My Hydra Deck, or Why I Love The Colors Green and Blue

So I love playing the card game Magic the Gathering. It's probably what I spend 20% of my day thinking about (The other 80% is my bear and my beats).

I plan to do a bunch of Magic posts, many highlighting decks I've build or decks I'm playing, and how they do in events we go to. So after the jump, read about my Hydra deck, and why I love playing it!

If you're not familiar with how Magic works, I could sit here and try to explain in detail the basics, but Reid Duke, a professional player of Magic, wrote such a great article detailing the basics of Magic (which you can read here) that I won't dive too much into the basics of the game.

However, I hope if you want to read more into it that you do. Melissa and I love playing this game together, and it's a great brain stimulator. She may get frustrated that she isn't winning all the time, but I tell her to note what she's doing and learn from it. Even if she doesnt see immediate results, the small changes can mean the difference between winning and losing.

Which brings me to my deck. My deck is fortified in green, with a splash of blue. A lot of the playstyles in Magic are dictated by the colors in the color wheel above. Red cards, labeled with the characteristics of Impulse and Chaos, are typically more aggressive cards that are low cost, so as to cause panic for the opponents, while blue cards are often subtle and more expensive, and can quickly swing the tide of battle.Green, which is for the most part the color of my Hydra deck, focuses on Natural elements, and with that comes big monsters. I've always loved running green, and this deck allows for me to focus on getting out thos big creatures and attacking with a huge force.

So you can take a look at the deck  here. Tapped out does a much better job of displaying decks than the blog could, so go pull that up and we can delve in together.

So first thing you should notice is that there's a ton of creatures. There's almost no instants or sorceries to support all of the creatures, but that's not a horrible thing. The few sorceries I do have are meant to summon more creatures, hence why I give the nickname of this deck 'Hydra Swarm', because everything around this deck is about getting out more and more creatures. SO let's break down the creatures:

Mana Generators:
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Kiora's Follower
3x Courser of Kruphix

So this group of people are meant to generate tons of mana for all of the creatures that I will be summoning. Courser gets out more lands, Kiora's can double a untapping utility maker, and Sylvan and Mystic are standard mana generators. Green is known for having mana generators to help get out big monsters, so this is pretty par for the course

Mid Game Rampers/Threats:
1x Kruphix, God of Horizons
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
3x Polukranos, World Eater
3x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

So these group of guys will typically come out a few turns earlier than your opponent would normally expect, thanks to the mana generators listed above. Each of them offers something different. Yisan is pecial and I'll cover in the combos later, but Kruphix is nice to bring out at any time because he lets you store mana for later use, which is always useful. Nylea is great if you're having trouble with your opponent blocking, as it gives everything trample. Polukranos is  just a big 5/5, but he can also remove small threats pretty easily. Nissa is a planeswalker that allows me to untap my forests and get more creatures out, and it also can turn my lands into giant swingers.

End Game Threats:
3x Genesis Hydra
1x Hornet Queen
2x Hydra Broodmaster
2x Dragon Throne of Tarkir
3x Prophet of Kruphix
3x See the Unwritten

Typically if these cards come out, things are swinging in my favor, and a win is almost certainly in sight unless the opponent has something drastic planned. Genesis Hydra is a great mana sink that allows me to get out another creature. It also lets me cycle my deck. If there was bad stuff on top of my deck, now it isn't, but if I'm allowed to cast Genesis Hydra for 8 or more, the possibility that I pull out something big is more and more likely. Often times, I will end up casting Genesis Hydra in the midgame for 3 or 4, and hoping for a Courser, a Polukranos, a Nylea, or a Yisan. The best part is that If I dont get anything, I still have a solid 3/3 or 4/4 threat. Prophet of Kruphix makes things get out of hand as it allows me to untap my creatures and my mana during my opponent's turn. Prophet requires an immediate response, or I will continue to play big monsters as I feel like it. Typically if an opponent doesnt have an answer for Prophet, I win the game. Hydra Broodmaster and Hornet Queen both have the unique property of being able to generate more creatures. Hornet Queen's don't require additional mana, but Broodmaster's are typically more relevant. Producing 6 6/6 Hydras is definitely a doozy. And See the Unwritten and Dragon Throne are useful support spells that help buff or get out creatures, and closers because they don't typically help too much if I'm behind, but can help finish if I'm on the fence, or on the verge of victory.

Lands:
10x Forest
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Temple of Mystery
4x Yavimaya Coast

My lands are pretty simplistic. 8 lands that produce green or blue mana, to help me get out my creatures that require blue., 10 forests that produce green mana to help make green creatures, and Nykthos. Nykthos works well in this deck because of all of the green creatures, so I'm typically tapping Nykthos for 6 or 7 mana.

Combos:
Combos typically revolve around Yisan and Kiora's Follower. Kiora's Follower and Nykthos can produce tons of mana, Using Kiora's Follower on Yisan allows him to look for multiple creatures per turn. Every time you tap Yisan, you are getting more and more powerful creatures, and your board looks smaller and smaller. It is not uncommon for me to run out of room on my playmat because of all of the creatures that I have summoned. If Nylea is out on the field, or someone is sitting on the Throne of Tarkir, then it is a daunting attack phase for anyone involved. Using Genesis Hydra to summon Yisan causes a headache for opponents as Yisan can begin summoning more and more creatures. And Prophet of Kruphix adds to the headache of this deck by allowing me to cast creatures during my opponent's turns.

Sidedeck:
2x Arbor Colossus
1x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
4x Mistcutter Hydra
2x Netcaster Spider
1x Nylea's Disciple
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Reclamation Sage
3x Stubborn Denial

My sidedeck revolves a lot around 1 ofs that generally give my deck trouble. I only include 1 of so Yisan can grab them early if I don't draw them. Arbor Collosus, and Netcaster are in for early flyers, which tend to fly over my hydras heads (which makes no sense, because hydras are huge, but whatever), Kiora is in for land draw and red threats(I sub her in for Nissa). Mistcutter Hydras have protection from blue, so I put those in for control decks where people run lots of counterspells. Phyrexian Revoker and Reclamation Sage are in for enchantments or activated abilities that give me trouble. And finally, Stubborn Denial is a great 1 mana counterspell that always triggers ferocious in my deck. I can use this to counter board clears that threaten my precious creature swarm, or stop my opponent from casting planeswalkers to get in the way of my plan.

So I hope you enjoyed the trip through my Hydra Swarm deck. I'll begin posting how it does, mostly as an effort to help improve, but I'd love to read any criticism you have for the deck. If you don't know much about Magic, I'd reccomend reading up on it and seeing if it sounds like something you'd enjoy. I enjoy it, as does my girlfriend Melissa, and if you love strategy and fantasy, I think you will too.

Before you head out, here's a music track I'm listening to right now. It's the latest from Feed Me, and I loved hearing this track live when he came through town, and I hope you enjoy it as well.


Have a great Monday!
-David