A murder mystery on Ravnica
Karlov Manor is a top-down murder mystery set on Ravnica, and the first Standard-legal release of 2024. The detective framing isn't only flavour: three of its mechanics are about gathering, hiding and accusing.
Disguise is the one that shapes Limited most. Any creature with it can be cast face down as a 2/2 with ward 2, which means every face-down body on the board is a genuine question rather than a known quantity.
Themes
Disguise
Cast a creature face down for three mana as a 2/2 with ward 2, then turn it face up at any time for its disguise cost. The ward is what makes it more than a morph reskin, because removing a face-down threat costs extra, so bluffs hold up.
Collect evidence
Always appears with a number. Exile any number of cards from your graveyard with total mana value at least that number, usually to pay for a bonus. It turns a full graveyard into a resource you spend rather than one you just accumulate.
Suspect
Marks a creature as suspected: it gains menace but can no longer block. A double-edged marker you can point at your own creature to push damage through, or at an opponent's to strip a blocker.
Investigate
Ravnica's own returning mechanic: make a Clue token, pay two and sacrifice it to draw. Feeds collect evidence neatly once the Clues start stacking up.
Where You Can Play It
A release usually ships more than one set code, and they don't all share the same legality: the main set is Standard-legal while Commander cards are eternal-only. Here's each code in Karlov Manor.
Standard legality is current as of August 2026. There is no rotation in 2026, but Karlov Manor is a 2024 set: it leaves Standard at the February 2027 rotation, when 2025–2027 becomes the pool. Its cards stay legal in Pioneer, Modern and the eternal formats after that. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
A conventional ten-pair format. Disguise sits across most of them, since a 2/2 for three is playable in any deck before you even consider what it flips into.
All ten two-colour pairs
Full ten-pair format
Karlov Manor uses the standard one-archetype-per-pair structure. Rather than list ten themes our sources didn't break out individually, the short version is that disguise, collect evidence and investigate appear across the format rather than being fenced into two or three pairs.
Commander
Each tied to a mechanic or theme from the main set.
Blame Game
Commander precon
One of the four Karlov Manor decks.
Deep Clue Sea
Commander precon
Clues and card draw, as the name promises.
Revenant Recon
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
A graveyard-leaning deck fronted by Mirko.
Deadly Disguise
Kaust, Eyes of the Glade
The face-down deck, built around disguise and morph-style plays.
Building one of these into something of your own? The precon buying guide covers how to judge a deck, and the Commander deck template is the shape to build toward.
FAQ
February 9, 2024, with prerelease events from February 2. It was the first Standard-legal release of 2024, under the set codes MKM and MKC.
A creature with disguise can be cast face down for three mana as a 2/2 with ward 2, then turned face up at any time by paying its disguise cost. The ward 2 is the important part, because it makes removing a face-down creature cost extra, so bluffing is genuinely viable.
Collect evidence always comes with a number. You exile any number of cards from your graveyard whose total mana value is at least that number, usually as a cost for a bonus effect. It rewards a full graveyard without being a graveyard deck.
A suspected creature gains menace and can't block. It's double-edged: point it at your own creature to push damage through, or at an opponent's to remove a blocker.
Yes as of August 2026, since there's no rotation in 2026. It rotates out in February 2027, when 2025–2027 becomes the Standard pool. The MKC Commander cards are eternal-only and aren't affected by rotation.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. Murders at Karlov Manor released on Feb 9, 2024; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
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