It isn't hard to see why everyone agreed to do their take on Morophon, the Boundless this week. This commander gives a lord to virtually every creature themed deck in Magic! For me though, there is really only one creature type to build around with Morophon.

Once I saw that Morophon can be a commander for a creature type that spans all five colors, everything came into focus. This was the commander I had been waiting for to finally carry out my plans for my feathered friends. When I saw Morophon, the Boundless, I couldn't believe my good fortune. Or perhaps more appropriately, I couldn't believe my good cluck.

Chicken tribal could finally be a thing for Commander!

This was a deck that I had been dreaming about since before Commander was even EDH. The deck evolved and was even chosen for an Invitational! Since then, it has sat on the sidelines. With only six chicken cards for the deck, there just wasn't enough there. Then we started to see Changeling with shapeshifters and suddenly I started to see a deck forming. It was still lacking a commander though. I could always choose a 5-color commander to lead the fowl forces but it seemed disingenuous to have a deck loaded with changelings, led by a non chicken creature, and call it a chicken deck.

Morophon, the Boundless changes all of that! Chickens stretch across all five colors, but with Morophon on the battlefield the most expensive chicken is only three colorless mana. With Morophon out there, the only colored mana you need to play your chickens are Blue and White, as they are the only fowl with two colored mana in the cost! Chickens can now rise up and take their rightful place among the great creature theme decks in Magic! Let's take a look at this glorious deck and check out all the little nuggets of joy that make this deck into a great option!

Morophon, Provider for Poultry | Commander | Bruce Richard

• Commander (1)
• 1 Morophon, the Boundless

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Adaptive Automaton
• 1 Avian Changeling
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Chameleon Colossus
• 1 Chicken a la King
• 1 Chicken Egg
• 1 Elvish Farmer
• 1 Free-Range Chicken
• 1 Game-Trail Changeling
• 1 Goblin Bookie
• 1 Mesa Chicken
• 1 Metallic Mimic
• 1 Mirror Entity
• 1 Mothdust Changeling
• 1 Poultrygeist
• 1 Shapesharer
• 1 Taurean Mauler
• 1 Venomous Changeling
• 1 Zodiac Rooster

• Instants (12)
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Crib Swap
• 1 Dismantling Blow
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Force of Vigor
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Nameless Inversion
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Worldly Tutor

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Distant Melody
• 1 Harsh Mercy
• 1 Hurricane
• 1 Kindred Dominance
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Vanquish the Foul
• 1 Vindicate

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 As Luck Would Have It
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Etchings of the Chosen
• 1 Fowl Play
• 1 Kindred Discovery
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Primal Vigor
• 1 Radiant Destiny

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Door of Destinies
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Herald's Horn
• 1 Krark's Other Thumb
• 1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1 Mirror of the Forebears
• 1 Smuggler's Copter
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 1 Triassic Egg
• 1 Urza's Incubator
• 1 Vanquisher's Banner

• Lands (40)
• 10 Forest
• 3 Mountain
• 4 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 8 Plains
• 1 Canyon Slough
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Fetid Pools
• 1 Foul Orchard
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Unclaimed Territory

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Chickens

And that's it. Five chickens in five different colors. When you build a 60-card deck, it isn't so bad. You can have multiple copies of each chicken so you are looking at 20 chicken creatures in a 60-card deck. That is more than respectable! The deck has a strong die-rolling theme to go with the whole chicken theme and is pretty fun to play! If you added Morophon, the Boundless to the deck, you would be getting a large colorless chicken that helps cast all of these creatures.

For a Commander deck though, five chickens are not going to cut it. This is when the shapeshifters step up and help the chicken deck be all it can be. With Changeling, we can add so many more chickens! Admittedly, it is a bit like calling tofu chicken actual chicken, but when you mix it all up they taste the same!

I added eight changelings to the deck. Avian Changeling and Mothdust Changeling are here because Wizards is cruel and refused to give every chicken flying. Game-Trail Changeling is a trampling chicken. Chameleon Colossus can get absolutely massive in this deck. If we can cast Morophon for six, we aren't too far off being able to double the Colossus' power and toughness twice. When you realize how many ways we have to pump up our chickens, The Colossus can be a 20/20 fairly easily. Taurean Mauler shows up in plenty of decks and in a deck where it will often be cast for only two colorless mana, there is no reason not to run it! Morophon isn't the only Modern Horizons changeling to make the deck, as Venomous Changeling is the chicken you left out all night, giving deathtouch to all who would engage it!

