In a surprising and rather controversial decision, Wizards chose to errata Werewolf Pack Leader yesterday. This follows players discovering an interesting, somewhat convoluted combo that maximizes the new Federation Star Trek mechanic.
For those unfamiliar, the combo revolved around giving
Werewolf Pack Leader
Werewolf Pack Leader
Pack tactics - Whenever this creature attacks, if you attacked with creatures with total power 6 or greater this combat, draw a card.
{3}{G}: Until end of turn, this creature has base power and toughness 5/3, gains trample, and is a Werewolf.
every creature type with
Amoeboid Changeling
Amoeboid Changeling
Changeling (This card is every creature type.)
{T}: Target creature gains all creature types until end of turn.
{T}: Target creature loses all creature types until end of turn.
. Then, you can use
Artificial Evolution
Artificial Evolution
Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one creature type with another. The new creature type can't be Wall. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
to replace the type “Human” with “Borg” in Pack Leader’s textbox. All that’s left is to activate the Pack Leader’s ability, dropping the Borg creature type and becoming every other creature type in MTG.
This allowed the Pack Leader to make 300+ mana with
Starfleet Academy
Starfleet Academy
{T}: Add {C}.
Federation — {5}, {T}: Choose a color. Add an amount of mana of that color equal to the number of creature types among non-Borg creatures you control.
, or get absolutely massive with something like
Captain Jonathan Archer
Captain Jonathan Archer
When Captain Archer enters, create Porthos, a legendary 1/1 green Dog creature token.
Federation — {G}, {T}: Target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creature types among non-Borg creatures you control. Activate only as a sorcery.
. Notably, this combo also means that MTG players using it need to know exactly how many creature types exist in MTG; something that Wizards of the Coast does not believe a player should need to know.
Wizards chose to reconcile this “issue” by altering Pack Leader’s final ability, which now turns it into a Werewolf rather than dropping its Human creature type, ruining a casual Commander combo. Since this combo is ultimately incredibly casual and has no competitive potential, players didn’t agree with this sudden errata.
Of course, the new errata also means Werewolf Pack Leader no longer plays as written, which complicates things even further. That said, even though Werewolf Pack Leader is out of the picture, that doesn’t mean the Federation combo is entirely done for.
In an amusing turn of events, players quickly discovered a new combo that abuses the Federation mechanic in a similar way. The combo is equally as janky as the first one, but if you wanted to play the Werewolf Pack Leader combo in your Commander deck, this is basically the perfect replacement.
Every Creature Type Except Borg: Part 2
Like the original Werewolf Pack Leader combo, the goal here is to turn a creature into every creature type except Borg, breaking Star Trek’s Federation mechanic. Combining
Mistform Sliver
Mistform Sliver
All Slivers have "{1}: This permanent becomes the creature type of your choice in addition to its other types until end of turn."
,
Sliversmith
Sliversmith
{1}, {T}, Discard a card: Create a 1/1 colorless Sliver artifact creature token named Metallic Sliver.
, and
Mutagen Man, Living Ooze
Mutagen Man, Living Ooze
Trample
Activated abilities of artifact tokens you control cost {1} less to activate.
When Mutagen Man enters, create X Mutagen tokens. (They're artifacts with "{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Activate only as a sorcery.")
makes this easier than ever.
With all three cards in play, start by activating Sliversmith’s ability to make a 1/1 token. Because this 1/1 is a Sliver, it gains Mistform Sliver’s ability to become any creature type in addition to its other types.
The only thing holding this duo back is that each activation costs one mana, but Mutagen Man solves this problem entirely. See, the 1/1 Sliver created by Sliversmith is both an artifact and a token, so it benefits from Mutagen Man’s activation cost reduction.
This way, you’re free to name every creature type one by one except Borg, executing the exact same combo as the pre-errata’d Werewolf Pack Leader did. What’s even funnier is that this combo is arguably even better than the last one.
Obviously, this combo is still quite difficult to pull off, since any removal spell breaks it up, but unlike the Pack Leader combo, these cards can actually do something individually in a Commander deck. Mistform Sliver and Sliversmith have some value in dedicated Sliver EDH decks, and Mutagen Man can do a decent amount of work in all kinds of builds.
Of course, the combo is still terrible, especially in a Federation-focused deck like
Sarek, Federation Ambassador
Sarek, Federation Ambassador
Federation — At the beginning of combat on your turn, draw a card for every five creature types among non-Borg creatures you control. If you draw three or more cards this way, put two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
, but that was never truly the point.
If you want to go out of your way to make this combo work,
Sliver Overlord
Sliver Overlord
{3}: Search your library for a Sliver card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
{3}: Gain control of target Sliver. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
Commander decks are likely the best place to do it. Your Commander can tutor out Mistform Sliver, as well as every other piece, and even Federation payoffs, if you use
Arcane Adaptation
Arcane Adaptation
As this enchantment enters, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type in addition to their other types. The same is true for creature spells you control and creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield.
.
Funnily enough, the combo also has some surprising redundancy. For example, replacing Mutagen Man and Sliversmith with
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
Ashaya's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control.
Nontoken creatures you control are Forest lands in addition to their other types. (They're still affected by summoning sickness.)
and
Blossoming Tortoise
Blossoming Tortoise
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, mill three cards, then return a land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
Activated abilities of lands you control cost {1} less to activate.
Land creatures you control get +1/+1.
gets you to the same end point. This line could be more appealing in a Simic Landfall deck like
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 1 life and draw a card.
, so keep all your options in mind.
Controversy Continued
After these new combos were discovered, it really looks like Wizards of the Coast ended up with some egg on their face. Since the errata didn’t ultimately stop Commander’s Federation combos, many believe that the rule change was ultimately “pointless.”
Technically, this combo does require you to name each creature type one by one. As some people have mentioned, though, shortcutting this in your pod isn’t necessarily a big deal.
The real awkwardness players noted is that this combo isn’t actually infinite. When it is pulled off, players technically need to know how many creature types there are at that time, which changes with each set release. Granted, winning with 300+ mana is usually trivial, but a mana sink like Walking Ballista may not actually kill everyone at the table.
Even with all this in mind, the main issue Wizards of the Coast has with these combos is that it requires players to know how many creature types are in MTG. Really, if someone is going out of their way to execute a combo as terrible as this one, knowing the current number is entirely reasonable.
Still, it could mean that Wizards of the Coast takes further action against these combos moving forward. Considering the reaction to the last errata, however, this does seem somewhat unlikely.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see if Wizards addresses these newly discovered combos moving forward. For now, players may be rushing to pull off this combo in their Commander pods in case anything happens.
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