I have been falling more and more in love with Magic: The Gathering. After getting my head around playing, pack types, and events, it’s the perfect time for a new spanner in the works. The newest set, Murders at Karlov Manor, has a new booster type, the Play Booster.
So, are Play Boosters for Murders at Karlov Manor worth your time and money?
There has been a murder at Karlov Manor
For newbies like me, there is an incredibly popular plane called Ravnica. This plane is run by guilds that are aligned to the mana colours, and there are some tense relationships here. After the Phyrexian invasion that killed so many, there is a fancy party being held when a murder takes place. Kaya is left to find out the killer as more murders keep happening.
The plot is mostly covered on Magic’s website. If you aren’t fussed with this, then the biggest aspect of the story you may be interested in is the Cluedo tie-in. There are a bunch of references in the cards themselves, like the iconic weapons having their own cards. There is also a Cluedo crossover board game, which releases next week.
Artwork
The bulk of the artwork is really well designed, as per usual. There are a few special treatment cards here, and each of them is actually bloody brilliant. The showcase magnified cards have really awesome designs in a circle, which looks like a magnifying glass. These look seriously amazing.
The really cool ones are the showcase dossier cards. These look like, well, dossier pages. Loaded with the page style is the old-school typewriter-style text, which just looks really damn cool. It grabbed my attention every time I opened one of these beauties.
Mechanics
There are a few mechanics in there, but most of them aren’t overly different to others in recent sets. There is the ability to make clue tokens which you can sacrifice to draw cards. The biggest mechanic that was new to me was the disguise mechanic. Basically, heaps of cards can be played face down as a 2/2 creature. Then, at any time, you can pay the cost to flip it over, which is quite often cheaper than casting it directly. That or there may be special abilities that only trigger when being flipped.
It’s not a new mechanic, but it was new for me, and I kinda loved it. Upside down cards on the battlefield added a fun aspect of strategy and anxiety.
The mystery of the Play Boosters
Murders at Karlov Manor is the first set to use Play Boosters. Now, instead of there being Draft Boosters and Set Boosters to keep you guessing on what you should buy, you have one main option. This basically has resulted in a single 15 card pack, that also includes things like the art cards and an increased chance of more rares which is what made set boosters so appealing.
This has made drafting a bit more expensive, but honestly, I like the simplicity of it. The randomness of that has made drafts more unpredictable, but they’re still fun, so all good.
Then there are Collector Boosters which come with the above cards, but heaps are holos and there are more rares and Mythics. This is also the only way to get the secret code cards, which are standard dossier treatments, but can come as an extra version that has hidden writing on them which you can see from an angle. Not essential, but fun.
Boxes filled with intrigue
You can buy single packs as usual, but some of the most fun and value come in the boxes. You can get a booster box, which is just a pile of the booster type you choose, but pre-release and bundles are where it is at.
The bundle is pretty stock standard as we would expect. Inside the really well-designed box are 9 Play Boosters to crack open and have fun. Then it comes with 30 land cards, 10 of which are the fancy full art variety, a promo card, and the spin down die. The die is missing 2 numbers, which you can look through. I’m not going to spoil the fun there anymore.
The pre-release packs come with 6 Play Boosters, a spin down die, and a pair of promo cards. One of the promo cards can’t be used in a daft event, but the other can. It’s odd, but hey, more cards is a win in my book.
There is the previously mentioned Cluedo board game, which, as I mentioned, I haven’t had the chance to check out yet. Mostly because it releases next week, but still.
There are 4 commander decks for this set as well. I checked out Deadly Disguise which is a Red, Green, White deck built around the disguise mechanic. Given that’s my favourite part of the set I am pretty stoked to be playing around with this. The commander Kaust rewards flipping your cards and attacking, so very much me. They are some pretty awesome pre-cons.
Should you check out Magic: The Gathering Murders at Karlov Manor?
While I wouldn’t say this would be the best set to start with, it is still a hell of a lot of fun. The Play Boosters make getting into this hobby a lot easier, and drafts are now a little more chaotic. A lot of these cards didn’t see use in the Standard tournament I went to, but drafts, which are the best version of the game, are fun as hell.
While this isn't my favourite set so far, it is still a heap of fun to draft and there is some great stuff in here to play with.
