{"ops":[{"insert":"For this unconventional typal deck, I've paired "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Rikala, Homarid King"}},{"insert":" with Hydras. The main idea behind having Rikala at the helm is that it helps produce large amounts of mana that we can then sink into hydras to make them massive. Additionally, we can use various methods of boosting counters to both manipulate the tide counters on Rikala and boost the counters on the hydras themselves. This deck requires planning ahead to take advantage of Rikala's High Tide effect and careful management of the tide counters, which we typically want to hold at 3 but sometimes want to boost the tide counters sky high for one turn for a board-wide boost. \n\nStep one in this deck is producing as much as mana as we could ever want. Rikala's ability has two requirements to allow us to start producing extra mana: we must have islands and Rikala must have 3+ tide counters. We obviously want to maximize the number of islands we have so the deck runs many typed dual lands like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tangled Islet"}},{"insert":" a high number of islands despite the deck leaning more towards green. Additionally, we have a few cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Realmwright"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Prismatic Omen"}},{"insert":" that can make "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"all "},{"insert":"of our lands islands so we can take full effect of the bonus mana effect. In order to start accumulating counters on Rikala, we typically aim to cast it as early as possible, ideally turn 2 if we can find one mana ramp. Once Rikala gets to 3 counters, we want to keep it there for as many turns as we can in order to take advantage of the bonus mana. Cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"O'aka, Traveling Merchant"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mister Hyde, Monster Within"}},{"insert":" help keep the tide counters in check while also rewarding us with card draw. With both of these effects on the field, we can start taking full advantage of Rikala's ability and producing ridiculous amounts of mana. \n\nBut what are we spending on all that mana on? There are two possibilites here, depending on how the game is shaping up. We could start pouring that mana into the aforementioned hydras, but there is another option: more mana. The deck runs some very expensive ramp spells, like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Through the Forest Gate"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Reshape the Earth"}},{"insert":" which we can very conceivably cast on turn 5 or 6. These spells are really helpful if we don't happen to have one of our counter manipulators, as it still sets us up with lots of mana if Rikala's tide counters reset. At this point we should be in a very comfortable position, with either 10+ lands or Rikala's tide counters under our control fairly early in the game, which means its finally hydra time!\n\nTo be honest, there's not much to say about the hydras, as everyone knows what they do. We simply want to put as much mana into the X cost hydras, like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Voracious Hydra"}},{"insert":", that we can. However, there are a few notable hydras that stand out from the rest. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Gargos, Vicious Watcher"}},{"insert":" makes our other hydras cheaper and therefore larger, along with occasionally fighting our opponents' creatures if they dare target our own beautiful board. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hydra Broodmaster"}},{"insert":", while not an X cost creature, has an amazing monstrous ability that we can dump mana into to create even more hydras. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Steelbane Hydra"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Whiptongue Hydra"}},{"insert":" act as removal, while "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hydroid Krasis"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Goose Mother"}},{"insert":" can help draw cards. Some, like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Neverwinter Hydra"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Capricopian"}},{"insert":", just get really large and help us threaten our opponents' life totals, which is always great. \n\nSpeaking of our opponents' life totals, how do we actually win? (Besides just hitting people with our big hydras, of course). Why, we simply make our hydras even larger! Rikala has another ability that I haven't even mentioned yet, which is that our creatures get +1/+0 for each tide counter on it. While this may sound like a small, situational buff as it is typically difficult to get tide counters above 3, there are ways to get around that small issue. For instance, on the turn we want to go all in, we can use counter doubling effects/proliferate effects like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Deepglow Skate"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Expansion Algorithm"}},{"insert":" to boost our counters far above the typical limit. With even one hydra on the board, these doubling effects can pull double duty by doubling Rikala's counters and the +1/+1 counters on the hydras. \n\nThere are a couple helpful cards that don't fit into these other categories that I want to call out. Since we most of important cards are creatures, the deck runs "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Finale of Devastation"}},{"insert":" to find things like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"O'aka, Traveling Merchant"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Realmwright"}},{"insert":", and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Deepglow Skate"}},{"insert":". I didn't want to add too many tutors, but with all the mana the deck can produce, FoD is a very viable wincon beyond being a helpful tutor. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tale's End"}},{"insert":" functions as both a decent counterspell and a way to preserve Rikala's counters in a pinch. If we lack any other ways to remove counters while Rikala is at 3 counters, we can counter our own trigger in our upkeep to prevent Rikala from losing its counters. \n\nI'm very happy with how this deck turned out. Managing Rikala is an interesting puzzle of managing resources and figuring out when to go all in, and the reward for solving that puzzle is giant creatures.\n"}]}