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CSI: Ravnica

Friendly greetings, fellow Magic enthusiasts. I'm John Sherwood, author of Digital Deckbuilding. This week, I'm investigating crime scenes among the Gateless, sweeping for colorless prints from Magic's tenth Ravnican standard set. Murders at Karlov Manor offers exciting new lands, thought-provoking artifacts, and a novel colorless enchantment.

Rares

Surveil Lands

The game's afoot with a new cycle of two-color fixing lands. Artistically, the ten-card cycle represents crime scenes in the territory of each of Ravnica's guilds. Mechanically, these cards are strictly better versions of an older land cycle, the Theros temples.

Both cycles enter the battlefield tapped and provide limited card selection, but the MKM surveil lands can be charged with two counts of power creep. First, they join the list of fetchable duals by having basic land types. You can search for these with green spells like Farseek, the ten Zendikar fetch lands, or the five Mirage slow fetches. These lands can fix colors in decks with a wide range of price points. Second, surveil is better than scry because graveyard mechanics are both commonplace and strategically advantageous. From MKM's Collect Evidence, to Descend from Lost Caverns of Ixalan to Delve, there are plenty of 'yard-thirsty mechanics to feed with an incidental surveil 1. Turning the magnifying glass onto commanders like Sefris of the Hidden Ways and The Mimeoplasm, surveil lands are an avenue to get more creature cards in the graveyard. There are nearly 200 multicolor commanders with "graveyard" in their oracle text. The surveil lands definitely have a niche in many of those decks.

Cryptex

In a lineup of criminally bad cards, Cryptex makes Manalith look good. The design of Cryptex is thematically accurate as an artifact that is intentionally difficult to use. It has not one, but two abilities that require a code to open. The mana ability on Cryptex requires "collect evidence 3" in the activation cost. In other words, this mana rock will not make mana unless you have cards in your graveyard with casting costs that add up to three. Requiring at least five unlock counters to activate, the card draw ability on Cryptex does nothing before resolving the mana ability five times. Proliferate can help, but only after Cryptex picks up the first unlock counter. Before you add this card to a deck, ask yourself a question:

Are you playing a proliferate deck that also reliably fills your graveyard?

• No? Move along, this card is bad.
• Yes? Move along, this card is still bad.

Ransom Note

While the card itself is a fairly standard utility artifact, Ransom Note is intriguing for other reasons. Promotional media for Murders at Karlov Manor includes a game in which players can solve Mystery Files to unlock a sleeve reward in MTG Arena. Each of the four Murders at Karlov Manor Commander precons features a different art on Ransom Note as part of a puzzle for the promotional event.

You can learn more about the Mystery Files and participate on the official website. Other players are getting into the fun and discussing the Ransom Note puzzle on Reddit. One of the running theories is that there's a connection to Cryptex, so maybe that card is good for something after all?

As for Ransom Note itself, I think it has some value in decks that care about Clues or sacrificing artifacts. The option to goad a creature might give this card enough of a boost to find a home in colorless decks that have limited interaction options like Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut or Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender.

Panoptic Projektor

Going undercover with a variety of facedown creature mechanics, Panoptic Projektor is functionally Thran Dynamo with the huge upside of doubling triggered abilities when creatures turn face up. Appearing as a new card in the Deadly Disguise preconstructed deck, this artifact is a natural fit with the new Disguise and Cloak mechanics. It's also a boon to existing Commander decks built around Morph and Megamorph. Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer players take note, Panoptic Projektor was made for you. Animar, Soul of Elements is another Morph commander that will see Panoptic Projektor on the flip side.

The Projektor enables a new infinite mana combo in Animar's colors: Turning a Rattleclaw Mystic face up with Panoptic Projektor in play yields six to nine mana. That's some pretty potent synergy, and it loops with Master of the Veil. Spend three mana to turn Master of the Veil face up, then Panoptic Mirror duplicates the Master of the Veil trigger. Use those triggers to turn both Rattleclaw Mystic and Master of the Veil facedown; wash, rinse and repeat. Although Panoptic Projektor has a much smaller pool of cards to work with than Panharmonicon or Roaming Throne, it is nonetheless a force multiplier.

