Shalai, Full Auto - Primer

Commander / EDH Combo Counters Hydra Infinite Combo Primer Ramp RGW (Naya) Stompy

Slashdance

Land (37)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Bretagard Stronghold
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 3x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Furycalm Snarl
• 1x Game Trail
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Gruul Turf
• 1x Jungle Shrine
• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Mossfire Valley
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 2x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sungrass Prairie
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Vivid Crag
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Vivid Meadow

Counter Movers (4)

• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Vastwood Hydra
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Tetravus

Counter Generators (19)

• 1x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
• 1x Conclave Mentor
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Hooded Hydra
• 1x Ozolith, the Shattered Spire
• 1x Savageborn Hydra
• 1x Voracious Hydra
• 1x Fractal Harness
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1x Mayael's Aria
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Scurry Oak
• 1x Sequence Engine
• 1x War Elemental
• 1x Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1x The Red Terror
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Kalonian Hydra

Counter Doublers (8)

• 1x Branching Evolution
• 1x Unbound Flourishing
• 1x Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Conclave Sledge-Captain
• 1x Enduring Scalelord
• 1x Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Removal (6)

• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Return to Nature
• 1x Steelbane Hydra
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Decimate
• 1x All Will Be One

Commander (1)

Mana Ramp (15)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fire Diamond
• 1x Incubation Druid
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Moss Diamond
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Elementalist's Palette
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Runadi, Behemoth Caller

Draw Tutor Recursion (6)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Inspiring Call

Protection (4)

• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty

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Maybeboard

Other (23)

• 1x Capricopian
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Mistcutter Hydra
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Apocalypse Hydra
• 1x Benevolent Hydra
• 1x Biophagus
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Primordial Hydra
• 1x Fervor
• 1x Kami of Whispered Hopes
• 1x Lifeblood Hydra
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Tribute to the World Tree
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak
• 1x Armorcraft Judge
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x All Will Be One
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Herd Baloth
• 1x Phyrexian Devourer
• 1x Vigor

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Please read through this primer, I already love this deck so much! Thank you for your time!

Introduction

This is a +1/+1 counters deck that seeks to establish an early ramp game and end it by doing direct, non-combat, lethal damage with Shalai and Hallar on the board, either by going with one of several infinite combos or by insane card synergy providing counters in large chunks. It also provides incredible board presence with fat hydra creatures, and, if need be, turning those stompys sideways or going wide with tokens for the win as backup plans.

Play this deck if you:

• Enjoy one of the lesser-used color combos (Red, White, green) in Naya;

• Love embracing a little bit of the Jank with some fun cards you rarely ever see;

• Love generating massive creatures and or tons of counters!

• Love big stompy but don't want a battleship deck;

• Enjoy a very consistent early game;

• Enjoy a variety of paths to victory;

• Thrill in pummeling opponents with commander damage;

• Enjoy putting a timer on the game via consistent non-combat damage, preventing long games.

Do not play this deck if you:

• Are looking to aggressively attack early;

• Want to counter and control your opponents slowly;

• Cannot stand playing a highly-tuned, highly-efficient and synergistic deck made to break the backs of your enemies.

Overview

- This is NOT a hydra deck at it's heart. Nay. This is a direct damage machine, but instead of red it is cleverly powered by green!

-Shalai and Hallar deal one direct damage each time a +1/+1 counter is placed on one of our creatures, and this deck excels at dumping counters all over the place. But it's more than simply casting X-cost hydras for simple counters, as there is massive synergy that adds and multiplies our counters, or even shifts counters (which can also be doubled, or quadroupled, or go infininte) back and forth amongst our creatures, all triggering our commander's ability to deal vast amounts of damage instantly to our opponent's faces.

• There are multiple ways to create counters, either via creatures coming into play with counters, our resources increasing the amount of those counters coming into play, sources storing and redistributing counters, permanents being able to generate counters, so on and so forth.

• Our first goal is to create a presence that our opponents will not want to attack in to, followed by protecting that presence, and lastly to go in for the kill out of nowhere.

Strategy

Early Game

An ideal starting hand has these elements, in priority order:

• Three lands with one able to generate green mana,

• 1-2 ramp pieces,

• A spell for card draw,

• A removal spell.

Honestly, we really just want some land and ramp to start. Early card draw will help us refill our hand and use that ramp to our advantage, even if it's just to find more ramp. The more mana, the better! We craves it!

Mid Game

• At this point, your priority is to obtain/maintain protection for your commander and draw into anything that generates counters and/or combo pieces.

It may be wise to use any damage from Shalai evenly across the board as you get your initial counters, and not to attack with creatures. One to three points here and there could be observed as small or meaningless as your opponents use their attack phases and go after each other and present a bigger threat. Even as you summon larger hydras, there's no need to go to combat ... save them as blockers! The only time you need to attack is if doing so will increase your counters.

End Game

• Use your card draw, tutors, and recursion spells to find missing pieces to infinite combos for Shalai (more on those in the "To Infinity ..." section below.

