[ORI] "Mana Glutton Hydra"

[fsecco]

"Mana Glutton Hydra"
2G
Creature - Hydra
Trample

Whenever a player casts a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Mana Glutton Hydra.
1/1

So, I don't know if the text is translated correctly, but this is a green Monastery Mentor. Notice it has trample, so the vertical growth is not that big of an issue (it's still bad against Plowshares, of course). But this guy fits in RUG Delver shells. I'm impressed.

[gribdogs]

Just snap a Lightning Greaves on this puppy and go to town!

[vaughnbros]

Gaining off your opponents spells is huge.  I'm not sure Id compare it to Mentor exactly because of that.  2 spells cast and its out of bolt range.  Vunerable to Jace and Swords.  Not good at all against shops.  It's on the radar, but I'm not sure how much so.

[fsecco]

Gaining off your opponents spells is huge.  I'm not sure Id compare it to Mentor exactly because of that.  2 spells cast and its out of bolt range.  Vunerable to Jace and Swords.  Not good at all against shops.  It's on the radar, but I'm not sure how much so.

I compared it to Mentor just because of the cc. It's actually a way better Quirion Dryad. I don't know, I could see 1-2 of these in RUG delver.

[msg67183]

I like this card, but it's weakness to STP and Jace as well as counters make him not enough in my opinion. Also the 3 CMC makes him too slow for Delver decks in my opinion.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

"Mana Glutton Hydra"
2G
Creature - Hydra
Trample

Whenever a player casts a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Mana Glutton Hydra.
1/1

So, I don't know if the text is translated correctly, but this is a green Monastery Mentor. Notice it has trample, so the vertical growth is not that big of an issue (it's still bad against Plowshares, of course). But this guy fits in RUG Delver shells. I'm impressed.

we've had cards similar to this on the past, and they've shown them selves to be no good. mentor is just better

[vaughnbros]

"Mana Glutton Hydra"
2G
Creature - Hydra
Trample

Whenever a player casts a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Mana Glutton Hydra.
1/1

So, I don't know if the text is translated correctly, but this is a green Monastery Mentor. Notice it has trample, so the vertical growth is not that big of an issue (it's still bad against Plowshares, of course). But this guy fits in RUG Delver shells. I'm impressed.

we've had cards similar to this on the past, and they've shown them selves to be no good. mentor is just better

Closest thing I've seen is forgotten ancient and this is almost a strict upgrade from that.  Again growing from both players.  My opponent has a big mentor turn so do I.

[xouman]

At first i read that ancient was an upgrade and i was going to disagree. Jace is this card worst enemy, and mentor is overall better. But the counters stay after EOT and has trample,so it's a potential beast.

But i cannot say this is better than tarmo and nobody plays it nowadays.so this is not going to make any impact imho

[rikter]

I don't even think you could play this in Legacy, swords is a common enough card and a 4 of in some popular decks and the decks I can think of that would conceivably want a cheap green finisher are better served by Tarmogoyf anyways. He might be good enough to play in Modern, I wouldn't really know since I don't play it...but I don't think he has a home in any of the eternal formats.

Now, for limited this guy is a house!

[MaximumCDawg]

Last I checked,  Tauren Mailer isnt playable in Vintage.  This is kinda better, but it has the same flaw: the age of vertical growth is over.  See: Myth Realized.

[gkraigher]

my first thought was taurlen mauler as well, but this grows with your cards and has trample.  However, it costs 1 mana more than it needed to be.  if this thing cost 2, it would replace goyf in every list.  as it is, it's just another green beater.  

verdict:  not good enough.  

myth realized was bad for a completly different reason.  The fact that you had to perpetually dump White mana into it and that it could be pyrexian revokered.  

this is bad because it costs 3 mana and unlike mentor does not grow the board both horizontally and vertically.  this card just grows vertically, last time i checked Jace is still a really big deal in vintage.  

It is funny thinking about the myth realized debate in this formum.  Meanwhile, the wizards playtest group had long concluded how flawed it was and decided they could push the envelope further with this hydra.  

I do think this card is awesome, especially in edh, it's just not vintage quality.  

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

I wouldn't discount it that quickly. I tend to agree that it probably makes no impact, but consider this:

If your opponent plays a mentor, you play a hydra. His next turn, he plays a bunch of spells, getting a mentor that's still max. the size of hydra, so he can't attack. This is true especially if you have 1 spell, too. Your next turn, you play a bunch of spells. To negate all the damage, he'd have to block with mentor and all tokens.

As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that if he plays some spells during your turn as well, his entire team grows. So, maybe not. But it's still a fairly strong dryad.

[gkraigher]

So lets say they cast 4 spells during your turn.  you now have a 5/5 trampler, while they have a 6/6, a 4/4, a 3/3, a 2/2, and a 1/1.  

mentor is exponential.  

this card is not.  

[Protoaddict]

I think the benefit of this is if you have adapted your deck/sideboard to run token killers because of pyro and mentor this still does work, but I think that is very corner case. Storm Entity may even be better in a lot of decks because it is cheaper and haste, and it sees no play.

[TheWhiteDragon]

I could see this as a 4-of in a deck built around it.  4x this, 4x tarm, 4x confidant, 4x spellskite (no more plow problems), some toxic deluge main/sb (their horde is typically X/2 or less on their turn), 8x discard, 4x decay, a few pulse.  That's a rough shell and it gives you a bunch of turn 1/2/3 beefy monsters, cheap disruption, lots of answers, CA, and all in 2 colors.  That ain't shabby.  Tarm alone never worked, and his sidekicks are usually 3/2 or smaller.  This could be a venerable army of 5/5 or better critters by turn 4.  That's pretty bonkers, actually.  I'm buying 4.

It's going to be pretty nuts in modern.

[fsecco]

You should stop comparing this to Mauler, Myth, Lorescale, Chasm Skulker or whatever. This has "evasion" (Trample) which is the only reason I even considered posting it here. Those cards are bad because they can be blocked by tokens forever. This can't.

That Monastery Mentor is a better card we all know. But this is green and fits more appropriately in known Delver shells than Mentor. I don't know how much play it'll get (I learned that trying to predict this kind of stuff with these cards is hard - cards that aren't obviously good but also aren't obviously bad), but I think it's worth noticing. If it's cheap on pre-order I'll buy a playset and see how it goes.

[keys]

As someone who plays RUG Delver in every format, I can't help but think this guy is going to fit in somewhere. I'll probably try him out in Modern first (where the absence of Swords and Jace make him much better), but I also think he could be decent in Vintage (where it's super easy to grow him and the evasion from tokens is relevant).

[gkraigher]

Keys,

RUG delver already has a similar, and seldom used option, in Hooting Mandrills.  Have you had much success with that card?   

Maybe that is the closest comparison for Mana Glutton Hydra. 

[Shax]

Does this guy not fit into old school Grow-Atog builds anyone?