The night whispers sweet nothings through the alleys of Ravnica. Along the cobbled streets, the bustle of crowds finding their way home or at least somewhere warm. Among the commotion, a scream is heard as the target takes a knife to the back. Passersby make note of the victim but lose the assailant in a sea of ever shifting guild cloaks. The Dimir agent pulls up the hood of their Golgari cloak and smiles, none are the wiser.

With Murders at Karlov Manor we were introduced to the Cloak and Disguise mechanics. In total there are 60 cards since their introduction that make use of this mechanic, including some Universes Beyond cards that we will touch on later. While this style of espionage may not entice every Magic: The Gathering player, you would do well to understand how it operates and how to take advantage of it for Constructed events in the future. Maybe you'll even be a Master of Disguise!

Disguise functions very similarly to the older keyword Morph. Morph was introduced in 2002 with Onslaught and has since then lost popularity due to the 2/2 creatures it places face down just had no real protection against removal. A card dealer might tell you it was old, but a master of disguise would tell you Morph functioned as a way to get creatures on the field for a sometimes cheaper cost, , as a colorless 2/2 with an additional upside when the card was turned face up later for its Morph cost. Now in 2024 we are introduced to Disguise as the upgraded variant. Disguise still casts cards face down for , but now makes them 2/2 creatures with Ward . The addition of Ward makes these cards much harder to deal with as long as their controller isn't taking them into combat.

Morph vs Disguise

Cloak is the card effect variant of Disguise, or the Manifest to Disguise's Morph. When you Cloak a card, you put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with Ward . Just like Manifest, you can turn the cloaked card face up at any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card. Cloak is more limited in the chaos it can cause since it's solely creature spells. That is unless we can find ways to make face down cards even more versatile.

Manifest vs Cloak

Notable Interactions

Along with cards being Cloaked or entering Disguised, there are also a handful of cards that interact with these face down, type less, colorless, 0 mana value creatures. First there are plenty of ways to reduce the cost to Disguise cards, such as Dream Chisel and Obscuring Aether. Other spells like Goblin Maskmaker and Panoptic Projektor have activated or triggered abilities that reduce the costs of face down spells. One such spell is a legendary creature we'll touch on later.

One step further with the shenanigans, face down creatures are considered colorless, even when you are casting them from your hand. Ugin, the Ineffable gives a two generic mana cost reduction, turning the mana sink into if not with an additional card like the ones mentioned earlier. Forsaken Monument and Gruesome Slaughter offer additional benefits off your Disguised cards, granting life or even noncombat damage. Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter and Skittering Cicada are mana creatures that allow you to play your Disguised creatures at flash speed. With all those being mentioned, I think my personal favorite is combining the cost reducers with Mystic Forge to play as many Morph or Disguise creatures off the top of your library for free, especially when adding in something like Sensei's Divining Top to control what is on top of your library.

Those are just a few ideas of what you can do with these mechanics, but how do these mechanics translate into a Commander strategy?

Notable Commanders

There are actually a few strategies for Commander such as Kaust, Eyes of the Glade from the Deadly Disguise Murders at Karlov Manor Precon. With Kaust, the main focus is to turn creatures face up during or before they deal damage, getting the draw ability off of Kaust. This is definitely a fun strategy for the precon, but I wouldn't call it turtlely enough for the turtle club.

Let's start with the less subtle option and use Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer as our Commander. With Kadena, our first Morph or Disguise casted creature will be free each turn. Bringing back Skittering Cicada that means we can play a creature for free each turn and drawing a card, even on our opponents' turns! Kadena being Black, Green, Blue (Sultai) means we also get access to a plethora of the Universes Beyond: Assassin's Creed cards, including Roshan, Hidden Magister who gives all of our face-down creatures menace.

Maybe you aren't a fan of Assassins, maybe you want a little more sci-fi in your Magic matches? Missy from Universes Beyond: Doctor Who really only cares about your nonartifact creatures dying, but that includes our creatures with Disguise coming back as Cyberman and still being able to flip face up. The Disguise ability doesn't require a card being the specific 2/2 creature with ward, but rather just that the card is face down. Worry not against board wipes as Missy brings them all back and gives you another chance to flip for their face up abilities. Cards like Skirk Alarmist and Ixidor, Reality Sculptor will help with the few creatures you have that don't have these abilities innately or were taken from other card effects.

The Disguisey Family

For Cloak, Kadena might still be the best Commander for the job, but only because she can run two of the baddest ladies on Ravnica: Etrata and Vannifar. Etrata, Deadly Fugitive gives each face down creature you control a ability to turn face up, including those that aren't creatures. Looking back at Missy that means any of those Cyberman creatures can become a powerful play piece of deadly spell for the low low cost of four mana. That cost can also be reduced by cards like Training Grounds and Forensic Gadgeteer. For Vannifar, Evolved Enigma, we get to cloak a card from our hand, hiding whatever beast lurks beneath the cardboard. As some clever players discovered with Morph and Manifest, if you flicker a face down creature with Displace or Displacer Kitten it will return to the battlefield face up. So essentially any creature in a Vannifar deck can be turned face up for less than its actual mana cost by just playing a blink deck. A melon head cloak card could turn into a Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant.

Their codenames would be Cloak & Dagger

Closing the Case on Cloak and Disguise

These abilities got a bit of a beating with the release of Murders at Karlov Manor for being fairly close to their predecessors Morph and Manifest, but despite that I believe they still have a place at a table that looking for fun over efficiency. I'd prefer some of those flipping face up Disguise costs were lower, but that's for cards like Etrata and Displacer Kitten to handle for me! Have you built a deck with Cloak or Disguise yet? How did you feel about it during prerelease or even now in Standard? Let us know by tagging myself or CoolStuffInc on socials!

Until next time remember, Energico!

Brandon Ashcraft

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