRo.
It’s not that I’m worried about obsessing over some detail that turned out to be a typo, it’s that I simply don’t trust that Wizards will get it right enough to be worth my while.
So the story and setting and the hook aren’t getting me at all. What about the characters?
Ravnica Reax #2 – I’m Not Watching the Detectives
Of course Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth is supposed to be some modernized Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe not. Maybe he’s modeled on some newer trope I’m not up on. But either way, his entire deal has been done before. In Magic alone, he’s basically a slightly different take on Jace, The Mind Sculptor. Smartypants, male, pale, identifies as blue, wears a plot-armour vest under his regular vest, etc. Check out the coat. That’s a Jace coat.
I don’t want to go into too much detail on what I think this character could have been, but ‘anything else’ springs to mind. This was a golden opportunity to have a lead character that wasn’t this archetype, but instead they doubled down and we also got another Kellan.
This is not any kind of a ‘we were limited by our casting options’ situation. Alquist Proft didn’t even have to be human.
Though in some ways I’m glad he was. Or at least human-sized. Some of the other ‘detectives’ are just so preposterous it’s laughable. Take this guy, Ezrim, Agency Chief.
It’s an Archon Detective. Look at the picture. Look at the power and toughness. Imagine this character doing any kind of detective work. Sitting at a desk. Entering a room. Finding the incriminating false eyelash amid the torn pages of the attempted memoir. Subtly interrogating a witness. Not obliterating the crimescene with his mighty blazing aura. Putting down the 14-foot-long polearm for a second and getting off the huge 4-winged flying LionBullHorse to do… anything? What is this character?! The little hat!
I know what this character is, and it’s a bunch of checkboxes that the Design Team filled out that jumbled together to make Ezrim. We need a big flyer in Azorius colours. We need it to not be a sphinx. We need it to be legendary. We need a detective agency chief. We need another Investigate card. Etc. Etc. And in the end it sort of makes sense as a magic card.
In order to help the ‘detective’ aspect of thing, I think this set should have been an ‘inside’ set. As in, things mostly happen inside. As implied by the set’s name, and the delicate and often small-scale nature of detective work. No angels, dragons, archons, or that stuff. That’s for outside.
Start with getting ‘inside’ right. We’ve got another set on the horizon that promised interior locations in Duskmourn, House of Horrors, and the one previous to it, Bloomburrow promises a small scale. So far, I’m not optimistic that we’ll get anything like that.
Ravnica Reax #3 – Morph Sucks, Even in Disguise
I think Morph/Disguise is one of the worst mechanics Magic has ever made. There are a lot of reasons.
Morph seems intuitive at first, but the full rules are actually very complicated, and use the rarely seen ‘Special Action’ clause for the flipping ability. That means it doesn’t use The Stack. This is an issue because most Morph cards are not competitive, and are only suitable for casual play. Casual players are often the ones with the least familiarity and access to the full rules. The Stack is complicated enough.
‘Special Action’ should have been changed to interact with The Stack for 2024 and Magic Arena. It creates a situation where someone who knows how to use it can really mess with someone who doesn’t, a scenario that’s going to be all over prerelease weekend.
As well, the idea that playing with Morph/Manifest is ‘Bluffing’ is ridiculous. You’re asking me to believe you are deliberately playing bad cards just to confuse me. Seriously? When you play a face down creature, am I supposed to think you’ve played a bad card I can ignore on purpose? So I waste a removal spell or make a questionable block? Really?
Morph/Disguise can be more of a puzzle in draft or sealed, but this isn’t Poker, where the 2s and 3s are in every build of every deck. In constructed, playing a face-down card is pretty likely an obvious tell that the card should be taken very seriously.
Commander is a little different, as people like to play all sorts of things, but the staggering amount of boardwipes available these days makes it a lot easier to just get rid of all the Morphs at once, rather than try and figure out if any of them actually matter. Many decks avoid combat, or deter it, and just the 40 life points alone marginalizes any flipping creature that just gets bigger.
One way I look at Morph/Disguise cards is like Double-Faced-Cards with an activated flip condition. Like this card from Eldritch Moon, Kessig Prowler.
Instead of a typeless, colourless, no ability 2/2 for 3 mana – a terrible card on rate, even in 1993 (even with ward 2) – you have a 2/1 for G. Both offer a flip condition to something better. Your opponent gets to see the Prowler’s other side and flip cost, and take that into account, and can react to the activated ability, but they’re basically chumps who threaten to be better at some point.
While the Morph/Disguise creature clearly has upside on something like Kessig Prowler, this is 2024 Magic. They’re both outclassed by simpler, more efficient, more direct cards. You can play a 3 drop that offers a relevant, evasive body that provides an immediate payoff. Like Inspiring Overseer, a common.
Playing a Morph/Disguise on turn 3, which is generally as early as you can in Standard or Limited, is not only a terrible card on rate, it also undercuts your bluffing potential and the ability to use the card for anything at all, since you need an additional infusion of mana to turn it face up.
