Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM) Limited Review — Multicolor, Colorless, and Lands

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM) will hold its prerelease events on February 2, 2024, and be officially released a week later on February 9, 2024. Want to learn more about how the cards rate in Limited and some potentially fun synergies? Then check out this MKM Limited review series!

When it comes to Ravnica, the plane is best known not only as the second most frequently revisited plane after Dominaria, but also for its ten guilds. The guild names are now widely used as shorthand for two-color pairs in MTG, so here is a quick refresher:

• Azorius - BlueWhite
• Dimir - BlueBlack
• Rakdos - RedBlack
• Gruul - RedGreen
• Selesnya - WhiteGreen
• Boros - RedWhite
• Orzhov - BlackWhite
• Golgari - BlackGreen
• Simic - BlueGreen
• Izzet - RedBlue

Karlov, the set’s namesake, is a famous and prominent family in the Orzhov Syndicate, and the family that Teysa Karlov, a character we know well, comes from. The set revolves around a series of murders at Karlov Manor. Besides a story with a strong whodunit flavor, it brings back mechanics like investigate and Clue tokens, and introduces new ones such as the Case enchantment subtype, suspect, collect evidence, disguise, and cloak.

For the mechanics, see this article: Murders at Karlov Manor Mechanics Explained

Grading Scale

5.0: Must-take, unconditionally
4.0: First-pick quality
3.5: Strong enough, but not necessarily a first pick
3.0: Above average (you will really want it in your final deck)
2.5: Average, maybe around a 6th or 7th pick in a draft
2.0 to 1.0: Below average (you would rather not play it than play it)
0.5 to 0.0: Unplayable (basically never play it, it will only help you lose)

Multicolor

Let’s count the number of two-color cards for each guild’s colors among the multicolor cards in this set:

Orzhov: 7 > Izzet: 7
Azorius: 6
Dimir: 6
Rakdos: 6
Gruul: 6
Selesnya: 6
Boros: 6
Golgari: 6
Simic: 6

In the end, only Orzhov and Izzet have 7 cards in their color pair, while the other eight guilds have only 6.

cephille: 4.5

The legendary veteran Agrus Kos, who still can’t retire even after death, is moonlighting as a detective this time! A 2/4 double strike vigilance body for four mana becomes a very fearsome attacker/blocker as long as you have some way to pump it! And after entering the battlefield, it suspects a creature, which lets you give your creatures menace to attack more easily, or even directly exile the opponent’s suspected creature! Although it’s a two-turn exile-based removal that can be somewhat unreliable if there are no suspected creatures on the battlefield, how to make Agrus Kos’s outstanding detective skills help you crack MKM Limited is up to players to develop and research.

cephille: 4.0

A 3/3 vigilance for three that comes with a Clue token is no loss, and if it can survive a turn you can cast a Sphinx’s Revelation, which would be awesome!

Proft’s maverick nature in the story feels like a tribute to the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in the history of literature. If you’re interested, go look for related Easter eggs in the story!

cephille: 4.5

Following Ilharg, the Raze-Boar, here comes Gruul’s Mole God! An absurd 8/4 body for four mana, paired with its effect that when it becomes blocked, your whole team untaps and gets to fight again; when your board is ahead, you can even add the seven-mana ability so the Mole God must be blocked this turn, giving you a chance to attack again and again, rapidly lowering your opponent’s defenses and life total. If you can make the Mole God indestructible and forced to be blocked, couldn’t you attack until the end of time? Awesome!

