Hive Mind

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Mostly because I'm tired of seeing Oracle of Mul Daya all the time as it's been the last thread anyone posted on in the single card strategies section in a long time...

A little bit ago, I was amused to see an attempt at using the combo of Hive Mind and the Pact cards (Pact of the Titan seems best) that make you lose the game if you can't pay their upkeeps. It's not a particularly strong combo, but it is funny (especially for multiplayer), and that counts for something, right?

Any ideas on how to make it better? The main hurdle is that Hive Mind costs so much mana that by the time you've played it, your opponents will likely be able to afford the upkeep or disrupt the combo before you get to use it or just kill you before you have a chance.

One option would be to cheat Hive Mind into play. I like Academy Rector, but there are lots of ways to do this. Perhaps supported by some sort of backup or an engine that powers everything out, this could conceivably work, but would probably be a highly inefficient use of the cards used to achieve the combo.

Another method would be to simply accelerate Hive Mind into play before opponents have a chance to pay the upkeep. Simple, but experience suggests that it would be tricky to pull off.

Probably the best bet would be to cripple the capacity of opponents to respond at all by, say, destroying all of their lands.

What say the rest of you?
 

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
You could play ramp cards to access the mana easily, particularly Everflowing Chalice to take advantage of the easy colored mana restriction.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
M

Modus Pwnens

Guest
This deck was a rogue-ish combo deck in the old extended format. Here's a sample decklist for you :)


creature [2]
2 Ethereal Usher
instant [17]
4 Pact of Negation
4 Pact of the Titan
4 Remand
4 Seething Song
1 Slaughter Pact
sorcery [12]
4 Ponder
4 Rite of Flame
4 Serum Visions
enchantment [4]
4 Hive Mind

artifact [5]
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Pentad Prism
land [20]
3 Cascade Bluffs
4 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
3 Tolaria West
1 Watery Grave
60 cards

Sideboard:
3 Gigadrowse
3 Repeal
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Blood Moon
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
15 cards
 

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
I'm not sure if I like the "traditional build" of the Hive Mind deck anymore. It was a tier two (maybe tier 1 and a half?) in Extended last season, but the early loss of Desperate Ritual leaves us with fewer rituals and makes the deck clunky, I think. Plus, the loss of Transmute takes away the reliable ways to hit the combo pieces.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
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