MTG Combo: Hardened Scales + Managorger Hydra

_Delta_ on Athreos, God of Passage EDH (Discontinued)

7 years ago

Yes some decks can be quite fast. Such as my Vorel of the Hull Clade deck, once I won with it in I think like 6-7 turns. Hardened Scales + Managorger Hydra then soon after my commander I got out to finish things up. I did all of this with I think only 3-4 mana if I recall.

PlagueRats on You can't fire me because I quit - Avg. CMC 1.44

8 years ago

Thanks Trynthlas, I haven't got to play a whole lot since adding Murder Investigation. Languish beats Murder Investigation, but it's sometimes less of a threat than an Abzan Charm. Hardened Scales + Managorger Hydra is a fun matchup against Languish, you just need to play one card after the Hydra to make it a 3/3 that becomes a 5/5 when the opponent casts their Languish. Actually most of these creatures can get bigger then 4/4 on their own.

Virulent Plague obviously beats all my tokens. I would just side out all the token making cards in that case. It makes Murder Investigation a dead card, but I do have 4x Dromoka's Command's? It may not be that much of a problem.

What likely happens against sweepers is the opponent will waste turns trying to set it up so they can destroy the creature with spot removal and clean up the tokens next turn with their sweeper. Against control decks or whenever I suspect sweepers, I just try not to play more creatures then I need. The more removal a deck has, the fewer creatures, so often you only really want two or three creatures in play to defend yourself and keep up the pressure. Once I have enough creatures in play, I can just keep all my lands untapped for Evolutionary Leap if I want. There are 23 green lands so you can sacrifice most/all of your creatures in response to anything. With Evolutionary Leap your ideally always leaving enough untapped land to 'protect' your creatures from any expected threat. They play a sweeper, next turn you can cast a couple creatures and leave one land untapped to maintain your advantage.

I love this type of game, I beat a control deck with 4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip and nothing but card draw, removal, and counter spells. Game 1, I conceded after activating Evolutionary Leap and not finding a creature left in my library. It was a good game though, I always felt like I could win within a couple turns, right up to the end.