Species Specialist

Creature — Human Warrior

As Species Specialist enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.

Whenever a creature of the chosen type dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), you may draw a card.

Discussion (19)

multimedia on Wild Bonder

2 weeks ago

Hey, good budget version and interesting description. Nice Demonic Tutor :)

Cards $2 or less each to consider adding:

• Swiftfoot Boots: hexproof protection.
• Shielded by Faith: indestructibility protection.
• Open the Armory: tutor for Boots or Faith.
• Phyrexian Reclamation: repeatable creature recursion.
• Hushbringer: flying/double strike/lifelink Snapdax and major opponent disruption.
• Will-o'-the-Wisp: flying and regenerate protection.
• Vampire Nighthawk: flying/double strike/deathtouch/lifelink Snapdax.
• Adanto Vanguard: indestructibility protection.
• Brightling: bounce protection.
• Tome of Legends: repeatable draw with attacking Snapdax.
• Deafening Silence: powerful opponent disruption with your mutate creature strategies.
• Swords to Plowshares: instant exile a creature for one mana.
• Generous Gift: instant destroy any permanent.
• Caves of Koilos
• Battlefield Forge
• Foreboding Ruins

You want more protection for the creature you mutate too because without protection the mutate creature can be killed in response to being mutated or after. In multiplayer Commander mutate is much more of a problem because there's three or more opponents who could have removal. That's a lot more potential removal you have to deal with than if you were playing 1v1.

Swiftfoot Boots gives the equipped creature hexproof meaning that creature can't be targeted by your opponents removal. Boots is an equipment, it can be equipped to any creature you control and it doesn't leave the battlefield when the equipped creature is removed. Open the Armory is a budget tutor that can get Boots.

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Flying and double strike is a good combination to do Commander damage with Snapdax. Hushbringer is powerful disruption in multiplayer Commander since it prevents all creatures who have an enter the battlefield ability that triggers and any creature who has a dies ability that triggers. These two types of triggers are ways for players to gain a lot of value from creatures. Hushbringer is not going to affect you much since mutating is not an enter the battlefield trigger it's a cast trigger thus Hushbringer doesn't prevent mutating.

Will-o'-the-Wisp is a one drop flying creature who can regenerate. This little Spirit can be powerful with mutate. Brightling is a unique creature with mutate since you can bounce it as well as all creatures that are mutated back to your hand. This is pseudo protection because you can activate Brightling in response to opponents removal. By bouncing all the creatures that are mutated then you can mutate them all again getting more value out of mutate.

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When Snapdax dies you can choose to spend it to your graveyard instead of putting it back into the Command Zone. This gets around having to pay Commander tax for Snapdax and the tax must be paid even if you're mutating Snapdax from the Command Zone which can be problematic. When Snapdax goes to your graveyard then you can recur it with cards that recur creatures from your graveyard. Phyrexian Reclamation is very good repeatable recursion at instant speed for mutate creatures because you want the creature to come back to your hand to then cast it again to mutate again.

Cards to consider cutting:

• Vivid Marsh
• 2x Mountain
• Offspring's Revenge
• Parasitic Impetus
• Shiny Impetus
• Species Specialist
• Duskfang Mentor
• Frillscare Mentor
• Keensight Mentor
• Shriekmaw
• Tentative Connection
• Bad Deal
• Avenging Huntbonder
• Mysterious Egg

Good luck with your deck.

TheGreatDistortion117 on Is Aetherborn Tribal Possible in Commander?

1 month ago

Heirloom Blade and Species Specialist might be helpful in this deck. It's pretty cool how you built a tribal deck around a tribe with only 15 creatures in it.

Suns_Champion on The Conquistadors of Hernán Cortés | Elenda EDH

2 months ago

Hey everyone! I'm considering the following Ikoria and C20 cards, would love to know everyone's thoughts:

First and most importantly: Mutate cards! See the new section in the primer about them and Elenda!

• Dirge Bat
• Cubwarden
• Chittering Harvester
• Necropanther
• Vulpikeet

Next, some maybe great cards, or maybe just for fun:

• The Ozolith
• Call the Coppercoats
• Dismantling Wave
• Species Specialist

Discuss!

Daedalus19876 on Toxic Relationship: Hapatra EDH [PRIMER]

2 months ago

Potential additions from Ikoria: Nikara, Lair Scavenger, Netherborn Altar, Curious Herd, Obscuring Haze, Gemrazer, Deadly Rollick, Sawtusk Demolisher, Species Specialist, Fiend Artisan, and Nesting Grounds. Yeesh.

Daedalus19876 on Toxic Relationship: Hapatra EDH [PRIMER]

2 months ago

VarietyBlack: I was considering her, but I think Species Specialist does the job better in this list. And I still have to find a slot for Deadly Rollick before adding either...

TCK_Green on Sliver Queen infinite combo

2 months ago

Was looking through the upcoming C20 cards and spotted Species Specialist - thought it might be a good way of turning Sliver sacrifices into card draw in your deck! Also noticed that you're not running Skullclamp - any reason for that? It's largely viewed as very OP in any deck that can generate 1/1 tokens; 1 mana to draw 2 cards is an unheard of rate in Magic. Both of those would be good ways of digging for your combo pieces if you've got Sliver Queen out on T4/5 but haven't got any of your infinite payoffs yet - but again, they're just suggestions :)

Tzefick on Wheel of Life and Death

2 months ago

The revised version seems fair, almost too fair to the point that I'd still not play it unless we're in a limited format.

I'd say you might still lower the activation to 1 colored for each trigger. Or alternatively reduce the cost to 2 hybrid from 3.

It's a 3 mana do-nothing enchantment that requires a creature enter or die and then a hefty payment per trigger. At the current level you pay 7 mana to draw 2 cards, the equivalent of a Divination. I know blue is the best at drawing cards and this is continuous advantage, but you pay so much. If you draw 4, you pay 11 mana.

For 6 you can play Rishkar's Expertise and draw way more AND get a free 5- CMC spell cast.

If you reduced the trigger costs to 1 each, you'd need 5 mana to equate a Divination, 6 for a Concentrate. It would follow the alignment of Stroke of Genius but you're not necessarily master of getting the triggers or having the mana available to take advantage of it.

If we're worried about taking advantage of the token generation, there's way better cards to take advantage of that, like Species Specialist, Moldervine Reclamation, Kindred Discovery, Mentor of the Meek, Elemental Bond (if we go the higher power route).

If there is a need to tone down the power, then axe the token-trigger or increase the cost to . For a continuous effect I think you'd rather pay a hefty price to buy in, for the benefit of cheaper fuel. Or you want a relatively cheap buy-in (2 mana CMC) at the expense of more costly fuel (2 mana activation). A semi-expensive CMC (3) coupled with expensive fuel (2) is unlikely to be attractive.

And take the above into perspective, you can tell how I feel about the original suggestion.

Boza on Jegantha In sliver decks, is ...

3 months ago

The problem with Jegantha is that it does next to nothing. It is the worst companion of the bunch because the payoff and the restriction are way too imbalanced. If you get to those 5 mana, you are better off casting Hivelord/Queen/Overlord/Legion/The first sliver.

You also lose access to Kindred Charge, Kindred Summons, Kindred Dominance, Kindred Discovery and Kindred Boon, as well as Molten Echoes, Species Specialist...