Highlander Hermit Druid Deck Guide

Hello!

Lots of Highlander players are presenting their pet decks for all to see, I thought I'd do the same. One of my favourite brews is Hermit Druid combo. I won a Mox Sapphire with it before the format matured but haven't had much success since. I wrote an in-depth article about the deck years ago for a website called Papergamer.com but the website got shut down and the article lost.

My current list is below. After it, is an explanation of card selection and how the deck functions:

Hermit Druid*
Dread Return
The Mimeoplasm
Murderous Redcap
Lord of Extinction
Narcomoeba
Fatestitcher
Sacred Cat
Phantasmagorian
Cabal Therapy
Memory's Journey
Vampiric Tutor***
Worldly Tutor*
Survival of the Fittest*
Green Sun's Zenith*
Sylvan Tutor
Gamble
Fauna Shaman
Eladamri's Call
Imperial Recruiter
Recruiter of the Guard
Shred Memory
Muddle the Mixture
Cephalid Illusionist
Nomads en-Kor
Shaman en-Kor
Reanimate
Shallow Grave
Apprentice Necromancer
Postmortem Lunge
Daze
Mental Misstep
Shriekmaw
Qasali Pridemage
Wooded Foothills
Misty Rainforest
Windswept Heath
Verdant Catacombs
Polluted Delta
Marsh Flats
Bloodstained Mire
Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Flooded Strand
Mana Confluence
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Tundra
Savannah
Scrubland
Taiga
Volcanic Island
Underground Sea
Bayou
Overgrown Tomb
Botanical Sanctum
Blooming Marsh
Tropical Island
Breeding Pool
Pendelhaven

SIDEBOARD
Laboratory Maniac
Oblivion Stone
Chaos Warp
Carpet of Flowers
Wild Growth
Bloodghast
Invigorate
Sivvi's Ruse
Orim's Cure
Sivvi's Valor
Stony Silence
Null Rod
Faerie Macabre
Extract
Volrath's Stronghold

There he is, Rob Zombie. The combo is, have zero basic lands in your deck, get Hermit Druid on the battlefield, activate him to put your whole deck in your graveyard, then win. It takes a lot of support cards to win with your graveyard. These support cards are low powered when played ordinarily, therefore you can't fight toe-to-toe against fair decks; you need to go all-in on the combo.

The main support card is:

There are many creatures you can return which will win the game immediately. My current favourite is:

Exiling these two:

 

Murderous Redcap can be substituted for Walking Ballista if you like. I'm not sure which I prefer. Redcap gives more value at four mana and can kill a Deathrite Shaman for cheaper (without exposing itself to Deathrite's exile ability). Redcap can be reanimated when you're grinding and doesn't turn on an opposing Null Rod or Stoney Silence after game one. However, Ballista is better basically everywhere else.

An alternative trio of creatures is Angel of Glory's Rise + Laboratory Maniac + Azami, Lady of Scrolls. I don't play these because the cards are generally worse outside the combo and post-board I want Laboratory Maniac separate to my combo to give me resilience against Extract.

Irrelevant History

Before The Mimeoplasm was printed my Dread Return target was Necrotic Ooze with Devoted Druid, Morselhoarder and Molten-Tail Masticore in the graveyard. That was of course one more card than the current kill. And before Necrotic Ooze was printed my kill was Sutured Ghoul + Dragon Breath + Terravore. Only three cards but was vulnerable to creature removal. Yes I've been playing this deck that long!

But what if combo pieces are in your hand?

Never fear, Phantasmagorian is here. It's as if this card was printed for this deck. You'd be surprised how often I cast this thing.

In the event that you draw Phantasmagorian AND one of your combo pieces, you can Cabal Therapy yourself instead. That is Cabal Therapy's main purpose but it doubles nicely as a bad Thoughtseize.

How do you have enough creatures to flashback Dread Return?

Narcomoeba is free but you'll also need a blue or white mana in addition to the green for activating Hermit Druid to have three creatures to flashback Dread Return. The fourth graveyard creature (Sacred Cat) is handy for a few reasons:

• In case you naturally draw Narcomoeba.
• If you don't have a blue mana for Fatesticher.
• In case you need to Cabal Therapy yourself or your opponent.
• In the event that you opponent kills Hermit Druid in response to the activation. This can happen when you reanimate it with haste using Shallow Grave or Postmortem Lunge.

