Mutate is an alternative casting cost in Magic: The Gathering (MTG) that allows players to fuse two creature cards together while keeping their abilities. This can lead to crazy combinations and raises questions about its functionality. Mutate is an ability found on certain creatures in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, which merges two creatures into one with equal power and toughness to the top creature. The top creature has all abilities of the creatures underneath it, plus its own abilities.
Mutating a card that exiles and returns transformed (Nissa, Vastwood Seer, etc.) works if it’s the top card, exiling the entire permanent, including all the cards that represent it. Mutate allows players to cast creature spells that target other creatures they control. It was introduced in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and is a fun mechanic.
There are two ways to cast creature cards with mutate: cast the spell for its mutate cost, which grants a special benefit when used. If your spell is countered, then it will be countered.
Mutate has roots in Bestow, Emerge, and Augment, acting like an ability-granting Aura spell. By casting a creature spell for its mutate cost, you can create more powerful creatures with stacking abilities. Mutate is an alternative casting cost that allows players to give non-human creatures on the battlefield the traits of the mutate.
📹 Mutate Is A Weird Mechanic
Mutate has a bad habit of creating game-states that would give Richard Garfield a heart attack. Let’s talk about it. Buy me a copy of …
📹 What IS Mutate?
Mutate is one of the newest mechanics in Magic: The Gathering, and also one of the more complex! Here’s a quick explainer video …
I also just realised, you can also mutate vehicles and Neon Dynasty’s “reconfigure” equipments. More rules shenanigans about crewing or equiping there. Let alone the lore implications of a Smugglers Copter erupting into a Sea Dashed Octopus mid-flight, or The Reality Chip you just detached from the back of your head spontaneously catching fire as it gestates into an Everquill Phoenix.
1:29 dont forget that there is one card you can take out of the command zone if you put it in there with leadership vaccum+mutate. Yuriko. Commander ninjitsu still functions normally, so yuriko can come out of the command zone if she is in your 99. Even more funny, you can steal someone else’s yuriko who IS a commander and put their commander in your command zone.
One of my favorite mutate interaction is Vadrik+Double Major. Apparently you can…. Mutate as a token on the stack, and then if it’s Vadrok you can recast Double Major while the original is on the stack. This results into an endless stack of mutations that casts an increasing number of spells, which can result into a win if one spell deals damage to face. Vadrok is so much fun.
You forgot about the fun interaction of mutating onto a cosima, god of the voyage. The entire stack of creatures all get exiled with the god’s ability and whenever you play a land, they ALL get voyage counters and all will draw cards when they return to the battlefield. Then there’s mutating onto vehicles.
No matter how much of a rule’s headache mutate is, I can never let it go as one of my favourite mechanics. I did start playing around when Eldraine came out and started commander with the Otrimi precon so I do have bias towards Ikoria as a set but I’ll never stop playing Brokkos mutate at my LGS at least once every commander night
I absolutely love Mutate. It’s not too hard to understand once you get the hang of it.. Yes, there are plenty of moments where mutate is wierd but it’s not hard to understand on the surface. You combine the text on the cards, choosing one of their stats to keep. Super weird, fun mechanic. Another mechanic I really wish they’d bring back is Bloodrush. I loved that mechanic themeatically.
They could simply mixed the cards: supertypes, subtypes, text, cmc, colors, stats, etc. And balance it throught this idea…mutate cost being higher than normal cmc, things that actually care about the result rather than the trigger itself like “as long this creature has 4 or more power it can’t be blocked by creatures power 2 or less” or “as long as this creature has 3 types of more, creatures of these types get +1/+1 for each of these types it has” or “as long as this creature have 3 or more keywords it gets +2/+0” and evergreen keywords. But in fear of it being busted they overcomplicated it. Shame because ikoria was my most hyped set in years that I couldn’t get a hold of because of quarentine. Also I would like a return to Ikoria or more mutates.
