Not dedicated enough to write a primer but im going to try and give you a pretty good description of how the deck plays, the lines, the combos, and its strengths and weaknesses.

First off Ill introduce myself. Im Will, AKA CACTUS_VISIONS AKA uninstallthegame. Ive been playing magic for 10 years or so, started played edh about 4 years ago, and competitive edh for about 2 and a half years now. I like combos, I like synergies, weird mechanics, and most of all i like Graveyard play.

Hapatra fits ALL these prerequisites for my style of decks i like to play. While i dont think she is anywhere near close to Tier 1(i would say she is either tier2/2.5) I think she has a lot of potential in the future. As of now, even with only a few cards to actually abuse her ability, she is doing very well.


You will LIKE this deck if you like; janky but efficient Combos, commanders you have to build around, recurring and burring stuff in your graveyard, tokens, tutors, and off the wall strategies.

You will NOT like this deck if; You enjoy long drawn out games, swinging with huge timmy creatures, hate combos, hate mass land destruction, or aren't very good at threat assessment, or only play 1v1.


Now the decks strengths are; very fast combos, Easy to assemble combos, combos no one will really see coming, Killing mana dorks early game with -1/-1 counters to set your opponents at a tempo loss, multiplayer games, highly efficient targeted removal, having your commander out early and swinging, and a very good love for politics.

Its weaknesses are; Graveyard hate of course, having a build around commander(if hapatra gets stolen you are pretty fucked), having to start a few of the combos by actually swinging with your commander, a lack of cards printed to abuse -1/-1 counters, or produce them, and last but not least she is a HORRID 1v1 general... Let me explain by having to swing with her to get most the combos started, in 1v1 games either your opponent has a creature to block and kill her, or they dont and you end up having to put a counter on herself just to get a snake. Also there are some decks you will just not be able to deal with plain and simple. Uril, Bruna, Anything with hexproof, Decks that dont play many creatures, counterspell.dec hurts us a lot, but a little less than it would a regular combo deck. Due to the newness of the commander, and the unusual combos it employs. counterspell.dec has a hard time assessing which threats of ours are actually worth their time.


Hands to Keep

generally speaking, we want to keep a hand with at least 2 lands, of both colors. We want a hand with either 1 or more tutors(or just one if we have survival of the fittest). We also dont mind having combo pieces in our opener. Entomb/buried alive with a reanimate spell is really good for us in an opener. and of course if you find yourself with sylvan scrying/expedition map/crop rotation you are in a good spot to set your self up for urborg/coffers. earthcraft, concordant crossroads are snap keeps unless the rest of the hand is complete garbage.


The Combos

So Hapatra combos with a LOT of weird stuff surprisingly, which to our benefit most opponents have not seen.

We have Combo 1: Buried alive for nooze, channler initiate and devoted druid>reanimate nooze> make infinite mana and infinite snakes, with hapatra on the field of course.

this of course takes a turn win because nooze will not have haste, unless you reanimated him with a spell that gives him haste, or also have blighted bat in the yard(thanks to survival of the fittest) or concordant crossroads

concordant crossroads plays a huge role in this deck by not only giving hapatra and nooze haste, but also the infinite number of snakes we made.

~~~~~

Combo 2: Hapatra+devoted druid+ivy lane denizen, to make infinite snakes and infinite green mana.

If we have survival of the fittest on the field we can semi infinite tutor and trash creature we want including but not limited to,necrotic ooze, blighted bat, blood artist, zuluport cutthroat, and when hour of devastation releases we will have an even better version of the last two i mentioned "Obelisk spider"

with these 2 combos it is completely viable to win with just swinging all out with your snakes, but being a cEDH player at heart this is kind of shitty. In a sense that we have to use combat to win. The optimal scenario for these 2 combos is having cutthroat,artist,or spider on the field as well as having a sac outlet or some way to kill the snakes. (with Obelisk spider's release, we will not need a sac outlet for these combos to kill everyone, the -1/-1 counter triggers will replace the "dies" triggers that zuluport and artist require)

~~~~~

Combo 3: Hapatra+blowfly infestation+ cutthroat/artist/spider to create infinite death triggers/-1/-1 triggers to kill everyone.

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Combo 4: Earthcraft+squirrel's nest, for infinite squirrels.( i know not as good as snakes) We already run earthcraft because we have a lot of creatures in play most the time, run mostly basic lands, and "Por que no los dos"?

of course, again with a sac outlet and cutthroat/artist we just insta win.

~~~~~

combo 5: Black Sun Zenith for anything but 0+living plane

this will completely nuke every land on the field, and leave you with a army of snakes that makes it very hard to catch up to. yes it takes a few turns to kill everyone, assuming we have 20 or so snakes, but its very hard to come back from a MLD situation where you are left with nothing and we are left with a ton of snakes.

This combo also works with things like Archfiend of Infir, or soul snuffers and the like.


The lines of play

There are a few lines of play in this deck, and most of them overlap in terms of the combo pieces.

T1 land>chrome mox, mox diamond, solr ring, mana crypt, concordant crossroads> hapatra> pass.

T2 land>hapatra>tutor>swing>pass.

T3 land>swing(hopefully neging out a dork on someone elses board)>make a snake>tutor for combo pieces>pass/win.

T4 land>combo pieces>go off>win

now of course all this can be accelerated by having T1 fast mana or concordant crossroads. ive gotten wins with the deck as early as t3, and im sure with a nut hand its capable of winning T2

Like i said, there are a few lines of play, but this one is our first go. Combo Priorities are; Buried alive+reanimate nooze, devoted druid+ivy lane Denizen, hapatra+blowfly, and living plane+mass -1/-1 counter spells.


Hoped you liked this mini primer for my deck. It is an Absolute blast to play. If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know. If im blatantly missing anything that absolutely should be in the deck, but isnt. slap me and tell me what im doing wrong.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and if you decide to use my list to build your own Hapatra deck, have fun! she is a wild commander.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

45 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.51
Tokens Experience Token, Insect 1/1 B, Snake 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G w/ Deathtouch, Squirrel 1/1 G
Folders EDH, Commander Inspiration
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