OK, let’s be serious. Basically, when the opponent’s defensive creatures are too weak to kill the god, it is extremely painful for them: either don’t block and take 8, which is no fun, or block, fail to kill it, and keep getting punched again and again. I recommend that at the start of combat you first attack with the Mole God and your other creatures that can attack profitably. If the opponent blocks your Mole God, your remaining weaker creatures can follow up with a second wave or more. If they don’t block, you at least deal 8 damage to the opponent.

cephille: 4.0

A reprint of Assassin’s Trophy. Although it is universal removal, when using it early you should still weigh the effect of ramping your opponent.

cephille: 4.5

She can attack, draw, and heal: the all-around Aurelia has descended! Although the second ability, which needs five or more creatures attacking together, is a bit of excessive win more, it’s already great as long as you trigger the first one and draw cards. A 4/4 flying vigilance haste body for five mana is both offense and defense, and there’s nothing to complain about. Basically, her two abilities encourage you to go the go-wide route, and I hope the Boros Legion this time has plenty of ways to make small creatures to go with her. Also remember that her two abilities trigger whenever any player attacks with three or more/five or more creatures, so if the opponent attacks and meets the condition, they will happen too! Don’t forget this in Limited!

cephille: 2.5

Basically a sorcery-speed creature removal that deals 3 damage, and you can play it if your colors line up. The second ability, returning a creature to hand, is way too slow and is just a bonus.

cephille: 3.5

Looking at six cards and taking a creature for two mana is already great in Limited. As long as your deck has 15 or more creatures, you can basically hit a creature among the six cards, and the odds of getting something worth more than two mana shouldn’t be low. In the floor case, you can also put a creature costing two or less onto the battlefield, as if you had just cast a bear.

cephille: 4.0

An excellent removal spell that combines ramp with nonland exile removal. Just thinking about suppressing the opponent’s threat and then ramping to slam down your own bomb feels great. Enchanting a land means the opponent can basically only destroy it with enchantment removal or bounce, and it’s hard to kill the land directly for a two-for-one.

cephille: 4.5

Mind Control is insanely strong in Limited. This version turns the stolen creature into a 1/1 deathtouch, which is worse, but at least the opponent’s bomb is now on your side. Also, the Assassin creature type may offer some synergies.

cephille: 3.0

The floor is a 4/4 for five, but it gets bigger the more creatures you have. Very Selesnya!

cephille: 3.0

A 3/1 flyer that can’t die as long as you have Clues, and since Dimir has quite a few investigate sources in this set, it should earn plenty of value. It’s worth an extra 0.5 for having evasion. However, the 1/1 Thopters made by Izzet will be a considerable obstacle for it.

cephille: 3.5

A sorcery-speed murder limited to Rakdos, with a chance to pick another ability to pump your suspected creature, or, depending on the situation, decide whether to unsuspect that creature so it can block again. The condition is quite restrictive, but if you choose the one-plus-one well, it should deliver greater value.

cephille: 3.5

For four mana it first makes two Clue tokens, and whenever you sacrifice an artifact you can tap it to make a 1/1 flying Thopter. It’s a bit slow but a decent deal, and at worst it’s eight mana to draw two and make two 1/1 flyers, but don’t forget you can pay in installments.

cephille: 2.5

If you need a body on turn two, just cast it face up; otherwise, on turn three disguise it and wait for an opportunity to turn it face up and make two dogs to join later attacks and blocks. Barring surprises, you will basically always disguise it and wait to flip it. But remember that the dogs made on flipping are tapped, so be careful when you want to make a favorable block. If you are going the go-wide aggro route, its pick order can be higher.

cephille: 5.0

Your bomb is pretty good, and my bomb is great too, so why don’t I make a few more! Of course, under my control! (angry)

Here’s a math problem:

X = 1, total mana value 5: choose 1 target permanent, create 1 copy of it
X = 2, total mana value 8: choose 2 target permanents, create 2 copies of each
X = 3, total mana value 11: choose 3 target permanents, create 3 copies of each
…

cephille: 3.0

Flashing in a 2/2 Detective token at instant speed for two mana suits a tempo-oriented game plan very well. It’s best if you can also use the second effect when timing allows, but don’t be stingy about using it when you need a flash creature.

