Help brainstorming Illuna mutate.dec ideas

[kraus911]

I've played Illuna, Apex of Wishes a bit in Brawl and have played mutate in standard on Arena and really enjoy the mechanic. I also like all the goofy alternate arts on the mutate cards (no accounting for taste, judge but keep it to yourself!). So I want to cram a bunch into a temur EDH deck. No need to be competitive or even "strong", power level 6-7 maybe (whatever that is, it sounds about right). I know Illuna makes a decent polymorph general and I may end up doing that, but that deck can't play the aforementioned goofy mutate cards. Here's some things I'm looking at in terms of not just folding the first time my mutate stack gets a Path to Exile thrown at it:

Resilience. Some of that is play style and not putting all your Mysterious Eggs in one basket. I'm already looking at indestructible and hexproof mutate targets. I'm also thinking bounce. Crystal Shard , Equilibrium (which I think works with mutate), and others can return my value town mutate cards to hand to use again in response to removal.

Resources. The biggest problem with the bounce strategy, and perhaps with mutate in general, is it's mana hungry. Bounce requires mana, mutate requires mana. If I put in an infinite mana combo or two I could potentially go off and win with one big mutatey turn, bouncing Illuna over and over again to put my deck on the table, so maybe I want one of those, but I'm looking more for the grind. One thought there is to build a Prophet of Kruphix engine (not the actual banned card) into the deck with Wilderness Reclamation and Leyline of Anticipation type cards. Problem there is I'm looking at a lot of deck slots for bounce, land untapping, and flash effects.

How to win. Combat and combo I guess? Mutate can generate quite a bit of value, but I'll still end up with at most a couple of flying 6/6 or 7/7 creatures that smack into opponents. In Brawl and in Standard you win through combat generally. Sometimes Auspicious Starrix goes off and puts most of your deck on the table. Win con isn't super important here, it's a fun goofy deck primarily, but being able to win is a goal.

So, thoughts? Especially re engines for the deck and efficient ways to close out a game?

[Serenade]

Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Beast Whisperer
Guardian Project
draw options (not sure if Season of Growth works as well as you want)

I think Marauding Raptor will just make critters cost one less
If you mutate. Animar as backup.

Heroic has no good creatures, right?

Monument cycle from Amonkhet

(Those are all of my ideas with mutate.)

[Sinis]

Heroic has no good creatures, right?

Most of the really good heroic creatures are human. Arguably, Triton Fortune Hunter is good, but, I think Centaur Battlemaster's counters could really add up!

The biggest problem with the bounce strategy, and perhaps with mutate in general, is it's mana hungry.

Hey! I also played Illuna on Arena, and have been playing Vadrok in paper.

You're not wrong; the biggest problems these decks face is mana. My Vadrok deck uses Sword of Feast and Famine (which it can cast from Graveyard using Vadrok, Apex of Thunder's trigger, and it can be tutored to graveyard with Goblin Engineer), but I think green could probably just play a lot of sorcery/instant ramp (so you don't interfere with Illuna triggers). But, like, lots of it. 10-12+ cards.

For bounce, I would strongly consider running cards like Lantern Spirit and Darting Merfolk. There aren't tons of these cards, but they can definitely let you dodge a thing or two, or get lots of extra uses out of your mutate. You could also play Crystal Shard or Erratic Portal.

[kraus911]

Lantern Spirit is a great suggestion. And how have I not seen Marauding Raptor? The green monument seems potentially good since most of the creatures are green. Thanks!

[Rumpy5897]

There have been a few mutate.dec iterations in my group, and the one that worked best was actually an Animar. The shell was pretty straightforward - ample ramp, self-bouncers (some of them suboptimal, Blood Clock/Umbilicus are some of the guy's pet cards), mutatos and some high-end haymaking to close out. Animar works like a charm here, as he quickly decreases the cost of the various self-bouncers and the sea of mutatos that go onto it. You've acknowledged the strategy is inherently mana hungry, jamming a massive discount engine into the command zone helps loads with it.

[Sinis]

mutatos

I can't tell if this is a typo, but even if it isn't, that tickled my funny bone.

[Hawk]

If you like Lantern Spirit, I'd look even harder at Skywing Aven - being able to "bounce" for 0 mana, even though it costs a card, seems like a better deal to me. It's probably better in Otrimi who likes looting mutates to the 'yard for later recursion, but it still seems good here.

I've been looking at mutate and one thing that stands out to me is that so many Mutate decks seem to be full of evasive dudes like Slither Blade. That's great, but often the mutates are granting a ton of evasive abilities of their own - Illuna and Vadrok flies, Brokkos and Otrimi trample. For non-commanders, Souvenir Snatcher, Dreamtail Heron, Everquill Phoenix, Mindleecher, and Dirge Bat all fly while Gemrazer and Sawtusk Demolisher trample and Insatiable Hemophage has Menace. To me that makes saboteurs, especially saboteurs with somewhat poorer evasive keywords of their own like Tomebound Lich, Jeskai Elder, Dimir Cutpurse, Spawnwrithe, Mist-Syndicate Naga, Wharf Infiltrator and Shadowmage Infiltrator all just as attractive as the glaringly obviously awesome Cold-Eyed Selkie, Cephalid Constable, Needle Specter, and Trygon Predator that appear in almost all GUx Mutate lists.

[kraus911]

Hawk, your suggestion sent me to scryfall and I found Thalakos Scout which is an amazing card for this deck.

Though yes, I don't think evasion is the main thing needed on mutate targets. Hexproof and indestructible are probably the more important keywords. My playgroup sees more spot removal than wraths so hexproof is the one I'm prioritizing.

Spawnwrithe and Mist-Syndicate Naga are great in that you can copy your creature stack for redundancy.

[3drinks]

If it's hexproof you want, have you considered mutating onto a Dumbledore Sphinx? He's pretty good on his own, scry 3 on attack is huge, and 0 protection is great.

[Hawk]

If it's hexproof you want, have you considered mutating onto a Dumbledore Sphinx? He's pretty good on his own, scry 3 on attack is huge, and 0 protection is great.

Sphinx is solid, but also reminded me of an old favorite of mine in Cephalid Inkshrouder. Shroud is normally a nonbo with Mutate, but Shroud on Demand is really good. There are a few other ways to get Shroud on demand (most notably Morphling although also obscurely, Vintara Snapper), but Inkshrouder also brings unblockability to the party which ain't nothing especially when we're talking a 5 or 6 power Commander as the possible mutate overlay.