It’s the last day of Murders at Karlov Manor’s spoiler season. For Commander players, this is the most important day of the season, as the four new Commander preconstructed decks are being shown off to the world! If these four decks are just as impressive as the deck revealed by The Command Zone this afternoon, there may be a mad dash to pick these precons up.
Deep Clue Sea is a Bant-colored deck that presents token and Clue-based synergies to take over the game. The deck presents some new cards which are certainly interesting, but the reprints in this deck are absolutely absurd, and warrant this deck worthy of any Commander player who wants to pick it up!
Here are all the new cards that Deep Clue Sea has to offer, and the shockingly powerful reprints that accompany them. If you’re only interested in the reprints, feel free to skip further down into the article, as we want to highlight the new cards coming with Deep Clue Sea as well.
The Face Commander
Morska, Undersea Sleuth was already previewed to us at the beginning of the Murders at Karlov Manor spoiler season. Honestly, in comparison to the rest of what Deep Clue Sea has to offer, Morska is pretty underwhelming.
Offering some mediocre card advantage, no maximum hand size, and an underwhelming reward for drawing two cards per turn, Morska could make an interesting Voltron win condition in a focused strategy, but does not seem to do much for a Clue-based Commander deck. Fortunately, Deep Clue Sea does seem to come prepared to support Morska in his endeavors.
Dog Support!?
Unfortunately, the second Commander option for the Deep Clue Sea deck doesn’t look too great, either. Don’t get me wrong, Sophia, Dogged Detective offers an incredibly explosive ability that synergizes well with tokens matters decks, but you really need more than just Tiny the Dog to make this Commander tick. Unless this deck is loaded with Dogs, Sophia may be underwhelming as well. That said, this looks like a great inclusion to existing Dog strategies.
No need to worry, though. The reprints alone make this deck worth picking up.
Weaponizing Clues
Armed With Proof really stands up to its name. Able to repurpose your clues into equipment, you can both use Clues to get your creatures into the red zone, or sacrifice them to draw cards. Investigating twice means that this card can easily replace itself, and even function as card advantage.
If the intended purpose of this deck is to use Morska as a Voltron-y win condition, Armed With Proof can act as a tool to get Morska over 21 power rather quickly. If players can find a way to reduce the equip costs of Clues, this card becomes a lot more enticing. A Clue generator combined with a card like Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale, for example, can be quite explosive. Outside of a deck built around making this card shine, Armed with proof is mediocre.
Detective of the Month
Detective of the Month offers an ability that synergizes well with the ‘draw 2’ theme that Morska supports. Creating a 2/2 Detective every time you draw your second card each turn is fine, but Detective of the Month’s Ascend ability can turn this trickling source of tokens into a serious threat. Getting City’s Blessing is not too difficult of a task, especially when creating an army of tokens, and this will make all your Detectives unblockable, including itself and all of your tokens.
This card looks quite strong. Clues can generate a second card on your turn, so the synergy is there. It’s tough to know whether Deep Clue Sea will be able to support drawing two cards each and every turn, but in a deck that can do this, Detective-themed or not, Detective of the Month can provide a monstrous amount of value.
Read More: New Infinite MTG Land Combo Unexpectedly Appears in Top Cut!
Gravestorm Returns!
Gavin Verhey’s mention of the return of Gravestorm got a lot of players excited. Up to this point, Gravestorm has only appeared once on an MTG card, and it was a rather mediocre one. That said, Gravestorm itself threatens to be a devastatingly powerful mechanic.
Similar to Storm, Gravestorm is a mechanic that can create copies of a spell that has it. However, instead of caring about spells cast before it was, Gravestorm cares about the number of permanents put into graveyards this turn. If ten permanents were put into a graveyard from a board wipe or a mill effect, Gravestorm will create ten copies of the card.
Fortunately, this means that Follow the Bodies is not that powerful. A sorcery speed Investigate effect means that this will not be castable in response to opposing board wipes, and all this card can offer is some Clue Tokens. In the right deck, this is still an absurd amount of value, but Follow the Bodies doesn’t look gamebreaking at least. For a spell with a returning mechanic as powerful as Gravestorm, that’s all you can ask for.
Strong Win Condition
If, like any good Blue player, you want to draw a lot of cards, but want to get across the finish line with creatures, Knowledge is Power is the card for you. Buffing your creatures by the amount of cards drawn, Knowledge is Power is an enchantment, which makes the card a lot more exciting.
Since this effect is permanent, not only does this give a massive win condition via buffs, but Knowledge is Power also makes your instant speed draw effects have a lot more versatility. All in all, five mana for something that doesn’t do anything on its own is expensive, especially considering you need both creatures and draw effects to make this work, but the payoff is definitely worth it for a focused strategy. This card seems like a fun inclusion that will see some play.
Read More: Karlov Manor Spoilers Cause Multiple Sudden MTG Card Price Spikes!
Innocuous Researcher
What a weird card. I’m always a fan of cards that grant every player a benefit (as long as yours is better), because it will make opponents second-guess getting rid of it. Innocuous Researcher offers a really strange set of abilities uniquely tailored to take advantage of Clue Tokens.
Not only can this card Investigate a ton (2-3 Clues on average per attack), but it also offers some mild card advantage for every player. The ability to untap all your lands at your endstep is particularly powerful, but the downside is disastrous. Not being able to cast spells on opposing turns is a nightmare.
The idea behind this is to use your extra mana to draw cards with your Clues. With enough Clues amassed, it’s not unrealistic to trigger your ‘draw 2’ effects on every single turn. All in all, this is an interesting card that could be sneakily strong in focused decks, but the strong downsides makes it difficult to abuse.
