With the release of most new Magic: the Gathering expansions, the Cube community has plenty of great content to look forward to: Lucky Paper’s Set Prospectives, SteveMan’s hottest takes, wtwlf123’s Set (P)reviews, Usman’s Cube Hits, and too many other great podcasts, videos, and articles to name.

As a pop statistics-based Magic: the Gathering website with a particular affection for the Cube format (a custom-designed draft format typically using Magic cards), the team here at Cardboard by the Numbers has always been interested in way that we could engage in the celebration of new sets in a meaningful way as well. While we’ve delved into the numbers behind the most-Cubed cards of each set and under-appreciated new cards, those data require a bit of time post-release to be valuable.

So today, we’re trying out a new format we hope you’ll enjoy: giving numerical ratings to what we consider the most interesting cards for Cube from Murders at Karlov Manor in the form of little graphics. These ratings are entirely subjective and determined by the Cardboard at the Numbers team, based exclusively on theory-crafting and discussing these cards in various forums, both online and off. The hope is that the takeaways are brief enough that even the busiest Cube curators can get a peek at the new set and feel like they know what some of the most interesting options are without having to dig through the entire spoiler.

The main metrics cards which are judged on, with roughly equal weight (final scores may shift a half point one way or another from what the stars would imply), are as follows:

• Power Level: How well can the card hang in the most powerful limited environments Magic has to offer? This one’s not always a positive, but a baseline power-level is required for any card to be useful in a given environment.
• Story Equity: What potential for incredible games of Magic does the card have? Will your drafters be excited to play with it? Will they remember that one time it did something really interesting?
• Grokability: 1) Is the card easy to understand from a single reading? 2) How well will a generally capable drafter who’s not keeping up with new releases be able to assess the card? 3) Does the card make for confusing interactions/game states/boards? We’re not looking for dumbed down cards, but it’s nice if reading the card actually does explain what it does.
• Archetype Support: Does this card support other cards already in your Cube/commonly played across Cubes? Glue cards and cards that can be leveraged across different play styles and deck types get points here. Huge bonus here if this opens up strategies that were previously unable to be explored in a typical Cube for whatever reason.

Please let us know how you like this format, as it’s brand new and we’re keen to improve it for next time if it proves valuable enough to the community! As a note, this article only covers the main Murders at Karlov Manor set – we’ll share a follow-up on our social media channels for the (admittedly more interesting) Clue crossover box set and the associated Commander release.

Murders at Karlov Manor Cube Review

Overall, this set is not terribly interesting, especially compared to the last year’s worth of new releases. We have a handful of standouts, and the Ravnican setting is (mostly) a bonus, but even compared to last year’s weakest expansion, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, the mechanics don’t play well towards the most common design principles found in Cubes, nor does it offer terribly compelling new niches for a curious Cube curator to burrow into. As mentioned before, MKM’s companion release, Ravnica: Clue/Cluedo Edition has a much higher hit rate for Cubes of all types, so keep an eye out on our social channels for updates in the coming days.

Thanks so much for reading. We have Cube & basic land coverage on the regular as well as new Magic: the Gathering infographics and analysis every week, so if you’ve enjoyed this article, sign up for our newsletter and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Threads!!

Miles Atherton is the editor-in-chief of “Cardboard by the Numbers” and has been playing Magic since 2006. Since studying Agricultural Economics at UC Davis, he’s built a career as an award-winning marketing executive in the entertainment industry with a love of data journalism. He’s also written for Anime Buscience and Crunchyroll News, serving as Executive Editor of the latter from 2016 to 2021.