Commander Focus: Tron, Humility, and Mutagen Man, Living Ooze

The moment a card mentions 'activated abilities' by name, I'm hooked. There's no greater rush of dopamine available to a Johnny than enhancing ones' ability to durdle and twiddle various pieces on the board, and I've gone on record to state Cryptic Trilobite is among my favorite cards. Am I so easily pleased, however? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is arriving sooner than feels appropriate, and with it we've seen what should be a slam-dunk Commander for me: Mutagen Man, Living Ooze. A Monocolor, activated abilities-matter Commander with no limit on their cost reduction effect? There's something radical about centering a Monogreen Commander around, of all things, Artifact tokens, and that's where the challenge lies. Building a compelling Mutagen Man deck isn't just a matter of putting together as many Food & Clue synergies as possible, it's asking a question of how your color can turn anything into an Artifact token. It's a design that would be absurdly dangerous in literally any other color, but here, they felt nothing truly absurd would occur. That's not...entirely true, as we'll see below.

"Activated Abilities of Artifact Tokens You Control Cost {1} Less"

Mutagen Man is a card that's going to be fantastic in Gx decks, where access to literally any other color opens up a wealth of options to exploit. Simic or Bant Investigate, Food in Golgari or Selesnya, or faster access to combos with Red or Blue's capability to copy cards—there's really no limit to what the Man can do outside of literally its sole color. In Monogreen, options for making Clue tokens are slim, and Blood has dried up to just a couple (bad) options. Food seems an obvious route, and indeed the one TMNT is encouraging, but at that point you'd be better off with Peregrin Took at the helm. That's not to say we won't be making a plethora of different tokens, as that's part of the grindier gameplan of the strategy, but if Mutagen Man is to justify himself in the Command Zone, shenanigans are essential. Unlike its non-Legendary contemporary in Forensic Gadgeteer, there's no limit to the cost reduction provided by that effect, meaning costs of {1} or less are free from Artifact token sources. It therefore follows that we need only play ways of making Artifact token copies of relevant cards, and how hard could that be in Green?

The answer is as exhilarating as it is frustrating: It's inefficient, but doable. Unsurprisingly, every mechanism to do this comes down to either an Artifact—given cloning and Artifacts are decidedly not Green's forte—or a Land. The latter of which is exceptionally accessible by Green, but there's only a mere two options for the role, being Mirrorpool & Lazotep Quarry. Beyond that it gets ugly, with the necessary components being 6+ mana to utilize, such as Dollhouse of Horrors & Nexus of Becoming; these are cards which are fun as value pieces, but don't hold up well to removal when you're fully intending to use them as a means to win the game. That's a lot of mana to get your gameplan kickstarted, though Mutagen Man himself being functionally 2 mana does assist in those lines not feeling too bad. As someone who originally came from a 60-card background though, and seeing the capabilities presented by Green to tutor lands, I knew of a way to make these splashy Colorless payoffs sing, however: Tron. Yes, the scourge of 'classic' Modern comes home to roost here, and in a big way.

One, Two, Seven

TMNT is truly the Morbius of Magic Sets.

No archetype comes to mind as quickly, if the average 60-card player is asked what deck has been the longest-running pillar of their format. Pauper Rainbow Tron, Modern Mono Blue Tron, Legacy Eldrazi Tron. The deck's seen permutations in literally every Color, or lack thereof, throughout its lifespan of assembling its very own 'Exodia'. The deck is named for the 'Urzatron' Lands, Urza's Tower, Urza's Power-Plant, & Urza's Mine, which individually only produce a mere {1}, but together ramp you all the way to {7}, historically used for cards like Karn Liberated. Given Tron's cultural impact on some of the game's most popular formats, it's seen the occasional tailored support piece, with Urza's Saga being a cornerstone of Modern Horizons 2, and Brother's War arriving with Urza's Workshop. The fact the original Lands were printed with an odd subtype, denoting they were Urza's [Blank] meant they all share that non-basic Land type, and odd as it is to have a type with an embedded apostrophe, it's allowed for batching and free synergy. Speaking of, in Modern Horizons 3, we arrive to the centerpiece of this package: Planar Nexus. See, the original Tron lands don't ask for cards named appropriately, but typed; this means Nexus is an Urza's Power-Plant Mine Tower, bringing new meaning to vertical integration.

I find it deeply funny this interaction is even included in the most recent printings' reminder text for the OGs, a literal 'yes it works that way' for newer to the game. Suddenly in Commander the Tron package becomes incredibly available for a ton of Monocolor decks, especially Green, with the capability to play what amounts to the biggest Urborg+Coffers package in the format. If you've got slots to spare, and no special need for tons of Colored mana, why not indulge in the best Colorless ramp engine in the game's history? With that in mind, many of our more expensive copiers become profoundly more available, the secret sauce for allowing Mutagen Man to feel less bad as an enabler. I've seen the idea covered in a couple other articles, but the ramp packages were to me that canary in the Urza's Mine that kept those lists feeling slow. Here, we're far quicker at getting to the silly stuff. Speaking of which...