cephille: 4.5

A 1/4 deathtouch for three encourages you to keep attacking, and her second ability rewards the Assassin creature type: whenever one of your Assassins (and of course Etrata herself counts) deals combat damage to an opponent, you can cloak the top card of that opponent’s library; the more you hit, the more you gain. Looking back at the first ability, it gives every face-down creature you have a four-mana activated ability that lets your face-down creature turn face up, and if the front face is a nonpermanent card you may even cast it for free. Basically Etrata is a very powerful source of resources, but she needs a bit of creature-type support and time to maximize her value. She is very much worth first-picking and then building toward Assassins and cloak/disguise!

cephille: 2.0

This card needs support from the collect evidence theme. With it, you can keep making Clues; without it, it’s just a bear. Of course, by the mid to late game your graveyard should have the resources to let you collect evidence 4 once or multiple times, so making 1 to 2 Clues with it shouldn’t be hard.

cephille: 5.0

A 5/5 flyer for five that investigates twice on entering, and its activated ability lets you sacrifice an artifact to gain hexproof/lifelink or vigilance, letting it dodge at least two removal spells. Its body will almost never lose a fight in the air, so it’s undoubtedly a huge bomb.

cephille: 3.0

A 1/4 flyer for three is a very sturdy body, well suited to color pairs like Dimir that only show their strength in the mid to late game. If needed, you can also disguise it for three first and then gain value after flipping, which is quite good. Whenever I’m playing blue or black, I’ll want to include it.

cephille: 3.0

A 3/2 for four that brings a 1/1 flyer on entering, and after disguising and turning it face up you can suddenly gain an extra blocker at instant speed. Very flexible to use.

cephille: 2.5

A 1/1 flyer for two that earns a Clue on entering is already no loss, and it grows bigger and bigger whenever you sacrifice a Clue or other artifacts. A very good two-mana curve play!

cephille: 2.5

A 3/2 vigilance flyer for four is no longer all that strong, and this set has a bunch of flyers more powerful than it. Turning it face up from disguise taps/untaps a target creature, which can usually make for a nice block, so it’s probably better to disguise it first and then gain a flip ability later.

cephille: 5.0

A four-mana Divination isn’t very appealing, but dealing damage equal to the highest mana value among the two cards you discard is very interesting.

Let’s look at it another way: if you treat this card as a four-mana sweeper (of course, since it isn’t white, it might not sweep cleanly), and if needed you can simply spend four mana at sorcery speed to cycle it and draw two cards; not to mention that when you have plenty of cards in hand, you can optimize your discards according to the board, maximizing your advantage after the sweep! Doesn’t this card feel very strong now?

Note that you can always decide whether to discard after drawing, and damage is only counted if you discard!

cephille: 3.0

Time to farm! This enchantment turns your creature tokens into Birds of Paradise, which is worth trying at two mana; and its second ability makes a 0/1 Plant whenever a creature card leaves your graveyard, and it adds counters: the more you exile, the more you make! This card may pair nicely with Kaya, Spirit’s Justice! Add Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact on top and I truly don’t know how you’d lose (dream on…).

More math:

• Exile the 1st creature from your graveyard -> make one 0/1 Plant —> put a +1/+1 counter on all Plants, making a 1/2 Plant
• Exile the 2nd creature from your graveyard -> make one 0/1 Plant —> put a +1/+1 counter on all Plants, making a 2/3 Plant + 1/2 Plant
• Exile the 3rd creature from your graveyard -> make one 0/1 Plant —> put a +1/+1 counter on all Plants, making a 3/4 Plant + 2/3 Plant + 1/2 Plant
• Life goes on and on, life goes on and on…

cephille: 5.0

Cards that can build an army all by themselves deserve high grades in Limited, since creatures are the main win condition. The new Izoni is already a decent beater as a 5/4 menace for six, and whenever she enters or attacks you can collect evidence 4, which lets you create two 2/1 menace reach Spiders! So if I cast her with four or more mana worth of cards in my graveyard, I can get 9 points of menace power on board for six mana!?

