Hello everyone welcome to my combo Hogaak list. I have worked on it for many hours and playtested it many times to find a very good list that is still within my budget. The great thing about the deck is that it can win in any number of ways which makes the deck not so fragile to hate, also the combo pieces are extremely efficient.
First lets start with the win conditions. We have four main win conditions:
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Necrotic Ooze combo: This is the best combo in the deck which once you mill your entire deck or draw it (we will talk about this later) you can win with a single mana, all other cards in your graveyard. The combo is Dread Return for Necrotic Ooze. Give haste with Thornling (if you don't have any open mana you can produce a mana with Wall of Roots). Then Devoted Druid and Quillspike make infinite mana finally ending it with Bloodrite Invoker to drain everyone out of the game. (All this at instant speed). While it is a multi-piece combo its 1 mana and doesn't require you for any of the cards to be in your hand. If one of the combo pieces is in your hand then you can discard it with one our three discard creatures like Putrid Imp.
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Eternal Witness + Living Death + Phyrexian Altar. This you can also pull Eternal Witness from your graveyard with Dread Return. Basically you sac your creatures for mana, cast Living Death getting them all back and getting Living Death back to your hand with Eternal Witness. As long as you have 5 creatures you can loop this. If you have at least one milling creature in your graveyard you can see your entire deck while making infinite mana, then you can return Bloodrite Invoker to drain everyone. Something to remember is the only way we die is drawing with an empty library which is a concern with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Disciple of Bolas. You can use Hogaak's delve ability to exile those creatures from your graveyard during one of the Living Death loops. If you don't have Bloodrite Invoker anymore you can also end the game by playing Altar of Dementia to mill everyone out. (Acolyte of Affliction can return it while Eternal Witness is looping Living Death --- or you might not need to do that if Craterhoof Behemoth makes your creatures power greater than the cards in your opponents libraries (which means you end with a huge board and use your last Eternal Witness ability to return Phyrexian Altar.) (Phyrexian Altar can be replaced by Pitiless Plunderer and a sacrifice outlet.)
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Korozda Guildmage + Phyrexian Altar + Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. A really simple combo to pull off, just sac Hogaak to the Guildmage, tap the tokens to play Hogaak repeat. Basically you are netting 4 tokens (1 untapped) each time to create infinite tokens and mana. Win with Altar of Dementia milling your opponents or Bloodrite Invoker draining everyone. (Phyrexian Altar can be replaced by Pitiless Plunderer and a sacrifice outlet.)
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Craterhoof Behemoth + ???. Sometimes the hoof daddy is enough to get the job done by himself with a bunch of little creatures. Or sometimes he makes our summoning-sick creatures big enough that we can mill all our opponents our with Altar of Dementia. Yes yes.. soooo original amiright?
How to get to our wincons
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Infinite Self Mill: Desecrated Tomb + Altar of Dementia, cast Hogaak exiling at least one creature card, getting two bats, sac Hogaak on self milling 8, repeat. Netting 3 cards in graveyard each time.
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Infinite Self Mill pt 2: Necrotic Ooze + Devoted Druid + Quillspike + Hermit Druid OR Skull Prophet
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Infinite Self Mill pt 3: Devoted Druid + Quillspike + Mesmeric Orb. If druid and spike are in the graveyard then Necrotic Ooze can do it. Basically even though the combo wont create infinite mana this way (unless Ooze is doing it) this combo still mills the entire library because of Mesmeric Orb since you untap every time. This can help find your Ooze and a Dread Return, allowing you to return Ooze, even you can sacrifice the Druid and Spike so they are in the graveyard for Ooze combo.
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Infinite Draw: Greater Good + Zombie Infestation : Draw 8, discard 3 from Greater Good, discard 4 to Zombie Infestation, tap two zombies and exile 5 cards. Netting one card in hand and graveyard. Can use dredgers to net more cards in graveyard when needed.
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Infinite Draw pt 2: Greater Good + Desecrated Tomb : Cast Hogaak exiling at least one creature card. Desecrated Tomb makes two bats. Sac Hogaak, draw 8 discard 3. Sac a tapped creature you used to cast Hogaak to Greater Good (will be bats eventually), draw 1, discard 3. Netting 3 cards in hand and 1 card in graveyard. Can use dredgers to net more cards in graveyard when needed.
There you go, thats the deck, now its filled with ways to fill our graveyard, interact, go fast, and DRAW. The deck runs every big boy draw spell such as Soul's Majesty. There are 8 cards that do this making the deck very consistent.
Necrotic Ooze is pretty crazy. We have a lot of good activated abilities to help us pull off the combo. If we have the infinite mana combo we can even use Hermit Druid to mill the rest of our deck to mill into Bloodrite Invoker. Use Yawgmoth, Thran Physician to draw cards or sac creatures our combo pieces into the graveyard. Thornling doesn't just give haste but makes indestructible. We have creatures to produce black mana, which can allow us to use Korozoda Guildmage ability to win with mill (Altar of Dementia) if we lost our Bloodrite Invoker. The deck feels fresh and diverse. You don't just scoop to losing one of your combo pieces.
Other than that, here is a list of what I consider to be essential to our deck, all in one neat list.
Draw (10): Selvala, Heart of the Wilds | Disciple of Bolas | Yawgmoth, Thran Physician | Garruk, Primal Hunter | Life's Legacy | Morbid Curiosity | Momentous Fall | Return of the Wildspeaker | Rishkar's Expertise | Greater Good
Direct Ramp (13): Arbor Elf | Birds of Paradise | Deathrite Shaman | Elves of Deep Shadow | Elvish Mystic | Llanowar Elves | Devoted Druid | Lotus Cobra | Skull Prophet | Wall of Roots | Springbloom Druid | Harvest Season | Sol Ring
Land Support (9): Glowspore Shaman | Hermit Druid | Satyr Wayfinder | Eternal Witness | Ramunap Excavator | Acolyte of Affliction | Grapple with the Past | Grisly Salvage | Life from the Loam
Interaction (6): Ulvenwald Tracker | Reclamation Sage | Yawgmoth, Thran Physician | Assassin's Trophy | Drown in Filth | Living Death
Graveyard fillers (22): Stitcher's Supplier | Glowspore Shaman | Golgari Thug | Hermit Druid | Satyr Wayfinder | Skull Prophet | Excavation Mole | Gorging Vulture | Necromancer's Assistant | Nyx Weaver | Stinkweed Imp | Acolyte of Affliction | Commune with the Gods | Drown in Filth | Grapple with the Past | Grisly Salvage | Life from the Loam | Altar of Dementia | Mesmeric Orb | Perpetual Timepiece | Tymaret Calls the Dead | Dakmor Salvage
