Precon Upgrade Guide
Deadly Disguise Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Naya morph and disguise precon from Murders at Karlov Manor, commanded by Kaust, Eyes of the Glade.
Murders at Karlov Manor
Deadly Disguise
Face-down, morph-style bluffing: the hardest of the four to play well. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Deadly Disguise on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Deadly Disguise is a face-down creature deck with a commander that can flip any attacking morph for free. That lets Kaust, Eyes of the Glade turn a three-mana 2/2 into a 9/9 or an 8-mana Akroma in the middle of combat, and it draws a card when that creature connects. The ideas are strong but the deck is slowed by a mana base full of tapped lands, a few off-theme creatures, and almost nothing that saves a board of 2/2s from a sweeper.
TurnZero HQ rates Deadly Disguise a 4 out of 5 on difficulty and a 3 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Deadly Disguise decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Kaust, Eyes of the Glade is a two-mana 2/2. Tap it to turn a face-down attacking creature you control face up, without paying the morph or disguise cost. Whenever a creature you control that was turned face up this turn deals combat damage to a player, you draw a card. The usual turn is to attack with face-down 2/2s, let opponents decide how to block, and then flip the one that matters.
Face-down creatures cost three mana each no matter what is on the other side, and disguise ones have ward {2} while face down. That makes cards like Krosan Colossus , Akroma, Angel of Fury and Imperial Hellkite cheap to put on the battlefield, since Kaust skips their large flip costs. Obscuring Aether makes face-down spells cost one less, and Ugin's Mastery manifests a card whenever you cast one, because a face-down creature spell is colorless.
The rest of the deck pays you for flipping. Experiment Twelve puts counters equal to a flipped creature's power on it, Printlifter Ooze makes an Ooze token, True Identity draws a card, and Panoptic Projektor makes each of those triggers happen twice. Flip creatures like Hidden Dragonslayer , Ainok Survivalist and Den Protector double as removal or recursion.
What works out of the box
Kaust, Eyes of the Glade ↗
Turns an attacking face-down creature face up for free and draws a card when it deals combat damage, so a three-mana 2/2 can become a 9/9 mid-combat.
Experiment Twelve ↗
Every creature you turn face up gets +1/+1 counters equal to its power. A flipped Krosan Colossus becomes an 18/18.
Panoptic Projektor ↗
Makes every turned-face-up trigger happen twice and cuts three mana off a face-down spell each turn. It doubles most of the deck's payoffs.
Printlifter Ooze ↗
Makes a trampling Ooze with counters equal to your other creatures each time anything flips. It turns every flip into a second threat.
Krosan Colossus ↗
Its morph cost is eight mana, but Kaust flips it for free. A 2/2 attacker that becomes a 9/9 before damage is hard to block correctly.
Hidden Dragonslayer ↗
Flips to destroy an opponent's creature with power 4 or greater, so it is removal that your opponents can't see coming.
What needs improvement
Too many lands enter tapped. Temples, bounce lands, Jungle Shrine , Sacred Peaks , Krosan Verge and the cycling duals all come in tapped, and Temple of the False God and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods make no useful mana early. A deck that wants to cast a three-mana face-down creature every turn from turn three on feels this badly.
A board of 2/2s is fragile. One cheap sweeper clears most of your face-down creatures before Kaust can flip them, and the precon has no instant that protects the board. A few off-theme creatures like Neheb, the Eternal and Tesak, Judith's Hellhound also take slots that flip payoffs could use.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Get untapped duals into the mana base
Face-down creatures cost exactly three, so the deck wants three untapped mana on turn three and every turn after. Lands that only make colorless or enter tapped work against that.
What to look for Two-color lands in your colors that usually enter untapped. Lands with a basic land type in the deck, like the cycling duals, help check-lands come in untapped.
Cut, for example
Temple of the False God No mana until you control five lands. It is a blank in the early turns the deck needs most.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods Taps for colorless, and its bonus mana needs seven lands and only casts colorless spells.
Mosswort Bridge A tapped mono-green land whose hideaway needs 10 total power to use. Face-down 2/2s don't get there often.
Add, for example
Rootbound Crag ↗
Enters untapped if you control a Mountain or Forest and taps for red or green.
Sunpetal Grove ↗
Enters untapped with a Forest or Plains out and taps for green or white.
Clifftop Retreat ↗
The red-white version, untapped with a Mountain or Plains. Sacred Peaks and the basics turn it on.
2. Protect the face-down board
The deck commits several 2/2s to the battlefield before it starts flipping them. An instant that saves them from a sweeper keeps several turns of setup intact.
What to look for Cheap instants that give your permanents indestructible or hexproof for a turn.
Cut, for example
Mastery of the Unseen Gains life when you flip a creature, and its manifest costs four mana a time. Life gain does little for this plan.
3. Trade off-theme creatures for removal
The deck's removal is mostly attached to flip creatures, which means it only works when you have the right card face down. A couple of cheap instants handle a threat on demand.
What to look for Removal costing three mana or less at instant speed, preferably able to hit any permanent.
Cut, for example
Krosan Cloudscraper A 13/13 that you sacrifice unless you pay {G}{G} every upkeep. Krosan Colossus does the same job without the upkeep.
Neheb, the Eternal Five mana for a 4/6 that adds red mana equal to the life your opponents lost this turn. It has no face-down synergy and the deck rarely has a use for the extra red mana.
4. Add more payoffs for flipping
The deck plays best when every flip triggers something. Each extra payoff makes Kaust's free flip worth more and gives Panoptic Projektor more to double.
What to look for Creatures, ideally ones that can be cast face down themselves, that do something whenever another creature you control is turned face up or reward face-down attackers.
Cut, for example
Tesak, Judith's Hellhound A Dog lord in a deck with almost no Dogs. Its haste only applies to creatures with counters.
Broodhatch Nantuko Makes Insects when it is dealt damage, which rarely happens on purpose. Its flip does nothing for the rest of the deck.
Add, for example
Pyrotechnic Performer ↗
Whenever it or another creature you control is turned face up, that creature deals damage equal to its power to each opponent. A flipped Colossus hits everyone for 9.
Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods ↗
Gives your other creatures haste, draws when face-down creatures connect, and returns a face-down creature that dies and turns it face up.
Win conditions
Most wins come from one big combat. You attack with several face-down creatures, then Kaust, Eyes of the Glade flips the best one after blockers, and Experiment Twelve and Trail of Mystery add size on top. Krosan Colossus , Akroma, Angel of Fury and Imperial Hellkite are the usual finishers, and Printlifter Ooze adds a second large threat with each flip. With the upgrades, Pyrotechnic Performer also turns each flip into damage to every opponent.
Who should buy this precon
A demanding deck for a player who enjoys hidden information and bluffing. You have to remember what each face-down card is, choose the right one to flip after blockers are declared, and decide when to pay a flip cost yourself instead of using Kaust. Opponents also have to guess, which makes every combat a puzzle. It is a hard first deck, but a rewarding one for someone who already knows how Commander combat works.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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