MTG Top 10: Mutate | Magic: the Gathering

[@TeaHauss]

Gemrazer turning Walking Ballista into a differently named creature to get around pithing needle is my favorite mini interaction

[@anonmisfit]

need more mutate support, desperately. its a highly complex and entirely unique mechanic unlike all else and i love it. thx for bringing more attention to it after years of none

[@yawg691]

My first thought before watching: "There are 10?"

[@peterklein3354]

Mutate seems like an ability that could fit into many sets and/or planes from a flavor perspective. I wonder when it next shows up

[@jacobbrown9894]

The greatest strength of mutate: Sharing standard with Stonecoil Serpent

[@therudecanadian8068]

Mutate is legit my favorite mechanic. So much design room and the only caveat is 'can't be human'.

[@astuteanansi4935]

My favorite thing was the Scute Swarm Mutate interaction - instead of measly 1/1s you can churn out copies with mutated stats and abilities. And Greathorn also helps you get to 6 lands in the first place

[@fisherjohnson1642]

Thank you Nizza, Mutate is my favorite mechanic and Ikoria got me into magic, love to see it

[@RowanNagy97]

You are a psycopath but in a way I respect so much lol

[@Leo90009]

Nethroiiii

[@BoisegangGaming]

​@Leo90009 Nethroi players be like "there are dozens of us, dozens!"

[@fisherjohnson1642]

Nethroi was also my first commander deck, I have all 5 mutate apexes built as commander decks, and a deck using each companion except lutri and yorion, although yorion I also have built as a commander

[@pr0fess0rbadass]

Petition for top 10 jankiest mechanics. #1 mutate

[@captainshiner42]

Yuuuuup!

[@Cameron-ds9xs]

Ahh memories of the first time I mutated a migratory Greathorn on a scute swarm. Good times

[@thetommonster]

As if the ridiculous type lines and the inherently-confusing mutate mechanic for the Apex's weren't enough, you have the fact that the mutate cost includes hybrid mana. At least it came out in 2020, so maddening absurdity was at least topical.

[@Gameflyer001]

One of my favourites was Nethroi, Apex of Death. Auspicious Starrix and Dirge Bat were two others that I played with during Ikoria's time in Standard.

[@Zauzzie]

One of my favorite Mutate interactions is if you mutate onto your commander and the commander goes into the command zone, it takes everything mutated with it and the mutated cards can never leave the command zone lol

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Ahhh mutate, I've literally never played it. Not once. It's a cool looking ability, but I've just never chosen to play with it. In this sense, it's opposite to my quest for "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)", which I am always doing.

[@olipod5470]

One day you’ll be rewarded. One day…

[@stefanoriva9767]

I'm the opposite of you 😊 I never played eternal formats like vintage, but I play a lot of standard (and brawl) on MtG Arena, so I played with all these mutate cards.

[@NateBullock-ow6on]

Mutate is awesome

[@Jaxomh]

5:27 Migratory Greathorn also used to be played in a combo with Scute Swarm, at least on Arena. It was unpleasant.

[@OCyrus1989]

Ikoria was the most fun I'd ever had with any single MtG set, and mutate was a huge part of that. Shame we never got the 5-color mutate lord that gives all your non-human creatures mutate that I didn't know I've always wanted.

[@wudgethenumbers]

Gemrazer requires a specific deck that wants it over other versions of artifact and enchantment hate to be good at a given time but also that the format in question not be warped around, say, a particular indestructible artifact that destroy removal does nothing against. Modern had a card printed into it in the year that Gemrazer stopped gaining points that fits that description, but that card might no longer be a consideration for deck builders come Monday, and in general the conditions that would make Gemrazer see play again seem vastly more likely than for any of the cards behind it.

[@Kyle-tt1lv]

Playing UGR mutate in Historic, I don't like such a particular card either. But I do like Shadowspear.

[@macojo2477]

Was thinking about making a mutate deck. And now this video drops. I guess its fate

[@MortonGoldthwait]

I'd love a Simic mutant that tapped for green and bounced creatures. Call it Man-O-War Elves.

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

I both love and hate that pun at the same time.

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

That damn squirrel...

