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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Mutilate
Image from Wizards.com

Mutilate
Magic 2013

Reviewed Aug 2, 2012

Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 3.67
Multiplayer: 4.25

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Mutilate

I'm happy to see Mutilate back. I still remember the days when this was how monoblack held the Elves and Goblins and Slivers at bay. I remember the rise and fall of Damnation, and of monoblack control with it. I'd be happy if this heralded a new age of monoblack control, although I doubt it will, since MBC was already popular in Innistrad before this showed up. But still, Black was missing a solid, dependable boar wipe (and a reason to think twice before stuffing in a lot of dual lands to support a splash of this and that). I also like how this goes so well with Liliana's new theme of amassing Swamps. You can use Liliana's Shade and Liliana 3.0's first ability to make sure you've got enough to kill what you need to kill, and if Liliana's Ultimate has gone off, not only can you cast this with the tap of a single Swamp, but you can easily pump your Shade to survive it. It also comes just as the lion's share of Black's targeted kill has lost its "can't be regenerated" clause. I don't think regeneration is really going to be relevant until we get some better creatures that have it, but it's nice to see that if the next block gives us a blazing tournament staple that regenerates, we have options.

Constructed- 4
Casual- 4
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 4.25 

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Mutilate
 
So, it seems like every year people talk about the "return" of mono-black control. I don't like using the word "return" in contexts like this - if you like a deck, you could play it whenever you want, whether that was in a sanctioned or unsanctioned arena and whether or not anybody else is playing it - but Mutilate makes a strong case for this being "the year." There's a debate about whether the key card in mono-black control in its second golden age around the Odyssey era was Mutilate or Cabal Coffers, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Mutilate gives black decks access to something that they really often need (the most unrestricted one-creature-removal spells don't help once people start generating tokens or chaining one-mana creatures). Heck, it's even not terrible in two-color decks, as long as you have enough basic lands.
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Mutilate which is a four mana Black sorcery that gives -1/-1 for each Swamp you control to all creatures until end of turn.  As this will generally be -4/-4 or more in a mono-Black deck it is a very effective board sweeper that can be supported by either large creatures that survive the effect or ones that return from the graveyard.  In either case this is a solid option for Black and even multicolor at half strength in response to token swarms which should have this see play in current formats across several deck themes, particularly Multiplayer as is expected for global effects.
 
In Limited this is a major bomb and often game-changing, somewhat more in Booster where the deck can be mono-Black, and is an easy first pick or solid start in a Sealed build.  The non-targeted mass removal potential is a big advantage in the format and the somewhat controllable level of creatures to be removed can be beneficial in some situations. 
Supported with targeted removal for an opponent's larger creatures, some large creatures of your own, or if available lower cost ones for a fast recovery and this can be a reliable tempo changer when needed. 
Multicolor decks and the format's reliance on having creatures keep this from being an ideal card in every scenario, so careful consideration is recommended to maximize the impact on an opponent without compromising yourself equally.
 
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 4.5


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