Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect MTG Card
2024-02-09 - Number 334
2024-02-09 - Number 212
2024-02-10 - Number 212p
2024-02-10 - Number 212s
| Card sets | Released in 4 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Sorcery — Adventure |
| Abilities | Investigate |
Key Takeaways
- Kellan enables strategic card scrying to optimize hand contents, ensuring stronger tactical plays.
- Instant speed of its ability allows reactive game adaptation, keeping players one step ahead.
- Mana and deck construction flexibility required can influence overall play, demanding crafty deckbuilding.
Text of card
Investigate. You may play an additional land this turn.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy enables savvy players to sift through their library by scrying, ensuring a steady flow of cards and maintaining a strategic upper hand.
Resource Acceleration: Upon successfully deducing the outcomes of Tail the Suspect, players can delve deeper into their deck, accelerating their resource access and staying a step ahead.
Instant Speed: Operating at instant speed, Kellan’s transformative clue-chasing Tail the Suspect allows players to adapt to the unfolding game, making crucial decisions at the most opportune moments.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Playing Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect requires a keen strategic mind, as you need to discard another nonland card from your hand. This can sometimes backfire, particularly in scenarios where you’re already starved for resources, making each card in your hand incredibly valuable.
Specific Mana Cost: Costing both blue and red mana, Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy demands a commitment to both colors in your deck construction. This requirement can restrict deck flexibility and may not fit into mono-colored or different two-color strategies effectively.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the detective theme of Kellan is alluring, the truth is this card may not always be the most mana-efficient option available. For three mana, you have to carefully weigh the card’s transformative ability against other potential cards that could provide similar utility or better synergy with your deck’s overarching game plan without the additional mana burden.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect offers key advantages for deck-building flexibility. Its initial form allows a peek into the opponent’s strategy, while its flip side, Tail the Suspect, can disrupt your opponent by exiling cards from their hand, giving you both information and control.
Combo Potential: With its ability to sift through the deck for key pieces and surveil the opponent’s next moves, Kellan encourages creative synergies and can be a catalyst in both creature-centric and control decks. Tail the Suspect’s capacity to potentially exile pivotal cards opens up space for high-impact plays, making it a combo enabler in its own right.
Meta-Relevance: As the game environment teems with varied strategies, having a card that offers both proactive and reactive options can be crucial. Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect can adapt to the shifting meta, providing early game advantages and disrupting opponents’ plans, making it a well-rounded choice in competitive play.
How to beat
Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect presents a strategic nuance to Magic: The Gathering decks, harnessing the power of card filtering and graveyard synergy. Playing against this card requires a specific approach to mitigate its advantages. One effective method is employing graveyard disruption. Since Kellan synergizes with an active graveyard, cards like Scavenging Ooze can continually exile key cards, thus limiting the potential card advantage gained.
Another angle of attack is to control the board early on. Cards like Shock or Fatal Push can remove Kellan before its transform condition is met, hindering the opponent’s ability to Tail the Suspect and flip Kellan into an even more troublesome adversary. Lastly, maintain pressure on your opponent’s life total, providing less opportunity for them to leverage Kellan’s abilities to their full effect. By thwarting Kellan’s flip and sustaining a threat, you can skew the match in your favor.
Overall, facing down Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect can be daunting, but understanding its mechanics and having a proactive game plan can turn the tables and lead you toward victory.
Cards like Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect
Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy is a unique addition to the detective-themed cards in Magic: The Gathering. It shares similarities with elite investigator cards like Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, which also mitigates opponents’ noncreature spellcasting advantage. However, Kellan offers a quirky spin with the ability to loot cards upon casting your second spell each turn. This is invaluable for sifting through your deck and maintaining card advantage.
In the same family of investigatory prowess, Thalia’s Geistcaller stands out. Although this Spirit Cleric doesn’t loot, it does produce 1/1 flying Spirit tokens. Thalia’s advantage is in providing a notable board presence, compared to Kellan’s more subtle deck manipulation role. There’s also Tireless Tracker, another keen observer in the game. While Tracker doesn’t have the spell-casting linked card draw ability, it grows stronger with land plays and provides long-term value through Clue token generation.
While exploring these cards, Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy is clearly designed for players that enjoy fine-tuning their hand mid-game and have a keen sense for timing, making it an intriguing option for detectives of the game.
Cards similar to Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect 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 Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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Printings
The Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2024-02-09 and 2024-02-10. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2024-02-09 | Murders at Karlov Manor | MKM | 334 | 2015 | Adventure | Borderless | David Robert Hovey | |
| 2 | 2024-02-09 | Murders at Karlov Manor | MKM | 212 | 2015 | Adventure | Black | Joshua Raphael | |
| 3 | 2024-02-10 | Murders at Karlov Manor Promos | PMKM | 212p | 2015 | Adventure | Black | Joshua Raphael | |
| 4 | 2024-02-10 | Murders at Karlov Manor Promos | PMKM | 212s | 2015 | Adventure | Black | Joshua Raphael |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy // Tail the Suspect 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 |