{1} to Activate, Not Great, Not Terrible

Who knew activated abilities were a fiat currency?

The actual outcome of properly copying something onto an Artifact token is linked to the abilities we're able to exploit, and while the flashiest are those for whose {1} to activate abilities become free, there's plenty of opportunities beyond that. It's a neat thing, to see the infinite difference between between those two states, but it's vital to recall we're still in Monogreen. The most obvious pieces begin with Pentavus & Thopter Squadron, who can create and disassemble their respective Artifact Creature tokens infinitely, but on its own this accomplishes nothing. You'd either need a trigger when those Creatures enter or die, or some way to exploit the fact you're constantly adding and removing +1/+1 counters. Of course, with any replacement effect that adds or doubles said counters, you can at once produce an infinitely large and wide board (without Haste), but I'm far more interested in replacement effects which add tokens, such as Stridehangar Automaton. In either case, each presents a divergent path for Mutagen Man, as beyond the cost reduction, he produces tokens that add counters, and leaning into one or the other is simply sensible. If leaning into the counters version though, don't sleep on Spawning Pit as a means of getting infinite bodies with any way to make one sacrifice result in two counters. If your aim was to linearize the deck, I think some sort of tutor chain with Scrapyard Recombiner makes the most sense, able to find Pentavus & Stridehangar alike.

Voltaic Construct is also tutorable via Recombiner, if you look at his actual types, and with it and a number of potential mana producers you're either twiddling a single card numerous times, or producing infinite mana. To benefit from the twiddling, Mesmeric Orb can mill you out, though Green lacks a simple way to benefit from this unlike Blue. This same interaction, which should be known at this point to mill yourself out by way of Basalt Monolith, now has a way to do the very same via a token copy of Voltaic Key. Once you do mill yourself, cards like Dryad's Revival & Mask of the Jadecrafter can be a jumping-off point for other combos, usually by way of giving your newly-minded Artifact Creature token a {1} cost ability via Agatha's Soul Cauldron. Speaking of transplanting abilities though, that's a well we're eager to plumb given Green actually has some great ways to swarm with things like Thopters, Constructs, & Myr. Make a board with Genesis Chamber & give them tons of -1 cost Land abilities with Steward of the Harvest? How about passing around a Dinosaur Headdress between oodles of scarabs via Canoptek Scarab Swarm? If you allow yourself to drift into the headspace of fairly freeform ~4-5 card interactions, things start looking about as fun as they are convoluted. That is to say, radically so.

The Peanut Gallery

In a deck whose conceit is basically 'every pile of ~5ish cards has a combo', what's in here that doesn't combo with its contemporaries? I think a great example is Thijarian Witness, a card that frankly might deserve more play. While its condition seems hard to enable regularly, recall that it does indeed work with token Creatures, and for your opponents' turns as well. Your opponent swings with a voltron Commander and gets chump blocked? Clue for you. Swing and sacrifice a 1/1? Congrats, it's a Clue. I personally even think the card could get better in a deck that prompts additional combats or chump blocks, but as a peculiar hate piece I quite like it! Another underplayed card here is Cemetary Prowler, the second Foundry Inspector for Monogreen. It does tremendous work if it exiles an Artifact Creature, can hit opposing yards, and is even a solid enough blocker. Slam dunk here, and otherwise should be elsewhere. How are we getting cards in the yard, though? Aside from Mesmeric Orb, there's not an outrageous amount of self-mill here; one answer to that question is in the form of Sarinth Steelseeker, which has a home in every Mutagen Man build, but especially ones that actually intend to pay the {X} cost in your Commander's text. Steelseeker explores in all but name and counter, but for a deck looking to rip through its Library and find specific Tron Lands, and bin relevant creatures for Prowler, Dollhouse, & similar it's amazing.

Next on our list of underappreciated Monogreen cards, who here has heard of Careful Cultivation? It's either an Instant-speed 2-mana dork that arrives as a token, or allows one of our Creatures to tap for {G}{G}, which when combined with an untapper and/or Mutagen Man himself will often result in infinite mana. The easiest route is of course Pili-Pala, but this is a card which is just rarely bad. Another piece we're trying out is Celestial Reunion for exactly Cryptic Trilobite, which is yes, less broad than a turned-on Analyze the Pollen or similar, but is deeply funny to play for {X}=0 and find a tremendous piece like Trilobite. I think it would have more value if the list played more {X} synergies, as our Commander does ramp out an Elementalist's Palette fairly readily, but that once again comes down to something I don't often find myself saddled with: Unconfidence in this list. You may have noticed that I'm a bit blasé about how the actual function of the combos in this list work, and the broad strokes of copying cards as pieces enabled by our Commander. Let's talk about that.

