smashadams83: I'll come take a look!

Polupus: It's so slow, though :/

Maizena: I did end up getting an Earthcraft for the deck, so thanks for the suggestion!

OptimalGreen: Ehhh. As nice as Generous Patron is (and she's AMAZING), getting colored mana on turns 1-2 are more important to me than maintaining my hand size.

Since you’re taking my advice on archfiend /survival of the fittest I would look at adding cycling lands and other ways to discard to him. The primer on my list has a lot of detailed info on my card choices.

smashadams83: I'm not sure I want to trade the cycling for tempo, to be honest. Lands ETB-ing tapped is a huge problem...on the other hand, it gives you ways to cycle away extra lands in the late-game...hmmm.

They are tough early game. I might have to play one turn one tapped which isn’t a big deal. But I normally don’t have issues with tempo loss. They are fantastic to dig into the deck late game and trigger archfiend. If you run enough of them it might be nice to run Life from the Loam.

I run Fauna Shaman as another way to enable archfiend and tutor up utility creatures, a second survival of the fittest albeit a worse one.

You need a nice reanimation package when using survival as well since you’re going to be dumping creatures. I Run the following for reanimation:

Journey to Eternity  ^Flip - when flipped

Dread Return

Victimize

Volrath's Stronghold

Eternal Witness

Meren

You also might want to consider running Necrotic Ooze since you have a tutor package now. You can dump quullspike/Druid into the yard with survival and then go off with ooze.

Another consideration is Westvale Abbey  ^Flip. Easy to flip here. Let me know what you think!

Also forgot to mention creature count now that you are running survival of the fittest. I’m no math whiz but I think something like 27/28 creatures might be correct to run so you always have gas. But I’m really unsure of the correct number to maximize survival’s value.

I can't think of any specific cards off the top of my head, but there are a lot of neat cards in M19 dealing with -1/-1 counters you should look into. I would be able to remember or go and look myself if it weren't 3:30 here, good luck with your deck it looks pretty fun!

It doesn't synergize with the counter theme, but Seshiro the Anointed is awesome with hapatra's tokens.

BlackyMTG, there actually isn't.

Sadly, there is almost nothing in M19 that is good enough for the deck. Runic Armasaur comes the closest to being usable here if you need to put -1/-1 counters on one of your own creatures.

I told you I was tired haha. How about you try out Grind. The first part seems rather mediocre, but the second half seems kinda nuts unless I’m missing something?

The second half of Grind can not be played as it is a white spell.

Skinrender, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier all seem sweet in this deck. I know it goes against killing the entire board slowly, Cryptolith Rite can ramp you like crazy, especially fun with a Throne of the God-Pharaoh out.

This deck has no Red, White, or Blue. Obviously this makes Hapatra a sneaky unpatriotic terrorist, so I will recommend some Snakes for her.

One possibility might be Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro. Her ability to make your Snakes' butts bigger means they can take an extra -1/-1 counter before dying, so you'll get twice the token generation out of Nest of Scarabs/Hapatra. You also have a handful of Shamans in the deck that can benefit from her second ability. One of the bigger downsides of her is that she doesn't apply to your Insects, just your Snakes, so the overall synergy could be better.

Also, just in case you need more Snake generation, there's always Orochi Hatchery. Even though you seem to get Snakes just fine in other ways, it's a token generator that can survive a creature-targeted boardwipe - you'll have something left after the Wrath of God/Blasphemous Act clears the field.

One more sneaky snake suggestion: How about Shisato, Whispering Hunter? You'll generate enough Snakes to keep him from sacrificing himself. Once he's on the field, if opponents don't have a way to remove him immediately, he'll break morale across the board as people fear tapping anything. You already have some stuff for sneaking Hapatra damage through that could apply to him (Shizo, Death's Storehouse for example), and could even add the incredibly mana-intense Rogue's Passage if you felt like cutting a colored mana.

I think I remember commenting/upvoting/viewing/whatevering this deck a year back. It looks even deadlier now! Well done.

