cleandeceit

Vivien, Champion of the Wilds seems too weak. Flash is nice but unecessary. It does not provide any synergy with his current strategy. The biggest issue is what to cut for it if it were.

Pardon me if I am unaware, but how does Spidersilk Armor combo similarly to Nest of Scarabs ? It provides a static based toughness buff, not counters. It could be nice to have extra toughness, but at 3cmc when slots are tight, it doesn't seem worth it.

cleandeceit: Both great suggestions! Thanks, that's relatively rare haha :D What cuts would you recommend?

Profet93: Spidersilk Armor does combo with Yawgmoth and Hapatra. If I start with two tokens, I sacrifice one to put a counter on the other and make a new one. With the toughness boost, the diminished one doesn't die, so I can sacrifice the one that currently has a -1 counter to put a counter on the new creature. Rinse and repeat -- this works with any static toughness boost, and is generally the same idea as how Ivy Lane Denizen goes infinite with it.

Daedalus19876

Oops! I completely missed that! You're absolutely right! Thats another combo enabler and since its an enchantment, its harder to get rid of and is less affected by board wipes.

Daedalus19876, I am glad you found my suggestions useful. I have been benefiting from your deck page for years now :D

Making cuts is always the hardest part. I dont think I can rightly say which is the best choice because it is probably heavily meta dependent at this point. Much of the deck is tuned to its most essential components. So to include a new card, you probably have to give up an additional control/removal card in favor of including another combo and/or protection for combos.

On a similar note, I prefer Return to Nature over Nature's Claim but this is because many of the combos in my meta are dependent on a target in the graveyard, and I am willing to pay the one extra mana to have that flexibility.

cleandeceit: I'm thinking Driven / Despair as the neatest cut, potentially followed by Worldly Tutor . The problem is that I'm also trying to fit in Summoner's Pact ...

I see you also got the promo version of Animate Dead lol

Also just my opinion but I think straight up that Nature's Claim is better than Return to Nature . Yeah you can remove a card from the grave but this deck is already running Deathrite Shaman and if you really wanted more graveyard hate taking out a swamp for a Bojuka Bog would be better since this deck has Crop Rotation and Sylvan Scrying . Nature's Claim is just genuinely one of the best pieces of artifact and enchantment removal in the game and in Commander we have access to much better graveyard hate.

OptimalGreen: I think it's a meta call. But holding up one mana is very different than holding up two, so unless you REALLY need that GY hate I'd stick with Nature's Claim .

The fact that it's a one time use effect and only gets rid of one card in a graveyard to me makes it way too narrow in terms of graveyard hate when like I said in Commander we have access to better. Return to Nature is doing great in Pioneer because of Phoenix but I think in Commander you'd have to be playing against a very specific deck to want to possibly use up artifact/enchantment removal for one card in a graveyard. Or like if you were in mono-green I'd understand.

So I’m trying to find space for either Spidersilk Armor or Leyline of Vitality . Which do you think offers more to the deck, and what would you cut it?

Why not Bojuka Bog? With Crop Rotation, this provides instant speed grave hate for 1 green mana and that seems like it's worth it in many cases.

I'd pick Leyline of Vitality for the lifegain and the fact that it can be a free spell honestly.

Is there some kind of combo with Necropede that I'm missing?

OptimalGreen: Not beyond "I attack, they usually block because of the infect, it dies and places another counter" -- ie, 2 snakes. I've been trying to put more -1 counter sources in here, but Necropede is coming back out again for Noxious Revival . It was a bad swap.

...Also, I ended up going with Spidersilk Armor after a bit of testing. We'll see if we go back.

Daedalus19876 Ah okay. I thought there was some galaxy brain combo I was missing because I'm dumb.

OptimalGreen: As much as I appreciate your faith in my galaxy brain deckbuilding, sometimes I just made bad decisions XD I'm still figuring out if Virulent Wound deserves the slot over Splendid Agony ...

Daedalus19876 Yeah I was wondering about that change. Yeah Virulent Wound is 1cmc vs 3cmc but you do get two more snakes and possibly two dead creatures your opponent's control out of it like dorks and such. So you can potentially +3 in value from killing two creatures and making two snakes.

