General Let's Talk Morph

[LadyMapi]

I think that the mindgames aspect of Morph is greatly overstated. The design space for Morph (and related mechanics, like Manifest or Megamorph) is actually wider than you might think. Sure, you have Morphs designed to play mindgames:



But you can also look at it as a form of kicker that you can pay off over time:



It's also a way to cheat stuff into play when you don't have the colors/mana for them. This is either built into the card:



Or happens as a result of flickering your face-down critters:



There are also some interesting support cards that also do other stuff:

 

[ravnic]

Morphs add a layer of secrecy and surprise, that's where their fun potential comes from. But the morph mechanic gives you much more, as you already stated. Additionally ou get hand disruption-safe instant abilities that can't be countered, and it is also a smoothing mechanic, as you can always cast your colorless creatures and earn the vaue later when you have the mana. Alo the bluffing aspect can be used effectively to provoke bad plays. I've lured many opponents into wasting their removal for my ruthless ripper because they desperately wanted to kill my Bane of the Living before it could wipe their board.

LadyMapi, I somehow never considered Ghostfire Blade before. That seems to be a sweet choice. I might have enough morphs to utilize it.

Anyway, to contribute some pictures, here is a list of only the morphs that have proven very playable in my cube:

 

[LadyMapi]

Ghostfire Blade is definitely something that sorta flies under the radar. I dunno if 17 cards in a 498-card cube is enough density for it, though. Maybe if you also ran artifact creatures? I also note that you aren't running Stratus Dancer - is it not up to snuff?

Speaking of artifact creatures, one potential idea of improving Morph a little bit (if that's what you want) would be to make the face-down cards into artifacts. While this would broaden the amount of removal that would affect them, it would also have the side effect of letting you include "artifact" creatures in your cube that anyone can use while simultaneously being at their best in a specific archetype.

Some cards that I think would be good alongside some tweaked morphs:



EDIT: Pia's Revolution is this close to being a perfect fit for morph mind games. Sadly, you'd flip over the morph before the effect triggered, otherwise there'd be some really neat potential there.

 

[ravnic]

Oh, I can imagine something like this working with a higher power level, but I don't see it as necessary for my cube. But thinking over morph support, how would this card work?



would my Ruthless Ripper keep the ability when I flip it over? I don't think this card is any good, I'm just curious.

Another one that could be worth it, since counters stay:



I wish it would enters untapped, but I gues that would've been problematic in constructed.

And then I have one that I run with great joy in my cube, it is good with zero morphs but becomes better with them, like a perfect payoff should be:



That thing is so awesome. It is guaranteed to dominate almost every board AND gives you a second spin on all your morph triggers.