Super Hippo - MURDER MODE | Phelddagrif Primer

Commander / EDH Casual Forcefeed GWU (Bant) Primer

king-saproling

🦛 Land 🦛 (40)

• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 7x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 2x Island
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 1x Lumbering Falls
• 1x Magosi, the Waterveil
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 2x Plains
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Seaside Citadel
• 1x Stirring Wildwood
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Treetop Village
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

🦛 Wincon/Combo 🦛 (18)

• 1x Angel's Trumpet
• 1x Arachnogenesis
• 1x Call the Coppercoats
• 1x Clone Legion
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Deploy to the Front
• 1x Dingus Staff
• 1x Ezuri's Predation
• 1x Flurry of Wings
• 1x Gideon, Champion of Justice
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Mantle of Leadership
• 1x Mirrorweave
• 1x Nacatl War-Pride
• 1x Nature's Revolt
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Reins of Power
• 1x Suture Priest

🦛 Draw 🦛 (10)

• 1x Beck / Call
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Biomantic Mastery
• 1x Borrowing 100,000 Arrows
• 1x Curse of Verbosity
• 1x Keep Watch
• 1x Psychic Possession
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Theft of Dreams
• 1x Verity Circle

🦛 Control 🦛 (7)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Mercy Killing
• 1x Sawtusk Demolisher
• 1x Swan Song

Commander (1)

🦛 Ramp 🦛 (17)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Frontier Siege
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Mana Reflection
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Talisman of Unity
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

🦛 Protection/Utility 🦛 (7)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Copy Enchantment
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Open the Vaults
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Teferi's Protection

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Maybeboard

🦛 Control 🦛 (9)

• 1x Cavalier of Dawn
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Declaration in Stone
• 1x Kenrith's Transformation
• 1x Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Transmogrifying Wand

🦛 Draw 🦛 (2)

• 1x Benefactor's Draught
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx

🦛 Protection/Utility 🦛 (9)

• 1x Estrid's Invocation
• 1x Mirrormade
• 1x Orbs of Warding
• 1x Respite
• 1x Sphere of Safety
• 1x Sterling Grove
• 1x Thunderstaff
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Ward of Bones

🦛 Ramp 🦛 (4)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Boundless Realms
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Traverse the Outlands

🦛 Wincon/Combo 🦛 (3)

• 1x Cactus Preserve
• 1x Harsh Justice
• 1x Nessian Boar

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You can see video of this deck in action here courtesy of The GMGC!

The goal of this deck is to pose as a hug deck, giving the underdog player a bunch of hippos while secretly preparing to suddenly but inevitably betray them. When the only players left are you and the underdog who you've so selflessly given way too many hippos, you turn on them by playing one of your surprise wincons! (Reins of Power, Clone Legion, Deploy to the Front, Ezuri's Predation, Arachnogenesis, etc.)

To maintain our "hug deck" disguise, all of the removal and countermagic we pack has an upside for our opponent. Sometimes the upside for them benefits us too! Similarly, we do not run board wipes as we want to maintain our kindhearted facade, and also because it benefits our game plan to have many creatures on the board.

Unlike many Phelddagrif counterparts, this deck is designed to win, not hug. Even so, at least one opponent will rejoice upon the receipt of many tiny potamuses! Super Hippo thrives in a casual environment. Players who enjoy politics will enjoy this deck. This build is also well suited to helping out new players at the table while not feeding the experienced players.

There are certain guidelines to keep in mind when playing a Phelddagrif deck like this one:

1)

It is best to give all hippos to a single player. Spreading the hippos around only allows your opponents to battle them into each other, resulting in fewer hippos on board. The more hippos on board, the more powerful our master stroke.

2)

Do not donate hippos to a player who is liable to sac them or otherwise abuse them. We are trying to find a loving home for these babs. Similarly, hippos should not be given to someone who can pump them up and kill us with them.