Adding ward helps a bit, but since most 1 and 2 mana removal spells can deal with a 2/2, like Shock or Cut Down, it’s not that great. There are also no end of cards that deal 2 or 3 damage to all creatures, give them -2/-2, or force them to be sacrificed without a target.
Overall, the flip-up ability has to totally break the game somehow to compete. Is there a new Brine Elemental? Honestly I hope not. That card sucks.
I do want to note that Scroll of Fate and new Commander card Kaust, Eyes of the Glade, and maybe a few others do take the Manifest/Cloak aspect into powerful territory, mainly because they allow you to cheat big powerful things into play. But I don’t think this is an endorsement of Morph/Manifest/Cloak/Disguise, more of an endorsement of cheating on mana.
Ravnica Reax #4 – There’s Not Enough Evidence to Collect
Many players are familiar with cards like Deathrite Shaman, Golgari Grave-Troll and Dig Through Time. Cards that make it seem like graveyards are this easy-to-fill resource just waiting to be exploited.
In some ways, this is true. If you’re Dredging, that’s like its own game, but generally speaking, in the formats where these cards shine best (the only ones they aren’t banned in) there is a heavy reliance on fetch-lands to help fill the yard.
Collect Evidence, one of the new mechanics in Murders, has some potential, but I feel it is really held back by how difficult it is to casually and consistently fill your graveyard with mana-costed cards. Especially when you need a total mana cost of 8 or more. It’s entirely reasonable to have 8 cards in your graveyard and not have 8 total mana cost in there.
Overall I doubt it’ll get there in Constructed play, outside of a few cards like Incinerator of the Guilty which is partially good because it doesn’t need an exact number to function. But that’s fine.
What’s not really fine is how bad this mechanic might be in Draft and Sealed, which is where most of the Collect Evidence cards are going to see play. Or maybe not, once players get a chance to try them.
Collect Evidence is leaning pretty heavily on Surveil to get things into the graveyard so they can actually be counted on as a resource. This doesn’t quite line up, colour-wise, and doesn’t even guarantee cards in your graveyard at all.
Some of the cards, like Sample Collector and Forensic Researcher require specific timing, have a high-enough cost at 3, and give such minimal payoffs that it makes me wonder. It’s not like there’s some additional upside to having a bunch of random cards in exile.
Cards like Bite Down on Crime, Vitu-Ghazi Inspector and Crimestopper Sprite are just feelbads.
Ravnica Reax #5 – Casefile: They’re All White Cards
By now you may have seen the set’s alt-art treatment. The ‘Casefile’ cards. Here’s one. This is a green card.
Here’s another. When you look across the table at this, I’m sure you know it’s a black card.
Another one. This one has invisible ink on it. Or not. Who knows, really? You have to use a black light or tilt the card or something. No different collector number or other way to tell. Hope my LGS sorts that out easily without having to spend 30 seconds checking every card. This is a blue/red card.
How about this one? Did you spot any differences?
Sometimes I feel like they can’t see the Forest for all the Dryad Arbors.
Ravnica Reax #6 – Get Notorious!
Unlike many of the last few sets, where we got plenty of Legends but so few seemed to resonate, this set feels different. There are a number of legit, build-around legendary creatures that will be making waves at Commander tables as soon as they are available.
Some of the ones I think will make the biggest splashes are the very powerful Aurelia, the Law Above, Delney, Streetwise Lookout and Massacre Girl, Known Killer. The new Massacre Girl is especially strong and offers a new spin on giving -x/-x to creatures, which should get some players brewing. Just including a keyword like Wither on the card is exciting.
Speaking of new spins, Judith, Carnage Connoisseur offers a new way to build red/black damage-spell decks. Marvo, Deep Operative offers a way to finally build a Clash deck. Duskana, the Rage Mother is a new spin on bears.
We needed a few new spins on face-down cards, obviously, and both of Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods and Kaust, Eyes of the Glade are interesting and offer different colour combinations and payoffs than we’ve seen before.
Special mention goes to the very unique The Pride of Hull Clade, which I totally expect to become a Laboratory Maniac deck and is my early pick for most-hated Commander from this set.
I’d also like to spotlight Anzrag, The Quake Mole because WTF?! I want to see this in action, though I think it could be pretty obnoxious. Some Commanders force you to play as the Archenemy from the getgo, as the other 3 know they have to team up or go under. This might be one of those.
Ravnica Reax #7 – Enchantments Get Tough
Like most recent sets, Murders is packed with powerful enchantment cards, including the new Case-type, which are already garnering some deserved complaints over how confusing they are to figure out. Y’know, based on looking at the cards.
Yes, they look like Sagas. No, they don’t work like Sagas. No, the middle thing isn’t a step. No, the case is not automatically solved at the end of your turn if you do nothing, as the reminder text seems to suggest. This is just poor wording and layout.