Honestly while there are weird interactions that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to account for if you started playing at any point after eldritch moon and hadn’t opened a single pack before that set and (were assuming ikoria is the most recent set) you just got it besides Gideon the chances you will encounter a weird interaction is very unlikely even now that’s still unlikely unless your willing to spend $2 or more on cards because i understand the general concept obviously I never thought about flip or transform cards but those are semi difficult to figure out how to add unless your making a wolves werewolves deck anyways like if you were to ask me how it works I could probably explain it to you
I’ve never understood most of the confusion with mutate. You are just modifying a permanent. To me, the only really weird part about mutate is having both answers to a yes/no question, and even then it’s just conceptually weird, and works perfectly fine. Someone else asked about mutating a cheated in Tarrasque to get haste and ward {10}, and it works no matter if you mutate on top or under The Tarrasque. This is because the static ability is asking if the creature has been cast, and at least one part of it has meaning it qualifies. Typeless permanents have existed before, non-planeswalkers with loyalty abilities have happened before, changing names without some form of cloning is rare but did happen before mutate (Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi) and after (Witness Protection). Most values on permanents are just suggestions, if you are willing to put in the effort, and mutate just made some of it more obvious. You can’t mutate onto humans for lore reasons. I am sad about it, but Amoeboid Changeling fixes the issue.
not being able to mutate onto humans make sense from a lore perspective for the set the mechanic was introduces in but it’s such a stupid clause that’s not at all suited for the future, if they ever make a return to return to return to ravnica super special edition and they want to give simic mutate… well they can’t because a good part of the simics are humans (and a lot fo other things at the same time)
I still don’t understand WHY copying a mutation triggers all its mutate triggers. It isn’t mutating, it is entering the battlefield. If one of these creatures is hard cast it doesn’t trigger mutate, but if it is copied it does? Its super weird. I also have an issue that mutate doesn’t make the creature a mutant. I know it is wordy enough but it is a flavor fail.
1:40 You mention mutating underneath tokens, but I’d just like to mention that if you mutate on top of a token then it’s no longer a token. So, if you have something like Progenitor Mimic, then you can mutate on top of the tokens created by Progenitor Mimic and then those no-longer-a-token-mutate-stacks will be able to copy themselves at the beginning of your upkeep.
This mechanic will continue to be funny. In Dominaria United, there’s a legendary creature named “Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief” with the ability of “whenever only one creature is targeted by a spell and it isn’t this creature, copy that spell and target that spell on this creature”, which not only includes your opponent’s spells but if they’re permanents (like auras) then token copies get made. And well, mutate targets so be prepared to make token copies mutating on her and it isn’t dumb as you can then remove her legendary status and make more token copies to then make even more copies of stuff
I was that guy that played mutate when Ikoria released, mostly it was just the most competent deck I could put Godzilla cards in. I once had a guy concede because he got annoyed at how mutate worked. So at his end step I flash mutate the octopus, he kills the creature I targeted in response. I say ok, and put that creature in the yard and the octopus on the field. He immediately starts going that the octopus is also dead and I tell him it’s not as that’s not how mutate works. Well he calls a judge over and the judge goes yeah that’s how mutate works. He scoops the entire set in game 1 over it lol.
Hearthstone has a similar mechanic called magnetic that’s almost identical. When you attach a minion with magnetic, you give the target the stats and effects of the magnetic one. It’s like a buff spell. In every situation I’m aware of it works how you think it does. It’s kind of interesting because it illustrates the differences of a paper game. In magic, you need to keep track of who owns which piece of paper and which stack of paper you put it in when it dies, so you get all these rules about ownership and zones that digital games simply don’t have. Plus, people sitting at a kitchen table need to be able to figure them out, and tournaments need judges when players disagree. There has to be a system and a rule book that outlines every single edge case. In a digital game, the engine is the judge. It’s gonna work how it works and if it’s not overtly buggy it’ll stay that way. Just an interesting thought.
i once went up agaisnts a mutate deck, stole a creature then used perplexing chimera to take control of a mutate spell to mutate onto the creature i had previously taken. they argued that i couldnt steal the mutate cast and mutate on the a creature but they owned but i controlled. they got very upset.
