[Modern] Mutate Deck (UG): $12 fun deck

[Federico Rosano]

https://deckstats.net/decks/88072/2455250-mutate

Mutate Deck

Introduction
I think it's crucial to briefly clarify the goals of my deck building to better understand what are the choices that led me to choose a certain type of cards, instead of others. My MTG experience started back in 2003 when I bought my very first deck and since then I slowly improved my knowledge in the game mechanics and decks building. I always played for fun against friends and so my ultimate goal is having good time together. This viewpoint drasticaly limits my Magic deck building experience to non-tournament only, but it definitely has its own benefits in money saved and a much wider card choice I can pick from.

Said so, these non-written rules apply to all my decks and lead to good games more often than not.
The cards must:
- contain an unique game mechanics
- have a good sinergy,
- avoid infinite combos.

Devour and Landfall are two examples of good game mechanics, +1/+1 Counters and Tribal are too: sinergy improves the overall deck gameplan and focus more on the play and less on the single cards. Perfect sinergy means that no matter what card I draw this turn, I'm sure it will fit my strategy. A deck based on a crazy-powerful card naturally shrinks the strategy to focus on that card only, worsening the overall deck mechanics and enjoyment. Infinite combos are the nemesi of good games: play them to win, or lose otherwise. I don't like them, there's no point in having one into my for-fun decks.

Deck Mechanics
Mutate is a keyword ability that allows two or more creatures to merge into one final creature. The resulting merged creature has power and toughness of the topmost creature, and gains all the abilities of all the cards below. At first sight it looks like a plain bad mechanics, at least compared to Auras or Equipments. Considering that putting a stack of creatures one on top of another for their mutate ability actually doesn’t add up much board advantage. Or does it?

Deck Overview
The main advantage of this mechanics lays in the "whenever this creature mutates" triggered abilities, leading us to mutate multiple times on the same stack of creatures to trigger all the abilities at once. For example, mutating the Trumpeting Gnarr on top of the Glowstone Recluse triggers both of their effects. Any additional creature we mutate on top (or bottom) of that triggers all the effects once again. The deck also contains the Symbiotes that have specific effects that triggers “whenever a creature you control mutates” and make the whole mutate mechanics very rewarding to play with. It’s now clear that the Sea-Dasher Octopus is a true gem for the strategy and let us trigger a mutated effect at any point of the game.

The mutate effects offer +1/+1 counters, creature tokens, removals and card draw in a reasonable proportion that leads to a considerable board advantage later in the game and therefore this deck can be defined as a typical aggro-midrange. This mechanics proved to be a lot versatile and fun to play with and against.

The main disadvantage of this mechanics is the vulnerability from removal spells. The mutated creatures act as one single creature, so one Terminate or one Path to Exile can remove the whole thing. I’ve seen many decks using the Slippery Bogle as a baseline creature, but this doesn’t solve the issue with cards like Wrath of God or Soul Shatter that don’t target. I prefer to put some defensive spells like Stubborn Denial and Tamiyo's Safekeeping that somehow protect the mutated creatures from a wider range of removal spells.

That's it. Enjoy your cheap awesome Mutate deck and good Magic to all!