How do I reliably draw Hermit Druid?

You may have noticed that the deck plays a large number of tutors. In fact all my points are devoted to tutors for Hermit Druid:

Vampiric Tutor***
Worldly Tutor*
Survival of the Fittest*
Green Sun's Zenith*
Sylvan Tutor
Gamble
Fauna Shaman
Eladamri's Call
Imperial Recruiter
Recruiter of the Guard
Shred Memory
Muddle the Mixture

The three-cost tutors are quite slow when you consider that you still need to cast Hermit Druid the following turn and wait an additional turn for him to recover from summoning sickness. By that time an opposing combo deck or aggro deck may simply race you. I still play four three-cost tutors. The recruiters are still good against aggro because the chump block buys you time. They can also be reanimated.
Muddle the Mixture counters things occasionally. Shred Memory is the worst of all the tutors. The three-cost tutors are a necessary evil. Previously I've played Grim Tutor and Dimir Infiltrator but they were cut as better cards were printed (Dimir Infiltrator nombos with Shallow Grave).

You may have noticed that my list plays an unusually high number of lands, 26. Honestly I would be happy playing 27. I like the high land-count not only for consistency but also because Worldy Tutor, Sylvan Tutor and Vampiric Tutor deny you a drawstep. Turn one Gamble may also strip you of a land.
Another note on Gamble; most combo decks require more than one card to go off and such don't play gamble because the odds of discarding a combo piece are too high. This deck only needs Hermit Druid, so Gamble is fantastic. Even if you do discard Hermit, there are the soon-to-be-mentioned cards as backup.

What if they kill Hermit Druid before I can activate him?

This is where the deck has a 'nine lives' feel. Reanimate, Shallow Grave, Postmortem Lunge and Apprentice Necromancer all provide backup. Shallow Grave and Postmortem Lunge are the best since they give haste, which enables you to go off even against a second removal effect. Apprentice Necromancer is there as the creature option so that all your creature tutors become secondary Hermit Druids. Reanimate is there because it's cheap. By why not play Unearth or Claim//Fame instead of Reanimate? That will be explained in the next question.

What if Dread Return gets countered?

Since your entire library is in the graveyard, you need to win that turn or else you will lose to your following draw step. Do not fear, most of the time Fatestitcher will be able to tap down one of their blue lands. They will of course float a blue mana in response but that's ok, you just go to the second main phase to let the mana empty from their pool.

In the event that a counterspell is still a threat, you can take a stab at discarding it from their hand with a blind Cabal Therapy. It is a beautiful thing when you choose correctly; one of the many edges you can gain by having experience with the deck and playing mindfully.

If Dread Return still gets countered, there's backup:

You can use this to shuffle Reanimate into your library, so that you can reanimate The Mimeoplasm the following turn. If you have three mana, you can also shuffle-in Postmortem Lunge which lets you reanimate Apprentice Necromancer with haste, which reanimates The Mimeoplasm. 

Dread Return rarely gets countered but I like the security. Post-board Memory's Journey becomes a lot more important as it allows you to shuffle Laboratory Maniac back in as the only card in your deck in response to surprise graveyard hate like Ravenous Trap and Faerie Macabre. Post-board, try to keep up an extra green mana when activating Hermit Druid.

Memory's Journey also doubles as a hoser against graveyard decks.

Irrelevant History

I used to play Krosan Reclamation before Memory's Journey got printed. Memory's Journey was the biggest upgrade to the deck since I began playing it. Holding up one mana instead of two, allowed me to reliably respond to graveyard hate and not scoop to Ancestral Recall targeting me, which hilariously was a real threat at the time.

What if Hermit Druid gets EXILED before I can activate him?

This is why I play Cephalid Illusionist, Nomads en-Kor and Shaman en-Kor. The interaction isn't obvious so I'll explain; the en-Kor ability has been errata'd so that it targets. With an en-Kor and Cephalid Illusionist on the battlefield together, you can target the Cephalid over and over as many times as you choose, milling three cards at a time, effectively your entire library. Note that there doesn't need to be any damaging effects present to use the en-Kor ability.

