With MTG Star Trek Prerelease kicking off today, players get their first chance to grab Star Trek cards for their Commander decks. Many cards in this set offer unique game design space in MTG, letting players build decks that feel different from the rest of their collection.
One example is the Federation mechanic, which flips the idea of Typal decks on their head. Instead of getting a payoff for focusing on one creature type, Federation instead rewards you for how many different creature types you control… with one catch.
In a flavorful Star Trek move, the Federation mechanic excludes the Borg creature type, but flavor is certainly a secondary function here. The main reason for this exclusion is to stop Changelings from breaking Federation, as, without the Borg exclusion, Changelings would just count as every creature type on their own.
Even with this catch in mind, MTG players found a way for one creature to gain every creature type except Borg, creating some silly near-infinite combos in Commander. Heck, we even have a Commander deck tech on Sarek, Federation Ambassador that highlights this combo.
Surprisingly, even though this combo is more for casual tables than competitive ones, Wizards of the Coast just released errata to remove it. Their reason, to be fair, is good, but players are still upset.
MTG Werewolf Pack Leader Errata
Werewolf Pack Leader was a core part of the MTG Federation Combo, as it was one of the only ways to create a creature with every type except one, like Borg. The first step to doing this was to give the Werewolf all creature types, using something like Amoeboid Changeling or Stalactite Dagger, which is the example Wizards gives in their article on the errata.
From there, Artificial Evolution comes into play, changing the text on Werewolf Pack Leader’s activated ability. Instead of the Leader dropping the Human creature type when using it, Artificial Evolution can change that to Borg. Now, Werewolf Pack Leader can absolutely break the Federation mechanic, adding 300+ mana with Starfleet Academy, or gaining 300+ power and toughness with Captain Jonathan Archer.
That said, the exact amount of mana generated or stats gained can be hard to track. According to our math, there will be 360 unique creature types once MTG Star Trek comes out, but that will change with every set release. Universes Beyond just makes this problem worse, as MTG often needs to add new creature types to portray the crossover IP properly.
With this in mind, Wizards of the Coast has a policy that players should never need to know how many creature types are in MTG. This Werewolf Pack Leader combo breaks that policy, causing Wizards to take action.
The new text for Werewolf Pack Leader reads as follows:
“Pack tactics — Whenever this creature attacks, if you attacked with creatures with total power 6 or greater this combat, draw a card.
{3}{G}: Until end of turn, this creature has base power and toughness 5/3, gains trample, and is a Werewolf.”
So, instead of Werewolf Pack Leader removing its Human typing, the card just becomes a Werewolf, which means this Federation combo no longer works. Even if you make the Pack Leader a Changeling, using its ability will just turn it back into a Werewolf, giving it a single creature type.
While this does take away a fun and rather harmless combo from casual MTG Commander, keeping track of the number of creature types in MTG is a real chore. From this perspective, it’s understandable why Wizards of the Coast made this change, but from a power level perspective, this combo was harmless.
Player Frustration
Despite Wizards’ reasoning for issuing this errata to Werewolf Pack Leader, players are understandably unhappy with the change. This nerf to Werewolf Pack Leader, after all, targets an extremely niche and, frankly, bad infinite combo that’s hard to assemble and very easy to stop.
To stop this combo, all you really need to do is hit Werewolf Pack Leader with something like Swords to Plowshares in response to Artificial Evolution. Then, the player using this combo is down two cards for the price of one.
If that weren’t enough, all of these cards are really bad outside this exact combo, with Artificial Evolution often being a completely dead card. With this combo being anything but competitive, Commander players should be allowed to enjoy their silly jank.
The real thing that’s annoying MTG players about this errata, however, is that Werewolf Pack Leader’s new text is extremely unintuitive. While most errata, like the recent one to Hit It!, change a small detail that barely affects the card’s function, Werewolf Pack Leader no longer plays as written.
As a result, players could play Werewolf Pack Leader incorrectly if they’re unaware of the errata, especially considering how much press this janky combo got. With this combo hardly being a power concern, disappointment around removing it is totally understandable. Heck, I was even planning to try to pull this combo off.
Even though this Werewolf Pack Leader combo is gone, something similar could still exist. I have no idea if that’s true, but Magic’s most degenerate minds may now be on the hunt for a replacement.
Honestly, if you really want to pull this combo off in your casual Commander game, you could just decide to play without the Werewolf Pack Leader errata at your table with a Rule Zero conversation. For all intents and purposes, however, this combo is officially dead.
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