Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Otrimi, the Ever-Playful!

Otrimi is a six mana 6/6 that has a Mutate ability for four mana, trample, and whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, return target creature card with Mutate from your graveyard to your hand.

Mutate is an interesting mechanic that I wish had some more support, which makes this deck a bit of a difficult build around since there are a limited number of Mutate cards that differentiate it from other versions of the deck.

So while we will be building with plenty of Mutate creatures in mind, we will also be considering other creatures that don’t have Mutate in order to help supplement Otrimi.

The first thing we need to look at is our Mutate creature package in order to start working on getting some decent utility out of them when they are in play.

Sea-Dasher Octopus is a great early Mutate creature since we can Mutate them in for two mana at flash speed and whenever it deals combat damage to a player we draw a card, which is a solid ability that can pair well with Otrimi, an aspect we will get to later.

We should also look at creatures that happen to have an ability that triggers whenever they mutate, like Sawtusk Demolisher, which when it mutates we destroy a target nonland permanent and then its controller makes a 3/3 Beast creature token, which can be a decent bit of removal if we get the Mutate chain going.

If we want to help our own board presence then there is also Trumpeting Gnarr, which whenever it Mutates we make a 3/3 Beast creature token. While it does have a higher Mutate cost, it can definitely be the base creature we can start Mutating off of.

The more and more Mutates we get onto a creature, then something like Insatiable Hemophage becomes, which whenever it Mutates then each opponent loses X life and we gain X life where X is the number of it has Mutated.

Of course we also have access to Dirge Bat as a way to destroy a creature or Planeswalker an opponent controls when it Mutates, Cavern Whisperer to have each opponent discard a card whenever it Mutates, Souvenir Snatcher to steal noncreature artifacts whenever it mutates, and Chittering Harvester to have each opponent sacrifice a creature whenever it Mutates.

There is also Auspicious Starrix, which whenever it Mutates we exile cards from the top of our library until we exile X permanent cards where X is the number of times it has Mutated and we then put those permanent cards onto the battlefield for free.

With our Mutate package set, we now need to get Otrimi to be able to get damage going as soon as possible.

This means cheap creatures with solid combat damage effects or ways to get Otrimi to start dealing damage as soon as possible while also protecting them.

With the Edge of Eternities spoiler season complete (as of writing this), it brought about a very interesting creature in Frenzied Baloth, a two mana creature that can’t be countered, has trample and haste, prevents our creature spells from being countered, and makes combat damage unpreventable, which will then confer these abilities to Otrimi when we Mutate on top of it.

Slippery Bogle and Gladecover Scout are one mana creatures with hexproof, Silent Arbiter makes it so no more than one creature can attack each combat and nor more than one creature can block each combat, and Vashta Nerada has indestructible and shadow and a Morbid ability to put a +1/+1 counter on itself if a creature died this turn at the beginning of each end step.

We also have access to Predator Ooze, which has indestructible, whenever it attacks we put a +1/+1 counter on it and whenever a creature dealt damage by this creature this turn dies, we put a +1/+1 counter on it. This means that fight and bite spells not only become removal spells, but also pump spells in order to make Otrimi more and more into a threat.

There is also the combination of creatures like Barbed Servitor, which also has indestructible, when it enters it becomes suspected (it has menace and can’t block, whenever it deals combat damage to a player we draw a card and lose 1 life, and whenever it is dealt damage target opponent loses that much life, which can also be used in tandem with fight spells in particular to turn a removal spell into a burn spell.

If we really want to mess with our opponents with Otrimi, then we can also use something like Yavimaya Dryad, which has forestwalk and when it enters we search our library for a Forest card and put it onto the battlefield tapped under any player controls, which means we can give it to an opponent and then attack with Otrimi if we happen to mutate it on top of the Yavimaya Dryad.

Now comes the hard part, how this deck wins. With it being a fairly generic Voltron strategy at its core, I thought we could spice the deck up with some powerful combat damage creatures.

Kotis, the Fangkeeper has indestructible, which is great for Otrimi, but more importantly whenever it deals combat damage to a player we exile the top X cards of their library equal to the amount of damage dealt and we can then cast any number of spells with mana value X or less from among them without paying their mana cost, which with Otrimi already having trample and being a 6/6 can be a decent chunk of cards.

Giggling Skitterspike is another indestructible creature that whenever it attacks, blocks, or becomes the target of a spell, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent. What makes it better is that it has Monstrosity 5, which means we can make it monstrous if it isn’t already and then we can put five +1/+1 counters on it, which transfers over to Otrimi when we Mutate it, meaning that we deal 11 damage to each opponent whenever we attack, block, or target it with a spell.

Hungering Hydra enters with X +1/+1 counters on it, can’t be blocked by more than one creature, and whenever it is dealt damage we put that many +1/+1 counters on it. Even if we put one or two counters on it in the early game, we can then Mutate on top of it with Otrimi in order to get a creature that can get absurdly big, especially if we combine it with Lure type cards to force our opponents to block it.

If we really want to deal some damage quickly to win the game, then we can also play with a couple of infect spells in order to win us the game a bit faster. Plague Stinger has flying and infect, Blight Mamba which has infect and can regenerate for two mana, and Ichorclaw Myr which has infect and whenever it becomes blocked it gains +2/+2 until end of turn.

One of the best ways to get some poison counters on our opponents in my opinion would be Venerated Rotpriest, which has Toxic 1 and whenever a creature we control would become the target of a spell, an opponent gets a poison counter, which can help protect Otrimi a bit if we happen to Mutate on top of the Rotpriest.

Otrimi is a toolbox Commander, and while the Mutate package really only goes so far, we can definitely use it as a building block into making a decent Voltron deck that has a lot of tools that can be played with and customized to fit your particular preference.

While Mutate is still subjected to the Commander Tax, we are in green so we can ramp consistently enough to bring Otrimi back into play if necessary, and we also have access to black an blue so we also can play with some decent midrange tools to help keep us afloat and able to maintain a decent standing within the game.

The thing that can make Otrimi difficult is that you aren’t able to fully make use of their Mutate ability because of the limited number of Mutate creatures. I do hope we get more in the future, and hey Energy has gotten a ton of support in the past couple of years and is a 7 on the Storm Scale, so maybe one day.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual