Aspect of Hydra

Instant

Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is your devotion to green.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

sergiodelrio on legendofa

2 months ago

Hey legendofa, thanks for the upvote! I saw your Leyline of the Guildpact deck the other day (as you know) and thought the combo approach was quite crafty.

That card has been on my radar since it spoiled and I thought maybe something can be done based on devotion (Aspect of Hydra)? Imho green has some very solid leylines anyway (Leyline of Abundance, Leyline of Vitality) and with cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx that might be able to get outta hand quickly.

I'd appreciate your opinion on the idea, since I know you're a fellow theorycrafter. What do you think would be a reasonable shell? Can not make up my mind between enchantment tribal, or mana dork tribal or sth else entirely.

Cheers!

wallisface on Selesyna Midrange

6 months ago

As far as cards I would ditch:

• Garruk Wildspeaker feels too slow/midrange orientated and not useful for what you’re trying to do here. Same goes for Elder Gargaroth.

• Blossoming Defense feels kindof meh here to me. None of your creatures are crucial to keep alive - i’d rather these slots be used for more creatures.

• I don’t think you need/want Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx at all… if your deck is benefitting from it then your mana curve is too high.

I think you should be running Tail Swipe instead of Prey Upon. And i think you can run the full playset if there’s room.

As far as creatures to add/consider, i have a bunch of suggestions that aren’t beasts, but would help you a lot. At the moment your only reason to running mono-beasts is Descendants' Path, which imo isn’t a strong enough card to warrant restricting your creature options soo heavily.

Anyway, creatures that cpuld be good here: Pelt Collector, Experiment One, and Strangleroot Geist. There is also the option of going down to 18 lands, running playsets of Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic (you ditch Arboreal Grazer in this situation), and playing 3x Khalni Hydra as a terrifying finisher (they make your Aspect of Hydra back-breaking).

wallisface on Selesyna Midrange

6 months ago

Some thoughts:

• as an aggro green stompy deck, your mana curve is pretty high. I’d siggest trying to lower it.

• Advocate of the Beast feels very slow and clumsy, and doesn’t do enough to deserve being in the deck.

• i would suggest adding Aspect of Hydra to help you close out games faster.

wallisface on

1 year ago

Some thoughts:

• you’re only at 58 cards - you need 60 for a legal deck.

• I’d suggest going up to 20 lands (and also ditching the mana dork).

• you currently have no other warriors in your deck, making Bramblewood Paragon pretty useless as you’ll almost never be gaining counters off it.

• you’ll never be gaining counters from Scute Mob either - with only 18 lands you won’t have 5 in play until around turn 9-10… no game is lasting that long.

• both Forced Adaptation and Hydra's Growth are super risky/unideal cards to run as your opponent only has to use one killspell to remove both the creature & enchantment (costing you 2 cards for their 1).

• your deck currently feels very rag-tag/clumsy as far as being very slow to look threatening (Avatar of the Resolute and Rancor are the only cards that look strong in your deck currently. The rest feel weak/awkward/slow). Cards i’d suggest considering include Pelt Collector, Experiment One, Strangleroot Geist, Aspect of Hydra, Quirion Beastcaller, and maybe Servant of the Scale.

wallisface on Hardened elves

1 year ago

Imo your list would be better without Hardened Scales - the only card that utilises it well currently is Bramblewood Paragon (Pelt Collector just gets out of range of gaining more counters quicker, Growth-Chamber Guardian being a 5/5 instead of a 4/4 is meh, and the extra counter on Joraga Warcaller feels negligible).

I think, because you’re a stompy deck, you’d probably benefit from ditching Hardened Scales and Bioshift in favour of more stompy/aggressive cards, like Rancor and maybe Aspect of Hydra, or some Elf mana-dorks to help you spew your hand out onto the board quicker

StoryArcher on Don't Let Em Breathe (Quick)

1 year ago

PickleNutz

I really appreciate you taking the time to leave comments, I'm always interested in input from experienced players.

Obviously this deck has no real removal to speak of, it's whole intent is consistent, aggressive pressure. To that end I've had to pass on a large number of truly excellent cards because they simply slow the deck down. Trying to save or protect any individual creature is actually often counter-productive in this deck as I pretty much always have more threats than my opponent can reliably deal with. Even great creatures like Questing Beast or Gargs usually end up sitting in my hand for that key round waiting for one last mana when I'd rather have played something that I could be using NOW.

I love Hardened Scales, and I have a +1/+1 counter deck that is an absolute blast to play, and it gets SO big that it's truly a sight to behold... but it's just a round or two too slow. Please check it out here: Don't Let 'Em Breathe (counters), give it a spin and let me know what you think.

FWIW, Aspect of Hydra never nets me less than +5/+5 and it's usually more in the +8 - +10. No, it doesn't give trample, but between Rancor and 15 creatures with various types of evasion, that's not usually an issue. All I need is one more attacker than my opponent has means to deal with and, as I said, that's rarely a problem.

_Delta_ on many fae one name

1 year ago

Vesuvan Diplomacy seems like a fun new one for such a deck when it gets added to the site, and here are a bunch of other cards I thought of which might be of use here including:

Hydra's Growth, Visions of Dominance, Berserk, Primal Might, Exponential Growth, Invigorating Surge, Aspect of Hydra, Colossification, Octopus Umbra, Stolen Identity, Swarm Intelligence, Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy, Guardian Augmenter, Hunter's Insight, Snake Umbra, Stormchaser Drake, Artisan of Forms, Soul's Majesty, Charge Through, Battle Mammoth, Shapers' Sanctuary, Combine Chrysalis, Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, & Esix, Fractal Bloom

wallisface on My Selesyna

2 years ago

So i’m a bit confused with the direction you’re trying to take here - it feels like you’re making 3 separate decks and trying to munge them together, with elements of ramp, +1 counters, and stompy. I think you need to pick a path and stick to it without deviation.

• For a +1 counter deck, i’d expect to see stuff like Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Experiment One, Pelt Collector, Avatar of the Resolute, Grateful Apparition, Conclave Mentor, Dromoka's Command, and possibly 1-2 Verdurous Gearhulk as the decks ceiling.

• For a stompy deck, i’d expect Aspect of Hydra, alongside Experiment One, Pelt Collector, Avatar of the Resolute, Steel Leaf Champion, Strangleroot Geist, Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig, Vines of Vastwood, Rancor. Note this deck usually has no reason to splash a second colour.

• for ramp, your cards should only ever be doing one of two things: either ramping you more mana (i.e Arboreal Grazer, Explore etc), or almost-immediately winning you the game (i.e Primeval Titan, Tooth and Nail, etc). Note these kinds of decks will often run 28-32 lands in their 60-cards.

So, my big suggestion is, to pick a clear path, and then stick to it