Primordial threats

Modern

Pygmyrhino990

Instant (14)

• 3x Blossoming Defense
• 2x Fling
• 2x Fog
• 4x Groundswell
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 2x Soul's Fire

Sorcery (4)

• 3x Commune with Nature
• 1x Relentless Assault

Creature (14)

• 2x Apocalypse Hydra
• 4x Elvish Mystic
• 4x Primordial Hydra
• 3x Somberwald Sage
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels

Artifact (3)

• 2x Mage Slayer
• 1x Sword of the Animist

Land (21)

• 2x Cinder Glade
• 12x Forest
• 4x Mountain
• 3x Rootbound Crag

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Hardened Scales

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Sideboard

Instant (12)

• 3x Ancient Grudge
• 2x Destructive Revelry
• 2x Heroic Intervention
• 2x Lightning Bolt
• 3x Plummet

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Pyroclasm

Artifact (1)

• 1x Grafdigger's Cage

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Maybeboard

Instant (3)

• 2x Evolution Charm
• 1x Temur Battle Rage

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Burning Anger

Creature (1)

• 1x Llanowar Elves

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Many years ago I built a mono green Hydra deck. It did not work very well. So now I have a few copies of Primordial Hydra lying around. This is what I now plan to do with them.

After seeing many years of red green hydra decks, one thing became apparent to me. Hydras are very strong. Hydras have a very high power and toughness making them prime targets for removal. Well, why don't we just skip that whole mess altogether and get rid of it ourselves. And by that I mean we pick up the hydra and throw it at the opponent. Yep, we're running Fling.

Card Choices

The issue with my previous hydra deck was that it was just a bunch of large creatures thrown into a deck and I would hope for the best. After becoming a bit more accustomed to the competitiveness of magic, I discovered that you need your deck to be capable of winning by around turn 5. Thus we need to run faster cards than Oran-Rief Hydra

• Apocalypse Hydra I only run this because of it's capability to get huge fast as well as burn.

• Primordial Hydra The hardest hitter, allows a turn 8 32/32 creature, not that we should get that far anyway.

• Hardened Scales Chosen to be a simple turn 1-2 drop so that on turn 3 I can launch a 4/4 primordial for an 11/11 the next turn to attack with then fling.

• Elvish Mystic, Somberwald Sage: Good ramp for the early game. A turn 1 mystic means a turn 2 sage for a huge 7 Mana primordial on turn 3 for a killer blow on turn 4.

• Mage Slayer, Fling, Soul's Fire. These are my hydra's best friends for obvious reasons.

• Relentless Assault is good just in case I need to finish them off after a somewhat less successful attack, works especially well with Mage Slayer

• Fog will probably switch for something more protective, but good for sparing me an extra turn to finish off my opponent

• Groundswell: great considering the land count in the deck, otherwise because we have a lot of ramp, we can hold back on playing lands until the time comes

• Invigorated Rampage is chosen because it synergises with the "deal damage equal to power" effects and gives trample in the case of Apocalypse Hydra

• Commune with Nature helps me tutor up one of my hydras and chew through my deck to find other combo pieces otherwise

• Blossoming Defense is handy protection in the event our hydra does nearly get shot down, plus it gives us a little extra P/T

• Forest, Mountain I haven't chosen any non-basic lands yet and I'm trying to stay budget (below 100 if possible) so I'm open to recommendations

Game plan

So far it seems rather obvious what the game plan is, get big hydras and attack, then use spells for extra damage, but there is an order to it.

Ideal opening hand setup:

So in an ideal world we have at least one cheap ramp, either Elvish Mystic, or Whisperer of the Wilds, 1 Primordial Hydra, a mountain, 2 forests, Hardened Scales and one of our creature -> damage spells (Fling, Mage Slayer or Soul's Fire)

The game plan is to smash out Primordial Hydra ASAP for as much as possible. As soon as he reaches above 10 +1/+1 counters (or half the enemies life total at a minimum of 10) we attack and use one of the burn cards to finish them off.

Turn 4 win

Opening hand: Forest x2, Mountain, Primordial Hydra, Elvish Mystic, Hardened Scales x2

Top deck: Hardened Scales, Fling

turn 1: forest + mystic

turn 2: forest + hardened scales x3

turn 3: mountain + primordial (pay 4 mana playing him as a 5/5 with scales)

turn 4: (primordial is a 13/13). attack with primordial and fling in second main.

Alternate turn 4 win, a little harder to set up

Opening hand: Forest x3, Elvish Mystic x4

Top deck: Fling, Relentless Assault or Soul's Fire, Primordial Hydra, Mountain

Turn 1: forest + mystic

Turn 2: forest + mystic x3

Turn 3: forest + primordial for 7 mana

Turn 4: mountain, attack with primordial for 10 dmg (if they have a blocker you can pump him if you want, but turn 4 guarantees the opponent won't have a really big blocker) then you can either use SF, Fling, or RA

Yet another turn 4 win

Opening hand: 2x Forest, 1x mountain, xenagos, Primordial, mysitc, Somberwald

Topdeck: fling

T1: Forest mystic

T2: Forest Somberwald

T3: mountain Primordial with 5 counters

T4: xenagos (using Somberwald for Mana) Primordial is a 10/10, xenagos gives +10, attack for 20 with trample, then fling through the rest.

play testing

So after coming into acquisition of the deck a few things become apparent. Ramp is precious and should be revered, and most opening hands should include 1-2 ramp creatures minimum. Also, not starting with a Hydra in hand is detrimental, so commune with nature is a godsend. Apocalypse Hydra is not as good as I would like it to be either, but is more of a worst case scenario burn, but has still won me games.

Possible changes might be swapping out the Apocalypse hydras for cheap creature tutor to find me Primordial Hydra. Otherwise a couple of the pump spells might get added or subtracted for better options.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 16 - 3 Rares 8 - 9 Uncommons 15 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.77
Folders	interesting decks