I have to say this is truly outrageous. Basically, by the time you can reach six mana, having cards with total mana value 4 or more in the graveyard won’t be hard, and if you can make Izoni attack successfully and trigger the second ability, you can even build 13 points of menace power on board! Oh, and we haven’t even talked about her second ability yet: you can sacrifice four tokens at any time to surveil 2, draw 2, gain 2… This is truly outrageous! And you don’t have to sacrifice the Spider tokens you worked hard to make; a few Clues or other tokens can activate it just as well.

Conclusion: I can’t think of any reason not to give her a 5.0, unless you’re stuck on lands and can’t cast her, but that’s not this card’s problem.

cephille: 3.0

A 3/4 body for five is not really up to standard, and you probably can’t play many instants and sorceries in Limited decks. The first ability, giving the spell deathtouch and lifelink, is rather weak in Limited, with the ceiling being turning your Shock into an outright kill that also gains you 2 life. The second ability, making 2/2 Imps that deal 2 damage to the opponent when they die, is quite strong, but you need to make at least two of them for it to be worth it. If you can’t play enough instants and sorceries, you can basically just play a creature with a better body instead.

cephille: 4.0

As a four-mana planeswalker with starting loyalty 3, for Limited, just repeatedly [+1]ing to make 1/1 flyers is already worth the cost; every now and then you can also [+2] to surveil 2, fill your graveyard, and exile a card from your graveyard. The [-2], although usable as removal, costs you exiling one of your own creatures first, which is basically a small-for-big trade, so [+1]ing a few times before using [-2] may be more worthwhile. The passive triggers basically every time you [+2] to exile a creature from your own graveyard, or [-2] to eat a creature on your own battlefield. Note that the wording is “target token you control becomes a copy of the exiled creature card with flying until end of turn”, so you can also turn your Clues or other noncreature tokens into copies of that creature!

A fun play:

When you have Kaya, two or more Clue tokens, and a card in hand that exiles from a graveyard, you can first use the card in hand to exile a target creature from your graveyard, making Clue A into that creature; then use Kaya’s [-2], exiling the Clue A that has become a creature as the cost and killing another of the opponent’s creatures, while triggering Kaya’s passive ability again to turn Clue B into a copy of the creature Clue A copied.

Uh… what’s the point of this…? Whatever, beating people up with Clues is just fun!

cephille: 4.0

I personally think this is a very well-designed card, and its power level is very high. A 3/4 flying vigilance for four is already a very strong four-drop, and the two-mana Adventure investigates and lets you play an additional land, with value close to Explore, and the Clue tokens it makes have many more synergies in MKM. If things go well, you can do a two-mana pseudo-ramp and have Kellan show up on turn three, and later attacks let you eat Clues to draw cards at a cheaper cost, or destroy the opponent’s artifacts.

Where there’s Kellan, there’s adventure! Our Master Kellan, with the vampire girlfriend he met on Ixalan, has come to Ravnica to be a detective!

cephille: 3.0

A 3/2 reach for two that destroys a token on entering, and by the mid to late game of Limited there shouldn’t be a lack of targets. Its creature type is Assassin, so it can have some synergy with Etrata, Deadly Fugitive.

cephille: 1.5

A 4/4 menace haste ward 2 for seven isn’t very good. Its attack effect lets you sacrifice any number of other creatures and then exile cards from the top of your library equal to the total power of the sacrificed creatures, and you may cast any number of instants or sorceries among them for free. The way I can think of to build it is with lots of spells that make creature tokens, and about 10 or fewer other creature cards including this legend, with everything else being instants and sorceries. That might maximize this card. But for sealed, still don’t play it; it’s too unstable.

cephille: 3.0

Most of the time, on the first attack of this Vehicle you should first collect evidence 6 to make it an artifact creature, and then attack to gain an instant or sorcery. A 4/4 crew 2 for three is a decent beater early on, but in the mid to late game its lack of evasion may gradually lower its strength. Still, being able to gain an instant or sorcery it exiles with every attack is a pretty good investment.

cephille: 3.5

A 2/3 for two that exiles a graveyard and investigates when it attacks, and sacrificing a Clue lets it transform into the card it exiled. Very powerful! But note that per the first sentence, if no graveyard is exiled, you won’t investigate!

cephille: 0.5

If you want to be a freeloader, then playing just one is certainly not enough, but if you don’t have it in your opening hand and draw it only late, it can’t get you any closer to victory at all. The significant benefit of having it on the battlefield is that you won’t have color problems playing a five-color deck, but why must you play five colors?

