+1 Loam Dweller
-1 Mana Reflection
All credit to tstorm823 for pointing out this card to me. Loam Dweller is much worse as a ramp spell than Mana Reflection, however Loam Dweller lets me say "Spirit" while ramping. So, all things considered, this was an incredibly easy cut.
+1 Priest of Titania
-1 Defiant Falcon
I already have Lin-Sivvi, the three moggcatcher cycle searchers, Sliver Overlord, and Higure to tutor up Changelings. This deck can be super mana hungry (like all my decks) so I figured I'd cut a mana sink for a mana producer. Defiant Falcon is the worst of all my tutors, so out it goes.
I'm also thinking of trying to squeeze Coat of Arms in here somewhere. I'm unsure of what to cut though.
I had a handful of 1v1 games against Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma. They were fun overall.
The first game he cast Tooth and Nail for Worldspine Wurm and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. Unfortunately, the same turn he cast also cast Greater Good. I had Mirror Entity, Unnatural Selection and 3 other creatures. I cast Peer Pressure, I would have stolen most of his board (using Unnatural Selection to steal multiple threats) but he sacrificed it all in response to Peer Pressure. He drew about 30 cards and then played Mana Reflection and some other mana doublers on his next turn. Endstep, I used Skyshroud Poacher to find Gilt-Leaf Archdruid. Unfortunately, I was one mana short of casting two creatures to steal all his lands (because of missing a land drop and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger leaving two of my lands tapped. He untapped and killed me with a bunch of stuff including Craterhoof Behemoth and End-Raze Forerunners. Really close awesome game.
Some more tweaks now that I've gotten around to my War of the Spark updates.
+1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Vivid Marsh
Probably a strict downgrade in terms of actual mana-fixing for the trade off of uncounterable general and changelings.
+1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
-1 New Blood
I knew I wanted to put in Tolsimir since I saw him spoiled as this deck really needed some incidental lifegain. He also wraths most of the board with the oblivion ring loop (7/7 titan fighting everything) while gaining infinite life. He's also tutorable with Skyshroud Poacher. New Blood is kinda neat, but I never really cast it and it doesn't enable truly stupid plays, which is more what I'm looking for.
Had a funny 1v1 game against Animar, Soul of Elements. I had Tuktuk Scrapper and Moggcatcher on board.
My opponent casts Ancestral Statue to try and go infinite (by bouncing and replaying itself with his general having a few counters).
I said "Ancestral trigger on the stack, I'm going to tutor for a changeling". My opponent said "Wait Tuktuk Scrapper triggers every time an ally ETBs?"
So I let him take the play back and instead he targeted Tuktuk with Beast Within. I response I tutor'd up Changeling Berserker and championed my Tuktuk. He passes turn, I pass turn. Opponent casts Ancestral Statue again. "Ancestral trigger on the stack", tutor up Changeling Titan. Changeling Titan champions Changeling Berserker. Beserker leaves play, Tuktuk Scrapper returns to play and destroys Ancestral Statue with its bounce trigger on the stack. My opponent was so confused as to what was happening it was great.
You've got 33 creature types but none of them are Zombie?
Graveborn Muse seems like the best candidate to me, as a Phyrexian Arena on a body, except this Arena can easily draw you 5+ cards a turn if you flood the board with Changelings which compensates for the main weakness of Arena (drawing cards too slowly). If you're losing too much life, you can Champion it away, chump attack/block with it etc.
For less damaging card draw, Gisa and Geralf act like Wort, Boggart Auntie #2, with some minor downsides and upsides: they can't get back Crib Swap; they don't let you hoard changelings in your hand, you have to cast one every turn or lose value; you get to cast a changeling the turn you play them; they mill you to make it more likely to have stuff to cast; they've got a bigger body but no evasion. I'd try and fit both in if you can.
I'll also mention two other options though I think they're both weaker. Cryptbreaker does his best impression of Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca's good ability while also being way cheaper and providing additional bodies to block, attack, and tap for cards. Rooftop Storm is expensive and is pretty bad at casting your mostly cheap changelings, but combined with Artificial Evolution of Arcane Adaptation it can do some silly stuff.
I might end up building my own version of this deck in the future, hope you don't mind me stealing the idea. :>
Several years ago I created a changeling lords deck. It didn't work and relied a lot for tutors to find mirror entity. It was boring and janky. Didn't work 80% of the time.
Previous year around September, a new commander tournament started at a LGS. I set out to revise my changeling deck as a lot of new tribe cards came out in the past years. The goal was to include a bunch of changelings, a few cards to glue it together or generally good draw cards, and a number of cards that became that much more powerful when you have an 'extra' of that creature type. I arrived on https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/changeling-creature-type/ (a few changes since then, I got rid of most mana creatures, added Zombie god and such). It didn't win tournament, but I did get the most fun award. It was quite unique to go in with Ninja Dragon 2/2s, triggering multiple effects. Having an indestructible 'knight' 4/4 'beast' fight creatures (contested cliffs). (FYI, in the tournament, you are not allowed to go infinite, and penalized for overtutoring. Hence, good card draw is king.)
It is quite funny to see someone else come up with the same idea with Ur-Dragon at the helm and a lot of similar creatures. I have a whole 'pack' of cards that fit the tribal bill but I did not consider worthy including (yet).
You've got 33 creature types but none of them are Zombie?
Unholy Grotto is going in the moment I acquire one. I also felt like this was super wrong. I spent a fair amount of time digging through the zombies and they all felt underwhelming.
Graveborn Muse seems like the best candidate to me, as a Phyrexian Arena on a body, except this Arena can easily draw you 5+ cards a turn if you flood the board with Changelings which compensates for the main weakness of Arena (drawing cards too slowly). If you're losing too much life, you can Champion it away, chump attack/block with it etc.
I had graveborn muse in for a while, but she was just too slow. I was never happy to cast her and the life loss added up way too much. Muse is way worse than Sea Gate Loremaster because the loremaster can be tutored with Seahunter and I'm not currently even running the loremaster.
For less damaging card draw, Gisa and Geralf act like Wort, Boggart Auntie #2, with some minor downsides and upsides: they can't get back Crib Swap; they don't let you hoard changelings in your hand, you have to cast one every turn or lose value; you get to cast a changeling the turn you play them; they mill you to make it more likely to have stuff to cast; they've got a bigger body but no evasion. I'd try and fit both in if you can.
Wort, Boggart Auntie is actually fairly underwhelming to me currently. There's a good chance she'll get cut in the next few sets. She's primarily in here as a moggcatcher target.
I'll also mention two other options though I think they're both weaker. Cryptbreaker does his best impression of Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca's good ability while also being way cheaper and providing additional bodies to block, attack, and tap for cards. Rooftop Storm is expensive and is pretty bad at casting your mostly cheap changelings, but combined with Artificial Evolution of Arcane Adaptation it can do some silly stuff.
Rooftop storm was in the original deck, but it got cut. Most of my changelings are already so inexpensive it was unnecessary. It got replaced by Cryptic Gateway.
Cryptbreaker suffers from requiring to much set-up for too little payoff. He also suffers from not being tutorable by Seahunter like Kumena.
It is quite funny to see someone else come up with the same idea with Ur-Dragon at the helm and a lot of similar creatures. I have a whole 'pack' of cards that fit the tribal bill but I did not consider worthy including (yet).
I've actually had this deck sitting around for a little while. It was more beat stick focused with Karona, False God at the helm. I also found it to be very lack luster until I changed it to be more combo-y/card-advantage focused. What other cards were you thinking of considering?
How strong did you find Call to the Kindred, Descendants' Path. I'm always worried they'll be either too vulnerable or wiff too often (respectively).
Welp, I've gotta start ordering the cards I need now. Making the Ur-Dragon cost 4 mana with a giant tutorable body is pretty slick.
Yeaaaaaaah. This fella is definitely going in. For reasons you stated. It also makes the Ur-dragon 2 shot people after costing 4-mana.
Combined with the Ur-Dragon it’ll make a bunch of changelings cost 0 mana (like that new Imposter of the Sixth Pride). I’ll need to find some more infinite combos based around that I think.
Yay another deathtouch changeling! Handful of tiny combos. Removal with our Friend of Wolves Elf. Widespread Brutality kills everything. Tutorable deathtouch blockers make attacking annoying. Fun fun! There’s going to be some new green, blue and red changelings almost certainly too! Weeeeeeee!
