Budgeting Arena - Sultai Mutate: creature toolbox

Sultai Mutate is a deck that, despite having only creatures, can handle the most diverse situations:

BUDGETING

Despite the focus being on the mutation keyword, let's begin our discussion with some cards that don't have this ability but are great creatures to open the game and good targets for our mutations:

We keep the 4 copies of Zagoth Mamba as it can be a great removal, especially in the late game where we managed to make several mutations in the same turn.

We increased from 2 to 4 copies of Paradise Druid because we can use it either as a ramp or simply keep it untapped to make the mutations in it since it is protected from occasional removals.

We keep the 2 copies of Arboreal Grazer, a great creature for the first turn, since for just one mana it is a difficult creature for the opponent to remove in the early game, and it accelerates our hand by ramping when entering the battlefield and being a creature to be mutated on the following turns.

We also keep the 4 copies of Pollywog Symbiote which makes the spells of creatures we cast cost 1 generic less if they have a mutation (remembering that we don't need to play the magic with mutation to decrease the cost). In addition, whenever we cast a creature that has a mutation (again, we don't need to use the mutation ability for that) we will draw a card and then discard a card, thus helping to find creatures we need.

As the deck does not use rare cards, we removed the companion Umori, the Collector and all copies of Nylea, Keen-Eyed which, like Pollywog Symbiote, decreases the cost of the creatures we are going to play.

For the deck's winning condition, we have two paths:

The first is draining the opponent's life (s):

We keep the 2 copies of Insatiable Hemophage that will make opponents lose more life while giving us more life each time it is mutated, and in the late game it can make the opponent lose 5, 6, 7 life for mutation. If the plan is to try to win like that, my advice is to make the mutations in Paradise Druid, since it can't be targeted by removal, and gradually draining life from your opponent.

The second option is overrunning your opponent:

We will keep 4 copies of Auspicious Starrix, a creature that whenever it mutates will exile the X cards from the top of our library, where X is the number of times it mutated and placing all permanents exiled in this way on the battlefield, and the best part is that this deck only has permanents (creatures and lands). So, everything that is exiled will be put on the battlefield, increasing our army.

We added 4 copies of Trumpeting Gnarr to create 3/3 beast token and increase the army along with Auspicious Starrix.

We replaced the 2 copies of End-Raze Forerunners, which gives trample (in addition to increasing the power of our army), with Archipelagore which will tap more and more opponent's creatures and prevent them from being untapped on the opponent’s next turn. In summary, it delaying the opponent's plan and also serves open a breach for a massive attack by the army generated by Auspicious Starrix and Trumpeting Gnarr.

Now that we know our main win conditions, we have other interesting mutations in the deck:

For the budget version we will also remove all copies of Sea-Dasher Octopus, Gemrazer and Nethroi, Apex of Death.

However, we keep the 4 copies of Migratory Greathorn that will help us ramp, which is important since we want to make several mutations in the same turn.

We also keep the 2 copies of Dreamtail Heron to give us a card advantage, 2 copies of Chittering Harvester for removal (even more so with Zagoth Mamba), and added 2 copies of Boneyard Lurker to return a permanent from our graveyard to the hand (either discarded by Pollywog Symbiote or simply killed).

And finally, for the mana basis, we removed all copies of Zagoth Triome, Castle Locthwain, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool and Watery Grave. We added 2 copies of Jungle Hollow, 2 copies of Thornwood Falls and 2 copies of Dismal Backwater and increased to 7 copies of Forest, 6 copies of Swamp and 5 copies of Island.

With these changes we arrive at the following list:

Despite the changes, the deck still manages to quickly fill the battlefield mainly with creatures but also with lands. The budget list is able to win the game by attacking and making several mutations to quickly drain the opponent's life points with Insatiable Hemophage.

I hope you enjoyed and see you soon.