There appear to be a number of problems with the rules as is, the one I think is the biggest problem being "If a Head would move to any other zone than the graveyard, instead put it into the Hydra's graveyard." because the technically move to the battlefield when being cast. This rule wasn't well thought out, and I can't think of reasons to even have except for "Return to hand" effects.
I think the wording is a bit sloppy, but it is not hard to realize that they can move to the battlefield. The reasoning for the rule seems to be to avoid taking control of the heads.
Turn 1 play already locks the hydra since it has to cast everything from its library and the Heads can't be replaced, so it even wins against 11 initial Heads if you have the Ratchet Bomb.
Edit: And if you want to really rules-lawyer the hydra, consider: "Reveal the top card of the Hydra's library. The Hydra casts that card." This doesn't give the hydra permission to pay an alternate cost ("without paying its mana cost"), and the cards don't have mana costs, the lack of which represents an unpayable cost, so the hydra can't cast anything this way.
I bought one, and it is worth the price. It is an interesting thing to throw your decks at, but it most definitely favors some decks- for example black control decks have a lot of dead cards due to discard being ignored. In Horde Mode discard mills, so I might try that out with the hydra. I had to make a house rule already regarding Mask of Memory, since it never attacks a player I just decided that if the creature equipping it hit a head that died as a result of combat that turn then I could use it's trigger.
Yeah, I came up with the idea that for each card discarded, instead mill 3. That way MRot mills 6, which is technically at least strictly better than TScour.
Yeah, I came up with the idea that for each card discarded, instead mill 3. That way MRot mills 6, which is technically at least strictly better than TScour.
Really? I think mill one should be sufficient. I'll have to test it.
I had a very easy time facing the hydra alone in hard difficulty running black devotion with The Protector and The Harvester, even tho I had a hell of a lot of useless cards because I had to use the exact same main deck I was using for the game day. Whip of Erebos annuls the damage so surviving to turn 5 was insta-win. My friends didn't have issues either fighting it with Orzhov, Red Devotion and Green Stompy.
This makes me feel that all the people worried about rules-lawyering the hell out of the hydra are petty and cowardly, it's a fairly easy challenge you can tackle with a fun deck you don't need to Spike up to 11.
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I had a very easy time facing the hydra alone in hard difficulty running black devotion with The Protector and The Harvester, even tho I had a hell of a lot of useless cards because I had to use the exact same main deck I was using for the game day. Whip of Erebos annuls the damage so surviving to turn 5 was insta-win. My friends didn't have issues either fighting it with Orzhov, Red Devotion and Green Stompy.
This makes me feel that all the people worried about rules-lawyering the hell out of the hydra are petty and cowardly, it's a fairly easy challenge you can tackle with a fun deck you don't need to Spike up to 11.
I didn't go to game day, but it did strike me that the hydra deck would be fairly easy to beat when you've got a decent constructed deck (assuming your deck has an appropriate amount of creatures).
It might be interested to try it with sealed decks or draft decks, though.
Anyone bragging about the hydra being easy to beat on hard mode just got lucky.
The first two people to fight the hydra at our store alone on hard were total scrubs, and they flipped 0 elites and mostly double sorcery off their kills.
Four of the better players at the store soloed it during the day with real decks that should have been very good against the hydra and took 4-5 tries to get there because heads flipped into two heads, heads flipped into elites, unified lunge got cast early and often, and people got silenced on turns with plenty of heads in play.
If the hydra gets a reasonable draw, hard is actually hard.
For me it was hard on the normal mode ( 4 heads ) ( but i played with no hero cards)
I think it was prety funny and in the 3rd time facing the i hydra i killed it ( 1st getting mana screwed on turn 4 getting my 4th land on next turn and killing 2 head just to get 2 elite and a normal head joining the party .2nd time dying cause i fliped a elite taking what would have been my last 2 life points. )
My wife and I had such a blast with this we decided to buy one. We've thrown everything at it (Commander, Modern, Standard decks) and it's just so much fun. Real stress test of your early game/survivability under pressure.
One thing I did notice, though, with Standard decks packing Unflinching Courage, the Hydra just falls apart at turn 4, even on 5 heads. GW aggro just stops losing life and ignores attacks pretty readily, almost to the point that it's not fun.
Ran the deck at our LGS, was more fun than expected. Record number of defeated heads was 7. Two player team, American Control and GW Aggro. No Hero cards.
I forgot my heroes, so I found it surprisingly hard to beat normal with my deck full of 2/1s. Once I got a hand going (what's that I get to choose my own steam augury? well okay) and a couple of dudes on the table it was a massacre pretty much. Heads flying everywhere.
My roommate and another friend were able to beat the hydra with all 11 basic hydra head starting out. They had to use the start with 7 life and haste heroes, and if the hydra hit the silence or indestructible they still lost.
Tons of fun, bought a copy and tried out a handful of decks against it. The keys to winning are are basically lifegain and flooding the board with enough power to take them out easily. Swarming with tokens makes it easy since you can target which heads you want to attack.
