Oh that’s really interesting.does this mean giving a mutant stack undying or something they all come back individually with a +1/+1 counter?

The whole pile goes to the command zone and can't leave. Just the commander card.

Isn't this different to how Briselda works with meld, where the non-commander side doesn't go to the command zone? Or is this specifically because Leadership Vacuum specifically sends it to that zone, rather than using the commander replacement effect?

If one of two creatures involved in a mutate stack has flying, would luminous broodmoth see that the dying stack of creatures has flying or will it see each card and return back the one creature that doesn’t have flying? Sorry for asking so close to the end of the AMA >~<

Even if I mutate on top of the stolen creature?

To piggyback off this persons question; I have a few questions as well. Also, thank you for taking time to do this.

Do we still follow the deckbuilding restrictions posed by Companion creatures if we chose to have them as our Commander? Or do we only follow them if they are explicitly marked as our Companion? Can they be both Commander and Companion (like one copy as Commander, another copy as Companion)? Or are all of the questions I've asked still to be determined by the EDH Rules Committee?

Also, again I apologize if this is a bother, but say I have an active [[Bloodchief Ascension]] and kill a mutated creature with 2 mutations (a Storm Crow with two mutate creatures piled, so three cards total), how many cards does Bloodchief Ascension see move to the graveyard? I've read that it's "one" death trigger, but how do cards that interact with the number of cards changing zones care about mutated creatures?

alright - its mutate, not merge lol

I have a question about mutate:

Lets say I have a cavalier of gales on the field, then I mutate. If my opponent kills it, Do the cards under/above cavalier of gales get shuffled into my deck as well?

If I play [[Xenograft]] and say "Human", will my already-mutated creature be split since you can't mutate humans ?

What happens if there's something like [[windriddle palaces]] and there's a creature card with mutate on top of my opponent's library. Can I mutate one of my creature since I'm the one who casts the mutate card? The real question behind this is : is the clause "I can mutate creatures I own" or "I can mutate creatures that share an owner with the mutate card"?

what if a component is a double faced card? last i heard those can't be turned face down?

Though you’re probably not gonna answer this, if I use Mishra’s Self-replicator’s ability by mutating it, and then making a copy using the ability, does the copy retain the mutate since it would technically apply to the whole creature?

If a creature has flash can I mutate at instant speed?

Damn I guess I was too late. Anyone asked about the interactions with frogify or other enchantments? Frogify should be a weird case because something in the pile lost its abilities but removing frogify should return some of those abilities.

And anyone asked what happens if I Mutate a green creature on Heliod with the creature on top causing you to have 4 devotion to white? Will we get a permanent type less card on the battlefield?

As a follow up, there is no actual difference between a card being on the bottom vs being in the middle, correct? So, it doesn't actually matter that you can't put them in the middle.

On the off-chance that questions are still being answered:

How will mutate interact with mechanics such as:

1) Undying / Persist: will all the creatures that were on the pile return with the specified counter?

2) God eternals' mechanics that read " When X dies or is put into exile from the battlefield, you may put it into its owner’s library third from the top ". Will all creatures be put on the deck, in the order of our choosing?

3) Cards like the amonkhet gods that read " When X dies, return it to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step. " : Will all creatures return to their owner's hand?

Thanks!

Wait a second.. is this mechanic a "fixed" banding? Because if I recall correctly banding works exactly like that, a group of permanents with banding and one without.

So I was trying to figure out how exactly these things all work together. I saw mutate basically makes one big creature but when they due, get bounced, or whatever it happens to all the cards the same. So if you had a pile of creatures all mutated together, and then it dies while you have a nightmare shepherd in play, what happens? Do you just get to exile the "creature" on top, or could you exile all of them and get multiple 1/1s? Also would the 1/1 be a copy with all the abilities of the total mutated creature? I just can't wrap my head around the interaction.

They also attack and block as a single entity? =/

I’m a little late to this party.

So any time you add another creature to the pile, all of the “whenever this creature mutates” abilities will trigger? It’s not just a one off when you add that particular creature to the pile?

Where does a mutating creature spell go once it has resolved? Is the card not in any zone?

Oh, this might be late, but worth asking.

For commander, does a chosen companion need to fit in your commander's color identity?

Not sure if answered already but I was wondering if you use a mutate creature as your commander does the mutate cost increase every time you have to cast it from the command zone

If Nethroi is my commander and I've mutated it under a creature, is it still my commander?

If my mutation pile has persist (and no counter on it), will all the cards from the pile return with -1/-1 counters or only whichever card contributed the persist ability?

Also, what happens if [[Skullbriar]] is part of my pile?

Also also, is my pile only the commander if the top card is the commander, or if any of them are? If the latter, does it deal commander damage according to each commander in the pile (someone will find a way to get two commanders in the same stack eventually)?

Finally, if my pile contained a commander and I choose to put it into the command zone upon death, where do the other cards go?

