Dehydrated Hydras

Commander / EDH Casual Counters Hydra Mono-Green Multiplayer Trample

MrHighscore

Hydras (22)

• 1x Feral Hydra
• 1x Gargos, Vicious Watcher
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Heroes' Bane
• 1x Hooded Hydra
• 1x Hungering Hydra
• 1x Hydra Broodmaster
• 1x Hydra Omnivore
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Lifeblood Hydra
• 1x Managorger Hydra
• 1x Mistcutter Hydra
• 1x Nessian Wilds Ravager
• 1x Oran-Rief Hydra
• 1x Polukranos, World Eater
• 1x Primordial Hydra
• 1x Protean Hydra
• 1x Steelbane Hydra
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1x Vastwood Hydra
• 1x Voracious Hydra
• 1x Whiptongue Hydra

Ramp - "doublers" (6)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Mana Reflection
• 1x Nissa, Who Shakes the World
• 1x Vernal Bloom
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Utility (2)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Mirri's Guile

Land (34)

• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 24x Forest
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Card advantage (7)

• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Infiltration Lens
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Triumph of Ferocity
• 1x Vivien Reid

Control (6)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Monstrous Onslaught
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Song of the Dryads
• 1x Terastodon

Trample (4)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Brawn
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Primal Rage

Tutor (1)

• 1x Green Sun's Zenith

Commander (1)

Ramp (11)

• 1x Boundless Realms
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Karametra's Acolyte
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Traverse the Outlands

More counters (6)

• 1x Branching Evolution
• 1x Death's Presence
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Unbound Flourishing
• 1x Vigor

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Maybeboard

Card Advantage (15)

• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Colossal Majesty
• 1x Creeping Renaissance
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1x Genesis
• 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Praetor's Counsel
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Seasons Past
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Control (3)

• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Setessan Tactics
• 1x Woodfall Primus

Utility (3)

• 1x Abundance
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Umbral Mantle

Hydras (2)

• 1x Benevolent Hydra
• 1x Domesticated Hydra

Ramp - "doublers" (2)

• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Gauntlet of Power

Trample (1)

• 1x Shadowspear

Ramp (3)

• 1x Exploration
• 1x Patron of the Orochi
• 1x Sol Ring

Protection / haste (3)

• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

More counters (2)

• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Invigorating Surge

Land (1)

• 1x Mosswort Bridge

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What did the hydra say to the other when they crossed the road?

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello!

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When this deck started out, many years ago, there were only so many hydras. Green was (and still is) dominant, but good stuff was to be found in splashing in red or white.

I set out to make a hydra tribal deck, and I've been around a Progenitus draft and a Animar, Soul of Elements draft. Progenitus is sort of obvious since it is a Hydra, but the 5 colors just ended up with a messy palette and a hard-to-work-with mana base leaning heavily on green. Ulasht, the Hate Seed is not my kind of Hydra, so I tried substituting with Animar, Soul of Elements that is sort of like a one headed hydra, but not really. He gives us the red we need to add Savageborn Hydra, Spitting Hydra, Molten Hydra and Apocalypse Hydra in the mix - all in all fine Hydras that deserve their spot in the tribe. But in the end, this turns out to be a green deck with a splash of red, a splash of blue and a wannabe-Hydra commander, which is obviously not a good constelation. In '17 this left me with Polukranos, World Eater as an option that pleased me enough to build this deck. Now we're talking '23 and plenty of green hydras have joined the hordes, and more importantly, I'm in the mood to play Magic! Hence a major revision of the deck.

2023 Changes

• Out with the support creatures + Blade of Selves and Conjurer's Closet synergies (the did not play well with the hydras anyway).
• new commander! Selvala, Heart of the Wilds will now pilot my seizable army of Hydrs!
• Mana "doublers" are much more consistent, to make the most of the {X} spells
• Counters doublers have doubled!
• Trample, so that I can actually finish a game, is abundantly present.
• Hydra count has gone up up up!

Hydrating hydras? What are you talking about?

You need to ad a lot of {X} to make the hydras worth the while. This is what the pros refer to as hydrating a spell. True story!

Highlights

• Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is the commander! She can boost card draw, and she can create stupid amounts of mana.
• Early ramp as Dryad Arbor + Green Sun's Zenith (Possible turn one ramp) supported by classical cheap ramp cards and Oracle of Mul Daya, Courser of Kruphix and arametra's Acolyte for getting those lands down early game.
• Late Ramp/pruning: Boundless Realms and Traverse the Outlands
• Land "doublers" galore: Caged Sun, Mana Reflection, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Vernal Bloom, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Zendikar Resurgent. Fun alone, even more fun together. Potentially tap a forest for 7 mana, though this is fun enough with just one in play :)
• +1 counter doublers galore: Branching Evolution, Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, and Unbound Flourishing combined with 19 cards that deal in +1 counters
• Trample for the kill: Akroma's Memorial, Brawn, Nylea, God of the Hunt, Primal Rage, and Garruk's Uprising. This is important, as some hydras quickly becomes 1-hit killers. Rogue's Passage also belongs in this category, even though it gives unblockable.
• Reasonable draw suite. Mainly based on consistent creature triggers.
• Small but useful control suite (including Monstrous Onslaught, because HYDRA!)
• No less than 22 Hydras! 11 with {X} in the casting cost and another handful that can be pumped with Mana! There is more than 100 heads in the deck !
• Not really a secret, but the deck can create silly amounts of mana, dump it into a X creature, then produce the same (or more) mana with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. Mana doublers help the first cast, counter doublers help the result, then Selvala, Heart of the Wilds profits, and we can cast yet another badass monster, netting us two cards in the process.
• With enough mana Polukranos, World Eater can be a one sided board wipe.
• Heroes' Bane goes bonkers very fast. Just dump 40 mana into it, and you're looking at a 4096/4096 Hydra. Then tap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for (in practice) all the mana you need. You can probably do fine with just 20-30 mana. And that was without doublers.
• Hydra Broodmaster is also bonkers when mana is plentiful.
• Death's Presence to preserve my investments. Plays nice with the counters doublers
• Vigor for laughs, giggles and synergy

Notes

• I do not want infinite combos in the deck.

Known weaknesess

• Flyers are hard to handle. Try to beat that opponent down fast or use multiheaded diplomacy (not sure if there is a difference)

All suggestions are welcome

Please also suggest cuts. Currently, what I'd like to add the most is: Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots for the haste (Selvala, Heart of the Wilds loves haste) and protection for the Hydras.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	1 year
Key combos	Dryad Arbor + Green Sun's Zenith
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.86
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Emblem Vivien Reid, Hydra X/X G, Morph 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 G
Folders	commander/edh, awesome decks, Commander Decks, Other's deck, Neat, Good Ideas, Cool decks, Decks, EDH Ideas, Hydras