Magic Limited Tips - Murders at Karlov Manor
I've played the new set a ton in the first three days to bring you these tips from my incredibly poor performance.
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Background
Have done 17 Bo1 Premier drafts in 3 days, plus two Bo3 Sealed events to start off the event. Record is bad: 38-51 in draft. Have also reviewed a lot of trophy decks across Bo1 and Bo3 draft and sealed.
Best Cards
Here’s a link to the card gallery so you can look up what all these do, if you don’t know them off the top of your head or aren’t currently in a draft when looking at this.
Must-Play Mythics
MKM (Main Set)
Aurelia’s Vindicator, Intrude on the Mind, Massacre Girl Known Killer, Vein Ripper, Incinerator of the Guilty, Agrus Kor Spirit of Justice, Alquist Proft Master Sleuth, Anzrag the Quake-Mole, Etrata Deadly Fugitive, Kaya Spirits’ Justice, Rakdos Patron of Chaos, Trostani Three Whispers, Vannifar Evolved Enigma, Tomik Wielder of Law
SPG (Special Guests)
Ghostly Prison, Victimize, Crashing Footfalls, Tireless Tracker
Must-Play Rares
Wojek Investigator, Cryptic Coat, Lost in the Maze, Steamcore Scholar, Krenko Baron of Tin Street, Krenko’s Buzzcrusher, Lamplight Phoenix, Axebane Ferox, Case of the Locked Hothouse, Aurelia the Law Above, Doppelgang, Ezrim Agency Chief, Ill-Time Explosion, Izoni Center of the Web, Kellan Inquisitive Prodigy, Teysa Opulent Oligarch, Tolsimir Midnight’s Light, Warleader’s Call
Mythic Uncommons
Neighborhood Guardian, Long Goodbye, Reckless Detective, Torch the Witness, Flourishing Bloom-Kin, Buried in the Garden, Detective’s Satchel, Lightning Helix, Private Eye, Repulsive Mutation
Great Uncommons
Call a Surprise Witness, Case of the Gateway Express, Karlov Watchdog, Perimeter Enforcer, Exit Specialist, Leering Onlooker, Soul Enervation, Undercity Eliminator, Case of the Burning Masks, Glint Weaver, Greenbelt Radical, A Killer Among Us, Coerced to Kill, Fuss // Bother, Hustle // Bustle
“Play as many as you can get” Commons
Inside Source, Makeshift Binding, Marketwatch Phantom, Novice Inspector, Projektor Inspector, Person of Interest, Shock, Loxodon Eavesdropper, Tunnel Tipster, Dog Walker, Granite Witness
“Don’t want to be in this color without at least one” Commons
Haazda Vigilante, Museum Nightwatch, Seasoned Consultant, Cold Case Cracker, Dramatic Accusation, Unauthorized Exit, Murder, Snarling Gorehound, Unscrupulous Agent, Galvanize, Red Herring, Bite Down on Crime, Nervous Gardener, Crowd-Control Warden, Gadget Technician, Escape Tunnel
“Surprisingly pull their weight” Commons
Defenestrated Phantom, Extract a Confession, Toxin Analysis, The Chase is On, Felonious Rage, Fanatical Strength, Sanguine Savior, Gravestone Strider, Sanitation Automaton
Format Tips
Bomb rares and mythics are the #1 way to succeed in the format. If you get one of the must-play cards above, you should go out of you way to put it in your deck and build your deck around it. Chances are if you get one early, you can get another one or two later in the draft to go with it.
You can fix for your bombs, take Escape Tunnels highly, one Public Thoroughfare is not too bad, Gravestone Strider is also premium because it filters and blocks 2/2s.
If you don’t get a bomb, you simply must be in WR or WG if you want a chance of getting a trophy. You can also get very lucky with a great WU Detectives build, but basically all the trophy decks I saw that didn’t have a huge bomb like Izoni or Krenko or Case of the Locked Hothouse or Kellan or Doppelgang were all decks with like 3 Shocks and 4 Dog Walkers and Inside Sources buffed by Fuss // Bother or On the Job
Best of One is not worth it in this format, it is bad EV. Because you have like a 30%+ chance of not getting a bomb, you’re going to almost always end up with a bad record with those decks. At least in Best of Three you have a chance to try again when your opponent goes Neighborhood Guardian into Trostani into Inside Source.
The “two power or less” cards are all good because basically every card in the set has 2 power or less. That one’s obvious, but it really will own you in many games when you play.
Black is really bad in the set outside of bombs. Murder at common ends up not mattering because there are not enough other playable cards below rare to fill up a deck.
Cheap combat tricks are extremely important and you will get people and they will get you with them. Auspicious Arrival, Toxin Analysis, The Chase is On, Felonious Rage, and Fanatical Strength are all worth putting in your deck, and it’s worth spending 2-3 slots per deck on them.
My best records in the 17 drafts (no trophies) had the following cards in them:
5-3 - Izoni Center of the Web, Ill-Timed Explosion, Cryptic Coat
4-3 - No bombs, 4 Red Herring, 2 Crime Novelist, 2 Harried Dronesmith
4-3 - No bombs, 3 Inside Source, WB Two Power theme
4-3 - Judith Carnage Connoisseur, Krenko’s Buzzcrusher, 2 Long Goodbye
Decks that I thought were good that had bad records because it’s Bo1
3-3 - Aurelia the Law Above, Krenko’s Buzzcrusher
3-3 - Aurelia the Law Above, Judith Carnage Connoisseur, Ill-Timed Explosion, Hunted Bonebrute
1-3 - Rakdos Patron of Chaos, Aurelia the Law Above
3-3 - Ezrim Agency Chief, Tolsimir Midnight’s Light, Alquist Proft Master Sleuth
2-3 - Lost in the Maze, Doppelgang, Lazav Wearer of Faces, Drag the Canal
1-3 - 2x Doppelgang, Archdruid’s Charm, 2x Flourishing Bloom-Kin
1-3 - Incinerator of the Guilty, Sharp-Eyed Rookie