Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief Mutate

[DirkGently]

Just setting up a thread to discuss this intriguing new commander.

Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief

Afaik the types of cards that can work with her are:

Instants
Sorceries
Auras
Creatures cast using bestow
Creatures cast using mutate

I see 2 main avenues for utility here:

Double value from side effects i.e. cantripping instants that target, like Cerulean Wisps (doesn't require you own creature).
Doubling up on the power of auras etc by having 2 beaters instead of 1 (does require a second creature).

There's also some neat bonus value from cards you usually target enemy creatures with, like Abduction and Treachery, though those are fairly few.

EDIT:

Version 1: Mutate!

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief

Mutate (12)

1 Sea-Dasher Octopus

1 Souvenir Snatcher

1 Dreamtail Heron

1 Archipelagore

1 Pouncing Shoreshark

1 Migratory Greathorn

1 Sawtusk Demolisher

1 Gemrazer

1 Glowstone Recluse

1 Auspicious Starrix

1 Trumpeting Gnarr

1 Parcelbeast

Mutate Buddies (18)

1 Sylvan Safekeeper

1 Scute Swarm

1 Slippery Bogle

1 Loyal Drake

1 Cold-Eyed Selkie

1 Looter il-kor

1 Siren Stormtamer

1 Trygon Predator

1 Slither Blade

1 Triton Shorestalker

1 Mist-Cloaked Herald

1 Mausoleum Wanderer

1 Glistener Elf

1 Cosi's Trickster

1 Scute Mob

1 Spectral Sailor

1 Mischievous Catgeist

1 Thousand-Faced Shadow

Other Value (17)

1 Season of Growth

1 Rune of Might

1 Setessan Training

1 Charge Through

1 Viridescent Wisps

1 Frog Tongue

1 Irresistible Prey

1 Scale the Heights

1 Leap

1 Cloak of Feathers

1 Cerulean Wisps

1 Thermal Flux

1 Fleeting Distraction

1 Twisted Image

1 Shadow Rift

1 Slip Through Space

1 Verdant Rebirth

Other buffs (7)

1 Curiosity

1 Curious Obsession

1 One with Nature

1 Snake Umbra

1 Shielding Plax

1 Vanishing

1 Spider Umbra

Counters (6)

1 Arcane Denial

1 Disallow

1 Mana Drain

1 Voidslime

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Cryptic Command

Removal (5)

1 You Come to a River

1 Unsubstantiate

1 Treachery

1 Fading Hope

1 Expel from Orazca

Lands (34)

34 Sorrow's Path

Approximate Total Cost:

Besides the obvious, one thing I want to point out about this version is that there's a small focus on bounce spells because you can bounce Ivy's mutate buddy (who has the original mutate cards on it) and then replay it to get more mutates on Ivy.

[pokken]

That enchantment that gains control and gives infect feels superb.

Generally curio treachery combo feels ridiculous. So cloudstone curio is great. (You need a second aura to make this work)

A fun somewhat narrow thing might be to use stuff that does multicast triggers like cascade. Eye of the storm is likely hilarious. Knowledge pool similar.

I think going ham on constellation triggers is likely where it's at for me anyway.

[ISBPathfinder]

There are some goad auras and a few that aren't actually goad but keep them from hitting you that could be fun control and pump effects.

[Guardman]

If you go the aura route a good creature to throw in is Simic Guildmage since he can move around the auras you copy.

[pokken]

You could also use ashaya and put land auras on her possibly

[DirkGently]

So I've gone through most of my collection and had a few thoughts:

One funky option is to leverage cards like Irenicus's Vile Duplication and Spark Double to make copies of Ivy without legendary (or I guess Sakashima of a Thousand Faces to keep it but not care, which gets things going faster), and then keep doubling the number of ivys with targeted clone effects like Quasiduplicate and Fated Infatuation.

There's a sort of "army of two" idea I like, which I think wants either an evasive 1-drop or a very high-value 3-drop (i.e. Cold-Eyed Selkie) and then loading them up with auras and such. Obviously hitting the ground running is important, hence the 1-drop focus.

A few keywords that go really nicely here - heroic, magecraft, constellation. Depending on which focus, those could be triggering on every targeted spell. That's in addition to stuff like mutate and bestow being good as triggers themselves.

Is this the deck that finally breaks the powerhouse that is Triton Cavalry? Just keep cycling One with Nature and Curiosity until you've got 10 of each on Ivy lol. I don't think I've found such a compelling use for a forgotten trash limited uncommon since [[

Sage of Hours is objectively very strong here. Unfortunately.

Between magecraft vs constellation, I think magecraft looks a bit weak. A lot of the options are either too expensive or don't do enough. Standouts are Quandrix Apprentice, Archmage Emeritus, and Dragonsguard Elite. Lot of mediocrity in constellation but it's a bit deeper - Eidolon of Blossoms, Nessian Wanderer, Eutropia the Twice-Favored, Setessan Champion stand out to me, with Protean Thaumaturge being potentially interesting (though it doesn't get much value from double-triggering).

[DirkGently]

Got a first decklist up, this one to focus on mutate. Mutate kinda synergizes with itself since most of them have cumulative effects, so most of the secondary targets are just small evasive dudes. Fleshed out the deck with some auras and instants/sorceries, but not really particular synergy for them.

The one other piece of synergy that bears mentioning is the possibility to use bounce on the secondary mutate minion, which carries the original mutate cards, thus allowing for additional plays of those cards. Because of the cumulative effects, doubling up mutates roughly quadruples the value, rather than doubling it, so it can easily be worth the added cost. Of course it doesn't give you anything new in terms of power/toughness, and some of them scale linearly and so aren't as exciting, but it's still good fun I think, and it lets our removal pull double duty.

[Chromaticus]

I think Twinning Staff is going to belong in any Ivy deck for all time. Ancestral Recalling off of Frog Tongue is just too good.