I'm a combo player at heart and Protean Hulk combo is something I've always wanted to try. The version I'm trying here is an orzhov based with blue splash for the combo. So, let's start with the basics of what Protean Hulk combo is, and what it does. The simplest explanation is to find a way to get Protean Hulk into your graveyard from play and use its triggered ability to find a combination of creatures that form a winning combo. There are many different paths you could take from here ranging from Disciple of the Vault and other 0 mana creatures like Walking Ballista to recursion-based loops like I'm going to show below. I've chosen the loop plan because I think that it's more customizable and has more ways to win against various hate pieces.
The loops: This is assuming hulk is now in the graveyard with its trigger about to resolve and no interaction from the opponent.
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Grab a sacrifice outlet Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer Not both and Body Double. Have Body Double copy the Protean Hulk in the graveyard.
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Sacrifice the Body Double hulk and get Serrated Scorpion and Reveillark.
(This is the part you'll start to repeat several times in order to win!)
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Sacrifice the Serrated Scorpion and then Reveillark. Reveillark's leaving the battlefield ability will trigger and use that to return both Body Double and Serrated Scorpion.
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Have Body Double become Reveillark this time and repeat sacrificing scorpion and Body Double. At this point you should be dealing 2 non-targeting damage to your opponent every time you perform the loop. Obviously keep doing this until they are dead.
Karmic Guide example:
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Grab sacrifice outlet and Karmic Guide.
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Have Karmic Guide reanimate the Protean Hulk in the graveyard.
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Sac the hulk again and get Reveillark and Serrated Scorpion. (You should have a sac outlet, karmic guide, revillark, and serrated scorpion in play now.)
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Sacrifice Serrated Scorpion and Karmic Guide.
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Sacrifice Reveillark and use its ability to return Karmic Guide and the Serrated Scorpion. Karmic Guide will reanimate Reveillark from here out.
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Repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed.
Now that we know how to combo, we have to get the hulk into play and kill it. I've gone with a discard/smallpox sub-theme to make us discard hulk and then reanimate it with either Persist or Footsteps of the Goryo. We have 8 discard spells between Funeral Charm and Smallpox to work with. Worst case scenario, try to remove most of their hand and cast the hulk. Once hulk is in play we can try to use Smallpox to sacrifice it or Dismember (if brought in by Persist) to kill the hulk. Slaughter Pact is a free option that could let us combo as soon as turn 2 but is risky if your opponent can stop you.
Sideboard:
I'm going to be blunt and say I have no good idea what should be in here, but there are a couple ideas listed for consideration. I would love to have community input here. Regardless, here's what I was thinking for each of these choices.
Cabal Therapist: Potential sac outlet and possible way to remove instant speed hate cards from an opponents hand. Even if I blank on a guess, I should have an idea of how to proceed in game from there.
Inverter of Truth
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Thassa's Oracle
: This is a combination that could be retrieved on the initial hulk death if you anticipate your opponent removing your graveyard in response to hulk hitting the graveyard. I don't recommend trying this unless you are very confident it will work.
Overwhelmed Apprentice: This is intended to be a switch for Serrated Scorpion in the case of an opponent having something like Solitary Confinement or Worship to make your damage not lethal.
Teferi, Time Raveler: Just to make the combo harder to interact with. Primarily intended for any deck with solitude or counterspells.
Void Mirror: My idea behind this is to keep Solitude from potentially interrupting a combo line.
Anyhow, that's the deck and I'd greatly appreciate any feedback the community might have for me, even if it's making the description less confusing. Until next time, fellow hulks.
