Summary
Confirming something we already suspected,Magic: The Gathering’shead designer has revealed that Murders at Karlov Manor has the unfortunate honour of being the worst-performing set in “many years”.
Speaking on hisBlogatog blog, where he talks directly to players, Mark Rosewater has specifically named Karlov Manor as the set to have sold the worst, while also confirming Modern Horizons 3 is doing particularly well.
Murders at Karlov Manor was the first Standard-legal set of 2024, and took us back to the popular setting of Ravnica. Instead of delving further into the ten guilds that its known for, though, Karlov Manor was a murder mystery-themed set that introduced a new organisation of detectives investigating a spate of crimes across the city.
This year’s State of Design article, which looks back at the last year of Magic and identifies each set’s weaknesses and strengths, does a good job of explaining why people hated Karlov Manor so much. To many, it didn’t feel like Ravnica, and the overemphasis on Detectives that were never really a part of the setting before now gave it a cynical veneer of pop culture references.
Mechanically, the set was also shaky. As the State of Design says, the disguise mechanic – which reworked morph by giving the creature an additional ward cost for longevity – was hit-or-miss, while the numerous Detective-matters cards and the suspect mechanic just didn’t have enough to them to grab players.
However, the news that Murders at Karlov Manor is the absolute worst-selling set in many years is still surprising, considering the competition. This means it failed to outsell other reason misses like The Brothers’ War and, in particular, Innistrad: Double Feature – often described as one of thethe worst Magic releases of all time. Murders at Karlov Manor wasn’t exactly a stellar release, but for it to do worse thanDouble Featureis rough.
A Half-Hearted Defence Of Murders At Karlov Manor
It hardly stands up toBloomburrowor even Outlaws of Thunder Junction, but I enjoyed Murders at Karlov Manor. I’m firmly on the side of the debate that enjoyed disguising creatures, some of its cards (like the surveil lands) are already aging nicely in the Standard Format, and, though heavy-handed, I did enjoy the murder mystery theme more than most. The story was also absolutely excellent.
Elsewhere in the State of Play article, Rosewater acknowledged complaints that, between Wilds of Eldraine’s fairy tales, Karlov Manor’s murder mysteries, and Thunder Junction’s Western theme, Magic has reliedtoo heavily on tropesand not enough on actual, meaningful worldbuilding. In it, he says “we do want to continue making cards about topics that excite people, but we need to look at our execution”.
The upcoming year will include a ‘death race’ set across three planes, and Magic’s first outer-space ‘Space Opera’ set, so whether this reliance on tropes will continue for a bit longer currently remains to be seen.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
