transmute magic the gathering

Transmute – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

Ever wish you could exchange a card in your hand for another card in your deck? Now you can with transmute!

What is Transmute?

The transmute ability comes into play whenever you have a card with transmute in your hand. At sorcery speed (in your main phase with nothing on the stack), you may pay the transmute cost and discard the card. You then search your library for a card with a mana value equal to that of the card you transmuted, and put that card into your hand.

Transmute may not seem like much, but “tutoring” is extremely powerful. Of course, it’s not as powerful as Demonic Tutor; you are limited in what cards you can find, and you have to build your deck to take advantage of it. But, unlike Demonic Tutor, transmute isn’t a spell, but an ability — meaning it can’t be countered by traditional counterspells.

A few additional notes:

  • Once you transmute, you don’t have to find a card in your library if you can’t or don’t want to.
  • You can transmute a card for another card with the same total mana value — not the exact same cost as far as colored mana symbols go.

Transmute can be useful if you’re executing a combo or need to find a specific answer. Check out all the cards with transmute at Card Kingdom!