MTG Salvation

I'd been collecting -1/-1 counter cards for a while when Hapatra was spoiled, so I knew immediately that I'd have to build around her.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed was supposed to be in there, but I forgot to add him. I'll have to decide what to cut.

The plan is to shrink and kill opposing creatures while building an army of tokens. I hope Hour of Devastation brings even more -1/-1 goodies to improve the deck.
Some cards are there to negate the friendly fire -1/-1 counters that end up on my creatures, and others are to ensure an opponent running Melira, Sylvok Outcast or Solemnity doesn't nerf the entire deck.

I got to play the deck twice last night, and while it hit some rough patches, it was a lot of fun.

Game one, I got off to a super aggressive start. In fact, it was so aggressive, wiping out nearly all of my opponents' creatures and spamming out snake tokens, that my opponents panicked a bit and repeatedly blew up all my stuff. Hapatra died three times, I lost everything but my land, and I ended up in top-deck mode. I lost, but it was a good start.

Game two, I was color-screwed for a while - four green mana but no black, with a hand stuffed with black cards. I finally got a swamp, dropped Nest of Scarabs and Corrosive Mentor, and started building up wither tokens. One guy played Nevinyrral's Disk, but Wickerbough Elder took care of it - four times. I had to keep adding counters because he kept getting it back with Academy Ruins. Parallel Lives increased my token production, and a Carnifex Demon later, and I was able to once again quadruple my insect tokens. I was actually kind of bummed when I killed everyone with my swarm of 128 tokens, because I had just drawn Bloodspore Thrinax, and the idea of dropping it and then getting a 130/130 Hapatra was hilarious.

Overall, I was quite pleased with its performance. I need to add more card draw and work on the manabase. It may be only a two color deck, but there are some fairly heavy double and triple mana requirements.

Looks good, i love my build of her, I'll have to try find time to type it out. Last night managed to get infinite snakes on turn 4 in a 3 player game, opponents didn't even realize what was happening when i said i'll make 6000 snakes lol.

Quote from Chef St1tch »

Looks good, i love my build of her, I'll have to try find time to type it out. Last night managed to get infinite snakes on turn 4 in a 3 player game, opponents didn't even realize what was happening when i said i'll make 6000 snakes lol.

Yeah, I'd love to see another list. I'm still trying to decide what changes to make before I play next week. Mikaeus was supposed to be in, and I just didn't grab him. But I need to work on the color fixing and draw issues, too.

as far as fixing, i'd say grab a few more duel lands and maybe try cryptolith rite

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/776319-hapatra-vizier-of-poisons-no-infect#c1

There's a link to my current list

I've made some changes that I'll have to post later, but I'm still loving Hapatra.

Just came here to post that I really wish The Scorpion God didn't have red in its identity, because Hapatra could really use that draw ability. Oh, well - I like running Kulrath Knight, and with my commander cube, I can switch off between a Hapatra deck and a Scorpion God deck whenever I want. The black cards can be a common core, and the other colors can switch in and out.

Quote from FunkyDragon »

I've made some changes that I'll have to post later, but I'm still loving Hapatra.

Just came here to post that I really wish The Scorpion God didn't have red in its identity, because Hapatra could really use that draw ability. Oh, well - I like running Kulrath Knight, and with my commander cube, I can switch off between a Hapatra deck and a Scorpion God deck whenever I want. The black cards can be a common core, and the other colors can switch in and out.

I feel ya. This would've been a perfect time to print 3-colored gods. Had The Scorpion God been Jund, BRG -1/-1 counters would've been an epic build. Although, I could use it combined with Hapatra when playing Boss & Mini-Boss...

Hour of Devastation had less goodies for this deck than I was hoping for, but thanks to Obelisk Spider alone, all is forgiven. This will definitely be making it into Hapatra and is a welcome alternate wincon/life buffer.

I'm also considering Banewhip Punisher, Ifnir Deadlands, and Torment of Venom. The land doesn't cost a slot, so it's likely. The other two depend on what I feel like I can cut.