The cool thing is that it really puts you on a clock if you flip one of the elite heads early and actually makes you think through your plays. I was running a Modern Goblins build for fun and it took me a while because every time I had thought I was through, I ended up flipping another head or the Hydra drew a useful card to stem my attack for a while.
Very well made challenge deck, I'm thinking about buying another one if only to combine the two and make a really challenging one to face. Awesome product.
My roommate and another friend were able to beat the hydra with all 11 basic hydra head starting out. They had to use the start with 7 life and haste heroes, and if the hydra hit the silence or indestructible they still lost.
Wouldn't this mean that since there are only another 7 heads in the deck, killing a head almost certainly doesn't flip another head?
Part of the point is that sometimes, killing a head can make things worse.
To be honest the deck could probably use a few more elite heads if you want to make it tougher. And also some way for the Hydra deck to kill your creatures, some form of hydra pyroclasm. (or maybe hydra heads that actually have power and damage your creatures in combat)
i'm not sure whether we were playing it properly, but i tried to take on the Hydra by myself (no hero cards) at the store. i was playing a modern Kiki-Pod deck.
started with 4 heads.
by turn 2 i was on 11 life. by turn 3 i was on 4. then i had to use a fetchland into shock to actually play a spell.
Hydra is HARD. both single player attempts i just got burnt down to 1 or 2 life by turn 3 or 4 and hadn't really managed to play anything of significance yet. that's legacy burn levels of damage!
when i tried it with 3 players it seemed a lot easier. and when you introduced hero cards, it became easier again.
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Hydra deck was fun to play against. Tho as previously pointed out, you actually have to play creatures, bounce/kill the heads or you'll easily lose by turn 4. My store was giving out 1 free entry into the next FNM if we beat the hydra on hard mode (4 heads) with no hero cards. I just wanted to beat it once!
I played with GU Flash Control which doesn't really have any creatures with power over 2 minus 3-4 win cons. >_>
Thankfully on my 4th try (lost 2, won 1 with hero cards), I saw a Elvish Mystic with the Bow and I was so so happy to see it. =) Deathtouch, gaining life, putting counters my guys. Whee! Also got lucky that the hydra whiffed on spawning more heads and I was also able to negate and dissolve a spell and head card respectively.
Hydra is HARD. both single player attempts i just got burnt down to 1 or 2 life by turn 3 or 4 and hadn't really managed to play anything of significance yet. that's legacy burn levels of damage!
Yes, if you don't do anything relevant on turns 1-3, that's what's going to happen.
On the other hand, giving a turn 1 Sedge Scorpion haste is pretty much all you need to win and it becomes impossible for the hydra to win if you curve out with hasted deathtouchers. They hydra needs each head to stay in play for at least two turns to break even with your life total.
I won 3 of 3 games with deathtouch.dec. Game one I won through color screw. Game two I won with a single Sedge Scorpion and the hydra didn't regrow heads, though did cast two. Game three I won by curving out though the hydra did provide nineteen overall heads for me to much on before ending the game at 35 life.
Yes, if you don't do anything relevant on turns 1-3, that's what's going to happen.
On the other hand, giving a turn 1 Sedge Scorpion haste is pretty much all you need to win and it becomes impossible for the hydra to win if you curve out with hasted deathtouchers. They hydra needs each head to stay in play for at least two turns to break even with your life total.
I won 3 of 3 games with deathtouch.dec. Game one I won through color screw. Game two I won with a single Sedge Scorpion and the hydra didn't regrow heads, though did cast two. Game three I won by curving out though the hydra did provide nineteen overall heads for me to much on before ending the game at 35 life.
yeah if you try the hydra with a deck pre made to fight against it then you will almost all times win.
I tried it with pauper too and was funny
To be honest the deck could probably use a few more elite heads if you want to make it tougher.
Yeah, I wish it came with more. I love it when it has the Savage Vigor Head in play so it gets an additional spell on each of its turns. I was sad when I bought mine and I found out there was only one in the deck, if I could I would take out the Strike the Weak Spots in exchange for more Savage Vigor Heads but I am not going to buy more copies of the deck just so I can do that.
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Yeah, I wish it came with more. I love it when it has the Savage Vigor Head in play so it gets an additional spell on each of its turns. I was sad when I bought mine and I found out there was only one in the deck, if I could I would take out the Strike the Weak Spots in exchange for more Savage Vigor Heads but I am not going to buy more copies of the deck just so I can do that.
I intend to make up some proxies. This not only means I can take out certain sorceries that aren't doing too well, but can create totally new heads with different abilities. For example, this head punishes creatures that attack it:
Arcane Mists Head
Elite Creature- Head
Whenever a permanent deals damage to Arcane Mists Head, return it to its owners hand.
Hero's reward - gain 4 life, draw a card, put a permanent from your hand into play.
