Mike’s Magic Reviews: Hail Hydra!

Hello you wonderful Geek(ette)s and welcome to a brand new section of the rabbit hole that is  the Geek Pride site: Mike’s Magic Reviews, In which a bearded casual MTG player reviews whatever it is Wizards Of The Coast happen to throw his way (semi) weekly. Sort of. Kinda. Look, I’ll do my best get off my back. Jeez.

This week those wonderful wizards at…Wizards have sent me a challenge, with which I had a blast. Behold:

FACE THE HYDRA

Deck list: (Taken from MTGsalvation.com)

Initial thoughts:

This looks fun! Upon opening the box I had a real feel for what the deck would have to offer. The hydra seems like a really interesting gameplay style, relying on rushing the opponent and attacking their life force directly. This alone  excited me to continue on and play.

Play Test:

The game works thusly: you (and maybe some friends) face the Hydra; you pick a number of starting heads then attempt top destroy all of them. if you destroy them all, you win! there are a mix of sorceries and head-types in the deck, allowing for diversified play. and the greatest thing is that you do not even have to play with anyone else!

Great Against:

Going against this thing on your own is a great way to test your decks. it is challenging while remaining fun. You dread what’s coming from the hydra during its turn (you draw two cards at a time) and the whole game has a great atmosphere. it feels a lot more role-playey than other MTG gameplay styles

Sucks against:

Easy is really easy, hard can be terrifying when playing alone

Room For Improvement:

This should become one of the standard games, such as commander etc. it was really fun to play, my only concern was that it was too short. you should double the amount of cards to make for a much longer game. other than that, a real innovation in game styles that you can test decks against on your own, or take on with friends. Good work!