It’s Prerelease weekend! I’m eager to play some paper Magic, and I hope you are as well! Picking up from my previous article (linked below), here is an outline for the remaining five two-color archetypes of Murders at Karlov Manor Limited, in the enemy color pairs.
White and Black: Orzhov Pint-Size Disguise
Though advertised as a disguise deck, this archetype looks more like a traditional Orzhov Limited archetype, with evasive threats, removal spells, and drain mechanics. Despite myriad removal spells between the two colors, including Makeshift Binding, Slice from the Shadows, and Murder, the unique threats stand out to me.
White’s creatures are somewhat vanilla, with Griffnaut Tracker, Marketwatch Phantom, and Perimeter Enforcer, while black adds more versatility via Leering Onlooker, Nightdrinker Moroii, and Slimy Dualleech. Wispdrinker Vampire, Alley Assailant, and Soul Enervation employ the classic drain tactics, while Novice Inspector, Unscrupulous Agent, and Forum Familiar illustrate how the deck looks to gain card advantage.
Blue and Red: Izzet Artifact Sacrifice
Whenever a new Limited format becomes available, for whatever reason, I always have a strong proclivity for Izzet going in. It might be the typical play style Izzet employs, but often Izzet has fun and interesting mechanics, and Murders at Karlov Manor is no different.
Paying homage to Atog, Izzet looks to generate and more importantly sacrifice artifacts like Clue and Thopter tokens. Between the two colors, you’ll find an abundance of artifact token creation options, so I wanted to highlight the payoffs instead. Case of the Filched Falcon looks incredibly powerful here, giving your 4/4 token flying, unlike the powerful predecessors Zoetic Glyph and Mightstone’s Animation. Crime Novelist not only benefits from cards like Cornered Crook, Demand Answers, and Gearbane Orangutan, it can also chew through a stack of Clues like flapjacks, similarly to me at an IHOP. There are also some “free” options for Clue tokens (as opposed to paying 2), like Reckless Detective and Benthic Criminologist.
Black and Green: Golgari Gravebreak
Golgari looks to leverage the graveyard. I know, big surprise. There are a couple of reanimation cards, like It Doesn’t Add Up and Macabre Reconstruction, but the real use of your graveyard is to collect evidence. Some notable enablers to fill your graveyard include Festerleech, Snarling Gorehound, Aftermath Analyst, and Slime Against Humanity. Aside from the collect evidence cards, Rot Farm Mortipede, Soul Enervation, Chalk Outline, and Insidious Roots all work as payoffs and potential win conditions for using your graveyard.
Red and White: Boros Battalion
This archetype is a throwback to the battalion mechanic from Gatecrash. We don’t see the keyword itself (which required the creature with battalion to attack), but we get a few nods to it with Karlov Watchdog, Seasoned Consultant, and Meddling Youths.
Boros looks like the most aggressive deck, and likely the best home for both On the Job and Due Diligence. With plenty of viable threats at three or less mana, plus cheap removal like Shock, Galvanize, and Lightning Helix, this is my guess for the most powerful archetype for the format. With so many great noncreature spells, tricks, and Equipment, just be sure to keep your threat count high!
Green and Blue: Simic Collect Evidence
In true Simic fashion, the archetype looks like one of the weakest color pairs, falling victim to what I call the “Simic gimmick” that shows up in the majority of sets. I won’t dive into it here, but looking back at almost every set within the last four years, Simic is home to a new set mechanic, and the archetype is among the weakest archetypes in the given format.
While blue has a couple solid of cards with collect evidence in Crimestopper Sprite and Forensic Researcher, it doesn’t appear to have any dedicated cards to help fill your graveyard, aside from some cheap instants. While the archetype as a whole feels underwhelming, Repulsive Mutation looks like a monster of a card. I anticipate splashing in or out of Simic far more often than attempting to draft the two-color archetype.
Don’t forget to pair this article with my previous one on the allied-color archetypes so you can make the most of your Prerelease!
Lose and Learn, Learn and Win!
