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Hail Hydra - Tribal EDH [Gargos - Primer]

Commander / EDH Counters Hydra Mono-Green Primer Stompy Trample

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Land (35)

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Commander (1)

Commander: Gargos, Vicious Watcher

Enchantment (9)

Artifact (4)

Planeswalker (1)

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Fight me like a man!

The last one I fought was delicious. - Gargos

PRIMER

Welcome folks to the 6th version of Hail Hydra a mono-colored Tribal EDH deck around one of my favorite creature types: the fearsome Hydra.

Thanks to M20 who gave us this awesome legendary creature Gargos, Vicious Watcher we now have a really flavorful and practical option for a Hydra deck general.

Let's dive in!

How the deck works and How to play with it:

The Hydra Lord Himself

Gargos, Vicious Watcher is a 8/7 mono-green Hydra with two very nice abilities.

The Reduction of Mana Cost

Gargos is able to reduce the mana cost of your Hydra spell which is neat since we are a Hydra Tribal deck.

On top of that, his ability that gives us this mana reduction can, and most definitely will, be used in the value of our Hydras and so, for exactly mana, you've invested actually up to in each of those Hydras!

The Fight Trigger

The second ability of Gargos, Vicious Watcher means that if any player (including you) targets one of your creatures Gargos will fight a creature that an opponent controls. This means that Gargos is also a removal tool that can kill some of the greatest threats with really little effort, thanks to his 8 Power. But be careful because targeting a creature with more than 6 Power will kill Gargos since he only has 7 Toughness.

The Numbers

We run 22 other Hydras in this deck.

Let's meet them!

The Counter Matters Hydras

In this sub-species we have:

An easy to cast Hydra, but this one comes with an evasion ability and if it is dealt damage, will become even bigger! So nice.. It's such a shame that it doesn't have Trample...

Who wants bigger Hydras? This guy. Always and forever.

This Hydra loves mana so much that it LITERALLY eats it. Let your opponents do their shenanigans and observe this majestic Hydra take huge proportion.

This is a big boy that asks the question "Bigger or Meaner" to your opponents. A political Hydra, just when I thought I had seen everything.

A DnD boy just joined the generic Hydra gang! This Hydra from the faraway land of another game and IP can come on the battlefield HUGE or small and has a built-in form of protection in Ward. On top of that, it has Trample by default! I can't wait to try to smack some faces with this big boy!

This Hydra likes Lands and Forests so much that it will become bigger just by having new ones around him.

A Big Bad Hydra that becomes bigger during each of your upkeep. So lovely.

This one is our last easy-to-cast Hydra. This one works in a similar way as Hungering Hydra with the exception that when it is dealt damage it removes counters before adding twice the amount that was removed from it, with the small condition that it is not dead. I think we can really feel the Hydra moto with this one: If a head is cut off, two more shall take its place

Our most beautiful good boy! He can make himself bigger or kill something right when he appears. He's such a good boy!

Small Hydra gonna get big one day. This cannibalistic Hydra gets bigger each time it has a meal, really useful when we don't want our other Hydras to go to waste if an evil person wants to remove them from this world.

This Hydra will help your other Hydras grow bigger and bigger, sometimes even by sacrificing a part of itself to do so. So helpful, so pure.

This is a simple Hydra that will help us in the fight against flyers thanks to its long neck allowing it to eat some pesky flyers. Weirdly enough, it can also be cast as an aura enchantment to trigger Gargos and kill something!

This GOAT just want your opponents to play a little game of Hot Potatoe with him. If everything works correctly, it will become big and annoying!

The Monstrous Hydras

In this sub-species we have only:

This Mama Hydra will let you borrow her babies if she ever became Monstrous. Be gentle with her.

The Utility Hydras

In this sub-species we have:

This Hydra was last seen on Tarkir and has a good relationship with snakes. Good for you Hoody.

This Hydra is able to taste the flesh of each opponent at the same time. So Dangerous.

You know the saying the best attack is the best defense and the best defense is the best attack, well don't look further because this saying just came alive with this powerful invulnerable Hydra!

This Hydra will give his life for you and in exchange, you will gain life and draw cards. Praise the Lifeblood.

This Hydra really hate steel and ... magical steel? Anywho, this Hydra is the perfect companion to devour any pesky artifact or enchantment your opponents have. NOM NOM NOM, this Hydra probably.

