Why Morph?
The biggest attribute Morph has the not often discussed value of "hidden information". Players of Gonti in EDH may relate to the power of having access to a resource that your opponents do not know. Games of Magic are incredibly open with information - at all times you know how many cards are in a player's hand; you know the contents of their graveyard; the number of untapped creatures or lands they have; all the permanents they control and the abilities they have; In most games, the hand is the only zone in the game where a player has access to hidden resources. To a studious player, threat assessment becomes about determining what cards are in that hand and what they are able to do with the mana available to them. Can they counter my next spell? Remove my creature? Are they holding up for card draw or a utility spell? Being able to anticipate and play around or bait out your opponent's hidden resources before they do yours is the key to winning games.
Morph allows you to have an extra zone of hidden resources: your battlefield (or you could say you're transferring said resource to another zone). I've found that once you morph a creature to the battlefield, it's capabilities become underestimated and sometimes forgotten. Your opponents see a 2/2 creature rather than an extra resource they may need to play around (this is particularly good as a play against counterspells because they can't assess whether or not it's worth countering and therefore 99% of the time will let it resolve). This puts them at a disadvantage that increases the more morphs you end up having on the field: playing around one morph isn't so bad, it could be the one card that stops my line of play but the odds are low; but play against five morphs and you're more and more likely to have your game plan disrupted.
Another advantage of Morph is of course it's variety. One one hand you have cards like Krosan Colossus who are huge beatsticks that use Morph as a means to come into play earlier. This a variety we don't care much for, as it doesn't offer much more to the deck other than a bigger body to attack with (this is mainly because our Commander makes this line of play more or less obsolete). What we're interested in are the cards that disrupt our opponents when they turn over: cards like Willbender, Nantuko Vigilante or Stratus Dancer, that can unexpectedly turn a game around.
Now I know what you're thinking: "Subject, if I want Nantuko Vigilante's effect why don't I just run Naturalize and avoid having to pay three mana in advance instead?" And to that I say this: Why be content with simply casting Naturalize when you can also be attacking with your Naturalize? Morphing is just a 2/2 body which in the grander scale of EDH may not seem like much, but just like the mechanic itself it shouldn't be underestimated. After all the Power and Toughness of the creature beneath the morph is also unknown and can make combat math quite tricky (we're not looking to run big creatures under our morph, but our opponents don't know that). In the early game especially a 2/2 body more often than not trades or outdamages utility creatures like Stoneforge Mystic or Goblin Welder. And although this deck plays with control quite a lot, it's also an aggressive deck: you can end up attacking two or three times before you need to flip your morph over to stop an opponent, and you can still keep attacking after that. You can be aggressive with your Morph cards and flip them up only when people are trying to slow down your damage output. That's the real power of Morph: It's your threat and your disruption all in one card.
Our commander: The best colors, what are our options, and who is the best.
Color:
Of all five colors, there are two that stand out as the best colors for Morph: Blue and Green. This can be seen in both the quality of disruption provided by creatures of those colors and by the number of cards in those color that interact with Morph, Face-Down creatures and permanents turning face up. I feel it's vital to a Morph deck to be in these two colors at the least. After that, the other three colors each have some merit: White gets Mastery of the Unseen, the ability to blink your morphed fatties back to full size, and anthem effects but overall the quality of white's flips aren't especially worth running; red has a good mix of fatties and useful effects like Ire Shaman or Jeering Instigator and can grant you haste and some good combat related tricks, but it's let down by its commander options (here's to hoping C19 provides some alternatives to Animar). Black has some very nice Morph cards that destroy creatures, discard cards or get you advantage like Soul Collector and Grim Haruspex, but Sultai doesn't offer them a fantastic choice of Commanders to support your game plan. See below for 4+ colors.
Commanders:
I've listed which commanders I think best fitting commander for each color combination and why:
• Bant: Roon of the Hidden Realm. This deck will want the beefy Morph cards that Roon can blink from a 2/2 body all the way to its natural sides. Also does some very nice things with Manifest.
• Temur: It has to be Animar, Soul of Elements for the reduced cost on your morphs to being free eventually, but I don't like this for a reason and that is that it becomes too quickly about Animar and not about the Morph creatures. One card like Cloudstone Curio can enable some infinite combo shenanigans. At that point, you're haven't built a Morph deck: you built and Animar deck with Morph cards in it.
• Sultai: Two commanders stand out for me here for different reasons. The first is Muldrotha, the Gravetide. She lets you cast your Morph cards from the graveyard which can be great if you've had your creatures wiped once too many times. The downside is of course that your opponents can see which card you're morphing from the graveyard and that's a bummer. The other option for me it Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, as most Morph cards are creatures that trigger Sidisi's Zombie ability. This can help with keeping up an aggressive game plan and providing you pack enough recursion, a way to have access to Morph creatures more easily. It's also fun to play Ghastly Conscription with a big enough graveyard too.
• Four Color: Partnering Sidar Kondo of Jamuura with Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist to me seems like a more interesting deck than Bant or Temur actually. Sidar Kondo obviously supports your morphed cards by making them evasive, and Ludevic rewards your aggression by drawing you cards and by encouraging other players to attack each other as well.
• Five Color: Nothing stands out in particular that supports the Morph mechanic. Niv-Mizzet Reborn could draw you one or two interesting cards, or Najeela, the Blade-Blossom could help push for lethal with the extra combat steps.
But deep down, the truth is that a third color isn't necessary. Simic as a color pair is incredibly versatile and powerful, it has enough Morph creatures and Morph support to work, and it has what I believe to be the perfect commander for it:
SPOILER
Show
Hide
Ezuri, Claw of Progress.