What? You say you have Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact!? Okay, you’ve convinced me XD

cephille: 3.5

A reprint of Lightning Helix. Instant-speed 3 damage to any target and gain 3 life. When you see it, you just take it and head to Boros.

cephille: 2.5

A 4/5 haste for five that investigates when three or more creatures attack together. A very good five-mana curve play, and if Boros tokens prove to work in Limited afterward, it’s worth another 0.5.

cephille: 4.5

I had just said not to play multicolor, but after previewing Niv-Mizzet… well, this really is the biggest incentive to play multicolor. A 6/6 flyer with hexproof from multicolored for five mana is basically super hard to kill on Ravnica, and in MKM Limited you will definitely have multicolored permanents, and if you play five colors, X=2 or more shouldn’t be too hard either. If you can successfully cast Niv-Mizzet and let it attack once or twice, you basically can’t lose. The 0.5 deducted is only because five colors are still a bit hard to cast, but Niv-Mizzet is worth making the corresponding adjustments for.

cephille: 2.0

Mana Leak got better, but it’s still a counterspell.

cephille: 4.0

Math problem again:

You control 5 creatures and the opponent controls 3, so I can pay two to make 5 Clues, or four to make 8 Clues. Okay, that’s a bit too ideal, so let’s change it to you controlling 1 creature and the opponent 2, so I pay two to make 2 Clues or four to make 3. You say that’s still unrealistic, since both sides could have no creatures…?

Answer: …then don’t use it for now.

cephille: 3.5

MKM has 46 creatures with the Detective creature type in total, about one sixth of all cards (46 of 286); and looking only at creatures, they make up one third of all creatures (46 of 139), so its lord bonus is definitely not just there for show!
A 3/3 body for three is already up to standard, and both passive abilities fit closely with the Detective theme. Looking at the second ability, MKM’s White-Blue color pair basically goes for the strategy of being rewarded for drawing your second card each turn; with Clues everywhere in the environment, making a target Detective unblockable shouldn’t be hard. This card should be a very clear signal in draft: if you see it, heading toward a White-Blue multicolor Detective theme should bring good rewards!

cephille: 5.0

A 6/6 flying trample body for six that is simply supreme, worthy of being Ravnica’s number one brawler, aka the true guardian of the multiverse and the undefeated sovereign of the Cult of Rakdos: Rakdos himself!

His passive ability is even fiercer: at the beginning of your end step, if the opponent doesn’t sacrifice two nonland, nontoken permanents on the battlefield, you draw two cards!? That’s truly outrageous!

cephille: 2.0

A 3/3 deathtouch for four can attack effectively into blockers with high toughness and low power, but the reverse isn’t great, since it will be traded off by cheaper 3/x creatures. Turning it face up gives deathtouch, which works as somewhat unreliable removal, but six mana to flip is too much and not very realistic.

cephille: 3.5

The best case is seven mana returning a land, an enchantment, and an artifact from the graveyard and having them all become 5/5 creatures, for a total of 15 power on board, which is truly explosive; but if you simply return one target as a 5/5 for seven mana, that should be an average level. Considering the ceiling, I decided to raise it to 3.5. If testing shows that in the right build it can reliably do all three options, it will be a 5.0 huge bomb.

cephille: 3.0

As long as the board isn’t empty, it’s a great counterspell, and it can also pump your creatures to earn more value. In Simic creature-tempo decks, it should be a key card!

