cleandeceit, OptimalGreen: whistle A lot to respond to here! Going through in order...

Read the Bones: Honestly, the place I need card draw in this deck is to rebuild after getting my board wiped, which is why I've emphasized permanents that provide consistent card draw rather than one-time effects. I have enough tutors in this deck that I rarely feel starved for cards.

Mask of Memory: Could be a very good idea! I'll test it here, I've loved it in several other decks. Not a fan of Skeleton Key or the auras - the former is just generally a bad card IMO, and when using the auras it's dangerously easy to get 2-for-1'd.

Memory Jar: Pass, far too slow. It's a powerful card, but this is the wrong deck for it (Memory Jar works better in a deck with a huge number of 0 and 1 drops).

Bazaar of Baghdad: Yeah, no, not gonna pay that price tag. Not to mention that the deck isn't GY-focused enough to mitigate the card-negative aspect.

Skeletal Scrying: I think you're emphasizing the role of discard effects in this deck way too much. The deck doesn't put much in GY, and I don't like paying 1 mana per cards, especially with a highly conditional effect. I concur with OptimalGreen on this.

Whispersilk Cloak: Can be a good card in the right circumstance, and I've had it in this deck at certain points, but my current meta has more mass removal than spot removal. Probably won't help much at the moment.

Underrealm Lich and Izoni, Thousand-Eyed: I'm... not sure how either of these helps, at all? Neither does anything for my deck's goals, and they drive my curve into the stratosphere. Not a fan of such conditional, low-impact card draw.

Concordant Crossroads: I've considered it. But with my combos, Obelisk Spider or Blood Artist usually fulfill the same "win instantly" role, and are much easier to tutor for with my creature-specific green tutors. Note that this does NOT help with the Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest combo.

Viridian Corrupter: Another card that's been in and out at certain points. While the fact that he can't hit enchantments is a problem, the bigger issue is that people almost never attack me in this deck, unless they have flying (expendable, deathtouching snakes are a wonderful deterrent for attacks).

Fauna Shaman: Nah. Not repeatable, suffers from summoning sickness, dies to creature wipes and a couple global -1 counter placements.

Vedalken Orrery: I really do not like this card, honestly, especially since I need to cast certain spells before or after combat in this deck. People think it's good, but it just draws hate and gives little actual advantage. I'd rather run protective spells like Golgari Charm and Heroic Intervention.

Bear Umbra: I like the protection and discard much better on Sword of Feast and Famine, not to mention the fact that it sticks around after the creature dies.

Viridian Longbow: Heh. That's amusing, and I'm tempted to find a slot. I'd cut Ulvenwald Tracker for it, but that lowers my creature count even further for Survival of the Fittest...

Ad Nauseam: The issue here is that this deck has a lot of very high-cost spells that are meant to be cheated onto the battlefield (such as Craterhoof Behemoth). Ad Nauseam is best for decks with huge numbers of 0-drop spells, and I don't want to pay an average of 2.5 life per card, alas :/

Phyrexian Tower: I have considered this actually. Jury's out on whether Ifnir Deadlands is good enough - it's been intermittent, not bad - but the honestly bigger problem is that I hate the newer art on it.

Thank you both for your thoughts!

That's what I was fearing with Ad Nauseam because the absolute highest I saw was 2.1. Still I think Phyrexian Tower could be a cool addition and I think I'm gonna give it a try. Also I think the OG art has dropped a good amount with the reprint. Somewhere around $35 now. Still I'm perfectly fine with the new art because can't argue with a $10 price tag.

Mmm, yeah I see where you guys are coming from. Well what about Smothering Abomination alongside a few more sac outlets?
I am a fan of Phyrexian Altar.

Did you see Bankrupt in Blood? Two mana and two snakes to draw three cards might be neat.

cleandeceit: I've considered it! But I'd run Ashnod's Altar before I'd run Phyrexian Altar in this list, and that's been in and out for a while.

