Hydra Broodmaster

Creature — Hydra

: Monstrosity X. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put X +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)

When Hydra Broodmaster becomes monstrous, put X X/X green Hydra creature tokens onto the battlefield.

Discussion (45)

Simerix on Big Butt Big Mana

1 week ago

Cards to remove: Altered Ego, Horizon Chimera, Vastwood Hydra, Elixir of Immortality, Otherworld Atlas, Fog, Haze of Pollen, Respite, Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, Prosperity, Wildest Dreams, Thryx, the Sudden Storm

Meh cards: Folio of Fancies, Beanstalk Giant, Hydra Broodmaster

Be carful with cards like Prosperity because you give your opponents a lot of cards. You pay a lot of mana for them to draw a lot of cards.

Your lands suck. I can help you find better lands to use if you would like. You will be fine if you don't change them, but better lands go a long way.

Thryx, the Sudden Storm is a decent card, but look at your mana curve. You don't have many cards over 5 cmc. In other words, he doesn't reduce the cost of many spells.

Cards like Fog don't work well in commander. When life totals are so high, you don't care about one individual combat, but gaining large long term value. This is a single use card. It will also likely sit in your hand as a dead card most of the game. Compare Fog to a card like Propaganda

TheVectornaut on When The Wall Is Up Against You

2 months ago

I have a lot of experience with mono-green Assault Formation in modern and legacy casual, so I'll toss in some of my thoughts.

Perfect curves certainly aren't necessary, but you should be able to accomplish something on each of the early turns of the game. More than just playing any old card, it should be something that fits in with your overarching gameplan. I agree with cutting Adventurous Impulse as a 1-drop for this reason. It can't get you Formation, Bow, or any other noncreature combo piece you happen to be running. I'd usually run a Llanowar Elves style dork instead in a ramp list. Still, in walls, I think there are even better options than that. My personal favorite is Traproot Kami since it adds an early defender to the pool and can become a serious threat with Formation if the game goes long. Plus, it works well with the lands-matter strategy that Oran-Rief Hydra is also part of. Other options I've had less success with are Jaddi Offshoot for life, Portcullis Vine for cards, and Saruli Caretaker for slow mana. On 2, Sylvan Caryatid, Gatecreeper Vine, and Wall of Roots are all ramp options, but you're probably fine with just Battlement and Vine Trellis. Wall of Blossoms, however, I view as a must-have if you want to maximize your mana without running out of gas. The ability to up the defender count while replacing itself is so good that I even run a playset of the slower Carven Caryatid too, but this could be excessive depending on the deck. The last defender I'll mention is Tree of Redemption. It's more expensive, both in CMC and in dollars, but it is an undeniable threat with Formation. Higher toughness also makes better use of tricks like Sheltering Word and Feed the Pack.

For the top end of the curve, you might actually be underestimating how much mana the ramp walls can net. With your current setup, you only need 2 of either Guardian or Battlement and 1 other wall to have 9-11 mana on T4. Removal is obviously the biggest obstacle to this being a reality but it seems like you're preparing for a counterspell-heavy meta in a big way. Either you use your protection on the walls and win with Formation when they stop your bombs, or they wait to remove the bombs and you have protection saved up to stop them. Honestly, it feels like you might have too much defense in the mainboard but I'll touch on that later. My point here is that you are likely to have more than enough mana to cast threats much more substantial than the Hydra, and that's without modifications to your suite of defenders. In the current version of my deck, it isn't strange to have a game like: T1-Forest+Traproot Kami, T2-Forest+Overgrown Battlement, T3-Forest+Wall of Blossoms+Axebane Guardian, T4-Forest+Genesis Wave for x=9. Oran-Rief Hydra is a totally fine card to top off at if you build around it, but right now I don't even see it being better than Terra Stomper in a lot of games (and Stomper even has built-in counter protection now that I think about it XD). To get more value out of the Hydra, I'd swap the cycling lands for cheap fetches like Evolving Wilds to double up on landfall triggers, and I might also consider some +1/+1 synergy cards in the vein of Hardened Scales or Hydra's Growth. On the subject of landfall, Vinelasher Kudzu is an interesting option that fits with the plant/wall cards, at least thematically. Mechanically, Undergrowth Champion, Rampaging Baloths, and Avenger of Zendikar are all probably better. I've already mentioned Genesis Wave, but some other options for finishers that I've seen are Archetype of Endurance, Hydra Broodmaster, Primordial Hydra, Vigor, End-Raze Forerunners, Colossus of Akros, pretty much any eldrazi, and any red x-spell that can target players. If you choose something with x in the cost, having Umbral Mantle or Freed from the Real to generate infinite mana is beneficial.