Let's say you're playing Bo3 with a companion like the one that requires cards in your deck to have cmc3 or greater.

Let's say after game 1 you decide to side in a card with cmc 2 because it's just that good in the matchup. Can you still use your companion by casting it from the sideboard? I'm guessing no.

Last question, maybe: How does [[Mimic Vat]] work with a mutated creature?

Wouldn't it matter for the order of "when X mutates" triggers? So mostly not relevant, but possible edge cases there

With companion, can I sideboard in cards that dont jive with the companion and still use the companion game 2? And ive seen elsewhere that I can switch companions for game 2? Doesnt this imply that i could run a Lutri in my 4 ofs all odd cards deck and play game 2 with an illegal lutri?

Just replied to the person above. The specific wording on 111.7 & 111.8 means that they are prevented from transitioning to the zone other than the battlefield, so I don't actually know how this is modifying the rules on tokens.

But what if my opponent controls my creature and I mutate on my own creature controlled by an opponent?

Getting those Un-rules questions in, does a Mutated creature count as a Combined creature for [[Grusilda, Monster Masher]]? I'd assume so since Meld and BFM do, but you never know with un-cards.

Does a mutated creature count as combined for the purposes of Grusilda, Monster Masher?

Hearing that parts of Mutations that can transform will transform made me think of one really really weird question.

What happens when a mutated Soul Seizer transforms into Ghastly Haunting?

Since mutations seem to alter copiable values (and hence might take effect during or before layer 1), does the copy effect of a mutated clone overwrite all the added text provided from mutations (and other characteristics of a creature placed on top)?

Basically, is it useful to mutate a clone copying something that doesn't care about being mutated?

[Edit: Ah. I might actually be too late, I should have read the top post in more detail. Sorry for the unwanted notification.]

For companions like Gyruda & Obosh, how do they interact with split cards like [[Fire // Ice]] that both even and odd cmc? Does the "Your starting deck contains only cards with even/odd converted mana cost" allow them since or are they excluded since they 2nd half of the cards fail to meet the condition?

Would the auras still count as a single unit? Or could you disperse them as desired?

When a creature mutates, does that count as anything entering the battlefield?

To be specific -- suppose I cast Brokkos using its mutate ability, targeting Bear Cub, and Brokkos resolves. When the Bear Cub mutates, has another creature entered the battlefield?

So this is where 111.7 & 111.8 come in. Tokens don't actually go to the hand. They remain on the battlefield and cease to exist next time that zone transition is checked is how I read it. Thus avoiding the awkwardness of trying to shuffle a token to put it in the new zone before it ceases to exist for example.

​

It's probably a minor change to the rules on tokens that will put them all in the expected zone, but I wanted to know what the exact ruling here is.

If there's an [[Infinite Reflections]] causing your mutate creature to enter as a copy of something else (which happens to not have mutate), is at able to mutate a creature?

What if a card inside the pile has a Characteristic Defining Ability?

Is it too late for the abilities to apply?

Can I jump in on this, if you're still answering questions?

1) What happens if I own a Cryptoplasm, and I mutate something onto it (say, Vadrok)? When I move to my next upkeep and have the Cryptoplasm become a copy of an opponent's creature (say, a Grizzly Bear), will it retain the flying and first strike from Vadrok? Or will it become a plain, simple Grizzly Bear with no abilities (apart from the cloning ability from Cryptoplasm)?

2) Does the answer to the previous question depend on whether Cryptoplasm or Vadrok is on top of the mutation pile?

I ask because it's clear that Mutate acts weirdly with copy effects, so I wanted to check.

(Also, do you have a preferred term for the "host" creature being mutated onto? Charlotte Sable suggested "mutato", rhyming with "potato", which I am a great fan of.)

So is it closer to the back side of meld then?

Hi Eli! Didn’t realize this was happening until nearly 24h later. Thanks for answering all these questions.

I only have one and I can’t find it even with the search feature —

How many companions can I declare? It is implicitly one, but is it actually one?

Mutate: Which layer does this thing apply? Is it layer 2 for text change or layer 6 for adding abilities?

How does it work when something in the pile has a Characteristic Defining Ability?

Wait, does this mean that state based -X/-X effects no longer kill creatures unless they have damage marked?

What about the two Lazav cards, that turn the creature into a copy of something else except it's "named Lazav Blahblahblah"?

If one of the Lazavs is on the bottom of a merged creature and you use its copying ability, does it keep its current name, or does the name change to "Lazav Somethingsomething"?

Hey, sorry for the late followup question, I sadly missed the AMA.

So how do Merged Commanders, death triggers and the Commandzone replacement effect interact? iirc it's stated that "each part of a merged creature moves to its corresponding zone"

Does it matter which zones the merged parts go into to trigger on death effects? Does the whole creature count as "dying" if I move my commander to the Commandzone?

a) Let's say my commander is merged with [[Elenda, the Dusk Rose]], do I get any Vampire tokens if I place my commander in its Commandzone but Elenda hits the Yard?

b) Let's say my Commander is Elenda, the Dusk Rose merged with another creature. Do I get any Vampire Tokens if I place Elenda in my Commandzone but the Merged Creature hits the Yard?

