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Mutant Menace is one of the four pre-constructed Commander decks released as a part of Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond product line, this one being a collaboration with the Fallout franchise. The deck’s theme is the creatures of the wasteland across all Fallout games, including Deathclaws, Ghouls, and more (including strangely Piper Wright, a regular human reporter). This guide will go over all the themes found within the deck, as well as an analysis of Mutant Menace and budget options to upgrade the deck with to increase its power level. This is the Mutant Menace Commander deck guide
On top of the Murders at Karlov Manor precons we saw recently, the Fallout decks are equally impressive. Now that the decklist for Scrappy Survivors has been revealed, we’ve also seen the full details of cards for Hail, Caesar and Science!
Mutant Menace Commander Deck – MTG Fallout
Cards
100
Additionals
2-Card Collector Booster Sample Pack
Mutant Menace decklist
Card Name | Card Type | Rarity | Mana Cost | Stats | Description |
The Wise Mothman | Legendary Creature | Mythic Rare | One generic, one black, one green, one blue | 3/3 | Flying. Whenever enters the battlefield or attacks, each player gets a rad counter. Whenever one or more nonland cards are milled, put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to X target creatures, where X is the number of nonland cards milled this way. |
The Master, Transcendent | Legendary Artifact Creature | Mythic Rare | One generic, one black, one green, one blue mana | 2/4 | When enters the battlefield, target player gets two rad counters. Tap: Put target creature card in a graveyard that was milled this turn onto the battlefield under your control. It’s a green Mutant in addition to its other colors and types. |
Fraying Sanity | Enchantment – Aura Curse | Rare | Two generic, one blue | – | Enchant player. At the beginning of each end step, enchanted player mills X cards, where X is the number of cards put into their graveyard from anywhere this turn. |
Inexorable Tide | Enchantment | Rare | Three generic, two blue | – | Whenever you cast a spell, proliferate. |
Jason Bright, Glowing Prophet | Legendary Creature | Rare | Two generic, one blue | 2/3 | Whenever a Zombie or Mutant you control dies, if its power was different from its base power, draw a card. Two generic, Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. It gains flying until end of turn. |
Mirelurk Queen | Creature | Rare | Four generic, one blue | 4/4 | Vigilance. When enters the battlefield, target player gets two rad counters. Whenever one or more nonland cards are milled, draw a card, then put a +1/+1 counter on Mirelurk Queen. This ability triggers only once each turn. |
Piper Wright, Publick Reporter | Legendary Creature | Rare | One generic, one blue | 1/2 | Whenever deals combat damage to a player, investigate that many times. Whenever you sacrifice a Clue, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. |
Radstorm | Instant | Rare | Three generic, one blue | – | Storm. Proliferate. |
Struggle for Project Purity | Enchantment | Rare | Three generic, one blue | – | Choose Brotherhood or Enclave. Brotherhood: At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent draws a card. You draw a card for each card drawn this way. Enclave: Whenever a player attacks you with one or more creatures, that player gets twice that many rad counters. |
Vexing Radgull | Creature | Uncommon | One generic, one blue | 1/2 | Flying. Whenever deals combat damage to a player, that player gets two rad counters if they don’t have any rad counters. Otherwise, proliferate. |
Bloatfly Swarm | Creature | Uncommon | Three generic, one black | 0/0 | Flying. Enters the battlefield with five +1/+1 counters. Prevent damage dealt to Bloatfly Swarm by removing that many +1/+1 counters, then each player gets a rad counter for each counter removed. |
Feral Ghoul | Creature | Rare | Two generic, one black | 2/2 | Menace. When another creature you control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Feral Ghoul. When Feral Ghoul dies, each opponent gets rad counters equal to its power. |
Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor | Legendary Creature | Rare | Two generic, one black | 2/1 | Each other creature you control that’s a Zombie or Mutant gets +X/+X, where X is the number of counters on Hancock. Undying. |
Infesting Radroach | Creature | Uncommon | Two generic, one black | 2/2 | Flying, can’t block. When deals combat damage to a player, they get that many rad counters. If an opponent mills a nonland card and Infesting Radroach is in your graveyard, you may return it to your hand. |
Nuclear Fallout | Sorcery | Rare | X generic, two black | – | Each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. Each player gets X rad counters. |
Screeching Scorchbeast | Creature | Rare | Four generic, two black | 5/5 | Flying, menace. When attacks, each player gets two rad counters. When one or more nonland cards are milled, you may create that many 2/2 black Zombie Mutant tokens once each turn. |
