Metamorphosis Fanatic – Duskmourn Commander
Date Reviewed: October xx, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.37
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 3.63
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’ve heard it argued that lifelink is the keyword ability most underappreciated by veterans. It really made me think – I’ve certainly been playing for a long time, and the proposition made me realize just how few lifelink creatures I had in my decks or in my custom Jumpstart at the time. That leads me to think that Metamorphosis Fanatic’s essential stats might be better than I realize. Like many combat abilities, lifelink can become a form of pseudo-evasion, in this case because the opponent won’t want to lose a creature while also giving you a bonus. And a 4/4 is already somewhat resilient to damage, and with lifelink it races burn decks in a way that’s almost oppressive. Of course, a lot of people will be tempted to build around its miracle ability, and that’s even better just in the abstract. Two mana for a reanimated creature that gains lifelink, plus a 4/4 with lifelink, rivals and maybe exceeds classic cards like Exhume or Reanimate. If, of course, you can set it up. I feel like making this a creature was an attempt to make a powerful, low-cost reanimation spell that’s always live whenever you draw it, and I also feel they probably succeeded (or exceeded!) that goal.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Cheap reanimation is always an intriguing effect to have on offer, and Metamorphosis Fanatic offers a bit of that with quite the body attached. The catch, of course, is that it’s only cheap if you have a miracle, but one step at a time, right?
The “regular” rate of Metamorphosis Fanatic is serviceable: a six-mana investment that brings a 4/4 with lifelink and another body back. Depending on what you get back, this is actually still a fine rate of return; it’s not going to warp the game, of course, but there definitely can be value in getting both of these, and you can hilariously chain reanimating triggers as a result of this being an “enters” trigger and not a “enters, but cast” or cast trigger.
The miracle cost is the spicy bit, and two mana is an even better deal for such an effect. I do think that the miracle version may be priced aggressively enough to make waves in Legacy if you can set this up, though you’d ideally want to reanimate something able to immediately create chaos (with haste or something). And, again, this is still a 4/4 with lifelink.
I feel like this might be a decent sort of tech option in reanimator, and it’s actually playable enough in both Legacy and Commander as an option. The body alone is okay, and what it brings back can be a massive problem, and those two combine to make quite an intriguing sort of threat in all sorts of decks.
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.75 (more played for its base body…if you’re lucky enough to see it in a Play booster in limited)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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