Combined with the Ur-Dragon it’ll make a bunch of changelings cost 0 mana (like that new Imposter of the Sixth Pride). I’ll need to find some more infinite combos based around that I think.
Surprise surprise, Cloudstone Curio is a busted with yet another card. Keep bouncing 1 or 2 mana changelings to your hand and trigger your infinite lifegain off Tolsimir, vindicates from Reaper King, card draw off Unesh or Wirewood Savage, etc. Gilt-Leaf Archdruid draws infinite cards as well, and then once you have 7 changelings in hand you can play them all, then with the Curio trigger on the stack, steal someone's lands, resolve Curio to bounce back a changeling, then play it again to return your tapped changelings to hand then replay them again, effectively untapping them to steal the table's lands. Aluren offers a bit of redundancy to this combo as well (though TBH with threedirect-to-playtutors, it's probably egregious). Curio is also a good card by itself, since the deck has so many cheap 1-2 mana changelings (with more hopefully coming with MH) so it can juggle them to trigger Lathliss and Spit Flame and the like. With the tutor creatures you can also save your important creatures from wraths with Curio.
For a more tribal-based combo, Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves gets you infinite life and infinite ETBs with any cheap changeling. If you have a haste outlet and a mana-maker, it's also infinite mana. Hibernation Sliver also seems decent in the deck already for the same reasons Cloudstone Curio would be. There's also probably something you can do with Arcane Adaptation to break it, but right now I'm not seeing it.
Man, this set really added a lot to help this deck become more refined. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on some of the new cards. Here's all the ones I'm looking at:
Irregular Cohort - This one seems like a slam-dunk; two changeling bodies at a reasonably cheap 3 mana to double-trigger our Unesh and such while also providing multiple bodies to tap for mana. It also goes infinite a number of ways. Haste outlet + mana outlet + Walker of Secret Ways + Cryptic Gateway = infinite ETBs (EDIT: Nope nevermind, this is a nonbo, forgot that you're tapping the creatures for Gateway and thus can't also tap them for mana). The previously mentioned Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves synergy alongside Cryptic Gateway gets infinite life + ETBs AND infinite (tapped) tokens by responding to the Gateway activation by bouncing Cohort back with the Sliver's ability.
Valiant Changeling - This one I'm unsure how to evaluate. The new set added enough 1 mana changelings that this will sometimes be castable on turn 2 which is great, but without a changeling it's sketchy. The deck has enough creatures with two or more creature types that I think it'll be castable for 3-4 a reasonable amount of the time even when we don't have another changeling, but even then that's pretty bad, and lategame it seems likely to be bricked by larger creatures. It does have some neat synergies with Yuriko and Seshiro though. I'll probably try it but I think the deck actually has better options.
Changeling Outcast - Works amazingly with Yuriko and Seshiro and friends and costs 1. Definitely in.
Graveshifter - This is definitely worth including right? It's a bit awkward that there's going to be spots early game where we want to play a changeling for tribal synergies but don't have a creature in the yard, but being able to get back our strong tribal card lategame seems more than worth it.
Undead Augur - I'll just mention that maybe in a version of this deck that's more sacrifice heavy this would be a good include. As is it's probably too difficult to trigger reliably without sac outlets.
Ayula, Queen Among Bears - I think this card requires too much work to be good. Needing to play this out BEFORE playing changelings, and then needing to build up enough counters on one of our tiny changelings to be big enough to fight seems real bad. Maybe just because it's cheap and has a unique tribe that makes it appealing, but I'm unconvinced.
Webweaver Changeling - Seems wayyy too expensive. The lifegain is whatever, and being a big reach body is fine, but I don't want to spend 4 mana on a medium changeling.
Cloudshredder Sliver - Both flying AND haste are abilities this deck wants a lot and there's no other card that does both this efficiently, it's just unfortunate it's attached to a sliver (since I've taken your stance in trying to diversify creature types as much as possible). I think it's likely this makes it in for me though.
The First Sliver - I feel like there's some sort of silly combo this enables, but right now I'm not seeing it. As is, it's another Sliver that's expensive and is doing something the deck already does (draw cards/generate value) with a creature type we already run plenty of. Seems like an easy pass. I'd rather play Sliver Overlord.
Ingenious Infiltrator - We already have this effect a bunch as well, and we also have a bunch of Ninjas already. It's just a weaker Yuriko. Nah.
Unsettled Mariner - Seems like an easy include. No mana discount, but making other players pay a tax to mess with our stuff seems great.
Universal Automaton - Ohhhhh boy they did it. 0 mana changeling. Everything I said about Irregular Cohort applies to this guy except you can totally remove Cryptic Gateway from the equation (EDIT: and add in Training Grounds for the first combo I guess). There's gotta be something else that goes off with this guy, but I don't feel like diving into that now. Never thought I'd be this excited for a Memnite. EDIT: Hah, well if nothing else Hibernation Sliver + this + Reaper King is "Pay 2 life: Destroy target permanent", which is incredibly amusing.
Man, this set really added a lot to help this deck become more refined. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on some of the new cards. Here's all the ones I'm looking at:
This set is super fantastic! The only thing that saddens me is that it'll make changelings more mainstream and thus my deck will be less super hipster original feeling. Overall a minor concern.
Irregular Cohort - This one seems like a slam-dunk; two changeling bodies at a reasonably cheap 3 mana to double-trigger our Unesh and such while also providing multiple bodies to tap for mana. It also goes infinite a number of ways. Haste outlet + mana outlet + Walker of Secret Ways + Cryptic Gateway = infinite ETBs (EDIT: Nope nevermind, this is a nonbo, forgot that you're tapping the creatures for Gateway and thus can't also tap them for mana). The previously mentioned Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves synergy alongside Cryptic Gateway gets infinite life + ETBs AND infinite (tapped) tokens by responding to the Gateway activation by bouncing Cohort back with the Sliver's ability.
Yeah. This card is super awesome. I look forward to abusing it greatly.
Valiant Changeling - This one I'm unsure how to evaluate. The new set added enough 1 mana changelings that this will sometimes be castable on turn 2 which is great, but without a changeling it's sketchy. The deck has enough creatures with two or more creature types that I think it'll be castable for 3-4 a reasonable amount of the time even when we don't have another changeling, but even then that's pretty bad, and lategame it seems likely to be bricked by larger creatures. It does have some neat synergies with Yuriko and Seshiro though. I'll probably try it but I think the deck actually has better options.
I'm really interested in the fact is has double strike. However, I'm really concerned about it costing WW. My mana-base is baaaaaad. There's 7 other changelings I like more in this set. I doubt I'll be able to find room for it.
Graveshifter - This is definitely worth including right? It's a bit awkward that there's going to be spots early game where we want to play a changeling for tribal synergies but don't have a creature in the yard, but being able to get back our strong tribal card lategame seems more than worth it.
I'm going to cut Wort, Boggart Auntie. She's only ever gotten me back 1 card before, so this does that but is also a changeling. This is also really good with Unholy Grotto. It'll make that land effectively get back any creature instead with a 2/2 changeling body bonus.
Undead Augur - I'll just mention that maybe in a version of this deck that's more sacrifice heavy this would be a good include. As is it's probably too difficult to trigger reliably without sac outlets.
Yeah, I can see it being ok. I just don't want to sacrifice my changelings ever.
Venomous Changeling - As mentioned, this card is great with a couple of cards in the deck like Widespread Brutality. Definitely makes it in.
1-mana changeling dance.
Ayula, Queen Among Bears - I think this card requires too much work to be good. Needing to play this out BEFORE playing changelings, and then needing to build up enough counters on one of our tiny changelings to be big enough to fight seems real bad. Maybe just because it's cheap and has a unique tribe that makes it appealing, but I'm unconvinced.
I thought about her for a while, but I don't think she does nearly enough. Look how poorly she matches up against Seshiro. I've found I only get 1-2 triggers out of most of my non-changeling cards. Getting +2/+2 on two creatures just isn't enough.
Webweaver Changeling - Seems wayyy too expensive. The lifegain is whatever, and being a big reach body is fine, but I don't want to spend 4 mana on a medium changeling.
