Murders at Karlov Manor promised a rip-roaring return to the plane of Ravnica, with a Murder Mystery embroiling both new faces and returning favorites. WithRavnica being MTG’s all-time great setting, many players were excited to hop back over to the City of Guilds for the first time since the War of the Spark came to a close.
Unfortunately, Murders at Karlov Manor proved a poor fit for Ravnica. A lot of the fun of the set came from its Murder Mystery trappings, with the team at Wizards going all out in packing the set withcluesand capers andpuzzles to solve.
While this might have played out better on a new plane where the Murder Mystery theme could really breathe – or an existing one more befitting the set’s aesthetics like New Capenna, Murders at Karlov Manor ultimately couldn’t fully decide what it wanted to focus on.
By splitting focus between showing how Ravnica had changed in the wake of the Phyexian invasion and going all in on the Murder Mystery genre, Karlov Manor diluted both the Murder Mystery flavor and Ravnica’s usual style andsolid guild-based mechanics. Neither half was ever allowed to fully cohere in a satisfying manner.
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Magic: The Gathering Lead Designer Mark Rosewater recently took to his personal blog torespond to a fan asking how Murders at Karlov Manor performed. The answer was a simple “below expectations.”
Rosewater later expanded on the point, confirming that while Ravnica will return to the game again and again, Karlov Manor may have proven a one-and-done for MTG attempting murder mysteries: “Something not meeting expectations on its first outing, makes the second outing significantly less likely.”
Jack Bye was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, specializing in ecommerce content. He is a Magic The Gathering and DnD expert, covering all things tabletop games. He also has bylines at WePC and VideoGamer.
