Hullbreacher is an extremely powerful card. Ironically, it was printed in a Commander-focused set only to be banned in Commander after all. When combined with “Wheel” effects, you can force your opponents to ditch their hands of cards while you draw a fresh set and make a boatload of Treasures. Winning the game from there should be trivial.
Despite how amazing Hullbreacher is in a Commander setting, though, it’s much fairer in Constructed. It doesn’t show up too often in Legacy, despite the fact that players are casting cards like Brainstorm. It’s just been a bit too easy to disrupt, either with removal or Counterspells.
However, in a recent Magic Online Legacy Challenge, a sweet mono-blue Hullbreacher shell managed to make it to the top four. This deck abuses a new Tarkir: Dragonstorm land like no other, giving you a much better shot at winning games even in the face of disruption. Let’s take a look at what this deck is trying to accomplish.
Hullbreacher Gameplan
This deck’s main focus is to take advantage of Hullbreacher and Narset, Parter of Veils as anti-card draw elements. By pairing either of these cards with Day’s Undoing or Echo of Eons, you can send your opponent back to The Stone Ages while you refuel your hand to pull super far ahead.
To help support this idea, you’ll find a lot of mana acceleration to play out your potent three-drops ahead of schedule. Lotus Petal and Chrome Mox are excellent inclusions in this department. While Lotus Petal only provides a temporary boost and Chrome Mox requires you to go down on resources, when you have Wheel effects in your deck, the cost is much less problematic.
Then, in the land section, Ancient Tomb and Saprazzan Skerry can both produce two mana at a time. Casting a turn one Hullbreacher off Ancient Tomb or turn two Narset off Saprazzan Skerry can happen more often than you’d think.
Once you jam Hullbreacher or Narset, you’ll want to follow up with one of your Wheel effects as quickly as possible. If you happen to have Lion’s Eye Diamond to pair with Echo of Eons, this becomes incredibly easy. Simply sacrifice Lion’s Eye Diamond to generate three blue mana, Flashback Echo of Eons, and you’re golden.
Given the important role Lion’s Eye Diamond plays, this deck plays a lot of ways to find it. There are three copies in the maindeck, but Karn, the Great Creator can grab the final copy out of the sideboard. Urza’s Saga eventually finds Lion’s Eye Diamond, though it is a little slow in doing so. All these elements make the archetype surprisingly consistent.
The Role of Mistrise Village
One of the bigger weaknesses associated with the mono-blue Hullbreacher shell, however, is that you’re pretty soft to Counterspells. In many instances, you’re incentivized to generate a mana advantage and then use your Wheels to catch right back up on resources.
The problem is that if your Wheel gets countered, you’re in a world of trouble. This is especially true if you cracked Lion’s Eye Diamond to cast Echo of Eons, since you’re forced to discard your hand to do so. In this case, you won’t even be able to set up Force of Will backup.
This is where Mistrise Village comes into play. Playing Mistrise Village in a mono-blue deck is clearly a bit costly, since the land is guaranteed to enter tapped. Fortunately, the upside it provides is huge.
Between all the mana accelerants this deck has access to, it’s not difficult to set up a window where you can pay the mana tax necessary to make your payoffs uncounterable. In the instance where you have Lion’s Eye Diamond in play and Echo of Eons lined up, all you need to do is tap a blue source to activate Mistrise Village and you can cast Echo of Eons without fear.
Previous iterations of Hullbreacher combo were forced to run cards like Defense Grid to bait out Counterspells. Mistrise Village, besides being a more reliable way to sidestep counter magic, also comes with less of an opportunity cost.
Rather than needing to play out a two-mana do-nothing Artifact before you can advance your gameplan, you can just play your land drop on turn one and know you’re covered. Versus opposing Force of Will decks as well as Painter’s Servant strategies that have Pyroblast, Mistrise Village is a godsend.
Fighting Through Hullbreacher Combo
Even with this sweet new addition, Hullbreacher combo still has an upward battle in a handful of matchups. First and foremost, Dimir tempo has a lot of cards that line up very well in the matchup. Force of Will, of course, is annoying if you don’t draw Mistrise Village. Even if you do, though, Wasteland is a perfect answer. This deck’s entire manabase is soft to Wasteland, too.
From there, you have to fight through Thoughseize, which can strip you of your payoffs and potentially leave you with air leftover. This doesn’t even take into account how good Orcish Bowmasters is against your Wheels.
Blood Moon decks can also be a bit annoying to play against. Some of your draws with Force of Will backup can easily win through a turn one Blood Moon, but the card is still awkward, nonetheless.
Where this strategy really shines is versus slower decks that are looking to use card advantage to pull ahead. Hullbreacher and Narset naturally line up insanely well against Up the Beanstalk. If you ever get to land Hullbreacher in response to Brainstorm from your opponent, they’re forced to put two cards back on top of their library while you get three Treasures. This alone is insanely difficult to come back from.
Mono-blue Hullbreacher is unlikely to surge to tier one status anytime soon, as there are other robust combo decks like Sneak and Show that still get to abuse Mistrise Village. Regardless, the deck got a big upgrade, and it’s cool to see Hullbreacher shining in Legacy. Make sure you keep this deck on your radar, or you risk getting completely blown out.