OptimalGreen: She's bonkers :D

Hm the first card I'd think of when building a Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons deck is Cauldron of Souls

It won't work with your tokens, but lets say your opponent board wipes - you trigger Cauldron - all non-token creatures including Hapatra return and each returning creature triggers your commander bc of -1/-1 counter.

Plus it's a great political card.

And what about a good Snake lord: Seshiro the Anointed

CommanderAdventures: another perk from using the Cauldron is that you can cause nontoken weenies controlled by opponents to die again for the purpose of Blowfly Infestation

CommanderAdventures and Coward_Token: I've been considering Cauldron of Souls for a while now - it's a good way to recur my board after a board wipe, and end up with an army of snakes afterwards. The only issue I am worried about with it is that I often place -1 counters on my own stuff (between Black Sun's Zenith, Harbinger of Night, etc) so I'm worried about it being a dead card in many draws...what would you cut from it?

(PS: CommanderAdventures - I'm a huge fan of your EDH variant format, and I am currently trying to convince my group to try it. Can I promote it in an EDH facebook group I admin?)

Daedalus19876 Gladly :) Hope you guys like it.

About the cut: I usually replace cards that have a similar function in the deck. In this case maybe Journey to Eternity  ^Flip?

While your practical experience will have to come first, Splendid Agony, Serrated Arrows and Incremental Blight seem mediocre to me.

Speaking of Persist, you might also want to consider Rendclaw Trow, Puppeteer Clique and/or Woodfall Primus.

Splendid Agony and Incremental Blight have only gotten better in this deck because of Generous Patron though because with Patron and Hapatra out they have the added bonus of "Create two snakes and draw two cards" and "Create three snakes and draw three cards". In my experience Persist really isn't that great because the creatures will only die to a board wipe because opponents aren't going to give you free snakes that'll snowball into a huge amount and end the game with Craterhoof of Triumph.

Coward_Token and OptimalGreen: I generally find that Persist isn't the best here for exactly the reason OptimalGreen pointed out - a lot of my creatures often have -1 counters on them so that Persist doesn't do anything. There is an argument for Cauldron of Souls (because it gives the ability to EVERYTHING while only using one slot), but the ability is generally not what I'm going for in this deck.

I agree persist isn’t good with hapatra. Also note that Grim Affliction is just a strictly better Splendid Agony so if you want to run one over the other, go with affliction. Their floors are the same but affliction’s ceiling is massive.

Ive added Razaketh, the Foulblooded to my list, highly recommended, he’s so strong with our tokens.

Also can’t wait to get a cradle for this deck. Will be fire!

smashadams83: It's not strictly better (particularly if you want to kill 2 X/1 creatures), but yes, it's nearly always better.

I was considering Razaketh, the Foulblooded over Sadistic Hypnotist (I only need 1 expensive sac outlet) - which would you recommend?

yea I guess that would be the only case, taking out 2, 1/1s you’re right. I think it depends on your meta but razaketh is strong in a combo build imo. He can tutor up protection if you’re playing greaves or even journey to eternity, Then just go to town grabbing anything you need for utuility. His high CMC is tough but I’ve added Chord of Calling and some other reanimation spells to cheat him in.

Additionally, I can’t speak highly enough for Harvest Season. It’s so great here since we have deathtouch snakes, you can attack , normally have no blocks, then grab a bunch of basics. It’s been fantastic for me. Ive never grabbed less than 5 basics with it.

Also I think Necrotic Ooze could be useful since you are combo focused and possibly Altar of the Brood or Blasting Station as win cons.

smashadams83: You're right, Harvest Season would be amazing here. I've avoided Chord of Calling without any real reason, to be honest. It also needs a slot. Darn. What would you cut for them?

It sure honestly as my build is not as combo focused as yours. I can say I’ve cut both contagion clasp and serrated arrows from my list as they were too low impact for me. Here’s a link to my build if you want some other ideas. Primer is a work in progress http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-cycle-of-toxicity-hapatra-edh/

Surprised Glistening Oil isn’t in here...

You have a pretty solid list right here, it's hard to suggest a new card to fit it.

I know they are in your "Maybeboard" already, but I think you should try Ashnod's Altar and Earthcraft (you could even try the Squirrel Nest combo).

Also, how often do you hit with the snake tokens? Maybe a Coat of Arms could help you.

With it's reprinting coming up do you think that with the addition of Generous Patron that adding Reliquary Tower would be a good idea? :V

smashadams83: I'll come take a look!

Polupus: It's so slow, though :/

Maizena: I did end up getting an Earthcraft for the deck, so thanks for the suggestion!

OptimalGreen: Ehhh. As nice as Generous Patron is (and she's AMAZING), getting colored mana on turns 1-2 are more important to me than maintaining my hand size.

Since you’re taking my advice on archfiend /survival of the fittest I would look at adding cycling lands and other ways to discard to him. The primer on my list has a lot of detailed info on my card choices.

smashadams83: I'm not sure I want to trade the cycling for tempo, to be honest. Lands ETB-ing tapped is a huge problem...on the other hand, it gives you ways to cycle away extra lands in the late-game...hmmm.

They are tough early game. I might have to play one turn one tapped which isn’t a big deal. But I normally don’t have issues with tempo loss. They are fantastic to dig into the deck late game and trigger archfiend. If you run enough of them it might be nice to run Life from the Loam.

I run Fauna Shaman as another way to enable archfiend and tutor up utility creatures, a second survival of the fittest albeit a worse one.

You need a nice reanimation package when using survival as well since you’re going to be dumping creatures. I Run the following for reanimation:

Journey to Eternity  ^Flip - when flipped

Dread Return

Victimize

Volrath's Stronghold

Eternal Witness

Meren

You also might want to consider running Necrotic Ooze since you have a tutor package now. You can dump quullspike/Druid into the yard with survival and then go off with ooze.

Another consideration is Westvale Abbey  ^Flip. Easy to flip here. Let me know what you think!

Also forgot to mention creature count now that you are running survival of the fittest. I’m no math whiz but I think something like 27/28 creatures might be correct to run so you always have gas. But I’m really unsure of the correct number to maximize survival’s value.

I can't think of any specific cards off the top of my head, but there are a lot of neat cards in M19 dealing with -1/-1 counters you should look into. I would be able to remember or go and look myself if it weren't 3:30 here, good luck with your deck it looks pretty fun!

It doesn't synergize with the counter theme, but Seshiro the Anointed is awesome with hapatra's tokens.

BlackyMTG, there actually isn't.

Sadly, there is almost nothing in M19 that is good enough for the deck. Runic Armasaur comes the closest to being usable here if you need to put -1/-1 counters on one of your own creatures.

I told you I was tired haha. How about you try out Grind. The first part seems rather mediocre, but the second half seems kinda nuts unless I’m missing something?