Cut X Heads Off, X More Shall Take Its Place

Commander / EDH Budget Counters Ramp RG (Gruul)

Calyptic

Creature (19)

• 1x Apocalypse Hydra
• 1x Balduvian Hydra
• 1x Endless One
• 1x Feral Hydra
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Hooded Hydra
• 1x Hydra Broodmaster
• 1x Ivy Elemental
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Lifeblood Hydra
• 1x Mistcutter Hydra
• 1x Neheb, the Eternal
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Primordial Hydra
• 1x Protean Hydra
• 1x Rock Hydra
• 1x Savageborn Hydra
• 1x Vastwood Hydra
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels

Land (34)

• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 15x Forest
• 1x Gruul Guildgate
• 11x Mountain
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Rugged Highlands
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of the False God

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Animist's Awakening
• 1x Banefire
• 1x Bonfire of the Damned
• 1x By Force
• 1x Crater's Claws
• 1x Decimate
• 1x Fanning the Flames
• 1x Howl of the Horde
• 1x Nissa's Renewal
• 1x Overwhelming Stampede
• 1x Slime Molding
• 1x Stream of Life
• 1x Sudden Demise
• 1x Wildest Dreams
• 1x Wurmcalling

Instant (10)

• 1x Balduvian Rage
• 1x Enrage
• 1x Molder
• 1x Outmaneuver
• 1x Predator's Rapport
• 1x Ravaging Blaze
• 1x Street Spasm
• 1x Strength of the Tajuru
• 1x Untamed Might
• 1x Volt Charge

Artifact (6)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1x Sigil of Distinction
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Commander (1)

Enchantment (15)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1x Fires of Yavimaya
• 1x Goblin War Drums
• 1x Gratuitous Violence
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Gruul War Chant
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Instill Energy
• 1x Nature's Chosen
• 1x Primal Rage
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Rage Reflection
• 1x Vernal Bloom
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x War Cadence

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UPDATE: I'm currently thinking of adding in a couple more lands, so if you guys can think of any card that really doesn't need to be in this deck please comment, because I think I'd be more comfortable with 33-35 lands rather than 31. That small difference does make a huge difference.

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I'm probably the only one who loves the name of this Deck.

This is a deck I made for Rosheen Meanderer, but not so much after seeing what she can do, but what them beastly Hydras can do. Hydras like Primordial Hydra , Vastwood Hydra , Apocalypse Hydra , etc.

But this deck isn't necessarily a Hydra Tribal. It's focused around the concept of X Costs. So you know what that means.

Probably stay away from this Commander

Which of course, that is not completely true. You could bust out enough powerful creatures to kill them over, or even force Gaddock to block (and more likely than not, kill him)

But enough about him, this is about the miraculous X cost.

I've always enjoyed X Costs since well, obviously you get to decide what mana you want to spend, and in turn, how much damage you want to deal or how much power you want to give to your creatures, etc etc. Rosheen just seemed like the natural commander for this, albeit her lack of Blue really upsets me. Maybe in an alternate reality the Hydras and Mana Ramp of Green/Red could combine with the mass Proliferation of Blue in a Temur deck. Animar's probably the obvious there.

I've built the deck to at least be semi-competitive, so it's that level of you wouldn't boast it around as the "unbeatable deck" around your casual play group, but also not the level that will keep your "friends" relaxed in the back of their seat.

At least once they find out just how much "ramp" you're getting out of Rosheen.

Turn 4 is the obvious intended turn of getting her out, which means that by Turn 5, you have EIGHT mana to work with, meaning your immediate spell on turn 5 will pull out either a 6/6 or 7/7 creature, or say deal 6 or 7 damage to whatever it is you don't want to have a nice day.

And as I've said this is a Hydra deck. Hydra's really underestimate the power of your mana ramp. Normally Apocalypse Hydra would be a bit of a chore choking out all that mana to get above a X cost of 5, but with Rosheen at the helm, it's child's play. Say hello to your new 12/12 Green and Red Hydra on Turn 5, experiences will vary.

There's also a bit of Mana Ramp, because who wouldn't want to target your commander with an ability such as that. As such you'll eventually wanna get to the point that you won't need to recast her, and you have your own. I try (keyword "try") to make Commander Decks that don't depend on the Commander being alive 24/7, because once the commander is dead, the deck is typically not much to brag about. So there's plenty of ways to gather gratuitous amounts of mana to make sure you're getting more bang for your buck. I felt like I could've made that into a pun because... Red spells are explosive... green spells are nature... bucks are deer thats a.. nature thing.. i dunno

...Although you won't always have to, or it may even better not to in some cases, it's probably evident that the strategy here involves playing one spell a turn, to get as much mana in that X cost as you possibly can.

This helps and hurts the deck, since the amount of mana is sure to be high, but also because this deck is particularly extremely predictable.

BECAUSE OF THAT. This deck will probably play a bitpoorly against decks designed for absolute control. THEN AGAIN what non-Control deck isn't? Cough Except for a Surrak Dragonclaw deck Cough Cough. Even splitting up half your mana to cast two spells, it's likely a dangerous road. And as much as I'd love to add something like Red Elemental Blast in here to fight against that, it's simply not enough. The advantage is the fact this deck sports a pedigree of powerful creatures to swing at your opponents, as well as enchantments to give them those amazing abilities like Trample and Double Strike?

Imagine Turn 6 with that 12/12 Apocalypse Hydra , he's ready to strike, but also imagine if you will, you've had Primal Rage out since like Turn Ages Ago, and for this turn you've wooped out Berserkers' Onslaught . That makes your child a 12/12 with Trample and Double Strike. Have fun trying to prevent 24 Damage... unless they Fog you... then uh.. they will.. haha.

In addendum, this deck is designed to utilize the magical ability of X costs with a Commander who can ramp it up a notch. My goal is to set the bar of this deck at a nice semi-competitive level, which TappedOut seems to rate it so far... not sure how accurate that ACTUALLY is but one can dream.

I'm completely down for suggestions to this deck, what cards would make it better, maybe I missed a card that helps you get even more shitloads of +1/+1 Counters ((I KNOW YOU'RE ALL GOING TO SAY Doubling Season , I CAN'T AFFORD IT D;))

If you guys do have any suggestions to make this deck better (and keeping it within a Budget margin), please let me know, and to lift the weight of my shoulders, please recommend a card that it'd do well to replace. This deck was initially like 130 cards and it literally took me close to two hours to finally narrow it down to the legal limit, so please if you will.

Thanks for reading all this stuff!

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.56
Tokens	Hydra */* G, Morph 2/2 C, Ooze */* G, Snake 1/1 G, Wurm */* G
Folders	Decks to Think About, Potential Decks, future decks, Commander, Nice commander deck, Decks, commander decks, Not My Decks, EDH (Counters), Sample