Also you think that 4cmc kill/ramp spell might be playable? It has Seb Mckinnon art so I'm hoping it's good but it being 4cmc has me wondering.

4 on removal is almost always bad, unfortunately.

OptimalGreen: Karn's Bastion is going in! Evolution Sage is also probably finding a home. The 4-mana kill/ramp isn't going in, it's far too much mana.

Have you ever tried Nissa, Voice of Zendikar in here?

fangshway: I hadn't, actually! It's an interesting idea, what role do you think she'd play?

Daedalus19876 : She would be good for removing -1/-1 off our own creatures and making our snake production, when we have snakes in play, more potent with cards such as Soul Snuffers and the like. The plant tokens are a decent synergy as well. While she does fulfill those roles nicely, she is a hard nonbo with Wickerbough Elder , which IMO, is one of the best cards in the deck. I slotted her out of my list for that reason.

I've been playing a version of this deck and really enjoying it, but I've been struggling against flyers.

My group has a defensive Feather, the Redeemed deck with a lot of way to protect from targeted removal and also a Brago, King Eternal deck with many ways to blink and remove counters/dodge removal.

I'm getting beat in the least interesting way, multiple turns of flyer beatdown that I cant interact with if I dont draw Eldrazi Monument .

Not sure if I should put some stax cards or flyer hate, both seem kinda bad. Any thoughts?

fangshway: I could see that, I suppose... I'll possibly test it :) the deck does have less symmetric -1 placement at this point, but it's occasionally an issue.

Lvboogart: I'm glad you're enjoying it! The deck does have a known issue with fliers, yeah - I've tried Tower Defense and it works wonders. Squall Line isn't bad either.

Have you had a chance to test the new War of the Spark additions yet? (Finale of Devastation, Evolution Sage, Karn's Bastion)

So how about that new G/B Canopy land?

MeagherMan101: Somewhat! Karn's Bastion has been better than Contagion Clasp overall, and Finale of Devastation has been awesome, but haven't gotten to try Evolution Sage much yet, though the initial testing was so-so. I'll keep you updated.

OptimalGreen: Oh, that's DEFINITELY going in. No question, I'm slamming it into the list. Only downside is that I need a foil and that's not gonna be cheap >.<

Hi Daedalus19876

Have you seen the recently spoiled Yawgmoth, Thran Physician he seems like a straight include in this deck. He provides with a lot of synergy and interaction for the deck with -1/-1 counter placement, card draw, sac outlet, discard for Archfiend of Ifnir and Proliferate for even more counter placements.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

2BB

Legendary Creature - Human Cleric

Protection from Humans

Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.

BB, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)

Odysseus_97: OHHHHH yeah. I've 1000% seen him, I'm so excited.

See the new Yawgmoth spoiler? It makes a Yawgmoth's Bargain with your commander.

Sorry I cant read its already been mentioned above.

How have you liked Necroskitter ? I know that its ability is unique and it has some interesting interactions with new Yawgmoth (in that you can steal all opponents creatures), but that seems fairly niche, and that it can steal dorks, but I just haven’t really been impressed with it, and I haven’t found it to end up stealing very much. It feels weird to cut because the card just screams “Hapatra”, but overall I’ve found it to be disappointing. Have you found it to be good?

Thoughts on Sword of Peace and Justice?

Sorry meant Sword of Truth and Justice

Pumps up Hapatra, protects her from path/swords/other white removal, and proliferates to create tokens.

Perfect_Phyrexia: 1) Love the username, haha, of COURSE you'd be the one to suggest Yawgmoth ;) and 2) Yeah, he's in here, and absolutely AWESOME in testing. Just be aware that you're limited by the number of creatures your opponents possess unless you also have Nest of Scarabs (in addition to Hapatra). I need modify the primer to include the synergies with him!

