Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM) Limited Set Review: Special Guests and The List Part 1

Hey everyone! It’s time to slap on my detective hat and solve some cases in Magic: The Cluening. We all know that it was really Urza with the Candelabra of Tawnos in the Library of Alexandria. Wait, you’re telling me it wasn’t? Uh oh, I’ll leave all of that to Scooby and the gang then. While they are solving some mysteries, I’ll be reviewing the full set of Murders at Karlov Manor.

Per usual, I’ll be grading the entire set for the purpose of limited as well as writing about a million other articles about it. With all that, you’ll be well prepared to crush some serious dreams.

Here’s the usual grading scale:

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion's Messenger)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)

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Special Guests

Crashing Footfalls

Rating: 3.5/5

I’d make the point that you’re not able to cheat this in, but technically Enlisted Wurm is on the List so theoretically that could happen. It’s not very likely so you need to look at this through the lens of how it will perform when played in a fair game of Magic.

This is wonderful If you manage to suspend this turn one, adding two trampling 4/4s on turn five while still having your full compliment of mana is going to put you far ahead of most situations. It is a terrible top deck though so I have to be reasonable on the grade.

Drown in the Loch

Rating: 2.5/5

Two mana for a removal or a Counterspell is a bargain. The problem lies with being reliant on your opponent’s graveyard to do literally anything. While there are mechanics that would lead towards them putting some cards in there for you, Collecting Evidence will clean it right out.

Field of the Dead

Rating: 1.0/5

Are there enough lands to turn this on? Yes. Should you be trying to do it? Probably not. There will be decks where you’re already heavy on the named lands and see this floating around. You should absolutely scoop it up then. Don’t take it early with the plan to build around it.

Fabricate

Rating: 1.0/5

I’m not a fan of tutors in limited unless I have some amazing bomb that is significantly better than the rest of my deck. I’m even less interested when it is limited in what it can grab and there aren’t any artifacts in the set that meet my criteria.

Gamble

Rating: 1.0/5

I feel like I was just saying something about tutors in limited. This is only one mana, but with the huge drawback of discarding a card at random. That’s fine in constructed when you’re doing some combo shenanigans, it’s awful in limited. You’re down a card no matter what and in some cases you just pitch the card you searched up.

As much as people love to Gamble, you should run the avoid on this one.

Ghostly Prison

Rating: 3.0/5

This is going to range wildly in effectiveness based off what you are playing against. It does very little against a grindy deck that is trying to win with a couple big flyers. It is insane against any form of go wide deck. In premier draft, it is far more likely that you play against the latter.

Show and Tell

Rating: 0.5/5

This is an atrocious limited card. The only reason it’s not a straight zero is the weird possibility that you use this to drop a Worldspine Wurm while your poor opponent plays a random four drop. If you’re on the double mythic from two different bonus sheets train, then more power to you. You still need to draw both, but the screenshots alone might be worth it.

In most cases, you are going to be going down a card to play something that is maybe a couple more mana while your opponent also gets to play their best card. That’s not even getting into how bad it is later in the game.

Tireless Tracker

Rating: 4.5/5

I don’t think I have to explain why this card is fantastic especially coming out of LCI otherwise known as The Land of Three Mana Bombs. A rapidly growing creature that provides a continuous stream of clues is clearly amazeballs (Josh’s Note: Hey editor, before you take this out, I’m pretty sure that isn’t actually a swear word) (Editor’s Note: I’ll allow it.).

Tragic Slip

Rating: 3.0/5

This falls in the same value range as a lot of the removal in this set. It asks something of you to be able to kill most of the relevant creatures in the set, but getting a creature to die typically isn’t a difficult task. Only costing one mana can be a huge tempo swing by enabling a double or even triple spell.

Victimize

Rating: 3.5/5

Sacrificing a random token to bring your best two creatures back is going to put a hurting on your opponent. It does require a bit of setup and they do come back in tapped, but overall, it’s definitely worth it. Just be careful about collecting the wrong evidence if you have this in your deck.

The List

Before I start on reviewing The List, there are some differences between the Arena versions and all other versions including MTGO and real life. I will be reviewing all of the cards from both versions to ensure you are covered no matter which way you choose to play. I will make it very clear in loud capital letters when a card is only available on one platform.

Baleful Mastery NOT ON ARENA

Rating: 3.0/5

Nice clean removal spell that takes the same hit that most removal spells do these days by only being a one for one card. The cheaper option that draws them a card is much worse in limited than constructed, but it’s nice to have in your back pocket when you need it.

Bishop of the Bloodstained

Rating: 1.0/5

There are nine other vampires in the main MKM set, but only three at common. Playing this to only deal a couple of damage is way below the curve these days. If you somehow end up playing vampire tribal then feel free to bump it up a bit.

