Okay so I won't lie, I ADORE the hydra creature type. Their design, both from an artwork and gameplay perspective is fun, and efficient. Since their mana costs are flexible, it means they're formidable at any point in the game as long as you have the mana to play them. No drawing a weak two dropper turn 6 when you need a beater. No nine mana bomb drawn turn two when you just want a body on board. No matter when you cast one, they scale to the game and your mana base. I'm also a big fan of the jund color shard and the spells those three colors give you access to. So I'm Stoked to build a hydra based Jund deck with Gyrus, The Waker of Corpses at the helm. The core concept of the deck is to ramp up your mana base and then get as many mana doublers down as possible so you can invest large amounts of mana into the x cost hydras. The deck also centers around +1/+1 counter support as most Hydras power is based on their +1/+1 counters so any spells that bolster them or benefit the creatures with the counters are great to have. Ive play tested it a bunch and best case scenario, you can be swinging double strike or trampling 22/22's as early as turn 5 or 6.The whole deck revolves around a single word:More
MORE MANA
The more mana you have, the bigger you can make you hydras. You've got your standard green land ramp
Kodama's Reach
,
Cultivate
,
Harrow
and the like, your basic mana rock ensemble
Golgari Signet
Sol Ring
Rakdos Signet
Gruul Signet
and
Commander's Sphere
, along with some mana fixing/ land type manipulators
Farseek
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Prismatic Omen
to ensure that even though the vast majority of the deck is green, you wont be without the other colors you need. I prefer omen to chromatic lantern as changing all lands to all basic land types helps out a lot with cards like coffers or the lands that check to see what kind of basic lands you have and how many. Then your have your mana doublers, to grow your x costers to mammoth proportions.
Zendikar Resurgent
Mana Flare
Cabal Coffers
, anything to stretch those lands out.
MORE COUNTERS
While the Hydra tribe may not have received direct support cards like goblins, merfolk, or elves, they benefit tremendously from the many +1/+1 counter support cards in recent years.
Metallic Mimic
can give any hydra coming in an additional counter on the way in,
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
can make your hydras mana dorks,
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
will make sure no counter goes to waste
Armorcraft Judge
refreshes your hand,
Hardened Scales
Retreat to Kazandu
and
Durable Handicraft
give everyone bonus counters, as does
Path of Discovery
along with fetching you a couple lands along the way.
Doubling Season
Corpsejack Menace
DOUBLE your counters and
Aquastrand Spider
give your creatures with counters the ability to deal with flyers they many not normally be able to deal with on their own and
Inspiring Call
can protect them as well as draw you cards. Finally
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
is a great source of counters and chump blockers in a pinch
MORE CARDS What commander player doesn't want to draw tons of cards? The deck tends to use setup cards to get additional cards, rather than just play a "draw x cards" instant or sorcery, though the deck does use
Harmonize
just to get a few extra cards.
Phyrexian Arena
Colossal Majesty
and
Zendikar Resurgent
help to get you an extra one or two draws a turn to ensure you don't run out of gas. In case of emergencies the previously mentioned
Inspiring Call
can save your team and give you a few extra cards. I highly recommend holding onto that card or saving a
Eternal Witness
to get it back as its easily one the best tempo cards in your arsenal. Finally some of our creatures have card draw stapled on like
Armorcraft Judge
or
Lifeblood Hydra
.
MORE DEAD THINGS Sadly not all of our problems can be solved by beating them over the head with a beefy monster, thankfully Jund colors have us covered with removal. In terms of board wipes,
Damnation
is a solid all around wrath effect,
Blasphemous Act
is a wipe that, once your hydras get big enough can survive and gets cheaper the more things there are in play, same can go for
Toxic Deluge
. Finally, for the people running a lot of artifacts
Vandalblast
can ruin their day and mana fixers. In terms of spot removal
Assassin's Trophy
is in a league of its own, along with solid value removal in
Maelstrom Pulse
and
Decimate
who get you great disruption for your mana investment. And
Hero's Downfall
and
Krosan Grip
round out the removal arsenal.
MORE UTILITYFinally we round out the deck with utility cards.
Worldly Tutor
,
Vampiric Tutor
, and
Demonic Tutor
help us grab whatever card or creature we need at a moment's notice.
Banefire
is a great buen spell/ alternate win condition you can dump your large amounts of mana into. Since most hydras have a base power of 0,
Imperial Recruiter
can tutor up a large portion of our Hydras, and is a great reanimation target for Gyrus to use.
Eternal Witness
lets us get back important cards. And we have
Vexing Shusher
. There is no worse feeling than dumping 10+ mana into a hydra just to have a resident blue player counter it. The shusher grants protection from this problem for the low cost of a single mana.