BlueAutomatic: Mixed results TBH. He gets better as the deck plays in more competitive pods, since you can steal early mana dorks, and he's helpful if you can get a wide placement of counters before a board wipe... But I'm considering cutting him, yeah. He's amazing in my proper Yawgmoth deck though! Lol.

OptimalGreen: I've been considering it actually! Obviously not as good as Yawgmoth, and does take 5 mana before it does anything... but not bad either. If we wanted repeatable proliferate at that CMC, though, Plaguemaw Beast exists.

Was wondering you ever gonna add Phyrexian Tower in? I've been playtesting it and I think it's great in the deck. Sacrificing one snake for two black mana has been wonderful and there's other applications like saccing Soul Snuffers or Eternal Witness and than using Phyrexian Reclamation or Meren of Clan Nel Toth to get them back and use them again.

OptimalGreen: Honestly, probably not a bad idea. I'll try to get my hands on a foil copy. This deck (and the primer) need something of a rebuild after the inclusion of Yawgmoth, he changes everything.

Why cutthroat over artist? :V

OptimalGreen: This'll be covered in the next update to the primer, but a preview:

Honestly Yawgmoth changes EVERYTHING for this deck. Blood Artist was primarily included over Zulaport Cutthroat to profit/deny opponents' infinite sac combos, but my meta has less of those these days. Moreover, with the inclusion of Yawgmoth, Nest of Scarabs + Hapatra + Yawgmoth becomes a viable infinite combo, or Yawgmoth + Mikaeus + two non-human creatures (or several jankier versions).

The issue is that these combos are limited by the number of cards in my library under many circumstances. I can easily create 40 death triggers with these (since I have 40+ cards in library), but creating 120 death triggers isn't possible. Thus Artist got the axe for Zulaport.

I’m surprised to see you cut blowfly infestation, is it not holding its weight? Also sad to see archfiend of ifnir go. Yawgmoth is incredible for the deck as you know but I’m also excited that he triggers archfiend with his discard ability. I’m definitely including him in my hapatra deck, but I’ve also been building yawgmoth as a deck. I’ve found some great combos there and many of them involve mikaeus. One such combo might be helpful here sine you run mikaeus but I’m not sure how to get it to work. It’s as follows :

With Yawgmoth in play, Buried Alive + Reanimation Spell (As well as minimum requirement of 10 life).

1. Find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Phyrexian Delver + Blood Artist with buried alive.

2. reanimate delver, grab Mikaeus with Delver's ability.

3. sac Delver to Yawgmoth, triggering undying, Delver comes back grabbing Blood Artist.

4. sac Blood Artist to Yawg, gain life and drain the board, comes back from undying, use the -1/-1 from Yawgmoth to cancel out the +1/+1 on Delver. I think you’d probably deck yourself before you could kill anyone but it’s could be worth a shot or maybe it’ll give you another idea for another buried alive combo?

smashadams83: Honestly? The issue with Blowfly Infestation is that:

• Few of my tutors can grab it (only Demonic/Vampiric/Intent)
• It's completely dead without Blood Artist (or a similar effect)
• It's very, very hard to recur if disrupted, and easy to interfere with
• And occasionally it kills me, by accidentally wiping my own board XD

I'm just never happy to see it. There's better 3-card combos in the deck, I never tutored for this one, and I'd rather open up the slot to put more disruption and interaction in.

On the topic of Archfiend of Ifnir , while the interaction with Yawgmoth's discard is very, very cute... he's kinda a dead card under a lot of circumstances. His combo with Generous Patron is replaced by Yawgmoth's combo with Hapatra (which is generally all-around better), making his primary purpose in the deck obsolete.

I do like that reanimation wincon line, but Phyrexian Delver isn't overly helpful outside of that combo, and it's a LOT of pieces (2 slots for currently-excluded cards, plus requiring Buried Alive , a reanimation spell, AND Yawgmoth in hand. I have much more efficient lines of play, and remember that it's much easier to tutor creature spells. I might run that combo in my Yawgmoth deck, though!