Let's talk a bit about Hornet Nest
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 14, 2014, 8:14 a.m. by TexasDice
I'm really impressed with Hornet Nest in testing. Do you guys wanna know why it's awesome?
- Your opponent can't use burn based removal on it. They just can't.
- Brickwalls huge green creatures, like Polukranos, World Eater , Savage Knuckleblade , Genesis Hydra or Arbor Colossus .
- Polukranos, World Eater can't profitably fight it away.
- It turns Goblin Rabblemaster into the worst possible card to draw.
- Hornet Nest baits hard removal, opening a path for your Planeswalkers and monsters.
- Works well with Elvish Mystic as a turn 2 play against aggro.
- Hornet Tokens fly, so they block Mantis Rider , Prognostic Sphinx , Wingmate Roc and anything related to Herald of Torment .
- Therefore, the tokens naturally bypass Soldier Tokens, Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix .
Hornet Nest synergizes especially well with a lot of red cards:
- Lightning Strike becomes a surprise blowout, able to either annihilate entire alpha strikes or incoming fliers.
- Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker has the disadvantage of being unable to protect himself on an empty board against 2+ creatures. If you drop Sarkhan and minus it to blow up Hornet Nest, you have four guys protecting him for future turns.
- Chandra, Pyromaster becomes Bitterblossom on crack.
- If Crater's Claws isn't big enough to dome your opponent in one shot, just make a shitton of bees.
- Anger of the Gods : Wipe the board and stay behind with three insect tokens.
But there are some things negative nancy has to mention as well:
- Bile Blight .
- Selfburn can get blown out by removal, resulting in a lot of card/board disadvantge
- Mogis's Marauder doesn't give a fuck.
- It can't deal with fliers on it's own.
- Siege Rhino will always get you for 5 damage and either deal more or make you lose all of your wasps.
I run a Yisan, the Wanderer Bard + Chord of Calling deck in standard, and Hornet Nest is probably my favorite silver bullet. I love throwing that little guy under the bus and collecting my plethora of tokens when my opponent least expects it. That's the beauty of casting creatures at instant speed, my opponent has no idea what kind of tricks I have ready for them when it's time to move into the combat phase.
October 14, 2014 9:04 a.m.
Interesting conversation. I need to rethink how to break this guy in a RUG shell.
October 14, 2014 11:46 a.m.
I like this discussion, you guys are also providing insight here.
Yisan, hmm? That sounds promising...
October 14, 2014 2:24 p.m.
I love this card! It's really ridiculous. It's even better now that Legion Loyalist is out of standard. Something I found to be ridiculous is when you Titanic Growth your opponent's creature that just got blocked by Hornet Nest . I died because of it... Twice.
weisemanjohn says... #2
I have a friend who loves those little bugs... My answers in my Temur deck are: Thassa, God of the Sea for unblockable and Surrak Dragonclaw to just trample over them. The only time they get nasty is if he drops Soul of New Phyrexia to back them up
October 14, 2014 8:54 a.m.