[@RibusPQR]

"It may be done putting up top eights altogether" the same could be said for all of Mutate

[@mikotagayuna8494]

Sea Dasher Octopus sometimes appears in Pioneer Mono U aggro and Vadrok, along with Lore Drakkis, form the core of Modern mutate lists.

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

​@@mikotagayuna8494there's actually Modern Mutate lists? I'm intrigued.

[@donttrustthebun]

Ikoria was my first limited format. I still play zenith flare in historic sometimes.

[@abeybaebe2514]

God I love mutate. I hope it never comes back

[@captainshiner42]

Same. What a shitshow mechanic.

[@abeybaebe2514]

This is why we keep getting affinity back

[@justinanderson2631]

Also in the top 10 mechanics I hope will return soon. I try to force it so hard with all the "Whenever you cast a creature cards" I can find. 😅

[@Kyle-tt1lv]

#9 and #5 are my two favorite creatures. #1 and #7 are also appreciated.

[@melenynder7136]

Kind of impressive that the score increased by 1 for the most part, but there were no ties

[@louisnemzer6801]

Mutate is an underrated mechanic. It's just a little too complex but very fun to play when it's working

[@eurodanceguy]

It's mutate coming back soon?? I need to know, my fav mechanic

[@_z3i]

Vadrok and Lore Drakkis both used to be fringe cEDH playable because of that they work with Snap and Dockside, but they fell out of favour long before dockside got banned.

[@thepiratedoggo1996]

Mutate is a fun gimmick i really enjoy. i built and to this day still play Otrimi mutate.

[@andyspendlove1019]

Hands down my favorite use of Mutate is to have Oko the Trickster use its 0 ability on a non-Human creature and then Mutate over him with some Mutate creature. This will keep him a creature forever and not a planeswalker, BUT he still has all of his loyalty counters and abilities 😂 popping off his ultimate while he’s a creature himself is really fun.

[@awildsylveon9896]

Mutate was so fun in limited, making a big pile of random mutate dudes was just as fun as blowing out said pile of mutate dudes with removal

[@philipbrackett443]

This is such a cool mechanic. I know Shroud is rarely printed on new cards, but are you able to mutate your own shrouded creature? Does mutate count as a targeted ability?

[@Pedun42]

Since it says "target non human creature" in the reminder text, it means it's a targeted ability, so shroud would stop it. Hexproof and ward don't though!

[@philipbrackett443]

@@Pedun42 Gracias amigo

[@Kyle-tt1lv]

Saiba Cryptomancer is a good hexproof target.

[@clockblower6414]

Mutate makes me wonder why they got rid of banding

[@captainshiner42]

Exactly. Or mono artifacts, or enchant world, or splice onto arcane.......

[@nbridges7321]

Mutate is such a parasitic mechanic that I seriously doubt any of these cards will ever see any regular play again unless more heavily pushed support is printed for them. Its a good enough mechanic to warp the standard format of its time, but just not good enough beyond that. Gemrazer seems like the only one that might see any more play in pioneer, and thats not a good sign for the mechanic as a whole

[@captainshiner42]

Kinda reminds me of all of those one-mana cyclers. That janky-ass cycling deck we saw all the time in 2020 was the bane of my existence.

[@Shimatzu95]

Speaking about combining cards, do we have a top 10 meld list already?

[@Triceratopping]

lol so basically every meld card except for Graf Rats/Midnight Scavengers then

[@Shimatzu95]

@Triceratopping honestly, i WAS wondering if we dont have the video, the reason would be too few cards😅

[@alexgibson781]

Reading these other comments make be realise I'm weird because mutate is one of my most hated mechanics ever, the amount of value decks built around it can get by going mana dork to Greathorn to Gemrazer to Starrix to cheat out 3 bombs on turn 4 in addition to the 6/6 that has reach and trample at minimum, it literally makes me want to vomit. (Seriously, who thought the Starrix was ok, it's OP in so many ways.) Without tons of counterspells and/or removal to make sure they never have a creature on the board it's basically unbeatable.

[@sallomon2357]

I guess for the Starrix they thought for some reason "hey, it straight up exiles chunks of your deck, that's a big downside, right?"...yeah, sure. I really dislike Ikoria and Mutate is one of the reasons.

