Vannifar, Evolved Enigma – Murders at Karlov Manor
Date Reviewed: February 21, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.38
Multiplayer: 3.50
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vannifar looks unusually elegant in her Ravnica masterpiece version. I couldn’t be sure, but it seems like being an ooze might make it easier to find clothes that fit you, since your body’s shape is less static than other kinds of beings. It’s interesting that her new abilities are so different from her previous card, though we should probably be glad they play so well with Murders at Karlov Manor‘s mechanics. For one, obviously, you can save three mana per disguise/cloak creature you put into play, and also speedrun the rules loophole where you try to flip a face-down creature with Break Open and find that it’s a sorcery. (Nothing much interesting happens, unfortunately, unless you count the most roundabout possible way to threaten your opponent with Counterspell.) Also, don’t be like me for about six months after Dragons of Tarkir came out and forget that face-down creatures are colorless, and wonder why Ultimate Price wasn’t the best card in Tarkir block draft. She’s not only a pseudo-Glorious Anthem for disguised creatures, but they retain any such counters if they get turned face-up (and aren’t actually sorceries).
Wow, face-down card mechanics are kind of weird when you get into them.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
Vannifar, Evolved Enigma is a pretty interesting card, intended to be support for face-down creature-based strategies. Remember: a card that’s face-down is colorless, and that does benefit from Vannifar’s second ability. But being able to chain everyone’s favorite Elf Ooze Wizard into another face-down body is pretty good, especially if that card benefits from being flipped face-up somehow.
Honestly, this feels like the kind of card that can be broken in half without trouble, though Vannifar is a four-mana body on his own. Still, saving effectively three mana to cast a disguise or morph card is very good, and even just bringing something in ahead of schedule can throw an opponent off in a pinch. I do think this might be a hard card to really pin down; it’s a powerful engine, but I have no idea if the thing it goes in has any strength. It’s intriguing, though, and I suspect Vannifar 2.0 might so some rude things.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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