Hello, people!

First post. Please excuse any indiscretions that may take place. I only have about 70% of an idea of what I am doing at the moment.

I am running the October Game Day event of 2013. Upon looking up further instructions and rulings on Facing the Hydra I am unsatisfied with what I have found and added my own rules:
-"Milling" effects are BANNED. Why? It ruins the spirit of the game making winning all too easy.
-Heads and sorceries can be countered regardless of when or how they are cast. Why? Playtesting 1v1 and multiplayer battles the hydra wins often when heads entering upon triggered effects cannot be countered.
EDIT: If it is so chosen that milling effects are legal, the hydra will not lose if drawing from an empty deck. They hydra only loses when there are no heads left on the battlefield. Also, with Jace, Memory Adept, since the hydra is technically counted as a player, Jace's ultimate may target the hydra. In turn any cards drawn will go straight to the graveyard. Similar to milling.

And clarified on other rules as best I saw fit to make it easier for the players in the store:
-Destroy and bounce effects will kill a hydra head however at any point (like specified in the ruling for Face the Hydra) the hydra reveals the top two cards of its deck and any heads enter the battlefield. Example: Cyclonic Rift overloaded with three heads on board. Hydra heads return to hand however with the hydra they would go to the graveyard. The hydra then reveals the top six, two for each head, cards of their deck. Four heads are revealed and enter the battlefield. These heads may be countered.
-Heads may be burned. Example: Shock, Anger of the Gods, etc.


I am open to any suggestions anyone has to offer.

Hope this helps anyone who has had a similar problem as I have! Good luck.

I didn't know milling effects were illegal. Me and my brother just faced the hydra deck, with an extremely fluffy Grull deck (him) and Winotaur's (me).

We lost first game, due to getting two heads for every one we killed, but won games two and three, before I switched to my casual barbarian deck for game 4.

I must say, I'm a bit let down with the deck, but I still might buy one, just too break up the monotony of 3 way free for all's we been doing lately.

If you read his post you would see those were his own rules

ah ok

Everyone at my local game store had a blast fighting the hydra.

The hydra was sooooo much fun. We had people play it multiple times just for fun trying it with different amounts of heads. I also got to keep one of the decks from the store owner for putting pretty much my whole Saturday into it and played it with friends who couldn't get to the store. If anyone ever gets a chance to fight it, dooo eet.

I didn't get a chance to fight the hydra, and I'm actually really sad about it.

I thought this was already the case? It's how we played it at the store I went to; we weren't trying to house rule it.

I picked up a copy of the Hydra deck myself; I'm going to incorporate it into my mono-G horde deck. It was a ton of fun to play against; though I did discover that Sedge Scorpion is a superhero against it.

I'm curious, how much do the hydra decks generally cost?

It was $12, which is a bit much honestly for a bunch of cards you can't actually use in any tournament play. Though it is a bit of a neat collector thing (and rather fun, really), I still think it should have come with a booster pack or two.

My FLGS had them at $12. Reminds me I should pick one up... It'll be nice when we don't want a massive chaos game, or for early eliminated players to go for on the side

I wish all the places I still played magic at had those massive chaos games. They're what I started playing Magic on.

That reminds me--I need to pick up a Hydra deck. I had a blast playing against it.

I hope the ones for Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx are just as fun.

I've paid more for sets of Planechase Planes and Archenemy Schemes...

My buddy and I beat it with two of my decks and starting with 5 heads. Womp womp.

Move up. Start with Elite heads

Now there's a thought! Nice.