Merchant of Truth
Merchant of Truth is tailored to Investigate strategies that want to do big amounts of Voltron damage – like Deep Clue Sea’s face Commander suggests it wants to do. The Angel Detective could see some play in Aristocratic strategies, offering a Clue Token every time a nontoken creature you control dies. The real strength of this card, however, is that it grants your Clues Exalted!
This means that, should you attack alone with a creature, it will get +1/+1 for every Clue you control! This could easily allow a Voltron Commander to take out an opponent in one hit. In order to make this card truly work, however, you do need to generate a lot of Clues. Overall, this means that Merchant of Truth is only worthwhile in Investigate strategies.
Read More: Karlov Manor Tutor Threatens to Break MTG Format in Half!
On the Trail
Are you consistently drawing two cards every turn? Are you a green deck? If so, you want this card!
On the Trail is a great way for a deck with recurring card advantage to get lands into play quickly. This can allow you to deploy your threats ahead of schedule, and ultimately give you even more resources to draw cards. This card seems absolutely absurd in Tatyova, Benthic Druid, for example, and can get very silly alongside Spelunking. This is probably the new card to watch for Deep Clue Sea.
Anti-Goad Tech
Blame Game, one of the four Commander decks releasing alongside Murders at Karlov Manor, has a Goad theme. That was released earlier today, and you can find everything you need to know about it here.
It appears that this deck may have been one to trifle with in testing, because Deep Clue Sea received a tool to deal with Goaded creatures. Serene Sleuth allows you to Investigate for each Goaded creature you control. Then, they stop being Goaded before you attack.
Whether or not you want this in your deck will be a metagame call. Is Goad a common complaint at your tables? You probably want this. If not, Serene Sleuth is a forgettable 2/2 that replaces itself.
All-in-all, considering anti-Goad tech is quite rare, and the cost of running Serene Sleuth is rather minimal, I quite like this card.
Read More: New MTG Hushbringer Variant Has Multi-Format Potential!
Death By Clues
Seven mana is always expensive, but turning all your Clues into win conditions and running over your opponents is a fantastic exchange. Tangletrove Kelp turns all of your Clues into 6/6 Plants, ready to storm your opponent’s life totals. The Kelp is also a Clue itself, meaning it benefits from any Clue synergies, and can cantrip in response to removal. This is exactly the type of finisher that Investigate decks want.
As a quick last note, Ransom Note is another new card found in this, and the other three Murders at Karlov Manor Commander decks. If you want to check that out, do so here.
The Absurd Reprints
I am absolutely shocked at the series of powerful and expensive reprints coming out of Deep Clue Sea. Some of these cards are among the nastiest things you can run into in the entire Commander format, yet we are getting these cards in a precon. According to the Command Zone, Deep Clue Sea has an absurd reprint value of $189. This will drop after the deck hits shelves, but the quality of the reprints are just too good to ignore.
To begin, we have Bennie Brecks, Zoologist. This is a popular Commander card in any deck that wants to utilize token synergies, offering a ton of card advantage. Up till now, however, Bennie Brecks only saw one printing in a Streets of New Capenna Commander deck, making its scarcity become far outweighed by its demand. Expect this $19 card to see a price drop as a result of this reprint.
Another reprint with a ton of demand and little supply, the Commander of the Quandrix Commander deck from Strixhaven makes a return. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters is a Parallel Lives stuck on a body with some light protection. In a deck that wants to generate Clues, this $21 card seems like a fantastic inclusion.
Read More: Strange Old Mechanic Could Reappear in Karlov Commander Precons!
Perhaps the most shocking reprint in Deep Clue Sea is one of the most hated cards in all of Commander. Koma, Cosmos Serpent originally printed in Kaldheim is something that commonly causes scoops from across the table. The card is uncounterable and creates a ton of 3/3 tokens every rotation that can be used to protect itself. What an insane $14 reprint in a precon!
Ironically, the best Commander for this deck may be a reprint. Chulane, Teller of Tales is seeing a reprint in Deep Clue Sea, and is worth about $12 at the moment. This Commander is one of the best in Bant in all of MTG, able to draw an absurd amount of cards and ramp quickly as long as you have enough creatures to cast.
The best board wipe in all of Commander is making its appearance in Deep Clue Sea as well. Farewell is incredibly difficult to play around, exiling almost anything on the board. Only lands and Planeswalkers are safe from this $9 reprint.
There’s even more absurd reprints to see. Alandra, the Sky Dreamer is a powerful ‘draw 2’ payoff that is somewhat scarce. This $9.55 card would be a sought-after upgrade for the deck if it weren’t already printed in it.
Finale of Revelation from War of the Spark can threaten to draw a ton of cards in one go. This $7.50 reprint also proves powerful in multiple different strategies.
At $7, Academy Manufactor gets a very timely reprint in Deep Clue Sea. Considering that this card goes infinite with a Ravnica: Clue exclusive card, and its insane synergy with Clue Tokens, demand for Academy Manufactor card will be at an all-time high. This reprint should hopefully keep prices down.
Legacy players will be happy to see that Kappa Canoneer is getting a reprint. This artifact-based payoff sees play in eight-cast Legacy strategies, and should now become a lot more affordable with a reprinting.
Finally, Hydroid Krasis, whom I have a personal vendetta with, and Teferi’s Ageless Insight, a fantastic card draw engine, are also both getting reprints, and hover around the $5 mark. All in all, the reprints alone make Deep Clue Sea worth the purchase. If Commander precons keep offering reprints like this, they will literally fly off the shelves.
Read More: Murders at Karlov Manor Spoils Suite of Spectacular 2-Drops