by Johnny Cycles, May 10th, 2024
Hello! Welcome to another edition of Keeping Modern Janky! This week I’m playing a budget friendly Gruul Hydra Tribal deck featuring one of the shiny new mythics from Outlaws of Thunder Junction – Goldvein Hydra.
This is the kind of mythic Midrange needs to be competitive in today’s Modern of pushed, 1- and 2-drop creatures backed up by cheap (or free) interaction. I first played this Hydra in a deck looking to abuse Treasure tokens with Magda, the Hoardmaster and was super impressed by its power level. The triple keywords make it a game-changing threat, while the death trigger ensures we get value upon its demise.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Hydra Tribal without some other Hydras! Filling out both our jank and Hydra quota is one oldie and two newbies. I’ll discuss each, along with the synergies of the deck in a moment. But first, the decklist!
Decklist – Gruul Hydra Tribal
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (16)
| 4 Goldvein Hydra | |
| 3 Mistcutter Hydra | |
| 4 Shivan Devastator | |
| 3 Bonecrusher Giant | |
| 2 Polukranos Reborn |
Planeswalkers (6)
| 3 Domri, Anarch of Bolas | |
| 3 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner |
Spells (4)
| 4 Lightning Bolt |
Artifacts (3)
| The Ozolith |
Enchantments (8)
| 4 Hardened Scales | |
| 4 Utopia Sprawl |
Lands (23)
| 1 Boseiju, Who Endures | |
| 2 Cavern of Souls | |
| 4 Field of Ruin | |
| 5 Forest | |
| 2 Mountain | |
| 4 Stomping Ground | |
| 1 Verdant Catacombs | |
| 4 Wooded Foothills |
Sideboard (15)
| 3 Alpine Moon | |
| 3 Veil of Summer | |
| 3 Brotherhood’s End | |
| 3 Endurance | |
| 3 Force of Vigor |
Deck Tech
The only thing that changed between making this first deck tech and now is that I took out one copy of The Ozolith and added a third copy of Mistcutter Hydra. The Ozolith is no doubt a busted card in our deck, but since it’s a legendary artifact, I wanted to reduce the chances we drew multiple copies in a game.
Primary Game Plan
Much like our Gruul Dragons deck, we’re looking to ramp into a big fatty by turn 3, only this time we’re casting Hydras. However, since we’re a deck looking to put +1/+1 counters on our finishers, I decided to eschew my traditional mana dork ramp plan for one familiar to Modern players – Hardened Scales.
It’s true, the enchantment doesn’t technically ramp us, as we can’t tap it for mana, but once we get to casting our Hydras, it functions similarly to an Arbor Elf or Delighted Halfling. Of course, Hardened Scales doesn’t bring to the table the added bonus of potentially tapping for two mana or making our creatures uncounterable, but it does have the benefit of not dying to Fatal Push, Lightning Bolt, or Orcish Bowmasters. Furthermore, I didn’t just want to take my Dragons shell and swap out the Dragons for Hydras. That doesn’t seem very exciting…
Playing +1/+1 counters also incentivizes us to abuse them. Enter The Ozolith. This legendary artifact puts our opponent in the unenviable spot of dying now or killing our things and dying later… Ha. I love the flavor of this card alongside Hydras. You think you’ve killed the last head only to have it reappear on the next Hydra.
Completing our ramp package are our all-star 3-drop Planeswalkers. I couldn’t bring myself to cut these, despite the fact we run them in our Gruul Dragons deck, as well. They are simply too powerful and too synergistic with our strategy to leave out, even for other powerful 3-drop cards, like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker or Blood Moon. With no Glorybringer to exert and then untap with Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, you may think she isn’t as good in this deck.
However, given that our Hydras are almost all X spells, we don’t just want to hit five mana by turn 3. We want all the manas! Furthermore, with the addition of Polukranos Reborn alongside Bonecrusher Giant, we have even more ways to draw cards off of her than with our Gruul Dragons deck. Running out of Hydras is not something we ever want to happen.
Domri, Anarch of Bolas, meanwhile, is arguably more busted in this shell, given how big our Hydras can grow. However, the real pleasant surprise came early in my test matches when I flipped a Polukranos Reborn into Polukranos, Engine of Ruin with both Domri and Kiora out. Suddenly, the death of a singly Hydra created two 4/3s and drew us two cards. I doubt I’ll live this particular dream too many times, but the potential is there.
The rest of our game plan is pretty straightforward. Other than Polukranos Reborn, all of our finishers have haste along with some form of evasion. Mistcutter Hydra is our weakest Hydra except when it’s our best… Having protection from Blue is far from an irrelevant ability and can be surprisingly effective against Domain Zoo and Leyline of the Guildpact, not to mention the more obvious decks like Merfolk, Izzet Murktide, and 4- and 5-Color Control.
Goldvein Hydra does everything we want and more. It’s good on offense and defense, then replaces itself upon death. The Treasure tokens we get almost guarantee our next Hydra will be life-ending for our opponent. Shivan Devastator is often our best finisher due to flying. Couple any of these big threats with The Ozolith and we’re in serious business.