3)

Do not give away hippos for free, unless everyone refuses to pact with you. Always try to attach a deal to the receipt of hippos. "I will give you hippos on the condition that you always attack with them, and don't swing them at me until we are the last two standing". Not only do you benefit marginally from the deal, it also gives the appearance that your game plan is to politic your way to victory via giving hippos, making you less threatening. Little do they know there's a bamboozle a'brewin'.

4)

When fetching lands, always get forests/green sources unless you need to fix mana. We want to maximize the number of hippos we can hand out, so green mana is most valuable.

5)

Try to always keep a {U} open while Phelddagrif is on the board. Super Hippo's built-in bounce is a nice way to dodge having to pay commander tax when someone board wipes. Pro tip: keep a source that produces {GU} open, that way if you did not need the {U} you can use the {G} before your turn to give a hippo.

6)

Do not play combo pieces or wincons prematurely, wait until you can win with them. Dropping Intruder Alarm with no other pieces is just asking for it to be removed. Also, this would blow your non-threatening facade.

Strengths

• This deck can politic very effectively since the commander's abilities are bargaining chips.
• Phelddagrif is difficult to stave off thanks to its bounce ability.
• At 4/4, Phelddagrif is actually pretty beefy, making her a decent blocker.
• We are unlikely to be viewed as a threat for the majority of the game.

Weaknesses

• Board wipes can set us back since the loss of our friend's hippos means the backstabbing has to wait until we can regift the hippos.
• Many of our catalysts are enchantments, so mass enchantment removal hits us hard.
• Our game plan is pretty slow; we have many high-cmc cards so we will not have much early-game presence.
• Our friend might kill us with the hippos (this can be avoided by making a deal!)

This build is capable of a couple pretty unique wombo combos:

Phelddagrif + a mana dork or manland that can make {G} e.g. Treetop Village + Intruder Alarm: Gift infinite hippos. Works by tapping the mana dork for {G} and giving someone a hippo with our general, which in turn untaps the mana dork via Intruder Alarm. Add a Suture Priest or Angel's Trumpet and we win!

Nature's Revolt + Magosi, the Waterveil + Phelddagrif + Intruder Alarm + Teferi's Protection: Once Magosi is a creature (thanks Nature's Revolt), it will be untapped by Intruder Alarm every time we gift a hippo (and so will our other lands, supplying infinite mana in most cases). This allows us to skip an arbitrarily large number of turns by using Magosi's first ability repeatedly. However, we want to cast Teferi's Protection before we start skipping turns, since if we skip 1,000,000 turns and protection gets countered we are in trouble. With Teferi's Protection on the stack, we activate Magosi's ability many many times. This allows us to politely step away from the conflict and watch our opponents kill each other or draw out, meaning we win! (unless of course an opponent has a way to keep themselves from decking out, our has a card with a "win the game" clause).

This section details the uses and synergies (that I'm aware of) of most cards in the deck to elucidate the reasoning behind including these cards.

Angel's Trumpet: This encourages our hippo recipient to attack with the hippos. It also damages them for every hippo given to them during their turn. Has synergy with Verity Circle, Keep Watch, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Theft of Dreams, Arachnogenesis, Flurry of Wings, Nature's Revolt. Note: be careful when playing a sorcery-speed mass token generator like Clone Legion while the trumpet is out, it might kill you (as I've learned the hard way)! This issue is avoided by having a soul sister (e.g. Soul Warden) in play.

Arachnogenesis: One of our wincons, used when our friend attacks us with the many hippos we gave them. Has synergy with Primal Vigor, Coat of Arms, Mirrorweave, Angel's Trumpet, Bident of Thassa, soul sisters.

Arcane Denial: A counterspell befitting our "hug deck" disguise. Has synergy with Psychic Possession, Mind's Eye, Smothering Tithe.

Authority of the Consuls: Great card on its own, extra nice when giving out hippos. Has synergy with Verity Circle, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Theft of Dreams, Nature's Revolt.

