Even now, in a year where nearly every MTG set Wizards puts out seems to be knocking it out of the park, it’s worth dipping back into the classics. Older Magic sets are full of designs that feel weird and experimental now, with some genuine powerhouses nestled among them. Morality Shift from Judgment is a prime example, providing a huge, game-changing effect with a ton of potential for power plays and slick combos.
Morality Shift MTG
Morality Shift is a very simple card, but one with a ton of different applications. Unlike other effects in the same space, like Inverter of Truth, Shift keeps both your graveyard and your library intact as it swaps them. Right out of the gate, this makes it an ideal setup piece in Reanimator decks. If you cast it relatively early in a game this can give you your pick of most creatures in your deck to bring back. Heck, you can even get all of them at once with something like Living Death.
Morality Shift is also a fantastic way to get a ton of enters/leaves the graveyard triggers at once, depending on how you’re set up. This lets you get huge value out of creatures like Dreadhound, while also rapidly juicing up your cards that scale based on the number of cards in your ‘yard, such as Terravore and Lotleth Giant.
When paired with specific Commanders, Morality Shift gets even deadlier. With Disa the Restless, for example, you can cheat out every Lhurgoyf in your deck at once, or just every creature in your deck with Maskwood Nexus. You can also use it alongside Muldrotha, the Gravetide to essentially put your whole deck in your hand, or with Teval, Arbiter of Virtue for a big burst of Delve fuel.
However you decide to use Morality Shift, that seven mana cost is a hurdle you’ll need to overcome. You can manage this to an extent by simply running quality ramp if you’re in green, but other colors will need to get more creative. Cards that let you cheat out sorceries for cheap, like Mizzix’s Mastery and Mysterious Stranger, are great options here.
Ctrl + Shift
As you’d expect from such a big, flashy MTG card, Morality Shift enables its fair share of powerful combos, too. The simplest of these revolve around resolving Shift while you have Syr Konrad, the Grim in play, resulting in tons of damage triggers. If you have enough creatures in your deck, this duo can kill the table outright. To make things more certain, however, giving Syr Konrad Infect with something like Glistening Oil will essentially guarantee your win.
Alternatively, you can use Morality Shift as an alternative enabler for everyone’s favorite win con, Thassa’s Oracle. If you can cast Shift with an empty graveyard, or exile your graveyard first using something like Tormod’s Crypt, you can mill yourself out completely when it resolves. This lets you win on the spot by casting or reanimating Oracle, or by using the +1 on Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
Interestingly, Morality Shift also pairs quite nicely with a number of Magic’s lesser-seen alternate win conditions. By itself, it’s essentially a one-card enabler for Mortal Combat, for instance, easily putting 20+ creatures in your ‘yard at once. In a similar vein, it lets you start taking out an opponent each turn when paired with Mirrodin Besieged, in a deck with a decent concentration of artifacts.
If you want to get really funky, using Morality Shift alongside The Mycotyrant will set you up nicely for wins with either Epic Struggle or Mayael’s Aria. Since these only trigger on your upkeep, you’ll likely want to include a Flash enabler, like Emergence Zone, so you can avoid being blown out before you get your victory.
Buried Deep
Morality Shift is a pretty unique case in MTG. While there are other cards that can mill your entire library with support or deckbuilding concessions, Shift does it every time, no questions asked. It’s also an easy way to get back all the great cards you’ve lost in a game, to push for a big finish. This makes it extremely valuable in decks that want either effect, even if it costs a lot to cast.
Despite this fact, Morality Shift has actually become a bit of a hidden gem over the years. According to EDHREC data, just 5.84k decks run the card, which feels low for something so bespoke. While it does see some play, in Syr Konrad decks in particular, there are a lot of other lists that could benefit from what it has to offer.
While it’s not widely-played, Morality Shift isn’t as cheap as you might expect. With just a single printing way back in 2002 to its name, the card isn’t exactly in high supply. As a result, a near-mint copy will set you back around $3 on TCGplayer right now. While this is a bit outside budget territory, Morality Shift is still well worth picking up for the huge swing potential it offers in Commander.
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