Popular MTG Planeswalker fuels exile strategies through Murders at Karlov Manor

Sticking with the one Magic: The Gathering Planeswalker per Standard-legal set design rule, Kaya, Spirits’ Justice is the only Planeswalker to come within the new Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM) expansion. 

Kaya Cassir, former guildmaster of the Orzhov Syndicate on Ravnica, has found herself in the middle of a murder mystery that could cause a war among guilds. Able to maintain her spark through the Desparkening, Kaya is the only Planeswalker within the Murders at Karlov Manor set. Solving Cases and tracking down Suspects while creatures hide in Disguise are a few new MTG mechanics found within the Standard-legal set. Helping solve the crimes is the Planeswalker card Kaya, Spirits’ Justice.

Two of my favorite abilities that Kaya typically has on an MTG Planeswalker card are being able to exile an opponent’s creature and her token synergies. Kaya, Spirits’ Justice is a combination of both of those abilities and more. 

• Mana cost: 2WB
• Type: Legendary Creature—Kaya
• Rarity: Mythic Rare
• Starting loyalty: Three
• Passive ability: Whenever one or more creatures you control and/or creature cards in your graveyard are put into exile, you may choose a creature card from among them. Until the end of turn, target token you control becomes a copy of it, except it has Flying. 
• Plus-two ability: Surveil two, then exile a card from a graveyard
• Plus-one ability: Create a 1/1 White and Black spirit creature token with Flying
• Minus-two ability: Exile target creature you control. For each other player, exile up to one target creature that player controls.

There’s a bunch of text within Kaya, Spirits’ Justice passive ability as it synergizes with her loyalty abilities. Kaya can exile other creatures under the control of opponents but she can’t make a copy of them as that applies to only creatures you control and/or in your graveyard. The passive ability on Kaya, Spirits’ Justice is unique and may even slot into a new type of Aristocrat build.

The minus-two loyalty ability will likely become the most popular choice through Kaya, Spirits’ Justice as it synergizes with her passive and exiles up to one target creature from each player, which is very powerful within the Commander format. 

Creating tokens is fine as a plus-one loyalty ability when you need a defender, but otherwise, Kaya’s plus-two is the way to go. It allows you to Surveil two, which in White and Black decks is a big plus, and then it synergizes with her passive as long as you have a creature in your graveyard.