This horrifying Hydra comes to us with a bonus Land and challenges you to make it bigger every turn, something a Green Mage already loves to do.

Do you hate Flyers? Well, this Hydra too!

This Hydra is litterally GOLD. It will be big, it will be powerful, it goes fast, it can block after attacking, and when it dies we get so much value back from all the treasures it generates. This is insane value.

Thanks to Gargos, Vicious Watcher, we can target our own creatures to destroy theirs.

Let's see what are the best tools to use to do such a thing.

Of our 100 cards, 12 of them are used to trigger our commander but also to help you do various things.

Since an Aura target, we can use this powerful one to give the Trample keyword to one of our Hydras that is missing the famous keyword and at the same time remove one opponent creature from the board. On top of that, this card doesn't go into the graveyard, instead, it will go straight back into your hand for you to use it again!

This is such a stupid card. Since it costs a single to cast AND another to return to your hand you can basically abuse it to trigger Gargos multiple times and kill a bunch of creatures your opponents have. I can't recommend it enough. Also, it can allow you to block some pesky flyers which is something the deck struggles a bit against.

Keep this card to protect Gargos or any other important Hydra from removal and make it bigger at the same time!

Another cheap spell that can protect any of our good boys and girls as well as make Gargos safe to attack (and kill) nearly anything.

This card allows you to protect an important creature, as well as triggering Gargos to destroy a powerful creature that would have otherwise killed it if your target it. It can also be used as an offensive card by giving trample and synergise with any card we have that care about +1/+1 counters.

On top of being a great removal tool, this card can also be a trigger card by protecting one of our important creature from removal.

This card is secretly good for a lot of deck in my oppinion. Not only you can use it as a removal tool, it is also an untaper and when combined with something that has either First Strike or Trample it is devastating. I could not, not play this one. The +1/+1 Counter is also a cherry on top.

A classic fight spell, that could be a 2 for 1 in this deck or a land if we ever need it.

This card will give evasion to one of your Hydra on top of giving it some protection. What for two manas this isn't enough you? Well, what about killing one of your opponent's creatures at the same time? This can also be used to protect Gargos.

Fog effects are underrated in EDH/Commander in my opinion and can change the course of a game on itself with a single spell, so I always like to have at least one in my deck. What I like with this one is that it is a Fog that can trigger Gargos as well as allow her to not take damage from the fight it is about to enter into. Really marvelous and perfect for this deck.

Ok this "can" trigger Gargos, but I don't really recommend using it against your own creatures, but hey, who knows, you might be in a situation where this is actually useful to do. If this happens, please tell me I'm curious to know what situation would push you to do such a thing.

If you do it correctly you will be able to destroy a creature and draw a bunch of cards. Since Hydras are really big creatures the synergy with this card and the following ones are beyond reason and you will cackle when you will draw that many cards. Useful tip: Be sure to have evasion on the targeted Hydras or at least Trample to maximize the number of cards you will draw.

The best of the 3 Draw spells that target one of our creatures. With this one, you don't even need to do damage. Just enjoy drawing a bunch of cards and destroying a creature at the same time!

Weirdly enough, this Hydra can also be cast as an aura enchantment to trigger Gargos and kill something! But be aware that the discount Gargos offers doesn't apply to the Bestow cost as sadly it isn't an Hydra spell when it is an Aura.

Since we are in Green we have access to most of the best and the classiest form of ramps.

The Classics Spells

Those cards are so straightforward they don't even need to be introduced:

The Not so Common

This is actually a pretty useful removal spell that in the right condition will also ramp you. Early in a game, you can easily destroy a Sol Ring or an Arcane Signet to ramp yourself. Not bad, not bad at all.

This Enchantment is actually quite versatile. You can easily drop two lands a turn with it in play and if in a hurry you can always crack it for and cast something. All of that for only two manas is quite awesome.

The passive ability of this Planeswalker will double the mana generation of your Forest and since we are in mono-green that means basically all of our lands. She will also allow you to untap a land that you can immediately tap for another this turn. If you are able to get to her ultimate you can create some HUGE Hydras.

Oh boy, this card can do a lot and you will see it as you go through this primer, but you need to choose it wisely depending on your situation at the beginning of your combat. One of those is a very interesting ramp option that transforms any of your lands into a mana producer until the end of the turn. It doesn't look that much, but I found it very useful to cast smaller spells or even some Hydras when coupled with Gargos cost reduction effect.