I'd have been really happy about this if it costed 4G instead so it could go infinite with a bit of help. I think I like it better than Chameleon Colossus. Being able to tutor it up for some life-gain padding is really nice. On its own I'd have slammed it in three weeks ago... but there's so many good new changelings.
Cloudshredder Sliver - Both flying AND haste are abilities this deck wants a lot and there's no other card that does both this efficiently, it's just unfortunate it's attached to a sliver (since I've taken your stance in trying to diversify creature types as much as possible). I think it's likely this makes it in for me though.
Oh... I hadn't even thought about adding this guy. I'm too busy trying to figure out what I'm going to cut to add Hibernation Sliver. This one is super fantastic for sure... but I have way too many slivers. I'm going to pass on it.
The First Sliver - I feel like there's some sort of silly combo this enables, but right now I'm not seeing it. As is, it's another Sliver that's expensive and is doing something the deck already does (draw cards/generate value) with a creature type we already run plenty of. Seems like an easy pass. I'd rather play Sliver Overlord.
Most of the time we're bouncing and spamming changelings. I doubt they'd really cascade particularly well. I'm also going to pass on him.
Universal Automaton - Ohhhhh boy they did it. 0 mana changeling. Everything I said about Irregular Cohort applies to this guy except you can totally remove Cryptic Gateway from the equation (EDIT: and add in Training Grounds for the first combo I guess). There's gotta be something else that goes off with this guy, but I don't feel like diving into that now. Never thought I'd be this excited for a Memnite. EDIT: Hah, well if nothing else Hibernation Sliver + this + Reaper King is "Pay 2 life: Destroy target permanent", which is incredibly amusing.
Universal Automaton is actually the changeling I'm most excited about.
I still run Higure of the Still Wind. I wonder if this guy would be better. Waaay less awesome, but I might make that swap.
How has Higure been for you? I'm still getting the pieces of my deck together so I've had no experience, but it seems like you won't often get in multiple hits with multiple changelings at a time to make Ingenious Infiltrator good, whereas with Higure you only need 1 hit and then you can tutor your best changeling (or Yuriko) and then repeatedly make Higure or your changelings unblockable. I do like that Infiltrator is only 2 mana to Ninjutsu, that's twice as cheap as Higure, but it still seems like Higure would get more mileage in the long run. How important has Higure's unblockability been?
I look forward to countering some spells with a moggcatcher activation.
Unfortunately that doesn't work, as Unsettled Mariner needs to be in play when the casting/activation/triggering of the spell or ability happens for its ability to trigger.
We're pretty much on the same page for everything else. :>
Oh... I hadn't even thought about adding this guy. I'm too busy trying to figure out what I'm going to cut to add Hibernation Sliver. This one is super fantastic for sure... but I have way too many slivers. I'm going to pass on it.
For Hibernation Sliver, have you considered cutting Sliver Hivelord? HS and Hivelord both essentially do the same thing, protect your board from wraths and removal, but HS protects from all kinds of removal, not just destroy effects, admittedly at a loss of life and tempo, made up for slightly by its much cheaper casting cost. Plus cutting a sliver keeps your equilibrium of creature types in check.
Those 3 were also the first ones I landed on for cutting. I also decided to break up the O-Ring changeling loop by cutting 2 of the 3 Champion changelings, as the deck has better combos now and it feels like any hand where I have 2 or 3 of them at once would be a bit awkward. I think I'm gonna keep 1 in though just because having the ability to fetch one out with Skyshroud Poacher and friends to save an important creature from a wrath seems like a play I'd like to have available once in a game (not sure if I'll go with Changeling Hero for lifegain, considering how much I seem to be abusing Hibernation Sliver, or Changeling Titan just because he's gigantic).
How has Higure been for you? I'm still getting the pieces of my deck together so I've had no experience, but it seems like you won't often get in multiple hits with multiple changelings at a time to make Ingenious Infiltrator good, whereas with Higure you only need 1 hit and then you can tutor your best changeling (or Yuriko) and then repeatedly make Higure or your changelings unblockable. I do like that Infiltrator is only 2 mana to Ninjutsu, that's twice as cheap as Higure, but it still seems like Higure would get more mileage in the long run. How important has Higure's unblockability been?
I've played with this deck a lot, but I just haven't really draw Higure that much. It's a little hard to say. I can only remember drawing him like 4 times. I only put him into play once or twice. The other times his ninjutsu cost was just too expensive. I've never used his ability to make a ninja unblockable. However, I did put in a bunch of ramp creatures so maybe his cost will feel less prohibitive?
Basically Higure, the still wind is a lot cooler in the deck, so I'm going to keep him for now. However, if the next 3-4 times I draw him I just don't play him because he's too expensive I'll likely cut him for this Ingenious Infiltrator
Unfortunately that doesn't work, as Unsettled Mariner needs to be in play when the casting/activation/triggering of the spell or ability happens for its ability to trigger.
We're pretty much on the same page for everything else. :>
Oh... that is how that works. That makes me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less excited then.
For Hibernation Sliver, have you considered cutting Sliver Hivelord? HS and Hivelord both essentially do the same thing, protect your board from wraths and removal, but HS protects from all kinds of removal, not just destroy effects, admittedly at a loss of life and tempo, made up for slightly by its much cheaper casting cost. Plus cutting a sliver keeps your equilibrium of creature types in check.
I'm cutting Sliver Hivelord. Honestly the primary reason is because I just put together a sliver EDH deck and I only have one Hivelord while I own 3 Sliver Overlords. But also I think Hibernation Sliver is probably just better in this deck. It is better defensively (against exile effects and what not) and offensively (c-c-c-combos). It also costs 3 mana less and $20 less.
Those 3 were also the first ones I landed on for cutting. I also decided to break up the O-Ring changeling loop by cutting 2 of the 3 Champion changelings, as the deck has better combos now and it feels like any hand where I have 2 or 3 of them at once would be a bit awkward. I think I'm gonna keep 1 in though just because having the ability to fetch one out with Skyshroud Poacher and friends to save an important creature from a wrath seems like a play I'd like to have available once in a game (not sure if I'll go with Changeling Hero for lifegain, considering how much I seem to be abusing Hibernation Sliver, or Changeling Titan just because he's gigantic).
I don't really agree with cutting any of the three champions. I've never had a problem casting any of them. The loop is too efficient at winning me the game for me to cut any of the three. They're also some of the best with Widespread Brutality (about as effective as deathtouchers) and Didgeridoo. Plus championing a changeling allows that changeling to get an extra ETB trigger when the champion dies/gets bounced. They're also much more likely to survive attacking into a player later in the game to trigger Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and the like.
Having played with a fair amount of Changelings in a Tolsimir, Friend of Wolves deck, this deck idea is definitely intriguing to me. Especially since I wanted to change up from Tolsimir and other ‘small’ tokens decks. Initially I wanted to see about building a dragons deck with Ur-Dragon, but this looks like a fun alternative that I might piece together instead.
So while going through some cards I found one that will add another creature type to the ones you get to say! Meet Scarblade Elite! Sure it's a touch slow but it does kill things by hurling random changelings at them.
Some epic lords I want to suggest. I have my own deck that isn't with changelings, but it's using as many lords as I can (a maximum of one per creature type) and abusing that with Mirror Entity. Here're my suggestions:
Lullmage Mentor helps counter any annoying spell that might ruin your plans.
The Scarab God does wonders at the beginning of your upkeep with enough changelings in play.
Lord of the Unreal is solid for giving your changelings hexproof. And if you make him into an illusion he protects himself.
Persistent Petitioners if you wanna have some alternate wincon. Not only that, but milling opponents can get creatures in there that can make Cairn Wanderer a have a ton of keyword abilities.
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-1 Chameleon Colossus
+1 Irregular Cohort
I never really wanted to search for the colossus. I've played one game and already been way happier with the cohort.
-1 Moonglove Changeling
+1 Venomous Changeling
Having natural deathtouch and a 1/3 body is way better. I originally thought that Venomous Changeling was only 2 mana, not 3.
