“If it also draws a card, it’s probably good” is a philosophy that will get you pretty far in Limited card evaluation. However, drawing a card outright and creating a Clue token are somewhat different things; the latter requires an additional 2 mana to see that card. If you’re not drawing it until next turn (or even later, if you have better things to do), it can have a profound impact on a game. Let’s take a look at every common investigate card to see how much a Clue can compensate for various effects and mana values.
Novice Inspector
Designers made the perfect Clue card on one of their first tries with the predecessor Thraben Inspector. At one mana, you have the option to play it turn one and sacrifice the Clue on turn two, synergizing with instants (blue and red have plenty to offer here) and helping you find lands. The body is pretty decent all things considered, blocking 1/1s and trading with any other x/1s. This is sure to matter with Dog Walker looking to be another top common. Great early and inconsequential-to-cycle late, Novice Inspector is sure to be among the best commons in the set.
Auspicious Arrival
We often see +2/+2 combat tricks for one or two mana. At one mana, you don’t have to ask much for more (and Archon’s Glory offered a LOT more), but two mana is a bit of an ask if you’re only killing a creature. With a Clue, however, the opportunity cost that haunts many a mediocre trick is gone. Whether sneaking Arrival into a complex turn and saving the Clue for later or spending turn four on gaining board advantage and drawing a card (Into the Roil, anyone?), you won’t be tricking yourself by putting it in any proactive white deck.
On the Job
Here’s our first example of an investigate card you’re unlikely to benefit from the turn you play it. Even at six mana, you see your next card but cannot put it to use. As such, the typical rules for playing an Inspired Charge variant apply. You need cards that create multiple creatures for the kind of damage that justifies spending 4 mana for a one-turn buff. The Clue will help you stay in the game if it isn’t quite good enough, but you need to get close to good enough to keep your opponent from punishing you. Thankfully, red and white have plenty of creatures to support this kind of plan.
Deduce
With blue’s 2-mana slot offering no exciting creatures, a catch-all counterspell in Reasonable Doubt, and a bounce in Unauthorized Exit, expect to see a lot of end step Deduces. You may unfavorably compare this to Divination and Quick Study, which draw two cards for three mana instead of four. The truth is, paying two mana in installments is exponentially more flexible than dedicating three mana at once; this kind of efficiency being powerful is a key point of Magic theory. That’s not even mentioning MKM’s many payoffs for having and sacrificing Clues in blue and red. It may not look like much, but it’s dishonest and works.
Cold Case Cracker
The blue 4-mana 3/3 or 3/2 flier is a historically underpowered archetype, being too expensive for reliable offense and too flimsy for defense. A couple of instances have bucked the trend with abilities that leave you satisfied even if they have to trade down (Galedrifter is one of my favorite role playing commons, and Talas Lookout is simply great). Cold Case Cracker is likely to be another success. Unlike fellow 4-mana investment On the Job, Cracker is 3 damage every turn at best and a card-netural removal bait or blocker at worst, switching gears as you call it. This is the kind of design for expensive creatures I hope to see more of.
Out Cold
The sister to On the Job (guess she overslept), Out Cold takes what’s normally a risky finisher effect and gives it a safety cushion. I’m less confident in its frequency of play early in the metagame, since blue alone doesn’t look conducive to aggressive play, but I’m sure red will appreciate its Clue and invalidation of disguised creatures allowing cheap creatures to do their thing.
Hotshot Investigators
These investigators are a bit of a mystery to me. 6 mana for a 4/4 is prohibitive for decks that want to use its bounce offensively, and blue is lacking in enters-the-battlefield effects to use the bounce on its own creatures. Lessening your battlefield presence just to spend more mana for a card isn’t the hottest deal. My best guess is it’s intended for blue-green, where it provides six mana value for gathering evidence and lets you replay Vitu-Ghazi Inspector, Nervous Gardener, or Loxodon Eavesdropper. Even then, lacking the stats to hang with other 6-mana creatures or handle combat tricks from 2-drops in a color pair known for shaky defense makes me think these hotshots won’t even see enough sun to fly too close to it.
