Since we've been gone from Ikoria for a bit, I was thinking about how mutate was used and how it could be changed in a hypothetical return.
Most of the mutate cards just added triggers that (a) motivated you to mutate onto other mutate cards and (b) pile them all onto the same creature. That, plus there likely being a limit to the number of mutate triggers that are reasonable if regularly repeatable, makes me think going in a different direction would be better.
My thought is for cards that have abilities based on things like their colors or mana value, so that the ability will change based on what it is mutated onto.
Mutate Spirit
Creature - Spirit
Mutate 2W
When CARDNAME attacks, gain life equal to its mana value.
2/1
So, by itself its a Goblin Piker that gains 2 whenever you attack, but if you mutate onto your Serra Angel, the angel gains you 5 when it attacks.
Mutate Illusion 1GU
Creature - Illusion
Mutate GU
CARDNAME has +1/+1 for each color among it and cards merged with it.
1/1
This would be a payoff for 3-5 color decks, either a 3/3 for three by itself or getting pumped more if you mutate it with red/white/black creatures.
An interesting thought but it doesn't look like a very deep vein to be minded. The main problem is that you're essentially making mutate cards that don't want to be the "main body". That's fine for two or three cards but you can't really stretch it further than that.
An interesting thought but it doesn't look like a very deep vein to be minded. The main problem is that you're essentially making mutate cards that don't want to be the "main body". That's fine for two or three cards but you can't really stretch it further than that.
So the interesting thing about mutate is that I could play one of these early and later mutate a more expensive creature and put that one on top. I agree that its probably not a huge amount of design space, but its something and any variance from the current "mutate trigger pile" we have would be nice in a return to Ikoria.
An interesting thought but it doesn't look like a very deep vein to be minded. The main problem is that you're essentially making mutate cards that don't want to be the "main body". That's fine for two or three cards but you can't really stretch it further than that.
So the interesting thing about mutate is that I could play one of these early and later mutate a more expensive creature and put that one on top. I agree that its probably not a huge amount of design space, but its something and any variance from the current "mutate trigger pile" we have would be nice in a return to Ikoria.
Ikoria already has such creatures. They just didn't have mutate themselves. They also limited it to three or so creatures because as I said the design space for mutate support is limited.
The main thing is that mutate doesn't need this kind of support because literally all nonhumans fill that role.
Ikoria already has such creatures. They just didn't have mutate themselves. They also limited it to three or so creatures because as I said the design space for mutate support is limited.
The main thing is that mutate doesn't need this kind of support because literally all nonhumans fill that role.
The problem I have with this is it leads to parasitic deck building where the "right" way to play mutate cards (except for Brokkos, Sea-Dasher and Parcelbeast; Otrimi still needs a lot of mutate) is to put as many mutate cards in a deck as possible. I'd like to see an environment where mutate can be played effectively without the need to cram a lot of it into the deck.
Yeah, mutate usually devolved into card-advantage fests due to all the triggers that were trying to avoid the inherent card-disadvantage of fusing two creatures together. Maybe a trigger like:
Alpha Candidate2G
Creature - Wolf
Trample
When this creature mutates for the first time, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.
Mutate 2GG
3/3
I could see a cycle of these creatures to showcase Mutation, but being fine by themselves, and wouldn't devolve into the X triggers per mutation battlecruisers.
An interesting thought but it doesn't look like a very deep vein to be minded. The main problem is that you're essentially making mutate cards that don't want to be the "main body". That's fine for two or three cards but you can't really stretch it further than that.
So the interesting thing about mutate is that I could play one of these early and later mutate a more expensive creature and put that one on top. I agree that its probably not a huge amount of design space, but its something and any variance from the current "mutate trigger pile" we have would be nice in a return to Ikoria.
I'm in agreement here. I would like to see more mutate cards that care about actually changing the creature to make it a threat in other ways rather than just stacking mutate triggers.
Feels like a more restrictive way to use mutate. Like user_938036 mentioned, these sort of designs would work well as a couple cards, but in high volume they sort of actively fight against what mutate wants to do.
Personally, I'd like to see more things that trigger whenever any creature you control mutates, to change the battle cruiser style game play up a little bit. Really wish Mutate combined the power/ toughness of the mutated creatures.
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Most of the mutate cards just added triggers that (a) motivated you to mutate onto other mutate cards and (b) pile them all onto the same creature. That, plus there likely being a limit to the number of mutate triggers that are reasonable if regularly repeatable, makes me think going in a different direction would be better.
My thought is for cards that have abilities based on things like their colors or mana value, so that the ability will change based on what it is mutated onto.
Mutate Spirit
Creature - Spirit
Mutate 2W
When CARDNAME attacks, gain life equal to its mana value.
2/1
So, by itself its a Goblin Piker that gains 2 whenever you attack, but if you mutate onto your Serra Angel, the angel gains you 5 when it attacks.
Mutate Illusion 1GU
Creature - Illusion
Mutate GU
CARDNAME has +1/+1 for each color among it and cards merged with it.
1/1
This would be a payoff for 3-5 color decks, either a 3/3 for three by itself or getting pumped more if you mutate it with red/white/black creatures.
Thoughts?
So the interesting thing about mutate is that I could play one of these early and later mutate a more expensive creature and put that one on top. I agree that its probably not a huge amount of design space, but its something and any variance from the current "mutate trigger pile" we have would be nice in a return to Ikoria.
The main thing is that mutate doesn't need this kind of support because literally all nonhumans fill that role.
I think we are talking about two different things. Ikoria & Commander had 34 cards with mutate, and only 4 of them didn't care about the total number of creatures mutated together (Sea-Dasher Octopus, Parcelbeast, Brokkos, Apex of Forever, and Otrimi, the Ever Playful).
The problem I have with this is it leads to parasitic deck building where the "right" way to play mutate cards (except for Brokkos, Sea-Dasher and Parcelbeast; Otrimi still needs a lot of mutate) is to put as many mutate cards in a deck as possible. I'd like to see an environment where mutate can be played effectively without the need to cram a lot of it into the deck.
Alpha Candidate 2G
Creature - Wolf
Trample
When this creature mutates for the first time, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.
Mutate 2GG
3/3
I could see a cycle of these creatures to showcase Mutation, but being fine by themselves, and wouldn't devolve into the X triggers per mutation battlecruisers.
I'm in agreement here. I would like to see more mutate cards that care about actually changing the creature to make it a threat in other ways rather than just stacking mutate triggers.
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Personally, I'd like to see more things that trigger whenever any creature you control mutates, to change the battle cruiser style game play up a little bit. Really wish Mutate combined the power/ toughness of the mutated creatures.