This deck doesn't have much history. I liked Vadrok because it seemed like the underdog (except, perhaps, when compared to Snapdax). The White and Red mutates seem the weakest of the bunch, and Vadrok's ability appears somewhat limited at first blush (especially compared to Illuna's or Brokkos' - or Otrimi's). I like underdogs, so I bought all the alt-arts of Jeskai mutates and decided to build it.
While looking at the mutates themselves, most of them seemed rather generic except for Cubwarden, Regal Leosaur and Huntmaster Liger. I thought I'd try and lean into these bonuses.
Vadrok Token
Approximate Total Cost:
Main Gameplan:
In theory, the deck wants to play a Hordeling Outburst/Molten Birth/History of Benalia, and then mutate onto a resulting token to cast it again, resulting in more tokens. The more mutates we leverage, the more iterations of tokens we'll get, and the more instances of Leosaur/Liger we'll get as well when we swing for damage. Krenko also serves well as a mutate target, since he'll make a bucket of tokens every swing. We won't always draw our two buff mutates, so we're also looking to pump up the team with Jeskai Ascendancy/Soulblade Djinn and casts/recasts via Vadrok/Flashback on Rally the Peasants. The on-cast triggers for Monastery Mentor, Saheeli, and Kykar can help out, though it feels slower than Vadrok's recast of something like Hordeling Outburst.
Many mutates in the deck aren't very good, but are there primarily to trigger Vadrok's mutate, or the Cubwarden/Liger/Leosaur mutates. Majestic Auricorn isn't good, but if you give the text of the others, it's not the worst. Similarly, Vulipkeet isn't stellar, though the evasion can be relevant when glued to another creature. Most of the other mutates have an ability of at least passing relevance. The only human in the deck, Monastery Mentor, was selected for its all-around power in terms of making tokens, and those tokens having a higher native ceiling than any other (seriously, all the tokens have Prowess, whose design idea was that?!).
Cute Synergies:
Goblin Engineer can find Sword of Feast and Famine, a mana rock, or Soul-Guide Lantern and put it in the graveyard. This is fine, since you can mutate Vadrok onto our goblin and cast whatever you wanted from your graveyard. This deck is starved for mana, so the Sword can really kick us into high gear, and Soul-Guide Lantern is the only graveyard hate in the deck due to the tightness of the slots. It's also worth noting that Sword of Feast and Famine is the only Sword that doesn't interfere with our mutates; mutate is a targeted ability, and protection from a colour that matched the mutate would prevent a mutate (i.e. protection from red and Cloudpiercer).
The Awaken cards in hand can make a 0/0 with some +1/+1 counters out of a land. I've only taken what I believe to be the best Awakens; most of the ones are hideously costed and have largely irrelevant spells. Maybe I could include Roil Spout because it's mean on Vadrok recast? Anyway, the idea is that you get a 0/0 elemental with some counters, and then you replace the 0/0 with a mutate. This is where Vulpikeet really shines, because it gives evasion to a creature that really wants it. The Awakened land also has synergy with Jeskai Ascendancy; we can use the resulting elemental-land for mana for non-creature spells, and then JA will untap it as a courtesy. Free mana.
Finally, Leyline of Anticipation does its usual thing of changing how we play Magic, but, it also provides greater flexibility for our mutates. Mutating at instant speed permits interaction with counterspells in our graveyard, which drastically boosts the power level. If we find we can't afford it, it's only a Cloudpiercer/Wheel of Fortune/Windfall/Desolate Lighthouse away from being discarded. Outside of Leyline, only two Mutates natively have Flash (Octopus and Shoreshark).
Actual Gameplay:
The games I've played so far have infrequently resulted in the main gameplan actually working. Most of the time, people get beaten to death by Vadrok because it's aggressively costed, and you can recur Sword of Feast and Famine or the few pieces of removal in the deck via the mutate (being repeatedly dunked by Leadership Vacuum is really bad). Some mutate targets (like Geist) can kick out a ton of damage while being somewhat difficult to answer. Embercleave can also push players out of the game; one game was closed out by an Archipelagore to lock down blockers using Vadrok to recast Abrade for the last chump, an attack, and an Embercleave to close out on General damage.
I have not draw any of the main three mutates this build wants to see.
I know the deck is light on removal (which is very unusual for me), and has a lot of chaff. I welcome suggestions!
Changelog
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2020/06/04
-Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin
-Sevinne's Reclamation
-Monastery Mentor
+Brimaz, King of Oreskos
+Leonin Warleader
+Swords to Plowshares
I'm unsure how this deck got built without Swords to Plowshares. Leonin Warleader and Brimaz are there... because... cat tokens? Mutate targets? I don't know. They seem okay for cost, and if we're not kidding ourselves, the high creature count of the deck makes Search for Azcanta kind of bad. Monastery Mentor is human, and the Prowess on the tokens is not impactful enough. With that in mind, future changes might force this deck in another direction; even after a game with multiple Regal Leosaur triggers, I only won by a hair's breadth, and it may not be worth leaning into Leosaur/Liger when we aren't going wide enough for it to matter. Which also implies that Jeskai Ascendancy and especially Soulblade Djinn are not really good enough.
