{"id":843,"date":"2020-07-02T21:45:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T21:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtgcommander.net\/?p=843"},"modified":"2020-07-02T22:26:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T22:26:04","slug":"gavins-format-of-the-month-july-2020-augment-all-the-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtgcommander.net\/index.php\/2020\/07\/02\/gavins-format-of-the-month-july-2020-augment-all-the-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin’s Format of the Month – July 2020: Augment All The Things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is going to be the first of an occasional “series” discussing ways to use Silver-bordered “Uncards” in Commander games, for fun and value. Please let me know in the comments if you try this out and what happens for your group.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a recent game with the other RC members<\/a> I posited that, while it wouldn’t fly to make Un-cards legal all the time, there are a lot of fun mechanics buried in silver-bordered land. Toby has been killed on stream by his own Baron Von Count (twice, in the same game) and I enjoy getting chat involved with “bystander” cards. Splashing silly cards into a deck can introduce novelty, which is one of the ingredients for creating humour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re not just looking for a balanced solution, we’re looking for something we can easily convince other players is balanced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One such mechanic was the Unhinged mechanic Augment<\/strong>, which was really interesting in draft. Augment was a spiritual precursor to Ikoria’s Mutate mechanic (in a future variant, I’ll explore synergies between them), but the cards were somewhere between Mutate and Auras. Augments could<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Only target a creature with the Host<\/strong> supertype. Each host was a small creature with a single ETB ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Provide an alternate means to trigger that ETB again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Add a small buff* to the host’s power and toughness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Stay in the owner’s hand* if the target became illegal in response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) Not augment a creature which was already augmented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, there aren’t really enough Augment (or Host) cards to build a Commander deck around. So, I went looking for ways to pad out the mechanic’s card pool. I figured I won’t have any difficulty finding people willing to allow it if I did it in a way which was fun and interesting, and don’t play it too often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The basic idea <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All of the host creatures in Unstable were simply costed creatures with a single ETB ability… in fact, many of them have a black-bordered analogues which are costed the same:<\/p>\n\n\n\n