cephille: 2.0

A 6/7 reach for seven is sturdy, but you’d probably only play it if you lack big creatures. It has disguise, so you can put it out early for three and wait to flip it, which is relatively flexible, but if you are drafting the Simic disguise/cloak strategy, its pick order might be higher.

cephille: 3.0

A 2/2 for two that can suspect a creature you control, and its five-mana ability sacrifices a suspected creature to give target creature -5/-5. The floor is a removal spell you can pay for in installments totaling seven mana, but suspect makes your creatures harder to block, and when needed it can become removal. This should be the two-drop I’d really want when I play Rakdos.

cephille: 2.5

A 2/1 lifelink flyer for three is decent, and when it’s turned face up it gives another creature lifelink, which helps you keep a safe life total while attacking and defending.

cephille: 2.5

Rather than casting it face up for five, it may be better to disguise it for three first and find the best opportunity to turn it face up for a two-for-one.

cephille: 1.0

A two-mana discard spell may be more suitable for the sideboard, and if you succeed in making a 1/1 flyer off it, then you may really have gotten a bad deal for those two mana.

cephille: 2.5

The more creatures you have that can be turned face up, the stronger it is, but if you have fewer than five, don’t play it. Triggering it once to become a 2/4 reach is already sturdy.

cephille: 3.5

A 2/3 deathtouch body for three can attack or defend, the trigger condition for the extra investigate isn’t too hard to meet, and whenever you sacrifice a Clue token you can make a 1/1 flyer each turn, so with enough Clues Teysa alone can make an endless army!

cephille: 3.0

A 4/4 vigilance body for four is very good, and after attacking it can also produce two mana to pay for disguise/cloak or the cost of turning face up.

cephille: 4.0

Making a total of 8 power on board for five mana (one becoming two) is a dream, and when it attacks together with the legendary Wolf it creates or other Wolf creatures, it can also force creatures controlled by the target opponent to block your Wolf, while the 3/2 lifelinker can slip through to gain life, and the 5/5 legendary Wolf has trample on its own and may also deal damage and eat the opponent’s weaker blockers.

cephille: 2.5

The second text looks very powerful, and its additional cost is sacrificing a creature that dealt damage this turn, which shouldn’t be too hard to meet in creature-combat-oriented Limited. It’s naturally great when you can cast it, but it’s probably still a bit of a win-more card.

cephille: 4.0

A 4/4 absurd body for three, and all three abilities together make every attack or block by your creatures more advantageous in the mid game and beyond. The only small drawback is that decks that aren’t Selesnya may have some difficulty casting her, but proper deckbuilding can solve that.

cephille: 2.5

A 5/5 body for six is barely acceptable. Although making a Clue token after connecting with a player is a nice payoff, not having built-in evasion is still a problem; perhaps disguising it for three and flipping it at the right time to gain an advantageous attack, and treating the Clue token as an extra bonus, is more realistic. Flipping it for five to become a 5/5 is still pretty sturdy in Limited.

cephille: 2.5

Actually, I only wanted to give this card a 2.0. A four-mana instant-speed kill spell also needs a card of exactly the matching mana value in your graveyard to collect evidence. Even if I only want to do the basic thing of killing the opponent’s four-drop creature, I need a card with exactly mana value four in the graveyard for evidence, and if I don’t have one or can’t put one together, this card is stuck in my hand unusable. In general it’s strictly worse than a four-mana unconditional kill spell, so I’d judge it by a 2.0 standard; but because the ceiling can reach one-for-three or even four (overthinking, the only planeswalker in MKM Limited is Kaya, Spirit’s Justice) I still gave it 0.5 higher, but I wouldn’t expect too much from its performance.

cephille: 4.5

A 3/4 body for four is up to standard, and basically starting from the turn it enters, every turn it turns a card from your hand into a face-down creature, so extra lands or creatures that can’t be used for now can all be put onto the battlefield first to wait for the best time to appear. When your board is ahead, you can also consider pumping all your face-down creatures or artifact creatures by one size. Basically it’s an excellent creature that causes the opponent big trouble if it isn’t removed in time.

