Mutate questions.

[Morale]

1. does a creature with mutate inherit all names from creature in the bottom of the mutate pile?
    for creatures that specify a name in their abilities, do they still work when they have a creature mutate ontop of them?

2. When the top creature in a mutate pile is sent back to your hand, do all creatures go back to your hand from that pile?
    i know when you flicker a mutate pile, all creatures in that stack come back but are the individual creatures and are no longer mutated
    together.

i wish i could look this up myself.. i know google would have the answers. but im on a floating ship in the middle of the ocean and those web sites are blocked.

[Akira Foxmind]

1.
"As it resolves, if its target creature is legal, it merges with the target creature. The resulting creature has all characteristics of the topmost component and has the abilities of each component."

=> Things like cardname and -type should be characteristics. So your Mutate-pile has only one name - of the top creature.

2.
"If a mutated creature leaves the battlefield, all of its components go to the appropriate zone. So if it dies, each card ends up in the graveyard. Any ability that triggers "whenever a creature you control dies" or similar will trigger only once. Same with exile, your hand, or your library. If it's put into a specific position in your library, such as on the bottom or third from the top, you choose the relative order of the cards."

=> The whole pile is bounced and ends up in your hand.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I mutated creature has the name, CMC, creature types, and power/toughness of ONLY the creature on the top.  The contents of the text box(es) of the bottom creature(s) gets added to the top creature.


For abilities that refer to the card they are on by name, they are treated as if they say "this creature" by the rules.  The card's actual name is only there for clarity and/or flavor.  So, yes.  Thos abilities will still function regardless which creature is on top of the mutate pile.  This is true of anything that gains abilities, like Experiment Kraj (off the top of my head). 


The mutated pile is considered a single creature, much like a melded pair.  Whenever the whole creature is sent to another zone, each individual card ends up in that zone.  So if you bounce a mutate, all those cards go back to your hand.

[Potato Chop]

I have a question about mutate, and decided it would be more logical to ask in this thread than create a new one.

So I was playing Gruul Aggro and had Domri, Chaos Bringer out. I used the +1 ability to add a 1 green mana and then cast Migratory Greathorn's mutate on top of a Gruul Beastmaster. Casting mutate is officially classified as a creature spell, so the Migratory Greathorn gained riot after spending the mana from Domri on it.

The question is, does the riot even make a difference? I would have put a +1/+1 counter on it since haste was useless in the situation, but I ran into the problem of the riot maybe somehow not triggering. The rules text for riot says, "This creature enters the battlefield with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste," so my problem is that technically it never entered the battlefield - it altered another creature that was on the battlefield.

Has anyone else that plays Arena or Online run into this somehow? What happened? Does anyone here that plays paper know what to do in this situation? I'm stumped.

[Akira Foxmind]

I have a question about mutate, and decided it would be more logical to ask in this thread than create a new one.

So I was playing Gruul Aggro and had Domri, Chaos Bringer out. I used the +1 ability to add a 1 green mana and then cast Migratory Greathorn's mutate on top of a Gruul Beastmaster. Casting mutate is officially classified as a creature spell, so the Migratory Greathorn gained riot after spending the mana from Domri on it.

The question is, does the riot even make a difference? I would have put a +1/+1 counter on it since haste was useless in the situation, but I ran into the problem of the riot maybe somehow not triggering. The rules text for riot says, "This creature enters the battlefield with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste," so my problem is that technically it never entered the battlefield - it altered another creature that was on the battlefield.

Has anyone else that plays Arena or Online run into this somehow? What happened? Does anyone here that plays paper know what to do in this situation? I'm stumped.

Sadly, I can't answer this myself. But using google led me to this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgrules/comments/g4u04m/mutate_and_riot_mtga/

I think this answers it pretty good.
(Spoiler: A mutating creature with legal target does not etb, so riot does not give the counter)

[Potato Chop]

Sadly, I can't answer this myself. But using google led me to this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgrules/comments/g4u04m/mutate_and_riot_mtga/

I think this answers it pretty good.
(Spoiler: A mutating creature with legal target does not etb, so riot does not give the counter)

Ok, no problems. Thanks heaps!

