Introduction: I took the deck "Toxic Relationship" by Daedalus19876 (Toxic Relationship: Hapatra EDH | *PRIMER*) and tweaked it for better synergy, keeping win cons and combos I like, and modifying it to not make it Stax (that strategy is considered uncool and unfun by me and my playgroup). Thank you Deadalus19876 for providing an excellent starting point!
Strategy:
1. Get token generators and combo pieces out as fast as possible using creature tutors, mana ramp, card draw, card filtering. The main token generators are: Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Flourishing Defenses, or Nest of Scarabs. Just one is needed. Multiple out is evil >:)
2. After the token generators are out and running, this deck has two general ways to win, depending on the power & toughness of the 1/1 snake, insect, or elf tokens being created.
First way: Tokens stay 1/1 because they aren't getting buffed with 1/1 counters, tribal enchantments, etc. This sets up for some infinite combos with placing -1/-1 counters or mass removal on 1/1 creature tokens (plenty of cards do this - I won't list them all here), if Blowfly Infestation is out, and if one of Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Flourishing Defenses, or Nest of Scarabs is on the board. Tokens die, you make more tokens from a 2-step series of triggered effects. These infinite sac triggers can lead to a win-con if Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, or Champion of Lambholt, are also out (again, just one needed).
Value combos, but not outright game-winning: If Sadistic Hypnotist is out, you can force the opponent to discard all cards in their hand. Meren of Clan Nel Toth can be pumped to arbitrarily high experience counters. Ashnod's Altar = infinite colorless mana. Fecundity = as much card draw as you want. Viscera Seer = look for card you want.
Second way: Tokens are buffed beyond 1/1 with stuff like Eldrazi Monument, Beastmaster Ascension, Creakwood Liege, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest,
Vigor
, Adaptive Automaton, Triumph of the Hordes, or Oran-Rief, the Vastwood (just need at least one of these cards). Most of the previous combos of the first way are still possible, but now you can create a large number of creature tokens and just outright attack to whittle down life totals. Additional win cons here are tapping a bunch of creature tokens and have opponents lose game-ending life with Throne of the God-Pharaoh, or Overrun effects like Champion of Lambholt or Triumph of the Hordes
3. Alt win cons
Quillspike + Devoted Druid + a way to place -1/-1 counters = infinite mana and power combo.
4. Along the way: disrupt the opponent with overwhelming creature removal, one artifact/enchantment destruction that can be tutored
Wickerbough Elder
, or forced discard (two cards do this). The many creature tutors should make finding at least one value creature/combo enabling creature possible.
Thoughts & Backburner: Blowfly Infestation is the crux of these two families of strategies. I'd like to find one more card for redundancy (Right now the fairly expensive Death's Presence is trying to fulfill that role). Bit concerned about having too many 5 and 6 CMC drops, and shape of mana curve. Some cards don't quite fit the above strategy and I'd like to swap them out.
My Change Log
v.1.1 - 5/1/2017
- Took out smoke stack and put in Snake Basket (ethical change - Stax is not fun to play against)
- Took out Deadbridge Chant for Flourishing Defenses (Deadbridge did not fit synergy and theme of deck, added another combo and token creator)
- Took out Ulvenwald Tracker for Viscera Seer (hmm decided that another sac outlet more valuable than a combat trick)
- Take out Grasping Dunes for in Yavimaya's Hollow (Grasping Dunes does not have replay value, is colorless; better to have a land that can regenerate the Commander or other value creatures in a creature dependent EDH deck like this)
- Took out Song of the Dryads (3 mana green removal) for Chord of Calling (hmm may take it back,swapping removal for pretty generalized creature tutor here)
- Took out Serrated Arrows (4 mana) for Creakwood Liege (great token generator, wanted to buff tokens to enable some combos and maybe just token overrun)
- Took out Blooming Marsh for Temple of Malady (scry > conditional mana versatility)
- Took out one Forest for Oran-Rief, the Vastwood (to buff snake creature tokens)
- Took out City of Brass for Woodland Cemetery (enough mana fixers already)
- Took out Garruk Relentless
for: Champion of Lambholt (for token overrun combo and another win con, Garruk just didn't seem to fit in)
- Took out Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger for
Vigor
(Vorinclex not fun to play against, Vigor still game ending potentially)
- Took out Golgari Signet for Nature's Lore (green has better ramp) (Peter's suggestion)
v1.2 5/2/2017
-Took out
Splendid Agony
for Parallel Lives (for token generation help, Splendid Agony only one time value)
-Took out Snake Basket for Grave Pact (Snake Basket dependent on too many cards to enable combo, this will be good removal)
-Took out Ring of Xathrid for Adaptive Automaton (Ring of Xathrid is nice, but not game-chaning imo; put in the other card to buff tokens created to set up for Triumph of Hordes or Overrun win con)
-Took out Birthing Pod for Cryptolith Rites (enough creature tutors already, need some mana fixing and ramp - esp good with tokens to enable some win cons)
v1.2.1 - 5/7/2017
-Took out Worldly Tutor for Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. (a lot of creature tutors already, I don't like the tempo disadvantage with this card). It was difficult for me to decide also between Mazriek, Mycoloth and
Bloodspore Thrinax
. I want to strengthen the tokens and also enable some infinite combos.