Toxin Analysis
Black’s deathtouch tricks have seldom impressed, lacking in flexibility or suffering from steep opportunity cost. Toxin Analysis solves both problems, granting lifelink to creatures with high power (often redudant with deathtouch) and creating a Clue for a new card on the cheap. For a color that often struggles to present a substantial threat with its early creatures, Toxin Analysis is killer.
Innocent Bystander
Wrong place, wrong time. Questionable color pie decisions aside, Bystander doesn’t well belong in a color about presenting the threats, not answering them. Creating a Clue on death is quite good, but in a set built around 3-mana 2/2s and premium cards with power 2 or 1, and without any toughness to win combat, taking 3 damage is too conditional to dissuade the attacks you really need to.
The Chase is On
Two is the magic number for instants. Any more, and your ability to take other actions in a single turn is handicapped. Therefore, a 3-mana trick needs to do a lot for you, and I don’t think this is one to chase after. While it “draws a card,” taking an extra 2 mana to do so is a pretty harsh cost in a color looking to deploy threats and removal at a breakneck pace. Compared to all-stars like Suit Up and Moment of Defiance (not that Moment was perfect either), it lacks a toughness boost to counter certain removal and cannot swing a game like well-timed lifelink. Three damage isn’t spectacular for the cost, either. If you’re looking to get rid of creatures, may I refer you to Shock and Galvanize? If those aren’t forthcoming, you better be in red for another good reason.
They Went This Way
Turn three is precious, and we recently saw Return from the Wilds underwhelm despite contributing as much as a 1/1 to the battlefield. Spending so much mana just to maybe enable your splash, improve your spending prospects, and get back to card parity, in a set where the cheap cards look heavily favored yet again and you’re incentivized to disguise? I’m not going to say never, but this is one path you shouldn’t tread lightly.
Loxodon Eavesdropper
Here’s a novelty: a card that’s good, yet disappointing. A 3/3 is just good enough to block most of what’s already been played, and a guaranteed Clue makes that prospect totally fine, but this card is just that: good enough. It’s the modern green condition, doing work to hit high mana values only to get somewhat cheated on one aspect or another. If you can get that vigilance going, you’ll have a ball smashing in, but that initial turn cycle of relative squishiness is saddening to see out of the mighty color of creatures. It’s a card to value, but not one to depend on; four mana sees to that.
Undercover Crocodelf
And here’s another green classic: a creature that has to suffer at face value because of its theoretical yet unrealistic infinite ceiling. Either you spend 6 mana for a 5/5 that does nothing on entry, will likely struggle to land a hit, and dies to most removal, or you invest turns 3 and 5 to make a Clue and a tapped 5/5, just asking to be punished by aggro. Not that I think there’s no potential here; a 6-mana disguise can get into the graveyard early for collecting evidence, and leaner decks will struggle to beat it in direct combat. It just speaks to the absurd restraint that expensive cards tend to be designed with. It could have investigated on entry or face-up, no problem. We don’t need our blue-green commons to give dreams to chase; we need them to have raw rate to compensate for the pair’s lack of overlap and early-game.
Magnifying Glass
No, Patrick, Manalith with prohibitive upside is still not viable.
Concluesion
As the color pair of Detectives, it’s only natural that white and blue ended up with the highest quantity and quality of investigate cards. While I don’t have much issue with that in concept, I wish white were executed with a bit more nuance. Novice Inspector is iconic and less absurdly efficient in one go than the likes of Inspiring Overseer; I can accept it. My problem is with Auspicious Arrival and On the Job, taking staple white effects and slapping a card on top. The move to give white more card access is important, but I was hoping for means less blunt. Nowadays it feels like Limited white gets to draw cards for simply playing the game normally, about as far as you can get from a color allegedly still “fifth” in capability. I would have liked to see one more investigate design out of black, but Toxin Analysis looks powerful yet fair, so I can’t complain much. I don’t care for the executions of investigate and Clues in red, but that’s a subject for another post. Green feels to have been usurped by white in cards attached to creatures, the latter getting them at low mana values where they count. Even combat tricks are joining in! Understatted expensive creatures and risky ramp are all that remain.
In the future, I hope to see white dialed back a bit or given more restrictions on its card flow, and for the designers to realize it’s completely unproblematic to let 4/4s for 4 and 6/6s for 6 enjoy the same upside as 1/2s for 1.
