Hello there!

"Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths" is here and the set brought us a wonderful new mechanic to enjoy and build around: Mutate. It's nearly an effect of building your own giant Monster and it's quite promising and enjoyable. Check its rulings in the link below so you will not be taken by surprise while palying against or with it:

https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Mutate

Let's dive in:

The current list is Midrange/Late Game oriented, with a hint of Combo traits in its roots; the aim is to survive the early turns through trades and blocks, while building our Board and most importantly our Graveyard to summon Nethroi, Apex of Death for an explosive reanimating turn.

Gilded Goose, Paradise Druid, Incubation Druid, Skull Prophet with Wolfwillow Haven, Arcane Signet are our main Ramp machinery; with a Commander cmc of 5 initially, adding +2 generic mana for the Mutation alternate cost, the first turns must provide as much extra mana as possible, alongside Non-Human creature bases for mutation like Migratory Greathorn, which also ramps for us. Skull Prophet might not count towards the Mutate road but offers diversified skills or a strong block depending on the situation while the two non-creature sources stick on the board after a mass removal spell. Late-game The Great Henge provides surplus to cover the unavoidable commander tax.

Our Draw is accomplished either directly via health loss through Funeral Rites, Dark Bargain and Castle Locthwain, or plainly  through resolving creature spells with The Great Henge on board and creatures dying in the shadow of Midnight Reaper or Liliana, Dreadhorde General. Fiend Artisan, Woe Strider and Underrealm Lich also contribute with their own versions of card advantage; Card Advantage does not only mean drawing cads though, it is more of an attrition war which is won by having more options to dive into and select from than our opponent.

Thus, Graveyard access is of paramount importance to the list. A satisfactory amount of Self-Milling is reached by resolving Mire Triton a handy creature to block and boost our health total, Skull Prophet to block and ramp, Excavation Mole to provide our Mutants with Trample, Funeral Rites and Dark Bargain to directly draw, Cavalier of Thorns as an extra Ramp body that provides Reach and lastly Underrealm Lich to access the best option out of the 3 top cards of the library on each of our draws, alongside an Indestructible, mutable body. As before, Fiend Artisan and Woe Strider also help to reach our goal when needed.

With a filled graveyard we can cheat through Nethroi's Mutate alternate-reanimation cost creatures into play; in that aspect Necropanther and Lurrus of the Dream den each individually reanimates our low cmc core creatures that died or got self-milled early and Boneyard Lurker can get core non-creature permanent cards as Liliana or Elspeth Conquers Death back that might have got milled.

In the current edited version i have included Luminous Broodmoth after re-evaluating Zebrastonaut's comment of a few days ago. The Moth offers a Flying evasive body to mutate on for offence and stickiness for defence; similarly to Midnight Reaper who restocks our hand after a mass removal, the moth restocks the battlefield or it shields another creature by absorbing a targeter removal spell. It combos extremely well with all of our Enter the Battlefield abilities.

On the Maybeboard section, i have included some of the cards that make a strong case of being part of the deck and that have proven even more than adequate during playtesting. If you feel like a couple of the cards on the main list are not of your liking and you do not have strong ideas of what else to include, feel free to give the Maybeboard list a try. Just keep a very broad and simplified rule of replacing the type of card that you remove to maintain consistency: e.g. a non-creature removal for a non-creature card (preferably removal), creature for creature etc.

The deck handles itself well against the majority of the meta that i have encountered and i will continue to work on it as time passes for improvements. The most possible one might be adding a couple more early removals or mass removals against Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy Ramp and the new Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt Mardu Knights decks, both with "go-wide, go fast" strategies. Beware of Ashiok, Dream Render and Blue Counter/NoFun Tribals.

Until the next time, have fun with your games!

Edited 22 May 2020