Thanks in advance. I'm having a blast reading this AMA :)

Quick question. If the top card of a mutate stack is a token, and is bounced back to hand (normally this results in the death of the token), where does the stack of mutated creatures go?

I mutate a Bronzehide Lion. It dies. What happens if Bronzehide Lion is on top? On Bottom?

What happens when a mutated creature becomes human? Do the mutated cards attached to a creature fall off?

Regarding 3, will that trigger syr konrad multiple times?

Since you're still answering questions I want to ask about cost reduction, Can mutate have it's cost reduced by cards like [[Dragonlord's Servant]] ,

[[Brighthearth Banneret]] ,

[[Nylea, Keen-Eyed]] ,

lets say the newly spoiled card [[Sea-Dasher Octopus]] and [[Cunning Nightbonder]]

I know I missed the train on this AMA but in case you see this what happens when a mutated creature is imprinted on a [[Mimic vat]] does the vat spit back out mutated creatures or does it make lots of creatures at once or something else?

Are you holding the AMA for IKO because its rules and mechanics are particularly complicated? Or will this be normal going forward?

We can't edit the text of this post, but we can steal the sticky comment. Since things are given in US Pacific time, here's some help for folks in other time zones:

• Time of the WotC announcement stream, across the world (stream is at twitch.tv/magic)
• Countdown to the announcement stream (stream is at twitch.tv/magic)
• Time of this AMA, across the world
• Countdown timer to this AMA

Man, this set must be complicated if we need an entire AMA just about rules questions.

Man, this set must be complicated if we need an entire AMA just about rules questions.

What happens if a part of a mutated creature stops being a creature? Example, you mutate something on top of a god, then your devotion goes down and it stops being a creature? Thanks!

Are you holding the AMA for IKO because its rules and mechanics are particularly complicated? Or will this be normal going forward?

So, this is the first time a AMA dedicated to mechanics takes place, right ?
I wonder if that's mean the set will be somewhat more complex than the others ?
In any case, I'm hyped :)

Question.

So say I have [[Akki Lavarunner]] out. I then put a mutate creature ON TOP of Akki Lavarunner. When Akki Lavarunner deals damage to a player, you flip it. But since the creature is no longer Akki Lavarunner, does it still flip into Tok Tok?

Same for the werewolves or flip walkers. What happens if you take babyJace and mutate him, but then his flip conditions are met?

Anyone know?

Another question for mutate, if you [[Cloudshift]] a mutated creature what happens to the attachments? Do they fall off like auras, stay attached during the flicker, stay exiled?

Similarly do the bottom creatures go to your hand when the top one is returned to your hand or do they fall off into the graveyard?

Hello! I'm going to try to consolidate all the questions we get popping up in IRC in one spot.

Mutate
1. How does mutating a card that exiles and returns transformed (Nissa, Vastwood Seer, etc) work if it's the top card? If it's not?
2. How does mutating a flip card like [[Akki Lavarunner]] work if it's the top card? If it's not?
3. How does mutating a werewolf DFC (or some other DFC that doesn't have to leave the battlefield) work if it's the top card? If it's not?
4. If I copy a pile o' mutated cards with a [[Clone]], what does the copy look like? 5. How does mutating a temporarily-a-creature thing like a vehicle or animated manland work if it's the top card? If it's not?
6. What happens if I flicker a mutated permanent?
7. How does mutating a morph or manifest creature work if it's the top Card? If it's not?
8. If someone has a big ol' pile of mutated stuff, and their commander is in that pile, what happens if I hit 'em with the ol' Leadership Vaccuum? Does the whole pile get Command Zoned, and then any noncommander card is just stuck there?
9. If two cards on a mutated creature have conflicting abilities, which ability takes precedence? Does it go by timestamp order, or from bottom-to-top order regardless of timestamp?

Keyword Counters
1. Do these apply in their own new (sub)layer, or do they apply in layer 6 still?
2. How do keyword counters work with, say, [[Archetype of Endurance]]? That is, can I still give a creature a hexproof counter, and that counter just sits there doing nothing so long as my opponent's Archetype of Endurance is around?

Companion
1. If I have a Lutri in my sideboard as Companion, can I also have a Lutri in my presented deck?

Tournament Stuff
1. Is tournament policy already being developed for managing "there's a card in this deck that doesn't jive with the Companion"? Unsure if the expectation is for them to be tournament viable, or if we're just kinda shrugging for now and we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
2. Does a Companion count toward the 15-card sideboard limit?

I also put together a special placeholder while we wait on the Ikoria comp rules: https://vensersjournal.com/THB-IKO

Do cards exiled with Illuna, Apex of Wishes return to the deck after it resolves or do they remain in exile?