What's the deal with Ezuri then?
Ezuri's synergy with the Morph mechanic should be pretty obvious. Each morph you cast nets him an experience counter, which in turn can boost your little 2/2 creatures into much bigger threats. With Morph only casting three mana at the most (because cost reductions apply of course) you can easily get Ezuri to 4+ counters before people start to worry, and by that point you can start swinging with big faceless beaters that can at any moment become even more annoying or frightening. What's helpful is that a lot of Morph creatures themselve make a large amount of tokens that benefit Ezuri: Flip over a Thelonite Druid before combat for an extra whallop, or block their Ulamog with your Broodhatch Nantuko. The permanency of the experience counters are what make Ezuri so fantastic. Even on a second or third cast, Ezuri can come down and with very little effort (and no extra mana investment - you're free to keep your lands open to flip cards) push one of your morphs into lethal territory. To this end, a few evasive/trampling Morph cards can't do much wrong either.
Decklist
Here is my current decklist: While it can be oppressive sometimes because of Brine Elemental locks, it's consistently able to turn the tide in most games in my favor, and that's a memorable enough experience to make this deck fun to me. Things become awry if everyone starts teaming up against me, as this deck is very greedy for mana and doesn't usually have enough to fight against everyone else at the same time.
2 Dream Chisel
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Talisman of Curiosity
2 Strionic Resonator
2 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Elvish Mystic
2 Ainok Survivalist
2 Broodhatch Nantuko
2 Coral Trickster
2 Den Protector
2 Hooded Hydra
2 Icefeather Aven
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Stratus Dancer
2 Voidmage Apprentice
2 Willbender
3 Branchsnap Lorian
3 Deathmist Raptor
3 Echo Tracer
3 Eternal Witness
3 Mystic of the Hidden Way
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Riptide Entrancer
3 Somberwald Sage
4 Kheru Spellsnatcher
4 Master of the Veil
4 Nantuko Vigilante
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Thelonite Hermit
4 Unblinking Bleb
5 Acidic Slime
5 Chromeshell Crab
5 Hystrodon
5 Ixidron
5 Mischievous Quanar
5 Seedborn Muse
5 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
6 Brine Elemental
6 Prime Speaker Zegana
6 Sagu Mauler
7 Weaver of Lies
2 Secret Plans
2 Trail of Mystery
3 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
7 Zendikar Resurgent
3 Cultivate
3 Nissa's Pilgrimage
4 Harmonize
4 Skyshroud Claim
5 Shamanic Revelation
6 Collective Unconscious
6 Rishkar's Expertise
7 All is Dust
What's the deal with Ezuri then?
Ezuri's synergy with the Morph mechanic should be pretty obvious. Each morph you cast nets him an experience counter, which in turn can boost your little 2/2 creatures into much bigger threats. With Morph only casting three mana at the most (because cost reductions apply of course) you can easily get Ezuri to 4+ counters before people start to worry, and by that point you can start swinging with big faceless beaters that can at any moment become even more annoying or frightening. What's helpful is that a lot of Morph creatures themselve make a large amount of tokens that benefit Ezuri: Flip over a Thelonite Druid before combat for an extra whallop, or block their Ulamog with your Broodhatch Nantuko. The permanency of the experience counters are what make Ezuri so fantastic. Even on a second or third cast, Ezuri can come down and with very little effort (and no extra mana investment - you're free to keep your lands open to flip cards) push one of your morphs into lethal territory. To this end, a few evasive/trampling Morph cards can't do much wrong either.
Decklist
Here is my current decklist: While it can be oppressive sometimes because of Brine Elemental locks, it's consistently able to turn the tide in most games in my favor, and that's a memorable enough experience to make this deck fun to me. Things become awry if everyone starts teaming up against me, as this deck is very greedy for mana and doesn't usually have enough to fight against everyone else at the same time.
SPOILER
Show
Hide
Ezuri, Face-Down, Counters Up
Artifacts
1 Sol Ring2 Dream Chisel
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Talisman of Curiosity
2 Strionic Resonator
2 Swiftfoot Boots
Creatures
1 Birds of Paradise1 Elvish Mystic
2 Ainok Survivalist
2 Broodhatch Nantuko
2 Coral Trickster
2 Den Protector
2 Hooded Hydra
2 Icefeather Aven
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Stratus Dancer
2 Voidmage Apprentice
2 Willbender
3 Branchsnap Lorian
3 Deathmist Raptor
3 Echo Tracer
3 Eternal Witness
3 Mystic of the Hidden Way
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Riptide Entrancer
3 Somberwald Sage
4 Kheru Spellsnatcher
4 Master of the Veil
4 Nantuko Vigilante
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Thelonite Hermit
4 Unblinking Bleb
5 Acidic Slime
5 Chromeshell Crab
5 Hystrodon
5 Ixidron
5 Mischievous Quanar
5 Seedborn Muse
5 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
6 Brine Elemental
6 Prime Speaker Zegana
6 Sagu Mauler
7 Weaver of Lies
Enchantments
1 Obscuring Aether2 Secret Plans
2 Trail of Mystery
3 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
7 Zendikar Resurgent
Lands
Island x7
Forest x8
Sorceries
2 Rampant Growth3 Cultivate
3 Nissa's Pilgrimage
4 Harmonize
4 Skyshroud Claim
5 Shamanic Revelation
6 Collective Unconscious
6 Rishkar's Expertise
7 All is Dust
Approximate Total Cost:
(Also if anyone can explain why my decklist is one long column and how I can fix that that would be great!)
Subject16