Mystical Renewal was just spoiled. Would you consider that a replacement for Nature's Claim ?

cleandeceit: Definitely not, alas. The new card can't hit artifacts, which is the more common use of Nature's Claim .

Found another neat Combo this weekend: [Hapatra, vizier of poisons]+[yawgmoth, thran physician]+[wickerbough elder]+[earthcraft]+ [moldervine reclamation]= Unlimited Draw AND die Trigger AND dstruction of artifacts an enchantments without life loss :) this can easily implemented here :)

Electrofist: Yeah, there's so many good lines with Earthcraft + Hapatra + Yawgmoth, haha. Zulaport Cutthroat or Obelisk Spider also work to mitigate the life loss!

Any thoughts on the new cards from Theros Beyond Death?

FunkiestBunch Looks like he added in Nylea's Intervention. I don't think this set in general is amazing for Hapatra since it's focused a lot more on Enchantments, +1/+1 counters, and such. I think it's gonna be a hot minute before we get another card like Yawgmoth or a set like Amonkhet/Hour or the Lorwyn block.

Daedalus19876

How has nylea's intervention been for you, is it mostly used as a tutor or flying killer? I remember you said you have had issues with fliers so I'm curious how it's been playing out so far.

Why not just add a Contamination which is almost always relevant, can be used as blue counterbait, and more? Is it due to the anti-synergy with cradle?

If not contamination due to the anti-synergy, why not driven/despair or Lili General?

How has Eldrazi Monument been for you? Seems kind of win-more ish as it only helps you when you have established a board presence (which to be fair, isn't hard at all in your deck). It is 5 mana though and I feel adding interaction or more card draw might be more beneficial? Unless Yawgmoth is all the interaction you need

FunkiestBunch and OptimalGreen: Yeah, this set didn't give me much for Hapatra :( These days, the only new things that get added here are powerful draw sources, tutors, and (in the right block) -1 counter sources. With that said, Nylea's Intervention was an upgrade over Sylvan Scrying as a way to tutor Gaea's Cradle (since it can potentially grab me one or two other utility lands, or deal with fliers in a pinch).

Profet93: I've only cast Nylea's Intervention as a tutor so far, but it's actually been good so far. I'm happy with the swap.

Regarding Contamination, I've... considered it forever. I don't run many artifacts, but in theory my mana dorks should let me still have access to green. The bigger issue is that this deck is primarily green, especially in its wincons -- I have trouble winning with only black, and it cuts off my biggest mana generator (Gaea's Cradle). Though amusingly, it would make Cradle tap for B even when I control no creatures XD

I've considered Liliana, Dreadhorde General for a while. I love her as a card, and her ult is backbreaking, but Eldrazi Monument has proven to be pretty great. It permits an infinite combo with Yawgmoth, and makes me dodge most board wipes (ie, the easiest way to shut me down). Plus it's one of my three major ways to deal with fliers, and it's also one of my all-time favorite cards. Driven / Despair continues to be a disappointment every time I slot it back in, because of its one-shot nature. I just never seem to get it at the right time to really profit, even though on paper it looks amazing.

I'm running a good amount of interaction here -- I'm running 13 cards that I would consider to be a form of interaction, of which 9 are instant speed removal or protection. I'd never turn down more, of course, but what other interaction are you thinking?

Contamination reads if a land is tapped for mana, then it creates black instead. But if you have no creatures, then it doesn't tap for mana, hence no black replacement effect, unless I misread it?

True, you are definitely more green heavy and contamination would hurt you. Have you considered a Winter Orb/Static Orb, leaning on winter. With winter, mana dorks, rocks, carpet and cradle, you can break parity, or do you think this would fall under the same category of contamination's anti-synergy?

Manglehorn, while limited to artifacts, can help slow down artifact combo and is another source of interaction.

Song of the Dryads - Permanent removal/mess with commanders, particullary black and red who have difficultly removing enchantments.

Krosan Grip - (Almost) uninterruptible removal, or is the 3 mana too steep giving you already run nature's claim?

Spidersilk armor - How has that addition been for you?