MTG Lead Designer Defends Non-Playable Cards In Karlov Manor Prerelease Kits

thegamer.com:

Magic: The Gathering's new Murders At Karlov Manor prerelease kit comes with one of three extra cards that you won't be allowed to play in your prerelease deck, only being playable in other formats.

In your prerelease kit, you could pull a Tomik, Wielder of Law; Voja, Jaws of the Conclave; or a Melek, Reforged Researcher. However, you won't be allowed to include these in the deck you make with all the other cards in the kit, despite them being Standard-legal and from the regular Murders at Karlov Manor set. This has understandably caused confusion among the community, as people unsure of their legality will inevitably end up playing with them anyway. Yet, despite the backlash, lead designer Mark Rosewater stands by the idea.

"The reason is there are only three and the cards are powerful," Rosewater said. "If we let players play with them, everyone would. It would greatly warp the prerelease and make it less fun."

Rosewater's comments haven't dissuaded players, however, especially since there's no warning that the cards aren't legal. It's up to the organisers to make that clear. "The issue is it's confusing," @Jahikoi replied. "At least once per event, someone plays with a promo they're not supposed to."

"The reason is fine, the implementation is confusing," @Marc_MTG replied. "Can't something be printed on the plastic, inserted into the pack, etc? I understand the complexities that adds with localisation or collation, but having something clearly attached to the promo card package would help."

The cards themselves are going down well, and people are plenty excited to finally have a chance to play them in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Vintage, Legacy, and Commander after the prerelease period, but the way they were distributed has caused concern. Players are asking for unique symbols to make it clear that they aren't legal yet, for them to be handed out as promos rather than included in the kits, or to simply be kept from prerelease packs altogether and saved for later.