The Creature Ramp

A simple, easy-to-cast creature, that you can sacrifice to get a land. On top of that, it is a one-headed Hydra. Also known as Snake.

To many people, this card doesn't seem like much considering its effect and its heavy colored mana cost but drop it on turn 3 and you can easily get out Gargos, Vicious Watcher on turn 4 without any problem.

A really useful mana-dork since it taps for our Devotion to green. And since all of our permanents are green this creature can tap for a ridiculous amount of mana each turn. Thanks also to our Hydras who have multiple Forest icons in their mana cost!

One of our good boys will give us a Land (any Land on top of that!) when it enters the battlefield. Such a great value.

I always loved this card so much. It is one of my favorite characters from the Conspiracy sets and I always wanted one for this deck, but they were pretty expensive until the recent reprint in Commander Master. As an Elf, she can generate mana, but as an awesome card, she can give us mana at a rate that can be more and more explosive considering we can use all the mana she gives us into an cost Hydra to make it big, draw and then have even more mana on the next turn! I'm so happy to finally have one for this deck.

A simple mana dork, that transform into a powerful one the moment we have basically any of our Hydras on the battlefield to empower any following hydra we will cast. It can even enable itself with it self-recursion Eternalize ability.

A classic mana dork that is there for a little bit of mana, but mostly in the deck to make our Hydras bigger and faster by giving them Haste and +1/+1 Counters!

This good boy is overflowing with ramp and on its death will reimburse us of basically all of the mana (and more) we've put into it by giving us shiny treasures!

The Arficat Ramp

Does Sol Ring needs any explanation? I don't think so and neither do you.

God this card is powerful. It literally does EVERYTHING you could wish for: Ramp, Life Gain, Buff, Draw, it even washes your dishes. And on top of that, thanks to the big creatures we use this will basically always cost only to cast.

Combat based Draw:

This card allows you to draw cards equal to the number of damage dealt by the targeted creature during a single turn. With Trample or another form of evasion, that card can allow you to draw a LOT of cards really easily. Best of all, it is an Instant so you can (and should) use it exactly at the right moment to get the most of it.

This card will make all of your attacking creatures have deathtouch, which, when paired with the Trample keyword, will allow you to assign a single point of damage to a blocker to kill it and have the rest go through and therefore make you draw a bunch of cards.

Power based Draw:

Those tow cards have a similar effect allowing you to draw a number of cards equal to the power of one of your creatures.

Thanks to those enchantments combined with the reduction our commander provides, whenever one of your Hydra will enter you will automatically draw a card!

Even if this one isn't related to power matters cards it does the same thing as the two previous enchantments but with all of your creatures regardless of their power and therefore wanted to include it here with those.

This one is related to power, but instead of being restricted to cast or ETB it can draw you a card per turn if you own a "big" creature at the beginning of combat (I say "big" because power 3 is very small for us hehe), but other than that this card can do basically everything so use it as you wish!

This beautiful card will allow us to draw a card each time we enter the biggest creature on the board. Thanks to her activated ability that gives us a big chunk of mana, we can always have the biggest creature on board when our Hydras have an in their cost!

A simple, but effective card draw engine for our deck which transform each of our Hydras into cantrip at this point.

Death Draws:

The die trigger of this Hydra will allow you to draw cards equal to his power. The bigger this Hydra becomes the bigger the paycheck will be.

If you are in a dead-hand situation or if one of your big Hydras is going to the grave, use this more than useful tool at instant speed to sacrifice your big creature and recycle it into a LOT of card draw. This is a real MVP and it allowed me to draw 80 cards on my first game with it.

Since our Hydras are big bad creatures we need them to have Trample or any other form of evasion (which some already have) to prevent them from being chomp-blocked by a 1/1 and don't do any damage. This is why we run some cards that will give them a much-deserved form of evasion.

Evasion for one only

Protection and evasion are always welcome in a single card in this deck and this is no exception.

This one will grant us the Trample keyword and will always come back to us, what a wonderful thing.

If you're able to squeeze your Hydra in this tiny hole I can guarantee you that your opponent will be scared to hell when they'll see your biggest and most majestic Hydra ringing at their door!

Protection and a lot of keywords make a great combination for a huge swing!