-1 Wort, Boggart Auntie
+1 Graveshifter
Wort never got me back more than one creature, I was never happy with her. Graveshifter is going to be fantastic with Unholy Grotto (which I can't find anywhere)
-1 Woodland Changeling
+1 Universal Automaton
I thought about this for a long time, Woodland changeling's body is effectively non-existent. I decided I'd rather have Cairn Wanderer because it can be a 4/4 flying, lifelink, deathtouch, haste. All of which are relevant. I think Skeletal Changeling's regeneration is more relevant than +1/+1. I think an extra mana for flying is worth it on Avian Changeling. Mothdust Changeling's kinda flying is also better. Taurean Mauler actually affects the board outside of being a changeling. Amoeboid Changeling has a bunch of tiny synergies.
Having played with a fair amount of Changelings in a Tolsimir, Friend of Wolves deck, this deck idea is definitely intriguing to me. Especially since I wanted to change up from Tolsimir and other ‘small’ tokens decks. Initially I wanted to see about building a dragons deck with Ur-Dragon, but this looks like a fun alternative that I might piece together instead.
I'd recommend it. Part of what makes me so happy about this deck is how much feel people have watching me play it.
Some epic lords I want to suggest. I have my own deck that isn't with changelings, but it's using as many lords as I can (a maximum of one per creature type) and abusing that with Mirror Entity. Here're my suggestions:
Lullmage Mentor helps counter any annoying spell that might ruin your plans.
The Scarab God does wonders at the beginning of your upkeep with enough changelings in play.
Lord of the Unreal is solid for giving your changelings hexproof. And if you make him into an illusion he protects himself.
Persistent Petitioners if you wanna have some alternate wincon. Not only that, but milling opponents can get creatures in there that can make Cairn Wanderer a have a ton of keyword abilities.
Lullmage Mentor is frankly not going to happen. Speaking from experience, it's immensely rare that I've managed to keep 7 changelings alive.
The Scarab God is very interesting. My first instinct was dismissing him as his synergies with Changelings is very minimal. However, his token creation would also allow me to re-trigger stuff with my dead changelings. I'll probably look into picking one up if I get the chance. He seems sweet.
Lord of the Unreal suffers from the fact that I'm mostly using my changelings to trigger ETB effects. Once the changelings are on the battlefield they don't do much.
Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor is a sweet older card. I don't think it'd have a largest enough effect to warrant. My changelings also want to tap to attack and for mana. This competes directly with those desires.
Persistent Petitioners. This one I need to think about for a little longer. I don't know if it'd have a large enough effect. However, it is hilarious enough that I need to process it some more. It'd be especially great with the Scarab God. Hmmm.
So while going through some cards I found one that will add another creature type to the ones you get to say! Meet Scarblade Elite! Sure it's a touch slow but it does kill things by hurling random changelings at them.
Dragonlover
Ooooh. Scarblade Elite is pretty sweet. Skyshroud Poacher can even find him. Unfortunately, this deck doesn't seem to struggle a ton against single creatures and I'm worried the elite would be too slow.
Got my preordered cards in today, so along with the updates to my other decks I went and built a version of this deck as well. Took some inspiration from the lists posted here with some minor changes based on which cards I had around.
The mana base is obviously makeshift as well, since am working with what I had laying around. Roughly based it on being fetchable through Krosan Verge and Skyshroud Claim since I lack actual fetches to fix colors.
The oddball is probably Evolution Sage but I enjoyed it with the Vivid lands in other decks, so a bit of a pet inclusion. It's also the reason why I do have Patron of the Vein still in this list.
Got my preordered cards in today, so along with the updates to my other decks I went and built a version of this deck as well. Took some inspiration from the lists posted here with some minor changes based on which cards I had around.
The mana base is obviously makeshift as well, since am working with what I had laying around. Roughly based it on being fetchable through Krosan Verge and Skyshroud Claim since I lack actual fetches to fix colors.
The oddball is probably Evolution Sage but I enjoyed it with the Vivid lands in other decks, so a bit of a pet inclusion. It's also the reason why I do have Patron of the Vein still in this list.
Seems pretty close to my list. I'll be curious to know how it works out for you. Since you're running traditional wrath spells, I'd look into picking up a Sliver Hivelord eventually if you enjoy the deck enough. Loam Dweller is certainly the weakest card in the deck. I'd probably recommend you cut it for some flavor of draw spell (distant melody if you're staying on theme, FoF/Rhystic Study if you're not) since your deck has just a few less draw spells than mine.
I've never played with Descendants' Path and have a hard time evaluating it. If you cast it some could you tell me how well it pans out for you?
I'm weary of playing Arcane Adaptation since this deck has so many different creature types. Usually it'll only buff one creature card and if that card dies it'll kinda be useless. Unless you're naming dragon, but all that does is make it a mana rock which is fine I suppose.
Widespread Brutality has been a pretty underwhelming card for me so far. Although, to be fair it's super hard on my manabase which you probably won't struggle with. I'm just... REALLY limited on correctly themed wraths. I think Endemic Plague is much better.
Yeah, it’s close but gave me something to start off with, once I get the first few games in I’ll be able to tweak it more to how it would fit in with my playgroups. As far as removal and such goes, for me it doesn’t have to be all on theme. Like with the lands I don’t run/have all the ones that require you to reveal a specific creature type, I don’t feel the need to buy the missing ones as its probably money better used to improve the rest of the deck.
I’ll probably consider picking up Sliver Hivelord once I figure out if I enjoy playing the deck, it’s a bit of an investment and not a card I’d slot easily into something else. Though a lot of removal in my meta is exile orientated so the indestructible helps less there.
Haven’t played Loam Dweller before so will see how it preforms, though the new Risen Reef is pretty much an improved version of it. So right now I’d consider Dweller a placeholder until the new card is out.
It’s going to be tough to decide if the creature type density is good enough for Descendants’ Path, as it works better in more ‘dedicated’ tribal lists or when you have more top deck manipulation. In this list there might be too many times it ends up missing. I am currently running it over Distant Melody, as am not particularly fond of that one myself since it does little when you are behind and wanted some more draw that isn’t a one-of. Rhystic Study is the better option but my only copy is tied up in a different deck at the moment.
Arcane Adaptation is indeed a situational card, since you’d name a type depending on your board/hand. I’d say Dragons is indeed the safest pick and other then that I would consider Elf or Sliver. Now if only they would print this effect on a creature then you could do more fun stuff with it, since Mirror Entity only affects cards that are on the board already.
Endemic Plague is easier to cast and almost guarantees a good wipe, and it is flavorful. Widespread Brutality let’s you keep most of your side of the board. So it’s essentially a wrath and let’s you swing in. Of course, experience with it might make me re-evaluate it.
One card I still look to add is Finale of Devastation but am hoping those first few games will let me see where I can make some cuts for it.
First two games in with the deck and obviously there was some getting used to the cards Enough misplays for sure but it did let me get a feel for the deck and had me made some changes to my list.
Cards Out: Patron of the Vein - Highly costed and cutting the single double black card will help as well. Evolution Sage - With Patron gone I'm not going to keep it in just for the Vivids. Descendants' Path - Just fell short half of the time, so looking for a bigger impact.
Cards In: Felidar Guardian - Reset button for Arcane Adaptation, but can blink other stuff as well. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - No dragons but the warrior tokens will quickly stack up if unchecked. Finale of Devastation - A tutor that can recur from the graveyard and comes with a built in pump effect.
@ materpillar
Since you are looking for themed wraths, did you consider Whelming Wave?
- He gets back a fair amount of changelings (most notably Mirror Entity). He's probably not good enough, but his synergy with Wirewood Symbiote and Hibernation Sliver does amuse me a fair amount.
Probably not worth it I'd guess. I'm running 10 humans plus 16 changeglings, so the odds of hitting are mediocre.
This guy would fight for the same slot that Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves is sitting in. Tolsimir has a way higher upside but also costs way more mana. Tolsimir is also tutorable with Skyshroud Poacher. I'll probably stick with Tolsimir for now, but I'll keep an eye on him. Tolsimir also unlocks "wolves" where as I already have "angels" unlocked.
First two games in with the deck and obviously there was some getting used to the cards Enough misplays for sure but it did let me get a feel for the deck and had me made some changes to my list.
Cards Out: Patron of the Vein - Highly costed and cutting the single double black card will help as well. Evolution Sage - With Patron gone I'm not going to keep it in just for the Vivids. Descendants' Path - Just fell short half of the time, so looking for a bigger impact.
