We are back on Ravnica! But this time with a mysterious twist. There has been a murder, and we have been assigned to the Case. Which happens to be the new type of Enchantments from this set!

What Are Cases in Magic: The Gathering?

Cases are very similar to Classes from the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set, with one key difference. You don't have to pay into them to get them to their next effect. Instead you progress through them by taking game actions, and just playing the game. Some of these cases have some interesting abilities that are for sure worth looking into! Much like the Classes and Even backgrounds, you should consider slotting them into your decks because they just passively generate value.

Lets break them down. White and Blue both have three; Black, Red, and Green all have two; and there is one Colorless one. They all enter the battlefield and have either a Static effect or an ETB Effect. Then much like Sagas and Classes, they have several other effects based on where they are in their progress. But unlike those ether Enchantments types (Sagas progress once per turn via lore counters and classes you pay into them to get their other effects) these have a "To solve," which is simply a requirement you have to meet in order to get to the final step. All of the "To Solve" requirements are different dependent on the case you are working on. After they are solved, some of them require you to sacrifice them to gain that last effect, others stick around providing massive value. Below we are going to look at some of the rares from a few of the colors, as examples.

Case of the Uneaten Feast is the White Rare Case that has the simple effect of gaining 1 life when a creature enters the battlefield on your turn, which helps your "To Solve" requirement of needing to have gained at least 5 life this turn. Then at the beginning of your end step the case will check to see if you have met that requirement and hit its final step. For this one it says "Sacrifice this case: Creatures in your graveyard gain 'you may cast this card from your graveyard' Until end of turn" which is a very powerful effect in White. OH and did I mention this case only cost a Single White to cast?

There are two Blue Rare cases, Case of the Ransacked Lab and Case of the Shifting Visage. Both of these are very powerful, neither of them require you to sacrifice them, and -depending on the deck you are piloting- getting to the third act could be very easy. Ransacked Lab cares about Instant/Sorcery Reduction, Spell count, and lets you draw cards when you cast them. While Shifting Visage cares about surveiling, card count in your own graveyard and then copying your nonlegendary creatures on cast.

I hope you don't have any Skeletons in your closet, because we are about to pull those out with Case of the Stashed Skeleton. This one makes you a skeleton that becomes a suspect (Suspect Is a new mechanic from this set), but in order to solve this case you need to find a way to get rid of that pesky skeleton. Once you do, this case becomes a demonic tutor! You can pay to sacrifice it to search for any card in your library and put it in your hand as a sorcery. And if you've seen the art for this card, there is a little Jace puppet in the art. Is this a clue of things to come?

As for the Red and Green Rare Cases? They do what Red and Green do best. The Red one Case of the Crimson Pulse likes to have you discard a card to draw 2 cards and to solve you need to be Hellbent (Have no cards in hand) Then during your upkeep you discard your hand and draw two cards. The Green one Case of the Locked Hothouse allows you to play extra lands on each of your turns, to solve you need you need 7 or more lands(you are in Green you'll get there in no time) and once solved, you can look at the top of your library at any time so you can play. Lands, creatures and enchantments from there!

And last but not least the colorless one. But don't let that fool you, this is not optimized for a colorless deck. Case of the Shattered Pact enters and gets you a basic (Yeah this is great for any deck that needs to ramp) to your hand. But to solve you need to have all five colors among your permanents. Your reward? At the beginning of combat on your target creature you control gains flying double strike and vigilance. Oh, by the way this one is an uncommon. But we had to represent!

What are your thoughts on the cases? Will you be running them? Or will they be forgotten like battles?