If I mutate on to a creature with counters on it and place the new creature on top, where do the counters go?

Not sure if the AMA will be in a separate thread tomorrow or not, so I'll post this here anyway:

Keyword counters seem like a higher level of tracking difficulty for paper play compared to other sets.

Amonkhet block cared about only cared about exerting creatures as an extra state above simple -1/-1 counters, so I often saw players at my LGS just use a spindown or other larger counter to track it.

If there are going to be multiple types of keywords being distributed via counters, my question is how did R&D playtest these? Did they only have access to what would normally be in the 24 packs for limited, or did they have ample supply of as many counters as needed? How often will the double-sided keyword sheet replace the normal token slot? For constructed, was there care taken to ensure all players had an appropriate supply of counters, because I can tell you that playing AKH+ standard, there were plenty of players who forgot their exert tokens.

It just seems like a particularly messy design for paper. At least with creature tokens, most of the time P/T is the main attribute and it can be easily maintained with a d6.

How does mutation effect devotion to the Theros gods? Also, if a mutation is on the God and if devotion turns off for whatever reason, does it fall off?

So my questions would be:

1. What happens if I copy a mutated creature? Do I only copy the top creature or the whole mutated creature?
2. What happens if I blink (exile and it gets back) a mutated creature?
3. What happens if my mutated creature gets exiled by a "Banishing Light"-like effect? And what happens if it gets brought back?
4. What happens if a mutated creature gets bounced back to my hand?
5. What happens if a mutated creature is put on the top/bottom of my library? Who gets to choose in which order the creatures are going on top/bottom?
6. How do companions interact with the sideboard? Does it also have to be companion legal?
7. Could you write an article with an in-depth explanation of the mechanics with edge-cases for people to easily to access?
8. What happens with counters that are already on a creature if I mutate on top of it?
9. What happens with auras or equipped equipment if I mutate on top/bottom of it?

Thank you upfront for the answers.

Man, this set must be complicated if we need an entire AMA just about rules questions.

Hi there! Two questions:

1. When copying a mutated creature, what is copied?
2. When bouncing permanents, can I individually select the components of the mutated creature? Or is it all or nothing?

By the wording as far as I can tell mutating over a legendary creature will overwrite the name and workaround the legendary rule. And since mutate makes everything one single creature you could duplicate all bonuses by making a token copy of it, then populate to insanity. Am I overthinking it when a single mechanic overwrites a rule broken only by five cards in the history of magic?

So, this is the first time a AMA dedicated to mechanics takes place, right ?
I wonder if that's mean the set will be somewhat more complex than the others ?
In any case, I'm hyped :)

Why are companion cards cast from "outside the game?" Objects taking action from the sideboards seems like such a messy solution.

Why not just start in the command zone for a one time cast? Standard already uses emblems which are in the command zone. The reminder text could stay the same. Just seems much cleaner having castable cards start in an actual zone.

What happens if you transform a mutated creature?

If a creature is monstrous or renowed and something mutates on top of it does it remain monstrous or renowed?

If I mutate a legendary creature under the same legendary creature, does the resulting creature have two instances of the legendary ability (e.g., when this creature mutates, do )?

Now we've also shown off nonlegendary mutating creatures with "whenever this creature mutates" triggers! You can totally stack them in multiples. Perhaps you have a Runeclaw Bear with two Snapdaxes for arms. Ikoria's just that kind of place.

Is it an AMA or AMAAM (ask me anything about mechanics)?

If a mutated creature is bounced, do I get back all the parts? If a mutated creature is flickered, will it get separated?

Why does Companion function in Commander at all? In Commander, any ability that references cards you own outside the game does not function. I'm not saying I don't like the mechanic, I just don't understand the exact wording or rules for why this functions and Wish effects do not.

When do you choose your companion? When you cast it from the Sideboard? For example, if I have a highlander deck with only cards of CMC 3+ and I have both Keruga and Iutri in my sideboard. I can cast either one, but once I cast one from the sideboard, I cannot cast the other from the sideboard?

Or during the pregame phase, do I need to choose which companion I want for the game and do I need to tell my opponent this?

How does Mutate work with morph? What happens if you mutate onto a face down creature, can you pay the morph cost and if you can, what happens then?

​

How does mutate work with double-face cards? If you mutate onto Ravager of the Fells, what happens when he transforms into Huntmaster of the Fells? How about Bloodline Keeper?

​

What if you Mutate onto a token, then you blink that creature?

What happens if you mutate onto Vehicle, and the Vehicle stops being a creature at the end of the turn?

​

and.. How does Mutate work with Kamigawa Flip cards?

​

and, the most imporant of them all.. MELD?

What was mutate before it was mutate?