Vault 12: The Necropolis | Enchantment – Saga | Rare | Four generic, two black | – | Saga: 1. Each player gets three rad counters. 2. Create X 2/2 black Zombie Mutant tokens, where X is the total number of rad counters among players. 3. Put two +1/+1 counters on each Zombie or Mutant you control. |
Branching Evolution | Enchantment | Rare | Two generic, one green | – | If one or more +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature you control, twice that many +1/+1 counters are put on it instead. |
Cathedral Acolyte | Creature | Uncommon | One generic, one green | 1/2 | Each creature you control with a counter on it has ward one generic. Tap: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature that entered the battlefield this turn. |
Cultivate | Sorcery | Uncommon | Two generic, one green | – | Search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal those cards, put one onto the battlefield tapped and the other into your hand, then shuffle. |
Enraged Yao Guai | Creature | Rare | X generic, three green | 2/2 | Vigilance, trample. Enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters. When enters the battlefield, destroy any number of target artifacts and/or enchantments with total mana value X or less. |
Farseek | Sorcery | Common | One generic, one green | – | Search your library for a Plains, Island, Swamp, or Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. |
Glowing One | Creature | Uncommon | Two generic, one green | 2/2 | Deathtouch. Whenever deals combat damage to a player, they get four rad counters. Whenever a player mills a nonland card, you gain 1 life. |
Guardian Project | Enchantment | Rare | Three generic, one green | – | Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it doesn’t have the same name as another creature you control or a creature card in your graveyard, draw a card. |
Hardened Scales | Enchantment | Rare | One green | – | If one or more +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature you control, that many plus one +1/+1 counters are put on it instead. |
Harmonize | Sorcery | Uncommon | Two generic, two green | – | Draw three cards. |
Harold and Bob, First Numens | Legendary Creature | Rare | Two generic, one green | 3/3 | Vigilance, reach. When dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield. It’s an Aura enchantment with enchant Forest you control and “Enchanted Forest has ‘Tap: Add three mana of any one color. You get two rad counters.'” Harold and Bob loses all other abilities. |
Inspiring Call | Instant | Uncommon | Two generic, one green | – | Draw a card for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it. Those creatures gain indestructible until end of turn. |
Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma | Legendary Creature | Rare | Three generic, one green | 0/0 | Vigilance. Enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters. At the beginning of your upkeep, double the number of +1/+1 counters on Lily Bowen if its power is 16 or less. Otherwise, remove all but one +1/+1 counter from it, then you gain 1 life for each +1/+1 counter removed this way. |
Lumbering Megasloth | Creature | Uncommon | 10 generic, two green | 8/8 | Costs one less to cast for each counter among players and permanents. Enters the battlefield tapped. |
Powered Fist | Artifact – Equipment | Rare | One generic, one green mana | – | Equipped creature has trample and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, put that many +1/+1 counters on it.” Equip two generic mana. |
Rampant Growth | Sorcery | Common | One generic, one green mana | – | Search your library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. |
Strong, the Brutish Thespian | Legendary Creature | Rare | Four generic, two green mana | 7/7 | Ward two generic mana. Enrage – Whenever Strong is dealt damage, you get three rad counters and put three +1/+1 counters on Strong. You gain life rather than lose life from radiation. |
Tato Farmer | Creature | Rare | Two generic, one green mana | 1/4 | Landfall – Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may get two rad counters. Tap: Put target land card in a graveyard that was milled this turn onto the battlefield under your control tapped. |
Tireless Tracker | Creature | Rare | Two generic, one green mana | 3/2 | Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It’s an artifact with “{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”) Whenever you sacrifice a Clue, put a +1/+1 counter on Tireless Tracker. |
Watchful Radstag | Creature | Rare | Two generic, one green | 2/2 | Evolve. Whenever Watchful Radstag evolves, create a token that’s a copy of it. |
Contaminated Drink | Instant | Uncommon | X generic, one blue, one black | – | Draw X cards, then you get half X rad counters, rounded up. |
Nightkin Ambusher | Creature | Uncommon | Two generic, one blue, one black | 4/4 | Ward two generic mana. When Nightkin Ambusher enters the battlefield, target player gets four rad counters. Nightkin Ambusher can’t be blocked as long as defending player has a rad counter. |