A few years later, Vannifar has become the queen of costume changes XD

cephille: 4.0

MTG power creep continues, and a plain Glorious Anthem is no longer enough, so how about adding the effect of Impact Tremors on top? This enchantment fits the Boros Legion’s character well, and if you get this card, you can basically build toward go-wide aggro.

cephille: 3.0

A 2/4 flyer for four is a very sturdy body, and it also makes the opponent lose 1 life whenever your other creatures with power less than 2 enter; the seven-mana activated ability gives all your creatures with power less than 2 deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn, which you’ll need in the very late game when you need to make an advantageous attack or block.

cephille: 3.5

Fireball is a powerful card in Limited as long as your colors fit, and although it may be a bit clunky as removal, it’s still very welcome as a one-hit-kill way to win in the very late game. Mixing in green gives you a “chance” to do a little ramp, but by the time you can use it, you probably won’t want to have too many lands to drop from your hand, so a more realistic use is to see if there are any lands that were milled or sacrificed in the early to mid game that you can return from the graveyard, but that can only count as a bonus.

cephille: 4.0

A 4/4 body for four is very good, and the passive abilities are all great: whether it’s the first, giving haste to your other creatures, the second, drawing a card when a face-down creature you control hits a player, or even the third, letting a face-down creature of yours that dies return to the battlefield face down if its front face is a permanent card, and then earning another turn-face-up effect. As long as your deck has some permanents or spells with disguise/cloak, this Centaur on the battlefield can bring you a never-ending advantage!

cephille: 3.0

Split cards are back! MKM brings us five split cards, all made of a low-cost instant plus a high-cost sorcery, so let’s take a look!

This is a split card that is Green mixed with Black-White hybrid. You just need to look at the color at the junction of the split card, which represents the color shared by both halves of the card; that is, even if you play a mono-green deck, you still have a chance to use both halves of this split card!

The Golgari side is a two-mana instant that exiles up to two cards from a single graveyard, quite useful for stopping the opponent’s reanimation or removing potential collect evidence costs, and it also gains you 2 life and draws a card, making it excellent disruption; the Selesnya side is a six-mana sorcery that destroys all artifacts and enchantments, and with good timing it can be pretty brutal.

A reminder here: the mana value of a split card is the sum of both halves on the card, so this Cease//Desist has a mana value of 1{B/G} + 4{G/W}{G/W} totaling 8, making it very suitable for paying collect evidence costs! If your deck focuses on collect evidence, all five of these split cards automatically get +0.5!

cephille: 2.5

This is a split card that is Blue mixed with Green-Black. The Simic side is an instant-speed self-mill that also investigates; the Dimir side mills three cards from the opponent and then lets you cast a card from their graveyard without paying its mana cost. It basically depends on the opponent’s bombs: the more bombs, the better this card performs, but if the opponent is a small aggro deck, don’t play it.

cephille: 3.5

This is a split card that is White mixed with Red-Blue. The Boros side, when your creatures attack, creates a permanent pump, which is a great fit for attack-oriented go-wide creature builds; and when you need creatures in the mid to late game, you can use the Azorius side to make three 1/1 Thopter tokens, and surveil 2 can also help make your next draw better or fill the graveyard on purpose.

cephille: 2.5

This is a split card that is Red mixed with Blue-Green. The Izzet side, a one-mana instant that makes a target creature have to attack or block this turn, may not be worth a card on its own, but adding the Gruul six-mana sorcery side changes things. The Gruul side is basically a six-mana Overcome, and it can also turn a face-down creature you control face up, enabling an advantageous all-out assault.

cephille: 3.5

This is a split card that is Black mixed with White-Red. The Orzhov side as a Take Vengeance may be merely playable; but the Rakdos side can reanimate two creatures from one graveyard at once, earning ETB abilities and joining one attack, and the stronger the opponent’s or your own bombs, the greater this card’s payoff!

