There is quite a bit to unpack in this card, Makeshift Mutation is a swiss army knife. Dealing two damage to something falls in line with Wolf’s Bite and Flame Spike. While this card does not Recycle, a definite downside, dealing the damage isn’t all that it does. It can also pump a unit to push extra damage to the opponent or make your smaller Champion trade up.

I would have liked this card without the Ally ability. Being able to Invoke it when you play a Wild Gold is just fantastic. Invoking it combines well with the damage of a Fire Shaman, Smash and Burn, Fire Spirit, or a burn Event like Rain of Fire. As we’ve seen with Smash and Burn, this kind of effect is a great source of pseudo-card-advantage that allows you to string together extra value. This is especially true considering you can play Makeshift Mutation, spend your Gold, and then Invoke Makeshift Mutation on the same target, essentially making it four damage.

The interesting question to ask is when will you be using the Invoke to target your own Champion? It would have to be a scenario where either:

Your Gold is spent on a way to pump your Champion, such as Mighty Blow or Winds of Change. This would further increase the damage output of the Champion. But in this case it is ideally happening with your opponent’s Gold spent and your Champion unblocked. So essentially a win-more scenario.

You are forced to use it defensively to help your smaller Champion trade up for a bigger one. However, this is more than likely a lose-more scenario because you are probably spending your Gold on their turn before they spend theirs. Not suggested. Especially given that you are reducing the current health of your Champion making it more susceptible to removal.

So what I take from this is that Makeshift Mutation is a great modal card with not a whole lot of cost associated with playing it. You are more than likely going to be using it for its damage mode than the offense. However, the tease of the other mode, combined with Invoke, is enough to make this compete well with the likes of Wolf’s Bite and Flame Spike. And I’m talking about in constructed. This is a solid A+ in draft. I’d pick it in about the same tier as the aforementioned cards, slightly lower than strong Zero Champions like Ankylosaurus and Dark Knight.

This has been a spotlight on the new Invoke mechanic which you can back right now on Kickstarter! Keep your eyes peeled for more spoilers from the set!

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