Raul, Trouble Shooter | Legendary Creature | Uncommon | One generic, one blue, one black | 1/4 | Once during each of your turns, you may cast a spell from among cards in your graveyard that were milled this turn. Tap: Each player mills a card. |
Agent Frank Horrigan | Legendary Creature | Rare | Five generic, one black, one green | 8/6 | Trample. Agent Frank Horrigan has indestructible as long as it attacked this turn. Whenever Agent Frank Horrigan enters the battlefield or attacks, proliferate twice. (To proliferate, choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) |
Alpha Deathclaw | Creature | Rare | Four generic, two black, one green | 6/6 | Menace, trample. When Alpha Deathclaw enters the battlefield or becomes monstrous, destroy target permanent. Five generic, one black, one green: Monstrosity 4. (If this creature isn’t monstrous, put four +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.) |
Atomize | Instant | Rare | Two generic, one black, one green mana | – | Destroy target nonland permanent. Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) |
Corpsejack Menace | Creature | Rare | Two generic, one black, one green | 4/4 | If one or more +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature you control, twice that many +1/+1 counters are put on it instead. |
Find//Finality | Sorcery | Rare | Two black/green hybrid, Four generic, one black, one green | – | Find: Return up to two target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand. Finality: You may put two +1/+1 counters on a creature you control. Then all creatures get -4/-4 until end of turn. |
Putrefy | Instant | Uncommon | One generic, one black, one green | – | Destroy target artifact or creature. It can’t be regenerated. |
Winding Constrictor | Creature | Uncommon | One black, one green | 2/3 | If one or more counters would be put on an artifact or creature you control, that many plus one of each of those kinds of counters are put on that permanent instead. If you would get one or more counters, you get that many plus one of each of those kinds of counters instead. |
Young Deathclaws | Creature | Uncommon | Two generic, one black, one green | 4/2 | Menace. Each creature card in your graveyard has scavenge. The scavenge cost is equal to its mana cost. |
Biomass Mutation | Instant | Rare | X generic, two green/blue hybrid | – | Creatures you control have base power and toughness X/X until end of turn. |
Marcus, Mutant Mayor | Legendary Creature | Rare | Three generic, one green, one blue | 4/4 | Vigilance, trample. Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card if that creature has a +1/+1 counter on it. If it doesn’t, put a +1/+1 counter on it. |
Mutational Advantage | Instant | Rare | One generic, one green, one blue | – | Permanents you control with counters on them gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to those permanents this turn. Proliferate. |
Vault 87 – Forced Evolution | Enchantment – Saga | Rare | Three generic, one green, one blue | – | Gain control of target non-Mutant creature for as long as you control Vault 87. Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It becomes a Mutant in addition to its other types. Draw cards equal to the greatest power among Mutants you control. |
Arcane Signet | Artifact | Uncommon | Two generic | – | Tap: Add one mana of any color in your commander’s color identity. |
Contagion Clasp | Artifact | Uncommon | Two generic | – | When Contagion Clasp enters the battlefield, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature. Four generic mana, Tap: Proliferate. |
Nuka-Nuke Launcher | Artifact – Equipment | Rare | Two generic | – | Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and has intimidate. Whenever equipped creature attacks, until the end of defending player’s next turn, that player gets two rad counters whenever they cast a spell. Equip three generic mana. |
Sol Ring | Artifact | Uncommon | One generic | – | Tap: Add two colorless mana. |
Strength Bobblehead | Artifact | Uncommon | Three generic | – | Tap: Add one mana of any color. Three generic mana, Tap: Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is the number of Bobbleheads you control. Activate only as a sorcery. |
Talisman of Curiosity | Artifact | Uncommon | Two generic | – | Tap: Add one colorless mana. Tap: Add one green mana or one blue mana. Talisman of Curiosity deals 1 damage to you. |
Talisman of Dominance | Artifact | Uncommon | Two generic | – | Tap: Add one colorless mana. Tap: Add one blue mana or one black mana. Talisman of Dominance deals 1 damage to you. |
Talisman of Resilience | Artifact | Uncommon | Two generic | – | Tap: Add one colorless mana. Tap: Add one black mana or one green mana. Talisman of Resilience deals 1 damage to you. |
Ash Barrens | Land | Common | – | – | Tap: Add one generic. Basic landcycling one generic (One generic, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.) |
Command Tower | Land | Common | – | – | Tap: Add one mana of any color in your commander’s color identity. |
Darkwater Catacombs | Land | Rare | – | – | One generic, tap: Add one blue and one black. |
Drowned Catacomb | Land | – | – | – | Drowned Catacomb enters the battlefield tapped unless you control an Island or Swamp. Tap: Add one blue or one black. |
