So you want to build a snake lady deck? Jump on EDHREC, Card Kingdom on the second monitor, start adding every -1/-1 counter card you can find to cart, done - right? Wrong. Everything in moderation. I tried that path, and lo and behold, I discovered how not to build this deck.
A good Hapatra deck operates just like the Vizier of Poisons herself. Equal parts aggro and midrange. Hapatra provides our early game (4 out of 5 games, sometimes it is best to hold her for a combo strike) so we can let our curve drift a little higher. One downside of playing Golgari is that once our creatures are played and our black hatred unveiled, we can be a little light on cards. So with our high curve, let's try squeezing some more value out of every card. When we're top decking to save ourselves the last thing we want to see is Crumbling Ashes or Quillspike. These are some of the "signature" cards listed on EDHREC, mostly all of them part of some pipe dream wombo-combo imagined by some spike thinking we can play four copies of each in a sixty card deck. What we really want to see from our top decks are choice and value. Reanimator. Sheoldred. Natural Order. All of these cards are powerful on their own, and stunning when partnered with our snake queen. We shouldn't be afraid to play big mana cards. Being green we can afford a little ramp, but we want more value than Harrow or Cultivate. We want the wife of Wes Wise, Oracle of Mul Daya. Got a token deck? Let's run Harvest Season. With Hapatra holding out our early game, soaking some hatred from across the board, we can comfortably get to turn 6+ and starting dropping the fatties.
My philosophy aside, let's break this deck down.
Card draw:
In a 100 card deck, we need to find the answer, and it ain't always easy. 6 slots for draw, not including Dusk Urchins or Oracle of Mul Daya (if it's a land, draw) is a shade under what I'd like, but with our tutors and Eternal Witness, I feel we have the ability to have some staying power in those long stalemate games. Note: Seshiro is currently a flavour fix. I love him/her but I'm yet to really play it. May sub out for Driven // Despair post HOU, but do not underestimate the lording of snakes.
-1's
After turn 5, Hapatra usually runs out of open targets (without aid.) This is where she can become a power transformer for all our -1 producers. 9 spots, excluding Channeler Initiate, Cauldron of Souls and Grasping Dunes. I prefer to abuse Hapatra's synergy with good cards, than to focus on proccing her trigger with endless hordes of barely playable cards. We can sting several times for 1 mana with Wickerbough Elder (once an Aura Shards and Mirari's Wake the same turned I dropped him,) get Dusk Urchins to the point of a super relevant Harmonize for 3 mana and 3 snakes quicker, we can make Contagion Engine/Soul Snuffers/Black Sun's Zenith/Carnifex Demon removal spells with game swinging snake creation, ripe to be combo'd with Triumph of the Hordes, Craterhoof Behemoth, Harvest Season and Chord of Calling. The reliability of Serrated Arrows should also not be underrated.
Tokens (tokes):
Well if we're gonna make tokes, let's make 'em right. Parallel Lives is a powerful Magic card. After maybeboarding it for a couple of weeks I decided to main it again, under the proviso that it wasn't just my commander that was going to abuse it. Too many times it was dead in hand late with Hapatra a 4-6 mana general. Instead we're opting to run good old natty token generators, and strong ones at that. Avenger of Zendikar. Huge Harvest Season/Chord of Calling/Craterhoof synergy here. Freyalise, pirate babe who answers pesky artifacts and enchantment while providing more draw and mana. Garruk. Possibly Garruk, Primal Hunter is better here, but I like Wildspeaker being 4 mana or even 2 if needed by ticking him up straight away. In the end we should be able to defend him enough to make him relevant (ie Overrun with tokes.) Hornet Queen - this deck prefers quantity over quality when it comes to tokens, so let her eat cake. Creakwood Liege, semi situational but provides value turn after turn. Finally, Rampaging Baloths. Who's gonna turn down free 4/4's? Try him with a Harvest Season?
Utility-
In commander we cannot rely on drawing cards we need (unless we're something like Zur) so we try to mitigate this by having cards that can either provide the answer or offer several answers. I won't go too deep into explaining this aside from saying this: Crop Rotation. Need to give our queen fear? Need 1 more mana? Need a -1? Need that Maze of Ith you of course added to my list? Need to bog the sad Jarad/Lord of Extinction player? Crop Rotation got you boo, and only for one single manyas.
Ramp:
Look, I said Hapatra had our early game sorted and to build for the late. That doesn't always work. Or perhaps you need to string a few 3-4 mana cards together to combo off. Hit a massive clump of lands again? Lets fix that with off the top of yo' deck RAMP. 6 spots here. Some synergy too. Cryptolith Rite turns your snakes into mana dorks, Channeler Initiate makes a snake when she enters and soaks -1's if your opponent's don't have creatures. Artifacts for the usual reasons, Courser and Oracle to declump land (I hate it so much.)
