This card is FUNNY and its not half bad. Play with more Hippos.
Seriously though, this card is actually pretty fun in multiplayer when there is always SOMEONE who has mana open. Slap on a Loxodon Warhammer or a Favor of the Overbeing and have a good time.
majinara
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(8 votes)
And another card that turned from playable to total garbage thanks to the M10 rules change.
Before M10 your opponent had to choose: does he want to get mana burned or grant you mana instead? Now, the only thing this hippo does is tap all your opponents lands, since they can simply tap everything in response to this hippos ability. :(
From 4/5 down to 2/5.
Tanaka348
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(6 votes)
That's somewhat incorrect. Pygmy Hippo drains all mana from the opponent's mana pool, even if it wasn't put there by the first part of the ability. So your opponent would have to put the mana in his pool and have it evaporate away before combat, not in response to the ability. Still, if he knows he's going to get hit, he has time to prepare.
Ritius
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Way to make this useful again: get out Price of Glory and attack with the pygmy hippo, using a Magus of the Candelabra to make sure their lands are untapped on your turn. And then just do w/e while they wallow in despair.
storm_crow4presidnt
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(10 votes)
All your mana is belong to us?
xaer0knight
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
the card has been changed in the Oracle (and errata) to fit the M10 rules. but this is a Mana Drain on a creature... its funny and really intresting
kronos539
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
with all the card drawing aggro (think cold-eyed selkie) out there, you're gonna need a lot of mana to play all those drawn cards. oh, gee whiz, look! a hippo! if you're up against permission, punch thru to prevent counterspells. and 2cc for a 2/2 body with all that? c'mon people
it actually got BETTER with m10 rules, as there's no longer any mana burn, and those who said it got nerfed are batty. what part of "and empty his or her mana pool" don't you understand??
supershawn
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
they can tap all their lands and play as many spells as they can in response to her ability, but even with that it messes up peoples strategy and timing.
Piedmont
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I just love this card, its a hippo and I just love the photo the hippo looks so shiny and proud. As mentioned Favor of the overbeing is a good combo for some real fun.
I agree M10 rules makes it is not as useful (they can tap their lands during the declare attackers step to make sure you don't get any mana), but there was an interesting situation that did come up online while I was attacking with him. During the declare blockers step they swords to plowshares so they would have mana afterward... and at the end of combat Magic online forced them to tap all their lands and I got the mana. If you read the situation above carefully the pygmy hippo attacked, no blockers were declared (instead he was plowshared), his ability still triggered. The other person learned afterward next time, to have something block it and THEN swords it :)
It's just a fun card, 4/5.
Superllama12
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
3.5/5 for the ability, sounds very chaotic
8/5 for the look on your friend's face when you go, "I summon a hippopotamous." Or "Your hippo became Terrified and died"
@kronos539: Mana pools empty automatically when steps and phases end. So your opponent can arrange for their mana pool to empty before you get to steal all their mana. It's not total garbage, since it still means they won't have mana available during or after combat, but there are very few situations where you'll ever get to see any of that mana yourself.
Ragamander
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Might as well slap a Writ of Passage on this guy and call it a day.
On the other hand, when you have a hippopotamus on your side, you've basically already won.
TheWrathofShane
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Made useless with no mana burn, they can just tap out after the main phase and loose the mana before the hippo can eat it.
BUT you can cast spells counter free (excluding Force of WIll and Mental Misstep) during your 2nd main phase.
OR you can get fun and run with Upwelling and Turnabout. But the point is, with mana burn you didn't need 2 cards to take advantage of his 2nd ability.
Kryptnyt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Visions was like the zoo set or something. Monkeys, elephants, pygmy hippos...
Mr.Wimples
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Apparently hippos are naturally-occurring mana sponges.
Justice1337
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
On how the mana burn change impacted this card -
Sure, it sort of used to be something of a Wilderness Elemental with mana burn. But, it was always sort of this straight beef kind of card. Your opponent could always just tap their land to avoid the drain, if that's what position they were in. But, what's a few damage? That's not why this card would be played over Tarmogoyf.
