Legendary Creature — Ogre Demon Dragon

Hidetsugu and Kairi

Mana value5EDHREC#7,789

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The Commander

Flying

When Hidetsugu and Kairi enters, draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.

When Hidetsugu and Kairi dies, exile the top card of your library. Target opponent loses life equal to its mana value. If it's an instant or sorcery card, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.

Guide

Gameplan

Hidetsugu and Kairi is a value engine that smooths your draws on cast (drawing three, stacking two back) and pays off when it dies by burning an opponent for the top card's mana value and free-casting it if it's an instant or sorcery. The plan is to load your library top with bombs via the ETB, then sacrifice or blink Hidetsugu repeatedly to free-cast huge spells and drain opponents. You play a midrange-control game, controlling the board until your death triggers snowball into card and mana advantage.

Strengths

Built-in card selection and topdeck stacking gives consistent access to your best spells
Death trigger generates a free big spell plus direct damage, rewarding repeated recursion
Excellent synergy with sacrifice outlets, blink, and reanimation
Evasive 5/5 flier that's a real clock on its own

Weaknesses

Reliant on knowing/setting up the top of your library to maximize the death trigger
Free-casting an instant/sorcery is random unless you stack it, so it can whiff
Vulnerable to exile-based removal that denies the death trigger entirely
UB lacks easy ways to deal with resolved enchantments and artifacts

Key Cards

Brainstorm — Cheaply reorders your library top so the death trigger hits your biggest bomb.
Viscera Seer — A free sacrifice outlet to trigger Hidetsugu's death ability on demand.
Phyrexian Altar — Sacrifices Hidetsugu for mana and re-triggers death, fueling recast loops.
Ghostly Flicker — Blinks Hidetsugu to refire the draw-three ETB and reset library stacking.
Expansion // Explosion — A massive instant to bury on top and free-cast off the death trigger for a huge swing.
Reanimate — Cheaply returns a sacrificed Hidetsugu to chain ETB and death triggers.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana (Dark Ritual, Mana Crypt) and efficient tutors (Demonic Tutor, Mystical Tutor) so you can set up the top of your library and reanimate Hidetsugu sooner. Tighten the sacrifice-plus-recursion package with Phyrexian Altar, Victimize, and Animate Dead to build loops. Lean into high-mana-value instants/sorceries that win when free-cast, and include scry/Brainstorm effects to guarantee the death trigger never whiffs.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Repeated death triggers draining opponents' life totals to zero
▸Free-casting a huge X-spell or burn spell like Explosion off the death trigger
▸Beating down with the evasive 5/5 flier while grinding card advantage
▸Comboing sacrifice outlet plus reanimation for a near-infinite drain loop

Archetypes

Reanimator — Repeatedly killing and returning Hidetsugu loops both its triggers for card and damage advantage.
Control — The card filtering and evasive body support a draw-go gameplan with topdeck-stacked answers.
Spellslinger — The death trigger free-casts instants and sorceries, rewarding a high spell count.
Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets convert Hidetsugu into damage and free spells over and over.