[Single Card Discussion] Hidden Herd

[Illissius]

Hidden Herd
:g:
Enchantment
When an opponent plays a nonbasic land, if Hidden Herd is an enchantment, Hidden Herd becomes a 3/3 Beast creature.
(US-R)

Is this card good or what? Every deck these days is 90%+ nonbasic, and even the most conservative versions of Solidarity and Goblins run 6-8 (and those have fallen heavily out of favor). I don't really have much else to add; 3/3s for :g: are awesome. It's even an enchantment for Tarmogoyf. And, um... you can use it with Contested Cliffs! Discuss.

[DragoFireheart]

It's a decent card. It's just horrible top-draw later in the game.

[from Cairo]

It's a 1 drop that doesn't answer Lackey and really wants to be played early. Its 3 toughness leaves it in range of all removal, and its targetable. In most cases I think I would rather have Nimble Mongoose.

Not that the card is horrible, but it can be played around when it matters, aka they can attack then play their land for the turn so you don't have the blocker, and later in the game when decks don't need to play more land drops it's a dead card.

I could see it being OK in a deck like 9-10 land Stompy, since its a great cost for a 3/3 body and if you plan on winning in the first 4-5 turns the drawbacks are less relevant. If they are playing a few pitch cards - Vine Dryad, Bounty of the Hunt, etc- where it could be used as a resource when it was dead, it seems workable. For most decks I'd say there are better choices.

[SpikeyMikey]

Honestly, if you're going to go with that, why not go with Gibbons? Every deck out there outside of Gobbos runs instants, and then you're talking a 4/4 for G instead of a 3/3 for G. It's also a little more difficult to play around when you topdeck it than Herd is, since one can always skip a land drop after you've got 3-4 lands down, and you can't necessarily skip playing instants the rest of the game.

This is not to say that I support the use of Gibbons, I've been boarding them since Urza's, but I'm not sure they're main worthy in every deck running green, you'd have to have something relatively aggressive to get any use out of them, to force your opponent to use their instants. The Urza's enchantment creatures in general are very situational. I suppose one could argue that the Veiled creatures aren't, but they don't have the P/T to CC ratio that the hidden or opal enchantments had.

[SuckerPunch]

I agree with SpikeyMikey.


I mainly dislike Hidden Herd because it's a lot worse in the midgame than Hidden Gibbons is.

It's easy for a deck to just stop playing any more nonbasics once they reached the midgame and have several lands down already. It's harder on them to avoid playing cards like Swords to Plowshares and Force of Will.

Plus a 4/4 is a lot better than a 3/3.

Really though, I think those cards are more suited for the sideboard than the maindeck.

[Tacosnape]

Because most decks run more nonbasics than instants. And a deck can function without playing its instants a lot better than without playing its lands.

And beyond that? Other decks don't have instants. Last I checked, Stax is woefully short in the instant department, some Chalice Aggro builds run 4 or less, and Faerie Stompy only runs 4-6. On top of that, a lot of RGB Survival builds don't run any instants either, and most Survival decks run six or less.

[Phantom]

Because most decks run more nonbasics than instants. And a deck can function without playing its instants a lot better than without playing its lands.


I guess it could be interesting if combined with a mana denial strategy (black for Sinkhole or Blue for Stifle come to mind). I wonder if green has any other cheap quality beaters?

[Happy Gilmore]

Mono-g stompy anyone?

[SpikeyMikey]

Because most decks run more nonbasics than instants. And a deck can function without playing its instants a lot better than without playing its lands.


I disagree. Sure, if Hidden Herd comes down turn 1, your opponent will have to activate it. Congratulations, you've got yourself a Rogue Elephant. I'll go Foothills, fetch Taiga, Bolt your Herd. On the other hand, if Herd is something you peel on turn 6, then chances are, it will never get active, because it's too easy to play around. You're just as likely to force your opponent to activate a Gibbons late as you are early, however, because things like StP, Bolt, FoW, Smother, Brainstorm are just as necessary late as they are early.