Note to self: temporarily replaced Pemmin's Aura and Freed from the Real with Ambition's Cost and Black Market to reduce power level.
Background
I've always wanted to make a hydra deck, but I was never able to bring myself to do it, even when Gargos was announced; but Zaxama finally inspired me, along with many others, (hail Hydra) to rise up and do so. Many deck lists on Tapped Out are very powerful, but end up having high budgets, upwards of $1000. My goal is to create a Hydra deck that is relatively affordable and powerful.
The Deck Strategies
The primary strategy is to generate infinite mana with our commander using one of the Key Combos in the following section, and then win by using any spell powerful enough to either take down our opponents or generate an insurmountable lead. While assembling the pieces to perform a winning combo, I plan to pass the time by investing in our secondary strategy: casting expensive cards, specifically hydras, to take advantage of our commander's unique ability to summon hydras with power and toughness proportional to the invested mana. In other words, our primary strategy is our primary win condition whereas the secondary strategy can serve as a secondary win condition, but is ultimately a means to an end, which is to ensure we live long enough that our primary strategy succeeds.
Because our primary strategy involves casting key spells to generate infinite mana, and because casting expensive (and tall) hydras is our secondary strategy, I determined our deck to fundamentally require two things: (1) protection (in the form of counterspells and board protection) and (2) mana ramp, lots of it. I admittedly could remove some less powerful hydras to invest more in our primary strategy, but I still want to satisfy my inner Timmy by casting and swinging with many headed hydras. I also don't want to make this deck too combo oriented, so that I can still compete within my playgroup fairly.
Key Combos
Zaxara, the Exemplary + Freed from the Real + Winning Spell
Zaxara, the Exemplary + Pemmin's Aura + Winning Spell
Where Winning Spell can be one of the following, in no particular order:
- Torment of Hailfire to eliminate each player at the table
- Exsanguinate to eliminate each player at the table
- Walking Ballista to eliminate each player at the table
- Blue Sun's Zenith to draw most of our deck, after which we can cast one of the above Winning Spells. We can alternatively cast this on a single opponent to mill them out in specific scenarios.
- Stroke of Genius to draw most of our deck, after which we can cast one of the above Winning Spells. We can alternatively cast this on a single opponent to mill them out in specific scenarios.
- Finale of Revelation - to draw most of our deck, after which we can cast one of the above Winning Spells.
- Pull from Tomorrow - to draw most of our deck, after which we can cast one of the above Winning Spells.
Winning Spells listed above are surefire ways to win the game, but we also have alternative spells to cast that can also be interpreted as a Winning Spells. Some of these are listed below.
- Any of our creatures with as a mana cost. Once we have infinite mana, we can summon absurdly large hydras that can eliminate opponents with a single swing. We simply need a way to give that creature protection and haste (e.g. Swiftfoot Boots).
- Villainous Wealth to exile an opponent's entire deck and cast all of their win conditions
- While Vigor is on the board, Walking Ballista can ping itself to generate an infinite amount of counters which can ping everyone down [2].
Card Selection
I feel like I could use more counterspells to protect my key combo. This, along with section is under construction.
This section is under construction.
- Counterspells - I feel like we need our counterspells to do their job. Creating hydras from them are nice, but we aren't guaranteed to have our commander out at all times, and we aren't likely to have enough leftover mana to use these counterspells to great effect.
- 4 CMC ramp spells - We ideally want to cast our commander on turn 4 as opposed to a 4 CMC spell. I've included 3 CMC spells, because of the value provided and because we may not always have a 2 CMC ramp spell to case on turn 2.
- Mind Spring - I had this card initially, but felt that I was beginning to include too many Draw X spells. Finale of Revelation is strictly better, and my other Draw X spells can be cast at instant speed and/or have more utility (Blue Sun's Zenith, Pull from Tomorrow, Stroke of Genius). I may add Mind Spring back in depending on how playtesting goes.
- Simic Ascendancy - The +1/+1 counter this provides is insufficient for 3 CMC; Simic Ascendancy's primary appeal is it's ability to serve as a win condition, and a fun one at that. I dislike it, however, because it forecasts what you intend to do too clearly. More importantly, our deck already has enough win conditions as shown in my Key Combos section above, especially with our ability to draw out our deck until we draw a win condition.
- Hardened Scales - I feel that one additional +1/+1 counter per summon or counter transfer aren't good enough to justify being in this deck, compared to Atraxa, Praetor's Counsel which can proliferate each turn.
The price of this deck is admittedly higher than I am comfortable with, and it has risen dramatically in the last few days. This is largely attributed to the inflated price of new cards that have yet to be released, but this is also because some of this is a preliminary draft that I intend to cut down on. Whatever the reason, if this deck is not budget friendly enough, I list below some of the more expensive options and alternatives I would replace them with.
This section is under construction.
Your Thoughts?
This deck has a straightforward game plan: swing with big hydras and hopefully execute our winning combo. My concern is that our deck must essentially tap out each turn to summon one (or two) large creatures a turn and therefore be vulnerable to wider and more aggressive board states, especially once opponents realize what our primary strategy is and how potent it can be. I am also concerned about how well distributed my cards are between creatures, artifacts, enchantments, instant, and sorcery spells. I'm uncertain of which direction to tune this deck towards, since we cannot truly play test the deck for obvious reasons.
Suggestions are very welcome, especially if accompanied by possible cuts.
References
[1] http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/return-of-the-ur-dragon-a-budget-dragon-primer/
[2] Comments courtesy of SuspectedSinner