Everything it used to do, it still does. A cheaper Dosan the Falling Leaf, making you mostly immune to everything your opponent would want to cast on your turn. It's one half of a Nature's Will on a stick, which is just what you want in a deck with Winter Orb and similar effects.
Still a very solid card, one with an effect that we rarely see.
this the most fourth-wall breaking, Melvin-Spike, mana-screwing way to destroy land ever.
this is honestly a card to shit on The Grave of Timmy's and Vorthos' Hopes and Dreams with xD
There is nothing NEARLY so Opposite the basic concept of Alpha and M10 Design philosophy as this. x.x
I think it might be a cool thing to have in some other game, but this is the worst card in Magic for me because it is the least MAGIC of them all. MAGIC is different things to different people, but the things it usually is to most people....this isn't that.
Shouldn't this theoretically force an opponent to draw the maximum amount of mana they possibly can?
TheWaddleDeeKing
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's kinda hard to hate this card. Sure, you need to go completely unblocked for it to work, but if your opponent has bigger things to worry about, then this card can be pretty good.
Comments (25)
Seriously though, this card is actually pretty fun in multiplayer when there is always SOMEONE who has mana open. Slap on a Loxodon Warhammer or a Favor of the Overbeing and have a good time.
Before M10 your opponent had to choose: does he want to get mana burned or grant you mana instead? Now, the only thing this hippo does is tap all your opponents lands, since they can simply tap everything in response to this hippos ability. :(
From 4/5 down to 2/5.
it actually got BETTER with m10 rules, as there's no longer any mana burn, and those who said it got nerfed are batty. what part of "and empty his or her mana pool" don't you understand??
I agree M10 rules makes it is not as useful (they can tap their lands during the declare attackers step to make sure you don't get any mana), but there was an interesting situation that did come up online while I was attacking with him. During the declare blockers step they swords to plowshares so they would have mana afterward... and at the end of combat Magic online forced them to tap all their lands and I got the mana. If you read the situation above carefully the pygmy hippo attacked, no blockers were declared (instead he was plowshared), his ability still triggered. The other person learned afterward next time, to have something block it and THEN swords it :)
It's just a fun card, 4/5.
8/5 for the look on your friend's face when you go, "I summon a hippopotamous." Or "Your hippo became Terrified and died"
After you cast your Darksteel Colossus, of course!
And if your opponent wants to tap out before combat, tough luck, 'cause you can run Early Harvest and Turnabout. Or, even weirder, Upwelling. Manabarbs also helps.
On the other hand, when you have a hippopotamus on your side, you've basically already won.
BUT you can cast spells counter free (excluding Force of WIll and Mental Misstep) during your 2nd main phase.
OR you can get fun and run with Upwelling and Turnabout. But the point is, with mana burn you didn't need 2 cards to take advantage of his 2nd ability.
Sure, it sort of used to be something of a Wilderness Elemental with mana burn. But, it was always sort of this straight beef kind of card. Your opponent could always just tap their land to avoid the drain, if that's what position they were in. But, what's a few damage? That's not why this card would be played over Tarmogoyf.
Everything it used to do, it still does. A cheaper Dosan the Falling Leaf, making you mostly immune to everything your opponent would want to cast on your turn. It's one half of a Nature's Will on a stick, which is just what you want in a deck with Winter Orb and similar effects.
Still a very solid card, one with an effect that we rarely see.
this the most fourth-wall breaking, Melvin-Spike, mana-screwing way to destroy land ever.
this is honestly a card to shit on The Grave of Timmy's and Vorthos' Hopes and Dreams with xD
There is nothing NEARLY so Opposite the basic concept of Alpha and M10 Design philosophy as this. x.x
I think it might be a cool thing to have in some other game, but this is the worst card in Magic for me because it is the least MAGIC of them all. MAGIC is different things to different people, but the things it usually is to most people....this isn't that.
Shouldn't this theoretically force an opponent to draw the maximum amount of mana they possibly can?