• In the meantime, you might be able to kill individual players simply by playing hydras with counter doublers out. if your opponents are already beginning to bleed each other, then you might only need to cast a 9/9 hydra for a final blow (doubled to an 18/18)!

• An alternate win condition lay within the Mayael's Aria enchantment. Not only is it nice to add counters each turn, but if you have a 20+ power creature on the board when your upkeep starts, you automatically win! If you find yourself with Mayael's Aria in play and a 20+ creature during your turn, and are worried about either of them surviving until your next upkeep, consider finding/casting Teferi's Protection ... your cards will phase out and be completely untouchable until your next upkeep begins, securing your win! (just make sure nobody can kill you before then)

To Infinity ...

Let us discuss the many ways we can go infinite so you know which pieces to look for and how they work:

Shalai + One other card

• Heliod, Sun-Crowned ... Use it to give Shalai lifelink, then attack with Shalai if you can. The damage will trigger Lifelink, which will in turn put a counter on Heliod, which will trigger Shalai's direct damage, which will trigger lifelink, which triggers another counter, and so on, until you kill everybody. This can all happen on turn 4 if you get a perfect draw (T1: Forest + Birds of Paradise ... T2: Plains + any mana rock ... T3: Any Land + Summon Shalai and Hallar ... T4: Summon Heliod, attack with Shalai, activate Heliod's ability before damage is dealt ... even with Shalai being blocked but not killed will do this). If you cannot attack with Shalai to initiate the infinite combo, generating any sort of +1/+1 counter will start it off.

• War Elemental ... Very similar to the Heliod combo, except instead of damage + lifelink, you only need any type of damage to get it started. Damage (direct or via attack) puts a counter on the Elemental, which triggers Shalai's damage, which puts another counter on the Elemental, more damage from Shalai, rinse and repeat. The only stickler here is that you need to keep in mind that War Elemental can ONLY be summoned if you've done damage before the cast!

• The Red Terror ... Once again, do damage to something, and so long as that source was red, you will begin the process of getting a counter on Big Red, dealing more direct burn with Shalai, and repeating until everybody hates you and you start a new game as the Archenemy before you even get a draw phase! Woot!

Two-Card Combo WITHOUT Shalai

• Ivy Lane Denizen + Scurry Oak ... With Ivy already in play, summoning Scurry Oak will trigger Ivy. If you choose to put Ivy's generated counter on Scurry, it will create a green squirrel, which triggers Ivy once again. Choosing to put the counter on Scurry each time will net you another creature, and you can do this infinitely until you want to stop, creating a squirrel army of mass proportions and an rather large (read GINORMOUS!) Oak tree!

• Scurry Oak + Cathars' Crusade ... Playing Scurry Oak with Crusade in play will trigger Crusade to put a counter on Scurry, generating a token creature. Infinity ensues for as many token creatures you want that keep growing and growing in power. Bonus, if you have Shalai in play, you also get all the damage your opponents can eat!

• All Will Be One + The Red Terror ... Upon dealing any sort of damage by a red source (be it itself, our commander, or w/e), Big Red will get a counter, which will trigger AWB1 to deal damage to any target, and since AWB1 is red, it triggers another counter to be added to Red, and the sequence continues until everybody is bleeding from their ears.

• All Will Be One + War Elemental ... Upon dealing any sort of damage (be it itself, our commander, or w/e), War will get a counter, which will trigger AWB1 to deal damage to any target, and War again triggers another counter, and the sequence continues until you need to find new friends to play with.

Single Card Discussion

• Cathars' Crusade ... This plays an important role in this deck, as it helps all of your creatures grow quite quickly, enables our counter doublers, and it loves anything that generates token creatures. Many people playing casual EDH have been known to cut the Crusade out of their decks because it creates TOO MANY counters and they find it bothersome! Leave this card in!!! If you're having problems keeping track of counters, might I suggest finding some counter dice like these: https://www.etsy.com/listing/617598261/

• Hooded Hydra ... a great hydra for our deck, like most hydras, but can be a killer with Cathars' Crusade in play. For just 6 mana you can have it come in play with 4 counters + 1 from Crusade. When it dies (and it's key to remember you can kill your own hydra in a pinch), you'll create at least 5 snakes, who will each come into play with at least 5 counters on them. All in all, you will have done 30 damage with just one summon. Now, if you also have a counter doubler in play, such as Primal Vigor, the original Hooded Hydra would come into play with 4x2 (8) counters + 1x2 (2) counters from Crusade for a total of 10 counters, and then when it dies it would create 10 snakes that each come into play with 10x2 (20) counters from Crusade, dealing a total of 210 damage divvied up against all your opponents to deal far more than needed. Who needs infinite combos?

• Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin ... This can also take great advantage of Cathars' Crusade, making not only the tokens it creates bigger, but making Krenko bigger as well so that it can create even more tokens next turn. It can get out of hand quite quickly, as seen in the example above for Hooded Hydra.