Hey there came from facebook. Looking at your deck, and as I used to play a significantly worse version of hapatra I would say add in more infect. I love the mechanic and it can 've as simple as putting in a tainted strike and a CARESS of phyrexian (worst case scenario use it on your self to draw cards)

I also like pathbreaker ibex and walking ballista since you have the Mike already.

For cuts I would say you can easily do away with harbinger of night, and possibly midnight banshee. Hope this helps!!

I came across an interesting interaction with my Hapatra deck that you may want to include in your other combo section. It's basically Blood Artist + Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons + Midnight Banshee . The setup can quickly swing the game your way or outright kill players if they sleep on it.

The main problem with the basic 3 piece setup is that you need some number of snake tokens on the board to get it working. Also, if you have a small number of snakes to start with then you aren't doing much with the combo.

The combo can be enhanced with Doubling Season or Parallel Lives to double the damage you'll be dealing each turn or you can use Nest of Scarabs to produce an ever increasing number of tokens.

Blood Artist can be subbed for Zulaport Cutthroat or Obelisk Spider in multiplayer settings.

Flint2 Doubling Season is actually terrible in Hapatra because it kills your stuff. As for Parallel Lives it's neat but Nest of Scarabs basically serves the same function and can work without Hapatra on the board.

Wow! Quite a few comments to respond to!

smashadams83: Hmmm. Of those, I really do need to acquire a Phyrexian Tower and find a slot for Eternal Witness. Not too much of a fan of Necrotic Ooze when it only works for one combo, but I'll consider it :) you're correct on the creature count, but there's a limiting factor where I have to have enough -1 counter granting effects...

seshiro_of_the_orochi: I'd expect this comment with a name like that! Honestly, I used to run him, but as a six-drop I'm not sure he does enough to justify his inclusion. If this deck ever shifts to be more combat-focussed again, he'll probably go back in.

Pabs4444: Sometime I need to build a deck specifically to abuse Throne of the God-Pharaoh. It's such a cool card, but never QUITE seems to fit.

KongMing: Thanks for the comment! Hapatra is un-American scum, confirmed. I used to run Shisato, Whispering Hunter in the past, but unless an opponent is tapped out he doesn't do as much as I'd want. The others seem too mana-intensive for their effects, I'm afraid.

GrimReaper0602: While Harbinger of Night and Midnight Banshee have some issues, they're also some of my only ways to place -1 counters on all creatures on the battlefield. Until more effects are printed that can do so, I can't easily remove them.

Flint2: I completely agree that Midnight Banshee+Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons+Obelisk Spider is a nasty piece of work, haha. I've enjoyed it a lot whenever I've pulled it off. I'll pass on the token-doublers, though.

Thanks you all for your comments!

Kind of obvious, huh? ;D

How does the Devoted Druid + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combo work? Wouldn't the Devoted Druid have summoning sickness from undying?

Any thoughts on Parallel Lives in the deck? Seems to have solid synergy with both Hapatra and Nest of Scarabs.

VarietyBlack: It was in the deck for a while? But it didn't create tokens on its own, and slots were tight (esp since the deck tries to maintain a combo and an aggro plan).

How do you feel about Seedborn Muse in this deck?

What has been your experience with Throne of the God-Pharaoh so far?

Odysseus_97: I'm not sure if it adds enough to be worth the 5 mana?

Falkenbach1: The card was awesome, and I really want to find a place for it in the deck again. Unfortunately it got cut and I need to find a new slot for it...any suggestions for cuts?

Thats the hardest part ;) perhaps something that just puts a single -1 counter on a creature:

Fume Spitter or Splendid Agony or Contagion Clasp ?

I only played my own Hapatra deck 2 times. Both times it worked out well. Even found some great synergy with:

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons + Ivy Lane Denizen + Ammit Eternal every spell they cast is a snake for me :) and it lasted 2 rounds!

One last question: How has the rather low 32 lands worked out for you? I very rarely play less than 36 lands.

Falkenbach1: I'm testing a bit. I recently cut a land for Deathrite Shaman; we'll see if he can make up for it.

The deck ran fine with 33, though. There's a decent number of cheap mana rocks that help make up for it.

You have probably mentioned this before but i thought i would ask: why not Necrotic Ooze?