Beast Within: Decent removal in any deck. Super Hippo really likes this one because it maintains or increases the number of creatures under our opponents' control, which is beneficial for our game plan.

Beck / Call: Possibly the best draw card in the deck. Usually we only play the Beck half, but fusing it can be useful in some situations, such as when we have a Bident of Thassa or need blockers.

Bident of Thassa: Believe it or not, this one is actually in here for the tap ability! Forcing our friend's hippos to swing is often a benefit for us, even if we're the one being attacked. The draw effect is nice too since we can give our general flying and consistently nab an extra card each round by swinging. Has synergy with Keep Watch, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Theft of Dreams, Arachnogenesis, Flurry of Wings.

Biomantic Mastery: Big draw spell that is best played after we have given out many hippos.

Birds of Paradise: Classic mana birbs that also serve as a combo piece alongside Intruder Alarm and Super Hippo. The birds are nice in opening hand as they will let us get our general out on turn 3.

Borrowing 100,000 Arrows: While situational, this can net us a ton of draw alongside Angel's Trumpet, Authority of the Consuls, Nature's Revolt, or Bident of Thassa. If we politic effectively, we can still get a ton of value out of this even without forced taps; "I'll give you hippos on the condition that you attack with all of them."

Chromatic Lantern: Allows us to make {G} with any land, helping to maximize the number of hippos we can gift.

Clone Legion: One of our wincons. Has synergy with Primal Vigor, Coat of Arms, Mirrorweave, Nacatl War-Pride, soul sisters.

Coat of Arms: This is meant to be played following a Reins of Power, Nacatl War-Pride, Arachnogenesis, Clone Legion, Deploy to the Front, or Flurry of Wings, likely resulting in our victory. Coat could also be played early if we want to give a boost to our friend-opponent to help them eliminate our non-friend-opponents.

Copy Enchantment: It's always nice to have a second Mirari's Wake, Zendikar Resurgent, Primal Vigor, Privileged Position, Frontier Siege, Psychic Possession, or Smothering Tithe.

Curse of the Swine: Creature removal befitting our "hug deck" disguise. The fact that it exiles and we choose which dudes it hits makes this card totally underrated. Also, this card maintains the number of creatures under our opponents' control, which is beneficial for our game plan.

Curse of Verbosity: Draws us cards and steers attacks away from us.

Deploy to the Front: One of our wincons. Has synergy with Primal Vigor, Coat of Arms, Mirrorweave, Nacatl War-Pride, soul sisters.

Dingus Staff: Worth it for the dingus jokes alone. Becomes a deadly deterrent against our opponents' board wipes and sac outlets. Has synergy with Ezuri's Predation. Note: We must be careful when handling the dingus staff, as we run the risk of chafing ourselves pretty badly if the board is wiped while we have a multitude of tokens.

Dowsing Dagger  : This serves two purposes here - it gives an opponent a couple harmless creatures, and flips into a land that increases our hippo output by +3 per round. It is easy to flip, just equip to Super Hippo and give her flying via her {W} ability if needed.

Essence Warden: Hey soul sister, ain't that baby hippo on the battlefield, life gain trigger, this life total ain't fair, you know! Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single trigger you do, tonight.

Ezuri's Predation: Very powerful wincon. Best used after having given many hippos! Has synergy with Dingus Staff, Primal Vigor, Coat of Arms, soul sisters.

Fellwar Stone: 2-cmc ramp cards such as this allow us to play Super Hippo on turn 3.

Flurry of Wings: One of our wincons, usually used when our friend attacks us with the many hippos we gave them. Has synergy with Primal Vigor, Coat of Arms, Mirrorweave, Angel's Trumpet, Bident of Thassa, Nacatl War-Pride, soul sisters.

Forbidden Orchard: A must for this type of hippo deck. We tap this thing every round, even if we're not using the mana for anything. The more tokens our opponent-friend has, the better.

Frontier Siege: Always choose Khans mode. This allows us to gift 4 more hippos every round.

