Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan | Art by Victor Adame Minguez

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Recross the Paths, the series that revisits commanders in a typal way! Today's guest is Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan, one of the newest commanders coming from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. This general can count on a simple but effective game plan. It's an aggressive deck that wants to swing every turn, sacrificing permanents for value along the way in order to pump the whole board.

While there are several creature types that can fit this plan, I've been aching to build a Hydra deck for quite a long time, so that's what we're doing today. Yet, there will still be a twist, and I'll talk about it in a moment.

Stage One: Assembling the Felothar Deck

Part One: The Brood

Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan is a deck that wants to go wide, with many creatures benefitting from its triggered ability. On the other hand, Hydras usually want to go tall, placing a lot of counters onto one creature. So, how can we combine these two completely opposite strategies? Well, playing very small Hydras!

This creature type usually presents an X in its casting cost, making them particularly flexible when it comes to how much mana we want to invest in them. As we've just said, most players choose to pay as much as possible when casting one of these creatures, in order to make them immediately threatening. Instead, we'll opt for a longer way to victory. We'll play our bodies with very little stats, letting Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan do the work. Thanks to a pretty large fodder of permanents we want to sacrifice (more on this in a moment), we'll make sure we're always growing our creatures and, when nobody will see it coming, we'll have built a huge army out of pretty innocuous creatures.

As mentioned before, our creatures ideally have a casting cost of X and a green mana, so that we can cast them for as little as two total mana. Cards such as CapricopianCapricopian or Feral HydraFeral Hydra, which can manually grow investing leftover mana, are especially appreciated. The apex of this design is reached with Hungering HydraHungering Hydra, which grows whenever it takes damage, becoming scarier to face the longer it stays on the board.

Of course, we're also looking at more complex designs, with creatures that give us some additional benefits other than a scary body over time. Benevolent HydraBenevolent Hydra is all about making other creatures grow, working as a storage for counters, Steelbane HydraSteelbane Hydra comes with artifact and enchantment removal attached, and Vastwood HydraVastwood Hydra makes sure no counter goes to waste once it dies.

We also have some creatures with a fixed mana value, but they're pretty good at growing their stats. For example, Managorger HydraManagorger Hydra and Mossborn HydraMossborn Hydra both benefit from basic game actions, like casting spells and playing lands. Another example is Polukranos RebornPolukranos Reborn, a must-have in any Hydra typal deck, netting us two creatures whenever a nontoken one dies.

Part Two: The Fodder

Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan needs something to sacrifice to actually work, and we're ready for its toll. Considering how mana-efficient we want to be with this deck, the list is loaded with cheap permanents that we're incentivized to put in the bin. Starting with the simplest ones, Chromatic StarChromatic Star, Implement of FerocityImplement of Ferocity, and Implement of ImprovementImplement of Improvement are all here for one reason: they cycle themselves when put in a graveyard. The additional lines of text on them are somewhat marginal, with the first one fixing mana, the second adding a +1/+1 counter.

We can also count on some more interesting permanents. Chime of NightChime of Night is actually a removal spell that we can activate with our commander whenever we need to. Ichor WellspringIchor Wellspring and Mephitic DraughtMephitic Draught both draw us a card when they enter the battlefield and when they're put in a graveyard, which makes them the perfect fodder.

Lastly, we can rely on some pseudo-ramp options. Mycosynth WellspringMycosynth Wellspring will draw us two lands, which doesn't accelerate us, but makes sure we're always on par with the development of the game. Then, Prized StatuePrized Statue rewards us with two Treasure tokens, which may be the boost in mana we need in some more explosive turns. One last card I want to mention is LembasLembas, a solid effect for two mana, which is both infinite fodder for our commander and some minor lifegain if we ever need it.

Part Three: Glue It All Together

We can obviously count on some typal synergies between our creatures. This time we'll go for cheaper effects, considering how many creatures we want on the board at the same time. And They Shall Know No FearAnd They Shall Know No Fear is an exceptional protection spell, while Cover of DarknessCover of Darkness makes sure our attackers swing without problems. Additionally, the twins Rally the RanksRally the Ranks and Shared TriumphShared Triumph both function as cheap anthems.

On a more expensive note, Door of DestiniesDoor of Destinies can be seen as the top of our curve, and we want to play it as soon as possible to make sure we get enormous Hydras with little-to-no investments. Regarding our late game plans, Pact of the SerpentPact of the Serpent will make sure we're able to refill our hand if needed, while Banner of KinshipBanner of Kinship can easily provide a burst of stats to our creatures.

