The nine best Commanders in Murders at Karlov Manor (MTG)

Murders At Karlov Manor is the first new set of 2024, featuring a ton of new cards that make an impact across many formats. One of these formats is Commander, where 25 new legendary creatures have been added as possible commanders to use in the format (more if you include the Commander precons and the Ravnica: Clue Edition). In Commander, you have a legendary creature lead the 99-card deck and all cards inside have to match the commander’s colour identity, and these are the 9 best commanders in Murders At Karlov Manor.

9. Etrata, Deadly Fugitive

Etrata, Deadly Fugitive is a Commander built around cloaking your opponents’ cards. Cloaking puts a card face-down on the battlefield that can be flipped up if it has a mechanic to do so (such as Morph and Disguise). However, Etrata’s effect lets you flip them up by paying four mana, and for non-creatures, it lets you cast those for free. 

If you have other ways to put a card face-down, Etrata can also cast those for free. Since Etrata has deathtouch itself, it discourages your opponents from blocking it to make sure its effect goes off. For the deck itself, it is best to build your deck with Assassin creatures, as these will all trigger Etrata’s effect. It goes off for every Assassin connecting as well, not just one or more. 

8. Yarus, Roar Of The Gold Gods

If you are looking to build a deck around face-down creatures like ones with morph or disguise, Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods is the commander for you. It helps to Cheat out your big creatures at a discount since you can return them face up on the battlefield if they ever die. 

Since Yarus gives all your creatures Haste, you can get reckless with attacking with your face-down creatures, as they will just return anyways. Yarus even gives you draw power to ensure you keep drawing into more gas. 

7. Lazav, Wearer Of Faces

Lazav, Wearer of Faces lets you trade away a Clue token to turn it into any creature you exiled when it attacked. The deck is a bit more of a Voltron strategy, meaning you dedicate most of your resources to your Commander itself. 

Since it makes a Clue token whenever it attacks, Lazav doesn’t need to run dedicated Clue token generators as it fuels its own effect. What it does need is some mill effects to get creatures into the graveyards for Lazav to copy. 

6. Voja, Jaws Of The Conclave

If you want to play a go-wide deck that mixes Wolves and Elves together, Voja, Jaws of the Conclave is the commander for you. It encourages you to play both creature types, giving you +1/+1 counters for the Elves and card draw for each Wolf. Most Wolves are green or red, letting you play a wide variety of them while Elves stay in green. 

Voja, Jaws Of The Conclave is a great creature on its own, coming with protection with its ward along with other useful combat keywords. It triggers off of every attack as well, letting you constantly grow your battlefield and drawing cards to make sure your hand is never empty. 

5. Vannifar, Evolved Enigma

Vannifar is a commander that doesn’t need to do anything but be on the battlefield to get use out of it. It’s a great way to give your creatures +1/+1 counters before flipping them face up as they will keep the counters on them when they do. 

All face-down creatures are considered colourless, so cards cloaked with Vannifar’s first effect will give colourless creatures to put counters on. Since you can cloak a creature for free, Vannifar can get out of hand quickly and let you keep mana up for interaction. 

4. The Pride Of Hull Clade

While The Pride Of Hull Clade costs 11 mana to cast, it is very easy to discount it so that you only need to pay one green mana. If it has a commander tax on it, the discount that The Pride Of Hull Clade can get around that. 

It has a massive toughness, which lets its other effect feed into it to make it essentially a 16/15, making it almost impossible to deal with in traditional combat.

✓ Johnny’s Tip:

Best Of The Pride:

The Pride Of Hull Clade wants creatures with high toughness to make it easier to cast, something easily found on Wall creatures. Its effect can be cast as many times as you have the mana for, letting you draw a ton of cards thanks to their big toughness stats.

3. Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact

The only 5-colour commander in Murders At Karlov Manor, Niv-Mizzet Guildpact is a unique one that wants you to only play cards that are exactly two colours in different colour pairs. The more you have of that, the more Niv-Mizzet can do. 

Since most commander decks play multiple colours, having hexproof from mutlicoloured sources is a great form of protection that makes removing it from the battlefield much harder. 

2. Kylox, Visionary Inventor

Kylox isn’t like other Izzet commanders that are focused solely on casting spells, but instead want you to amass a battlefield of creatures to sacrifice to cast an outburst of them for free. The best source of creatures is through spells that create tokens, as they help you flood the battlefield with sacrifice fodder. 

The biggest downside is Kylox, Visionary Inventor’s casting cost of seven, meaning you can’t cast it until later in the game. However, if you have ways to cheat it out early such as with Command Beacon, you can work around it. 

1. Judith, Carnage Connoisseur

Fan-favourite character Judith gets a new commander card in Judith, Carnage Connoisseur and is a great one at that. It encourages you to play with multiple instant and sorcery spells, capable of giving them both deathtouch and lifelink or making a 2/2 Imp token. 

Cards like End The Festivities that deal one damage to each creature your opponents’ control becomes much better, as they will become one-sided board wipes. Even a card like Blasphemous Act late-game can give you a hefty amount of life, as you will gain life 13 times however many creatures there are on the battlefield to ensure you can stay in the game for a long time. 

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That’s as much as we have on the best Bommanders in Murders at Karlov Manor, the latest set released in Magic: The Gathering. If you’re giving the Murders at Karlov Manor draft a go over the launch weekend, consider our guides that cover Deck Building too.