Last week I took a look at the Standard and Modern altering fetch-lands of Khans of Tarkir so this week I thought I would pivot to a mechanic that is going to define Khans’ limited format: morph. Every creature with morph presents its owner with a host of gameplay options and its opponent with a bunch of tough decisions. Do you play a card face down on turn 3 with no way to protect it? Do you attack with your morphed 5/5 knowing that you cannot flip it? Do you use a kill spell on a face down creature with no other information? In this blog post I’ll give some general tips that should help you deal with morph.
1. Memorize all of the creatures with morph- This is quite possibly the least sexy bit of advice available. It really sucks to memorize stuff, much less have to do it to compete. However, when you are facing a mechanic that hides information, you need to know what creatures make up the possibility space. If you are staring at an opponent playing RUG, you need to know what morph creatures they could conceivably flip on you and how much those creatures cost to unmorph. Simply knowing what you could be facing is a huge step in the direction of a good decision.
2. Demand to see every morphed card you bounce, kill, or end the game facing- You are allowed to look at a morphed creature when it is returned to its owner’s hand, when it dies, or when the game ends. Take advantage of these chances to both make sure your opponent isn’t cheating and to learn about what cards he/she plays in his/her deck. This is another little bit of information gathering that will help you make decisions correctly. In fact I would go so far as to write down every morph card I see in my opponent’s deck just to help with my decision making. Try not to get fooled by the same morphed creature twice.
3. There are no morph creatures that can win combat against another 2/2 for less than 5 mana- This is a concrete fact in Khans that is really helpful when you are deciding what and how to block. There are no creatures that have higher power and toughness than 2 that unmorph for less than 5 mana. Therefore, blocking a morph creature with a 3/3 when your opponent has less than 5 mana will result in a creature trade in the worst case; there are no cheap blowout morph creatures in Khans. Once your opponent gets to 5 mana every morph creature could be a blowout if unmorphed. 5 mana is the magic number in Khans; be wary of an opponent attacking you with a morphed creature and 5 mana open. If they have anything less than 5 mana, then feel comfortable blocking their morph creature with a 2/1 since they will either unmorph a wall or trade.
4. Evaluate Your Morph Creatures Based on Both Their Morph and Regular Costs- Every morph creature can act as a 3 drop with upside and often as a regular late game monster. As a result, you need to ask yourself whether a particular morph creature is worth playing face up or whether it needs to be morphed first. If a creature isn’t particularly strong in either situation then the right choice is often to just not play it. Morph should not push a creature into your deck all by itself. Morph shouldn’t be a big defining factor in the cards you pick for your deck (unless you get one of the build-around-morph enchantments or Ghostfire Blade).
I hope these tips help you when you play Khans limited. Morph can be a tricky mechanic to play and play around. In the right hands it is like a bullfighter’s cape, misdirecting and befuddling your opponent into submission. Unfortunately, in the wrong hands it’s just a shitty piece of cloth.
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