Hippo Control
by Hero- August 19th 2001

Jelle de Meester writes,

Hi, could you please think about the following deck?

//NAME: Untitled Deck
4 City of Brass
9 Forest
9 Island
2 Foil
4 Memory Lapse
4 Temporal Spring
4 Counterspell
3 AEther Mutation
2 Thieving Magpie
3 Mystic Snake
4 Gaea's Skyfolk
3 Opt
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Questing Pheldagriff

SB: 4 Meekstone
SB: 3 Circle of Protection: Green
SB: 4 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 4 Tranquility

The main idea of the deck is some weird kind of aggresive control, using temporal spring and memory lapse to slow him down and finish him with some small flyers or a fat hippo. I believe it can, and does work, but im not sure, not sure about the magpie's and not sure about the opt's, i kinda put them in because i had 5 slots open, the sideboard is also a mess.

Yours sincerly,

Jelle de Meester

Yes, that sideboard is a mess. That will be worked on. I'm also gonna re-work the mana structure so that it's easier to get out the big hippo.

Hippo Aggro-Control (revised by Hero-)

7 Island
7 Forest
3 Yavimaya Coast
2 Brushland
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Treva's Ruins
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Gaea's Skyfolk
3 Thieving Magpie
4 Mystic Snake
4 Questing Pheldagriff
4 Temporal Spring
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
3 Gush
2 Foil

SB: 2 Sacred Ground
SB: 2 Worship
SB: 2 Crimson Acolyte
SB: 3 Teferi's Response
SB: 3 Hibernation
SB: 3 Wash Out

The land was adjusted to make the hippo come out and play easier. It also gives you more options for a sideboard, which was also modified. More is explained in...

Card-by-Card Analysis
Land - More white painlands and the addition of the ruins makes everything gravy.
Birds of Paradise - I thought this was enough acceleration. It gives all colors, unlike the Llanowar Elves.
Gaea's Skyfolk - Gotta love the flying bears. Good quick-drop beatings.
Thieving Magpie - Another flying beatstick which nets you card advantage.
Mystic Snake - A counter and a creature rolled into one. What else could you ask for?
Questing Pheldagriff - Kicks major bootay. Hard to kill flying purple hippo. Scary.
Temporal Spring - Pretty much a Time Walk. Good tempo control card.
Counterspell - Yeah... if you don't know what this does, gimme your home address and I'll come over and hit you on the head with a tack hammer.
Memory Lapse - Keeping with the "Time Walk" flavor, this says "Try again big guy."
Gush - Good card drawing card, helps with the Foil.
Foil - A nice little ACC counterspell.

And sideboard...
Sacred Ground - I have seen a lot of ponza-ish decks lately. Better safe than sorry.
Worship - This just kills vs aggro decks which can't get rid of the hippo. Destroys mono-red without Obliterate.
Crimson Acolyte - Sheesh, a lot of players are busting out the mono-red decks.
Teferi's Response - Good vs ports and Oppositions.
Hibernation - Die Fires, die.
Wash Out - Punish those mono-color decks.

At least the sideboard is changed. You can change it if you think the metagame is different. The deck should run more smoother and be a possible competitor in the Standard field.

Keep topdecking!

Jimmy Mekaroun
Hero- on IRC
fallen_hero_326@yahoo.com