If you have the choice, you should cast your en-Kor first before the Cephalid. This way, if they have a removal spell, they will kill the en-Kor before the Cephalid resolves, otherwise you'll gain priority and be able to mill your whole graveyard in response. The reason you play the en-Kor first, is because the deck has a second en-Kor to tutor for but there's only one Cephalid. Sometimes it may be more mana efficient to cast Cephalid first, in which case it is best to risk Cephalid first.

There is a third two-cost en-Kor which the deck doesn't play, Warrior en-Kor, but it is WW to cast, which is difficult. Also, playing three en-Kors increases the probability of drawing too many of them. I like playing two. You almost never draw both and having a two-cost one turns on Shred Memory and Muddle the Mixture. Having a two-toughness en-Kor also gives you an out to Darkblast.

If you naturally draw an en-Kor or Cephalid, it's almost always better to go for this combo rather than Hermit Druid, because if you have a reanimate effect after an opposing kill spell, this combo can mill your graveyard immediately rather than having to wait a turn for Hermit Druid's summoning sickness to wear off.

I've covered most of the spells so far. The only ones left are a few of the 'anti-disruption' spells:

• Daze and Mental Misstep. You'll notice that these are zero-mana to cast. This deck hasn't got time to tutor and cast Hermit Druid AND hold up mana for protection effects. Daze and Mental Misstep are the only feasible free-to-cast counterspells. Misdirection and Force of Will require too many blue cards.
• Qasali Pridemage. This guy is a catch all. Conveniently he can be transmuted and Green Sun's Zenith'd for. Umezawa's Jitte is the main target but there are many others, such as: Oblivion Ring and the like, Pithing Needle and the like, Control Magic and the like. 
• Shriekmaw. This is one of the weakest cards in the deck. It is a personal choice and almost exclusively for killing Scavenging Ooze. Previously I tried Stingscourger and Sidisi's Faithful but killing that fucking thing dead is more desirable. Reanimated Iona or Elesh Norn are also things which must die.

The mana base

As previously explained, the land-count is high for consistency. Green is the primary colour as it casts and activates Hermit Druid. Survival of the Fittest is also very green-hungry. With a heavy green Survival of the Fittest curve, you can go turn two Survival, turn three triple activate, turn four unearth Fatestitcher tapping their land, second main Nomads en-Kor + Cephalid Illusionist, which is almost always a win.

Sacred Cat is a new addition to the deck (which is a rare occurrence relative to other decks), so I'm not sure which is the second-most important colour to fetch after green. Blue gives you Fatestitcher. White gives you en-Kor and Sacred Cat. Black gives you reanimate effects, which can involve double and triple black.

Admittedly, Pendlehaven is an untested new inclusion. I realised that most of my creatures are 1/1's:

Hermit Druid*
Cephalid Illusionist
Nomads en-Kor
Murderous Redcap (Persisted. Pendlehaven in response to trigger for value)
Narcomoeba
Sacred Cat
Imperial Recruiter
Recruiter of the Guard
Apprentice Necromancer
All the tutors find these 1/1's and all the reanimation returns these 1/1's. With all that, Pendlehaven seemed excellent, especially if it protects Hermit Druid from Electrolyze, Collective Brutality or the like.
I don't know if the 'fast lands', i.e. Blooming Marsh and Botanical Sanctum are better than the 'pain lands', Yavimaya Coast and Llanowar Wastes. Testing will tell.

Irrelevant History

Sacred Cat superceded Dregscape Zombie. Dregscape Zombie made lands which tapped for black more appealing. With the addition of Sacred Cat, perhaps Plateau is worth including. Currently Marsh Flats has no way of fetching red mana. I tried Badlands whilst I was playing Dregscape Zomie but it screwed me too many times, whereas Plateau can cast en-Kors, Qasali Pridemage, Eladamri's Call and post-board enables Sivvi's Ruse, Sivvi's Valor and Orim's Cure.

