MTG Mutate mechanic causes confusion during Ikoria streaming event

A new mechanic in Magic: The Gathering has added further complexity to the card game, confusing veteran players and streamers during the MTG Arena Ikoria Early Access event. 

Mutating creatures on the battlefield can lead to some wild interactions. And not all of them are beneficial, as PleasentFetchland discovered during his stream this morning. 

In the case of Illuna, Apex of Wishes mutating with a Nissa, Who Shakes the World forest, changes occur via Layers. And there’s a sequential order to which the Layers resolve, according to MTG content creator The Mana Leak. 

“Mutate is in the Copy Layer and so gets applied first, setting the stack to 6/6, Mana Leak said. “Nissa’s effect happens sequentially later and changes it to a 0/0 as per her text. Then the counters apply.”

Nissa states in her +1 Loyalty Counter that the land becomes an Elemental creature with a power of 0/0. This is an ability and applies to the mutation. Counters also carry over during Mutate, therefore adjusting the power and defense of Illuna from 0/0 to 3/3. PleasentFetchland’s Illuna was a 4/5, and not a 3/3, due to triggers from other creatures already on the battlefield. 

There was also a good amount of confusion during IKO streams yesterday regarding triggers on the stack from mutations. Mutating with creatures invokes triggers from the card being put on top and the one on the bottom. Triggers then get put on the stack. 

“When a mutating creature spell resolves, all triggered abilities the resulting creature has with that trigger condition will trigger,” said MTG game designer Matt Tabak. “It doesn’t matter if the ability is on the existing creature (before it mutated) or on the new piece (the resolving mutating creature spell). They all trigger, and they can be put on the stack in any order.”

Another issue that caused confusion was a creature entering the battlefield via an IKO Mutate casting cost with no target due to it being removed after the spell was cast. If the Mutate spell doesn’t have a target, it will resolve on the battlefield rather than merging with its intended target.