Nothing screams tofu chicken quite like Shapesharer. Spend three mana and the Shapesharer can be a second copy of Chicken a la King, giving your chickens even more +1/+1 counters! Or perhaps if you aren't as into fun as I am, Shapesharer could copy an opponent's Consecrated Sphinx, or Titan, or Eldrazi. And do all of this while still being a chicken!

Finally, Mirror Entity sees a lot of play in a lot of my decks. This chicken enables several bizarre combos in my decks, and can be an amazing finisher once you have some mana on the battlefield. An 8/8 Mesa Chicken can fly over to finish games, assuming you don't mind standing up and clucking like a chicken. And I certainly don't mind!

Steroids

I love a big piece of chicken breast, and that is going to require all kinds of chemical additives to make that happen! The chickens in this deck start out a little small, so I reached out to give them a little help. Adaptive Automaton, Metallic Mimic, Door of Destinies, The Immortal Sun, and Vanquisher's Banner all help to pump up the size of our flock.

When you want more bang for your cluck, you are regularly looking for the best price for your chickens as well. While Morophon, the Boundless does a great job reducing the cost of chickens in the deck, I kept going. Urza's Incubator goes after the generic mana cost on your chickens, often making your chickens free! Herald's Horn also helps to keep the costs down.

Ramp

Ramp doesn't seem like it really needs to be all that relevant in the deck, but don't kid yourself. Morophon, the Boundless costs seven mana! This is a very pricey chicken! You are going to want to get to eight and nine mana as fast as possible, so I've given the deck a full complement of ramp cards. You are also going to want your ramp to help you find all five colors as quickly as possible too. This isn't a five color deck that is really only a three color deck with a splash of two other colors. This deck really demands you have all five colors, even when Morophon is on the battlefield. That is probably something that could be tuned a little better in the deck, but I'll need to get more reps in before I know how much more ramp is necessary.

Removal

Removal is pretty solidly on theme. Fowl Play is one of my favorite cards in the deck! Crib Swap and Nameless Inversion are both chickens so Morophon also helps with the cost on your removal!

Vanquish the Foul implies bad things for your deck, but in fact helps to clear a path for your filthy cluckers, while letting you improve your draws. All of this while being a solid pun ensures it makes the deck!

I stepped away from the chicken theme a little bit for some of the removal, since I wanted to be able to deal with all the planeswalkers I expect to see very soon, and the chicken theme just wasn't helping. If you can suggest removal that fits theme and still takes out planeswalkers, let me know!

Card draw

Some of the card draw is a little clunky. I would probably be better off running some cheaper cards to help me in the early stages of the game, but Kindred Discovery and Distant Melody belong in creature theme decks, and at least for now, they are going to stay. Beast Whisperer seems like perfect card draw in a chicken deck, and Smuggler's Copter is great for a deck that wants to win by turning creatures sideways. And besides, who doesn't like the image of a chicken flying a helicopter?!

Counters

Counters and rolling dice are a big part of the chicken deck, so I wanted to optimize that. Between Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, Krark's Other Thumb and Goblin Bookie, the counters that come up should be crazy everywhere. I've also included As Luck Would Have It because everyone knows that while chickens are delicious, a meal can't be just chicken!

I'll be watching these cards carefully. While the original chickens all use counters and roll dice, it may be that their lack of density in the deck makes all of these cards redundant. Whether I shift into cards that make these cards worthwhile in the deck, or I opt to pull them out and do more to make the chickens more effective remains to be seen.

I'm pretty sure it could use more evasion, and I have included nothing to protect our seven mana commander, so there will need to be changes. For now, this is an excellent alpha version of the deck. I want to see it play out. Is it like that bar that claims they do all you can eat wings, but doesn't bring them out fast enough for you to ever get all you can eat? Perhaps it runs more like the place that gives you a basket of chicken tenders that is so big it takes you and a friend to get through them. As always, if you have suggestions to make the deck better or sell the theme even more, let me know!

Bruce

@manaburned@manaburned