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Beating Hate
hFEB is a combo deck, and like every combo deck it pays a price every time the opponent brings in disruption. Knowing which hate matters, when to play around it, and how to pivot is one of the biggest skill checks of the deck.
This section collects the recurring patterns: how to deal with and how to navigate lock pieces like Engineered Plague, Null Rod, Ensnaring Bridge, and Cursed Totem.
The Answers
The most direct way to deal with these threats is removal. The deck has access to four key cards depending on the situation:
When you have access to one of these in time, the game often plays out normally. When you don’t, you have to navigate around the hate piece: that’s where the rest of this section comes in!
Engineered Plague
Engineered Plague directly attacks several of hFEB’s most important creatures. Opponents will usually name Druid or Phyrexian to shut down Hermit lines or Devourer-based kills respectively.
If they name Druid: Hermit Druid immediately dies to Plague. Removing the enchantment becomes mandatory before committing to any Druid-based plan.
If they name Phyrexian or Construct: You can still win through careful graveyard management. Shapeshifter copies the creature types of the top card of the graveyard: as long as that card is not a Phyrexian (or Construct), Shifter is unaffected. Keep a non-Phyrexian creature on top, pump Shifter with Psychatog or Scrounger to survive the -1/-1, then transition into the lethal line.
⚠️ With Engineered Plague in play, lines involving Unearth stop functioning normally. Shifter will see Unearth on top of the graveyard once the spell resolves, become the named type, and die to state-based actions before the line continues.
Niche exception: If you have Psychatog, Battlefield Scrounger, or Krosan Reclamation available, you can remove Unearth in response to the Guide ETB trigger: Shifter will have already died and gone to the graveyard, making it a valid reanimation target for the Guide trigger.
Null Rod
Null Rod shuts down the FEB kill (Devourer and Triskelion are artifact creatures) but does not disrupt the rest of the deck. Shift your win condition to classic Hermit Druid lines and combat with Akroma.
Null Rod also guarantees Crypts and Furnaces won’t disrupt your Hermit lines, treat it as a speed bump, not a hard lock.
Ensnaring Bridge
Bridge’s impact depends on cards in hand and creatures available. The FEB portion of the deck is unaffected: Triskelion can always ping for lethal without combat.
For combat wins: declare attacks with a Shifter not affected by summoning sickness, then pump with Psychatog after attackers are declared. Psychatog itself can grow above the Bridge threshold during combat and reset at end of turn.
Scrounger pumps can also turn a harmless Shifter/Birds of Paradise into a lethal Akroma: cycle the same Scrounger 5 times with Survival for a 21/21 Akroma!
Cursed Totem
The most disruptive of the three: shuts down both primary kill plans and disables Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots, slowing mana significantly.
Deploy Survival only when you have enough mana to immediately fetch Uktabi Orangutan, even under removal pressure.
If removal is unavailable, buy time, develop mana, hard-cast threats, and use Karmic Guide to reanimate Akroma.