Evolving Wilds | Land | Common | – | – | Tap, Sacrifice Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. |
Exotic Orchard | Land | Rare | – | – | Tap: Add one mana of any color that a land an opponent controls could produce. |
Fetid Pools | Land | Rare | – | – | (Tap: Add one blue or one black.) Fetid Pools enters the battlefield tapped. Cycling two generic (Two generic, Discard this card: Draw a card.) |
Hinterland Harbor | Land | Rare | – | – | Hinterland Harbor enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Forest or an Island. Tap: Add one green or one blue. |
Mariposa Military Base | Land | Rare | – | – | You may have Mariposa Military Base enter the battlefield tapped. If you do, you get two rad counters. Tap: Add one colorless mana. Five generic mana, Tap: Draw a card. This ability costs one generic mana less to activate for each rad counter you have. |
Mortuary Mire | Land | Common | – | – | Mortuary Mire enters the battlefield tapped. When Mortuary Mire enters the battlefield, you may put target creature card from your graveyard on top of your library. Tap: Add one black. |
Nesting Grounds | Land | – | – | – | Tap: Add one generic. One generic, tap: Move a counter from target permanent you control onto another target permanent. Activate only as a sorcery. |
Opulent Palace | Land | Uncommon | – | – | Tap: Add one black, one green, or one blue. Opulent Palace enters the battlefield tapped. |
Overflowing Basin | Land | Rare | – | – | One generic, tap: Add one green and one blue. |
Path of Ancestry | Land | Common | – | – | Tap: Add one mana of any color in your commander’s color identity. When that mana is spent to cast a creature spell that shares a creature type with your commander, scry 1. Path of Ancestry enters the battlefield tapped. |
Sunken Hollow | Land | Rare | – | – | (Tap: Add one blue or one black.) Sunken Hollow enters the battlefield tapped unless you control two or more basic lands. |
Tainted Isle | Land | Uncommon | – | – | Tap: Add one generic. Tap: Add one blue or one black. Activate only if you control a Swamp. |
Tainted Wood | Land | Uncommon | – | – | Tap: Add one generic. Tap: Add one black or one green. Activate only if you control a Swamp. |
Temple of Deceit | Land | Rare | – | – | Temple of Deceit enters the battlefield tapped. When Temple of Deceit enters the battlefield, scry 1. Tap: Add one blue or one black. |
Temple of Malady | Land | Rare | – | – | Temple of Malady enters the battlefield tapped. When Temple of Malady enters the battlefield, scry 1. Tap: Add one black or one green. |
Temple of the False God | Land | Uncommon | – | – | Tap: Add two generic mana. Activate only if you control five or more lands. |
Terramorphic Expanse | Land | Common | – | – | Tap, Sacrifice Terramorphic Expanse: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. |
Viridescent Bog | Land | Rare | – | – | One generic, tap: Add one black and one green. |
Notable Reprints
Mutant Menace has mostly new-to-Magic cards, but also has plenty of reprints from Magic with new art to give it a Fallout coat of paint. The best reprints in Mutant Menace are Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, Inexorable Tide, and Nesting Grounds.
The Commander leading the Mutant Menace deck is The Wise Mothman, a character first featuring in Fallout 76. In card form, it’s a Blue, Green, and Black creature with Flying.
Whenever The Wise Mothman attacks, each player gets a Rad counter, and whenever nonland cards are milled, the player puts a +1/+1 counter on each of up to X target creatures, where X is the number of nonland cards milled this way.
Like a few of the sets introduced in Fallout’s MTG collaboration, this deck is going to take good advantage of Radiation damage. Rad counters will allow players to mill a card at the start of each Untap phase.
This is going to play a huge part in The Wise Mothman’s strategy, which is going to heavily rely on Milling, Proliferate, and Counter cards to aggravate the opponent.
Mutant Menace Themes And Archetypes
The primary theme of Mutant Menace is counters. These are in the form of +1/+1 counters and rad counters. The deck also includes plenty of ways to increase the number of counters that are going on players, creatures, and other permanents to always be growing into a larger threat as the game goes on. Proliferating is a major part of the deck, which lets you put an additional counter on each player or permanent with a counter already on it.
The other theme of Mutant Menace is mill. Rad counters cause a player to mill cards equal to how many rad counters they have at the start of their precombat main phase. This enables other cards in the deck, which can interact with cards that were milled that turn by casting them or putting them back onto the battlefield.
The last archetype is minor, that being caring about the Zombie or Mutant typing. Most of the creatures in the deck are one of those two creature types (if not both), with a few cards that benefit from being those types such as Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor.
