For Challenge # 060. I never liked how you could set up your deck with Polymorph, but I get how "shuffle your deck" is just more uneeded words to get the card to do what it does. Shuffling the creature in your deck (as opposed to sacrificing it) gets the job done, but Polymorphing a creature into itself is... um... wrong. Luckily, that will never happen here, barring effects like Wings of Velis Vel. As for the other Polymorph problem... putting broken creatures into play... I have no answer for that...

But that's the whole point of Polymorph!

True. I just think it's a shame that I can't use Polymorph to summon something random out of my deck, since then I'm using it 'wrong'. I don't think we should be getting rid of Polymorph (well, it's probably too cheap, but besides that), I just think we could use a Polymorph that Timmy would like more than Johnny.

Yeah. I like the idea of having an actually random polymorph, and it fits the picture very well. Although it still works with "I have a lot of token producers, an Eldrazi, and as many polymorphs as I can".

It also works with "I have a deck full of humans and one Eldrazi" while simultaneously being a kill spell against certain other decks... which probably makes it better than Polymorph at doing what Polymorph does (which is the real reason I pumped the casting cost). Some day, I'll figure out the Timmy Polymorph trick, but it ain't today...

Good point. Yeah, that necessitates the cost, and makes it less Timmy Polymorph-y.

How does that make it less Timmy? Shouldn't Timmy be excited by the fact that he's even more sure of getting his big creature?

Not really. Timmy loves the experience of playing Magic. He isn't really interested in winning. If there's a chance that his big creature will pop up, he'll be much happier than if he consistently played his big creature.

Besides, real Timmies stack their deck full of 'big creatures' (which may or may not be very big). They can rarely choose a favorite... they prefer to play with every shiny thing they can get their hands on. They might, ideally, want to flip Borborygmos, but be super happy to instead get the Boris Devilboon that they forgot was even in this deck.

I know this is all very weird, when examined from the outside. "You love this card. Why wouldn't you want to play with it!" makes a lot of sense. But so doesn't "You had the favorable board position. It made no sense to Wrath of God there!" Often Timmy makes choices so that he/she has the most fun while playing, which leads to not winning the game and/or not playing the cards they like.

Hm. I know what jmg means, whether it's Timmy or not, the idea of polymorphing a creature actually at random and getting something cool.

I think either way can be Timmy. When I made my first animated-enchantments + polymorph + eldrazi deck, I was excited by flipping the eldrazi, I didn't take much care over arranging it. That's definitely Timmy/Johnny. But just flipping anything and trusting it to be awesome is also Timmy in a different way.

How would it be at whatever your goal is, if you cost this at , limit it to "you control" so it doesn't become a kill spell for your opponent's stuff, and have it stop on a non-Human that costs X or less? That also gives it more of a Momir Magic feel (see also my Vigean Channeler.)

Heh. I saw your Vigean Channeler before this comment. I do like the XU version of Polymorph. It would be a neat spell. Maybe targets your own stuff at instant speed for a sense of balance...

Suggestion for a proper "Randomly polymorph that into something else!" - take its replacement from the top of target opponent's deck.

Still not quite as random as I'd like. Online mtg, I'd suggest doing a proper "Ok, a random creature of CMC X" but hat's hard to do offline.