MTG Salvation

New legendary creature revealed from Amonkhet, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons.

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Whenever Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons deals combat damage to a player, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Whenever you put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature, create a 1/1 green Snake creature token with deathtouch.
Her subtle smile is suffused with venom.
2/2

She seems like she would be a blast to pilot in a deck with a -1/-1 counters matters deck. Fume Splitter, Nest of Scarabs, Blowfly Infestation and Carnifex Demon all could work well with her.

Black Sun's Zenith would be especially strong. If there are 10 creatures on the battlefield, we can cast it even with X being 1 and get 10 tokens!

Maybe Melira, Sylvok Outcast to protect our creatures from global -1/-1 counter effects.

What are some cards that would have great synergy with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons?

Midnight Banshee slowly kills all nonblack creatures - also your own snake tokens, but you'll get the exact number of tokens back so it's not a big deal.
Devoted Druid and Channeler Initiate for ramp. Maybe thrown in Quillspike for the combo ?
Dusk Urchins is an on-theme way to draw cards, although it's arguably a bit slow.
Necroskitter to take over their dead (dying) creatures.
Soul Snuffers for another Carnifex Demon-like effect.
Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine keep the counters piling up and help making more snakes.

Seconded on Blowfly Infestation. If you have two snakes out and put a -1/-1 counter on one of them, Blowfly Infestation gives you infinite death triggers.

Also, Hapatra loves persist. Woodfall Primus is a good card already; with Hapatra it's a no-brainer.

Everything with Proliferate like Grim Affliction and Contagion Engine need to be considered. Black Sun's Zenith for 1? Good idea, I think Midnight Banshee agrees. When -1/-1 counters aren't fast enough, Crumbling Ashes can speed up the kill. Flourishing Defenses is lame compared to Hapatra and Nest of Scarbs, but it still looks nice. Eventually, you'll need a spell that will let you Overrun the opponents. Triumph of the Hordes gets a special shout out for infect damage.

Flourishing Defenses is a bit costly, but also works with Persist (unlike Nest of Scarabs) and could be included for redundancy.

Other than Woodfall Primus, other creatures that enter with -1/-1 counters are Deity of Scars, Wickerbough Elder and Puppeteer Clique. Cauldron of Souls is great value, especially if you can get rid of the counters (Quillspike).

Here is my contribution to this thread.

Seshiro the Anointed turns Hapetra's snakes into 3/3s with deathtouch and curiosity.

It's always good to see a Golgari general who's NOT a graveyard focused one, although it doesn't hurt to have some.

As many pointed out, Persist and Infect are great with her, and anything with proliferate. Fevered Convulsions is an expensive but limitless -1/-1 counter distributer, Glistening Oil is another slow but persistent generator, Incremental Blight can dish out massive number of counters, Shambling Swarm and Skinrender are two sides on the same coin. Aboroth is a weird choice that put counters on itself but numerously.

Tribal snake cards would make the swarm that much more deadly.

Attrition allow all the snakes you make to become snipers. Skullclamp is an obvious fodder.

If you are putting -1 counters on your creatures as well,ie blowfly, wouldn't undying stuff be beneficial?
Im sure there is a few good ones around...

Phyrexian Plaguelord equals infinite Damnation for opponents creatures..this is actually sick!!!!

Kuro, Pitlord probably needing reanimate type spells to get this bad boy into play. Generally removing everybody creatures, while making tons for yourself seems like fun. Probably want some life gain with creatures coming into play to help this combo, like Essence Warden and Grim Feast.

Minister of Pain
Disciple of Tevesh Szat
Tourach's Chant - heavy green metas.

The toughest thing with this brew is going to be finding a balance between creating a massive army of tokens and not nuking them to your own -1/-1 counter shenanigans without profit. The two cards I'm most excited for in this deck are Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Harbinger of Night.

Quote from darrenhabib »

Phyrexian Plaguelord equals infinite Damnation for opponents creatures..this is actually sick!!!!

Kuro, Pitlord probably needing reanimate type spells to get this bad boy into play. Generally removing everybody creatures, while making tons for yourself seems like fun. Probably want some life gain with creatures coming into play to help this combo, like Essence Warden and Grim Feast.

Minister of Pain
Disciple of Tevesh Szat
Tourach's Chant - heavy green metas.

I think "target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn" is different from "putting one or more -1/-1 counter on target creature". Is there an errata I'm unaware of?

That said, Plaguelord is a good sac outlet for creature removal.

Quote from cyberium_neo »

I think "target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn" is different from "putting one or more -1/-1 counter on target creature". Is there an errata I'm unaware of?

That said, Plaguelord is a good sac outlet for creature removal.

Oh true

Archfiend of Ifnir got potential

Soulstinger and decimator beetle look great for this deck. Do you think ruthless sniper and archfiend of Ifnir are enough reason to go into a cycling subtheme?

No love for Vhati Il-Dal?

Here is a list from Game Knights: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/hapatra-vizier-of-poisons-jlk-game-knights-6/

Surprisingly enough, without Nest of Scarabs or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, but there were enough token doublers to gain advantage.