Burden of Guilt

Rating: 1.5/5

You have to be really hurting for removal to play this card. It’s functionally a Pacifism with an upkeep. I don’t know about you, but that’s not very high on my list of things I want to be doing.

Let someone else carry this burden. I’d make a joke about Lydia being sworn to do so, but there are people reading this that weren’t alive when Skyrim came out.

Cavalier of Thorns NOT ON ARENA

Rating: 4.0/5

While not the easiest card to cast, it is a massive reach creature that ramps you while fueling your graveyard strategies. It even gets you your best card back if they find a way to deal with it.

Combine Chrysalis

Rating: 3.5/5

You’ll believe detectives can fly! Outside of that, this lets you turn all those clues you have into 4/4 flyers. It is a little slow and asks that you provide your own fodder for it, but it can really take over a game with a constantly growing air force.

Consign // Oblivion

Rating: 2.5/5

I love the end step bounce, untap make you discard that and hopefully another card.  It really helps prevent that horrible feeling of drawing a Mind Rot when they are empty handed.

Death Cloud NOT ON ARENA

Rating: 3.0/5

Similar to Balance, this is one of those symmetrical cards that is rarely ever fair for both sides. You know that it is coming so you play accordingly while your poor opponent is decimated. It is pricy, but can just mop up the board, hands, etc… Clues work really well with this because you can functionally hide extra cards in your hand.  

Duskmantle, House of Shadow

Rating: 1.0/5

I remember winning a Ravnica Block Constructed tournament with this card, it was ridiculously slow then. It’s downright glacial in current Magic.

This just doesn’t do enough to justify having a colorless land in your deck. It’s too expensive and random to hope that it fuels your collect evidence engines. You’d be hoping that you somehow end up in a game going to decking and that your one card a turn mill wins the race for you.

Enlisted Wurm

Rating: 2.5/5

Cascade is generally worse than Discover in limited since you don’t have the option to put the card in your hand if you don’t want to cast it right away. That makes it a giant frowny face when you hit removal without any good targets. While Cascading for five sounds great, sometimes you just hit a two drop. I’m playing this if I am in these colors, but I’m not going to go out of my way to do so.

Evolutionary Leap ONLY ON ARENA

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m not a big fan of this card even if you do make a bunch of low value tokens to sacrifice. It’s too random for my tastes and you need the other cards to line up correctly. I will board it in against a bunch of removal though.

Ghost Quarter

Rating: 0.0/5

I started out trying to justify this in anyway possible because a 0.0 means that under no circumstances should you be playing this card. I came up with two possibilities.

The first was combine it with Undergrowth Recon and they might run out of lands eventually (not happening). The second was that maybe you could board it in if they are splashing around too much without playing the appropriate basic lands. That seems unlikely and you are still putting yourself behind on a land by doing it.

My conclusion is that you should never be playing this card in this limited format. A basic land is just better.

Gnaw to the Bone

Rating: 1.5/5

This had potential to be great back in Innistrad and Shadows over Innistrad Remastered because you were filling your graveyard before casting some spell like Spider Spawning or Rise from the Tides to go way over the top of you opponent. Gaining 10 life put you out of reach until you did that.

In MKM you are playing effects that actively take cards out of your own graveyard without those same type of payoff cards around. I just don’t see those same type of decks coming together.

Goblin Warchief

Rating: 1.0/5

While there are some goblins in the set, there aren’t nearly enough good ones to want to play this especially at common. The double red is too much of a drawback for a hasty 2/2 that is unlikely to provide further value.

Hard Evidence

Rating: 2.5/5

Getting an 0/3 is actually pretty relevant in a format with disguise running around. It lets you block all day while you’re trying to win in the air. This even replaces itself so you’re not too sad when they kill it by flipping their creature. It’s not that hard to come up with reasons to want to play this card.

High Alert

Rating: 1.0/5

I don’t see this deck coming together like it did back in RNA. Maybe if you have multiple Essence of Antiquity, but it doesn’t really do as much with the commons of this set. Don’t even get me started on The Pride of Hull Clade but do send me the screenshots when it happens.

Ixidor, Reality Sculptor

Rating: 2.0/5

This sounds like a solid card in theory, but it costs five mana for a 3/4 that asks you to also have disguise creatures out to do anything. By the time you get to untap, you would have six mana and could have flipped almost every card in the set. On top of that, you lose the +1+1 bonus when you do flip them.

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Wrap Up

The special guests are very hit or miss with some great ones such as Tireless Tracker and some unplayable garbage like Show and Tell. The first part of The List has more of a range across power levels, but nothing that is going to cause your opponent to scream “OMG I can’t believe they have that”.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow to finish up my limited review of Murders at Karlov Manor with the the second part of The List. Until then, stay classy people!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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