Colorless

cephille: 2.0

Seeing this card reminds me of STX’s Lesson Environmental Sciences, which was a card of at least 3.0 in STX Limited at the time. If during the draft you can get two or more of those and put them in your sideboard so you can find them with cards that have learn, it’s wonderful.

The reason I make this comparison first is that Environmental Sciences was good because it gave you color-fixing options without taking up main deck space; but this Case card, just spending two mana to find a basic land, is not especially exciting. Although when I play a deck with three or more colors I’d want one in my deck, a two-color deck doesn’t need it.

Of course, if your deck has Leyline of the Guildpact and you start with it on the battlefield, then this Case card will be a 4.0.

Artifacts

cephille: 1.0

Too slow to draw cards, and unreliable to produce mana. Go see how Courier’s Briefcase does it, okay?

cephille: 1.5

Color fixing, blocking, and graveyard hate all in one! But it’s really not strong. When you’re playing three or more colors you can consider trying it, and if not, don’t play it.

cephille: 2.5

A 4/5 body for five is okay, and it comes with a two-mana activated ability that reveals all of the opponent’s face-down creatures. In Limited, turning the opponent’s hidden tricks into open ones is actually quite important, and it can also be disguised for three first, making it relatively flexible to use.

cephille: 3.0

Most Equipment in this set has the Clue subtype, so you may eat it early to draw a card and bring it back with this in the mid game. With other Clues it can have a chance to grow very large, and although the lack of evasion is a bit of a flaw, a 4/4 body for five can still fight, and returning an additional Equipment is worth 3.0, so we can’t ask for more.

cephille: 2.5

A reprint of Magnifying Glass, downgraded to common. As a three-mana colorless ramp it isn’t excellent, but it works as a mana sink, effectively a six-mana draw a card; it’s not good enough, but the Clue tokens it makes have many synergies in this set, so it’s worth an extra 0.5 as an encouragement score.

cephille: 1.5

A very ordinary filler creature, and surveil 1 on entering doesn’t make me want to play it more.

cephille: 1.0

A hat made for Detectives, but the equip cost for non-Detectives is a bit high and awkward, and even equipping for one mana for +1/+2 isn’t very appealing. Basically I won’t play it.

Lands

cephille: 3.0

Cast face up, it’s just a colorless land; if you have enough lands, you can disguise it first and then pay 3 to turn it face up, which also gives you any two mana of a single color that doesn’t disappear until end of turn. If you turn it face up untapped, it can also produce a colorless mana itself. Three mana for three mana doesn’t ramp you, but sometimes it can still help you get out of a color-screw crisis.

cephille: 3.0

Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse just got slapped in the face. The added sacrifice that makes a target creature with power 2 or less unblockable this turn adds another dimension, and when drawn in the mid to late game, besides thinning your deck, it also doubles as a small trick.

cephille: 2.0

When Wizards wants to give you common color-fixing lands specifically for Limited, multicolor lands like Transguild Promenade that enter tapped and have downsides get developed; but the cost of these lands is rather high, so I would only consider playing one if I’m playing three or more colors.

cephille: 2.5

Although as a prism land it is much weaker than the earlier WOE Crystal Grotto, the artifact and Clue subtypes link up with many cards in this set, and sacrificing it to draw a card in the mid to late game is also a nice investment. But be careful: if this land gets hit by artifact removal, that would be really bad value. If you’re playing an artifact theme, you can consider cutting it in the sideboard for a basic land that can’t be destroyed.

cephille: 3.0

This set is a multicolor environment after all, so a land that fixes colors and surveils 1 and enters tapped is still very good; all ten of them can go into your deck as long as your colors line up.

Afterword

This time, Murders at Karlov Manor is our fourth visit to Ravnica (counting War of the Spark as the third, and not counting the Ravnica Remastered), and watching many familiar characters get killed off or turned evil in this set left me with mixed feelings… Besides enjoying the game’s Limited, if you want to know the latest MTG story in Traditional Chinese, feel free to follow: Dominaria Library and its Facebook page!