"Heroes' Bane: Planeswalker Crusher"

"Heroes' Bane: Planeswalker Crusher"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

 

Hoooboy is all I could say when I saw this Hydra. I have a Simic EDH deck that is raring to add it. So much potential power packed into one green card. If I thought that Nemesis to Mortals was great now this is even better. Being green and having a lot of mana has never been so great.

 

Now on to the card , A 5 mana cost Hydra that is stirring the inner Timmy the world over. This is the kind of big creature that is never content with its initial 4/4 frame. In the standard setting it might not see much play because it is going to compete with the Awesome PolyK and Kalonian hydra and too many hydras do tend to spoil a deck. It is however welcome in my EDH simic deck where everyone gets more and more counters as each turn progresses with creatures like Renegade Krasis and Ivy lane denizen in the mix.

 

Turn 3 seems to be the Magic number to get this hydra out. A land drop  and casting a Sol Ring on turn one , turn 2 another land drop and a Somberwald sage. Turn 3 a land drop which gives you a total of 8 mana available to cast any creature. If Vorinclex is not already in your hands then this Hydra might be and he plays well with the other great Hydras. Kalonian Hydra in particular doubles its counters once it attacks and just because it attacks. Yup . free power ups for all of your monsters. No mana needed. Heroes' Bane is a different matter. It requires mana and can only make itself larger.

The thing that I like about Heroes' Bane is that you could pump it anytime for 4 mana  and it doubles in size in the blink of an eye. It is somewhat a watered down version of the Kalonian Hydra I would grant that but it offers a redundancy in a deck that needs it. Unlike the Kalonian Hydra though this one can be a very spectacular game finisher when you have enough mana. In basketball , this could be one of those one on one players that love to drive to the hoop. And yeah it will get to score.

 

So let us say you already have it protected with a Whispersilk cloak( and that is the plan here). It is a 4/4 killing machine that has Shroud and an unlimited access to your opponents throat because it is unblockable. You attack with it and then pour in , let us say 16 mana on it. The first time you pump it , it becomes 8/8 , the second trigger resolves to make it 16/16 , the third makes it 32/32 and the last one makes it 64/64.  Bravo! you have now finished off one of your opponents and your Hydra now looks on hungrily to the other 2.

"Abusing Hydras whenever possible..."

The other colors will also want this monstrosity. Red may want to Fling him when he is huge enough. I know of a certain Golgari guildmate of mine who would sacrifice it to Jarad to end everyone's existence in one fell swoop. I mean having each of your opponents lose 64 life seems like a really great idea to me. What do you think Kira? I love the idea of a single Distortion Strike allowing Heroes' Bane to reemerge past an enemies defenses and bashing away for the win. I would make that my goal in my Simic EDH deck.

 

Journey into Nyx is finally here. The final puzzle piece. I like it.