MKM Deadly Disguise Commander deck guide and upgrade suggestions (MTG)

Deadly Disguise is one of the four pre-constructed Commander decks released alongside Murders At Karlov Manor. It is a Naya deck built largely around face-down creatures that can be flipped up at a discount. Despite its seemingly narrow game plan, there is a fair bit of complexity within the deck to pilot it to the best of its ability. This guide will help you understand everything you need to know about the precon from how to play it to potential upgrades if you want to boost its power. This is the Murders At Karlov Manor Deadly Disguise Commander deck guide. 

Deadly Disguise Decklist

✓ Johnny’s Annotation:

Notable Reprints:

Deadly Disguise is home to multiple reprints of cards that were severely lacking them prior, giving players an opportunity to pick them up at a cheaper cost. Notable reprints in Deadly Disguise include Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Seedborn Muse, Neheb, the Eternal, and Jeska’s Will. 

Deadly Disguise themes and archetypes

The primary theme of Deadly Disguise is disguise. Disguise is a mechanic introduced in Murders At Karlov Manor which puts a creature onto the battlefield face-down for three mana and it’s a 2/2 creature with ward two until you flip it up. This archetype can flip these cards up later, often benefiting from doing so by triggering effects. 

Morph is another mechanic in Deadly Disguise that puts a creature facedown, only it does not have ward but otherwise works exactly the same. Some cards have megamorph, a variant of morph that puts a +1/+1 counter on it when it is flipped face up. 

The sub-theme comes from Deadly Disguise’s secondary commander Duskana, the Rager Mother which cares about 2/2 creatures. All face-down creatures are 2/2, so Duskana draws cards depending on how many 2/2 creatures you control and gives them all a stat boost whenever they attack. 

While the deck’s primary archetype is face-down creatures, it is at its core a go-wide deck meant to flood the battlefield with creatures and keep attacking with them. There are multiple cards such as Sidar Kondo Of Jamuraa and Ohran Frostfang that care about creatures dealing damage or make it easier to do so, either be making them unblockable or giving them deathtouch to deter blockers. 

Deadly Disguise deck analysis

Deadly Disguise is a deck that wants to ramp early in the game, taking advantage of cards like Three Visits, Nature’s Lore, and Jeska’s Will to generate a lot of mana early in the game so you can get multiple face-down creatures on the battlefield a turn. 

Deadly Disguise can also generate mana in combat. Tesak, Judith’s Hellhound adds red mana for every attacking creature when it itself attacks as well and Neheb, the Eternal adds red mana for each life your opponents lost that turn during your postcombat main phase. Neheb has afflict three, meaning if it gets blocked the defending player loses three life to get mana out of its effect even if it gets blocked. 

While some of these cards have high costs to flip them over, that is where the commander Kaust, Eyes Of The Glade comes in. You can tap it to flip a face-down card face up so long as it’s attacking. It even draws you a card when a creature that was flipped that turn deals damage. Kaust’s abilities have no cost (with the ability to flip a creature only requiring you to tap Kaust), meaning you don’t need to dedicate mana to use its ability. This can flip over a powerful creature very early in the game, far ahead of your usual mana curve. Since Kaust, Eyes Of The Glade only costs two mana, it is easy to make sure it’s on the battlefield to flip your creatures around. 

One downside creature decks can have is running out of cards to play. Luckily, Deadly Disguise comes with a lot of great card draw to keep your hand refreshed with power cards. Ohran Frostfang and Toski, Bearer of Secrets both let you draw a card when a creature deals damage to a player. This effect triggers off of every creature that connects, not just one for the combat. If you have a powerful creature on the battlefield, Return of the Wildspeaker can be used to draw cards equal to that creature’s power (so long as it’s a non-Human one). It can also be used as a pump spell to give all your non-Human creatures +3/+3 for the turn. 

There are a few different board wipes found in Deadly Disguise to help handle large boards that are getting too out of hand for you to manage. They are all unique in that they can choose what creatures are getting destroyed. Fell The Mighty can destroy creatures with power greater than a target creature’s power. Since you will have so many 2/2s, you can keep all your face-down creatures safe if a board wipe is needed. Similarly, Austere Command can destroy all creatures with a mana value three or less, four or greater, all enchantments, or all artifacts, but can only pick two of those. Face-down creatures are considered to have a mana value of zero, so if you want them to stick around make sure you don’t choose the mode to destroy all creatures with a mana value below three. The last of the board wipes is Dusk / Dawn. This can destroy all creatures with three or more power, and can later be cast from the graveyard to return all creature cards with power two or less from your graveyard to the hand. 

Budget Cards To Upgrade Deadly Disguise With

Deadly Disguise actually has most of the best face-down support cards already in it, so there aren’t too many cards you would need to upgrade it with. However, there are a few omissions, notably ones that are in the actual Murders At Karlov Manor set. 

One card to upgrade Deadly Disguise with is Unyielding Gatekeeper. It’s a card that can be flipped face up and exile another permanent and either blinks it if it belonged to you or replace it with a 2/2 Detective token if not. This is a great way to keep a creature safe from a removal spell, or a removal for a problem creature on an opponents’ battlefield. 

Yarus, Roar Of The Old God (also in the main Murders At Karlov Manor set) is the card you want to get in Deadly Disguise as soon as you can. It gives all other creatures haste, and draws you a card when a face-down creature deals damage. This would be good on its own, but Yarus also returns any face-down creature that dies back to the battlefield face-down before immediately flipping it back up if it’s a permanent card. This is another free way to flip cards over, letting you attack with them recklessly since you don’t care if they die since they will just come back. 

Another protection card attached to a creature is Essence Of Antiquity that is in the main Murders At Karlov Manor set. When its flipped face up, all your creatures gain hexproof and are untapped. This can be used to suddenly give yourself a battlefield full of blockers, or protect your creatures from a removal spell that targets multiple (or just one creature if it’s a really important one). 

The final card to look at including in Deadly Disguise is Jasmine Boreal Of The Seven. This makes it so creatures with no abilities can’t be blocked by creatures with abilities. While this does nothing for disguised creatures, for morph creatures, they become unblockable. After the declare blocker step but before damage starts, you can morph a creature to make sure they get in for damage since it’s too late for your opponent to block them. Since morph cards are considered colourless when casting them face-down, tapping Jasmine Boreal for a green and white mana can be done as it only works to cast creature spells with no abilities. While it only affects morph and megamorph cards, it’s still worth running considering how many there are in Deadly Disguise. 

To upgrade a precon, cuts have to be made in order to make room for them. Krosan Cloudscraper is a card that is worth cutting, since the upkeep cost of having to pay two mana or sacrifice it can be rough. Ransom Note is another card that the deck won’t miss if you cut it. It surveils one and then can be sacrificed to either goad a creature, cloak the top card of your library, or draw a card. These effects aren’t bad, just unnecessary. While cloaking does put a face-down creature on the battlefield, unless it’s a creature it’s going to be stuck there. Broodhatch Nantuko is very cuttable, as it’s a 1/1 that creates 1/1 Insect tokens when it’s dealt damage. While it can suddenly give you a large battlefield of tokens, it’s generally not enough to be worth keeping it around. Lastly, you can get away with cutting a basic land. 37 is a bit on the higher side with how much ramping Deadly Disguise can do on its own, and the rest of the cards do a lot to support the strategy.