-Took out Pernicious Deed for
Spidersilk Armor
(swapping out removal for token toughener)
-Took out Incremental Blight for Metallic Mimic (taking out -1/-1 counter producer for token toughener)
-Took out Grim Affliction for Flesh-Eater Imp(another potential win con with sac outlets and fodder)
-Took out Chord of Calling for Death's Presence (thought I have enough creature tutors, this will provide a redundancy for the Blowfly Infestation combo
-Took out Hissing Quagmire for Verdant Catacombs. Saccing lands has synergy with Mazirek, and will help get the difficult 3-black mana cards out like
Midnight Banshee
or Grave Pact . Grasping Dunes is back on the maybeboard after reconsidering its possible synergy.
v1.3 - 5/12/2017-Took out Vigor for Ulvenwald Tracker (1 mana) (to smooth mana curve out, and Vigor overkill now I think. I also underestimated utility of the Tracker to force battles with deathtouch snakes lmao).
-Took out Fume Spitter for Deathrite Shaman (1 mana)
-Took out Putrefy for Tree of Perdition.
-Took out Evolutionary Leap for Plague Myr
-Took out Grave Pact for Dictate of Erebos
-Took out Ashnod's Altar for Phyrexian Altar
-Took out Helm of Possession for Doubling Season
For reference: Deadalus19876's Original Deck Description
Description
Abusing -1/-1 counters for fun and profit! This is a token/stax deck, killing and maiming your opponents' creatures. You can take advantage of the fact that most tables will have at least one player without a creature on turn 3, so you can swing to kill small utility creatures and get snakes.
SNAKES FOR DAYS - The value from spells like Black Sun's Zenith is disgusting: when you kill the board, you retain an army of deathtouching snakes! It's also ludicrously easy to get more than 20 snakes, sac them for mana/cards, then win.
The main wincons are stax (card:Smokestacks and Shisato, Whispering Hunter) and/or classic beatdown (Eldrazi Monument, Triumph of the Hordes, etc).
INFINITE COMBOSThere are two main infinite combos in this deck:-- Blowfly Infestation+Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons gives infinite ETBs, infinite counter placement, and infinite death triggers. With this combo working, Nest of Scarabs gives infinite creatures, Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat gives infinite life loss, Fecundity gives infinite draw, et cetera.
-- Quillspike+Devoted Druid creates infinite power. Paired with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons or Nest of Scarabs, it also gives an infinite number of snakes! Mikaeus, the Unhallowed sometimes has been in this deck; when he is, he also goes infinite with Devoted Druid.
OTHER SYNERGIES AND IMPORTANT CARDSAs is typical for me, I started building this about 2 minutes after she was first spoiled, so it's likely the first Hapatra deck on the internet :)What remaining cards would you add/cut?
Like the god-pharoah, I shall return!
SuggestionsUpdatesFirst Major Update April 16, 2017Having played this several times at my LGS, I'm happy overall, but a few changes were necessary. The list got a bit tighter, the curve was improved, and I included more cards from Amonkhet.
(Speaking of Amonkhet, Defiant Greatmaw will be in this deck once T/O adds the card.)
![Toxic Relationship: Hapatra EDH [PRIMER] thumbnail](http://static.tappedout.net/chart/0-0-50-0-50-small.png)