Generous Gift: Decent removal in any deck. Super Hippo really likes this one because it maintains or increases the number of creatures under our opponents' control, which is beneficial for our game plan.

Gideon, Champion of Justice: One of our wincons. Best to drop him when we have a protective card like Arachnogenesis in hand, or Magosi, the Waterveil with a storage counter for back-to-back turns, as he is an instant target.

Gilded Lotus: Allows us to make more green mana, resulting in more gifted hippos.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity: This comes in handy since many of our enchantments wear big bullseyes. Useful for reclaiming combo pieces like Intruder Alarm or Nature's Revolt.

Intruder Alarm: Vital piece for our wombo combos (see combos section above for details). Can also be used in conjunction with Nature's Revolt to either give us infinite mayonnaise or keep everyone's lands tapped down.

Keep Watch: While situational, this can net us a ton of draw alongside Angel's Trumpet, Bident of Thassa, or Nactl War-Pride. If we politic effectively, we can still get a ton of value out of this even without forced attacks; "I'll give you hippos on the condition that you attack with all of them."

Lumbering Falls: When animated, this acts as a combo piece alongside Intruder Alarm and Super Hippo. Also, the inclusion of slow lands adds to our nonthreatening guise.

Magosi, the Waterveil: A combo piece (see combos section above for details). Magosi could also help to secure a victory alongside the likes of Gideon, Champion of Justice, Deploy to the Front, Nacatl War-Pride, Clone Legion, etc. The play here is to skip a turn to store a counter, then when it is our turn again we play a mass token generator, then activate Magosi for the extra turn. Taking back-to-back turns allows us to attack with our token army with less risk of interference since our opponents will not have the opportunity to untap or play sorceries.

Mana Reflection: This allows us to make more mana, resulting in more gifted hippos.

Mantle of Leadership: Toss this on Super Hippo, give out some tiny potamuses, and swing for commander damage!

Mercy Killing: Decent creature removal that gets around indestructibility. Super Hippo really likes this one because it increases the number of creatures under our opponents' control, which is beneficial for our game plan. This can be downright devastating in conjunction with Angel's Trumpet or Dingus Staff.

Mirari's Wake: Good in any deck, this doubles our hippo output and makes our army bigger.

Mirrorweave: This may seem like an odd choice, but it has worked wonders. Can be used offensively (similar to a Coat of Arms, turn all our tokens into the best creature on board) or defensively (turn all attackers into 1/1 hippos).

Nacatl War-Pride: One of our more interesting wincons. Per the oracle rules, we can actually have the copies attack players other than the defending player of the non-token Nacatl. For example, we can swing OG Nacatl at our friend-opponent who has 10 hippos, but we can send the 10 Nacatl copies at our non-friend-opponents. Has synergy with Primal Vigor, Coat of Arms, Mirrorweave, Dingus Staff, Keep Watch, Clone Legion, Deploy to the Front, Flurry of Wings, soul sisters. Also has some interesting synergy with Teferi's Protection in that we can cast TP in response to Nacatl's delayed trigger that would normally exile the cat tokens, but the copies cant be exiled if they're phased out, so we keep all the cats!

Nature's Lore: 2-cmc ramp cards such as this allow us to play Super Hippo on turn 3.

Nature's Revolt: This card puts in a ton of work in this deck. It is a board wipe deterrent and a combo piece (see combos section above for details). We could even use this to beat face with our lands, especially with Mirari's Wake, Mirrorweave, or following a Boundless Realms. Has synergy with Verity Circle, Intruder Alarm, Theft of Dreams, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows.

Open the Vaults: This comes in handy since many of our enchantments wear big bullseyes. Vaults can sometimes allow us to instantly set up a combo if we were hit with a lot of discard/mill/boardwipes.

Primal Vigor: Doubles our hippo output. Also doubles our mass token generators like Nacatl War-Pride, Ezuri's Predation, Clone Legion, Deploy to the Front, Arachnogenesis, Flurry of Wings. This is one of the strongest cards in the deck.

