What is Collect Evidence in MTG?

With every new set release in Magic: The Gathering, many new mechanics often come with it. The first new Standard release of 2024 is no exception, as Murders At Karlov Manor has introduced multiple mechanics new to the game. One such mechanic is collect evidence. This mechanic is one that can alter the effect of cards if you decide to pay the collect evidence cost (unless it’s mandatory to do so). Collecting evidence is a bit complicated, but this guide will help you understand everything you need to know about collecting evidence. This is how to collect evidence in Magic: The Gathering. 

How To Collect Evidence

To collect evidence, a card must explicitly say that you have to collect evidence as a part of its effect. Not every card is required to collect evidence, and sometimes will have two separate effects depending on if you collected evidence or not. However, you cannot collect evidence outside of these cards. 

Let’s say you have to collect evidence seven. To pay for this cost, you have to exile cards from your graveyard with a combined mana value of seven or more. The mana value of the cards you exile can exceed the required numbered, and there’s no limit on how much more evidence you can collect (though there is little reason to do so). 

If you cannot exile a card from the graveyard, you cannot use any card that requires you to collect evidence. You also have to collect the minimum amount of evidence, and can’t only pay a partial cost for it. It’s all or nothing when it comes to collect evidence.

✓ Johnny’s Tip:

Exiling More Than You Need:

When you collect evidence, you can exile all the cards from your graveyard if you want so long as they at least meet the minimum requirements to pay the collect evidence cost. While most of the time you wouldn’t want to do this, there are some decks that care about cards in their opponent’s graveyard. In situations like this, you may want to exiling more than needed to cut that out of your opponent’s game plan. 

What Are The Best Cards That Collect Evidence?

There are not too many cards that can collect evidence. There are 23 to be exact, with all but one of those being featured in the main Murders At Karlov Manor set (the one exception being Memory Vampire from Ravnica: Clue Edition). Despite the small number, there are some solid choices of cards if you want to use the mechanic. 

Conspiracy Unraveler is an excellent one for Commander, as it is very easy to cheat out onto the battlefield as seven mana is a lot to pay. It lets you substitute mana costs for collecting evidence ten, and in formats like Commander filling up your graveyard with high mana value spells is trivial. In Commander, it also plays into Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign deck which helps you cast odd mana values for free which can easily get Conspiracy Unraveler onto the battlefield. 

Another great card is Incinerator of the Guilty. This Dragon lets you collect evidence X when it deals combat damage, and then X damage is dealt to all creatures the player who it dealt damage to controls. If you have a card with a high mana value in your graveyard, Incinerator of the Guilty can be a one-sided board wipe. It has both flying and trample, making it hard to block and unless the defending player has six toughness worth of blockers, its effect is going off as it will trigger so long as just one damage gets through. 

Deadly Cover-Up is a solid card that destroys all creatures for five mana. However, it can also collect evidence six to exile a creature from an opponent’s graveyard afterward and exile all copies of it from their hand, library, and graveyard. This is a great way to deal with problematic creatures for the rest of the game, as very few cards can interact with cards once they’ve been exiled. 

The ability to collect evidence is available in every colour, but it most frequently appears on blue and green cards, with a handful of black ones. Red only has two (three if you count the Izzet Kylox’s Voltstrider), and white has the least access to the mechanic, with Tenth District Hero being the only option. Despite this, all colours can collect evidence thanks to the one colourless card Cryptex, although the power of that card is very weak, as you have to collect evidence three to simply add mana of any colour to your mana pool.