Hello people, thanks to the World Championship (congratulations to my the national team of my country for placing second) and the Rumor Mill, my love for the game was rekindled and so I am back with a new article.

Worlds also gave the first real jolt to the Morningtide Rumor Season, with Wizard's own Mark Rosewater hitting an opponent for more than 27,000 damage in a single attack with a single creature in an unsanctioned game. You can read the full story here and here and with all the sneak previews Wizards' brought to Worlds now revealed, I believe the card MaRo brought to the tournament is still the most interesting and powerful of them.

Unfortunately as it appears, most of the Rumor Mill does not seem to share the opinion that the card would be a contender in Constructed formats, but only a limited bomb.


Es grünt so grün

In the recent years, R&D has become fond of finally giving green, the supposedly best color for creatures, some good beaters for less and less mana. The poster child and original proof of this trend is often seen in one of my personal favorite cards, Ravenous Baloth. Over were the dark and depressing days where the only abilities a four mana 4/4 would have was a drawback.

The Chameleon, with the above-the-curve stats of 4/4 for four mana, sports 3 abilities that are beneficial at all times. It can be argued if Changeling should be viewed as an ability in itself, since it only changes the type line and rarely influences the board at all, but with a well played Harbinger being easily able to turn the tide of a limited game, the resistance to certain removal, the ability to give benefits to other cards as well as the acceptance of the tribe lands in Standard, this ability should not be underestimated.


Swamp thing

The content of the card I have observed to be the largest point of discussion is that Protection from Black is supposed to be an outdated ability in the age in which Shroud has finally become a keyword. But what most people don't take into account is that while Shroud has a similar effect against black decks, whose removal spells are almost always targeted, it would also cripple such illustrious spells in the current standard environment like Psionic Blast or Condemn while red removal, although already hindered by the large behind the creature calls it's own and the built in pump ability, would more or less be completely shut out.

Protection is a far more elegant ability, conveying four different abilities at once and while it might not seem as powerful, it has a potentially tremendous impact into the current standard metagame. Yes, Eyeblight's Ending wouldn't be able to target this guy at all and Nameless Inversion would also need some help to take this guy down if he didn't have Protection from black, but there is no denial that the most dominant removal spell at the moment is Shriekmaw. Not only can the Colossus not be destroyed by the Maw's comes into play ability, he is also exempt from being jumpblocked by one and the three damage the Elemental could add to take down the Changeling is also not a matter in the equation.

But there are a few black cards that are able to handle Chameleon Colossus nonetheless. The first that come to mind are Cruel Edict and Smallpox. Yet, those can be dismissed easily as the format has both Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves which a green player normally plays anyways, even just to only get the Changeling out earlier.

And then there is the distant cousin of the two, Grave Pact. There are currently attempts in T2 to make use of the Pact in sacrifice happy Goblin Decks, but the results are still varying. The Pact also needs to go through the aforementioned smaller fries before being able to attempt taking out the Chameleon, and of course, pretty much any deck that relies on creature damage to win is in fear of a loss if the enchantment gets rolling.


Mindbending

The only really good solution is Damnation, but although the environment is actually rather creature heavy at the moment, with only the fewest decks playing less than fifteen creatures, this card sees less and less play.

One of the reasons for this is that Mana Ramp Decks power out an early, large creature like Bogardan Hellkite or Cloudthresher, fast clocks that need to be dealt with immediately and thereby force a Damnation out effectively trading 1 for 1, a feat that could have also been accomplished with cheaper and/or faster spot removal. The significance that Chameleon Colossus will have in this deck needs to be tested out, but it could easily be a contender for a spot in Mana Ramp or at least its sideboard and it's mere presence could force the metagame into the direction that four Damnations are necessary yet suboptimal.

The Aggro Control Deck with Makeshift Mannequin is a big contender at the moment and has normally 2 or 3 Damnations maindeck, but against the Mana Ramp with Chameleon Colossus, it would be forced to draw it's removal optimally or lose. On the other hand, if the other green decks of Tarmofolk or Rock start playing the Changeling, it would gain the ability of a Mana Ramp deck to force out Damnations early or drop a creature after the Damnation that can't be handled permanently otherwise.

Control decks who can run Damnation are few and far between, and the creature decks they are up against either are easily able to counter or just pluck it from the hand with a Thoughtseize.

Speaking of which, of course the argument arises that the usual black deck, can use Thoughtseize as a means to take out the Colossus before it hits play. However, the card also forces the opponent to pick it whenever he gets the chance to, even if the situation would normally call for a different decision.

A mirror match between two TarmoFolk decks would be a good example. Player A begins with a Gilt-Leaf Palace/Llanowar Elves combination. Player B plays a Thoughtseize through Llanowar Wastes. He sees among others a Doran, the Siege Tower and the Colossus as well as a Brushland in the opponents hand. Unless he holds a second Thoughtseize, this forces him to pick the Chameleon although the normal rationale would dictate to pick the eminent danger of the three drop, just because the tree could be handled once it hits play, the 4/4 could not.

It should also not go unmentioned that while Thoughtseize is a very good card and can steal a great deal of tempo from the opponent, with Profane Command roaming the scene, it is by no means an absolute final solution.