Mutate is easy. It’s the top card with all the abilities of everything below it. How do people not understand that?! It’s literally a creature with abilities. That’s it. It’s just like if you had a spell that said “target creature gains flying” It’s the same thing. Here’s a hypothetical mutate stack: Base is Mysterious egg. Gemrazer Glowstone Recluse. Bottom is the top of the mutate stack. Glowstone Recluse’s card now reads as follows: Glowstone Recluse 3G Reach, trample Whenever this creature mutates, put a +1/+1 counter on it ” destroy target artifact or enchantment an opponent controls ” Put 2 +1/+1 counter on it It gets reach from both Glowstone itself and Gemrazer, where it also gets the trample keyword as well. If it’s really that confusing for people, resolve bottom-up order, going from the base up. This same kind of thing happens when someone does something like use Vivien Reid’s emblem ability. Emblems can’t be touched, yes, but it gives extra abilities. THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT MUTATE DOES
1:09 the whole stack would certainly be exiled by “target creature” but “put a hit counter” doesn’t say “for each card removed this way” so I’d think the whole stack is removed and only 1 of them get a counter. 1:33 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician can save itself from the command zone (even when not the commander). The only way to save the other non-commanders is with Next of Kin. 1:43 wow that’s amazing. New token will only have copyable stuff which would include the mutated text. 2:13 lol. Can’t be removed by enchantment destruction. That’s so good. 2:40 agreed. Mutating humans would make sense to do. Soldier and warrior is ok but changeling isn’t?
AHHHHHHH you are missing the best green card for this Cantrip it’s a 2/2 Green insect that reads the following: Landfall: make a Insect token, if you have have 6 or more lands make a token that’s a copy of this card. Ooh hey there Auspicious Starrix, oh whats that you bring lands into play, wait you Mutate on top? you can make different tokens base on what cards you mutate, thus making the most fuck’d deck in history…. Oooh man too bad the deck is slow T.T with all that ramp
Now with Unfinity, there’s also the prospect of animating and mutating an Attraction, using Animate Object and mutating the object you put onto the field, using the photocopy card that requires a device to represent your copy token to mutate your phone, and “best” of all, use Form of the Approach of the Second Sun to put yourself into your library, then do something to put yourself into play (“you” are a planeswalker card in this instance; it’s confirmed) then animate yourself, and you can now induce mutations within YOURSELF.
Oh that last part can be overcome, with our good old friend MTG’s least busted creature card ever…. Amoeboid Changeling… {T}:Target Creature loses all creature types until end of turn. It is also the best card to defend against your opponent. You make a million Clones of Amoeboid Changeling, then you Tap them to make all opponents creatures ALL creature types until end of turn. And now they cannot mutate at all. Muahahaha
Great job! Mutate is so stupid but also pretty fun. The rules for it are definitely a nightmare. We already had bestow, which was a very similar thing, but worked better. Why couldn’t they make mutate work more easily like bestow? You pointed out some crazy cases that I’ve not run into and probably would’ve screwed up trying to figure it out.
I firmly believe Wizards released a global pandemic so no one would ever play Ikoria limited in person. Mutate makes very complicated creatures very quickly. Ability counters are, in the rules, supposed to be represented by handwritten pieces of paper, and companions exist. It would be very common to be staring down 2 or 3 creatures on your opponent’s side of the field and have absolutely no idea what their power/toughness and abilities are. It’s just a mess that kills you. Also even before the game started would you look through your opponent’s deck to prove they could run a companion? The whole format could only have worked online, so I’m glad it got to.
The “Non-Human” clause is interesting in that it’s a Lore-tied rule to Ikoria as a set, where the basic summary of the plane was “Humanity versus Everything else” and the strange crystals such as the Ozolith mutating every living creature that wasn’t a Human Also, at my LGS, we have one player who is building all of the Godzilla Mutate Commanders and some of those decks get really weird in the shenanigans Mutate as a mechanic gets into
I was playing xanathar, steal your stuff, and someone suggested I take their mutate creature and mutate it on my commander, so I did. Later someone bounced the stack and I had no idea what happened. I later learned the correct rules interaction. It is something I think about when someone talks about mutate.
This is a weird I interaction that even though I’ve played magic since Alara I still do t understand stacks. In arena I used murder to kill the creature the opponent was mutating onto, but instead of it not mutating, the mutated creature died but he was still able to play the creature for its mutate cost. Was this a weird bug on arena or how it’s supposed to work?
FINALLY, SOMEONE ELSE TALKED ABOUT THIS! MUTATE IS A RULES NIGHTMARE! Also, can someone tell me, if a creature mutates onto another creature, does the mutated creature count as entering the battlefield? If so, would i gain a life from it if soul warden is on the field? Will it have summoning sickness? Someone please help me on this.
