Vastwood Hydra
Creature — Hydra
This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
When this creature dies, you may distribute a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on this creature among any number of creatures you control.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander 2020
- Price
- $1.36
- EDHREC rank
- #5061
Vastwood Hydra enters as a threat scaled to your mana, and when it dies its counters redistribute to your other creatures — turning removal into a pump spell for your board. The catch is that it does nothing on its own if your other creatures are gone, so it earns its slot in go-wide hydra decks and falls flat in anything else. Polukranos Reborn slots in the same space but fights on arrival; Vastwood Hydra trades that immediate impact for a death trigger that can be dramatically larger.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Polukranos Reborn
Polukranos Reborn is a hydra commander in a hydra deck, and Vastwood Hydra's death trigger dumps counters onto the rest of the board — including Polukranos itself — making removal hurt far less than it should.
Gargos, Vicious Watcher
Gargos, Vicious Watcher reduces the cost of targeting your creatures, so the spells you're already casting to trigger Gargos also grow Vastwood Hydra; when it eventually dies, those counters cascade onto the rest of your hydra army.
Zaxara, the Exemplary
Zaxara, the Exemplary generates tokens whenever you cast an X spell, and Vastwood Hydra is exactly that — you cast it for a large X, get a Zaxara token, and if Vastwood Hydra dies the counters spread across a board that's been steadily filling with token bodies.
Rosheen, Roaring Prophet
Rosheen, Roaring Prophet taps for four mana usable only on X spells, which feeds directly into Vastwood Hydra's ceiling; the synergy is straightforward mana acceleration rather than a unique interaction, which is why inclusion rate here is lower than in dedicated hydra builds.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Vastwood Hydra lives almost entirely in Commander, where the death trigger has a wide board to spread counters across and games go long enough to cast it for a meaningful X. In Modern and Pioneer it's too slow and too conditional — a vanilla beater that requires a full board to extract value from removal is not competing with those formats' threats. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters for the same reason, amplified. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander 60-card-adjacent format where a hydra-focused signature spell shell could make it relevant, but that's a narrow niche.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.36 cheap tier
At $1.36, Vastwood Hydra sits in cheap territory — easy to slot in without budget scrutiny. It's a narrow card with a specific home, so demand isn't broad enough to push the price higher, and it should stay in this range unless a new hydra commander dramatically spikes interest.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Polukranos Reborn
- Gargos, Vicious Watcher
- Zaxara, the Exemplary
- Rosheen, Roaring Prophet
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.