You know, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Blowfly Infestation, Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat/Obelisk Spider, and anything that kills a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it (especially by way of counter itself) is an auto win. With everything out, and let's say a Snake token, if you maybe cast something like, I dunno, Virulent Wound on it, both the life-leech card and Blowfly Infestation will trigger, as will Hapatra. Let Hapatra trigger last so she resolves first. The leech can go anywhere in the stack as long as Hapatra makes a snake and the Infestation puts a -1/-1 counter on it. Also make sure that there are no cards that pump the Snake tokens' toughness. Boom. Win, and on-curve too (Hapatra T2, Spider T3, Infestation and Wound T4. With a 1-toughness dork cast T1, you can win that turn).

~Lil Kalki

Quote from kalkris »

You know, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Blowfly Infestation, Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat/Obelisk Spider, and anything that kills a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it (especially by way of counter itself) is an auto win. With everything out, and let's say a Snake token, if you maybe cast something like, I dunno, Virulent Wound on it, both the life-leech card and Blowfly Infestation will trigger, as will Hapatra. Let Hapatra trigger last so she resolves first. The leech can go anywhere in the stack as long as Hapatra makes a snake and the Infestation puts a -1/-1 counter on it. Also make sure that there are no cards that pump the Snake tokens' toughness. Boom. Win, and on-curve too (Hapatra T2, Spider T3, Infestation and Wound T4. With a 1-toughness dork cast T1, you can win that turn).

~Lil Kalki

You can also replace Hapatra in the combo with Nest of Scarabs. I nearly locked a game into an infinite loop with Nest of Scarabs and Blowfly Infestation after someone boardwiped, and Obelisk Spider would have been a welcomed addition. As is, I had to sac a targeted token in response to break the loop.

Made a few changes. Super excited about the spider.

Why are you running elixir of immortality? Do you routinely play against hard core mill decks (like everybody else is playing mill)?

Quote from illakunsaa »

Why are you running elixir of immortality? Do you routinely play against hard core mill decks (like everybody else is playing mill)?

I run Elixir in most of my decks. We have mill decks in our meta, and while they aren't usually hardcore, I like the card as a safety. Our games tend to go long (1-3 hours), and Elixir can be helpful.

Have you actually casted it and used it? If you have how many times per game?

I got Obelisk Spider out, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Also, Power Conduit has proven to be an all star in this deck, especially when combined with Devoted Druid.

Quote from illakunsaa »

Have you actually casted it and used it? If you have how many times per game?

Have I cast it and used it? Yes. In Hapatra? Not sure.
You have to realize, I play around 50 decks and usually get in two to five games each Commander night. I swap decks each game, and I don't keep a log of when I use it.

However, I have found Elixir to be a very useful card. While it can save you against mill, it mostly saves my graveyard from exile effects (Bojuka Bog and friends). I consider my graveyard to be a resource or secondary hand. If someone exiles my graveyard, I permanently lose access to those cards. And you often don't even have to crack the Elixir - just having it out convinces people to not waste their removal on you, so they target another player.

How about you? I take it you don't like the card. Is it because it doesn't actively advance my win condition?

I used to run elixir in two decks that are heavy users of gy and everytime I drew elixir it was a dead card. I think the only time I actually used elixir was to gain some life. Either opponent play their far more efficient gy hate or they don't and in both cases it never matted if I had elixir or not.

So the only reason why I think why I would run elixir is if mill is rampant and you have some wombo combo with it.

I consider my graveyard to be a resource or secondary hand.

That's kinda weird because your list has only two cards that actually return anything from your gy.
Oversold Cemetery
Victimize

Quote from illakunsaa »

I consider my graveyard to be a resource or secondary hand.

That's kinda weird because your list has only two cards that actually return anything from your gy.
Oversold Cemetery
Victimize

Don't forget Volrath's Stronghold. Repeatable recursion. And yeah, I seem to have gone light on the recursion. As someone pointed out earlier, I sort of crammed everything with -1/-1 counters in the deck. I'm working on adjustments still.