What’s In Ravnica: Clue Edition?

Ravnica: Clue Edition (or Ravnica: Cluedo Edition, for the Europeans) is a new ancillary product releasing alongside Murders at Karlov Manor. It adds a fun new gameplay variant wherein players play a game of Clue while playing multiplayer Magic. Of course, it also comes with new cards. So, what’s in the box?

WHAT’S IN RAVNICA: CLUE EDITION?

Ravnica: Clue Edition comes in a reasonably sturdy outer box, not unlike a bundle box – which is great, as you’ll need somewhere to store this boardgame-like gameplay variant when you’re not playing it.

Inside, you’ll find all of the instructions you need to play, 21 Evidence cards, 4 Hidden Info screens to conceal your workings, one evidence notepad with plenty of sheets for multiple playthroughs, one case file envelope, and some booster packs.

The booster packs are arguably what’s most exciting for the average Magic player, so let’s break it down. One of these is a box topper pack with a foil borderless Shockland, with one at random of the 10 available included in each Ravnica: Clue Edition. 

There are also 8 Ravnica: Clue Edition boosters, which function much like Jumpstart packs. Each player will crack open two of these and mash them together to form their deck. Of course, much like Jumpstart, these can be re-sorted and used again – or players are free to bring their own decks instead. 

WHAT’S IN A RAVNICA: CLUE EDITION BOOSTER?

First up, what’s not in them: the murder weapons, locations, and suspects. These form the 21 evidence cards, and during a game of Clue, will be used as game pieces in this way. They do however have rules text, so you’re free to use them in your decks when you’re done playing/in between games. 

There are 20 different Ravnica Booster variants, representing the ten guilds of Ravnica. This means that the 8 included in each Clue edition are random, though seeded like a Jumpstart pack. They have a mix of old cards from the history of Ravnica, and brand new cards exclusive to Clue Edition boosters.

For more details, you can check the official article – but for now, I want to get into looking at some of these new cards.

WHAT ARE THE BEST NEW CARDS FROM RAVNICA: CLUE EDITION?

With the 21 evidence cards and 30 new cards available in Ravnica: Clue Edition boosters, there are 51 new cards legal in Commander. Nobody wants to sit through my thoughts on all 51, so instead I ask: which ones should interest you the most?

First up, character wise, Mastermind Plum has to be one of my most anticipated cards, given I have a Burakos party treasures deck. Even outside a party deck, getting to draw cards every time you use treasure to cast a spell is cracked. Sign me up. 

The other characters are all pretty decent too, but of the six, I’d look next at Emissary Green, who despite being a Human is doing his best LotR Simic Elves impression. Even if only you vote for profit, you get two treasures, and your team gets three +1/+1 counters, which is an excellent base rate.

Commander Mustard is pretty monumental for Boros Soldiers decks, given he single-handedly offers a bundle of the best attacking keywords and a way to deal even more damage on one sizable body.

As for weapons, and lands? They’re all pretty mid, to be honest. They’re not terrible cards, and in some niches they’ll serve you well, but I’m not screaming from the rooftops about any of them. In fact, the only thing I’m screaming about is them not using the top-down room view for D&D lands. 

Seeing as we last looked at Mustard, let’s continue with Boros. Aegis of the Legion is cute, and will probably play pretty well. It helps get small creatures with good attack triggers into the red zone, and even if that shield counter immediately dissipates from the creature being blocked, you’ll be happy. Battalion is always a bit of an ask in Commander, but putting card advantage on Boros Strike-Captain makes it slightly more attractive. 

Orzhov’s uncommon is way more exciting than its other rare, Syndicate Heavy. Afterlife Insurance is a huge pickup for tokens and aristocrat decks, replacing your tokens with flyers and replacing itself by drawing a card. Very, very good. 

Covetous Elegy, meanwhile, is a reasonable way to help reset the board. In most use cases, thanks to the treasures you should be getting back from this, you’re simplifying the board considerably for between 0-3 mana on average, except that mana goes on layaway until your next turn. While I like the fact it makes tapped treasure for balance purposes, it does nerf the card in a way that might mean it’s too slow.

Both Sludge Titan and Tribune of Rot are pretty unimpressive self-mill cards, and I’d sooner take Tribune than the Sludge Titan. Unfortunately, putting a card to hand is probably weaker than the majority of Titans. Amzu, Swarm’s Hunger, on the other hand, is really neat. It’s a Commander for insects, but also for mechanics like Collect Evidence and Dredge. It’s also a 3/3 Flying Menace, which is a great starting point for building up a Commander damage smackdown. 

I’m only really interested in Frenzied Gorespawn as far as Rakdos, and it’s a solid extra copy of Kardur, the Doom Scourge (but only for stuff in play right now). It comes bundled with most of the text of Ikoria underdog Frontier Warmonger. Together that makes for a solid five mana worth of card.

Selesnya has some sweet cards, and though Vernal Sovereign isn’t exactly bad, I’m enjoying the mana cost of Sumala Rumblers a lot more. Imagine giving it trample!

Conclave Evangelist is where it’s at, though. If you can keep it going, it’ll snowball. It also has some really cool Loxodon on it. I bet they’re on their way to meet Babar right now. 

Izzet time for some good cards? Izzet time that pun died a death? The answer to both is yes. Corporeal Projection is very good, especially if you jam plenty of strong ETB triggers into your deck. Resonance Technician, on the other hand, provides decent value for accruing all manner of artifact tokens. “Free” copying of spells is always nice.

Gruul has some pretty forgettable cards other than Herald of Ilharg, which puts a real clock on things. Getting to burn each opponent every time you cast chonkers from your hand is some serious end-the-game energy, and I’m here for it.

Azorius has arguably the two strongest cards in the booster packs, with Lavinia coming down early and stocking you up on clues, while providing a free way to crack them once a turn cycle. Portal Manipulator might be my favorite though, offering a UW version of Settle the Wreckage + Portal Mage. Portal Mage is often my 101st card, where Portal Manipulator easily makes the cut. 

Unruly Krasis is pretty forgettable, but the other Simic cards aren’t Lonis, Genetics Expert slots nicely into Clue archetypes, providing a steady stream of Clues and payoff for cracking them. Scutting Sentinel is a fresh take on the hexproof-flash-creature trick, and a nice pickup for Elf decks.

Skulking around at the back, as always, are Dimir. Dimir Strandcatcher is just solid tech for Faeries decks, and if you have a reanimator package, it’s definitely worth a look. Alela decks in particular that go wide will easily trigger this to draw cards. Undercover Butler meanwhile speaks to the kinds of decks in Dimir that really want to push damage through, either to kill a player, or pull off a nasty damage trigger. With Rogue typing, it’ll find some homes.

END STEP

Ravnica: Clue Edition brings a fresh new way to play multiplayer Magic to the table. It’s less brain-taxing than Planechase can be, and at once more novel and relaxed. I’m all for introducing new ways to play multiplayer Magic.

It also comes with the chance at opening some great new cards for Magic’s premier multiplayer format, Commander. Whilst I’m not the biggest fan of seeding these packs in such a way that you’ll not open everything in one purchase, singles prices should be reasonable, especially with the guaranteed borderless foil Shockland in each box making them an attractive open anyways.

Keep your eyes peeled for Ravnica: Clue Edition to release on February 23, when Card Kingdom will have sealed product and singles for sale – or you can pre-order soon if you’re in the market for some murder mystery, Ravnica-style.