This deck is not only super fun and super powerful, it’s also very budget friendly. The deck as is will set you back around 125 tix. Find alternates for Endurance and Force of Vigor in the sideboard, and it costs right around 100 tix.
Weaknesses
Enough said.
I guess we can throw in Engineered Explosives, Blast Zone, and Prismatic Ending while we’re at it.
The usual weaknesses of playing a Gruul Midrange deck in Modern are all still present, as well, minus one. Our 1-drop synergistic pieces are less likely to die to the most commonly played removal. No longer will we get blown out by Orcish Bowmasters or Fire // Ice. In fact, based on my experience with the deck so far, Hydras eat Orcs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
With Shivan Devastator, you don’t have to choose between Dragons and Hydras!
Dragons vs. Hydras
In the early stages of building this deck, I had my doubts about Hydras. Would they really have enough evasion to close out games the way hasty, flying Dragons can? Would missing the 4 damage Glorybringer gives us on the regular cost us more games than the Treasure tokens from Goldvein Hydra‘s death trigger? Would and creatures be too susceptible to cards like Fatal Push to be playable? Would making room for Hardened Scales and The Ozolith at the cost of mana ramp be too slow? Did my heart have enough room to love two janky Modern tribes?
These were the doubts and fears that plagued me as I set about making this deck… Well, okay, more like, these were my concerns about Hydra Tribal. I’ll let you watch the games and be the final judge, but I think I may have found a new favorite creature type!
Practice Match 1 vs U/W Affinity
Practice Match 2 vs. Hammer Time
Practice Match 3 vs. Elves
Practice Match 4 vs. Grixis Murktide
Practice Match 5 vs. Temur Murktide
Practice Match 6 vs. Domain Zoo
Practice Match 7 vs. Mardu Death’s Shadow
Overall Record: 5-1-1
We got to 4-0 before running into the buzzsaw that is Domain Zoo. Our luck deserted us and joined up with our opponent… Luck aside, Domain Zoo is a powerful and fast deck that is full of cheap and large creatures that our removal doesn’t line up with very well. I’d have to play the match-up more, but I have a feeling our chances of beating Domain Zoo are pretty low. Is there some sideboard tech worth including? Let me know in the comments!
Other than that one match loss, though, our deck exceeded expectations. And, unlike our 5-0 with Tinybones Aristocrats, we beat some of the best, most commonly played decks in the format. We played against Affinity, Hammer Time, two Murktide decks, and Death’s Shadow, to go along with Domain Zoo. The one exception to this was Elves, but a deck like Elves is really good at putting a janky deck in its place. Fast and synergistic, it has reliable turn 4 wins. If your deck can’t keep up with Elves, then it’s probably a sign of a greater problem.
Still, I’m excited to play Hyrda Tribal in a league!
Move over Questing Beast! There’s a new best Green mythic creature in town!
Impressions from Practice Matches
What a fun and powerful deck! Goldvein Hydra is the new Questing Beast! I actually can’t decide which card is better. What do you think? What I do know is that now I want to play them both in a deck…
We had a couple of concerns going into our matches that I want to talk about quickly.
Do Hydras have enough evasion?
Yes. And they definitely have enough power to make up for the lack of flying. Haste is the true key word on these kinds of creatures that allow them to be competitive.
No Glorybringer?
No problem. Between Lightning Bolt, Stomp, and Domri, Anarch of Bolas, we have a decent amount of removal. Throw in vigilance on a giant Goldvein Hydra and suddenly we don’t care as much about our opponent’s creatures. That our Hydras scale up as the game goes on means our opponents are forced to do more blocking than when we were only casting 4/4 Dragons.
We dodged a lot of Black decks, but the ones we played against didn’t blow us out with the cheap removal spell. Still, Scam is always out there, skulking about the shadows. We’ll probably play 2 Scam decks in our league.
Less mana ramp?
We hit some timely Utopia Sprawls that probably skew my impression from our matches, but the lack of 1-drop mana dorks didn’t really hinder us. Maybe it’s because we’re used to them dying immediately and so playing without them is nothing new. Hardened Scales functioned as I expected as a kind of mana dork for our Hydras, while The Ozolith felt like a game-ending threat in the 1-drop spot.
Can I love both Hydras and Dragons?
Janky tribes are like my kids, it turns out. I love them both equally, but differently.
Other Hydras
Hydras have been around since Alpha (Rock Hydra) and Wizards has printed some fairly busted ones over the years. Can a U/G Hydra Tribal deck compete in Modern? I guess I’ll have to find out!
But first, let’s run Gruul Hydra Tribal through a league!
Friendly League
Match 1 vs. Rakdos Scam
Match 2 vs. Grixis Jace-Tibalt Combo
Match 3 vs. Burn
Match 4 vs. Mono Blue Tron
Match 5 vs. Gruul Colossal Rattlewurm
Overall League Record: 2-3
Wrap-up
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and watching! Let me know in the comments how you would tweak the deck. Which Hydras would you absolutely make room for?
