Secret MTG Standard Deck Casts Massive Haymakers for Free!

This weekend, we finally got to see Murders at Karlov Manor in action across a slew of major tournaments. At the Modern Regional Championships, the addition of Surveil Lands as well as Leyline of the Guildpact Leyline of the Guildpact If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
Each nonland permanent you control is all colors.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types. proved to be strong upgrades for Crashing Footfalls Crashing Footfalls Suspend 4—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {G} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Create two 4/4 green Rhino creature tokens with trample. decks. In the Magic Online Pioneer Showcase Challenge, No More Lies No More Lies Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. and Lightning Helix Lightning Helix Lightning Helix deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life. showed out in decks like five-color Niv to Light.

In most cases, these Murders at Karlov Manor cards have helped strengthen already well-established archetypes. However, in Standard, there’s a bit more room for wild innovation. In a massive Japanese tournament with over 400 players, a new deck built around Reenact the Crime Reenact the Crime Exile target nonland card in a graveyard that was put there from anywhere this turn. Copy it. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost. made a surprising surge to top 32. This deck looks super sweet and very powerful, so let’s take a closer look at its overall gameplan.

Maximizing Reenact the Crime

The key to making this whole deck work is having access to Reenact the Crime. The idea is that, as early as turn four, you can discard a massive haymaker, then cast Reenact the Crime to make a copy of it. Unsurprisingly, Atraxa, Grand Unifier Atraxa, Grand Unifier Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When Atraxa enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each card type, you may put a card of that type from among the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. (Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery are card types.) makes an appearance as one of the top cards to make a copy of. However, where the real power in the deck lies is with Breach the Multiverse Breach the Multiverse Each player mills ten cards. For each player, choose a creature or planeswalker card in that player's graveyard. Put those cards onto the battlefield under your control. Then each creature you control becomes a Phyrexian in addition to its other types. .

Breach the Multiverse has a good shot at putting two big threats into play at once. This is already strong, but the fact that it mills ten cards can let you completely abuse another Karlov Manor powerhouse: Conspiracy Unraveler Conspiracy Unraveler Flying
You may collect evidence 10 rather than pay the mana cost for spells you cast. (To collect evidence 10, exile cards with total mana value 10 or greater from your graveyard.) . After casting Breach the Multiverse, chances are you will have a lot of high-cost cards in your graveyard to exile to help you cast a couple cards from your hand for free. If you are fortunate enough to have another copy of Breach the Multiverse, things can get really out of hand.

Obviously, in a deck filled with so many seven-drops, finding Reenact the Crime to stay ahead of schedule is essential. As a result, this deck makes great use of Beseech the Mirror Beseech the Mirror Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Search your library for a card, exile it face down, then shuffle. If this spell was bargained, you may cast the exiled card without paying its mana cost if that spell's mana value is 4 or less. Put the exiled card into your hand if it wasn't cast this way. . Multiple discard outlets in the deck, which we will get to later, can provide tokens for you to Bargain away. In some, though, you will simply be casting Beseech the Mirror to do a Diabolic Tutor Diabolic Tutor Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. impression. After all, this deck needs a lot of pieces (Reenact the Crime, a discard outlet, and a threat) all at once to win in an efficient manner.

Read More: Game-Breaking Karlov Manor Card Sees Massive 450% Price Increase in Just Three Days!

Specific Discard Outlets

Speaking of discard outlets, this deck plays a decent number of ways to put your game-breaking cards into the graveyard in an efficient manner. Because Reenact the Crime only works on cards that were put into your graveyard the same turn you cast it, you need ways to discard cards that don’t involve much mana input.

Both Kaito Shizuki Kaito Shizuki At the beginning of your end step, if Kaito entered this turn, he phases out.
+1: Draw a card. Then discard a card unless you attacked this turn.
−2: Create a 1/1 blue Ninja creature token with "This token can't be blocked."
−7: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, search your library for a blue or black creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle." and The Modern Age work perfectly here. In the case of Kaito, you can play the Planeswalker on turn three, make a token, then Kaito will Phase out on your end step. On turn four, you can discard one of your seven-drops to Kaito, cast Reenact the Crime, and go nuts. If your token lived through the turn cycle, you could also use Beseech the Mirror to find and cast Reenact the Crime in a similar manner.

The Modern Age works similarly. Even though it’s a two-mana card, you will often want to cast it on turn three. That way, when turn four comes around, you will be able to discard a card to chapter II without needing to invest any mana. Once again, you can also Bargain away The Modern Age to enable Beseech the Mirror as necessary.

One of the best discard outlets this deck can play that we haven’t talked about yet is Collector’s Vault. Collector’s Vault acts as a continuous way to discard cards. Even though it requires mana to utilize, you get a Treasure back for your troubles each time you use it. This means that, on turn five, you can loot, make a Treasure, then use that Treasure to cast Reenact the Crime. These Treasures are perfect Bargain fuel for Beseech the Mirror, and in some cases, can even help accelerate you to seven mana to start hard casting Breach the Multiverse and such.

Read More: MTG Players Provide Intriguing Theme Ideas for Secret Lair Commander Decks

Consistency and Stabilization Issues

It’s clear that this deck has an extremely strong and cohesive plan. Against decks with minimal early pressure and a lack of counter magic, such as Rakdos midrange or Domain ramp, this deck can fire on all cylinders. The problem comes when the opponent has a super fast clock or tons of disruption at the ready.

Against decks like mono-red aggro, you don’t have much time to dilly dally. This deck won’t always have all the requisite pieces to cast Reenact the Crime turn four, and even a turn four Reenact the Crime may be too slow on the draw. Meanwhile, a good mix of interaction and pressure from Esper midrange can be a bit problematic. Deep-Cavern Bat Deep-Cavern Bat Flying, lifelink
When this creature enters, look at target opponent's hand. You may exile a nonland card from it until this creature leaves the battlefield. is quite strong against this deck, especially considering the overall lack of removal besides Go for the Throat Go for the Throat Destroy target nonartifact creature. .

This archetype can have some issues with its manabase, too. Playing playsets of both Reenact the Crime and Beseech the Mirror requires you to reliably have triple black and triple blue available rather quickly. There are a decent number of Dual Lands in Standard at the moment, but you may still face issues of consistency, nonetheless.

Even still, this deck is pretty well positioned at the moment. Counter magic isn’t super prevalent, and cards like Path of Peril Path of Peril Cleave {4}{W}{B} (You may cast this spell for its cleave cost. If you do, remove the words in square brackets.)
Destroy all creatures [with mana value 2 or less]. in your sideboard can help a lot against mono-red and Boros aggro. Removal spells are generally pretty weak against this deck, especially conditional removal like Cut Down.

Even though this strategy is a bit easy to disrupt, since cards like Unlicensed Hearse can completely shut down your ability to win with Reenact the Crime, it’s definitely a solid metacall if players are unprepared. It’s still very early in Karlov Manor Standard, too, so don’t sleep on this deck or you might find yourself on the wrong end of crime!

Read More: Unique MTG Archetype Dominates Regional Championship with 15-Land Sideboard!