Magic: The Gathering – The 10 Best Black Cards In Murders At Karlov Manor

The bustling streets of Magic: The Gathering’s Ravnica have long held ample nooks and crannies for dark secrets and shady goings-on, but this aspect of the Plane is dialed up to 11 in Murders at Karlov Manor. As the shadow of a murderer looms, all manner of insidious evil is brewing, and no corner or alley is safe.

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Appropriately enough, this darker tone manifests mainly in the black cards of the set. From notorious criminals to cruel weapons, browsing their ranks is like looking through a Ravnican ‘Most Wanted’ list. But which of these cards should be your most wanted in terms of playability? We’ve braved the darkness to bring you our picks for black’s very best.

10 Massacre Girl, Known Killer

Ravnica’s Most Likely Suspect

Including Massacre Girl, a well-known serial killer, on the list of suspects for Murders at Karlov Manor was a very funny move by Magic’s writers, but her card itself is no joke. Granting wither to all of your creatures lets them deal permanent damage in combat even if they can’t finish the other creature off, and when they do you’ll often get to draw a card as a nice extra.

All of this comes together to make Massacre Girl one of the best black Midrange cards in recent times. While the seemingly omnipresent Sheoldred may hurt her chances in Standard initially, rotation will be coming sooner than you think, and she has serious legs in Commander as well.

9 Case Of The Stashed Skeleton

Dig Out The Skeletons In Your Closet

A 2/1 for two with menace is nothing to write home about these days, likely not even making the cut in the majority of Limited lists. But a 2/1 for two with menace and a Demonic Tutor attached? Now we’re cooking with gas.

Case of the Stashed Skeleton gives you just that, tasking you with getting rid of the suspected Skeleton it spawns before you can access the Tutor effect. This puts your opponent in a tricky position, where they must choose between taking two damage a turn or letting you grab your best card for cheap. Either way, it’s a great deal for you.

8 Illicit Masquerade

From Grave To Rave

One of the more unique Reanimation spells we’ve seen in a while, Illicit Masquerade can theoretically bring back any number of creatures from your graveyard, provided you have the same number of creatures in play to receive impostor counters. For just four mana that’s a pretty excellent rate, though it does come with several strings attached.

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Building a board and stocking your graveyard simultaneously can be difficult, especially in Standard where cards like Stitcher’s Supplier aren’t readily available. In Commander, however, the card is a slam-dunk, essentially acting as an Uno reverse card for the ever-popular board wipes in the format.

7 Long Goodbye

Ironically, A Quick Way To Deal With Problems

‘Dies to Doom Blade’ is more than just a long-running joke among Magic players: it’s a testament to the format-warping power of efficient black removal spells. Long Goodbye is the latest addition to this esteemed order, and it more than earns its spot among the greats.

The ‘mana value three or less’ clause here may as well not exist in older formats, where the majority of playable cards fall within that range anyway, and the fact that it can hit planeswalkers as well as creatures gives it serious flexibility. Throw in an immunity to Counterspells, and you have a card that could make ripples all the way down to Legacy.

6 Vein Ripper

Proud Member Of The Aristocrats Bloodline

We’ve seen many variants on the immensely popular Blood Artist since its debut in Avacyn Restored, but none have quite recaptured the magic of the original. Vein Ripper is here to change that, throwing its bloodstained hat into the ring as a much bigger, much scarier Blood Artist for the discerning Aristocrats player.

Draining two life instead of one, and triggering off of all creature deaths and not just your own, are both points in Vein Ripper’s favor, as is its 6/5 flying body with a relevant ward ability attached. It may end up too slow for Standard, but you’d be a fool to bet against this angsty Assassin in Commander.

5 Barbed Servitor

How Would You Like Your Combo, Sir?

In most cases, Barbed Servitor will act as a four mana Phyrexian Arena that also deals one damage to your opponent each turn: a solid card, most would agree. For those willing to build around it, however, it can be the lynchpin of a devious Combo deck sure to catch your opponents unaware.

Since Servitor is indestructible, and since it can reflect any damage dealt to it back at an opponent, it pairs wonderfully with damage-based board wipes like Star of Extinction and Blasphemous Act. Throw in cards like Stuffy Doll and ways of copying artifacts, and you have a ticking time bomb that can end Commander games, and friendships, in the blink of an eye.

4 Deadly Cover-Up

Wipe The Board And Your Opponent’s Memory

Sometimes very specific effects in Magic can only see the light of play when they come attached to other, more maindeckable cards. Deadly Cover-Up is a prime example of this, bundling the incredibly niche Surgical Extraction with a solid board wipe effect in a tight five mana package.

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You may not always want to completely erase a single key card from your opponent’s deck, but you’ll often find yourself in scenarios where you want to clear the board, making Cover-Up useful in the majority of matchups. And when the instance does arrive when the Extraction effect is relevant, you can enjoy the smug feeling of packing the perfect answer, without the opportunity cost that doing so usually incurs.

3 Lead Pipe

A True Classic Of The Weapons World

It’s been a while since Bonesplitter was the gold standard against which Magic Equipment was measured, so Lead Pipe, a card that looks like a worse version of that antiquated axe for the most part, doesn’t make the best first impression. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find a tonne of utility here for a mere one mana investment.

The life loss whenever a creature wielding Lead Pipe dies is an Aggro deck’s dream, and even opens up the door for combos in decks with a means of producing infinite tokens and reducing equip costs. And if all else fails you can always cash it in for another card, since it is, technically, a Clue.

2 Persuasive Interrogators

Good Cop/Bad Cop Goes Too Far

Six mana is a steep cost to pay in the modern Magic economy, meaning a card really has to do something special to be worth considering at that price point. Persuasive Interrogators certainly does, bringing with it a text box that effectively reads ‘You win the game’ if some alarmingly easy conditions are met.

Since Interrogators doles out two poison counters whenever you crack a Clue, all you need to do is sacrifice five Clues with it in play to finish an opponent off on the spot. It’s not hard at all to assemble five clues, nor is it hard to find a free sacrifice outlet for artifacts, even in Standard. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself on the receiving end of a beating from these grinning Gorgons some time soon.

1 Festerleech

One Mana Buys You A Lot In The Swamps

From Cryptbreaker to Gravecrawler, the Zombie type has one of the most stacked one-drop slots in Magic. It’s a testament to Festerleech’s power, then, that we’re bringing it up in the same conversation as these two icons of the undead world.

While it obviously isn’t quite as good as the aforementioned cards, Festerleech has a lot going for it, able to fill your graveyard and/or swing for three as early as turn two. This is great in Zombie Kindred decks in all kinds of formats, as well as Reanimator or Midrange strategies in Standard. Pick this Leech up now, and it certainly won’t Fester in your binder.

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