Does Godzilla kill 0 power creatures instantly? I believe the answer is yes because I think that no damage marked is "0 damage marked", and something like Arboreal Grazer has 0 power, which 704.5g would say kills the sloth. However, other arguments I've seen are the no damage marked is null, not 0, and therefore those creatures would not die until they received some non-zero amount of damage.

If you have a Companion, are you required to show your deck to your opponent before/after the game, to verify that you met the deck requirements?

If so, when does this happen? Before the first game of the match? Before each game? Between the first game and the others? Between each game? After the entire match?

If you don't need to reveal your deck, how do we verify that our opponents are following the rules?

If you do reveal it before/after the entire match, how do we know our opponents didn't sideboard out to meet the requirement in earlier games?

If you have to reveal it before the game, then doesn't that provide crucial sideboarding info to your opponent? Do they have to sideboard first or do they get to sideboard after seeing your deck?

According to the mechanics article " Tokens can mutate just like nontoken permanents can. For any merged creature, if a token is on top, the creature is a token. If a card is on top, the creature is a nontoken permanent. "

If a pile has a token on top, thus being a token permanent with non-token parts, and a return to hand effect is applied to the mutated permanent, to what zone do the non-token pieces go to?

From " If a mutated creature leaves the battlefield, all of its components go to the appropriate zone. " Does this mean the individual parts are treated separately in some cases, thus losing the token property? What is the new rule for this behavior?

Specifically how does a token with non token mutations interact with rules 111.7, 111.8, 704.5d?

With the new companion mechanic, it says that the companions have to be outside of the game (in your sideboard), but it also says that it works with commander even though there isn’t a sideboard. Does that mean that they are adding a sideboard to the commander format as long as the cards have companion? Does this mean that if you are playing a 2 out of 3 commander game that you can put the companion into your 99 in between games in exchange for another card? Would that other card have to also have the companion mechanic? Do the wish cards allow you to put your companion from outside of the game into your hand? Could you have multiple companion cards that go along with your deck, and then choose which one you want to be your companion after seeing what commanders your opponents have, but before the start of the game? If it’s not part of your deck, since it’s outside the game, does it’s color identity have to match your commander’s?

How does Mutaton work with Commander Damage? Does it only deal Commander Damage if it is the top Card or even when it is one of the lower cards?

What happens when a whole mutated stack of creature cards dies? Does every card underneath go to the graveyard with the top card?

I'd imagine the answer is yes, but does Mutate get around commander tax given there is a valid target in play?

Mutate and Growth Chamber Guardian. This doesn't work like I'd want it to work, correct? In that, the first instance of text in the text box refers to whatever the top creature is named, but the card will still search out another Growth Chamber Guardian when adapted and not whatever it is currently named.

More specifically, does Mutate replace all instances of a card's name in it's text box with the current name of the creature, or just those that refer to that specific physical (or digital) card?

I've got doubts about the interaction between [[Sarkhan the Masterless]] and Mutate as a mechanic. For example:

1. You transform your planeswalkers into Dragon creatures with Sarkhan's +1.

2. Sarkhan is now a valid target to mutate into! Cast [[Cloudpiercer]] and put it on top of dragon-Sarkhan.

   Is Cloudpiercer a 5/4 or a 4/4 that flies due to the transformation? At end of turn, it loses flying, right? It has loyalty counters leftover from being Sarkhan, and it can use loyalty abilities, right? Will it die when it reaches 0 loyalty? Will it lose loyalty when receiving damage?

Hi, I have a question about the Mutate mechanics for creatures with abilities that trigger "whenever this creature mutates...".

Let's say I have a Cloudpiercer in play (cast for its normal mana cost). I then cast Vadrok on top of it for its Mutate cost. When the mutation resolves, which triggered ability activates, Cloudpiercer's, Vadrok's or both? Given that the description of the ability says "they mutate into the creature on top", I assume you get both the card filtering from Cloudpiercer and the flashback from Vadrok at the same time, but I wanted to make sure I understood it correctly.

OK, hard hitting question time.

- Triumph of Ferocity reads "...draw a card if you control the creature with the greatest power or tied for the greatest power."

- Primal Empathy reads "...draw a card if you control a creature with the greatest power among creatures on the battlefield."

What motivated the different wording for Primal Empathy? Can we expect Triumph of Ferocity (and other cards) to be updated to match Primal Empathy?

What happens when a creature that mutated dies?

For the purpose of companion, when you are building a commander deck I assume that the commander is part of the deck building restriction for the companion cards? I wanted to make sure because I could see it being treated like the sideboard rule in that the main board needs to follow the rule but the side board (command zone as well???) can be what ever.

imagine, you have [[seheeli, sublime artificer]] out and you turn your equipment into a servo, then you mutate it and put the mutation on bottem... is is permanently a creature now? from what I gather it's not how enchantments work. they would stay fused.

now put the mutation creature on top? does it go back to being an equipment with some weird abilities slapped on it?

how would all this work.

Does the set have cards that care about creature typing?

One question that I've seen come up multiple times, that doesn't seem to have a consistent answer given, is regarding companions and sideboarding. What happens if post-sideboarding, your new deck doesn't fit the companion requirements, despite it fitting the requirements pre-sideboard? Would you still be able to cast the companion from the sideboard as normal, or would it simply be locked there like any other sideboard card?

Will companion cards be able to played from outside the game in competitive play, and if so how will judge calls be handled when it's found that a companion card is played from outside the game but the deck is found to be illegal (let's say they play the companion card where every nonland card in your deck must have an equal CMC but it's found later that they have an odd CMC card in their deck)? Won't this make deck checks more difficult for judges? Not to mention that but how will decklists be handled if a player chooses to play a companion card in the zone it's in from the start of the game?

Hi! just wondering if the Godzilla cards can Show up in the draft boosters?

How does Zilortha and Doran interact?

question about Companion in regards to commander, do companions ADD to their commanders Color identity? or are they BOUND to it? IE can i include the u/G Hippo Companion in addition to a r/W Commander for example? OR can the Simic hippo only go with simic commanders?

Do mutated creatures have summoning sickness if the base creature was already in play?

If I cast [[ichthyomorphosis]] on a creature with a +1/+1 counter and a flying counter, does it lose flying but keep the +1 counter, or does it keep flying because it is a flying counter?

Can you Mutate a Legendary Creature onto itself? E.g. If you draw a second copy of [[Vadrox, Apex of Thunder]], can you mutate it onto the one you have in play without triggering the legendary rule?

Does this work if you mutate it onto another nonlegendary creature (possibly as the bottom creature vs the top creature)?

How does mutate work with cards that transform (werewolf's, bolas, morph, etc.)?

How does Mutate work with Athreos, Veil-Shrouded?

Do I get one piece of the mutation back, or all of them?

Is it possible to release the full rules for the mechanics before the Release Notes? It would be really helpful for judges to anwer their and thier communities' questions.

Quick mutate question, probably answered somewhere. When you mutate 3 cards and up, can you place the card anywhere in the pile or does it have to be top or bottom?

Thanks!

Getting those Un-rules questions in, does a Mutated creature count as a Combined creature for [[Grusilda, Monster Masher]]? I'd assume so since Meld and BFM do, but you never know with un-cards.

Two questions:

1. If I have Luminous Broodmoth and [[Gravity Sphere]] in play, will layering work such that my creatures that die have flying when they return?

2. What happens if I [[flicker]] a mutated creature?

If a merged creature is flipped due to a flip card component being flipped, do any further flip cards that get added to the merged creature afterward automatically contribute their flipped side or do they contribute their unflipped side?

Eli, can you walk us through some of your process for designing the rules for mutate? How much collaboration was there between yourself and other designers? Did these rules take just one pass, or did you have to mutate them a few times to get them in the perfect spot?

Can I name godzilla with a card like gideon's intervention? Do they have two names or just the normal name and they dont actually have the Godzilla name? If I can name the alt name it's kinda dumb since the normal card would also have to be affected despite never mentioning the alt name

What happens when a mutated commander dies? Do all cards part of the creature get to go to the command zone?

What happens when a whole mutated stack of creature cards dies? Does every card underneath go to the graveyard with the top card?

I assume the the mutated creature on top decides its name and creature type for cards and interactions that care about those things?

If I sideboard my deck so that it will turn on companion, does it work? If I sideboard it so companion doesn't work, is it still online?

Does a Companion, on an EDH game, need to match the entire color identity, or only part of it. I.E.: a Grixis Commander with an UR companion?

When you cast a card for its mutate cost what exactly "mutates"? Just the cast card? The cast card and whatever creature is ending up on top? Both?

If you activated [[Sarkhan the Masterless]]'s +1 then mutate a creature on it, what will happen at the end of turn? what if the creature is under Sarkhan?

If I mutate Nethroi with mutate creatures in my graveyard, can I choose to pay the alternate cost and mutate them onto things, or do they just etb as creatures? Thanks!

Can you have other copies of the companion in your main deck?

Can you sideboard out a companion in BO3?

Mutate:

What happens with mutated objects stopping being a creature? specially if they are not on top of the mutation chain? (like a vehicle or a "devontionless" God)

How does [[Etrata, the Silencer]]'s ability work when targeting a creature that has mutated? Does it exile every part of a mutate pile with a hit counter on it?

What determines the name, colors, and types of a mutated creature?

Mutation are attachment...... Treat them as supertype aura or equipment.

How does mutate work with cards that transform (werewolf's, bolas, morph, etc.)?

What happens if I mutate a [[Mischievous Quanar]] and then activate it's 3UU ability?

Does a mutated creature count as combined for the purposes of Grusilda, Monster Masher?

Let's say I mutate a token in my ghired deck and then proceed to populate it, what happens?

What happens if you flicker a mutated creature, do all come back in the same stack? Only the top?