But they are ultimately understandable and some are fairly playable. As are the enchantments like Blood Splatter Analysis, which has an enters-the-battlefield effect. There are quite a few of this sort of card in the set, which is kind of like a Sorcery spell that also leaves a permanent behind. This seems like a new normal of power for enchantments.
Speaking of power, the new Leyline card, Leyline of the Guildpact is pretty intriguing. Free spells on turn 0 are always worth considering for Shenanigans, and this will get worked over by every format to see if it’s breakable. It pitches to all the forces and Evoke elementals, which is a good start.
Overall, this is a great set for enchantments, but is that an issue?
Ravnica Reax #8 – Enchantments Remain Unsolved
It is. I’ve covered how hard it is for some colours and combinations to deal with enchantments. Here is the full list of new cards in blue, black and red that interact with enchantments.
We have Urgent Necropsy, Rakdos, Patron of Chaos, Sudden Setback and Unauthorized Exit.
Those are it. Urgent Necropsy is the only one that even mentions enchantments by name, and if your graveyard is empty, it might do nothing. The others bounce or force sacrifices of permanents. None of them is any sort of a useful answer to a problem enchantment.
For a game that it so focused on Commander, it’s staggering how this continues to be a major problem for the format.
Ravnica Reax #9 – An Uncommon Victory
I’ve been slowly wading through a series on Magic’s notorious and broken uncommon cards. Mostly after seeing how fast Geological Appraiser got banned in multiple formats.
While I don’t think there’s much ban-worthy here, there’s a few uncommon standouts you can watch out for and probably pick up for cheap. Not saying they’re going to pop in value or anything, just that they’ll put in some work in your decks. And some are pretty fun, like Frantic Scapegoat and Pompous Gadabout.
Look out for: Aftermath Analyst, Break Out, Call a Surprise Witness, Case of the Burning Masks, Case of the Gateway Express, Cease//Desist, Fae Flight, Gleaming Geardrake, Harried Dronesmith, Insidious Roots, Kraul Whipcracker, Leering Onlooker, Soul Enervation and Sumala Rumblers from the Clue box set.
Some uncommons deserve special mention, like Case of the Shattered Pact which is quite an effective enabler/payoff combo for 5 colour commanders.
At an already high price point, Crime Novelist is an obvious addition to any red deck that likes using Treasure. Long Goodbye is also on the radar, only more so of Legacy/Vintage players.
Either of Vengeful Tracker and Wispdrinker Vampire might win you a Commander game based on a flurry of triggers.
While we’ve seen cards like Spelltwine before, the Jetsam half of Flotsam//Jetsam seems pretty good since it can cast any spell. The Flotsam half isn’t great but adds value.
We’ve seen the effect before many times, but Hard-Hitting Question is a new low for mana cost.
My pick for biggest sleeper is Persuasive Interrogators, which offers one of the easiest ways to kill an opponent ever devised. All you have to do is sacrifice 5 clues and it starts you with 1. You can do it with Krark-Clan Ironworks if you want. It’s a sneaky surprise way to win in any deck that does clues in black, or copies tokens, and might be worth building around.
Ravnica Reax #10 – Return to Exciting Precons
The Commander precons have some legitimately cool reprints! Click here for all four lists.
Deadly Disguise contains big ticket cards like Jeska’s Will and Seedborn Muse, as well as lesser value like Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Beast Whisperer, Ohran Frostfang and Neheb, the Eternal. Plenty of good staples too.
Revenant Recon has Reanimate, Rise of the Dark Realms and Necromancy which is quite a spicy trio to get in one go. There’s also Phyrexian Metamorph, Animate Dead, Grave Titan and Toxic Deluge. And again, plenty of good cheap stuff too.
Deep Clue Sea gets newer chase cards Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Koma, Cosmos Serpent. It also comes with stuff like Farewell, Academy Manufactor, Alandra, Sky Dreamer, Chulane, Teller of Tales and Kappa Cannoneer. This one has plenty of useful mana rocks among the other good cards it contains.
Blame Game falls a bit short of the others. The best reprint is Fiendish Duo which was expensive due to scarcity more than anything. Comeuppance, Loran of the Third Path and Smuggler’s Share are all great, but aren’t as good a second tier as the other decks. The rest is a steeper dropoff than the others as well.
The saving grace of Blame Game is the new cards, like the already expensive Trouble in Pairs and really fun designs like Prisoner’s Dilemma that will likely grow in demand.
All of the reprints look extra good now, but will likely drop in value as demand is met. Conversely, the new cards often take a while to be fully evaluated, and the overall look of these decks could be completely different in 6 months to a year.
Conclusion
I think this would be a worthy draft of a potential set, but Murders at Karlov Manor could use at least one more edit before release.
The mechanics are mostly rehashes, and while Suspect is fun and all, the set feels super uninspired and a little clueless.
I would not spend money on sealed product. I do not want the casefile cards in my collection.
There are some fun singles to grab here, and the Commander precons totally deserve a look, but this is a set I’m not going to investigate too thoroughly.
Thanks for reading!
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