Mutate is... weird. It's capable of doing a whole bunch of wild things in this little game of ours. If a planeswalker can turn into a creature until end of turn, for example, you can cast a creature with Mutate, put that creature on the 'walker (which is currently a creature) on the top. When the Planeswalker stops being a creature, it will be underneath the other creature with Mutate, which means the creature with Mutate will have all the abilities of the planeswalker, all of which have the limitations and capabilities of the 'walker's abilities. That means you track the loyalty separate from any other counters on the creature, but it can't be attacked like a 'walker can. What?

Exactly. So that's precisely what we're not going to do. Instead, we're going to abuse Mutate far more directly - no combos, no in-depth rules explanations, just good old fashioned deck-building. What better way to do that than with a Beast Elemental Dinosaur?

It's the free spell aspect of Illuna that really caught my attention. Any time we can sneak out a seven, eight, or ten-mana spell for no mana, I'm here for it. It almost becomes the point of the deck for me; I'm less interested in winning and more interesting in doing absurd stuff. So, while the spells we cast for free could be game-winners like Omniscience and Blightsteel Colossus (and if that's you go for it!), instead we're going to focus on things that are a bit more fun and fair.

This is also a nifty deck-building opportunity. In order to lean into Illuna's Mutate-for-free-spells thing, we've got a few hurdles to jump over. First, we've got to have Mutate creatures. There aren't a ton of those to begin with, so we're probably just going to run them all (I think it's 18 in these colors). Then we want payoffs; most of the Mutate creatures aren't that exciting without the Mutate ability, and we can't cast them for their Mutate costs for free off Illuna, so we need additional permanents to cast for free. We also generally want them to be big and powerful, but not so big and powerful we can't hard-cast them if they wind up in our hand.

Then, in order to make sure the payoffs are in our library where we want them, we'll need some ways to manipulate the top of our library. Finally, Illuna is five mana (six to Mutate), so we probably want to ramp - and this is good, because if we do end up needing to hard-cast an 8-drop, it helps to have hurried up to eight mana.

Mutate, payoffs, manipulation, and ramp. Rather than our normal way of doing things, let's go through the four major sections of the deck, but we'll do it backwards, starting with ramp.

We also want to control the top of our library. There are a few ways to do this. One option would be to go all-in on Scry, which could work. However, digging deeper will help more. Something like Halimar Depths is fine and worth running, though if you see three lands there's not a lot you can do about it. Brainstorm is better and also worth the place. Be careful how you stack, and make sure the card you want is right where you want it. Contingency Plan and Taigam's Scheming are both great here; for just a couple of mana we get to look at five cards, and we actually have recourse if we want to get rid of a card or two. Ancestral Knowledge is worth the Cumulative Upkeep; 10 cards is a lot, and if we can just get a single free spell off it it's normally worth it. If we get two we're probably ahead. Crystal Ball is wonderful repeatable Scry, though Sensei's Divining Top, annoying as it is, is probably better if you have one. Honestly, run both if you have a Top. Finally, Scroll Rack is a real all-star here. It lets us put back all the cards from our hand we want to cast for free and draw new ones to further manipulate our library, or better, get more Mutate opportunities. Keep in mind the point here is to avoid throwing away a bunch of great cards as we dig for Illuna's nonland permanent. However, this can also be a way to exile unneeded lands or ramp spells.

Okay, I was wrong, including our commander, we have 17 creatures with Mutate, plus three more that care about it. Mysterious Egg and Essence Symbiote are both great early plays, since they get bonuses whenever they Mutate. Pollywog Symbiote keeps our cards flowing and makes it easier for us to cast our Mutate creatures. The rest of them are primarily there because they Mutate, though the abilities are often valuable. Porcuparrot and Pouncing Shoreshark are removal. Sea-Dasher Octopus is card advantage. Gemrazer is a Naturalize. You get the idea.

We've got a few more things we can do. Strionic Resonator is always great when there's a triggered ability around. Temur Sabertooth can Boomerang a Mutated creature back to our hand, giving us more chances with it, and Eternal Witness does the same from the 'yard. Cyclonic Rift is kind of our one actual answer spell. And Genesis Ultimatum is simply fun to have in a deck like this. We can actually cast it, and when we do it should be pretty great.

Illuna, Apex of Wishes | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Illuna, Apex of Wishes

• Creatures (33)
• 1 Apex Altisaur
• 1 Archipelagore
• 1 Auspicious Starrix
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Cavalier of Gales
• 1 Cloudpiercer
• 1 Dreamtail Heron
• 1 Essence Symbiote
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Everquill Phoenix
• 1 Gemrazer
• 1 Glowstone Recluse
• 1 It That Betrays
• 1 Lore Drakkis
• 1 Migratory Greathorn
• 1 Mysterious Egg
• 1 Naga Oracle
• 1 Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1 Parcelbeast
• 1 Pollywog Symbiote
• 1 Porcuparrot
• 1 Pouncing Shoreshark
• 1 Riverwise Augur
• 1 Sawtusk Demolisher
• 1 Sea-Dasher Octopus
• 1 Souvenir Snatcher
• 1 Stormtide Leviathan
• 1 Temur Sabertooth
• 1 Trumpeting Gnarr
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide

• Instants (2)
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Cyclonic Rift

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Circuitous Route
• 1 Contingency Plan
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Genesis Ultimatum
• 1 Hour of Promise
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Migration Path
• 1 Mythos of Illuna
• 1 Nissa's Expedition
• 1 Peregrination
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Serum Visions
• 1 Spring // Mind
• 1 Taigam's Scheming

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Ancestral Knowledge
• 1 Fiery Emancipation
• 1 Kiora Bests the Sea God
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Sandwurm Convergence
• 1 Sunbird's Invocation

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Crystal Ball
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Strionic Resonator

• Lands (39)
• 10 Island
• 11 Forest
• 5 Mountain
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Halimar Depths
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 1 Ketria Triome
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Thornwood Falls

Buy This Deck Export text format

Using my fellow CSI writers' scale, I'd call this deck a 4. It's fun, it's interactive, but it's shaky. Lots of pieces have to come together right for it to be really amazing (though when they do it'll be great fun!), and it is sorely lacking answers to other people's decks. However, this is a great place to start with a deck like this, because in the playing of it you'll determine what it needs to work better, be more consistent, or simply be more fun. It's possible it doesn't need every Mutate creature; maybe it'd be better to run a few more ways to get creatures back from the 'yard. Adding a Mimic Vat to your Eternal Witness comes to mind. Maybe it needs fewer payoffs and should lean into one or two big spells to win the game - Long-Term Plans into Blightsteel Colossus with Fiery Emancipation and a couple ways to give Haste, for example. Perhaps the ramp should be permanent-based so it doesn't get exiled by Illuna... or maybe it shouldn't be so when we hit, it's always something of consequence and not a 1/1 that gets us a Forest. Maybe a Crystal Shard and other methods of repeatable bounce are better than tons of Mutate creatures. All of these are things to discover, but this starting point will work and get you walking down the right path.

How would you build Illuna? What direction would you push her if you did? What Mutate shenanigans did I leave out which you would include? Let us know in the comments!

One of my favorite commanders is Maelstrom Wanderer, so I seriously considered doing that deck, but ultimately settled on Mutate. And next week, we begin the final run of the series with four-color!

Thanks for reading, and stay safe.