A copy of this deck with a budgeted manabase (and my preferred budget options for
$180 cards
) can be found here:
Mutate is amazing! You usually don't suffer from summoning sickness since you mutate an existing creature. Snapdax is essentially
Fireshrieker
in your command zone, except it ALSO can change your creatures' power and toughness to 3/5 if you choose.
How to Win
The goal is simple: play creatures with infect ASAP, mutate them into
Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt
, and swing for the kill.
Snapdax + infect alone can knock out any opponent in two hits, but there are several ways to expedite the process further.
At 3 power, a normal attack will usually give a player 6 poison counters. All you need to do is give Snapdax a +2 boost.
I used to run
Sanctuary Blade
for it's diversity, and because all we really wanted was the +2 strength and evasion. But the protection it granted ended up getting in the way more than it helped. Instead I think I have found the perfect substitute, a card that is PERFECT for Snapdax.
Dust Corona
.
This card can lead to some extremely early kills.
- Turn one, play a plains,
Sol Ring
and
any signet
/
Fellwar Stone
.
- Turn two, play a swamp or a mountain,
Plague Stinger
, and enchant it with
Dust Corona
.
- Turn three, mutate
Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt
onto the Plague Stinger. You have a 5/5 legendary dinosaur cat nightmare with double strike, infect, can remove any target creature with toughness 4 or less, and cannot be blocked expect by creatures with reach.
There may be a quicker way to victory. This is just one example. This deck is loads of fun and has seen great success.
If you would like to run any of the swords, they all work fine. Just be wary of giving a host creature protection from white, black, or red.
Bastion Protector
gives us the exact boost we need as well as grant invulnerability.
Mindleecher
is an alternate commander as it is essentially an equipment that turns any 1/1 infect into a 5/5 flying Nightmare . . . with infect. Oh, and it exiles our opponents cards from their library. Good for stealing some lands?
Teetering Peaks
is probably the best card in the deck, as you can drop it the turn you mutate Snapdax for a surprise K.O.
Slayers' Stronghold
is similar but it's repeatable at the cost of requiring an activation.
Ramp
I am interested in
Cartographer's Hawk
not only for the potential ramp in white, but also for the extra card in-hand that it provides. I am a fan of
looting
effects
, so having a card like Cartographer's Hawk in hand is useful discard fodder.
The rest of your ramp are your
standard mana rocks
and
Smothering Tithe
.
Card Draw
Since we have access to red and black we are able to sift through our deck pretty nicely
at the cost of life
or
a few cards from our hand
. But this shouldn't prove much of an issue for us, as Snapdax gives us at least 4 life every time they mutate (more if the creature they mutate with has lifelink), and there are multiple situations where we want our creatures in the graveyard.
I considered
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
because we can mutate her while it is under our opponent's control.
And that is funny.
I like funny.
But I also like being in control and I'm not in control if my opponents are in control.
Recursion
Offspring's Revenge
was made for this deck, as it can put any black, red, or white infect creature back onto the battlefield from the graveyard as a 1/1. Since mutate changes the power and toughness of creatures, there is no downside to this enchantment.
Sun Titan
works well to grab any number of our cheap infect creatures, or even grab
Phyresis
to add infect to another creature. Sun Titan really works well with this deck, and if nothing else is a good target for Offspring's Revenge or any of our other mutation creatures.
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
was chosen for his ability to let us cast creatures from graveyards, rather than bringing them to the battlefield. Since half of the creatures in this deck want to be cast for their mutate cost, I can't see myself replacing Chainer.
Soul of Innistrad
was chosen for much the same reason as Chainer. We want to mutate our creatures when possible, so having them come to our hand is valuable. My playgroup love to play milling strategies, and since we are running a bunch of looting effects ourselves, being able to activate its ability from the graveyard is the primary reason for running it.
Support
I have considered cards like
Outmaneuver
,
Prowler's Helm
, and
Trailblazer's Boots
, but I swapped them out for the cards I listed above for what I think is efficiency. Couldn't figure out what cards I'd want to swap so out they go for now. Tips appreciated.