Quick Links
You’d expectMagic: The Gathering’sfirst murder mystery set to be full of surprises, and withMurders and Karlov Manor’s Deadly Disguise commander deck, you’d be right. And perhaps the most surprising element of Deadly Disguise is just how subtle these massive beasts can be!
In Deadly Disguise, creatures are cast undercover, either through morph, disguise, cloak, manifest, or something else that has them enter the battlefield face down rather than face up. This keeps your opponents on their toes, and you holding all the metaphorical (and sometimes literal) cards. Be ready to bust any investigation wide open with Deadly Disguise.
Scourge of the Throne
Return of the Wildspeaker
Mastery of the Unseen
Zoetic Cavern
Deadly Disguise Commander Deck Themes
Disguise is in the name, and disguises are the game.The primary theme of Deadly Disguise isthe new disguise keyword, which works a lot like morph. To play a disguised card, pay three generic mana and place it face down on the battlefield. It’s a 2/2 colorless creature, but unlike morph, it has ward 2 built-in.
The disguise cost on the face of the card lets you flip it face-up as a special action..
Whilemost of the cards in Deadly Disguise have disguise, you’ll also find plenty of cards with similar keywords likemorphandmanifest. The idea is to keep your opponent guessing and always have the element of surprise.
Since you’ll be playing a lot of 2/2 creatures,Deadly Disguise also has a two-power subtheme, with cards likeDusk/Dawn,Duskana, the Rage Mother,Sidar Kondo of Jumuraa, andWelcoming Vampireall enhancing your army of disguised critters.
There are really onlytwo potential commandersin Deadly Disguise. The face commander isKaust, Eyes of the Glade, who can flip a face-down card face up by tapping and helping draw cards. A 2/2 for two mana, Kaust is an excellent commander to play early in order to cheaply flip your Kroson Cloudscraper.
Duskana, the Rage Motheralso works with your army of 2/2 morphs/disguised creatures, turning them all into 5/5s on the attack. Duskana also draws a lot of cards when she comes into play, refilling your hand after you’ve cast your disguised army.
Which commander you go with is a matter of personal preference. They’re both very good and both enhance Deadly Disguise’s core themes. We’re going to stick with Kaust for the rest of this guide, but feel free to try Duskana and play whichever feels better for you.
Deadly Disguise Commander Deck Analysis
As you’d expect from the Naya colors of red, white, and green, the bulk of Deadly Disguise is creatures. You’ve got asignificant selection of morph and disguise creatures to give the deck options, but you also have some creatures that are just generally good without fitting the overall disguise theme (lookin' at you Seedborn Muse and Scourge of the Throne).
Three board wipesinAustere Command,Fell the Mighty, andDusk/Dawnare plenty for a mostly creature-based deck, while cards likeChaos WarpandPath to Exileprovidesome targeted removal. The deck could certainly use more, but we’ll get to that in the suggested upgrades section.
Curiously, you’ve gota bevy of enchantmentsthat assist your flip-flopping creatures, but adding more would improve the value you get out of these enchantments as well as Kaust as your commander. To that end, we’re going toreplace some of the less sneaky creatures with something that fits the morph/disguise theme.
Tesak, Judith’s Hellhound
Seedborn Muse
Yes,Krosan ColossusandKrosan Cloudscraperare huge and can turn Showstopping Surprise into a fourth board sweeper, but these cards justdon’t provide much beyond a big bodythat costs a lot of mana to produce (either through morphing them or straight-up casting them). We’re going to get rid of these and a few other creatures to lean into the 2/2 subtheme.
Neheb, the Eternal,Tesak, Judith’s Warhound,Seedborn Muse, andScourge of the Throneare all decent cards, but theydon’t fit the disguise theme. With Scourge gone,Imperial Hellkitedoesn’t have anything to tutor forother than Mirror Entity, so it goes too.
Temur War Shamangets cut asmanifest isn’t as useful as morph or disguise, and will typically result in a card that can only turn face up with the help of Kaust.Root Elementalgets cut simply for being very expensivefor what it does, andRansom Note is just not a good card.
Deadly Disguise Commander Deck Budget Upgrades
The suggested upgrades aren’t going to offer a 13/13 beefy boy with an upkeep cost, but they will provide you withmore tricks to confound and confuse your opponents. A bit more removal here, a few more combat tricks there, and additional sources of card draw are all good things for Deadly Disguise.
Reason
Aurelia’s Vindicator
Aurelia’s Vindicator is both amass-removal card and graveyard hateall in one. The only problem is that she’ll actually provide your opponents with card advantage if you use her to hose a graveyard and then let her die, but that’s a small downside to everything this Angel brings to the table.
Cybership
Hopefully Bloodhatch Nantuko can help crew this thing with an army of insects, because if you can, Cybership offersincredible synergy with Kaust. Start playing your opponent’s cards after a small stint as a 2/2 cyberman.
Essence of Antiquity
Anexcellent combat trickon a massive 10-toughness Golem. Plus, it still fits into the sub-two-power theme.
Expose the Culprit
Turn your face-up army face down andmake it impossible for your opponents to know what tricks they’ll have to endure twice. Or just get a cheap face-turn. Either way, this card is perfect for Deadly Disguise.
Jasmine Boreal of the Seven
A little extra rampfor your morph/disguise cards, andmake your sneaky army virtually unblockable. A great addition.
Pyrotechnic Performer
Pyrotechnic Performer is almost good enough to want to keep Krosan Colossus, but even without the massive burn potential, this card is still efficient enough to warrant inclusion.Every flip burns every opponent, plus, it’scheap to play on its own without disguise.
Serra Redeemer
Make all your future face-down 2/2s into 4/4s. Also works really well with Pyrotechnic Performer.
Ugin, the Ineffable
Since morphs and disguised creatures are colorless,Ugin makes them all a single generic mana to cast. He also makes 2/2 colorless tokens that aren’t quite morphs, but they still work with cards like Duskana and Sidar. Finally, Ugin offers a little removal for all things with color (which is most things).
Unyielding Gatekeeper
Unyielding Gatekeeper canblink one of your permanentsto save it from removal, or it canexile an opponent’s permanent and replace it with a 2/2 detective. This card’s utility is incredible and a must-add to Deadly Disguise.
Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods
Yarusgives all your creatures haste, makes your face-down 2/2sdraw cardswhenever they deal damage to a player (Jasmine and Sidar help out there), and anyface-down creatures that die return to play face up. Yarus is incredible for Deadly Disguise.
Other Budget Upgrades To Consider
A few more cards are worth a lookeven though they didn’t quite make the cut for budget additions.