What happens if you flicker a mutated creature?

What happens if a creature i have targeted with mutate dies?

What happens if a mutated creature gets bounced to your hand?

I have questions on how mutate effects the color of the creature, specifically how it interacts with [[Rienne, Angel of Rebirth]]. What does the color look like if there is a multicolored creature on top but not on bottom, or vice-versa? What if both are multicolored? What if both are mono-colored but are different colors? What would Riennes' ability affect in those instances? How much would they get buffed by cards like [[Knight of New Alara]]?

Also, slightly unrelated, but do creatures on bottom effect devotion at all?

How exactly will the Companion ability be enforced in Competive REL events?

For example, let's assume an opponent announces Lutri as their chosen companion. How do we know they don't have multiples of any non-land cards without having a judge consult their decklist?

And even if the judge clears Lutri for game 1, what if the opponent runs multiples of sideboard cards? How do we know they're not siding in multiple copies of Leylines/etc if they announce Lutri as their companion again? Would we then have to call a judge back over again, this time having them check our opponent's sideboard as well? And then yet again if it goes to game 3?

Unlike Morph, Companion lacks the "reveal it after the game" safeguard. And unlike with a cheater who sneaks in a 5th copy of a key card, regular pregame deck checks won't catch someone announcing an illegal companion since they're not announcing anything at the time. Even if the judges swoop in for a deck check right after the companion is declared game 1, it does nothing to prevent an illegal companion post-board. So how do we determine whether or not the Companion condition is met without constantly annoying the judges?

So what exactly does happen to my walls if Godzilla, King of the Monsters is in play? Do they die immediately, as they have both zero power and (a lethal) 0 damage on them? Do they wait until taking damage before realizing they're supposed to be dead, Wile E. Cyote style?

The people need to know.

Does a [[force of savagery]] survive by default now?

Add to the Mutate: What if you Mutate with a Morph or Manifest creature?

So do I get all cards back with Rienne if it dies when the top is multicolored then?

What about the recent big cool marquee Planeswalker that has an ability that simply doesn't work in commander?

If I have Sarkhan the Masterless on board and I +1 them, turning the planeswalker into a dragon, then I Mutate a creature onto Sarkhan while it's a dragon, what happens to the creature at the end of the turn? If the mutate creature is on top, does it have planeswalker activated abilities?

Hello! I have some questions:

Can I actually mutate a legendary creature onto one that have the same name? How does the legendary rule apply? For example, can I mutate [[illuna, apex of wishes]] from my hand onto an Illuna I already have on the battlefield? Or can I mutate Illuna from my hand onto another non-human creature while I already have an Illuna on the battlefield? Does it make a difference if I decide to put in on top or bottom of the mutating pile?

Another ruling question that's bugging me is about summoning sickness of mutating cards. It's well written in the mechanics article posted on the Magic website that if I mutate a card from my hand onto a creature that is not summoning sick and I decide to mutate it "UNDER" the creature, said mutated creature can attack this turn. But what if I want to put it "OVER" the creature already on the battlefield?

Thank you in advance for the responses, have a nice day. :)

When a Mutated commander is destroyed or exiled do the component cards go to the specified zone with the option of putting just the commander in the command zone or does the commander replacement work on all the components?

Thank mr Eli.

Followup: A meld pair works like you'd expect then, right? If you have pile-that-includes-Bruna and a normal Gisela, you exile everything, the non-Bruna stuff is stuck in exile, Gisela and Bruna return melded?

Another question:

If two cards on a mutated creature have conflicting abilities, which ability takes precedence? Does it go by timestamp order, or from bottom-to-top order regardless of timestamp?

Did you intentionally skip mutate question 9 or did that get edited in after you replied?

Interesting. As a follow-up, does that mean that you could have 2 different companions in your sideboard, then change which one you use between games (assuming it follows the reqs when you reveal it)?

Godzilla knocks down walls.

I was under the impression that “starting deck” meant the deck you presented at the start of every game, including post-board. Can any judge clarify?

(Otherwise, it kind of defeats the purpose of Companion when you can have 14 cards breaking the rules after game 1.)

So, as soon as any amount of damage is dealt to a creature with 0 power you control while you also control Godzilla, King of Monsters, the creature will die due to state-based actions, correct?

Similarly, if damage is already marked on a creature with 0 power and you gain control of Godzilla, King of Monsters, will the creature with damage marked die as soon as state-based actions are checked?

Whether a permanent is face up or face down is determined by the topmost component of the merged permanent. If it’s face down, it’s a 2/2 blob. If it’s face up but a component is face down, the component just doesn’t add anything.

That seems confusing, since face up and face down are statuses like tapped and untapped. You’re saying that if you have a morph and you mutate onto it and put the mutating creature on top of the stack, the permanent is now face up? And the component on the bottom is blank and can’t be turned face up? Does this transition from face down to face up trigger cards like [[Aphetto Runecaster]]?