Mutant Menace Deck Analysis
Mutant Menace is a deck that cares deeply about counters, with a ton of payoffs for counters. When it comes to the +1/+1 counter side of things, both Hardened Scales gives you an extra one and Branching Evolution gives you double however many +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature. Corpsejack Menace and Winding Constrictor are both creatures that can give you more counters as well so long as they’re on the battlefield.
Playing into mill is a valid strategy, something that can be a monumental task in Commander due to the large deck sizes. Fraying Sanity is a way to essentially double up on all of your mill effects, as each end step the enchanted player has to mill cards equal to the number of cards that were put into the graveyard that turn. While there aren’t many cards that directly mill, most of it comes from giving your opponents rad counters, which Mutant Menace has a ton of ways to do. Feral Ghoul can distribute a plethora of rad counters if it has high power since when it dies all opponents get rad counters equal to its power when it died. Glowing One gives a player four rad counters if it ever connects damage, and since it has deathtouch blocking it can be tricky for your opponents.
The payoff for the mill strategy is being able to use the cards that go into the graveyard. This is found in the alternate commander of the deck The Master, Transcendent. You can tap it to put any creature card that was milled that turn as a 3/3 Mutant on your battlefield. The creature you put there keeps its effects, so it can steal a lot of powerful enter-the-battlefield triggers from your opponents.
Raul, Trouble Shooter plays more into self-mill. You can give yourself rad counters with cards like Contaminated Drink and Nuclear Fallout to name a few options. Raul, Trouble Shooter lets you cast any spells from your graveyard that were milled there that turn to cast a spell that you may have accidentally milled yourself. Raul can also force every player to mill a card by tapping itself. Raul isn’t the only card that can use cards in your graveyard, as Young Deathclaws is another. Young Deathclaws gives all creatures cards scavenge, which lets you exile it by paying its mana cost to put +1/+1 counters on any creature equal to that exiled card’s power.
Since Mutant Menace is heavily focused on counters, it includes many ways to proliferate. One of the best ways is with Inexorable Tide, which proliferates whenever you cast a spell. This effect isn’t once per turn, and can lead to explosive turns if you can cast a lot of cheap spells. All of that can lead into Radstorm, which proliferates but has storm, so it copies itself for each spell cast before it. Contagion Clasp gives you a consistent way to proliferate so long as you have four mana to pay.
Budget Cards To Upgrade Mutant Menace With
As with all pre-constructed Commander decks, there are some cards included that don’t do a lot for the overall strategy, or are just on the weaker side of things. These can be replaced with deck upgrades to boost up the power of your deck by making it more consistent and follow a more coherent theming.
One such upgrade is Kami Of Whispered Hopes. This lets extra +1/+1 counters be put on creatures, but also makes itself a good target to put counters on as you can tap it to add mana of any one colour equal to its power. Some of the cards in Mutant Menace cost a lot of mana, and there are no mana dorks in the deck. This makes Kami Of Whispered Hopes an easy budget card to slow in to get more mana generation going.
Master Biomancer is also fantastic, as it has every other creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter equal to Master Biomancer’s power. This defaults at two extra counters, but with extra +1/+1 counters, this can grow to ridiculous amounts. Master Biomancer makes those creatures Mutants in addition to their other types, which fits right in with the creature types found within Mutant Menace.
The deck is often winning through combat with its powerful creatures, so Herald Of Secret Streams is a solid way to make sure your creatures connect for damage. It makes all your creatures with +1/+1 counters on them unable to be blocked, guaranteeing they connect to your opponent unless they have a removal spell ready.
When upgrading Mutant Menace, there are a few cards you would have to cut. Piper Wright, Publick Reporter is a good choice to cut, as it requires you to sacrifice Clues to get its effect going, with Piper being the only way to actually make them. Strength Bobblehead can also be cut, as for them to have payoff you need to have multiple in the deck, but Mutant Menace only has one included. Casualties Of War, despite being flavorful is another card the deck won’t miss. While it can destroy a lot of permanents on the battlefield, it costs a lot of mana and is attached to a sorcery to make it likely the only spell you can cast that turn.
Cutting cards isn’t something mandatory, and it’s perfectly fine to keep the deck as-is if you want to keep it fully within the theme of Fallout. Mutant Menace is a solid, above-average power-level precon that is great right out of the box.
That’s as much as we have on our decklist and upgrade for Mutant Menace, in the meantime you might be interested in reading about the most expensive chase cards in MTG Fallout.