The sideboard

This deck is so tied up by all the combo pieces and support cards it needs to play, that it can't board-out many cards, therefore the sideboard is very narrow.

Laboratory Maniac comes in almost every time. It is particularly good against Extract as it gives you a win condition even if The Mimeoplasm is exiled. It also gives you an out against surprise graveyard hate from their hand, e.g. if The Mimeoplasm gets exiled from your graveyard, you can still Memory's Journey Laboratory Maniac into your deck for a second chance of winning.

Oblivion Stone
Chaos Warp
Carpet of Flowers
Wild Growth
Bloodghast
These are the anti-Blood Moon package. Yes, that card has beaten me enough times to justify five sideboard slots to it. It's not like I can play basics to counteract it...If you expect your opponent is playing Blood Moon, bring in these five. Bloodghast substitutes Sacred Cat. Under a Bloodmoon, Wildgrowth and Carpet of Flowers can only provide the green for casting and activating Hermit Druid, you can't produce blue or white for Fatestitcher or Sacred Cat, hence the addition of Bloodghast. Unfortunately Bloodghast requires a land drop the turn you go off but I think it's worth the risk.
Note that I play Wild Growth but not Utopia Sprawl, this is because Blood Moon would make the enchanted land no longer a forest, causing Utopia Sprawl to fall off.

Invigorate
Sivvi's Ruse
Orim's Cure
Sivvi's Valor
These are just against burn decks. Very narrow but zero-mana counterspells are amazing.

Stony Silence
Null Rod
Silver bullets against Storm and Workshop decks

Faerie Macabre
Silver bullet against graveyard strategies. Being a small creature makes it searchable by almost all your tutors.

Extract
A silver bullet against potentially faster combo decks.

Volrath's Stronghold
Relatively new addition to the sideboard. Gives you the potential to grind against Jund and Grixis decks, which don't exile Hermit Druid. Volrath's Stronghold is only really effective once you have five mana (the mana required to put Hermit on-top in your upkeep and cast him the same turn).

What is ok to sideboard out?

• If they're not playing Scavenging Ooze, you can board out Shriekmaw. 
• The slower tutors are always trimmable: Shred Memory, Muddle the Mixture and the recruiters.
• Reanimate and Postmortem Lunge are bad against graveyard hate, which you can expect your opponent to bring in. Shallow Grave and Apprentice Necromancer are still good against reactive graveyard hate because when you Dread Return and they try to exile your graveyard in response, you can respond with Shallow Grave or Apprentice Necromancer. Note that when you mill your graveyard with Hermit Druid, you are allowed to order it as you like, i.e. you should always order The Mimeoplasm as the top creature in your graveyard for Shallow Grave.
• Trimming a land is ok, especially on the draw

I don't cut any of the other cards. When I have, I have regretted it.

What is the best metagame for this deck?
This Hermit Druid deck loses to decks which draw about three or more disruption effects in a game. Basically you're flopping Hermit Druid out there and hoping they don't kill it. If your local metagame includes lots of decks which are low on creature removal, then it's ripe. Hermit Druid combo is more consistent than most combo decks whilst being just as fast and having incidental graveyard hate main, so a combo-heavy meta is good for Hermit Druid.

What can I cut if I want to put my own spin on it?
My build plays a lot of backup cards. It may very well be correct to cut cards such as Cabal Therapy, Memory's Journey, Reanimate and Shriekmaw for generally stronger cards.
I play a lot of lands, Pendlehaven, Blooming Marsh and Botanical Sanctum are the weakest if you want to cut some of them.
The entire sideboard is adjustable except for Laboratory Maniac. I have played Leonin Relic-Warder in the past, just for Cursed Totem, which is otherwise unkillable.

Well that's about all I wanted to cover. I still very much enjoy playing the deck even after all these years. It's a thrill to play because the smallest decisions can be the difference between a win and a loss. There are also hilarious games where you're beating down with crappy guys.
Which lands to fetch and what to name with Cabal Therapy are big challenges. Trying to win when your combo pieces are missing is where it gets most challenging. I may be shooting myself in the foot by publishing this article but I don't mind. The more people know about Highlander, the better.

Happy Hermit Holidays,

Mulch