Numbers game

Even a Tarmogoyf is rarely a match to the Changeling as only a Goyf fully charged by all eight card types would tower over a Chameleon with one activation. While one isn't necessarily always able to keep four mana open to actually do so, it is a threat to take into account at all times thanks to the activation being the same price as the creature. This also makes for an 8/8 that is capable of attacking starting at turn 5 and every turn after that, which makes it favorable over the already less and less played Spectral Force, despite the lack of trample. Single threats that are able to deal a large amount of damage are never to be ignored in an environment that includes two Wrath of Gods.

A common argument I have seen on various message boards is that "an 8/8 body means nothing if it can be chump blocked all day", basically questioning the lack of trample on this potentially enormous beast. While this is in itself true, it isn't much of an argument against the card. An opponent who is forced to constantly put creatures in front of a big beater will eventually run out of resources. There are engines that are capable of constantly producing obstacles, but that doesn't mean that every deck that runs the Chameleon has no means of handling such a situation. Of course, good players will also only pump the Chameleon only when necessary and/or safe.

However, the pump ability is what makes this card easily one of the most dreadful things late in the game. When most resources other than mana have come to the point of depletion, a topdecked or reanimated Chameleon Colossus can easily finish the game in two attacks and any opponent below 17 life must fear death from a single blow by this titan.

The last thing to take into consideration with the last ability of this card is that the benefits of power enhancing cards like Giant Growth are also doubled. Loxodon Warhammer, after it being almost never played during it's stint in 9th Edition, has recently gotten more attention and the Elephant equipment, as tested out by Mark Rosewater himself, could become the best friend of our discussed beast. We have already explored that the larger the creature, the more valuable is trample, but the power bonus also being capable of being doubled by the Changeling's third ability makes it even a little bit juicier. The Lifelink is also nothing to scoff at. Even in the event that the Colossus is blocked enough to be taken down or at least absorb enough damage to not die, the lifeswing is high enough that a counter attack by surviving creatures should not be able to take you down.


Recycling

Protection is a very powerful mechanic in that it makes a permanent safe from most of a color’s attempts at taking it out. Yet, historically speaking, there haven't been to many creatures with Protection from Black making a big impact in a format. Of course, White Knight is a historic staple and was often played in the early days of the game, but he took the back seat in Legions when his brother Silver Knight showed up with Scourge.

However, of course at that time, goblins reigned the lands while with Cycling there was a viable white deck, but more of a control nature and little use of a two mana 2/2. The environmental factors are always to be taken into consideration when judging cards that hose a color. At the moment, it looks very good for the card that is up for discussion. But this might change.

In fact, throwing Chameleon Colossus in the current T2 format would probably almost certainly result in a metagame change if the 4/4 was adopted by most players, giving more significance to non-black removal spells and perhaps giving white some more light, with it's multitude of cards that are able to handle him and other creatures for a roughly equal amount of mana to the currently heavily-used black removal spells. Alternate removal spells of all other colors would rise in playability and the percentage of black decks in the meta would probably diminish.


Taking a stab at the future

The following is in no way an accurate depiction, but this is a basic thought process of how the two big green decks, Mana Ramp and The Rock, could incorporate our friendly neighborhood changeling.

Deck
Lands 5 Forest 4 Gilt-Leaf Palace 1 Horizon Canopy 4 Llanowar Wastes 1 Pendelhaven 3 Snow-Covered Swamp 4 Treetop Village 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 23 lands Creatures 2 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Masked Admirers 4 Ohran Viper 3 Shriekmaw 4 Tarmogoyf 2 Chameleon Colossus	Spells 2 Eyeblight's Ending 3 Garruk Wildspeaker 2 Liliana Vess 2 Nameless Inversion 3 Profane Command 4 Thoughtseize

The base I used is Christoph Huber's Worlds T8 Deck, which can be found in here. I removed a Liliana since I believe that 3 are to many and adding Colossus makes the deck far more aggressive. The lone Loxodon Warhammeralso went out. There is some very good synergy between Colossus and Warhammer, but singles aren't anything to build uppon and with the smaller amount of Liliana's the opportunity to tutor for it is also diminished. Also, you'd normally tutor for Profane Command anyways.

Deck
Lands 4 Highland Weald 2 Karplusan Forest 3 Mouth of Ronom 1 Scrying Sheets 5 Snow-Covered Forest 5 Snow-Covered Mountain 4 Treetop Village Creatures 2 Bogardan Hellkite 2 Cloudthresher 3 Chameleon Colossus 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Wall of Roots	Spells 3 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Harmonize 4 Incinerate 4 Into the North 2 Molten Disaster 4 Skred

Chris Lachmann piloted the Mana Ramp build I used as the base (decklist here). I did nothing but replacing the Siege Gang Commander's with Chameleon Colossus. The deck tends to skip it's uneven turns in most cases anyway, and a four mana creature is pretty much always better when you play eight spells that give you your fourth mana source on turn three. The deck loses the ability to just shoot 8 damage out of nowhere late in the game, but gains a guy that can swing for 8 on the fourth turn. He also doesn't die on a molten disaster if this is needed.

Of course, the main plan of accelerating into a Garruk who in turn accelerates the deck into a Hellkite still remains intact. The Colossus just makes the deck a little bit more aggressive which in turn forces the opponent into committing more resources.


Laying the smack down

I want to apologize that this is a rather short article, but I actually cannot think of any more ways to explain why Chameleon Colossus is a premiere card of the upcoming Morningtide set and it's presence in the format should alter the Standard format from how it is played at the moment.

The full extent can of course only be seen once the set is actually released in its entirety, but the Changeling is certainly a card to look out for in the coming months.