Pointed Discussion

Good times. This was once as big a bomb as the modern day Loxodon warhammer. Ah how the times have changed.

It's still a fun card by all means. Tatterkite comes to mind!

Not just Tatterkite runway, but Grim Poppet as well. I like 7/7s that have the ability to kill as well. I also like mono-U aggro. 4.5 stars!

Interesting question for anyone who would know -- did this card replace Ancestral Recall during playtesting as the original "3 for 1 common" set of Dark Ritual, Healing Salve, Lightning Bolt and Giant Growth?

@locohead- No, it can't be, this is far outside blue's color pie. Its more of black's type of thing really.

Put it on a whirling dervish.

protean hydra

good in a wither deck if you had blue for some reason....

Power Conduit

Also great simply as a follow-up to an early evasive creature, like Spindrift Drake, Flying Men, or Inkfathom Infiltrator. It'll deal a ridiculous amount of damage if unanswered. Power Conduit just reverses the negative effect.

Carnifex Demon

@boneclub
Maybe the picture of a creature threw you off, but this is an enchantment. Flash won't work on it.

I would put it on a Lorescale Coatl, maybe?
It gets rid of the downside, but it also slows down the Coatl's growth, or stops it entirely if you don't have any extra sources of card draw.

@Dr.Jack: You do realize that A) most of the things you listed are primarily blue affects that slightly bleed into green? Those effects are supposed to be weaker due to a different color. B) green dominates when it comes to creatures and will accept no substitutes.Thornling beats morphling any day, ANY flyer, including serendib efreet or azure drake dies to a multitude of 'destroy target creature with flying' spells such as Wing Snare, and Gaea's cradle works much better with a creature deck then tolarian academy ever will. Green is also better in tribal: watch an elf deck fight a merfolk deck. Elf wins hands down.

The great thing about magic is that there are endless possibilities, with five different philosophies with many sub-branches for various deck styles. Blue isn't intrinsically better, as you arrogantly claim, it is just different, and since it has such weird effects sometimes it is hard for Wizards to accurately predict the consequences of some cards, such as tolarian academy or JtMS, thus leading to it's historically broken nature in some areas. If green and blue get into a spell-slinging battle, blue will probably come out on top because that is what is designed around. Bring an epic battle between creature decks and green wins without a sweat. Different philosophies result in different cards and styles.

Incidentally, i prefer giant growth over this because a surprise pump to take out a larger creature is often better than an enchantment that will cause the creature to get chumped or removed.

The classic combo with this was always to but it on your Serendib Efreet from the same originating set (Arabian Nights). The Efreet suddenly became a 6/7 flyer for 4 mana, and its upkeep cost would take care of itself in 7 turns, if not less from your opponent blocking or killing the gigantic thing that's pummeling them to death.

Another fun one is turn two throwing this on an Ornithopter you cast first turn. 3/5 flyer for {U}? Sure. Why not.

It's a surprisingly aggressive card for Blue, but then again it comes from Magic's first-ever expansion set, long before WotC had the concept of Color Pie pinned down to any degree. Stuck around for a while, too. Great card, great concept. I'd love to see it reprinted, or at least a "colorshifted" variant reprinted in some more fitting color like Black or even Green.

I've also used this to (very slowly) kill a Living Wall.

Quillspike hasn't been mentioned in the comments? Really?

Would have been great with Deity of Scars if it weren't for the colour. As is, maybe Etched Monstrosity?

How to you make Unstable Mutation stable?

By putting it on Protean Hydra of course. Put a -1/-1 counter? No problem. Protean Hyrda comes back with 2 +1/+1. EVERY TURN.

Oh how Melira, Slylvok Outcast loves this card.

Good with Woeleecher. (not on it. with it.)

I'd combine this with Leech Bonder. If you can find a good way to tap him.

Everyone here is thinking too casual, this card is supposed to have a downside. The best, and fastest, way to negate the downside is to kill your opponent, this is very much a sligh card and should be used as such. Best use in blue I can think of is Delver of Secrets. Swinging for 6 in the air turn 2 possibly.

This thing is so much better than Giant Growth if you play blue. It nets 6 damage for one mana if the enchanted creature gets to keep swinging. It only starts hurting the enchanted creature 5 turns later. Even then, if you draw into a Rancor or another one of these babies, it's just devastating if it's unanswered.

works awesome if you put it on your own Morselhoarder

Alright, I deleted my original comment because I was basically just ranting about blue being overpowered and green getting the shaft (original, I know).

I was bothered by the fact that many intelligent aspects of green got taken away and moved to blue. Countering activated abilities, repeatably untapping permanents, looking at and rearranging the top cards of your library... I sincerely believe that green should be the master of these powers, and that blue should not.

As far as this Unstable Mutation card goes, you all may disagree, but I strongly feel that blue shouldn't have access to such powerful creature enhancers. Each color has to have weaknesses in some areas. Green is supposed to be the best at boosting creatures; blue is supposed to be the worst. Just as blue has the best flying creatures overall, and green has the worst.

In my opinion, giving blue a card like Unstable Mutation is like black having a Disenchant,
white having a Dark Ritual, red having a Circle of Protection, or green having Swords to Plowshares.

Love playing this on my Blighted Agent or Glistener Elf. It also is versatile enough to use with Inkmoth Nexus if you want it to fall off and just serve as a one turn Giant Growth.