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Carnage Interpreter

Creature — Devil Detective

When this creature enters, discard your hand, then investigate four times. (To investigate, create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
As long as you have one or fewer cards in hand, this creature gets +2/+2 and has menace.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{B/R}{B/R}
Color identity
BR
Rarity
rare
Set
Ravnica: Clue Edition
Price
$2.03
EDHREC rank
#22289
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Carnage Interpreter card art
Carnage Interpreter turns every Food, Treasure, and Clue token that hits the table into a damage trigger — and next to Academy Manufactor, that damage compounds into a kill condition fast. The mana cost is real, but the payoff is a continuous drain engine that closes games without needing combat.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Carnage Interpreter lives — token-generating artifact synergies are everywhere in the format, and the card slots cleanly into any shell that makes Treasures, Foods, or Clues in bulk. Legacy and Vintage are legal homes on paper, but the five-mana investment and narrow trigger condition price it out of those formats entirely. Carnage Interpreter is essentially a Commander-only card in practice.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$2.03 cheap tier

At $2.03, Carnage Interpreter sits in the easy-pickup tier — low enough to test without commitment, priced appropriately for a card that only truly shines in token-heavy Commander builds. Demand is niche enough that the price is unlikely to spike unless a high-profile artifact token commander pushes it into the spotlight.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.