Confessions of a Comboholic

Folks, the crux of this deck is...kind of middling. This isn't new ground I'm breaking in saying so, given the coverage of the Mutagen Man has largely been composed of similar lukewarm takes, but the fact that even I'm saying that is a bit worrying. This is coming from someone who, in full confidence, told you a deck's core gameplan could and should be swinging out with an animate The Millennium Calendar (and I stand by that). I'm never one to shy away from mechanical oddities, and I relish the opportunity to wring every last drop of playability from Commanders whose gimmick is explaining Layers. So, it's worth stepping back to look at this list from a mile up the mountain: What's working, what isn't? For starters, the Tron package feels amazing in testing, and whether you're jamming a massive Mutagen Man or ramping out these big-mana cloning effects, it's wonderful. Furthermore, if that's felt good, using other Lands to take the brunt of the load for the clones has felt even better; Green is good at finding Lands more than any other permanent type, so playing fewer bad cards, and more cards which find either clone-Lands or ways to ramp into them is stellar. Planar Nexus is both Urza's and a Desert, too, so ramp like Map the Frontier can find both a way to max out our Tron mana, and Lazotep to get Mutagen humming along!

Getting back to our roots, here on Commander Focus.

I don't do this often, but I wanted to specifically point out another author's take on the Mutagen Man, because I find the difference in outlook on the card fascinating. Alejandro Fuentes, of EDHREC, covered this Commander on February 3rd and arrived to the conclusion that it was perhaps more optimal to focus less on the token cloning aspect, and more on existing chaff tokens like Clues, Food, & Treasure. I arrive instead to the conclusion that both of those plans are a bit far-fetched for actually aiming to optimize Mutagen Man, and instead the best course of action is to acknowledge what Green does best: Lands. Finding one of two specific non-basics in Mirrorpool & Lazotep Quarry is simply not a difficult task, especially compared to the likes of Dollhouse of Horrors, and if you play compelling Artifact Creatures with means of putting them in the right place for the abilities of those Lands, they're the best clone enablers in the list. Moreover, when I was doing things like Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Steward of the Harvest, or Paleontologist's Pick-Axe with Artifact Creature tokens, that also felt pretty good given you were providing the abilities free-of-charge to Artifacts that were already tokens.

Example Decklist: Mutagen Man, Take Me by the Hand

I want to stress that this list is doing too much, and that's alright. My aim with this list was not to produce a version of Mutagen Man you could purchase and never change, but instead to showcase a ton of options for the Commander (at least as of February 19th). I've been tinkering with this Commander for some time now, as it does pique my interest given everything I've said from the intro until now, and it wouldn't shock me to see it changed and optimized as time goes on. There's a lot to like here, but I know a sleeker version exists a few months from now, once I've had the time to tinker with this in paper.

At its core, you're looking to assemble some combination of cards which go either mana-neutral or mana-positive alongside the Mutagen Man, and from there either mill yourself out (if neutral)—at which point you can line up a combo with an empty deck by way of Dryad's Revival—or use said mana to draw/play your entire Library and make infinite hasty copies of something, via Chrome Dome or Cogwork Assembler. This isn't at present a list interested in interacting, and instead wants to tunnel onto its own gameplan; as Monogreen, this isn't that bad of a choice given the color's lackluster interactive suite to begin with, but it is worth noting nonetheless.

Decklists are kept updated, and may change with set releases.

This list is currently Bracket 3, and I feel most combo versions of the Man will rest there. Your best lines are all 2-card combos, and games may involve you literally stumbling into them on accident by virtue of enough pieces just...working together. In that regard, it's quite a bit like many other Artifact piles, turning synergies into infinites with a high enough density, but it's for that reason I'm not especially keen to bring this up to Bracket 4; we would need some new card that makes for easier outlets, or better yet, another Land that clones something relevant.

Far From Boolean

Jason Engle has managed to ensure Cauldron is iconic for more than merely its text.

I want to wrap this article up by clarifying that I quite enjoyed Alejandro's article, as a fellow Commander author, and I felt the need to fall on my sword a bit here. My list is, similarly, imperfect and currently hinges on the assumption it is right and just to focus on the cloning side of Mutagen Man, but just because that's the flashiest way to approach a brand-new Legendary Creature it isn't necessarily right. A more subdued version of the list exists, where its copious Land tutors and doling-out of abilities supplements a sharper, more interactive Monogreen core. I hope to find it, sometime, and perhaps build it in paper, because as it stands I think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a shockingly deep set in terms of mechanically interesting pieces, even if I'm wholly unconnected to them from a media perspective. In short, this afterword is a challenge to both myself and you, dear reader, to on occasion get down to brass tacks in Commander and avoid jumping through hoops. Check this article out again in a few months' time, I might have more to say.

That's the quintessential thing that keeps Magic exciting for me: Expectations. I know more cards are going to be printed for this deck, I know there's some sleeker version of this list waiting to be found out amid 3am Scryfall queries. The trick comes down to time, and the fact that cards like Cemetery Prowler and the other Green pieces covered in that section have already all but faded into obscurity; the time between sets has decreased substantially since I began playing this wonderful game, and that means the number of cards lurking below the public conscious of Commander has swelled unmanageably. The only way those cards are being found is by way of extremely specific strategies, in extremely specific colors, such as Artifact tokens with activated abilities in Monogreen, of all things. And the only way to see if that wild string of synergies and paradoxical color identities actually functions is to give it time.

Until next time, are you man, or mutagen?

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