Pointed Discussion

So this was supposedly made to be a competitive-playable Hydra. With AVR (and it's horde of blink effects) rotating out, this may actually see play. I would have preferred pro black myself, though, what with doom blade and all.

I still don't see this being played.

Against a non-blue deck, it's worthless. Against blue, ok, it is coming down, and it hits immediately, and it will be hard to remove again. Still, unless it's mono-blue, there are enough answers, and likely also enough chump blockers. If they want to really push hydras, they should have given it trample too.

So Scragnoth called. Seemed pretty disappointed that your a better bargain for all those effects...
Poor old Scragnoth.

Seems like it'd be playable mainboard, but it will SHINE in sideboards around the world/

At long last, Red Skull has finally succeeded in turning himself into a hydra.

There probably has not been a collection of sets as helpful to a Rosheen Meanderer player than Gatecrash through Theros. Clan Defiance, Savageborn Hydra, Vastwood Hydra, Kalonian Hydra and now this.

I think the haste is far more important than the uncounterability and prot-blue. Imagine casting Kalonian Hydra on your opponent's end step with Savage Summoning or Prophet of Kruphix, then playing Mistcutter. That isn't even hard to do. (Just don't try casting Ordeal of Thassa on Mistcutter if you're playing blue.)

It's literally the same hydra they've printed a million times, with a slight different in abilities. Yawn.

@ NARFNra: I absolutely agree, I don't like this card one bit. I don't think it's unfair or anything; it's nicely balanced and I understand why they made it. But that's what irks me: This card was made (and his article pretty much says this) because "Hyrdas weren't good enough in Standard and needed a boost."

This card isn't flavorful at all. This is the kind of card I would expect someone to make on one of those forums where you can make your own Magic cards whose username is "X_Hydrasarecool_X." It's biased and blatantly has spiteful effects stapled onto an already bland and overused creature type. This doesn't make me want to play Hydras more, it just makes me feel like someone in R&D got upset that his/her favorite creatures weren't being touched by human hands and decided to rail on his/her least favorite color. It just rips me out of the fictive dream and makes me feel more like my cards are being manufactured rather than cast by wizardz and such.

If a designer is so set on hating on blue, why not flavor it up a little?

Mistfang Hydra

XG

Creature - Hydra

Mistfang Hydra can't be countered.

When Mistfang Hydra becomes the target of a blue spell or ability, you may put a token that's a copy of Mistfang Hydra onto the battlefield tapped. That token enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on Mistfang Hydra.

Mistfang Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.

0/0

I rather like that card. It's not undealwithable (Other colors, combat), and even Blue stops it for a turn. Flavor-wise, you have a hydra that hides in mist (can't counter what you can't see!), making it difficult for those challenging it to know exactly how many heads/hydras are there when fighting it. You bounce it with a spell, then say, "Good, no more hydras in this crazy fog!" and keep walking into the fog. BAM. Next turn, it rears it's head again out of the fog (untapping) to attack!

I can even imagine the picture being a guy standing over a hydra head with a sword in it, but there's another giant hydra head coming out of the mist behind him with its mouth open. Flavor text?

"Well, that's the last of them." - Polis guardsman, last words

Uhh... I got a bit ahead of myself, but my opinion still stands.

Please keep in mind, this card isn't part of some conspiracy to destroy blue. It's part of a partial cycle of rare or mythic creatures with protection from an enemy color. And it is flavorful. What color gets cards related to mist? Mistform creatures, Fog Bank, etc are all blue. I'm not 100% sure what mistcutting is, but it sounds awesome and I look forward to dropping this guy and trying it out.

Never on the curve as far as Green is concerned, but it will always be close. A great play post Supreme Verdict.

You know, when you think about the place of hydras within Magic: The Gathering, it's kind of ironic that the original Hydra was a giant, multiheaded serpent that lived in the water.

I don't know if it will be used in competitive constructed (I doubt it, except as a possible sideboard card against blue), but this was a game-changer for me in the prerelease. I played R/G with a couple of ramp cards (Burnished Hart and Ordeal of Nylea). None of my opponents played blue, but this was still a great finisher for me. I usually got it out as a 4/4 or 6/6. Nobody lasted more than a couple of rounds after this guy resolved.

I love how green is becoming less and less subtle on it's intention to show the middle finger to blue (ie Skylasher and now this).

I want a miscutted Mistcutter Hydra! Who wouldn't:D

My buddy told me after a commander game in which I stole all of his creatures with Beguiler of Wills that he's going to make the harshest possible blue hate deck he could, I can't help but think he had something to do with the creation of this card...