Cards In: Felidar Guardian - Reset button for Arcane Adaptation, but can blink other stuff as well. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - No dragons but the warrior tokens will quickly stack up if unchecked. Finale of Devastation - A tutor that can recur from the graveyard and comes with a built in pump effect.
I wonder how Najeela, is going to turn out for you. She seems pretty spicy, especially with all my drawtriggers. There's gotta be a really dump way to go infinite with her in this deck right?
Attack with all of them. Untap all your creatures. Tap changelings and Manaweft for WUBRG. Use floating mana to untap. Kill the table with Changeling Outcast? That's fantastic, I should pick a copy of her up. With 5 changelings you get infinite mana (but only during a combat step) and can draw your deck with Azami and such. Interesting interesting.
@ materpillar
Since you are looking for themed wraths, did you consider Whelming Wave?
I've considered it. I never really thought it'd be worth it. Bouncing creatures in EDH seems lack luster since there are such a massive multitude of ETB triggers that get played.
I just saw this card in another thread. I wonder if it'd be good enough for me. I've had a little trouble with over-extending into a wrath spell, this might be an on theme draw spell. With only 16 changelings though, she'd probably miss a ton. Hrm. Maybe not.
Im not really a fan of going infinite, and tutors are also largely discouraged. Hence, I take a more draw cards approach.
Descendants' path is a ticking timebomb. As soon as you get one changeling, it can easily get you yet another.
Although a lot of cards are nice to combo with a changeling, such as Wirewood Savage or Loam Dweller, they have little to no impact on their own and they often sport a creature type that isnt easily intermingled.
From my experience, to make a changeling deck really formidable is that you want to consider the changeling as cheap 'clones'. That is, combine it with creatures that do something really serious with their own creature type. Just getting 1 changeling alongside then quickly becomes 'ok this is serious' into 'omg whats happening? 10 5/5s coming my way?!'
I finally put my deck together and played some games, and so far it's been a blast. Strangely I kept drawing the same half of the deck (I cast Knowledge Exploitation on turn 4 three games in a row) so I'm looking forward to playing with Higure and some of the other cards that have been talked about.
Looking at cards from the new set ...
Kaalia, Zenith Seeker - A good, efficient flying body that has a decent chance of drawing 1 or 2 cards with the deck running 18+ changelings as well as some actual dragons, Kaalia might squeeze in for me. Might need some testing to see how reliable the draw is. If this ever draws 3 its insane.
Omnath, Locus of the Roil - I'm more unsure about this one. It'll be an FTK a reasonable amount of the time which is alright, and slowly growing our changelings or itself into bigger threats is nice (especially for me since I'm running the full suite of fetches), but we don't run enough land ramp to reliably get to 8 lands and that's where most of the value of this thing lies. I was initially high on it, but thinking about it more has me less optimistic.
Other than those and Risen Reef (which is an auto-include), I'm not seeing anything else worth running.
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-1 Mana Reflection
All credit to tstorm823 for pointing out this card to me. Loam Dweller is much worse as a ramp spell than Mana Reflection, however Loam Dweller lets me say "Spirit" while ramping. So, all things considered, this was an incredibly easy cut.
+1 Priest of Titania
-1 Defiant Falcon
I already have Lin-Sivvi, the three moggcatcher cycle searchers, Sliver Overlord, and Higure to tutor up Changelings. This deck can be super mana hungry (like all my decks) so I figured I'd cut a mana sink for a mana producer. Defiant Falcon is the worst of all my tutors, so out it goes.
I'm also thinking of trying to squeeze Coat of Arms in here somewhere. I'm unsure of what to cut though.
I had a handful of 1v1 games against Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma. They were fun overall.
The first game he cast Tooth and Nail for Worldspine Wurm and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. Unfortunately, the same turn he cast also cast Greater Good. I had Mirror Entity, Unnatural Selection and 3 other creatures. I cast Peer Pressure, I would have stolen most of his board (using Unnatural Selection to steal multiple threats) but he sacrificed it all in response to Peer Pressure. He drew about 30 cards and then played Mana Reflection and some other mana doublers on his next turn. Endstep, I used Skyshroud Poacher to find Gilt-Leaf Archdruid. Unfortunately, I was one mana short of casting two creatures to steal all his lands (because of missing a land drop and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger leaving two of my lands tapped. He untapped and killed me with a bunch of stuff including Craterhoof Behemoth and End-Raze Forerunners. Really close awesome game.
Game two, he went cast a T1 Sol Ring into a T2 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma and I died.
Game three, I cast Harabaz Druid T2. Followed by Wirewood Savage and then three Changelings. Turn 5 The Ur-Dragon happened with a swinging Changeling Berserker. T6 The Ur-Dragon swung in and became a snake-rogue-dragon. This attack put a 6 drop into play, drew me two cards, hit him for 12, and then allowed me to cast my opponents Tooth and Nail putting an oppressive board state into play with a bunch of available mana. He did not recover from this.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
+1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Vivid Marsh
Probably a strict downgrade in terms of actual mana-fixing for the trade off of uncounterable general and changelings.
+1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
-1 New Blood
I knew I wanted to put in Tolsimir since I saw him spoiled as this deck really needed some incidental lifegain. He also wraths most of the board with the oblivion ring loop (7/7 titan fighting everything) while gaining infinite life. He's also tutorable with Skyshroud Poacher. New Blood is kinda neat, but I never really cast it and it doesn't enable truly stupid plays, which is more what I'm looking for.
-1 Rakdos, the Showstopper
+1 Widespread Brutality
Widespread Brutality is just a much more consistent card. It does require a changeling to be truly a wrath. However it has much cooler synergies like Mirror Entity making it one-sided, Moonglove Changeling to for sure kill everything, and Changeling Hero to gain 6 health per creature.
Had a funny 1v1 game against Animar, Soul of Elements. I had Tuktuk Scrapper and Moggcatcher on board.
My opponent casts Ancestral Statue to try and go infinite (by bouncing and replaying itself with his general having a few counters).
I said "Ancestral trigger on the stack, I'm going to tutor for a changeling". My opponent said "Wait Tuktuk Scrapper triggers every time an ally ETBs?"
So I let him take the play back and instead he targeted Tuktuk with Beast Within. I response I tutor'd up Changeling Berserker and championed my Tuktuk. He passes turn, I pass turn. Opponent casts Ancestral Statue again. "Ancestral trigger on the stack", tutor up Changeling Titan. Changeling Titan champions Changeling Berserker. Beserker leaves play, Tuktuk Scrapper returns to play and destroys Ancestral Statue with its bounce trigger on the stack. My opponent was so confused as to what was happening it was great.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
Graveborn Muse seems like the best candidate to me, as a Phyrexian Arena on a body, except this Arena can easily draw you 5+ cards a turn if you flood the board with Changelings which compensates for the main weakness of Arena (drawing cards too slowly). If you're losing too much life, you can Champion it away, chump attack/block with it etc.
For less damaging card draw, Gisa and Geralf act like Wort, Boggart Auntie #2, with some minor downsides and upsides: they can't get back Crib Swap; they don't let you hoard changelings in your hand, you have to cast one every turn or lose value; you get to cast a changeling the turn you play them; they mill you to make it more likely to have stuff to cast; they've got a bigger body but no evasion. I'd try and fit both in if you can.
I'll also mention two other options though I think they're both weaker. Cryptbreaker does his best impression of Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca's good ability while also being way cheaper and providing additional bodies to block, attack, and tap for cards. Rooftop Storm is expensive and is pretty bad at casting your mostly cheap changelings, but combined with Artificial Evolution of Arcane Adaptation it can do some silly stuff.
I might end up building my own version of this deck in the future, hope you don't mind me stealing the idea. :>
Several years ago I created a changeling lords deck. It didn't work and relied a lot for tutors to find mirror entity. It was boring and janky. Didn't work 80% of the time.
Previous year around September, a new commander tournament started at a LGS. I set out to revise my changeling deck as a lot of new tribe cards came out in the past years. The goal was to include a bunch of changelings, a few cards to glue it together or generally good draw cards, and a number of cards that became that much more powerful when you have an 'extra' of that creature type. I arrived on https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/changeling-creature-type/ (a few changes since then, I got rid of most mana creatures, added Zombie god and such). It didn't win tournament, but I did get the most fun award. It was quite unique to go in with Ninja Dragon 2/2s, triggering multiple effects. Having an indestructible 'knight' 4/4 'beast' fight creatures (contested cliffs). (FYI, in the tournament, you are not allowed to go infinite, and penalized for overtutoring. Hence, good card draw is king.)
It is quite funny to see someone else come up with the same idea with Ur-Dragon at the helm and a lot of similar creatures. I have a whole 'pack' of cards that fit the tribal bill but I did not consider worthy including (yet).
Unholy Grotto is going in the moment I acquire one. I also felt like this was super wrong. I spent a fair amount of time digging through the zombies and they all felt underwhelming.
I had graveborn muse in for a while, but she was just too slow. I was never happy to cast her and the life loss added up way too much. Muse is way worse than Sea Gate Loremaster because the loremaster can be tutored with Seahunter and I'm not currently even running the loremaster.
Wort, Boggart Auntie is actually fairly underwhelming to me currently. There's a good chance she'll get cut in the next few sets. She's primarily in here as a moggcatcher target.
Rooftop storm was in the original deck, but it got cut. Most of my changelings are already so inexpensive it was unnecessary. It got replaced by Cryptic Gateway.
Cryptbreaker suffers from requiring to much set-up for too little payoff. He also suffers from not being tutorable by Seahunter like Kumena.
By all means... steal away. This deck is super great to play.
I've actually had this deck sitting around for a little while. It was more beat stick focused with Karona, False God at the helm. I also found it to be very lack luster until I changed it to be more combo-y/card-advantage focused. What other cards were you thinking of considering?
How strong did you find Call to the Kindred, Descendants' Path. I'm always worried they'll be either too vulnerable or wiff too often (respectively).
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
Imposter of the Sixth Pride
Imposter of the Sixth Pride
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Welp, I've gotta start ordering the cards I need now. Making the Ur-Dragon cost 4 mana with a giant tutorable body is pretty slick.
Yeaaaaaaah. This fella is definitely going in. For reasons you stated. It also makes the Ur-dragon 2 shot people after costing 4-mana.
Combined with the Ur-Dragon it’ll make a bunch of changelings cost 0 mana (like that new Imposter of the Sixth Pride). I’ll need to find some more infinite combos based around that I think.
Yay another deathtouch changeling! Handful of tiny combos. Removal with our Friend of Wolves Elf. Widespread Brutality kills everything. Tutorable deathtouch blockers make attacking annoying. Fun fun! There’s going to be some new green, blue and red changelings almost certainly too! Weeeeeeee!
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
Surprise surprise, Cloudstone Curio is a busted with yet another card. Keep bouncing 1 or 2 mana changelings to your hand and trigger your infinite lifegain off Tolsimir, vindicates from Reaper King, card draw off Unesh or Wirewood Savage, etc. Gilt-Leaf Archdruid draws infinite cards as well, and then once you have 7 changelings in hand you can play them all, then with the Curio trigger on the stack, steal someone's lands, resolve Curio to bounce back a changeling, then play it again to return your tapped changelings to hand then replay them again, effectively untapping them to steal the table's lands. Aluren offers a bit of redundancy to this combo as well (though TBH with three direct-to-play tutors, it's probably egregious). Curio is also a good card by itself, since the deck has so many cheap 1-2 mana changelings (with more hopefully coming with MH) so it can juggle them to trigger Lathliss and Spit Flame and the like. With the tutor creatures you can also save your important creatures from wraths with Curio.
For a more tribal-based combo, Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves gets you infinite life and infinite ETBs with any cheap changeling. If you have a haste outlet and a mana-maker, it's also infinite mana. Hibernation Sliver also seems decent in the deck already for the same reasons Cloudstone Curio would be. There's also probably something you can do with Arcane Adaptation to break it, but right now I'm not seeing it.
Dragonlover
Lathliss Dragon Queen - All dragons all the time!
Mono-White Mono-Legends
Ruhan of the Fomori
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer
Storrev, Devkarin Lich
Irregular Cohort - This one seems like a slam-dunk; two changeling bodies at a reasonably cheap 3 mana to double-trigger our Unesh and such while also providing multiple bodies to tap for mana. It also goes infinite a number of ways.
Haste outlet + mana outlet + Walker of Secret Ways + Cryptic Gateway = infinite ETBs(EDIT: Nope nevermind, this is a nonbo, forgot that you're tapping the creatures for Gateway and thus can't also tap them for mana). The previously mentioned Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves synergy alongside Cryptic Gateway gets infinite life + ETBs AND infinite (tapped) tokens by responding to the Gateway activation by bouncing Cohort back with the Sliver's ability.Impostor of the Sixth Pride - 1 mana changelings are the best. I'll probably cut one of the more medium 4/3 mana options I was running like Ghostly Changeling.
Valiant Changeling - This one I'm unsure how to evaluate. The new set added enough 1 mana changelings that this will sometimes be castable on turn 2 which is great, but without a changeling it's sketchy. The deck has enough creatures with two or more creature types that I think it'll be castable for 3-4 a reasonable amount of the time even when we don't have another changeling, but even then that's pretty bad, and lategame it seems likely to be bricked by larger creatures. It does have some neat synergies with Yuriko and Seshiro though. I'll probably try it but I think the deck actually has better options.
Changeling Outcast - Works amazingly with Yuriko and Seshiro and friends and costs 1. Definitely in.
Graveshifter - This is definitely worth including right? It's a bit awkward that there's going to be spots early game where we want to play a changeling for tribal synergies but don't have a creature in the yard, but being able to get back our strong tribal card lategame seems more than worth it.
Undead Augur - I'll just mention that maybe in a version of this deck that's more sacrifice heavy this would be a good include. As is it's probably too difficult to trigger reliably without sac outlets.
Venomous Changeling - As mentioned, this card is great with a couple of cards in the deck like Widespread Brutality. Definitely makes it in.
Ayula, Queen Among Bears - I think this card requires too much work to be good. Needing to play this out BEFORE playing changelings, and then needing to build up enough counters on one of our tiny changelings to be big enough to fight seems real bad. Maybe just because it's cheap and has a unique tribe that makes it appealing, but I'm unconvinced.
Webweaver Changeling - Seems wayyy too expensive. The lifegain is whatever, and being a big reach body is fine, but I don't want to spend 4 mana on a medium changeling.
Cloudshredder Sliver - Both flying AND haste are abilities this deck wants a lot and there's no other card that does both this efficiently, it's just unfortunate it's attached to a sliver (since I've taken your stance in trying to diversify creature types as much as possible). I think it's likely this makes it in for me though.
The First Sliver - I feel like there's some sort of silly combo this enables, but right now I'm not seeing it. As is, it's another Sliver that's expensive and is doing something the deck already does (draw cards/generate value) with a creature type we already run plenty of. Seems like an easy pass. I'd rather play Sliver Overlord.
Ingenious Infiltrator - We already have this effect a bunch as well, and we also have a bunch of Ninjas already. It's just a weaker Yuriko. Nah.
Unsettled Mariner - Seems like an easy include. No mana discount, but making other players pay a tax to mess with our stuff seems great.
Morophon, the Boundless - He's definitely in.
Birthing Boughs - Wayyyy too much mana. No thanks.
Universal Automaton - Ohhhhh boy they did it. 0 mana changeling. Everything I said about Irregular Cohort applies to this guy except you can totally remove Cryptic Gateway from the equation (EDIT: and add in Training Grounds for the first combo I guess). There's gotta be something else that goes off with this guy, but I don't feel like diving into that now. Never thought I'd be this excited for a Memnite. EDIT: Hah, well if nothing else Hibernation Sliver + this + Reaper King is "Pay 2 life: Destroy target permanent", which is incredibly amusing.
This set is super fantastic! The only thing that saddens me is that it'll make changelings more mainstream and thus my deck will be less super hipster original feeling. Overall a minor concern.
Yeah. This card is super awesome. I look forward to abusing it greatly.
1 Mana changelings are fantastic. I'm slamming them all of them in. This is the least exciting of the 3 but I'm still super happy about it.
I'm really interested in the fact is has double strike. However, I'm really concerned about it costing WW. My mana-base is baaaaaad. There's 7 other changelings I like more in this set. I doubt I'll be able to find room for it.
Slam in for reasons stated.
I'm going to cut Wort, Boggart Auntie. She's only ever gotten me back 1 card before, so this does that but is also a changeling. This is also really good with Unholy Grotto. It'll make that land effectively get back any creature instead with a 2/2 changeling body bonus.
Yeah, I can see it being ok. I just don't want to sacrifice my changelings ever.
1-mana changeling dance.
I thought about her for a while, but I don't think she does nearly enough. Look how poorly she matches up against Seshiro. I've found I only get 1-2 triggers out of most of my non-changeling cards. Getting +2/+2 on two creatures just isn't enough.
I'd have been really happy about this if it costed 4G instead so it could go infinite with a bit of help. I think I like it better than Chameleon Colossus. Being able to tutor it up for some life-gain padding is really nice. On its own I'd have slammed it in three weeks ago... but there's so many good new changelings.
Oh... I hadn't even thought about adding this guy. I'm too busy trying to figure out what I'm going to cut to add Hibernation Sliver. This one is super fantastic for sure... but I have way too many slivers. I'm going to pass on it.
Most of the time we're bouncing and spamming changelings. I doubt they'd really cascade particularly well. I'm also going to pass on him.
I still run Higure of the Still Wind. I wonder if this guy would be better. Waaay less awesome, but I might make that swap.
I look forward to countering some spells with a moggcatcher activation.
C-C-C-COMBO TIME.
I want 1-mana changelings not 7 mana changelings. Well except for Morophon.
Universal Automaton is actually the changeling I'm most excited about.
Order of excitement
Tier 1 - SQUEEEEE
1 Universal Automaton
2 Morophon, the Boundless
3 Changeling Outcast
4 Irregular Cohort
5 Graveshifter
Tier 2 - Windmill Slam
6 Venomous Changeling
7 Impostor of the Sixth Pride
8 Unsettled Mariner
Tier 3 - I'm very interested
9 Valiant Changeling
10 Webweaver Changeling
Tier 4 - Not even remotely considering
Birthing Boughs
I just looked over my changeling list... there's only like 2-3 I actually want to cut. Ghostly Changeling, Chameleon Colossus, and Cairn Wanderer are the only obvious cuts. Sigh.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
How has Higure been for you? I'm still getting the pieces of my deck together so I've had no experience, but it seems like you won't often get in multiple hits with multiple changelings at a time to make Ingenious Infiltrator good, whereas with Higure you only need 1 hit and then you can tutor your best changeling (or Yuriko) and then repeatedly make Higure or your changelings unblockable. I do like that Infiltrator is only 2 mana to Ninjutsu, that's twice as cheap as Higure, but it still seems like Higure would get more mileage in the long run. How important has Higure's unblockability been?
Unfortunately that doesn't work, as Unsettled Mariner needs to be in play when the casting/activation/triggering of the spell or ability happens for its ability to trigger.
We're pretty much on the same page for everything else. :>
For Hibernation Sliver, have you considered cutting Sliver Hivelord? HS and Hivelord both essentially do the same thing, protect your board from wraths and removal, but HS protects from all kinds of removal, not just destroy effects, admittedly at a loss of life and tempo, made up for slightly by its much cheaper casting cost. Plus cutting a sliver keeps your equilibrium of creature types in check.
Those 3 were also the first ones I landed on for cutting. I also decided to break up the O-Ring changeling loop by cutting 2 of the 3 Champion changelings, as the deck has better combos now and it feels like any hand where I have 2 or 3 of them at once would be a bit awkward. I think I'm gonna keep 1 in though just because having the ability to fetch one out with Skyshroud Poacher and friends to save an important creature from a wrath seems like a play I'd like to have available once in a game (not sure if I'll go with Changeling Hero for lifegain, considering how much I seem to be abusing Hibernation Sliver, or Changeling Titan just because he's gigantic).
I've played with this deck a lot, but I just haven't really draw Higure that much. It's a little hard to say. I can only remember drawing him like 4 times. I only put him into play once or twice. The other times his ninjutsu cost was just too expensive. I've never used his ability to make a ninja unblockable. However, I did put in a bunch of ramp creatures so maybe his cost will feel less prohibitive?
Basically Higure, the still wind is a lot cooler in the deck, so I'm going to keep him for now. However, if the next 3-4 times I draw him I just don't play him because he's too expensive I'll likely cut him for this Ingenious Infiltrator
Oh... that is how that works. That makes me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less excited then.
I'm cutting Sliver Hivelord. Honestly the primary reason is because I just put together a sliver EDH deck and I only have one Hivelord while I own 3 Sliver Overlords. But also I think Hibernation Sliver is probably just better in this deck. It is better defensively (against exile effects and what not) and offensively (c-c-c-combos). It also costs 3 mana less and $20 less.
I don't really agree with cutting any of the three champions. I've never had a problem casting any of them. The loop is too efficient at winning me the game for me to cut any of the three. They're also some of the best with Widespread Brutality (about as effective as deathtouchers) and Didgeridoo. Plus championing a changeling allows that changeling to get an extra ETB trigger when the champion dies/gets bounced. They're also much more likely to survive attacking into a player later in the game to trigger Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and the like.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
Dragonlover
Lathliss Dragon Queen - All dragons all the time!
Mono-White Mono-Legends
Ruhan of the Fomori
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer
Storrev, Devkarin Lich
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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-1 Artificial Evolution
I never actually cast Artifical Evolution. It was also brought to my attention that Wirewood Symbiote + Mirror Entity + Priest of Titania = infinite green mana. Walker of Secret Ways always over-performs for me and this also does a fine imitation of her. Plus the symbiote will be fantastic with Graveshifter
-1 Chameleon Colossus
+1 Irregular Cohort
I never really wanted to search for the colossus. I've played one game and already been way happier with the cohort.
-1 Moonglove Changeling
+1 Venomous Changeling
Having natural deathtouch and a 1/3 body is way better. I originally thought that Venomous Changeling was only 2 mana, not 3.
-1 Fire-Belly Changeling
+1 Impostor of the Sixth Pride
Imposter is always a 3/1 and the Fire-belly needs to be pumped. More on specific changeling cuts later.
-1 Ghostly Changeling
+1 Changeling Outcast
I never pumped the moonglove in any game. 1-mana reduction and unblockable is great.
-1 Wort, Boggart Auntie
+1 Graveshifter
Wort never got me back more than one creature, I was never happy with her. Graveshifter is going to be fantastic with Unholy Grotto (which I can't find anywhere)
-1 Woodland Changeling
+1 Universal Automaton
I thought about this for a long time, Woodland changeling's body is effectively non-existent. I decided I'd rather have Cairn Wanderer because it can be a 4/4 flying, lifelink, deathtouch, haste. All of which are relevant. I think Skeletal Changeling's regeneration is more relevant than +1/+1. I think an extra mana for flying is worth it on Avian Changeling. Mothdust Changeling's kinda flying is also better. Taurean Mauler actually affects the board outside of being a changeling. Amoeboid Changeling has a bunch of tiny synergies.
Shapesharer, mirror entity, Changeling Titan (and the rest of the cycle) are just miles away from being cut.
Morophon, the Boundless is going in whenever I pick one up. I just haven't yet. Not really sure what I'll cut.
I'd recommend it. Part of what makes me so happy about this deck is how much feel people have watching me play it.
Lullmage Mentor is frankly not going to happen. Speaking from experience, it's immensely rare that I've managed to keep 7 changelings alive.
The Scarab God is very interesting. My first instinct was dismissing him as his synergies with Changelings is very minimal. However, his token creation would also allow me to re-trigger stuff with my dead changelings. I'll probably look into picking one up if I get the chance. He seems sweet.
Lord of the Unreal suffers from the fact that I'm mostly using my changelings to trigger ETB effects. Once the changelings are on the battlefield they don't do much.
Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor is a sweet older card. I don't think it'd have a largest enough effect to warrant. My changelings also want to tap to attack and for mana. This competes directly with those desires.
Persistent Petitioners. This one I need to think about for a little longer. I don't know if it'd have a large enough effect. However, it is hilarious enough that I need to process it some more. It'd be especially great with the Scarab God. Hmmm.
Ooooh. Scarblade Elite is pretty sweet. Skyshroud Poacher can even find him. Unfortunately, this deck doesn't seem to struggle a ton against single creatures and I'm worried the elite would be too slow.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
1x Amoeboid Changeling
1x Avian Changeling
1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1x Changeling Berserker
1x Changeling Hero
1x Changeling Outcast
1x Changeling Titan
1x Elder Pine of Jukai
1x Evolution Sage
1x Gemhide Sliver
1x Gishath, Sun's Avatar
1x Graveshifter
1x Harabaz Druid
1x Hibernation Sliver
1x Higure, the Still Wind
1x Imposter of the Sixth Pride
1x Irregular Cohort
1x Khorvath Brightflame
1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
1x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
1x Loam Dweller
1x Manaweft Sliver
1x Mirror Entity
1x Moggcatcher
1x Morophon, the Boundless
1x Mothdust Changeling
1x Myr Galvanizer
1x Patron of the Vein
1x Priest of Titania
1x Reaper King
1x Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
1x Seahunter
1x Seshiro the Anointed
1x Shapesharer
1x Skyshroud Poacher
1x Sylvia Brightspear
1x Taurean Mauler
1x Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
1x Universal Automaton
1x Venomous Changeling
1x Walker of Secret Ways
1x Wirewood Savage
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
1 The Ur-Dragon
Land (35)
1x Ally Encampment
1x Ancient Amphitheater
1x Breeding Pool
1x Cavern of Souls
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
1x Contested Cliffs
3x Forest
1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1x Irrigated Farmland
2x Island
1x Krosan Verge
1x Mana Confluence
1x Mountain
1x Murmuring Bosk
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
1x Prairie Stream
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Seaside Citadel
1x Secluded Glen
1x Seraph Sanctuary
1x Stomping Ground
1x Swamp
1x Swarmyard
1x Temple Garden
1x Unholy Grotto
1x Vivid Creek
1x Vivid Grove
1x Vivid Meadow
1x Wanderwine Hub
1x Austere Command
1x Knowledge Exploitation
1x Martial Coup
1x Peer Pressure
1x Skyshroud Claim
1x Widespread Brutality
Artifact (6)
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Cryptic Gateway
1x Didgeridoo
1x Dragon's Hoard
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Sol Ring
Instant (4)
1x Crib Swap
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Spit Flame
1x Vampiric Tutor
Enchantment (3)
1x Arcane Adaptation
1x Descendants' Path
1x Unnatural Selection
The oddball is probably Evolution Sage but I enjoyed it with the Vivid lands in other decks, so a bit of a pet inclusion. It's also the reason why I do have Patron of the Vein still in this list.
I want it NOW! NOW I SAY!
Seems pretty close to my list. I'll be curious to know how it works out for you. Since you're running traditional wrath spells, I'd look into picking up a Sliver Hivelord eventually if you enjoy the deck enough. Loam Dweller is certainly the weakest card in the deck. I'd probably recommend you cut it for some flavor of draw spell (distant melody if you're staying on theme, FoF/Rhystic Study if you're not) since your deck has just a few less draw spells than mine.
I've never played with Descendants' Path and have a hard time evaluating it. If you cast it some could you tell me how well it pans out for you?
I'm weary of playing Arcane Adaptation since this deck has so many different creature types. Usually it'll only buff one creature card and if that card dies it'll kinda be useless. Unless you're naming dragon, but all that does is make it a mana rock which is fine I suppose.
Widespread Brutality has been a pretty underwhelming card for me so far. Although, to be fair it's super hard on my manabase which you probably won't struggle with. I'm just... REALLY limited on correctly themed wraths. I think Endemic Plague is much better.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
I’ll probably consider picking up Sliver Hivelord once I figure out if I enjoy playing the deck, it’s a bit of an investment and not a card I’d slot easily into something else. Though a lot of removal in my meta is exile orientated so the indestructible helps less there.
Haven’t played Loam Dweller before so will see how it preforms, though the new Risen Reef is pretty much an improved version of it. So right now I’d consider Dweller a placeholder until the new card is out.
It’s going to be tough to decide if the creature type density is good enough for Descendants’ Path, as it works better in more ‘dedicated’ tribal lists or when you have more top deck manipulation. In this list there might be too many times it ends up missing. I am currently running it over Distant Melody, as am not particularly fond of that one myself since it does little when you are behind and wanted some more draw that isn’t a one-of. Rhystic Study is the better option but my only copy is tied up in a different deck at the moment.
Arcane Adaptation is indeed a situational card, since you’d name a type depending on your board/hand. I’d say Dragons is indeed the safest pick and other then that I would consider Elf or Sliver. Now if only they would print this effect on a creature then you could do more fun stuff with it, since Mirror Entity only affects cards that are on the board already.
Endemic Plague is easier to cast and almost guarantees a good wipe, and it is flavorful. Widespread Brutality let’s you keep most of your side of the board. So it’s essentially a wrath and let’s you swing in. Of course, experience with it might make me re-evaluate it.
One card I still look to add is Finale of Devastation but am hoping those first few games will let me see where I can make some cuts for it.
Cards Out:
Patron of the Vein - Highly costed and cutting the single double black card will help as well.
Evolution Sage - With Patron gone I'm not going to keep it in just for the Vivids.
Descendants' Path - Just fell short half of the time, so looking for a bigger impact.
Cards In:
Felidar Guardian - Reset button for Arcane Adaptation, but can blink other stuff as well.
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - No dragons but the warrior tokens will quickly stack up if unchecked.
Finale of Devastation - A tutor that can recur from the graveyard and comes with a built in pump effect.
@ materpillar
Since you are looking for themed wraths, did you consider Whelming Wave?
Probably not worth it I'd guess. I'm running 10 humans plus 16 changeglings, so the odds of hitting are mediocre.
This guy would fight for the same slot that Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves is sitting in. Tolsimir has a way higher upside but also costs way more mana. Tolsimir is also tutorable with Skyshroud Poacher. I'll probably stick with Tolsimir for now, but I'll keep an eye on him. Tolsimir also unlocks "wolves" where as I already have "angels" unlocked.
I wonder how Najeela, is going to turn out for you. She seems pretty spicy, especially with all my draw triggers. There's gotta be a really dump way to go infinite with her in this deck right?
[edit]Manaweft Sliver + Najeela, the Blade-Blossom + 4 changelings is infinite attack steps I believe?
Attack with all of them. Untap all your creatures. Tap changelings and Manaweft for WUBRG. Use floating mana to untap. Kill the table with Changeling Outcast? That's fantastic, I should pick a copy of her up. With 5 changelings you get infinite mana (but only during a combat step) and can draw your deck with Azami and such. Interesting interesting.
I've considered it. I never really thought it'd be worth it. Bouncing creatures in EDH seems lack luster since there are such a massive multitude of ETB triggers that get played.
I just saw this card in another thread. I wonder if it'd be good enough for me. I've had a little trouble with over-extending into a wrath spell, this might be an on theme draw spell. With only 16 changelings though, she'd probably miss a ton. Hrm. Maybe not.
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
Descendants' path is a ticking timebomb. As soon as you get one changeling, it can easily get you yet another.
Although a lot of cards are nice to combo with a changeling, such as Wirewood Savage or Loam Dweller, they have little to no impact on their own and they often sport a creature type that isnt easily intermingled.
From my experience, to make a changeling deck really formidable is that you want to consider the changeling as cheap 'clones'. That is, combine it with creatures that do something really serious with their own creature type. Just getting 1 changeling alongside then quickly becomes 'ok this is serious' into 'omg whats happening? 10 5/5s coming my way?!'
Looking at cards from the new set ...
Kaalia, Zenith Seeker - A good, efficient flying body that has a decent chance of drawing 1 or 2 cards with the deck running 18+ changelings as well as some actual dragons, Kaalia might squeeze in for me. Might need some testing to see how reliable the draw is. If this ever draws 3 its insane.
Omnath, Locus of the Roil - I'm more unsure about this one. It'll be an FTK a reasonable amount of the time which is alright, and slowly growing our changelings or itself into bigger threats is nice (especially for me since I'm running the full suite of fetches), but we don't run enough land ramp to reliably get to 8 lands and that's where most of the value of this thing lies. I was initially high on it, but thinking about it more has me less optimistic.
Other than those and Risen Reef (which is an auto-include), I'm not seeing anything else worth running.