Izzet Hogaak? You Tell Me
What if you played 12 black cards and 0 swamps?
Izzet Charm
Galacticdragonlord’s innovative take on the Hogaak Combo archetype was piloted to a nearly flawless victory this week. What’s the twist? The deck ran zero black mana sources! By focusing on blue and red spells, the deck plays a more consistent and resilient control game rather than the typical aggressive style of previous Hogaak decks.
Today, I’ll break down the basics of how the deck works.
The Combo
For those unfamiliar, here’s how you mill out your opponent with Hogaak. If you have an Altar of Dementia and Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis on the battlefield, and at least two Bridge from Below in your graveyard, you can start by sacrificing Hogaak to Altar and target yourself with the mill. This will get you enough zombies from Bridge and enough cards in your graveyard to recast Hogaak from your graveyard. Each loop of self-mill nets you at least three extra cards in your graveyard, and two tapped zombies on the battlefield. Eventually, you’ll have enough of these extra resources to start targeting your opponent with Altar, and completely mill them out.
Consistency
To ensure that you assemble your combo, you want to see as many cards as possible. Red gives the deck access to Faithless Looting and Izzet Charm, which not only cantrips, but puts otherwise dead cards (such as Bloodghast and Bridge from Below) into a usable zone. Shriekhorn ends up putting six cards into the graveyard for only one mana, but sacrifices the selection aspect that the other two give. However, when most cards in the deck would rather be in the graveyard, it’s not much of a downside.
Resilience
As a fairly linear strategy, it can be easy to disrupt key pieces and have the deck fall apart. Blue gives the deck the protection it needs, especially in the post-board games. Into the Roil bounces any permanent giving the combo trouble, such as Grafdigger’s Cage’s static against reanimation, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician’s sacrifice against Bridge, or Phyrexian Revoker naming Altar. Delay is a shield against spells like Ravenous Trap on the graveyard and disenchants on the Altar. Even if Altar is removed, this list can shuffle it back into the library to draw again while still dumping cards into the graveyard with Stream of Thought.
Izzet Charm
Izzet Hogaak? Yes, and Izzet Charm is the reason why! It can be proactive, as the looting effect digs you deeper to your combo. It can buy you time by killing some aggressive beaters or surprise opponents by removing hate-pieces at instant speed. Lastly, it can protect your combo pieces (including your graveyard) with the spell pierce mode. Galacticdragonlord took an innovative approach to the Hogaak Combo archetype and it paid off. Congratulations!
