Mutable ExplorerMutable Explorer | Illustrated by Wayne Reynolds

Some of us build typal decks by perusing EDHREC and Scryfall for creature of that type accompanied by relevant abilities. Others—the brave, the bold, the visionary—eschew the exercise and, instead, speculate on which changelings fit best. To the latter radical kindred thinkers: we see you, and we are you… just as we are Humans, Elves, Phyrexians, Birds, Slivers, Oysters, Kangaroos, Trilobites, Cockatrices, Fractals…

Welcome to The Changeling Communique: Lorwyn Eclipsed, a report highlighting new cards that fit within Commander decks centered on changelings, meaning they're considered every creature type.

The idea with changeling decks, popularized in part by MTGGoldfish's Tomer Abramovici and his list featuring The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon, is to pack our decks with creatures like Mirror EntityMirror Entity, Amoeboid ChangelingAmoeboid Changeling, RealmwalkerRealmwalker, and Changeling OutcastChangeling Outcast, then pair them with some of the game's strongest, occasionally obscure typal payoffs, including Yuriko, the Tiger's ShadowYuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Harabaz DruidHarabaz Druid, Thurid, Mare of DestinyThurid, Mare of Destiny, The First SliverThe First Sliver, Kibo, Uktabi PrinceKibo, Uktabi Prince, and more. These piles of anthems and one-sided Whelming WaveWhelming Wave-type interactive elements are often helmed by commanders that would otherwise demand straightforward kindred strategies, thus delivering a substantial plot twist that powers up decidedly un-powerful strategies.

According to EDHREC, the most popular changeling commander is The Ur-Dragon, followed by Morophon, the BoundlessMorophon, the Boundless and Reaper KingReaper King, though Voja, Jaws of the ConclaveVoja, Jaws of the Conclave and Wick, the Whorled MindWick, the Whorled Mind are available to those who want to avoid running five colors.

My Omo, Queen of VesuvaOmo, Queen of Vesuva ongoing experiment has been psyched for a return to Lorwyn, the plane that first introduced changelings in its namesake 2007 set, and Lorwyn Eclipsed delivered kindred dominancekindred dominance with a host of new changelings, adaptable support cards, and even a few legendary creatures with changeling commander potential. Here's a breakdown of all three:

Best New Changelings

Changelings are not often fearsome foes. For every ShapesharerShapesharer or Masked VandalMasked Vandal, there exists Game-Trail ChangelingGame-Trail Changeling, War-Spike ChangelingWar-Spike Changeling, and many other flavors of overpriced vanilla. This is why I've curated a short list of changelings that stand above the rest (relatively) and rarely deviate from this selection. In order to be included, a changeling must be either a low mana value creature or one with at least a modicum of utility; ideally both. The ceiling is set at Mirror Entity while the floor contains GraveshifterGraveshifter and, admittedly not a great card, Taurean MaulerTaurean Mauler mostly because opponents vastly overestimate its power.

It was pleasantly surprising to see that Lorwyn Eclipsed printed some new changelings that were not only playable but rivaled the top of the changeling heap:

Mutable ExplorerMutable Explorer serves as an upgraded Farhaven ElfFarhaven Elf for changeling decks, acting as a ramp source by creating a MutavaultMutavault token, a land that can become a creature of every type, when it enters, offering two changelings for the price of one. Consider this an auto-include for any green typal deck outside of Elves as well as one of the best changelings available to date.

Wizards of the Coast has been in the business of replacing Reclamation SageReclamation Sage as the go-to ETB artifact and enchantment hate, and Chomping ChangelingChomping Changeling is one of their best iterations for Commander. Its 1/2 stats means it can chump block tiny tokens and survive ping effects, plus it can be searched up by situational tutors that grab creatures of a certain type. It costs one more mana than Masked Vandal, but it's a far more reliable source of removal.

Changeling decks are often brimming with dinky dudes, so often Omni-ChangelingOmni-Changeling can be easily convoked out for little to no mana. This is an absolute steal considering how Omni-Changeling is worded: it enters as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, not just ours, and it gives that creature changeling, so it can benefit from the many typal payoffs we're running. Finally, Blightsteel ColossusBlightsteel Colossus can be sacrificed to AtogatogAtogatog!

Not much to see here, as three-mana changelings aren't typically very impactful, but Changeling WayfinderChangeling Wayfinder is colorless and immediately replaces itself by allowing us to search for whatever basic land we need in the moment and put it into our hand. It's certainly better than Sizzling ChangelingSizzling Changeling, which has to die before gifting us a card.

Though not a changeling itself, Springleaf ParadeSpringleaf Parade acts as a decent sink for all our Manaweft SliverManaweft Sliver and Gemhide SliverGemhide Sliver mana to rapidly grow our changeling army and our mana base all in one go. It can also be cast with as zero if we just want existing tokens to tap for mana, though this ability is far less useful if we're not generally focused on tokens to begin with.

