Who doesn’t love a good secret?Magic: The Gatheringis already full of hidden information and back-and-forth interaction, but the morph mechanic, first introduced in 2002’s Onslaught set, introduces an extra layer of secrecy and trickery to the game. After all, a face-down morph creature could beanything.
Morphs play well alongside other morphs, where they all disguise one another, whereas a deck with a single morph makes it much easier to guess what’s hiding behind the 2/2 body. A morph needs to be exceptionally strong to run solo in a Commander deck, though commanders like Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer encourage players to jam as many morphs as possible in one deck.
10Bane Of The Living
A Sweeper In Disguise
It’s easy to misjudge what your opponent’s morph creatures could be, butan actual board wipeis one of the worst effects you could blindly run into. Very few morph abilities interact with more than one target at a time, but Bane of the Living can flip face-up and clear an entire board.
Unfortunately, Bane’s not exactly friendly towards your other face-down morph creatures. Since they’re all 2/2s while face-down, it’s likely Bane will sweep them all away even if you make X a smaller number. Plan accordingly.
9Exalted Angel
Exalted Angel is one of the original groan-test morphs. It flips into a creature that’s way above rate for its morph cost, with a pseudo-lifelink ability no less. It’s a classic ‘Baneslayer’ before Baneslayer Angel even existed.
Its best home in Commander isan Angel typal deck, but if it’s the only morph creature you present to your opponents, it’s easy for players to play around. Savvy players can narrow down the options for one-off morphs fairly quickly, especially ones in hyper-specific decks like Angel typal.
8Stratus Dancer
How’s The Countermagic From Way Up There?
Stratus Dancer is the perfect morph to hide among a pile of other face-down 2/2s. Most morphs target permanents or just become larger creatures, but Stratus Dancer has the surprise factor of interacting with spells on the stack. It’s also perfectly fine to play it face-up as an evasive attacker.
Megamorph makes your creature slightly larger upon unmorphing, but the name and the uninspired bonus text left megamorph as one of the most disliked Magic mechanics of all time, to the point where designers have stated they’ll likely never use the mechanic again.
7Kadena’s Silencer
Shhh! Nothing’s Happening
The+1/+1 counterthat Kadena’s Silencer picks up is almost completely inconsequential. If you’re running Silencer as part of your morph suite, it’s because you want to hide some additional countermagic beneath your army of mysterious morph creatures.
Note that Kadena’s Silencer only countersabilities, not spells, but countering a strong enters-the-battlefield ability happens often and should be good enough. The one-two punch of Stratus Dancer and Kadena’s Silencer onboard at the same time gives you a lot of control over what does or does not resolve.
Megamorph debuted in 2015’s Dragons of Tarkir. Kadena’s Silencer was printed in Commander 2019 with the only instance of megamorph since its debut set.
6Den Protector
The Den Is In Safe Hands
Affectionately nicknamed ‘Maternal Witness,’ Den Protector’s a recursive megamorpher that actually brawls in combat quite well, pushing right past smalltokensand chump blockers. It’s not as effective as its inspiration, actual Eternal Witness, but Witness rarely contributes to combat.
The average Commander deck will prioritize Eternal Witness and ways to recycle its ability before they ever even consider Den Protetor as a back-up, but morph decks can use it as a synergy piece and likely have ways to reuse its morph ability to pick up extra cards.
5Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Take Form Of… Anything!
The going rate for a Clone creature is usually four mana, but Vesuvan Shapeshifter justifies its more expensive mana cost with morph. The morph cost is actually considerably cheaper than most, and turning Shapeshifter face-up usually guarantees it becomes a copy of the best creature on board.
On one hand, Vesuvan Shapeshifter can keep copying the same value morph creature for a turn-by-turn advantage. On the other, it can be used for evil in conjunction with Brine Elemental to make sure your opponents never untap their permanents again.
4Brine Elemental
Quite The Pickle
Brine Elemental’s one of the most devastating morphs you can have flipped face-up against you, as evidenced by the fact that its morph cost ismoreexpensive than the actual casting cost. Playing this face-up does virtually nothing, but morphing it can skip other players' entire turns if timed correctly.
It’s part of a combo known as the ‘Pickles lock,’ wherein Brine Elemental is the ‘Pickles’ and Vesuvan Shapeshifter is the combo piece that copies Brine Elemental turn after turn, preventing your opponents from untapping. It’s not an infallible combo, but it’s a difficult ‘soft lock’ to escape.
The ‘Pickles Lock’ was featured in a Top 8 deck in the 2007 National Championship, piloted by Hall-of-Famer Luis Scott-Vargas.
3Kheru Spellsnatcher
What’s Worse Than Getting Your Spell Countered?
Spelljack, released in 2002, was an overpriced counterspell that let you stow away the spell you countered and cast it for free at your leisure. 2014’s Khans of Tarkir repurposed Spelljack as the triggered ability on Kheru Spellsnatcher, one of the best ‘gotcha!’ morphs in Magic.
Whereas morphs like Stratus Dancer and Apprentice Voidmage simply counter spells when turned face-up, Kheru Spellsnatcher counters a spellandsteals it for later use, which can completely swing a game in your favor depending on what spell theNagasnatches.
2Willbender
It’s Always Willbender
Willbender used to be played alongside other morphs in Standard where it earned a reputation of popping up at the worst possible time. The ‘it’s always Willbender’ joke even applies in the Commander formatwhere only one copy can be playedin a 100-card deck.
Redirect effectsaredevastating when timed correctly. At face value, Willbender can aim a removal spell targeting one of your creatures right back at someone else’s, which saves one of your creatures and removes an opposing threat. The god-level outcome is redirecting a targeted extra turn spell in your direction instead.
1Gift of Doom
A Gift To Yourself, Presumably
Gift of Doom is perhaps the best morph card in Commander, which is funny considering it’s not even a creature. There are several non-creature morphs in Magic, though your opponents don’tknowthat they’re non-creature permanents until you surprise them with it.
Gift of Doom doesn’t cost any mana to turn face-up and can save one of your creatures while you’re completely tapped out, something your opponents won’t anticipate often. Note that your opponents have no window of opportunity to interact between when Gift of Doom is turned face-up and when it becomes attached to your creature.