Wincon:
There are many ways to win with this deck. These are not your only options. But should times be dire, these are you best ones.
Beastmaster Ascension - ow.
Craterhoof - ow.
Triumph of the Hordes - ow, salt.
Zulaport Cutthroat/Blood Artist + Blowfly Infestation + Hapatra - Make a snake. Swing, kill a snake, make a snake, kill a snake - repeat till death do us part.
Sac:
Only really Ashnods, Sadistic Hypnotist, Victimize, Eldrazi Monument (kinda) and Natural Order. Not gonna jam jammy sac crap in just for the sake of our attrition cards below. Our stuff will die enough anyway.
Attrition:
Let's keep our foot on the tiger's neck. While you're paying a cost, your opponent is paying that cost twice over for nothing. Gravepact/Dictate for obvious reasons. Praetors because they broke as hell and Vorinclex is orderable by nature. Sheoldred can revive our other fatties or value lads which it is not by coincidence get their effects from ETBs...
Removal: We need to take down threats. Hapatra needs to be interacting with anything that could stop us, especially Artifacts, Enchantments (Wickerbough Elder is removal here too), and Planeswalkers. We don't always retain our snowball and for that, we run a removal suite.
Survivability:
Board wipes crush us. No Hapatra halves our tempo. For that, our snakes and their fearless leader must be preserved. Cauldron of Souls yields ridiculous synergy. Eldrazi Monument provides flying which not only keeps us alive but can win games (and sometimes our sac at upkeep can be taxing to opponents too ;D) Mikaeus is here, cos he broke, everything else to save our snake seller herself.
Reanimator:
My biggest doubt. I can't 100% say this is necessary to the deck! However, it does routinely provide me with mountains of the so called value I have been preaching about. One mana Elesh Norn really, really works in this deck. Mostly these cards give security in playing your big mana creatures. They provide toolbox, utility, and can break games. For this reason, I keep them.
Lands: Pretty self explanatory... do note that Oran-Rief after a Cauldron of Souls wipe does produce grimaces on opponents' faces.
The maybes, and why they didn't make the cut.
Asceticism: Too big of a mana sink. Hexproof is better in our equipment slots, wrath effects make this card a win more card, stick to monument.Butcher: We run 2x gravepacts anyway. Yes he's searchable and reanimatable but he's never gonna be our primary target there. Dies fast too.Carrion Feeder: Good if you wanna go for more sac options.Crumbling Ashes: Nice lock with Serrated Arrows but too underpowered for how situational it is.Deathrite Shaman: A situational utility card. As much as I loved controlling grave players from turn one, I needed the room. Can be meta dependent.Devoted Druid + Quillspike, (or with both in grave) Necroskitter: Fantastic combo here. Average as hell on their own, unlike BA/ZC + Blowfly. Good to search with Protean Hulk but to run Hulk, more reliable sac outlets are needed and I didn't wanna start jamming more engines in. Without the hulk, too situational.Fresh Meat: Can't keep 4 mana open every turn in case of a wrath.Green Sun's Zenith: Don't like being restricted to greenies only.Midnight Banshee: So powerful! Never makes it to upkeep. Run with Vedalken Orrery or not at all.Mind Slash: Another great sac outlet.Necroskitter: Never once resolved his steal. Good on paper/in a vacuum only.Phyrexian Swarmlord: Honestly, might run him, but see Midnight Banshee.Protean Hulk: See Devoted Druid.Sylvan Offering: Had success with this card, but I believe it to have been luck.Sylvan Safekeeper: Protects Hulk combo.Viscera Seer: Great sac outlet, if you go that way.Woodfall Primus: UGH I #%@#ing love him. Altar + Mikaeus + Primus = no land for opponents. May try squeeze him in one day but Terrastodon can hit 3 on his own, 6 with Reanimator. Straight VALUE.
Why to play Hapatra:
You like stringing together explosive plays, being aggressive, oppressive and feel you have the ability to be resilient and rebuild a board state after having it ruined.
Why not to play Hapatra:
This is almost a good stuff deck. We rely on synergy of cherry picked strong cards so that for every card we play we aim to make our opponent answer with two. This deck will not play the same every game. Hapatra sometimes should be held to combo (ie: with a Soul Snuffers and Parallel Lives) on T6 rather than be attacking on T3. If you like everything to be "themey" and supplement the same end goal, this ain't for you.
Now get out there and make snakes!
Why did it have to be snakes...
More to be added, apologies for my terrible essay writing skills, and many thanks for reading.
