Ravnica: Clue Edition is a clever tie-in withMagic: The Gathering’smainline Murders at Karlov Manor set, a whodonit murder mystery themed set thattakes place on Magic’s fan-favorite Ravnica plane. While this sub-set presents players with an alternative way to play using Clue-themed cards, it’s really just an excuse to print some new one-off designs that couldn’t fit in the main set.
It’s full of references to the classic Clue boardgame, though there’s perhaps an even greater emphasis on the new-to-Magic cards, which are less Clue-inspired and more just Commander cards that gel with the themes and past mechanics of different Ravnica sets.
10Shock Lands
This Time With Shocking Discoveries
Reprints aren’t the main appeal of this product – that is, with the exception of the shock lands. These dual-color lands have firmly planted themselves assome of the best two-color landsin all of Magic across multiple formats. Their high demand and popularity’s almost enough to sell a product on its own.
While you’re likely opening packs of Clue Edition to get the new goodies, you’ll never be disappointed opening shock lands like Breeding Pool or Blood Crypt. Plus, there’s something nefarious going on in each land’s art, a fun nod to the murder mystery flavor of this cross-over.
9Portal Manipulator
Send Your Attacks Elsewhere, Please
Very few cards redirect attacks, which makes sense given that doing so doesn’t do anything in heads-up games, so there’s no reason to print an effect like that in a Standard-release set. Still, it’s shown up on cards like Portal Mage, Misleading Signpost, and Windshaper Planetar.
Portal Manipulator’s the latest in this line-up, with the ability to completely reshape combat. It all but ensures that nothing’s going to hit you for the turn, and it can weaponize an opponent’s creatures against a different opponent. Unfortunately, it interacts poorly againsthexproofcreatures, and its effect stops functioning in one-on-one scenarios.
8Conclave Evangelist
Many, Many Elephants In The Room
Myriadis fantastic for multiplayer games, allowing you to damage all opponents equally instead of focusing down a single player. A five-mana 4/4 isn’t exciting by any stretch, but myriad saves just about any creature on its own, regardless of stats.
The real appeal here is the exponential rate at which you create Evangelist copies if they go unopposed in combat. If you attack in a four-player game, that’s three Evangelists threatening to copy themselves. If even one connects with an opponent in combat, you’re poised to make an even stronger attack on the following turn.
7Afterlife Insurance
Still In Debt, Even In Death
“Draw a card” on a cheap spell is enough of an insurance plan (pun intended) to make just about anything playable, since it can replace itself when the effect isn’t useful. Even better when itisuseful, as it will be on Afterlife Insurance quite often.
If creatures aren’t dying in large enough quantities to make this appealing, you can just cast it to draw a new card. However, cast this in response toa mass-destruction board wipeand you’ll likely be the only player left with any meaningful board presence. And you’ll still draw the card, so win-win.
6Sludge Titan
A Graveyard Enabler Of Titanic Proportions
Titan’s always splashy and exciting. These are 6/6 creatures for six mana with a strong ability when they enter and when they attack. Sludge Titan’s the latest of the group, with a trigger that fills your graveyard and essentially draws up to two cards per turn.
Sludge Titan makes sure you always have action in multiple zones. Its trigger will almost always put a creature and a land in your hand, and it’ll keep your graveyard stocked, whichfor some decksis almost like having an entire second hand of cards to play with.
5Mastermind Plum
The Most Treasured Clue Legend
Mastermind Plum capitalizes on the overabundance of Treasure tokens and Treasure-related payoffs in Commander. It’s something of a self-contained engine, though as a mere 2/2 it’ll need help in combat,andits attack trigger requires exiling a specific card type.
The best way to use Plum is to ignore the attack clause altogether, creating Treasure tokens through other means, and filtering the mana from those Treasures into spells. Every spell you cast this way will replace itself (and hurt you slightly), which means you’ll basically never run out of cards if you can keep the Treasure generation coming.
4Herald of Ilharg
One Big Pig
Herald of Ilharg is a red-green player’s dream creature. A 3/3 for four mana isn’t that enticing, but this boar gets big in a hurry. It grows with every creature you cast, and domes opponents every time you cast a high mana value threat.
It plays exceptionally well with creatures that cheat on mana, but still have high mana values. Think creatures with delve like Hooting Mandrills, or evoke creatures like Spitebellows. These rarely cost the full amount, but still fulfill Herald’s condition for dealing damage to your opponents.
3Corporeal Projection
Bestowing myriad on a single target with Corporeal Projection is usually going to net you more than two mana’s worth of value, considering you’re almost always targeting a creature with a powerful enters-the-battlefield effect. Overload turns it up to 11, as overload often does.
Giving any reasonable boardstate myriad across all your creatures is an excellent value play or threatens tons of damage, sometimes both. Cards like Legion Loyalty and Cybermen Squadron are finishers for their respective colors and decks, Corporeal Projection should fill the same role while offering some early-game utility.
2Lonis, Genetics Expert
That’sDetectiveLonis
Good to see Lonis is still up to hisClue-loving ways. Lonis, Cryptozoologist from Modern Horizons 2 created Clue tokens and used them to steal spells from opponents. This version of Lonis functions more as a+1/+1 counter supportcard, making it much more universally playable.
Lonis, Genetics Expert works a lot like fan-favorite blue-green card Fathom Mage, except it can place +1/+1 counters on other creatures, and it has inherent synergies with artifact decks due to its Clue production. It also enables several infinite combos, so be cautious if you see it in someone’s command zone.
1Carnage Interpreter
Clue’s Strongest Staple Creature
Carnage Interpreter is truly frightening and easily the best creature to come out of Clue Edition, enough so to see high-level Cube or Constructed play. It starts off as a 5/5menacefor three mana since you discard your hand on entry, then it’s just a matter of keeping your hand small enough to maintain that statline.
The Clue tokens help recoup any cards you discarded, and simply creating four artifacts is sometimes enough to enable your stronger synergies. While most cards in this set explore clever and nuanced designs, Carnage Interpreter is just sheer power on display.