I think they should do more mutate, just because they failed to make many mutate cards that are decent on their own. For constructed, the mechanic revolved around stacking several “When this creature mutates…” abilities on the same creature, which just incentivised you to play all the mutate cards that would vomit your deck onto the battlefield. But there was one card that seemed worthwhile on it’s own: Gemrazer. Pay 1GG to turn another of your creatures into a 4/4 (or not), give it Reach and Trample, and destroy an artifact or enchantment in the process. And even if your target dies you still get the 4/4 Reach Trample. Seems pretty worth. So how about just make some more individually good mutate cards?
My questions are A. Does mutate work with ETBS? If I mutate a creature onto something I already have in play that had an ETB does it trigger again? Or vice versa? B. What if the creatures name is in the ability. Say I have a creature named Goober and his ability states specifically “Goober cannot be blocked” if I mutate my creature Dingus onto Goober, does the ability still work even though the NAME of the creature is now technically Dingus? (I think that’s what mutate does lol)
And they said Banding was a very confusing and complex mechanic. Banding is fine, it simply modifies the rules of combat. This shit right here? It’s not even next level complexity, it’s some sort of -7.283+3.2i-dimensional mindfuckery. Of course I immediately added 10 cards with Mutate to my Judge’s Tower deck
God I HATE that you can’t mutate onto humans, both for gameplay and Vorthos reasons. For gameplay, it stops changelings from mutating, when they’re… everything already. Like, why? This makes no sense. For Vorthos, because 1) I’m sick and tired of humans being seen as exceptions to everything, and 2) because it feels EXTREMELY random and unjustified. Like, why are humans immune to mutations? Is it their sentience? Is it an innate purity? Is it an intrinsic characteristic that prevents such things from happening? If sentience, then elves, vedalkens, dragons (depending on plane), avians, and so, SO many other species wouldn’t be able to mutate. So it’s not this. If innate purity… ever heard of goddamn ANGELS? If intrinsic characteristic that prevents it, then 1) I call bullshit, and 2) then explain the art for Rapid Hybridization, or any form of spell that alters the characteristics of creatures, temporarily or otherwise, or, I dunno, all these humans with Morph. It’s a bullshit limitation for this very interesting ability that I wish never existed in the first place.
Mutate is the best mechanic to come out since I started playing, one of my favorite things about magic is that basically every aspect of the game can be changed if you have a card that say it can! Also the “you own” clause is probably because otherwise you could run into situations where multiple players would have to make a choice for the same game object. Like if I had mutated my commander onto an opponent’s commander and the creature dies. Since the pike changes zones as if it’s a single card, I might be able to put their commander into my command zone for ever.
I remember WotC staff announcing how incredibly proud they were of all the effort they went to to build a robust and transferable combined object ruleset for mutate to utilise, an amount of effort that will definitely pay off and prove it wasn’t wasted as soon as they get round to printing a second black border mechanic that makes combined objects.
Mutate became one of my favorite mechanics because of the jank that it is. It’s incredibly simple on paper: “Creatures plural become creature uno.” but does not translate at all simply in rules form. I personally liked mutating Derevi then using the good ol mirror breaker for a pestermite combo that definitely got old very quickly.
I honestly like Mutate. These are really fun, weird interactions! I don’t think it’s a headache; it makes sense! There are lots of weird interactions. It’s fun! This is what Magic is all about; discovering a card’s limits! And if you do manage to find a loophole, you can do some really fun and cool stuff 😀
My favorite thing about mutate is that on top of being an absolute nightmare, the mechanic straight-up sucks. Considering that the pool of mutate cards is so limited, and the fact that whatever you mutate remains a “creature”, a player who doesn’t want to learn how the mechanic works doesn’t have to. Just kill the creature and literally all the value is gone. Aside from the handful of mutations that are genuinely powerful, in a format like Commander, it’s so easy to answer (and, as you demonstrated, just as easy to one-shot-“exile” all of the best Mutate cards from your deck) that I can’t believe these commanders are popular at all. Haven’t lost to a single mutate commander because of this. Haven’t seen a single one at my LGS do anything but lose first or second. It just sucks.