Single Card Discussion: Manamorphose

[madmanmike25]

From mtgsalvation.com:

Manamorphose        1 R/G
Instant 
Add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
Draw a card.

I see potential in Belcher for sure.  A free cantrip that turn Spirit Guides into storm count for ETW is pretty nice.  Giving Belcher access to more colors is also a very good bonus.  Throw in a few Chromatic Stars and/or Wild Cantor and adding blue to Belcher should be a snap.  Other colors such as black could be added for Rituals and tutors.

Thoughts?  Could this card have application elsewhere?

[Troy_Costisick]

Yeah, Belcher will love that.  Maybe something like a "40 Card" Belcher deck stocked full of 'free cards' like Manamorph and Streetwraith:

Creatures 
4   Elvish Spirit Guide   
4   Goblin Welder   
4   Simian Spirit Guide   
4   Street Wraith   

Spells 
4   Empty the Warrens   
4   Manamorph
4   Land Grant   
4   Rite of Flame   
1   Wheel of Fortune   

    Artifacts 
1   Black Lotus   
4   Goblin Charbelcher   
1   Grim Monolith   
4   Lodestone Bauble   
1   Lotus Petal   
4   Mishra's Bauble   
1   Mox Emerald   
1   Mox Jet   
1   Mox Pearl   
1   Mox Ruby   
1   Mox Sapphire   
1   Sol Ring   
4   Urza's Bauble   

Lands 
2   Taiga   

[GrandpaBelcher]

Manamorph + Channel.  Now people can finally stop complaining that Channel is too hard to cast.

There are a number of cards that Belcher will be looking forward to from this set.

Edit: And let's not forget Turn-1 Tendrils.  This is a Street Wraith that builds storm.

[Thicketman]

That card appears to be good in any deck that plays green or red. I would say especially in a storm deck. if you need black and blue, you can use this for the black and blue to get the storm rolling and draw a card as well to further your storm combo. I see this card being very sick.

[the boogie man]

I really like this card a lot. I started a deck that was kind of similar to meandeck tendrils, but my computer crapped out and it was 3am, So I took a nap. I thought that this was a good enough addition on its own, but then I realized that you want a lot of green or red sources if you plan on playing them a lot, So esg and summoners pact eventually came into the list. And Pact of negation. Overboard? Maybe. But I think that this card is the bee's knees in a deck like this. Tendrils used rootwater egg, And besides being colorless, Is way worse.

I haven't got a whole lot of testing done, But it seems real fast. The only hard decision seems to be to run land grant or fetches. Instead  of Pact, I also want to see if force can be run, But I don't know if there are enough blue cards, and, like meandeck tendrils, I worry about the card disadvantage. but I also worry about chalice and proactive answers. I don't mind running a lot more ble than I used to, because Manamorphose produces blue, So rituals shouldn't even get in the way.  Maybe thoughtseize wins the spot. Either way, more testing will show.

[ErkBek]

This card seems really good for a Meandeck Tendrils type of deck. Manamorphose is like a free Chromatic Sphere/Darkwater Egg if you can consistantly make red or green mana. Unfortunately, ESG and SSG are pretty close to the worst card imaginable in this type of deck.

Rite of Flame might be worth adding now that we've got a reason to run red. Adding Rite of Flame would probably result in the removal of the Land Grant manabase. I'd be good with that since Land Grant is extremely risky in such a duress and scroll heavy metagame. There are 2 things that have always scared me in Meandeck Tendrils: Land Grant and Spoils of the Vault. Removing Land Grant would remove risk, and the new free cantrips in repeal and Manamorphose help make up for the lost storm.

Repeal becomes much easier to utilize with Manamorphose.

I haven't goldfished MD Tendrils for almost a year, but this was my list:

The Maindeck
Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
4 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chrome Mox
4 Darkwater Egg
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
   
Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Consultation
4 Repeal
4 Spoils Of The Vault

Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Careful Study
4 Land Grant
3 Night's Whisper
4 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Lands
1 Bayou
1 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island

The Sideboard
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Green Fetches
1 Bayou
4 Force of Will
2 Chain of Vapor

While I don't think this deck is competitive because Flash is just a better version of it, here's what I'd start with:

Lands 7
1 Volcanic
1 Underground
1 Badlands
2 Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire

Rituals 11
4 Dark Rit
4 Rite of Flame
3 Cabal Rit

Artifacts 16
1 Black Lotus
4 Chromatic Sphere/Star
2 Darkwater Egg
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Kill 4
4 Tendrils

Draw/Tutor 22
4 Manamorphose
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Repeal
1 Demonic Consultation
3 Spoils Of The Vault
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Night's Whisper
1 Yawgmoth's Will

[CalmLikeABomb]

I would be surprised if the kobold-glimpse of nature-tendrils build doesnt get looked at again. The basic slowdown and fault of the deck was not being able to keep drawing for kobolds to continue the combo, or not finding the black mana needed to cast tendrils. This might solve both.