• Enduring Scalelord ... Yet another creature that can get out of control quickly with our other counter enablers in play, the Scalelord can end games pretty quick. Doublers will not just double counters on other creatures, but all the counters from other creatures that are then also added to Scalelord will be doubled another time. It gets crazy.

• Tetravus ... This has been one of my favorite cards since the early days of magic. I loved how versatile it was! And here it really meets it's full potential. Tetravus doesn't care where the counters come from, they can all be made into token creatures, and those all can be made back into counters! Especially effective with Cathars' Crusade and/or Primal Vigor, Tetravus can do a lot of work for us in a short time.

• Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener ... Bright-Palm is a solid commander for the original precon Shalai and Hallar came in, but here she is taking a backseat. It is preferred to wait to cast this until you have a healthy creature with a lot of counters ready to attack to target with her backup ability, a prime example being Kalonian Hydra, which also doubles counters when attacking, mean ing our 4/4 becomes an 8/8 and then a 16/16 in the blink of an eye. Happen to have a counter doubling enchant in play as well, then that 4/4 evolves like: 4/4 > 4x2x2 (16) > 16x2x2 (64). Yeah ... a 64/64, instantly, cruising right towards your opponent's solar plexus.

• Enlightened Tutor ... An amazing tutor for either an enchantment or artifact, the primary target we are usually looking for is Cathars' Crusade ... it is the ultimate enchant in our deck. Sylvan Library is probably the second be card we could hope to search for, as card advantage is a proven means to success, but I would also understand circumstances where finding a nice pair of Swiftfoot Boots or a Primal Vigor would be preferred in the moment.

• Sequence Engine and Fractal Harness ... both of these cards come in the Quantum Quandrix commander deck for Strixhaven, and have been included here because they provide some consistent counter generation that will really put the pressure on.

• Unbound Flourishing and Elementalist's Palette ... both really help amp up our X-spells for hydras, but don't forget they both can also boost Sequence Engine.

• All Will Be One ... While this can help us go infinite for the win, it's primary purpose is for removal. Unfortunately, Shalai and Hallar can only do direct damage to opponents, not creatures. This puts us at a disadvantage for creature and planeswalker removal that All Will Be One solves. You are encouraged to use this damage solely for creature/planeswalker removal (which also helps us with providing a little extra fuel for Sequence Engine.

• Decimate ... For the simple CMC of 4, you can destroy a lot with this card! Do not forget that you MUST destroy something with each of these targets or you cannot cast it! With 3 opponents, that shouldn't be a problem, and you can target your own creature if you need to to get bonus effects, such as with your Hooded Hydra, or any other creature where your counters can be retained or redistributed, such as with Vastwood Hydra or The Ozolith already in play. We have a very limited supply of removal cards in this deck, so Decimate working as 4 removal spells in one is great, and it can be a critical spell to draw mid-game.

Notable Exclusions

• Uncivil Unrest ... Currently playing the deck to find which card is not pulling it's weight so I can fit this one back in.

• Kessig Wolf Run ... A great land that is a staple for red/green decks, it offers a nice addition of +X/+X and trample. However, seeing that we generally do not want to attack, it is limited to only our backup plan of winning, doesn't create counters, and only offers colorless mana. Again, we may see ourselves adding this back into the deck, but at the moment we are preferring to have more reliable, colored mana replace it.

If you have the means, add these!

• Phyrexian Devourer ... This goes infinite just with itself and Shalai, and would fit well. The whole table will likely despise you for playing it, but in a cEDH setting it's all fair game, so feel free to add this!

• Defense of the Heart ... This card would be in the 99 if only I owned it! If you have it, you should find a place for it ... It basically creates an instant win for you if there are two pieces of a combo in your library. Absolutely needed for cEDH play!

• Worldly Tutor ... Nearly a combo piece in and of itself, it'll let you find Heliod or any of the other pieces for the infinite combos right away (except for Cathars' Crusade, since it's an enchant).

• Doubling Season ... Amazing card ... that I don't own. /cry ... but if YOU do, you should use it! Anything that doubles +1/+1 counters deserves a spot in this deck!

Removing Infinite Combos for your Meta

If your meta does not take kindly to infinite combos, or you want to power down your deck for more casual play, make these changes!

Remove: Heliod, Sun-Crowned / War Elemental / The Red Terror / Archangel of Thune / Ivy Lane Denizen

Then, depending on what you can afford or already own, I suggest these:

Inexpensive replacements: Armorcraft Judge / Mistcutter Hydra / Kami of Whispered Hopes / Herd Baloth / Apocalypse Hydra

Money is no object additions: Esper Sentinel / Lifeblood Hydra / Benevolent Hydra / Vigor

Upvote and support this fun, hydra machine gun deck!

Top Ranked	Achieved #21 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #18 position in Commander / EDH 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Ramp 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH RGW (Naya) 1 year ago
Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.94
Tokens	1/1 C Artifact Creature Tetravite, Elephant 3/3 G, Fractal 0/0 GU, Goblin 1/1 R, Morph 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 G, Squirrel 1/1 G
Folders	Ideas, Competitive EDH, Deck ideas