"Hooded Hydra:Bursting with Snaky Goodness"

"Hooded Hydra:Bursting with Snaky Goodness"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

The moment I saw this card it made me want to do the entrance of the Purple Cobras from the movie Dodgeball. You know the one that goes...Tug,tug, Hiss, Tug,tug, Hiss with matching Cobra gestures every time you say hiss but enough about this sort of silliness although by the time I have finished this paragraph I may have done that cobra gesture about a dozen times...Ehem...

There is a part of me that has grown to love the Simic Combine in the last couple of months and my Inner Vorel of the Hull clade was ecstatic when it saw this creature. The Hooded Hydra is something that could be abused , plus it fits right in to my Vorel EDH deck which already features other Hydras. Some people may look at this creature , determine that the mana commitment is not worth it and just brand it as a crap rare. Hey , if people would not buy the card and it lowers the price then go ahead and label it a crap rare. More Hooded Hydra for me.

Now playing with this particular Hydra is a bit tricky because you are faced with several decisions.One  you could cast it early with a mana cost of 2 green mana and X colorless mana , the amount of which determines the number of +1/+1 counters on it. Yes just like the other Hydras you need to have enormous amounts of mana to be able to abuse it by piling on those +1/+1 counters. If you have looked at the card those +1/+1 counters matter.

Another choice that you have and a choice that screams at you right off the bat is to cast it as a  morph creature for 3 mana. EDH Opponents who are not aware of your updates or who have played your EDH deck for the first time might just leave this seemingly harmless morph card alone. Or at least for the time being. You on the other hand need to wait for mana sources to reach the magic number of 5 because that is the exact number of mana required for Hooded Hydra to reveal itself. At which case Hooded Hydra is turned face-up and five +1/+1 counters are put on it. Now as I said those counters are important because the number of those counters determine the number of 1/1 Green snake creatures that you would be putting on the battlefield when the Hooded Hydra dies. Vorel is laughing with glee somewhere because he could easily double those counters any time he wants...

"You would be pretty happy to add this guy too..."

Now there are a couple of scenarios for you to turn the Hooded Hydra face up.

1) When your opponents has at least 2 blockers. For example a 2/2 and a 5/5 creature. You declare your attack with the Hooded Hydra. If your opponent chooses to block with his 2/2 creature thinking that he or she could kill your 2/2 morph creature you could then turn your Hooded Hydra face up and you get to kill a 2/2 creature because it is now a 5/5 monster! 

on the other hand if your opponent plays it safe by blocking with the 5/5 to just kill your 2/2 morph creature, you could turn it face up and the 5/5's cancel each other out. You on the other hand gain the upper hand. You were able to take out their 5/5 creature and they get nothing for it. Your creature dies and now you have 5 1/1 attackers! Yeah even in death the Hooded Hydra still serves up the battle tricks.

2) The other scenario to unmorph Hooded Hydra would be in the face of impending mass removal. You cannot freaking do anything against a Supreme Verdict but when you turn the Hooded Hydra face up during this time you at least will be rewarded with 5 1/1 snakes while your opponents have lost all of their creatures. 

3) The other time I want to use Hooded Hydra is when I could double the counters on it with Vorel. I could do it while it is attacking for an instant pump. I mean a 10/10 creature that bursts into little snakes when it dies would give your opponents enough pause before they do something about it. Should they risk killing it? They dont kill it , I make it a 20/20 next turn and then 40/40 after that. By that time things might be too late...

Tug,tug, Hiss...Tug,tug,Hiss...Tug,Tug Hiss....that's the sound I would make after beating someone with a crap rare...