We can also count on some mana value and power-based synergies. Assemble the PlayersAssemble the Players allows us to cast most of our creatures from the top of our deck, letting us play with one additional card most of the time. Tocasia's WelcomeTocasia's Welcome can actually draw us an additional card, also considering we want to play low mana value Hydras as part of our strategy. Lastly, Tribute to the World TreeTribute to the World Tree gives us the best of both worlds, letting us choose to draw a card playing a big creature or getting stats for free playing a smaller one.

Part Four: The Complete Felothar Hydra Decklist

Stage Two: The Data Room

We're onto the last part of this deck tech: the data room. Was this deck idea actually unique?

Let's compare this list against both the average FelotharFelothar and the average Hydras deck to see what we gained (and lost) in the process.

The Average Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan Deck

Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan is an extremely new commander, released with the latest set, Tarkir: Dragonstorm. For this reason, it only leads 1816 decks according to EDHREC.

While we don't have a lot of data regarding this commander yet, its EDHREC page already shows how it's quickly becoming yet another generic +1/+1 counters general. There's somewhat of an interest in the sacrifice subtheme, with the inclusion of cards such as Ichor WellspringIchor Wellspring, Mephitic DraughtMephitic Draught, and Prized StatuePrized Statue among the most played ones, but not much more.

We don't see any Hydras either, other than Warden of the GroveWarden of the Grove, perhaps because of recency bias. Instead, there are a ton of staples of the archetype, Hardened ScalesHardened Scales or Doubling SeasonDoubling Season. While these cards totally make sense in this deck (and are also obviously very good), they also represent a soft threat for the deck. In fact, the combination of +1/+1 counters and sacrifice mechanics is what makes Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan interesting to me; shrinking one half of the deck so much in favor of the other might make it more functional, but will also take off all of its uniqueness in the long run.

Anyhow, it's still very early in the lifecycle of this commander, and many more cards are to be printed in the near future. Also, it's pretty easy to miss on some cards within the huge amounts of commanders printed with every set, so maybe we still need some more times for people to take Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan seriously and not just like any other general in the same archetype. Only time will tell, but I'll always root for some more experimentation!

The Average Hydra Commander Deck

Gargos, Vicious WatcherGargos, Vicious Watcher and Zaxara, the ExemplaryZaxara, the Exemplary are basically tied as the most popular Hydra commander. The first one has 3424 decks registered on EDHREC with this tag, while the latter only has four fewer.

Looking at their pages side to side, it's surprising to see how similar they are. In particular, ZaxaraZaxara makes an extremely limited use of its two additional colors, at least for what concerns the kindred creatures included. Scrolling down the page, the only non-mono-green Hydras we find are Hydroid KrasisHydroid Krasis and The Goose MotherThe Goose Mother, and almost all of the blue and black mana pips are found on "X" spells that synergize with the commander.

This tells us about the main problem of Hydras in EDH: the pool of creatures. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good pieces, like Managorger HydraManagorger Hydra, Kalonian HydraKalonian Hydra, or Genesis HydraGenesis Hydra, but most of them usually suffer from one main problem, which is the lack of internal synergies. Extremely good cards like the one just mentioned could be included in a lot of different decks, as there's nothing that ties them to fellow Hydras. In particular, the last card of the list is the epitome of this issue; Genesis HydraGenesis Hydra shines when it cheats into play a huge threat to go along its big body, but Hydras usually come with a 0/0 statline that prevents them from being played from anywhere but the hand. So, in simpler terms, it's a Hydra that negatively interacts with creature of the same type.

In conclusion, as long as we don't get some more cohesive pieces, all Hydra builds will be extremely commander-centric. In fact, only changing the commander at the helm of the deck can shift the focus of the list, which would otherwise be but a pile of playable Hydras with no synergy whatsoever.

In this regard, today's build of Felothar, Dawn of the AbzanFelothar, Dawn of the Abzan wants to address the elephant in the room. By adding a layer of game plan to the mix, we're able to change the way in which Hydras are usually played, leading perhaps to a change in the perception of this creature type.

Now it's on to you. What do you think? Will you try the small Hydras + sacrifice combination? Let me know in the comments.

I hope you've enjoyed the article. See you next time!