Unraveling the Mutant Mystery: Mutate and the Legendary Rule in Magic: The Gathering

Mutate and the legendary rule interact in a fascinating, and sometimes confusing, way. In short, mutate can offer a temporary bypass of the legendary rule, allowing you to have multiple legendary permanents with the same name on the battlefield, but only under specific conditions. Specifically, if a non-legendary creature is on top of a mutating pile where a legendary creature is underneath, the permanent on the battlefield will not be legendary, and you will not be affected by the legendary rule. However, if the legendary creature is on top, the permanent is legendary.

Here’s the key: the card on top of the mutated pile determines the characteristics of the permanent. If that top card is a legendary creature, the entire pile is legendary. If it’s not, the pile isn’t legendary, even if there’s a legendary creature lurking beneath. Understanding this distinction is vital for strategizing with mutate in decks featuring legendary creatures.

Diving Deeper: How Mutate Bends the Rules

The mutate mechanic introduces a unique wrinkle to Magic: The Gathering’s established rules. When you cast a creature spell for its mutate cost, you’re not simply putting a creature onto the battlefield. Instead, you’re merging it with an existing non-Human creature you control. This merging process creates a single permanent that has all the abilities of both cards, but the name, mana cost, and creature types are determined by the card on top of the pile.

The Legendary Rule: A Brief Recap

Before we delve further, let’s quickly review the legendary rule. This rule states that if you control two or more legendary permanents with the same name, you must choose one to keep and send the rest to the graveyard. This prevents players from overwhelming the board with multiple copies of powerful legendary creatures or planeswalkers.

Mutate and the Legendary Loophole

The interaction between mutate and the legendary rule comes down to the order in which you apply mutate.

• Legendary on Top: If you mutate a non-Human creature onto a legendary creature (meaning the new creature card ends up on top of the pile), the resulting permanent is legendary and subject to the rule. If you already control a legendary permanent with that name, you’ll have to sacrifice one.

• Legendary Underneath: However, if you mutate a legendary creature underneath a non-Human creature (meaning the legendary creature card ends up below the pile), the resulting permanent is not legendary (as long as the card on top is not legendary itself). This is because the top card dictates whether the permanent is legendary. This effectively allows you to “hide” a legendary creature under another card, temporarily circumventing the legendary rule.

Why This Matters

This interaction has significant strategic implications. You can use mutate to protect your key legendary creatures from removal by “burying” them under a less important creature. You can also use it to create powerful, non-legendary beaters with the combined abilities of multiple creatures, including legendary ones.

The Games Learning Society recognizes the complexity of these interactions and strives to develop resources that can help players of all skill levels understand these mechanics. Visit GamesLearningSociety.org to learn more about their work.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions to further clarify the relationship between mutate and the legendary rule:

1. Can I mutate onto my opponent’s creature?

No. You can only target a non-Human creature you own with the mutate ability. Control is irrelevant; it’s ownership that matters.

2. What happens if the mutated creature dies?

If the mutated creature dies, all of its components (the individual cards) go to the graveyard. They are no longer a single permanent.

3. If I mutate a legendary creature under a non-legendary creature, can I then play another copy of the legendary creature?

Yes. Since the mutated permanent on the battlefield is no longer legendary (because the top card isn’t legendary), you can play another copy of the legendary creature. However, be aware that if the mutated pile leaves the battlefield or the top creature is removed, the underlying legendary creature will become subject to the legendary rule again.

4. Does mutate trigger ETB (Enter the Battlefield) effects multiple times?

Only the ETB effects of the card that is being cast for its mutate cost is triggered when a new card is added. If you mutate a creature onto an existing creature, you do not get to trigger the ETB effect of the existing creature.

5. If I mutate onto a creature with summoning sickness, can the mutated creature attack?

Whether or not the mutated creature can attack depends on whether the original creature was affected by summoning sickness. If the original creature was affected by summoning sickness, the mutated creature is also affected by summoning sickness. If the original creature was not affected by summoning sickness, the mutated creature is also not affected by summoning sickness.

6. Can I mutate onto a planeswalker?

No. Mutate specifically targets non-Human creatures. Planeswalkers are not creatures unless they have an ability that transforms them into one.

7. Does mutate ignore shroud or hexproof?

No. Mutate is a targeted ability, so the target creature must not have shroud or hexproof.

8. If I have two legendary creatures of the same name and mutate one onto the other, what happens?

If you do this, the resulting mutated creature is legendary, and since you control two legendary permanents with the same name, you must choose one to keep and put the other in the graveyard.

9. Can I mutate onto a creature with auras or equipment attached?

Yes. Auras and equipment remain attached to the mutated creature, regardless of which card is on top.

10. What happens if a legendary creature on top of a mutate pile is removed?

If the top card is removed, the remaining card (or cards) becomes the permanent. If the next card in the pile is legendary, it will then be affected by the legendary rule.

11. If a token copies a mutated creature, does the token copy the entire stack of abilities?

Yes, the token will copy all of the abilities from every card in the stack.

12. Does mutate work with commander damage in commander format?

Yes, since commander damage is tracked by the creature itself and not the individual cards, if a creature deals 21 commander damage, the target player still loses the game regardless of how many times it has mutated.

13. Can I mutate a creature onto itself using a convoluted series of effects?

Theoretically, yes, if you can somehow create a situation where a creature spell you cast for its mutate cost targets itself. However, this is extremely rare and requires specific combinations of cards and game states.

14. Does mutate work with indestructible?

Yes, mutate works with indestructible. If a mutated creature with indestructible takes lethal damage it will not be destroyed.

15. How does mutate interact with a card like Mirror Gallery, which removes the legendary rule?

If Mirror Gallery is on the battlefield, the legendary rule is completely ignored. This means you can have multiple legendary creatures with the same name on the battlefield, regardless of whether they are mutated or not. This synergizes exceptionally well with mutate, allowing you to stack multiple legendary creatures together without fear of having to sacrifice any.