eljefe

Let me know if I missed anything meaningful!

Supply // Demand for tutoring almost every card in this deck?

^This. You have a great start, and I think your deck is keeping relatively budgety, so my suggestions will stay there too:
Gruul Keyrune-> Gruul Signet. cheaper option, gives you access to both colors, maintains ramp. You don't need the keyrune for beating, you have Hydras to do that!
Basalt Monolith > nature's lore. Lands are more reliable than artifacts, cheaper, give you instantly accessible ramp.
Wasteland Viper > Temur Battle Rage. Viper is meant for defense, and this is an all out assault deck. give your hefty hydras instant-speed double strike and trample and watch them well up with tears.
Rending Vines and artifact mutation > Destructive Revelry and Hull Breach. Hull breach loses instant speed, but does give you access to kill both an artifact and an enchantment, and you won't be needing saprolings (again, all out assault beat sticks, not swarm).

Also, provide some cover/evasion for those hydras (they will be prime pickings for removal):
zhur-taa druid > vines of vastwood. Stops their removal spell and beefs up your hydra. Zhur-Taa is too slow and doesn't provide enough value in the deck.
Bow of Nylea > alpha authority. Protect the hydra, evasion, and cheaper. Deathtouch is great for swarm, but with big creatures anything blocking will be killed regardless of deathtouch. Also, the other abilities are too incremental and slow for the deck strategy.
Domni Rade > Rancor. I have a feeling you'll scoff at this one, but hear me out. Only 2 of your hydras have intrinsic trample. Rancor is beef + evasion, allowing all your guys to push damage through regardless of any weenie chump blockers they have. Domni only has a 38% chance of giving you value with his +1, his -2 is insignificant when your creature has trample, and if you play this deck right you should NEVER hit his ultimate.

One more card you should consider including: Life's legacy. Don't know which card you would want to remove for it, though. It is an absolute powerhouse with quick, beefy decks.

Okay, didn't mean to write a novel, but I think you have a great start on what could be a really powerful deck! Good luck beating in face with hydras- I just built an animar hydra TL deck myself!

Thanks so much! I know it has way more potential than is here- we'll see how playtesting it goes.

Due to budget restriction, can't. It is an autoinclude without money constraints, however.

I really like mortician beetle in this! could be a really great quick threat, especially if i get the rememberance/phyrexian altar loop going with a shadowborn.

Thanks for the input!

Just because I'm an evil person, I love giving deathtouch to first strikers, and vice versa. Thoughts on adding a few typhoid rats into the mix?

Chandra's spitfire has always made me very happy. I love it vs. nivix cyclops, you get the benefit of flying in the mix.

Hey, just busted out a new EDH deck. It's fresh, but I'm wanting to build it on paper so hoping to get any thoughts/ideas you may have. Check it out, given a minute of free time?

Doesn't cast it, either. It just places it on the battlefield.

{4}, {T}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.

Trust me, mana rocks = huge help. Good luck!

Quicksilver only puts cards out from your hand, so since your commander is in the command zone and not your hand, they don't interact. Big bummer, I know.

Try putting in a bunch of mana rocks (sol ring, thran dynamo, mana vault, etc.) as means of bringing out the high CMC commanders quicker. I have a narset deck that fairly consistently brings her out turn three, all due to those mana rocks helping out.

It's great to see a "how to play" written out by someone everyone on this site loves and respects. Adds merit to his arguments and gets people excited about the format. Most players will hit the same pitfalls I did when trying out the format- bringing strong cards in other formats into EDH and getting completely smoked. This was a great way to help teach them before getting annihilated on EDH night!

Northern, great summary and glad to see more people getting involved in my favorite format!

My buddy runs this deck, has it all tricked out, and yet the very first card he always searches for with Zur is Vanishing (a 0.20 cent common). Makes Zur the most infuriating commander EVER- nearly impossible to kill, and he gets to keep any auras on him (phasing phases out both zur and all enchantments/ equipments on zur).

And one more- since you get to cheat in a spell each turn, it's good to limit everyone else's plays- you get a 2 for one. Arcane laboratory is perfect for that.

Wait- one more. It's a 4 drop, but Dissipation field is a fantastic defensive tool as well.

I think this is a fantastic foundation for zur- slow the game to a crawl, and pound through that commander damage!

Oh, this looks FUUNNNN.

Couple other awesome drops for consideration:
Seshiro (all your changelings get +2/+2, and when they deal combat damage to a player you draw a card) - cmc 1 higher than brood warden, but dang.

Ezuri, renegade leader. may be more difficult having that much green mana available in a budget deck, but he can end it RIGHT quick for you.

Also, a great card draw with changeling is mass appeal.

Thought about doing a changeling theme EDH with reaper king, maybe a prospect for future Northern consideration?

I love these nasty stupid wicked decks.

A couple thoughts: Soul Feast is a Kiss of Death for one less mana. Going for flavor with kiss of death, or would you rather make it cheaper?

Getting around the pro creatures or indestructibles, geth's verdict is a solid 2 drop sac creature. Always have loved it. Or, if you prefer the permanent route, Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos plays SUPER well with reassembling skeleton.

Finally, dropping exquisite blood in here negates pestilence's damage to you, and pestilence becomes "{b} target opponent and each creature he controls is dealt one damage."

Just a few ideas for consideration! Great fun deck to play, man. Reminds me of my first days of building decks.

Thousand-year elixir and heartless hidetsugu make for a MEAN combo. elixir works well with both hidetsugu AND the general. Dropping all life to 20 or below with Hidetsugu makes burn VERY viable, VERY FAST in EDH. A few double-down damage enchantments like the dictate of the twin gods or furnace of rath get ugly too!

So so so fun. Played this deck last week, won 4 of 5 games, two games by turn 4 and one by turn 5.

turn 5 drop ugin's, then turn 6 clever impersonator as ugin's, sacrifice the impersonator for 1 delayed trigger extra turn, then shrapnel blast the other one for 2 extra turns!

Yeah, but it also sits out there as a combo breaker as well as an ensoul artifact target. I think it's a great addition.

Took out the 3 Titan's strength to add in 2 Ugin's Nexus and 1 more clever impersonator. Slows the deck, but adds versatility in longer games.

YEP IT'S TOTALLY CRUCIAL! APPRECIATE THE ENTHUSIASM!

What would I take out to put it in, though?