Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Leveraging Unnatural Selection for Draw-Driven Decks

Blue magic is often about control and tempo, but even the tightest cantrips need a little spark to keep the hand full and the plans flowing. Unnatural Selection, an Aura-turned-enchantment from Apocalypse, gives you a surprisingly nimble toolkit for turning the board into a living card-draw engine. For the uninitiated, this tiny {1}{U} enchantment reads: “Choose a creature type other than Wall. Target creature becomes that type until end of turn.” It’s a flexible, flavorful ping-pong of type-shifting that rewards smart timing and creative deckbuilding. The flavor text—What nature makes, magic can modify—reads like a dare to blue mages everywhere: push the boundaries of what your board can be, then reap what you draw. 🧙‍♂️🔥💎

What nature makes, magic can modify.

Think of it as a way to unlock drawn-out engines by turning a creature into a type that your deck’s draw triggers care about. Not every blue deck uses tribal ingredients or type-based triggers, but those that do can leverage Unnatural Selection to squeeze extra value from each spell and creature on the battlefield. The design is intentionally elegant: a 2-mana aura that becomes a situational, turn-based tool—perfect for a format that rewards timing and improvisation. The card’s art by Kev Walker captures that sense of uncanny potential, a reminder that magic can bend the natural order in playful, tournament-legal ways. In Commander, where players often race to out-draw one another, a well-timed shift can cascade into a sequence of cantrips, draw spells, and forced draws that outpace a table at the rate of a well-timed spell or two. 🧙‍♂️🎲

Strategies to build around Unnatural Selection

• Pick a creature-type anchor. The beauty of this spell is in how easily it lets you pivot your board toward a tribal draw angle. If your list already leans into a particular creature type—say Wizards, Faeries, or Drakes—Unnatural Selection can propel your other creatures into that orbit for a one-turn draw burst. This is especially potent in Commander, where a single swing can tilt the hand size in your favor for the rest of the game.
• Pair with type-based draw enablers. In decks that feature “type matters” triggers (cards that draw a card when a creature of the chosen type enters or exists under your control, or when it enters the battlefield), Unnatural Selection serves as a remote trigger that you can deploy on demand. You don’t have to rely on a permanent creature type; you can pivot midgame to exploit a new draw engine window by turning a guardian or blocker into your preferred tribe just as you need it.
• Flicker and recast for repeated value. If you’ve got flicker effects or blink enablers in your blue suite, you can reapply Unnatural Selection’s impact each turn. Flicker a single creature and then re-target it to a different type, prodding a fresh draw trigger on successive turns while keeping your board intact.
• Support with cantrips and card-draw staples. Blue decks thrive on interaction and card flow. Include a slate of cantrips (think Ponder/Preordain-type spells, if your meta allows) and reliable card-draw spells. Unnatural Selection becomes the instrument that tunes the orchestra—turning up or down the tempo as opponents plan their own draws. 🧙‍♂️
• Control the tempo with smart timing. Because the effect lasts only until end of turn, you’ll want to deploy it when you’re ready to cash in a draw advantage, not when you’re behind on board. A mid-combat flip can catch opponents off guard and leave you with a full grip for the final push. In other words: timing is everything, and blue loves a well-timed surprise. ⚔️

In practice, consider a scenario where you have a handful of 2/2 creatures and a core of draw enablers in your library. Cast Unnatural Selection on a creature you’re about to swing with, choose a type that dovetails with your draw engine’s condition, and suddenly you’re looking at a hand refill while your opponents scramble to keep pace. It’s not a direct draw spell, but it’s the kind of clever interplay that makes blue decks sing. And yes, you’ll find yourself whispering, “Just one more cantrip,” as your card counts climb and your options widen. 🧙‍♂️🔥

Practical deck-building notes

When you assemble a deck built around this idea, consider the following:

• Focus on one or two creature-types you want to leverage. Wizards are a natural magnet for many blue engines, but other tribal windows—Faeries, Dragons, or Squids (yes, it’s a thing in some decks)—can also unlock interesting draw loops depending on your other cards.
• Include a handful of truth-for-you draw enablers that care about creature types. Even if you don’t have a full suite of tribal payoffs, you’ll still gain value from the coordination between Unnatural Selection and your type-based triggers.
• Balance your curve with a healthy slate of early plays and draw-capable midgame spells. The idea is to avoid stalling out while still having a payoff when Unnatural Selection lands on a key creature. Cantrips and cheap draw-kickers help maintain momentum.
• Don’t forget interaction. Blue decks live and die by permission and disruption, so preserve room for counterspells and targeted removal to protect your engine while you assemble the pieces.

Flavor-wise, this card embodies a playful tension between nature and magic—an apt metaphor for blue’s experimentation and hunger for knowledge. The act of temporarily reclassifying a creature’s identity prompts both strategic and thematic questions: what does it mean for a card’s purpose to shift in midflight? In a sense, Unnatural Selection is a microcosm of a broader MTG design ethos: a small, elegant rule interaction can unlock an entire strategic lane if you’re willing to experiment with timing and tempo. 🎨🎲

As a rare from Apocalypse, Unnatural Selection sits in a sweet spot for EDH/Commander fans who love quirky gameplay, clever line-sniping, and the zany humor of mana as a resource that bends the battlefield to your will. Its legalities span Commander and Classic duel formats, ensuring it’s not just a collector’s piece but a genuine, usable engine piece for the right color-loving, type-driven deck. And the lush, blue aura of a single spell that can reshape your draw pipeline makes it a memorable inclusion in any deck list that values ingenuity as much as efficiency. 🧙‍♂️💎

Whether you’re a veteran of the Uranium-Blue, or a newer Commander pilot hungry for the next inventive combo, Unnatural Selection extends an invitation to experiment with creature types and draw engines—an invitation that’s as playful as it is practical. So next time you topdeck a crucial answer or a key cantrip, thank the moment you reshaped your board just enough to tip the scales in your favor. The magic, after all, is in the modification. 🔥

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