How does Companion work in Matches? Does the restrictions only matter the first game, or will we have to deck check game two to make sure our opponent didn't put in something that breaks the deck building restrictions?

Isn't there something to be said about power and toughness defining abilities? So if a mutated creature includes [[Abominable Treefolk]] and [[Tarmogoyf]] (and I'm not saying I would make a mutant with those, but it is a thing one could do)? Or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something here?

He's definitely exercising his right to bear arms.

if you gain control of an opponent's creature, and then you mutate it, who is the owner of the pile? What happens if trostani is then played for example?

Re: mutate 8. If the commander card that gets punted was the top card of the mutant stack, and the rest remain, does the controller pick a new top?

If I bring back a creature from the graveyard with something like [[Postmorten Lunge]] that says " Exile it at the beginning of the next end step" and then I mutate something ON TOP of it, will it still be exiled at the end step? Or will the mutated creature count as a new creature and it will remain on the battlefield? Thanks!

So if a Trampler is blocked by a 0 pow creature, is it going to deal full damage to the opponent or will it deal 1 to the blocker?

Following up to this: in a best-of-three, can my Companion change between games as long as the deck I present for each game (post-board) matches the Companion I present for each game?

During deck registration, do I need to register any possible Companions I might use as a "Companion-board?"

So if you mutate on top of kiki-jiki, it can infinitely copy itself?

OK, good to know. Thanks for the response! One clarifying question on number 1.

What if the returned creature is Felidar Guardian. Could it flicker Gravity Sphere, thus resetting that timestamp and causing it to lose flying?

I'm having a hard time putting that together in my head, could you give 2 examples. one with servo on top one with servo on bottem?

Does Ixidron turn the entire stack of a mutated creature face down, or just the top card?

When a mutated creature dies does it behave like an Aura and all mutations go to the graveyard or does it behave like bestow?

Does Keyword Counter work on other Zones than the Battlefield?

in case a [[Skullbriar, the Walking Grave]] gets a keyword counter, does it has the keyword for cards that care about them like [[Cairn Wanderer]]?

I thought all abilities from all creatures are present. so even if it's an equipment now it would have the mutate ability "in case you turn it into a creature again"

I don't think that quite answers the question.

We know that if the whole creature is exiled, then all cards that make up that creature are put into exile. If N cards make up that creature, how many of those N cards get hit counters on them? If N = 1 (i.e. a non-mutated creature), one card gets a hit counter, so based on what happens in other situations, it should be N cards each time.

When are you supposed to reveal a companion? Before or after taking mulligans?

Was there a question your team was not ready to answer asked on this AMA? Was there a question you guys were waiting on being asked but no one did? If so what was the question and what was the answer?

If you, say, mutate a Vadrok on top of another Vadrok on the board, does the "Whenever this creature mutates" trigger twice on only once? If you then mutate another creature onto both of those, do you get the Vadrok trigger twice or once?

To check if I'm reading this correctly, does that mean if I have a stack of three mutated together and Cloudshift them they would come back as three separate objects?

Hi! Just want to make sure I'm positive since this sounds really strong. I can play a Vadrok for 3 cmc and then mutate a Vadrok the next turn for 4cmc on top of it and get to cast 2 cards from my graveyard for free? And then get 2 every other time it mutates? Wow. Loving this mechanic.

So it loses the morph ability because if it's on bottom the object is no longer facedown, is that right?

But does the blob still have the morph ability? Can I still flip it face up? What happens if I do?

So what happens, does only the face-down component get flipped face-up? Or do all face-up components also get flipped face-down at the same time?

So to be clear, keyword counters on a creature lose their effect to cards like Ichthyomorphosis or Frogify?

Are you able to meld Bruna with Gisela if the previous person's "pile that includes Bruna" has Bruna as the top card? Since the merged creature takes on the name of the top card.

Keyword counters

1. * Layer 6 indeed.

Why are keyword counters evaluated in layer 6 rather than in their own sublayer, like layer 6b?

As we know, if a creature gains flying from an effect and then loses flying from another effect, it doesn't have flying. These kinds of effects are evaluated in timestamp order.

If a creature gains flying from an effect, then loses flying from a second effect, then gets a flying counter from a third effect, then that creature has flying.

If a creature gains flying from an effect, then gets a flying counter from a second effect, then loses flying from a third effect, does the creature still have flying? Why or why not? Do we now have to keep track of the timestamps of each keyword counter (or at least the timestamp of the effect that put the keyword counter onto the creature), too?

Applying power and toughness modifications as a separate sublayer to power and toughness modifying counters works because addition is associative — you get the same result whether you apply all counters last, all counters first, or any mix between. This isn't the case with yes/no effects, since yes -> no -> yes does not give the same result as yes -> yes -> no. So it seems weird that keyword counters are treated as though their function were associative when it isn't.

How does a merged permanent phase out and phase in?