[@NateBullock-ow6on]

Gemrazer is awesome especially with stoncoil serpent

[@PKFat]

O the hottest of messes is finally here I legit forgot about #1. I expected #2 to be on top bc I have strong memories of getting curb stomped by Izzet mutate decks during COVID.

[@justinanderson2631]

This mess is so hot... It's straight up sexy

[@FlibTheBard]

Not sure what they were smoking with this one but considering it was only a couple sets after eldraine I guess it was just overcomplicated design mistake central.

[@Jalabhar_Xho]

Mutate is awesome as a concept and flavor, but quite a mess in actual gameplay.

[@olafthemoose9413]

Top 10 companions next?

[@SultaiGuy]

LET'S GO BABYYY!!

[@eloidasarmi6815]

So it's basically top ten cards from the same standard deck? XD

[@sqwirl31trkpny94]

Great vid!

[@PKFat]

How do you know? The video hasn't been up long enough for you to watch the entire thing? He might have lost his mind & decided to go spend the last half of the video on a rant about how he's not tolerating anyone praising the masterpiece art on Mold Demon. 🤔

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

​@@PKFat I can confirm, that is exactly what happened.

[@j-rey-]

Idk if the mechanic is really that complicated, but mutate is the _only_ mechanic in magic where I always forget how it works shortly after refreshing my memory on it. I can remember banding, bushido, all other stupid mechanics over the years, but I always forget how mutate works. I only dislike it for that reason. I've heard people say it is an interesting mechanic with a lot of design space, but it really seems too complicated for a game that is already extremely complicated.

[@Atmapalazzo]

I don't get why they decided to make the mutate cards so parasitic. Pretty much every mutate creature didn't do anything unless it mutated. More Sea-Dasher Octopus like cards would have been nice.

[@NizzahonMagic]

It's only a little Parasitic, because they can all get that first mutate trigger without any additional mutate.

[@Kyle-tt1lv]

We need 64 mutate cards instead of 34.

[@packman2552]

Mutate is one of my least favorite mechanics, it's a mechanic that was already perfected with auras and even bestow.

[@jefftherayls4637]

They're like bestow as a modal creature, but lean far more heavily to sorcery/instant effects than auras. Where it really differs is the compounding recursion all-or-nothing stack. It must have been an absolute nightmare to playtest this weird slurry of modal creature aura with repeatable sorcery that kind of requires a sacrifice. Probably why it's so parasitic and overcosted.

[@sun-does-shine]

You’re joking right? Aura’s are an atrocious mechanic and mutate was at least halfway playable and interesting. Its not the best mechanic, but its definitely a huge improvement over auras

[@packman2552]

@@sun-does-shine How is it an improvement? You spend more mana on average for less buffs for your all in one basket game plan on average than auras. You get 0 benefit for reanimating or cheating them out. If your dude gets exiled everything goes with it so you can't as easily reuse the resources you spent to make a pretty mediocre creature considering the amount you had to pay in installments to make it. And while not being able to hit 3800 creatures in all of the game isnt the biggest downside, its still big enough to hurt its usage in formats like commander.

[@sun-does-shine]

@ youre right about all those weaknesses, but have you forgotten how bad auras suck. Theyre an evergreen card type that I have never in my life seen be worthwhile, despite repeated attempts to make them good. Mutate is a much less explored but, imo, a much more promising way to approach the “spend multiple cards on one big creature” gimmick

[@packman2552]

@@sun-does-shine in a vacuum they aren't the best, but given they have way more things they can work with. Be it enchantresses, constellation, eeire, modified, reanimation effects. There is a reason on average auras cap out at 3-4 of their mana value. The biggest benefit mutate really has is that you can start with a slightly weaker than average creature to begin to mutate onto. I do hope they revisit the idea and figure out a way to make it a bit less cumbersome than it ended up being.

[@MichelleNghi]

I dont have none of these ten cards 😭🤬

[@RowanNagy97]

Mutate is my least favorite mechanic because im too dumb for the midrangey complexity of value engines like most of these. I like red deck wins and linear combo decks.

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

Gemrazer? Edit: God I hated this card.

[@captainshiner42]

This is perhaps one of the most confusing and least intuitive mechanics in the entire game. Hopefully, we don't see it again.

[@randallross420]

Boy this really is a gang of terrible cards.

[@camdenharper7244]

Four views. Four likes. Sounds about right