Hapatra, Vizier of Plagues

Commander / EDH* BG (Golgari) Counters Tokens

Synreth

Artifact (19)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Commander's Plate
• 1x Contagion Clasp
• 1x Contagion Engine
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Lotus Petal *f-etch*
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Compleation
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Talisman of Resilience
• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Command Tower
• 9x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle SL
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 10x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Creature (19)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Carnifex Demon
• 1x Channeler Initiate
• 1x Chatterfang, Squirrel General
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Generous Patron
• 1x Hooded Blightfang
• 1x Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1x Necroskitter
• 1x Obelisk Spider
• 1x Poison-Tip Archer
• 1x Roaming Throne
• 1x Soul Snuffers
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Wickerbough Elder
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Beseech the Mirror
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Gruesome Fate
• 1x Persist
• 1x Victimize

Instant (4)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Deadly Rollick

Commander (1)

Enchantment (18)

• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Blowfly Infestation
• 1x Canopy Cover
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Cover of Darkness
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Cultist of the Absolute
• 1x Flourishing Defenses
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Nest of Scarabs
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x The Meathook Massacre
• 1x Utopia Sprawl

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{B}{G} Deck Motto : Create a hoard of snake tokens while lowering opponent's creature's power/toughness, then abusing the tokens to find a win.

Hapatra, Vizier of Plagues

To endure death is not enough to be unfraid. One must embrace it. One must hold death in their hands… let it curl around their fingers and clutch it to their chest, feel it bite through their flesh and let it worm into their veins. Let it coil around their heart, smothering and endless, and as it holds their life in its jaws, command it: ‘No’.

This, Hapatra has done.

Death is everywhere on Amonkhet, and while the crops of Naktamun train all their lives to die with glory; none understand death like Hapatra.

She has studied the shapes of death—from serpent’s fangs to the spread of disease. She knows how a streak of venom can stop a rampaging ammit, how a simple sting can lay the greatest warrior low, and the right snake’s bite can fell any sandwurm. Hapatra has lived longer than most, ever watchful, on a plane filled with death.

Hapatra has witnessed the death of her Gods. She has fought the undead champions of their past. She has endured poison and plague and walked through what was thought to be the end. But through it all, she has learned.

None know death like the Vizier of Plagues…

Deck Focus

Hapatra, Vizier of Plagues is a tried and true token deck. It succeeds when making 1/1 Snakes using Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons ability with -1/-1 counters. You will find yourself commanding massive armies of snakes by the end of the game, and once you have your army, the deck then helps by making your tokens have massive value through many different routes such as Mana (Cryptolith Rite) or Deck Diving (Yawgmoth, Thran Physician).

Make sure you get Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons out early to start swinging to get your deathtouch Snakes, by the late game you can have other means of distributing -1/-1 counters. The snakes are useful as both blockers and easy damage because it is a deterrent to lose blockers to tiny 1/1 Snakes with deathtouch.

-1/-1 Counters

Whilst Hapatra herself will be putting -1/-1 counters on things after each combat step on your turn, there are multiple cards in the deck which will help boost the numbers of counters being spread around the board.

Targeted

• Blowfly Infestation
• Contagion Clasp
• Grim Affliction
• Grim Poppet
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Blanket

• Black Sun's Zenith
• Carnifex Demon
• Contagion Engine
• Harbinger of Night
• Soul Snuffers

Utility

Once counters are being spread around, there are many cards in the deck that are there to abuse the fact that creatures have the -1/-1 on them. On our side, we can get bonuses like mana or removal, whilst getting card draw and deaths from our opponents having creatures with counters.

Mana

• Channeler Initiate
• Devoted Druid

Card Draw

• Generous Patron

Removal

• Crumbling Ashes
• Wickerbough Elder

Tokens

• Flourishing Defenses
• Nest of Scarabs

Other

• Necroskitter
• Obelisk Spider

Finishing the Game

Combos

{2}{B}Blowfly Infestation triggers

Putting a -1/-1 counter on your 1/1 Snake will instantly kill it, but with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons you will simultaneously make another snake and have a new target for the Blowfly Infestation trigger which makes these triggers go infinite.

