Expose the Culprit MTG Card
2024-02-09 - Number 124
2024-02-09 - Number 307
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Instant |
| Abilities | Cloak |
Text of card
Choose one or both — • Turn target face-down creature face up. • Exile any number of face-up creatures you control with disguise in a face-down pile, shuffle that pile, then cloak them. (To cloak a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with ward . Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)
Cards like Expose the Culprit
In the realm of detection and tactical advantage, Expose the Culprit is an intriguing contribution to blue’s investigative spells within Magic: The Gathering. It bears similarities to cards like Broken Concentration, which also allows a player to counter a spell unless their opponent pays an additional cost. Expose the Culprit requires opponents to reveal their hand, giving it a distinct edge in information warfare.
Looking at Peek, a card that also provides insight into an opponent’s hidden arsenal, we notice it is leaner in costs, yet Expose the Culprit goes further by compelling a card discard. This adds a layer of disruption to the opponent’s strategy. Then, there’s Compelling Argument, which offers a different kind of disruption by milling five cards from a player’s library. It lacks the targeted precision of Expose the Culprit but undermines the opponent’s resources from another angle.
Between the strategic peek at an opponent’s hand, the added pressure to discard, and the versatility these elements bring to gameplay, Expose the Culprit carves out its niche. It excels not just as a disruption tool but also as a means to inform subsequent plays, marking its value in decks that capitalize on control and information asymmetry.
Cards similar to Expose the Culprit by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Expose the Culprit is crafted to tip the scales in your favor by providing an investigative edge. Once played, it permits a deep-dive into your opponent’s hand, revealing their veiled strategies and letting you pluck out nonland cards, thus disrupting their game plan while bolstering your knowledge.
Resource Acceleration: This spell’s utility doesn’t just end at information gathering. In cases where your opponent is caught off-guard without nonland cards, you’re awarded a clue token. This unexpected boon can later be cashed in for a card, ensuring your resources remain fluid and responsive throughout the match.
Instant Speed: Flexibility is the key to victory, and Expose the Culprit delivers by operating at instant speed. This quality allows strategic players to maneuver through phases and react in the heat of battle with precision, ensuring that you can address threats or uncover secrets exactly when the moment calls for it.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Expose the Culprit necessitates discarding a card to access its potential benefits. This can set players back, particularly when hand size is crucial for maintaining board control and options.
Specific Mana Cost: It demands a precise mana combination to cast. For players running multicolor decks, this requirement can sometimes delay the card’s play or clash with their mana curve plans.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its casting cost, Expose the Culprit can feel costly for its effect, especially compared to other removal options available in the game that may offer more immediate or less conditional board impact.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Expose the Culprit fits into a myriad of deck styles, acting as a key functional piece in control schemes or any build that prioritizes removal of problematic permanents.
Combo Potential: Its utility in uncovering hidden strategies or combo pieces on the battlefield makes it a tactician’s delight, facilitating card advantage while disrupting opponents’ plans.
Meta-Relevance: Given a format teeming with sneaky enchantments and formidable artifacts, incorporating Expose the Culprit in your deck keeps you a step ahead of current meta trends, ensuring your arsenal is equipped for disruption and control.
How to beat
Expose the Culprit is a niche spell that often catches opponents off-guard in Magic: The Gathering. It specifically targets creatures with a power of 4 or greater, enabling you to destroy them while also drawing you a card. This provides a nice two-for-one deal — eliminating a threat and potentially drawing into more answers or threats of your own.
To successfully tackle Expose the Culprit, ensuring your deck has a diverse range of creature powers can be key. This dilutes the effectiveness of the card by limiting the number of targets it can affect. Additionally, incorporating hexproof or indestructible creatures can negate Expose the Culprit’s impact, as these characteristics shield your creatures from being targeted or destroyed by such spells. You could also rely on counterplay using spells like Negate or Mystical Dispute to stop Expose the Culprit before it impacts the battlefield. Effective strategy can pivot around knowing when to deploy your larger creatures, being mindful of when your opponent might have mana open to cast such removal spells.
Overall, building around a diverse set of threats, employing safeguarding mechanics, and timing your plays can mitigate the effect of Expose the Culprit in your MTG matchups.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Expose the Culprit MTG card by a specific set like Murders at Karlov Manor and Murders at Karlov Manor, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Expose the Culprit and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
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Printings
The Expose the Culprit Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2024-02-09 and 2024-02-09. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2024-02-09 | Murders at Karlov Manor | MKM | 124 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Ryan Valle | |
| 2 | 2024-02-09 | Murders at Karlov Manor | MKM | 307 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Lorenzo Mastroianni |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Expose the Culprit has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Standardbrawl | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |