On the plus side with these though, if your opponent responds by trying to kill the creature you are mutating onto, you still get to keep the mutate creature.
Depending on the other green cards you are running, being able to play additional lands from the top of your library, and play creatures can be serious card advantage as well :). I like this quite a bit, and will probably test it out. for me it would be replacing one of the 4 mana garruks.
3
Artifact Creature
At the beginning of your turn’s combat, randomly choose one of the counters that aren’t on crystal giant (of the 10 types of counters in this set). Put a counter of that type on Crystal Giant.
3/3
This seems like it could be a fun card for cube to help round out any midrange or aggressive decks. Not the most exciting splashy card, but it will be fun to see it play a little differently each time. Not being any required color reminds me a bit of being like porcelain legionnaire, except you are never certain what abilities you are going to get, and it will be different each time you play it. Just for reference, the 10 tokens are
+1/+1
Deathtouch
First Strike
Flying
Hexproof
Lifelink
Menace
Trample
Reach
Vigilance
Casting this on turn 3, by your 4th attack phase this will have 2 abilities on it and it will only get harder to deal with each turn. eventually turning into a 4/4 flying, first strike, menace, deathtouch, lifelink, trample, vigilance, hexproof creature should be able to end most games
I could be wrong without testing, but unless this card is better than the moxes, lotus, or library, I won't have a problem playing this in my cube. My gut says It will be about the same power level as mind twist / balance. Completely capable of winning a game on its own, Too strong for most non-powered cubes, but requires other cards to set up a complete blowout. I think it is a little weaker than either of these cards, but has the consistency of always being in your hand. I also think that this card is secretly a red card that you can happen to play in some blue decks.
I think cubes that think 3/3 elk's are broken, will not want this, for cubes that want to play Oko, Thief of Crowns, they will also to play this. I find the more cards we get that are similar in power level to P9 the better the high powered cubes play and the better they draft.
I am not saying it's not busted, because it is, but it does have some interesting choices for the player with the card and the opposing player. For example, instead of using thoughtseize on turn 1, casting it on turn 3, and taking away whatever 1 drop they had been holding onto might be a better play. this can then put the opponent in a spot where they didn't use whatever 1 mana spell on turn 1, but now they don't really want to run this out as a 3/2 creature, and so they need to decide to just play it as a creature, or try and get more value out of it.
as far as counter magic goes, if a player plays bolt, and then in response to their bolt casts Lutri, you can still counter the bolt, and if I understand correctly, this won't have a target when it enters the battlefield effectivly negating it. While not great, since they started out with 8 cards in hand, you are still negating there 4 mana spent with your counterspell (granted, cubes that don't run 2 mana counterspells won't be interested in this card.
I think i might replace Reveillark with this. I know Reveillark has been cut in some cubes, and others think that it is too good of a toolbox card, but I think both of these cards are somewhat similar, but I really want more cards that support Moat
3
Artifact Creature
At the beginning of your turn’s combat, randomly choose one of the counters that aren’t on crystal giant (of the 10 types of counters in this set). Put a counter of that type on Crystal Giant.
3/3
This seems like it could be a fun card for cube to help round out any midrange or aggressive decks. Not the most exciting splashy card, but it will be fun to see it play a little differently each time. Not being any required color reminds me a bit of being like porcelain legionnaire, except you are never certain what abilities you are going to get, and it will be different each time you play it. Just for reference, the 10 tokens are
Casting this on turn 3, by your 4th attack phase this will have 2 abilities on it and it will only get harder to deal with each turn. eventually turning into a 4/4 flying, first strike, menace, deathtouch, lifelink, trample, vigilance, hexproof creature should be able to end most games
I am not saying it's not busted, because it is, but it does have some interesting choices for the player with the card and the opposing player. For example, instead of using thoughtseize on turn 1, casting it on turn 3, and taking away whatever 1 drop they had been holding onto might be a better play. this can then put the opponent in a spot where they didn't use whatever 1 mana spell on turn 1, but now they don't really want to run this out as a 3/2 creature, and so they need to decide to just play it as a creature, or try and get more value out of it.
as far as counter magic goes, if a player plays bolt, and then in response to their bolt casts Lutri, you can still counter the bolt, and if I understand correctly, this won't have a target when it enters the battlefield effectivly negating it. While not great, since they started out with 8 cards in hand, you are still negating there 4 mana spent with your counterspell (granted, cubes that don't run 2 mana counterspells won't be interested in this card.