Mutations and Thief of Sanity type interactions
Asked by Supersaulty 3 years ago
On MTGA when I steal a creature with mutation with my Thief of Sanity it won't let me mutate a creature I OWN, but, it will let me mutate a creature I control that my opponent owns... Is this a bug in MTGA? Curious for tabletop.
Rhadamanthus says... #2
So you know: the reason Mutate works this way is to avoid problems in tabletop games. If Mutate allowed for merging cards with different owners, it runs the risk of situations where a player scoops up their cards at the end of a game and accidentally walks away from the table with something that belongs to their opponent.
May 25, 2020 1:55 p.m.
Tylord2894 says... #3
To Rhadamanthus's point, Mutate is one of the most complicated mechanics that we have seen in the last 5 years or so. Let's say that I could merge my opponent's creature with my own. What happens when that merged creature dies? Logically, one card would go to my graveyard and one would go to yours, but there would have to be all kinds of rules detailing this interaction. The interactions around mutating a creature onto a morph, a flip creature, temporary creatures, planeswalkers turned into creatures, and all other kinds of this made the rules for mutate rather lengthy. Adding the interaction of merging creatures with different owners would be a nightmare.
Like Rhadamanthus said, allowing the interaction that you brought up could cause logistical nightmares at tournaments or even FNMs. WOTC at least had to foresight to avoid both these nightmares by restricting this interaction.
May 25, 2020 2:10 p.m.
Logically, it also helps avoid weird issues when one owner of part of a merged permanent leaves the game, as their part of the merged permanent would cease to exist, while the rest of the merged permanent presumably would remain where it is. Tracking merges by owner rather than controller makes a lot of things smoother.
May 25, 2020 2:49 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #5
Supersaulty: A correct answer to your question has been up for a while. I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so that this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. Please remember to take care of this yourself in the future.
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #1
The reminder text for Mutate doesn't fully explain the requirements of a mutate spell (as seen on something like Cloudpiercer). The rules for mutate state it much more clearly. “Mutate [cost]” means “You may pay [cost] rather than pay this spell’s mana cost. If you do, it becomes a mutating creature spell and targets a on Human creature with the same owner as this spell.” (702.139a).
Since you don't own the mutating creature spell, it can't target non-Humans that you own. So, it is not a bug and is working as intended. That said, if you gain control of a non-Human your opponent owns (either through Thief of Sanity or another effect), you can mutate onto that card.
Hope this helps!!
May 25, 2020 12:12 p.m.