0/8
So... for those who intend on attending maybe 1 of these events at most, will we be able to buy these decks/sets to mess around with later? Or will we have to piece it together and buy everything individually?
So... for those who intend on attending maybe 1 of these events at most, will we be able to buy these decks/sets to mess around with later? Or will we have to piece it together and buy everything individually?
The LGS I attended were offering them for sale during Game Day, having quite a few packs on display.
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Reprint Opt for Modern!!
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Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
This makes me feel that all the people worried about rules-lawyering the hell out of the hydra are petty and cowardly, it's a fairly easy challenge you can tackle with a fun deck you don't need to Spike up to 11.
I didn't go to game day, but it did strike me that the hydra deck would be fairly easy to beat when you've got a decent constructed deck (assuming your deck has an appropriate amount of creatures).
It might be interested to try it with sealed decks or draft decks, though.
The first two people to fight the hydra at our store alone on hard were total scrubs, and they flipped 0 elites and mostly double sorcery off their kills.
Four of the better players at the store soloed it during the day with real decks that should have been very good against the hydra and took 4-5 tries to get there because heads flipped into two heads, heads flipped into elites, unified lunge got cast early and often, and people got silenced on turns with plenty of heads in play.
If the hydra gets a reasonable draw, hard is actually hard.
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I think it was prety funny and in the 3rd time facing the i hydra i killed it ( 1st getting mana screwed on turn 4 getting my 4th land on next turn and killing 2 head just to get 2 elite and a normal head joining the party .2nd time dying cause i fliped a elite taking what would have been my last 2 life points. )
One thing I did notice, though, with Standard decks packing Unflinching Courage, the Hydra just falls apart at turn 4, even on 5 heads. GW aggro just stops losing life and ignores attacks pretty readily, almost to the point that it's not fun.
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The cool thing is that it really puts you on a clock if you flip one of the elite heads early and actually makes you think through your plays. I was running a Modern Goblins build for fun and it took me a while because every time I had thought I was through, I ended up flipping another head or the Hydra drew a useful card to stem my attack for a while.
Very well made challenge deck, I'm thinking about buying another one if only to combine the two and make a really challenging one to face. Awesome product.
Wouldn't this mean that since there are only another 7 heads in the deck, killing a head almost certainly doesn't flip another head?
Part of the point is that sometimes, killing a head can make things worse.
To be honest the deck could probably use a few more elite heads if you want to make it tougher. And also some way for the Hydra deck to kill your creatures, some form of hydra pyroclasm. (or maybe hydra heads that actually have power and damage your creatures in combat)
started with 4 heads.
by turn 2 i was on 11 life. by turn 3 i was on 4. then i had to use a fetchland into shock to actually play a spell.
Hydra is HARD. both single player attempts i just got burnt down to 1 or 2 life by turn 3 or 4 and hadn't really managed to play anything of significance yet. that's legacy burn levels of damage!
when i tried it with 3 players it seemed a lot easier. and when you introduced hero cards, it became easier again.
I played with GU Flash Control which doesn't really have any creatures with power over 2 minus 3-4 win cons. >_>
Thankfully on my 4th try (lost 2, won 1 with hero cards), I saw a Elvish Mystic with the Bow and I was so so happy to see it. =) Deathtouch, gaining life, putting counters my guys. Whee! Also got lucky that the hydra whiffed on spawning more heads and I was also able to negate and dissolve a spell and head card respectively.
Had a lot of fun with it
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On the other hand, giving a turn 1 Sedge Scorpion haste is pretty much all you need to win and it becomes impossible for the hydra to win if you curve out with hasted deathtouchers. They hydra needs each head to stay in play for at least two turns to break even with your life total.
I won 3 of 3 games with deathtouch.dec. Game one I won through color screw. Game two I won with a single Sedge Scorpion and the hydra didn't regrow heads, though did cast two. Game three I won by curving out though the hydra did provide nineteen overall heads for me to much on before ending the game at 35 life.
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yeah if you try the hydra with a deck pre made to fight against it then you will almost all times win.
I tried it with pauper too and was funny
Yeah, I wish it came with more. I love it when it has the Savage Vigor Head in play so it gets an additional spell on each of its turns. I was sad when I bought mine and I found out there was only one in the deck, if I could I would take out the Strike the Weak Spots in exchange for more Savage Vigor Heads but I am not going to buy more copies of the deck just so I can do that.
Dry up, O Sea.
Burn out, O Sun.
Grant us power Earthly Leaders and Gatekeepers of Hell.
Guide us Makers of the Underworld.
I intend to make up some proxies. This not only means I can take out certain sorceries that aren't doing too well, but can create totally new heads with different abilities. For example, this head punishes creatures that attack it:
Arcane Mists Head
Elite Creature- Head
Whenever a permanent deals damage to Arcane Mists Head, return it to its owners hand.
Hero's reward - gain 4 life, draw a card, put a permanent from your hand into play.
0/8
Thread | Draft
The LGS I attended were offering them for sale during Game Day, having quite a few packs on display.