Murders at Karlov Manor Previews Begin

This week kicked off the official start of preview season for Murders at Karlov Manor. The opening preview stream on Tuesday kicked off with a brief synopsis of the set's story followed by the revelation of the killer's identity. We received tons of sweet new cards, treatments, even a bit from the Ravnica: Clue Edition release! All of this and more will be covered in an additional article here on CoolStuffInc, so make sure you check that out for all the details!

As a note here, while the new preview season is sure to be exciting, Wizards did announce that the usual early access stream event for Murders at Karlov Manor has been canceled. Speculation among players and content creators have suggested this may be a result of the layoffs which impacted Wizards of the Coast last year. While the company did not confirm this fact, they did state they will be trying to make the early access events happen for future releases, so it's likely that they will be back soon enough.

Additionally, one specific element of the preview season worth mentioning here is that there are going to be a few minor differences between paper boosters and MTG Arena when it comes to The List slot. For the most part, the impact here will be minimal, however this change is allowing them to add Smuggler's Copter to the client. This card was notably not on the client following its unbanning in Pioneer, thereby causing a fresh rift in Explorer to Pioneer. This will now be remedied with the upcoming release of Murders at Karlov Manor!

Dominaria United and The Brothers' War get Alchemy Rebalances

Few things have seemed as contentious in Magic as Alchemy and the digital-only cards on MTG Arena. In spite of the controversial nature of the format, Wizards and the Arena team have remained committed to providing updates to cards needing a little juicing up to play better in the format. As a result of this, the team has gone back and updated a handful of cards in both Dominaria United and The Brothers' War to allow them to play better in the Alchemy format. These adjustments will also impact play in Historic and in the latest breakout format on the client: Timeless.

You can find the full list of changes here.

Erik Lauer Retires

Briefly mentioned in Mark Rosewater's first design article on Murders at Karlov Manor, it was noted that Erik Lauer had retired after a storied career making Magic. The segment reads as follows:

Erik's tenure with Wizards of the Coast began in the 2000s where he began aiding with design and development for Morningtide. He eventually became head developer of the game and lead development on such hit sets as Innistrad, Return to Ravnica, and Khans of Tarkir, as well as co-leading sets like Dominaria and Kaladesh. He leaves the game having left a massive mark on its history and we'll continue to feel it as time moves on. I wish him the best and hope that he enjoys his retirement.

Magic Online Has Issues, Provided Temporary All-Access Passes

Over the weekend, Magic Online suffered from several issues, meaning many players were unable to access the game for the better part of a day. To make up for this, Daybreak Games - the company who currently runs the program - provided players with free all access passes for a short period as a thank you for bearing with them as they attempted to resolve the issues. The all access tokens are no longer available, as they were removed this past Wednesday, however this continues Daybreak's streak of excellent support and handling of Magic Online since taking it over from Wizards of the Coast.

The program has also released Ravnica Remastered as of this week, meaning if you want to try out the set's Limited environment from the comfort of your own home, you can do so now.

The VML Returns for Season 11

The VML - a special league for players of marginalized genders to participate in - is back once more for its 11th season! Registration opened up on Wednesday and filled up in just over an hour - the second fastest time the league has reached its cap! Players still interested in participating can sign up to be on the waitlist in the event that people drop. Otherwise, the VML has a fairly open Discord server that can be joined, as well as streams that will happen as the season continues along. You can find all these details and more on their web page here.

Paul Cheon Announces New YouTube Channel

At the end of 2023, Paul Cheon was among the names of Wizards employees who were laid off among the many that hit Hasbro as a whole. Following his exit from Wizards, Paul returned to his previous career as a Twitch streamer to great fanfare. As a continued extension of his return to content creation, Paul has announced a new YouTube channel as well. According to Paul, this channel will primarily focus on Vintage Cube and other Limited formats. You can check it out here and also find his Twitch page here.

Decklist of the Week

Simic Merfolk Combo | LCI Standard | yoman5

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Combat Courier
• 3 Nicanzil, Current Conductor
• 4 Cenote Scout
• 4 Forensic Researcher
• 4 Jadelight Spelunker
• 4 Sentinel of the Nameless City
• 4 Vodalian Hexcatcher

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Deeproot Pilgrimage

• Artifacts (7)
• 3 Subterranean Schooner
• 4 Agatha's Soul Cauldron

• Lands (24)
• 3 Forest
• 3 Island
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Drannith Ruins
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 3 Restless Vinestalk
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Dreamroot Cascade
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Outland Liberator
• 3 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 3 Vodalian Mindsinger
• 4 Make Disappear

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Beloved Magic player and content creator yoman5 is back once again with another fresh Standard brew. While his usual 50 lists have yet to officially start, he quickly put this list together today thanks to the card Forensic Researcher being previewed.

It turns out that if you have two copies of Forensic Researcher on the battlefield you can repeatedly tap and untap the Researchers. When you also have a copy of Deeproot Pilgrimage on the battlefield, this creates an infinite number of tokens. If your Researchers get removed, you can put them under Agatha's Soul Cauldron to keep the combo alive and you can help it out utilizing Vodalian Hexcatcher to stop your opponents from disrupting your strategy. This list is likely a very early build, yet will likely be fun and promising once Murders at Karlov Manor officially releases.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal