Judith, Carnage Connoisseur – Murders at Karlov Manor
Date Reviewed: February 6, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
A card like Judith, Carnage Connoisseur, is a particularly interesting puzzle piece, in a sense. The main idea is that giving a mass burn spell (or just any burn spell) lifelink and deathtouch is a very potent weapon, and it lets you clear out a board chraply (even if it also takes her out). Of course, some spells are more one-sided, and those will still do the job. Bring able to use something like a Lightning Bolt to fell a massive creature is a great swing alone, and it even turns it into a pseudo-Lightning Helix. And if the spell doesn’t benefit from those keywords, you can make a friend that blows up nicely.
She’s definitely a promising build-around, but she needs to be built around. Her body’s pretty paltry, and you need a lot of instants and sorceries to really eke out value. I think she has promise…though her colors aren’t the best for the gameplan she wants to enact, they also aren’t the worst, and the particular tricks she enables can be massive in a pinch.
Constructed: 3.5 (I suspect she might be too pricey to really shine)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
We’re used to seeing “spellslinger” type cards in Izzet colors, maybe Jeskai in Tarkir. I really want to visit Tarkir again. For some reason, we’re not used to seeing them in Rakdos colors, even though black’s main meme from the last decade was an instant (“dies to Doom Blade look how clever me am”). But maybe there’s some reason to branch out, not least because not everyone loves continuous mirror matches. It also encourages us to reconsider things like the life-stealing black removal spells, which often play second fiddle to Doom Blade and the like. Judith is pretty blunt, but I think she works for what she does.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
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