Flickering HoundFlickering Hound | Art by Justin & Alexis Hernandez

"Ok, it's a hound that flickers stuff. What should we call it?"

"Gee I don't know, Blinking Dog?"

"Nah, too creative. Try again."

Flickering HoundFlickering Hound might not have the most creative title, but that doesn't make it any less strong. It's a four mana 2/2 that will blink any creature we control every time we cast a creature. That's a lot!

Usually blink decks expect to be flickering one creature a turn using Conjurer's ClosetConjurer's Closet or SoulherderSoulherder, and that's more than strong enough. But with Flickering HoundFlickering Hound, the sky is the limit, especially if we build a deck with creatures that help us cast more when we blink them.

The snowball is gonna be huge, and I'm certain there's a commander that's perfect for that. But that's category 4. First we need to find the jankiest use, the most evil use, and the best combo. Let's get right into it!

The Jankiest Way To Use Flickering Hound

Whitemane LionWhitemane Lion seems like a useless card at first, but it's super helpful in any deck that cares about casting creatures.

Karametra, God of HarvestsKarametra, God of Harvests loves it, because we can cast it for two, bounce it back to our hand, and search for a land. It's an infinitely repeatable Rampant GrowthRampant Growth!

But while it's usually bouncing itself, there are a number of decks that use it to bounce another creature, mostly commanders that care about being cast, like Zacama, Primal CalamityZacama, Primal Calamity.

In order to untap all our lands when it enters, Zacama, Primal CalamityZacama, Primal Calamity has to be cast, which is why the deck runs Whitemane LionWhitemane Lion instead of CloudshiftCloudshift, or blinkers like Flickering HoundFlickering Hound.

Buuutt, Flickering HoundFlickering Hound gets really useful if we're blinking the Whitemane LionWhitemane Lion instead. At the bare minimum, it's a handy way to use the Whitemane LionWhitemane Lion more than once.

Consider what happens if we've got a Whitemane LionWhitemane Lion and a Flickering HoundFlickering Hound on the battlefield and Zacama in hand. We can cast Zacama, triggering Flickering HoundFlickering Hound. The Hound blinks the Lion, and the Lion returns to the battlefield, then returns itself to our hand.

Then Zacama resolves, untapping all of our lands, which hopefully produce 12 mana. Then we can return Zacama to hand by playing Whitemane LionWhitemane Lion, and we're back where we started.

With 11 mana we get infinite ETB and Flickering Hound triggers, and with 12 we get infinite mana as well. It's a pretty cool combo, but it's kind of ridiculous because we're using Flickering HoundFlickering Hound to blink another creature that essentially blinks a third creature.

The Most Evil Way To Use Flickering Hound

Oh man, I know the answer to this question.

It's Stonehorn DignitaryStonehorn Dignitary.

I HATE that card. I don't care if you want to draw like 20 cards a turn with Brago, King EternalBrago, King Eternal, or drain me for half my life with Corpse KnightCorpse Knight, but please do not remove the combat phase from the game. I just want to attack, dude.

And the worst part is that blink decks can flicker it at instant speed, making it twice as hard to remove. This is less of an evil thing to do with Flickering HoundFlickering Hound than it is Stonehorn DignitaryStonehorn Dignitary, but Flickering HoundFlickering Hound makes it way too easy to retrigger Stonehorn DignitaryStonehorn Dignitary every turn, and far too many decks are already running these cards in tandem.

Keep me so far away from that.

The Best Combo With Flickering Hound

That combo I outlined with Zacama, Primal CalamityZacama, Primal Calamity was pretty sick, but it takes three cards and eleven mana. Not what I'd call efficient.

Luckily there's an even cooler combo with Flickering HoundFlickering Hound and Spell QuellerSpell Queller that involves suspending two creatures in exile and repeatedly casting them and countering them over and over again.

It's super cool, but slightly complicated, so let me do my best to break it down.

Essentially, with Flickering HoundFlickering Hound and Spell QuellerSpell Queller on the battlefield, whenever we cast a creature, we can blink Spell QuellerSpell Queller before that creature resolves, exiling that creature and leaving to be cast later.

Then when we do it a second time and Spell QuellerSpell Queller gets exiled again, we cast the first creature for free, which triggers the loop again. Got it?

No? I know, it's quite confusing. But the gist of it is that with Flickering HoundFlickering Hound and Spell QuellerSpell Queller on the battlefield, casting two creatures with mana value four or less will get us infinite ETB triggers, LTB triggers, and storm count. Pretty neat!

The Most Competitive Deck For Flickering Hound

I almost went with EDHREC's first pick for this commander, Pantlaza, Sun-FavoredPantlaza, Sun-Favored, because in a deck that's all creatures, Flickering HoundFlickering Hound is essentially a second copy of Primal VigorPrimal Vigor, putting every creature with mana value less than the greatest mana value among dinosaurs we control onto the battlefield from our library.

Insanely strong, even if we aren't running only creatures. But I generally don't like running non-Dinosaurs in a Dinosaur deck, even if they are that good.

Instead, I think Flickering HoundFlickering Hound fits best in Derevi, Empyrial TacticianDerevi, Empyrial Tactician, a favorite commander of mine.

There are a lot of ways to build Derevi, but mine involves a ton of one mana unblockable creatures, perfect for triggering the Hound. With those creatures, Flickering HoundFlickering Hound can blink Derevi, who then untaps a land.

And because the deck is all about untapping lands, I've built it with enchantments like Dawn's ReflectionDawn's Reflection.

Put all that together, and one-mana creatures are mana positive by 200%. Nice! Combine that with Coastal PiracyCoastal Piracy and Reconnaissance MissionReconnaissance Mission drawing a full hand every turn, and we can very easily dump our entire deck onto the battlefield.

This Derevi deck has an amazing blink target and a ton of creatures for Flickering Hound. It's a perfect fit!

The Worst Deck For Flickering Hound

Once again, I'm trying to find a terrible deck for a card with a completely optional ability.

Flickering HoundFlickering Hound lets us exile "up to one" target creature, meaning we can choose to blink none at all. That's great for absolutely everyone except me, because I want a deck that Flickering HoundFlickering Hound is worse than worthless in.

Because of the "may," it's basically a moot point, but lets try and find a deck that really doesn't want to blink its creatures.

One of the worst commanders to flicker has to be Jared Carthalion, True HeirJared Carthalion, True Heir. When he enters, he makes an opponent the monarch and prevents us from becoming it this turn.

If the monarch is already in play, it's an ETB that's pure downside. In addition, he stacks counters on himself, which will instantly be removed if he's blinked. Using Flickering HoundFlickering Hound on Jared essentially sets us back to square one! This is s a deck where Flickering HoundFlickering Hound is better off doing nothing at all.

Blink Dogs Unite

That's Flickering HoundFlickering Hound, a blink card so good that it physically cannot be bad, to my annoyance. At it's worst, it's a 2/2, at it's best, it just wins the game. There's a ton we can do with it, a lot of which I probably don't even realize.

Even when I was exploring janky commanders I stumbled into an infinite combo with it, so clearly it's capable of a lot.

Do you have any other combos, or just crazy interactions with Flickering HoundFlickering Hound?