Uncommons & Commons

Case of the Shattered Pact

Disclaimer: my opinion of this card is biased by my own beloved Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile five-color-matters deck. I'm excited to try it, but objectively? This card is jank. The first ability on Case of the Shattered Pact is Environmental Sciences without life gain, and any deck can play it. However, solving the case is where this card will struggle to find a home in Commander. Only a five-color Commander deck will have the necessary permanents to solve this case. If your deck can solve it, though, repeatedly granting a creature flying, double strike, and vigilance is a great payoff for a two-mana investment.

Escape Tunnel

Much like surveil lands, Escape Tunnel is a strictly better version of existing lands. This crime scene sees Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse in chalk outlines, and Escape Tunnel is the murder weapon. The option to give a creature evasion keeps this card relevant at every stage of the game, especially in light of commander damage. There are plenty of small-bodied commanders capable of resolving this to become unblockable before temporary pump effects, like prowess. Alternatively, it could be used with other Voltron mechanics. Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist and multiple possible partners can be pumped up with Auras and Equipment after resolving Escape Tunnel. This card does not replace Rogue's Passage, but it does the same job in the right deck.

Branch of Vitu-Ghazi

Since Disguise is not particularly interesting to me, I initially dismissed Branch of Vitu-Ghazi as a draft chaff land with set mechanic. I checked this one out of the evidence locker for a second look and realized it's land ramp with no color identity restriction. By casting Branch of Vitu-Ghazi for its Disguise cost, you sneak an additional land card into the battlefield. Turning it face up costs three mana, but this action is mana-neutral because of the triggered ability and the land's mana ability.

Of course, green decks can do better than ramping one land for effectively three mana, but I'm not comparing this card to Rampant Growth. I think the home for this card is in non-green decks, budding somewhere between Wayfarer's Bauble (included in 399,778 decks on EDHREC) and Burnished Hart (188,265 decks).

Compared to Wayfarer's Bauble, Branch of Vitu-Ghazi is still useful on turns 1 and 2 because it can be an untapped land drop on turns when you can't pay the disguise cost. From turn three on, Wayfarer's Bauble is more efficient for ramp, but Branch of Vitu-Ghazi becomes more versatile. Then there's Burnished Hart, which costs six mana to cast and activate. Using Burnished Harts nets two additional lands in play, but they enter tapped. Flipping Branch of Vitu-Ghazi can be done at any time, replaces the mana spent to flip it, and opens possibilities to take more actions on any players' turn. I'm going out on a limb to call Branch of Vitu-Ghazi a new budget staple.

Which card was your favorite?

The evidence is collected on the colorless offerings from Murders at Karlov Manor, and these cards are going to trial in the court of public opinion. The lands and artifacts from this set may appear at Commander tables as usual suspects, but none of them will be generically powerful serial offenders. There's something refreshing about a batch of relevant new cards without any sensationalist chase pieces. As a whole, this set feels very well self-contained with the set mechanics, and it isn't trying too hard to break out into every possible format. Personally, I'm eager to play sealed at a prerelease event, but the list of singles I'm planning to add to my Commander decks is fairly short.

Please let us know in the comments below what you think of these new cards. Did I overlook another artifact or land in Murders at Karlov Manor? If you enjoy this type of content, please hit the links at the top of the page to see the rest of the MKM set review articles on EDHREC and Commander's Herald.

Read more:

Murders at Karlov Manor Set Review - Green

John Sherwood

John Sherwood loves interaction, turning creatures sideways and interacting with sideways creatures. His deck building mantra is, "Run more lands." He has been a devoted Commander player since Zendikar Rising.