Mutagen Man, Living OozeMutagen Man, Living Ooze | Art by Ignatius Budi

Every single set has a commander or two that only serves the purpose of supporting some new mechanic, and because the mechanic is brand new, the commander is doomed to lead a terrible deck. Mutagen Man, Living OozeMutagen Man, Living Ooze is no exception to this. He makes some MutagenMutagen tokens, and then reduces the cost of activating them to nothing.

That could be alright, but I doubt the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set is gonna have more than 15 cards that make Mutagen tokens, if the LanderLanders from Edge of Eternities are any indication.

Given what we've got to work with, we're gonna have to find something pretty special to make Mr. Mutagen Man worth playing.

Activate!

There is a little bit of potential here, however. Mutagen Man is a pretty unique card, the only one that cares about artifact tokens with activated abilities, as far as I can tell. Reducing the cost of those activated abilities encourages us to work with Food tokens, Clues, Maps, and obviously Mutagen tokens. That's got the potential to make a somewhat interesting, if weak deck. Pretty much my specialty.

So that's the direction I was gonna go, until I saw bartoman's Mutagen Man deck on Archidekt. Now bartoman is a deck builder after my own heart, building a library that takes advantage of Mutagen Man's cost reduction ability, but not with Clues. Instead, bartoman's deck capitalizes on cards like Prototype PortalPrototype Portal.

Prototype PortalPrototype Portal can imprint a card from your hand, and then tap to create a token of that card. See where this is going? Because we can turn a nontoken artifact into a token, we can use Mutagen Man's cost reduction on something like Adarkar SentinelAdarkar Sentinel, and make a creature with infinite toughness. Heck, we can even make multiple!

Now we're getting somewhere.

But bartoman, I both love and hate you, because you gave me so much false hope. For a brief second, I thought this deck actually had potential. Maybe we could do some genuinely cool things with Mutagen Man, activate some special abilities, maybe even go infinite! As it turns out, that was not the case, and in hindsight, I should've just gone with the Clue token deck.

This is hands down the worst deck I've ever built, needing forever to do jank things that have next to no impact. I've built a lot of bad decks, but this one takes the crown.

Anything Can Be a Token

But let me explain how I got here. Upon discovering Prototype PortalPrototype Portal, I immediately started searching for other ways to make token copies of artifacts.

Soul FoundrySoul Foundry is great, as it's just a duplicate of Prototype PortalPrototype Portal, but for creatures. If we play artifact creatures, then both function perfectly fine. There's Blade of SelvesBlade of Selves, which has the biggest potential, making three copies of a creature on every attack. Of course, the downsides are that the original has to be a creature who can comfortably attack. Unfortunately, very few of our creatures have the muscle mass to be doing that.

MirrorworksMirrorworks has neither of those downsides, letting you clone an artifact as it enters the battlefield. Just one clone is really all we'll need, so Mirrorworks may be the best in the deck. But there's also Minion ReflectorMinion Reflector, which can create a temporary token copy of a creature as it enters.

Then Mimic VatMimic Vat is similar, creating one-turn copies of a creature that's imprinted on it. Finally there's God-Pharaoh's GiftGod-Pharaoh's Gift, which has a handy tutor in Gate to the AfterlifeGate to the Afterlife. This one creates lasting copies of creatures that are in our graveyard, and it does that every combat, making it one our strongest duplicators.

Ok, so we've got a really solid number of ways to create token copies of nontoken artifact creatures. Then, those tokens can all have their activated abilities reduced by one. That seems janky, but surely there's something worth doing with that? Surely there's a more impressive interaction than giving Adarkar SentinelAdarkar Sentinel infinite toughness?

Yeah man, that's what I thought too, but there really is not. Even after scrolling through all 265 artifact creatures that have an activated ability, I couldn't find a single thing that's actually game changing. Among them, the best interactions I could find were with PrismitePrismite, who can turn all our colorless mana green, Pili-PalaPili-Pala, who could combo with Paradise MantleParadise Mantle, if Paradise MantleParadise Mantle was worth including in the deck for any other reason than to combo with Pili-PalaPili-Pala, and Soldevi SentrySoldevi Sentry, who would give your opponents the option to draw as many cards as they liked.

So yeah, a whole lot of nothing. I'm sure there's something to be found here, but it'll have to be found by someone with a lot more game knowledge and time than I have.

Technically a High Ceiling

All that being said, there are certainly some interesting things this deck can do, even if they aren't game winning or likely. If you manage to turn PentavusPentavus into a token, then with Mutagen Man on the board, you can infinitely create and sacrifice PentavitePentavites. Then, with Peregrin TookPeregrin Took on the battlefield, you would create infinite Food tokens and draw your entire deck.

That scenario is ridiculously hard to set up and extremely easy for your opponents to stop, and it doesn't even win the game, but hey, it is pretty cool.

You could also create a token copy of Halsin, Emerald ArchdruidHalsin, Emerald Archdruid, turn it into an artifact with Liquimetal TorqueLiquimetal Torque, and then turn every token you have on board into a 4/4 Bear. That one might actually make a difference, especially if you've been accumulating Clues with Tireless TrackerTireless Tracker throughout the game.

You do have to use one of the creature duplicators, however, reducing the odds of pulling it off by half.

Mutagen Man, Living Ooze Commander Deck List

To be honest, every time I've played with this deck, it's almost always been the best play to focus on making tokens with Tireless ProvisionerTireless Provisioner or Academy ManufactorAcademy Manufactor, because those cards are simply way more powerful than cloning a whole bunch of junk. But hey, I didn't start playing this game to do the objectively best thing.

Yeah, I should've just built a deck with Clue and Food tokens, but there are so many other commanders that do that better. This deck may by mediocre, but it gives Mutagen Man, Living OozeMutagen Man, Living Ooze the chance to do things that no one else can. And if you do pull off some of the crazy combos that technically exist in here, it'll be a whole lot cooler.

This deck may never actually win a game, but it's won my heart. And hey, if you have any ideas for how to use this engine effectively, please let me know!