Monday MtG: Heartless Hidetsugu

Heartless Hidetsugu

I've been bitten by the new(ish) cards bug, and now I want to buy and build Xyris, the Writhing Storm. After some brief brainstorming and research, I have a rough decklist ready for Xyris. Sadly, it means pulling parts from other decks, notably Norin the Wary.

Building Xyris, the Writhing Storm frees up cards to rebuild Heartless Hidetsugu, which I am not at all averse to doing.  Direct damage really speaks to me, because I am one of THOSE players - hasty and impulsive.  Lightning Bolt, Price of Progress, and a slew of other direct damage spells.

Heartless Hidetsugu was the first commander I ever built, and for a brief moment, it terrified people until it was pointed out that Commander damage meant Combat damage only.  Suitably chastened, I doubled down on reducing life points in a more traditional fashion.

This deck relies on haste.  Run out some haste-enablers, drop HH, and reduce life totals - to include my own. Note that, by far, my preferred haste-enabler is Generator Servant, because it can result in a turn 3 hasty HH.  And even if that doesn’t win the game, it quickly puts the game on a tight damage-based clock. A damage doubler can result in an instant death for players at even life totals, so methods to shoot players for a mere 1 damage to keep them even help (Staff of Nin nets a card, but ….).  Round the damage-inflictors and the damage-doublers out with damage-reducers (Glacial Chasm, Loxodon Warhammer, and Basilisk Collar), and you have a deck. 

I'd like to take a moment to digress about Glacial Chasm. I've no idea why it has yet to be mass reprinted, because it is incredibly useful, and arguably necessary, in a specific type of deck. Namely, decks that throw out damage equally to all players. Glacial Chasm breaks that parity and has been doing so since Ice Age. Yes, it makes a fine defensive card against other damage-dealing decks, but it is best when enabling your own shenanigans - which is why I see it as a crucial piece of Heartless Hidetsugu decks.

The biggest drawback to this deck's strategy is that it telegraphs itself, especially to competent blue players and their nasty countermagic.  So be warned.  And/or run Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast and fight fire with fire, as it were.

Now, it has been several years since HH was one of my constructed decks, and in that time, a lovely card has been printed: Fiery Emancipation.  Objectively, this is a win-more card, but it is so, so lovely. Just look at it! It even feeds devotion, which is one of my favorite mechanics.

It is also currently much more than I like to spend on a card. I'm hoping it will drop in price, the longer M21 is in print (which is most of this year, I surmise).

As an aside, it amuses me that the most expensive cards I want tend to be Red, a color not known for its ‘awesome must-have’ cards.  Except for Filthy Casuals, like myself.

Since rebuilding HH means finishing the dismantling of Norin, I can shift Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power out of Erebos and replace them with the now-available Conjurer’s Closet and Cloudstone Curio.  

All things considered, I am looking forward to building both decks, despite giving up Norin.

EDIT: it happened. Here is the first draft of the decklist.