A Hydra that can itself give Trample to another one is awesome! And if something happens to the enchanted creature we at least still have this one back to defend us.

Forever and for all

As long as this card is in our graveyard all of our good boys will have the Trample keyword. This is a TRUE friend.

If Brawn needs to be in our graveyard this one just needs to be on the battlefield to give the best keyword our Hydras could wish for and on top of that, it will draw us cards so it will never be dead in our hand if Brawn is already active. We love it!

This card will allow us, for a one-time-only deal to sacrifice it and give protection to all our board as well as being unblockable until the end of the turn, which means this could be a win condition that comes from nowhere!

At the cost of leaving one huge Hydra behind, we make all of our other creatures so big and so stompy that nobody can stop us from claiming victory!

This card can do so much and again it proves itself reliable by giving Trample and a small boost to all our creatures during each of our combat phases. If you already have another effect that gives Trample to all your creatures then chooses another mode, it is just that easy and versatile with this card.

We also run other cards in this deck that doesn't need their own category because we run a few of them.

Protection

This weird creature loves our Hydras as much as we do! It will protect them with his life and in the process make them bigger. How? Probably with his big heart.

A good old Fog to protect ourselves from death with, in bonus, a target to select to trigger our Commander.

A way for us to dodge a board wipe and therefore not have to redeploy our board or just protect some important Hydras from targeted removal.

Even though this spell has a high mana cost of this is basically a free counterspell that can also counter abilities for anything that wants to target our precious Gargos, Vicious Watcher or any of our other big Hydras if they are powerful enough.

By sacrificing it we can make sure our board is protected from any form of target removal, thief, or any other shenanigans effects directed at our Hydra babies.

Removal

A simple Naturalize that can also ramp you if you have some lands in hand.

And with this one we can destroy literally any permanent type, we don't really care about creatures because of Gargos ability but for the other ones, this is the best tool we have.

A really versatile card that allow us to remove problematic artifact and/or enchantment and/or protect one of our Hydras and at the same time trigger our Commander.

Trigger Booster

This single card is here to take advantage of the Fight ability Gargos, Vicious Watcher has.

Thanks to this mana artifact we can now fight creatures our opponents have with Hexproof.

Just pure value

With the increasing speed of the EDH format, I've found my deck prone to a lot of removal and board wipes. Thankfully, EDH all-star Greater Goodfoil can help me bounce back on my feet in terms of card draw, but I've still found myself too often at the mercy of tapping out and not being able to attack with my freshly cast creatures. So I've looked for haste enablers for mono-green, which there isn't a lot of, but I've fallen in love with Yeva, Nature's Herald. It can help us cast our big Hydras at the end step just before the start of our turn, to avoid removal and board wipes and swing right away during our turn with our Hydras. Even better sometimes, a surprise blocker or three can change the game on its head completely. With Yeva, I'm also able to keep mana open to use for my removal pieces which is something really nice and really good.

Ramping Land

If you have enough mana available you can sacrifice this one to replace it with two Forest! (Much earlier than with Blighted Woodland)

A Land that taps for two mana without the drawback of Temple of the False God or Jungle Basin and can be put in a mono-colored deck, I call this a great value.

The condition for this Land to enter untapped is ridiculously easy to achieve and after that, you can save 1 mana by activating its ability to play any of your creatures which most of the time means that Gargos, Vicious Watcher is entering the battlefield a turn sooner.

Utility Land

Evasion on a Land is basically a free spell! This is literally free real estate.

You will be able to activate easily the ability of this Land thanks to all the high power that your creatures will have. And a free card is always welcome.

This deck has a LOT of drawing effects that give you a burst of new cards, thanks to this Land you will be able to keep each of them.

Sometimes you get mana flooded and this card is a good welcome when those situations occur because you can cheaply get rid of it and replace it, hopefully, by not a land.

Depending on your situation, this MDFC can either be a removal or a land, making it very versatile and an awesome cycle from MH3.

Basic Land

Finally, we are running 28 basic Forests.

And you know what is awesome about Forests? It's where our baby Hydras lives!

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

33 - 0 Rares

17 - 4 Uncommons

14 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.20
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Emblem Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Fanatic of Rhonas 4/4 B, Hydra X/X G, Morph 2/2 C, Plot, Snake 1/1 G, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure
Folders Decks I like, EDH Primer, Decks, definitely, EDH Decks, :)
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