I actually might sleeve up and test it. Seems worth it. Maybe.

[madmanmike25]

Troy, thanks for sharing a list but in all honesty I really dislike the Baubles.  Especially when you draw into another one....pretty bad.

Also, with 4 Manamorphs in your list, why limit yourself and not play with Dark Ritual?  Belcher REALLY needs cards that break the 1 card -> +1 mana rule.  Since any decent Belcher list runs Wheel of Fortune, I think it could now safely add Timetwister...and Tinker...and Recall. 


The Boogie man,  I posted a Belcher list using all 8 of the Pacts a while back.  I'll try to find it.  I would surely cut Serum Powders now from that list.  It would be a good starting point even though people found that the Pacts worked better in Flash decks.

Lochinvar, what other cards from this set could benefit Belcher?  Do tell.

Kobefan,  it would be nice if a list could run Intuition if you added in Rites but thats probably too slow isn't it?  I wonder if Overmaster could help if you keep finding that Dark Ritual(or another instant/sorcery) gets countered.  I know it's limited protection, but hey it's a cantrip.  Just a thought if you decide to add in R mana for Manamorphose.

Calmlikeabomb, I honestly believe the problem with Kobold decks was that you had to run horrible cards...like the Kobolds which do nothing.  I consider Kobold decks a step below Belcher, and even Belcher is risky enough.  I have tested with others and we just couldn't get the turn 1 win percentage high enough to mitigate the high risk of losing if your opponent goes first or has a Force in hand.

[GrandpaBelcher]

I still don't think I'm going to be putting blue or black into Belcher, just because (before Flash, anyway) red-green has been the way to go.

Gutteral Response is awesome since you can play it off any of the Spirit Guides as a Force of Will turn one.  That is actually the card I am most looking forward to.  That hits, among other things, Ancestral, Force of Will, Flash, Gush (countering Gush when your opponent is already low on resources is hilarious), and Echoing Truth (which isn't as important now since Empty the Warrens from Belcher can't race Flash).  I am more looking forward to this card than Manamorph, which I suspect may end up being a bust.  Maybe.

Gutteral Response G/R
Instant
Counter target blue instant spell.

Vexing Shusher is also pretty cool, for the same reasons.  I think would be a sideboard card if it makes the cut, but it has such great abilities for this deck, especially against Chalice and Counterbalance.

Vexing Shusher G/R G/R
Duder - Goblin Shaman
[This] can't be countered by spells or abilities.
G/R: Target spell can't be countered by spells or abilities.

On Manamorph... Neat card, cool idea.  It's very tough to play a deck like Belcher with question marks in the hand, though.  I have Street Wraiths in the deck right now and you pretty much have to have a keepable hand without them.  A hand like Mana, Mana, Mana, Mana, Mana, Protection, Street Wraith, is nothing because you can't count on finding a win condition in time.  Manamorph is more useful as a manafixer (which red-green Belcher doesn't need) than as a cantrip.  That said, I could be surprised.

Jerry Yang surmised yesterday that he can now make a landless Belcher deck.  Spirit Guides and Moxen would then be the bread and butter of a red-green storm deck, and you don't have the drawback of revealing your plans with Land Grant.  Emptying your hand on turn one would make a Storm Entity (or two!) of 6/6, with no draw and only one spirit guide.  That's effectively three attack phases with fetchlands etc.  Adding Manamorph makes that even better.  Plus, Belcher never ever misfires.  The only drawback is that Taiga is currently, like, the fifth best mana source in the deck.

Still, it's something to consider.

Another thing to consider in a multi-color Belcher: Slithermuse.

[meadbert]

I would be surprised if the kobold-glimpse of nature-tendrils build doesnt get looked at again. The basic slowdown and fault of the deck was not being able to keep drawing for kobolds to continue the combo, or not finding the black mana needed to cast tendrils. This might solve both.

I actually might sleeve up and test it. Seems worth it. Maybe.

As near as I can tell the main fault of Kobol-Clamp is that it really needs either Glimpse or Clamp to do anything.  This gives it a somewhat high probability of mulling into oblivion and makes it very vulnerable to Force of Will, Duress and Thoughtseize.  I am not sure that Manamorphose helps this.  Manamorphose does get to black mana more easily, but generally I either fizzle early or get to where I can draw my whole deck.