[kaine24]

since we're on the topic, I'd like to ask about mutate interactions with creatures that stop being a creature; ie Devotion for the Gods; if you mutate onto a God when it's a creature, when it loses devotion will it stop being a creature and just become an indestructible enchantment with the mutate on top/bottom?
while also retaining the abilities of mutated creature...? eg. T : deal x damage, etc.

[Akira Foxmind]

since we're on the topic, I'd like to ask about mutate interactions with creatures that stop being a creature; ie Devotion for the Gods; if you mutate onto a God when it's a creature, when it loses devotion will it stop being a creature and just become an indestructible enchantment with the mutate on top/bottom?
while also retaining the abilities of mutated creature...? eg. T : deal x damage, etc.

I'm pretty sure that the pile will not be affected. Mutating means merging the cards together to be one permanent with all abilities. That goes for the god's "becoming a creature/enchanment due to devotion", too.

[Slyvester12]

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/fvn9i2/a_handy_summary_of_mutaterelated_answers_from_the/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

This is a pretty helpful collection of answers. If you can't see this, giving a mutated creature riot won't do anything, because mutate doesn't cause it to ETB.

[Potato Chop]

since we're on the topic, I'd like to ask about mutate interactions with creatures that stop being a creature; ie Devotion for the Gods; if you mutate onto a God when it's a creature, when it loses devotion will it stop being a creature and just become an indestructible enchantment with the mutate on top/bottom?
while also retaining the abilities of mutated creature...? eg. T : deal x damage, etc.

I support Akira's viewpoint, and I think a lot of answers to mutate questions can be found by realising that when a card references itself, it is really just saying "This card," so all abilities from all cards mentioning themselves transfer to all the creatures on the stack.

When the God ceases to be a creature, the rules text says that that card (The mutated stack of creatures) will cease to be a creature. So yes, the whole pile will just become an indestructible enchantment with the abilities of all the cards, including tap abilities, which can be activated. It just can't attack or block, and doesn't count as a creature in cards like Flames of the Raze-Boar (There are better examples, but that was the one that came to mind).

[Slyvester12]

The theros gods just say "This card isn't a creature..." not that they become enchantments. The mutate stack would be a typeless indestructible permanent.

[Akira Foxmind]

The theros gods just say "This card isn't a creature..." not that they become enchantments. The mutate stack would be a typeless indestructible permanent.

Aren't the theros gods enchantment creatures? Wouldn't that make them enchantments while not having enough devotion?

[Aetherium Slinky]

The theros gods just say "This card isn't a creature..." not that they become enchantments. The mutate stack would be a typeless indestructible permanent.

One important ramification is that if it's not a creature you cannot mutate onto it. This makes me believe that the Gods are a very, very dangerous thing to mutate onto.

Akira Foxmind: If a creature is on top and a God is on the bottom the topmost creature will inherit all the abilities of the bottommost creatures. This way the top creature would also inherit the devotion-isn't-a-creature ability making it a typeless permanent until enough devotion has been reached. The topmost creature will not inherit any types below it. It's possible to mutate onto a planeswalker through type altering effects (and I think some that can turn themselves into creatures like Gideon) and have a creature with all the abilities of a PW. You couldn't declare an attack at it since it's no longer a PW.

EDIT: The "PW" creature would still be able to use its loyalty abilities and gain and lose loyalty counters.

EDIT2: Now that I think about it Sydri, Galvanic Genius (+ Liquimetal Coating) would make for a really interesting Superfriends deck since the PW can't even be attacked. Of course they can now be board wiped but with something like Mycosynth Lattice (another convenient way to make PWs creatures) + Darksteel Forge would prevent that from happening, too.

[Akira Foxmind]

Akira Foxmind: If a creature is on top and a God is on the bottom the topmost creature will inherit all the abilities of the bottommost creatures. This way the top creature would also inherit the devotion-isn't-a-creature ability making it a typeless permanent until enough devotion has been reached. The topmost creature will not inherit any types below it.

Oh, you're right. At least I'm 50% the time correct.