Combine this with any number of third cards and you will instantly create infinite combos to win the game;

• Altar of the Brood = Instant Mill
• Obelisk Spider / Syr Konrad, the Grim / Zulaport Cutthroat = Instant life drain
• Flourishing Defenses / Parallel Lives / Nest of Scarabs = Infinite tokens

{2}{B}{B}Yawgmoth, Thran Physician deck dive

With Yawgmoth, Thran Physician on the battlefield along with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and one to two 1/1 Snakes, you can quite easily dive through your deck to find win conditions as mentioned above or just set your hand up with the 7 best cards to win next turn. It is necessary to be aware of your life total and cards left in your deck when doing this combo. Cards like Deathgreeter, Obelisk Spider, Bastion of Remembrance or Zulaport Cutthroat you can avoid the life loss side of Yawgmoth and dive deeper.

Swinging for Lethal

With so many tokens being created, it is hard for your opponents to block all your creatures. From this there are a number of cards that can take out one or more opponents in a swing or two.

{B}Combat Damage{G}

Hooded Blightfang creates problems before your opponents get a chance to choose blockers. With a large enough army of snakes, this card can mean massive life loss while still in the 'Declare Attackers' step.

Beastmaster Ascension will turn all tokens into 6/6's which can amount to massive damage when you have put so many counters on all your opponents creatures.

Triumph of the Hordes is a known token deck staple that was reprinted in Mystery Boosters. If an opponent gets 10 poison damage, it doesn't matter what their life total is, they just lose the game. Benefits from this card are that it also provides more -1/-1 counters and the poison counters can be proliferated on if you didn't manage to get to 10 straight away.

Fynn, the Fangbearer, similar to Triumph of the Hordes manages to give our snakes a type of pseudo-infect. It may not put -1/-1 counters on creatures, but for each snake that gets through the opponent will receive two poison counters, therefore with 5 snake hits we can take out a player.

Ivy Lane Denizen can turn our small 2/2 Commander into a large creature with threat of knocking out opponents with commander damage. This is more viable due to cards in the deck making Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons unblockable, with cards like;

• Rogue's Passage
• Sleeper's Guile
• Trailblazer's Boots

{B}After Thought{G}

Gruesome Fate is one of my favourite cards in this deck. Such a powerful common, this card can deal huge amounts of damage to your opponents. If played after combat, you can surprise your enemies when they think they have survived.

Syr Konrad, the Grim can prove a huge threat to your opponents. When attacking with your token army, suddenly opponents need to consider how much life loss will come from deaths as well as combat damage.

Finally, Throne of the God-Pharaoh adds another life drain after combat. With a mass of tokens swinging in at your opponents, it is hard for our opponents to block all damage, then once your turn ends all those tapped creatures can effectively deal their damage again.

Origin

The first prerelease I ever attended was Amonkhet back in April of 2017. It was such an incredible experience and a whole lot of fun to try out new cards.

During this prerelease I pulled Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons as my stamped card. I thought she seemed like such an interesting card with a concept I had never heard of until that moment, -1/-1 counters. Although I lost every round of that prerelease, I had come out with an interesting foil.

Combining Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons with the Liliana, Death Wielder, I created a 60 card standard deck which became very powerful in our playgroup. Nest of Scarabs created a lot of insect tokens and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons created the snakes. My opponents found themselves constantly overwhelmed with board presence and I achieved a solid win ratio for this, my first personally constructed deck.

Flash forward to being introduced to commander a few months later and the urge for creating my own EDH deck had me needing to find a fun Legendary Creature to have as my general. It didn't take me long to look at my favourite 60 card deck and start thinking how to enhance it to commander.

Now, my first constructed deck, focused on the first ever stamped card I pulled has become my first constructed commander deck.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Counters 4 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.57
Tokens	Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Insect 1/1 B, Snake 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G w/ Deathtouch, Squirrel 1/1 G
Folders	Commander Decks, Noice, EDH Decks, Commander, OPB, EDH Brain Food, Decks I Like, Commander Decks