Best New Kindred Payoffs

Red is generally relegated to fifth banana on the changeling color wheel, but this new Elemental-based card joins Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw as another reason to add MountainMountains to our changeling decks. Champion of the PathChampion of the Path costs and requires us to behold an Elemental as part of its casting, which means we can either exile one of our Elementals from the battlefield or reveal one from our hand and exile it; not much of an ask considering how many "Elementals" we're running. It stands tall as a 7/3 that boasts a life-total-shattering ability: whenever an Elemental enters on our side, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent, effectively tripling the level of damage doled out by something like Terror of the PeaksTerror of the Peaks.

High Perfect MorcantHigh Perfect Morcant spirals out of control fast. When it's on the battlefield, every Elf creature entering on our side forces each of our opponents to place a -1/-1 counter on one of their creatures, and, you heard it here first, our decks run a lot of Elves. We can also tap three untapped Elves we control to proliferate, a mindlessly easy feat to accomplish, which causes those -1/-1 counters to spread. Additionally, proliferate has so many uses outside of extending the blight mechanic, expanding High Perfect's versatility. Watch as enemy hordes shrink until they disappear.

Roaming ThroneRoaming Throne doubles the triggered abilities of any creature type we'd like, but the card is priced at $50. In changeling decks packed with "Elementals," Twinflame TravelersTwinflame Travelers accomplishes much of the same for a microscopic fraction of the price.

Maralen, Fae AscendantMaralen, Fae Ascendant bases its abilities on both Elves and Faeries, doubling the chances that our miscellaneous support creatures will also qualify. Whenever one of those creature types enters, one of our opponents exiles the top two cards of their library. Then, once each turn, we can cast a spell from among those exiled cards without paying its mana cost as long as the total of Elves and Faeries we control is less than or equal to the spell's mana value. This applies to opponents' turns, as well, and offers a strategy spread across two creature types for added effectiveness.

Best New "Choose a Creature Type" Cards

As a general rule when brewing with changelings, I tend to run few cards that require us to choose a creature type. Half the fun of these decks is to pair cards that have no business sharing space with one another—pumping Archers with Greatbow DoyenGreatbow Doyen while spawning Kraken using Spawning KrakenSpawning Kraken. Still, there's no denying that these sorts of effects can be devastating, and some new entries from Lorwyn Eclipsed are absolutely worth sprinkling in sparingly:

Chronicle of VictoryChronicle of Victory represents an upgraded Vanquisher's BannerVanquisher's Banner. Very, very upgraded. Six mana nets us a permanent OverrunOverrun and some card draw whenever we cast our cheap changelings, now more fearsome than ever.

Lorwyn Eclipsed contains a cycle of five cards, one for each color, that can be cast using convoke and tailor their effects to whichever creature type we choose. WinnowingWinnowing is the best one: a board wipe for which we select one creature per player, then sacrifice all creatures those players control that do not share a creature type with our selection. With one changeling out, all of our creatures remain safe, and it's likely we'll be able to find at least one creature on our opponents' boards that stands alone in creature type (a random token, perhaps?) to ensure this particular board wipe remains asymmetrical in our favor. It's also worth checking out Harmonized CrescendoHarmonized Crescendo, a six-mana, convokable card draw spell that can be played at instant speed. It's far less reliable than Winnowing because it requires more of a board to be rendered effective, but its ceiling of being castable for free is high enough to warrant a trial run.

Possible New Changeling Commanders

Inventive deck builders may want to venture away from The Ur-Dragon and attempt to changeling-ify other commanders specific to a particular creature type, for which Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander offers two Elemental-focused options. Ashling, the LimitlessAshling, the Limitless provides Elemental creatures with evoke, reducing their mana value (in theory) in exchange for having them die as soon as they enter, and offers a token copy of those Elementals when they meet their untimely demise. Meanwhile, Mass of MysteriesMass of Mysteries affords an Elemental myriad at the beginning of our combat step, which creates a copy of that creature for each opponent that enters tapped and attacking that opponent.

While these commanders may introduce novel abilities to our changelings, I'm not convinced that any strategy we could concoct would be remotely as good as running busted Elementals, like SolitudeSolitude, Lumra, Bellow of the WoodsLumra, Bellow of the Woods, FuryFury, and Avenger of ZendikarAvenger of Zendikar. The commanders certainly wouldn't be reducing the costs of our changelings or extracting much more value from them; if anything, the opposite is true.

We can pick this conversation back up when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arrives sporting Heroes in a Half ShellHeroes in a Half Shell, a five-color anthem for Mutants, Ninjas, and Turtles.

"To improve is to changeling; to be perfect is to changeling often." - a close-enough approximation of a Winston Churchill quote

Tell me about your changeling decks, and please post links if you have them! I'm constantly tweaking and fussing with my own decks and would love to connect with other changeling brewers. Any cards from Lorwyn Eclipsed that have caught your eye?