Imagine this: It's 2022, and you're deep into yet another tense game of Magic: The Gathering. Your opponent is relentlessly piling on the pressure, but you're holding a massive, expensive artifact creature in hand--a creature that could be exactly what you need to turn the tide! The problem? Well, it's turn 3, and you're just starting to regret keeping that loose one-lander opening. This could very well be the end for you...but wait, there may just be a way out for you. Looking at your hand again, you just remembered that you're playing in a Brothers' War (2022) Limited Event, and that expensive creature you're holding has the new mechanic Prototype!

What is Prototype?

I'm glad you asked, fellow Artificer!

Prototype is a keyword ability that allows your artifact creatures to be cast in two different ways:

• Default Characteristics: The card's "big" form, with a high (often colorless) mana cost and significant power and toughness.
• Prototype Characteristics: The "smaller" Prototyped version, with a cheaper, colored mana cost and reduced power and toughness.

Furthermore, when you cast a Prototype card for its Prototype cost, the card's power, toughness, mana cost, and even color change to reflect the characteristics in the inset frame. This means that the card retains its abilities, types, and name, but for all other purposes, it behaves as though it were the smaller, cheaper version until it leaves the battlefield.

And while the difference in power and toughness is certainly a significant factor, Prototype's strength lies in its flexibility in allowing you to better adapt to different game states. Do you cast the smaller version early for board presence, or wait for the late game and drop the full-sized Iron Giant? The choice is always yours.

How Prototype Works

Now I know that at first glance, Prototype might seem like yet another straightforward mechanic (just another way to cast our robot goliaths, am I right?) But like most of the mechanics I cover in these Mechanics Overview segments, I'm here to, as usual, go over the many moving parts that lay hidden just beneath the surface of your mechanized army.

Prototype, a Static Ability

Prototype is, at the end of the day, a static ability. This means it exists on the card as long as it's in your hand or other zones. This also means that Prototype isn't something you ever activate; instead, it provides you with an alternative set of characteristics (power, toughness, and mana cost) when casting the card.

Casting with Prototype

When you cast a Prototype card, you evaluate its casting legality based on the version you intend to cast. Then, once a Prototype spell is on the stack or the battlefield, it retains its Prototype characteristics--power, toughness, and color, as long as you cast it that way. Remember, the rest of the card (name, abilities, and type) stays the same regardless of which version you cast.

Copying Prototype Spells or Permanents

If a Prototyped spell or permanent is copied, say, with one of my staples in all my Artifacts-Matter Decks, Mechanized Production, the copy inherits the same Prototype characteristics (power, toughness, mana cost) as the original. This means that if you copy a Prototyped spell, the copy will be the smaller, colored version of the creature if that's how the original spell was cast. Naturally, the inverse is true if you try to copy the big version as well.

Zones Matter

As it turns out, Prototype behaves differently depending on which zone the card is in. Outside the battlefield or stack (like in your graveyard or hand), the card has its normal characteristics. For example, a Prototype card in your graveyard is always considered to have its default mana cost, power, and toughness.

So, while Arcane Proxy is on the battlefield as a 2/1 Blue creature if cast for its Prototype cost, once it goes to the graveyard, it's considered a 4/3 colorless creature with a mana cost of 7. This is especially important for Reanimation Decks, which typically incorporate spells that can bring back a creature in its default form and not its meeker Prototype form.

Prototypes, Always Great For Scams

One of the most exciting ways to play with Prototype creatures (and, realistically, the only competitive way) is by abusing effects that let you "Scam" out its original, big version for little to no mana. This is an especially important interaction to keep in mind because when a Prototype creature is "Blinked" with an effect like that of Ephemerate or Flickerwisp, it re-enters the battlefield with its default characteristics--essentially "forgetting" that it was ever cast as a smaller creature.

Similarly, this same interaction will also occur if someone tries to remove your Prototype creature and you respond with a card like Not Dead After All. (To be honest, I still have nightmares about the endless nights of trying to fight off fully-powered Phyrexian Fleshgorgers by turn 4. This was a thing in Wild of Eldraine Standard, by the way).

Cards With Prototype

Now, if you're ready to add some flexibility and serious firepower to your decks, here's a complete list of all the Prototype cards that are waiting for you to decide if they're finally ready for deployment:

• Arcane Proxy
• Autonomous Assembler
• Blitz Automaton
• Boulderbranch Golem
• Combat Thresher
• Cradle Clearcutter
• Depth Charge Colossus
• Fallaji Dragon Engine
• Frogmyr Enforcer
• Goring Warplow
• Hulking Metamorph
• Iron-Craw Crusher
• Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• Rootwire Amalgam
• Rust Goliath
• Skitterbeam Battalion
• Spotter Thopter
• Steel Seraph
• Woodcaller Automaton

The Future of Prototype

The fact that Prototype recently resurfaced in Modern Horizons 3 (2024) may suggest that MTG's RND department sees some long-term potential in this mechanic. And while Modern Horizons sets are well-known for always (just when will the power creep end?) pushing the boundaries of card design, they also tend to set trends for what could appear in future sets. Perhaps we can expect to see even more complex interactions played alongside other mechanics or, for the sake of Commander Artificers worldwide, even multicolored Prototype creatures in future sets.

But for now, if you haven't played with Prototype yet, now's the perfect time to get to tinkering! What are you waiting for? Pick out your Prototypes, choose your Scam method of choice, and let's never get punished for keeping one-land hands again!