Blood Baron of Vizkopa gets two protections and lifelink, while this also comes down as a 4/4 if you pay five mana, with essentially one protection and haste. Against pure Azorius this might be okay, but both Esper or American have good tools against it (Far // Away, Doom Blade, Lifebane Zombie, Chained to the Rocks, Warleader's Helix)

WOTC: "Hey Blue, Did you want to interact with Green?"

Blue: "well yeah, I mean it would be part of the gam-"

WOTC: "lol no."

Wizards, your hate towards control is not subtle

Boros charm golgari charm and Legion's initiative against Supreme verdict and other board wipe effects
Voice of Resurgence
Thrun, the last troll in the Scars standard
Gaea's Revenge
Skylasher

and now this...?

Still wrecked me when I didn't have an answer died when I did, 4/5

I would have included a drawback on it so it wouldn't be strictly better than Scragnoth. How about: sacrifice a forest when Mistcutter Hydra enters the battlefield. (it can be a tapped forest)
Then again there are cards with too many drawbacks like Firedrinker Satyr. I feel that they nerfed him just a little too much. The first drawback is great. The pumping part didn't need to deal damage too.

Blue Planeswalker says, that's cute. Aetherize.

@Phelplan
Why would they make a rare worse than an uncommon. Never design cards again.

Infinite colorless mana combos make this absolutely stupid. In a casual game I played, I managed to pull this guy out with 1 googolplex +1/+1 counters.... the haste, pro blue, whose casting can't be countered aspect makes it even more insanely stupid. I LOVE IT. :D

I'm surprised that I haven't come across this more often in tournaments, what with mono blue being such a big thing now.
Wizards just gave us a key creature to taking down a huge archetype in today's meta game, and I don't think enough people realize this.
Going to a tournament? Splash green. Main deck this.

Looks like a bunch of Crocomire heads.

Blind Obedience. You're welcome Azorius standard players.

Yeah, I'm one of those guys, I don't mind seeing blue get the finger (seeing as how it's given me the finger many times over the past 13 years).

It's a reusable Banefire in green!

-Swag_Crow

Now that two of the most popular standard decks are U/W Control and Mono-U Devotion, this guy doesn't seem too bad as a maindeck choice.

I would not be surprised if a green-based anti-meta deck became popular in the near future, given that there's also stuff like Witchstalker (which also laughs at the other big deck, Mono-B Devotion).

Okay, I guess ill throw my Ivy Elementals in the garbage? This thing is strictly better, if you disagree you can go *** yourself.

I rock four main deck in my green devotion deck like is a green fireball. Uncounterspellable and hasted. I've cast him several times to finish opponents at my local game store Friday Night Magic. Easily splashable too.

I once cast this guy as a 1/1 in EDH. After everyone at the table wondered what the heck I was doing since I had 6 more mana available, I cast Armed/Dangerous to force them to block the hydra while my Commander attacked for lethal damage.

Certainly not the best Hydra, but I love him just for that time he helped Borborygmos murder someone.

@TheWrathOfShane: Ivy Elemental interacts with elemental tribal (Brighthearth Banneret, Primal Beyond, Smokebraider... and note that all of those help you cast it faster), while hydras don't have any tribal support at all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go *** myself now.

No trample makes me sad. Its also why this sees no tournament play. Banefire is used because it finishes your opponent off instantly when you pump mana into it. This gets chump-blocked unless your opponent is running mono-blue.

@Enelysios Why would you play this if you weren't up against monoblue or U/B control? This is a 3-4 of in a sideboard at best. When paired withSkylasher you kind of shut down MUD. And it does see tournament play, not a whole lot right now, but now that B/G Dredge is both fun and viable I bet we'll be seeing more of it.

would Tezzeret's gambit's proliferate work with this card, if you paid with 2 life. or will it still count as a blue spell.

@Cupcakes3Life: A blue spell is blue even if you pay no blue mana for it; ergo, Tezzeret's Gambit is always blue even if you pay the 2 life (the same applies e.g. for Force of Will). However, Proliferate does not target. Protection, shroud, and hexproof won't stop Proliferate.

This thing comes outta nowhere in Kruphix, God of Horizons EDH I tell you what

I currently have a legacy Junk deck that has issues with Merfolk. I'm thinking this guy will help with both Merfolk and Miracles handily. The haste ensures if in the late game you get a "Banefire", the 1 CMC works awesome next to Confidant, the pro-blue helps create a blue wall to survive those few turns, the fact he's pumpable means that you can generate a bigger beater at some point in the game; which is often the problem when dealing with other Legacy aggro (Knight, Skull, Goyf.)

He fortunately also gets around the Tidebender mage and the infinite True-Name walls. "You wanna race? How about my 5/5 haste!?"

Hey, Kruphix! I got you a new friend!