Psychic Possession: Stick this on the opponent who you suspect will be drawing many cards. If the enchanted player is cooperative, we can also spam Super Hippo's {U} ability for a Trade Secrets-esque effect. At worst this card keeps us from dying to mill, at best it will draw us a buttload of cards.

Recurring Insight: Decent draw on its own, we can also spam Super Hippo's {U} ability before casting Insight for a Trade Secrets-esque effect.

Reins of Power: This card is this particular hippo deck's raison d'être. Reins turned the original iteration of this deck from a lowly kingmaker to a veritable game winner. Playing this card when we've one opponent left who has like 30 hippos is the best feeling. Has synergy with Coat of Arms and Mirrorweave.

Seedborn Muse: Mo mana mo hippos. Also makes it easier for us to keep a {U} open in case Super Hippo needs to evacuate.

Selvala, Explorer Returned: Provides green mana for giving out more hippos, and aids in our "hug deck" mask. Also serves as a combo piece alongside our general and Intruder Alarm.

Soul's Attendant: Hey soul sister, ain't that baby hippo on the battlefield, life gain trigger, this life total ain't fair, you know! Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single trigger you do, tonight.

Stirring Wildwood: When animated, this acts as a combo piece alongside Intruder Alarm and Super Hippo. Also, the inclusion of slow lands adds to our nonthreatening guise.

Suture Priest: Beloved by hippo decks across the land, this is a one of our strongest wincons.

Swan Song: A counterspell befitting our "hug deck" disguise. It also adds a creature to the board which is typically good for us.

Talisman of Curiosity: 2-cmc ramp cards such as this allow us to play Super Hippo on turn 3.

Talisman of Unity: 2-cmc ramp cards such as this allow us to play Super Hippo on turn 3.

Teferi's Protection: A great defensive card on its own, this also serves as a combo piece (see combos section above for details). Has some interesting synergy with Nacatl War-Pride in that we can cast Teferi's Protection in response to the delayed trigger that would normally exile the cat tokens, allowing us to keep all the cats!

Theft of Dreams: While situational, this can net us a ton of draw alongside Angel's Trumpet, Authority of the Consuls, Nature's Revolt, or Bident of Thassa. If we politic effectively, we can still get a ton of value out of this even without forced taps; "I'll give you hippos on the condition that you attack with all of them."

Thunderstaff: Protects us from the hippos we gifted. The tap ability allows us to assist our friend-opponent in the killing of non-friend-opponents, or to pump our own token army.

Transmogrifying Wand: While not a great card in most decks, it shines here because it maintains the number of creatures under our opponents' control, which is beneficial for our game plan. And it's a flavor win amirite? It also acts as a rattlesnake if we keep at least one counter on it. "Attack me and I'll turn your best dude into an Ox."

Treetop Village: When animated, this acts as a combo piece alongside Intruder Alarm and Super Hippo. Also, the inclusion of slow lands adds to our nonthreatening guise.

Verity Circle: While situational, this can net us a ton of draw alongside Nature's Revolt, Angel's Trumpet, Authority of the Consuls, or Bident of Thassa.

Wilderness Reclamation: Allows us to gift more hippos. Also helps us keep a {U} open in case Super Hippo needs to bounce.

Zendikar Resurgent: Good in any deck, this doubles our hippo output. If we run out of gas, this can act as a draw engine (albeit an extremely inefficient one) by bouncing and replaying Phelddagrif.

Check out king-saproling's other decks:

Credit to The Deckcoders' Alliance for part of the code on this page.

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A portion of the code on this page is used with permission from MagicalHacker. Click this link to see his videos.

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #4 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 5 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 56 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.70
Tokens	1/1 G Creature Hippo, Beast 3/3 G, Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Bird Soldier 1/1 W, Boar 2/2 G, Copy Clone, Elephant 3/3 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Phyrexian Beast 4/4 G, Plant 0/2 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Spider 1/2 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
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