The last thing I'd like to talk about are your noncreatures. As I mentioned before, 4 countermagic blockers seems a little excessive in the main 60. I personally struggle much more with Path to Exiles, Fatal Pushes, and Searing Bloods than Counterspells on most days, so I'd usually prefer the Vines of Vastwood or the flexible Veil of Summer. However, I don't know what your meta looks like. If countermagic is a big problem, another way to get around it is to add in plenty of redundancy. Instead of running only 4 bombs, run 8 so 1 is more likely to slip through. Savage Summoning and Insist are fine answers, yet they run the serious risk of becoming dead cards if your opponent isn't playing blue. Of your instants though, Subdue seems to be the weakest to me. It looks like it will usually be a bad Awe Strike or an inverted Berserk that can't contribute to damaging the opponent. If you had cards to benefit from toughness outside of combat like Kin-Tree Invocation, it could at least serve a similar role to Glyph of Destruction in Wall of Blood/Rite of Consumption decks. The final card I might reexamine is Bow of Nylea. generally, mass deathtouch is at its best when you either have a way to force damage (like Lure or Thornbite Staff) or when you want to create a disincentive for your opponent to block (like when running a Curiosity deck. The thing about a high power is that it already allows you to kill multiple blockers and the thing about trample is that it already discourages single blocking. Deathtouch on such a creature is therefore a little redundant. Sure, it's better to have it than not have it, but it might not be worthwhile if it comes at the cost of 3 mana and a card. I'd want some concrete way to take advantage of the Bow's activated ability to justify running it. For example, my G/W enchantment lifegain deck from Theros standard used the gain 3 life ability to buff Ajani's Pridemate. In your case, the +1/+1 might be the best choice to build around since it can overlap with the Hydra's trigger.

ectro24 on mina denn

3 months ago

I would suggest a couple new cards for the archetype: - Dryad Arbor - Ashaya, Soul of the Wild - Field of the Dead - Turntimber Symbiosis  ^Flip - Shatterskull Smashing  ^Flip - Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - Elvish Reclaimer - Kessig Wolf Run - Ancient Greenwarden - Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip - The Great Henge

I would consider cutting: - Elvish Mystic - Hydra Broodmaster - Soul of New Phyrexia - Temur Sabertooth - Oblivion Sower - Seek the Horizon - Overblaze

Tylord2894 on When does a player leave …

5 months ago

A player will leave the game shortly after being dealt lethal damage. There is not a time where you can respond to this, though.

After a spell/ability resolves or we move between steps/phase, state-based actions (SBAs) are checked and performed. In essence, these actions are how the game cleans up after us. Players don't receive priority until after SBAs are checked. Notable, SBAs are where a player loses the game if they have 0 or less life.

After combat damage is dealt or the spell that reduced your life total resolves, SBAs are immediately checked. The game will see that you should be removed from the game, and it will do so.

So after the damage from all-out attack from the player with the Hydra Broodmaster is dealt, you can not blink Resolute Archangel before you would die.

Hope this helps!!

Nuubi on When does a player leave …

5 months ago

Me and some friends were playing a game last night in which my friend had lethal damage on the table. He had a monstrous Hydra Broodmaster with 7 7/7 tokens. He cast Overrun and declared an all out attack. I didn’thave enough to block it all, but I had Deadeye Navigator soulbonded to Resolute Archangel. So what I wanted to to do was just flicker the archangel after the damage was dealt but before it killed me. Then came the question of well when does a player actually die? Does a player leave the game at the end of combat or does a player leave the game at the end of the turn durning the clean up phase?

Tylord2894 on Zaxara and the Value of …

5 months ago

seavyboi for future questions, you can always start a thread if you want (that way you don't have to dig for semi-related threads).

To your question though, the short answer is no, Hydra Broodmaster's Monstrosity ability won't trigger Zaxara's ability. Zaxara triggers when you cast a spell with an in its mana cost. The Broodmaster's Monstrosity ability is just that, an ability not a spell. You are not casting anything when activating its Monstrosity ability, so Zaxara won't trigger.

Hope this helps!!

Forkbeard on Zaxara, the Exemplary: Hydra Infestation

7 months ago

Totally hear what you're saying Xodious, the potential for mega value is there. I've gone back and forth on the inclusion of Hydra Broodmaster and ultimately decided that it's too expensive and too slow for that payoff. I like the cast hydras as they give immediate value with Zaxara on the table and Genesis Hydra is no exception as there's lots of goodies in this deck that I enjoy casting for free (hell, with the infinite mana engine I can just draw most/all of my deck on Genesis cast to grab Akroma's Memorial and swing in for the win). Profane Command is also an infinite combo direct damage win condition + I like the versatility of the modal spells.

Xodious on Zaxara, the Exemplary: Hydra Infestation

7 months ago

A change ive done that has worked pretty well for me up to this point is Hydra Broodmaster. Besides tribal synergy with various effects in the deck, it works off of Unbound Flourishing and Doubling Season. With Akroma's Memorial on the board, this can dump a whole lot of damage onto the board very quickly! Possible cut cards for it, imo, include Genesis Hydra and Profane Command.