2020/06/15
-Aura of Silence
-Molten Birth
-History of Benalia
-Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
+Dack Fayden
+Izzet Charm
+Wear // Tear
+Secure the Wastes
The token-on-cast cards have been underperforming; the deck just has a lot of creatures (23, currently) and that number probably won't go down a whole lot. We need mutates (13+1 General, currently) and things to mutate onto (currently 9). There is, I suppose, an angle where we use non-creature cards to make tokens that we can mutate onto (the original goal of the deck!), but, currently those cards are just not really good enough. Hordeling Outburst is acceptable, but the make-twos just don't feel strong enough. Even History of Benalia was slow and felt pretty underwhelming. In their stead, Dack provides some more looting capability with some Artifact hate/love, Izzet Charm provides some flexible early-game action, and Secure the Wastes could produce more tokens than any set of cards in the deck could.
I suppose there's another universe where I just bite the bullet, run every make-2 (like Krenko's Command, etc.), include the very few token-on-cast cards and hope for the best, include more +2/+0s (like Burn Bright and Ethereal Guidance) but I don't believe that all those cards are actually good enough to repeatedly fire with Vadrok.
Mind you, maybe that's the route; go all in, or ditch the token strategy altogether, instead of the current half-measure.
2020/08/09
-Darksteel Myr
-Kykar, Wind's Fury
-Soulblade Djinn
-Secure the Wastes
-Rally the Peasants
-Brimaz, King of Oreskos
-Leonin Warleader
-The Locust God
+Armillary Sphere
+Faithless Looting
+Valorous Stance
+Triton Fortune Hunter
+Blinking Spirit|ICE
+Darting Merfolk
+Roil Spout
+Stolen by the Fae
These changes happened a while ago. No more incremental token games. We're now in the land of bounce a mutate-stack (if necessary), and trying to get value from Vadrok casts. We're not leaving Leosaur and Liger in the cold though; we still have Martial Coup, Krenko, and now Stolen by the Fae. There's easily a universe in which these get online and a Leosaur/Liger closes things out.
-Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin
-Sevinne's Reclamation
-Monastery Mentor
+Brimaz, King of Oreskos
+Leonin Warleader
+Swords to Plowshares
I'm unsure how this deck got built without Swords to Plowshares. Leonin Warleader and Brimaz are there... because... cat tokens? Mutate targets? I don't know. They seem okay for cost, and if we're not kidding ourselves, the high creature count of the deck makes Search for Azcanta kind of bad. Monastery Mentor is human, and the Prowess on the tokens is not impactful enough. With that in mind, future changes might force this deck in another direction; even after a game with multiple Regal Leosaur triggers, I only won by a hair's breadth, and it may not be worth leaning into Leosaur/Liger when we aren't going wide enough for it to matter. Which also implies that Jeskai Ascendancy and especially Soulblade Djinn are not really good enough.
2020/06/15
-Aura of Silence
-Molten Birth
-History of Benalia
-Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
+Dack Fayden
+Izzet Charm
+Wear // Tear
+Secure the Wastes
The token-on-cast cards have been underperforming; the deck just has a lot of creatures (23, currently) and that number probably won't go down a whole lot. We need mutates (13+1 General, currently) and things to mutate onto (currently 9). There is, I suppose, an angle where we use non-creature cards to make tokens that we can mutate onto (the original goal of the deck!), but, currently those cards are just not really good enough. Hordeling Outburst is acceptable, but the make-twos just don't feel strong enough. Even History of Benalia was slow and felt pretty underwhelming. In their stead, Dack provides some more looting capability with some Artifact hate/love, Izzet Charm provides some flexible early-game action, and Secure the Wastes could produce more tokens than any set of cards in the deck could.
I suppose there's another universe where I just bite the bullet, run every make-2 (like Krenko's Command, etc.), include the very few token-on-cast cards and hope for the best, include more +2/+0s (like Burn Bright and Ethereal Guidance) but I don't believe that all those cards are actually good enough to repeatedly fire with Vadrok.
Mind you, maybe that's the route; go all in, or ditch the token strategy altogether, instead of the current half-measure.
2020/08/09
-Darksteel Myr
-Kykar, Wind's Fury
-Soulblade Djinn
-Secure the Wastes
-Rally the Peasants
-Brimaz, King of Oreskos
-Leonin Warleader
-The Locust God
+Armillary Sphere
+Faithless Looting
+Valorous Stance
+Triton Fortune Hunter
+Blinking Spirit|ICE
+Darting Merfolk
+Roil Spout
+Stolen by the Fae
These changes happened a while ago. No more incremental token games. We're now in the land of bounce a mutate-stack (if necessary), and trying to get value from Vadrok casts. We're not leaving Leosaur and Liger in the cold though; we still have Martial Coup, Krenko, and now Stolen by the Fae. There's easily a universe in which these get online and a Leosaur/Liger closes things out.
