Pattern Recognition #383 - Changeling
Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
25 September 2025
231 views
25 September 2025
231 views
Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!
Hello everyone and welcome back! This week's article is brought to you by my old reliable standby of a resource - The Random Card Button on Scryfall!
This week's result was actually a surprise to me as I think I've already covered this subject before but I find myself thinking about it and deciding that I'm OK with it! So let's talk about...
Yes, I've talked about Changelings before, but my master index tells me that I haven't, so I suppose I'll just have to start fresh all over again! Changeling is both an archetype of creature as well as what is defined in the rules as a "Characteristic Changing Abilityword". It is something that is everything and is nothing at the same time and its inclusion in the game has become more and more interesting as time goes by.
Stepping back, the Changling ability didn't start out as such. It originally was called colloquially as "Mistform", after the creatures of the same name in Legions, which was given the epitome of the Mistform Ultimus. This was very much a gimmick, but it did tie mechanically into the story of the set about how the Slivers that were being studied gained this ability and were able to sneak out of the Riptide Laboratory by pretending to be Wizards, not Slivers.
It was very much a gimmick, but the idea of a creature that could be all creature types at the same time appealed to the various player archetypes for many of the same reasons. They were all creatures, so they could be affected by anything and everything. Sadly, this was just a drop in the water of the game, and the idea of the Mistform became something of a meme in the game. A positive one, a reminder that this did exist.
Then Mistform Ultimus was reprinted in Time Spiral with an updated wording. Because Defended had been Keyworded and the rules regarding Walls had been changed, it no longer needed the text on it allowing it to attack as though it were not a wall because it didn't have Defender. This reprinting was less about changing the text to be truer to the game, and more being a sneaky little nod at the playerbase in recognition for the love and memes they showed the Ultimus in his time in the sun and introduced him to new players who got to learn at the knees of their elders.
So we were kinda completely blindsided when Wizards announced that Changelings were going to be a major part of the next block, Lorwyn.
This was accompanied by the announcement that there would be a new Keyword - sorry, a Characteristic Defining Word attached to Changelings that would give them the Misform ability to be all creature types at all times, but have it stapled (mostly) to all creatures that had the type Shapeshifter. That is to say, Changeling and Shapeshifter would have the same relationship that Defender and Wall did.
There was an interesting mechanical reason for this, as the four-set mega-block of Lorwyn/Morning Tide/Shadowmoor/Eveningtide was also a major Tribal ... Typal ... Kindred set. That the creature types that were being held up in the block would need to be filled out across all the blocks.
What Wizards discovered back when they tested the set was that it was hard to build a full Kindred deck with the options available to players. Cross Kindred support, such as the Banneret Cycle found in Morningtide could only do so much to shore up the fact that if you wanted to build a creature-type focused deck, you had ot get lucky.
Changeling was the absolutely brilliant fix to this. Appearing relatively equally across all colors and at all rarities and in all the sets, from Mirror Entity to Game-Trail Changeling, Shapeshifters became the 'fill in' creatures for the block. That if you didn't have what you wanted, you could toss in a Changeling or two in your colours (or splash because Commander wasn't a thing) and maintain your Kindred synergy. A Moonglove Changeling in a Faeries deck would be a good addition because it provided an alternate attacker thanks to Deathtouch. Or words to that effect. I'm sure that no serious deck would run that card in that format.
But it worked for its intended purpose. To fill in any gaps in the decks that people built using a universal adapter.
Such was the status of this type for a long time until 2019 and Modern Horizons 1. In this set, we got Shapeshifters with Changelings in and to help act again as space-fillers for draft representation, which culminated in the presence of Universal Automaton. We also got some cards that were references to other, past creatures, but were Changelings in the process, such as how Impostor of the Sixth Pride was Blade of the Sixth Pride. They were also catch-basins for reprinted cards that looked for creature types, but didn't have enough support internal to the set for them.
It was a neat addition, but it didn't really do much for the Kindred. It took until Kaldheim for them to really start to matter.
In that set, Changelings were the de-facto bottom-to-top design space for . From Guardian Gladewalker to Moritte of the Frost to Ovar, the All-Form, Shapeshifters were given a properly unifying theme and focus in the set to represent their mysterious natural ways when compared to everyone else. Adding to this, we got Maskwood Nexus, a way to give every creature you control every creature type for all the added goodies, and Bloodwood Pretender a nice support card for any typal deck.
It wasn't bad, but I don't remember as much about that set as I should. Sorry!
The next example of Changeling in the game was what Wizards likes to call 'Seeding'. That is, they will take a mechanic that they know will be more developed or have synergy in the future and put cards into previous sets that are intended to work with that mechanic to give it a bit of a head start and a heads up, just as how Outlaws and the Mounts in that set helped lay the groundwork for Aetherdrift and its Vehicles.
In Bloomburrow's case, we got Barkform Harvester and Three Tree Mascot, Colourless Artifact Changelings that are already in the game and prepared to fire off with the most obvious culprit - our return to Lorwyn next year.
So why are Changlings to robust in the game? Well, I've already covered how they act as gap-fillers in the limited formats for a set, allowing players to grab them and have them fit with their chosen creature type. But there is a little more to it. The first and most obvious resource that people realize exist are Kindred-limited Anthem effects, from Haytham Kenway to Ramses, Assassin Lord or Daru Warchief. The ability to check against creature types and realize that you don't actually need to have the right types as long as they are Shapeshifters.
It is natural that Changelings and Slivers are one of the most widely combined creature types for this exact reason and between Thrumming Pool, and the incoming Lorwyn set, I think that we might be seeing a bit of groundwork being laid for the return of Slivers later next year.
Or I could be completely off base. Wouldn't be the first or last time that's happened to me.
Of course, Changeling can also be a drawback in some small, tiny, utterly insignificant edge cases. I mean, sure, Embiggen was chosen to not apply to a creature type that only has two creatures to its name (and a single sticker) specifically to avoid hitting a Changeling creature and give it.... +304/+304. No, we wouldn't want that to happen in Legacy/Vintage/Commander/Oathbreaker/Pauper now, would we?
There are other anti-Kindred cards, from the Anti-Typal cards that I most associate with Engineered Plague from my younger days to Boldwyr Intimidator who ensures all your Changlings who are also Cowards can't block the Warriors out there.
But on the whole? Changeling is an upside to a creature. The ability to ensure that you are always being benefited by whatever creature-type relevant cards are out there cannot be underestimated. As the game grows, they will continue to grow and grow and the only thing holding them back is that Wizards has been slow in letting Changelings and Shapeshifters out to play.
We'll just have to see what Lorwyn does, won't it?
LAST MINUTE EDIT: Let's not talk about the spoilers for Lorwyn here shall we? I saw the ones released yesterday (today when I'm writing this), and this isn't the place for them. But I will accept proof that the Type is coming back. huzzuh?
Thank you all for watching and reading, and I'll see you all next week!
Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!