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Danesh Jogia
Email: daneshj@optushome.com.au
Forums Nic: omegaideal

In the absence of any reviewable card taking my fancy I've decided to try and get some talk on one of the keyworded mechanics that will be in Onslaught - Morph

Here's the basic deal:
Creatures with "Morph" can be put into play FACE DOWN as a 2/2 colourless creature for 3 colourless mana whenever you could normally play a creature. They are counted as having zero casting cost at such times (or so I'm lead to believe). However, at any time the controller has priority s/he can pay that cards "Morph cost" to turn it face up, at which time it becomes that creature. There will certainly be some rule issues that we'll all have to become aware of at pre-releases around the country (eg you'll be able to ask a judge whether or not a card played face down actually HAS morph)

Play impact: As a general comment I see this mechanic's playability a lot like threshold. It will have its place in both limited and constructed but will probably have more of a profound effect on limited ie it will be more powerful in limited. The ability to turn some fat guy into a Gray Ogre while turning him around for a surprise attack at any given time will be pretty powerful when interactions within the Red Zone are very important.

It won't be so good when complicated creature blocking issues tend not to arise (eg in constructed). Furthermore, the fact that, generally speaking, a very tight selection of cards are actually good in constructed means that your opponent will likely often be able to guess what the face down card actually is. Take for example the confirmed new ball lightning guy He is RRR1, 7/1 Trample, Haste, sacrifice him at end of turn.

He has the morph ability and his morph cost is RR. So if someone plays a face down card playing mono red then chances are its going to be this guy (unless they make a fair few useable red morphers) and thus they can plan around it suitably. So my prediction is pretty powerful (and lets not forget mind gamey...do you not block the 2/2, in case it becomes some fat guy...or do you block the 2/2 in case you let it through and it becomes Skirk Commando and kills one of your utility creatures) in limited play with a few guys that make the leap to constructed (much like mystic enforcer and werebear/mongoose)

At the very least this should mean that black will get back a decent 3 drop (given that it will lose Phyrexian Rager once Onslaught is in). What's more, this time the ability isn't crazily skewed towards blue (like with Madness and Threshold)

For what is usually the most reliable spoiler on the internet (so I've found) check out www.mtgnews.com in the Rumor Mill (they only have like 3 confirmed cards so far, 4 if you count an island heh)

gameon
danesh

Jason Street
Email: mastervillain@hotmail.com

Morph seems to be a good mechanic. It's certainly a really interesting one, taking the Illusionary Mask trick and....

*tumbleweeds as everyone wanders off*

Illusionary Mask
2
Artifact
X: Put a creature costing X or less into play from your hand face down. If it deals or is dealt damage or taps turn it face up.

Better?

Morph is similar, only the creature doesn't have to be turned over. Morph gives you a cheap n' nasty creature now with the option of a more powerful one later. In the context of playing mind games with people there is very little to think about - you play the card for it's Morph cost and start pounding. The creature itself is a 2/2. Ooooh help. The only time you CAN play mind games with them is if you have some land untapped. Then, you know what? They kill it anyway. You either pay or you don't. So far the only Morph cards rumoured have a toughness of 1 or 2, so it's not going to be so cool if your Morphed creatures get whacked with a Shock and you've left the Morph cost open.

This is where the problem lies - if there's some really big badassed creatures then all is well and good, but if they are small you don't have much effort to put in to stop them. First Strike, any red Instant, Pyroclasm and so on.... The list is pretty big. Also, Protection outfoxes a Morph trick too.

Of course we don't know what else is coming. The white creature we've seen so far is a 2/2 Master Decoy with Morph. This is pretty damn good, since he Morphs for W and activates for W you have a good option to play around. If we see something that has no mana to pay in it's activation cost it would be wonderful, but anything with an ability like this will be a real winner (Note a 1/1 with an ability could be dropped as a 2/2 for a beatstick when you need damage dealt and fast). The trouble is if you drop a Morph creature in a mono-colour deck people start quickly tallying the cards in their head. For added skill you should play multicolour. Note the advantage a Type 1 deck gets with masses of artifact mana and a bit of luck. Watch this:

Turn 1
Land
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Play a card face down for 3

Turn 2
Tinker the Grim Monolith into a Memory Jar
Play a land
Lion's Eye Diamond
Lion's Eye Diamond
Sacrifice the Diamonds
Activate the Memory Jar
Turn over Blistering Firecat for RR (5 mana left)
Play spells.
Smash for 7

That's just funny. You can probably see the application in 1.5 as well. Given that red and white have Morph creatures we will probably see some green ones, which means Elvish Spirit Guides suddenly get a whole new lease of life.

As far as I see it, there's some good scope to use the ability as a way to get around paying the normal costs. If I was going to use it a lot I'd take the precautions of having some damage prevention on hand. What a coincidence, there's Morph creatures in white as well as red....

All in all it's going to be interesting in small doses. The ability to circumvent normal casting is always a big effect, but I think the real test will be how easy is it to ignore Morph and the mind games people want to play.

Jason

Dan Turner
Email: daimyodan@yahoo.co.uk
Forums Nic: RECOIL

So this must be the new mechanic which Wizards wanted us kept in the dark about. Morphing is very similar to Illusionary Mask as your opponent is not sure exactly which creature is on the table (the mask had more suprise value as any creature could be behind it!) as it can be revealed at any time by paying it's mana cost. I am assuming that come into play effects do not trigger when the creature is "revealed" as this would make it ridiculous but it is still strong nonetheless. I am also assuming that each colour will have morphing creatures otherwise the limited playing field is going to be very slanted. These critters will make nice decoys to force out your opponent's removal so your evasive creatures can hit the table without any trouble - pretty good huh!. It will also be interesting to see if the creatures are revealed if they are put in the graveyard (i.e. pre-morph) as this could create real headaches for limited play!

I can't even begin to think about the impact on constructed Magic but I'm sure that one or two of these creatures will have potential, especially if they have "pinger" or protection from like effects when they are revealed.

So there you have it another Magic expansion and another new ability. Personally I think this sort of thing should have been introduced a long time ago but that's just me. This ability will force players to think outside of what is on the board (as the wishes mechanic did) as there is a certain amount of ambiguity involved.

Keep playing them cards.

Dan

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