OptimalGreen: I did! I'm thinking on it :)

It's a one and done type draw card but also it has Seb Mckinnon art like Archfiend of Ifnir so I love it on art alone.

Couple cards that I'm just wondering if they've been pulling their weight: [Fume spitter] i get it, with [earthcraft] out it is free, but it does so little! It's a card that didn't do much and seems like your favorite use would always be to bin it with [survival of the fittest] [Eternal witness] - [regrowth] on a body just because of [survival of the fittest] too? You keep mentioning it's not a graveyard deck then you have this card which in my meta with a lot of cards like [rest in peace] may do nothing. [Reanimate] - similar to the above card may just not be good in my meta but what do you normally do with it? I guess if [craterhoof behemoth] gets countered?

Amazing deck, I have my own that I have been working on since spoiler but I haven't been updating it since muldrotha baha

Sorry, wrote that on my phone and didn't recognize my mistake. Fume Spitter, Earthcraft, Survival of the Fittest, Eternal Witness, Regrowth, Reanimate, Craterhoof Behemoth

TheMaelstrom: Fume Spitter definitely pulls its weight in my experience; it can come down before Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and place -1 counters at instant speed (which is surprisingly relevant).

Eternal Witness is better than Regrowth here because it can have -1 counters placed on it, it can be reanimated by Meren of Clan Nel Toth etc, and it can be searched for by all of my creature tutors.

This deck is not primarily a graveyard deck, but cards like Reanimate are extremely useful in my experience: not only can they recur cards like Craterhoof Behemoth if countered/destroyed, but they can also recur Hapatra herself without the need to pay commander tax.

Hope that helps explain my reasoning!

Eternal Witness is a green staple for a reason. You don't have to be a graveyard deck to run it. I mean Captain Sisay runs it. Reanimate is also great for letting Hapatra die on occasion and bringing her back for 1 mana and 2 life because sometimes whether you like it or not she will die.

I know what it's primary use is but are there some combo shenanigans with Viridian Longbow ?

Hapatra or Nest of Scarabs + Lightning Greaves + Viridian Longbow + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Devoted Druid for infinite damage?

OptimalGreen: The primary reason is obviously turning one of my Snakes into a repeatable Murder , but it does go infinite if equipped to Devoted Druid with Ivy Lane Denizen on the battlefield!

I love when a combo piece is actually useful outside of it's combo. Also I figured there was a much less convoluted combo.

Hey Deadalus. I just built a Golgari thousand eyed token deck that looks vaguely similar to this one, minus the counters. I have some cards in my sideboard that I can't seem to fit in. Can you recommend some cuts for me please? I would really appreciate your help. Thanks. -Alex

alexander.rokicki: I'll do my best, but I'm extremely busy at the moment...

Just thought you'd like to know, but Mikaeus doesn't work with (snake) tokens. Tokens cease to exist when they enter the graveyard, so they can't come back to the battlefield.

Other than that : nice write up!

I just read your primer again, and noticed that the combos with Mikaeus are not with tokens. So my bad :)

How my opponents feel playing against this deck:

Great deck, this gives me ideas of building a version of it myself. I was having a hard time wondering how to put a Hapatra deck together until I read your primer.

Thank you.

How do you feel about Plaguemaw Beast ?

obitus: Great for a slower meta! It's a very strong card, and honestly one I've been trying to find a slot for forever. However, the summoning sickness is a pain.

Luckily, my meta is a bit more casual than others, so the tempo is a little slower on average. We use a 12 turn clock system that works decently enough for us to pilot a deck.

I completely understand how you feel when a card is so good, but yet it does not fit just right.

So I have the exact same manabase outside of Ifnir Deadlands because I use Phyrexian Tower instead and I was wondering what would you take out for a Bayou ? Hapatra is my favorite commander so I'd love to have a original dual for her.

OptimalGreen probably blooming marsh or one of City of brass/mana confluence for a bayou.

+1 Just because Samuel L. Jackson.

So how does Archfiend of Ifnir work exactly with your deck? I don't see much discard, but to be honest I think I'm missing something important.