<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound|FRA|359" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> | Art by <a href="https://glowingraptor.weebly.com/">Justin &amp; Alexis Hernandez</a>
"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."
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<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Conjurer&#039;s Closet" href="#" target="_blank">Conjurer&#039;s Closet</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soulherder" href="#" target="_blank">Soulherder</a>, and that's more than strong enough. But with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a>, the sky is the limit, especially if we build a deck with creatures that help us cast more when we blink them.
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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!
<h2>The Jankiest Way To Use Flickering Hound</h2>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whitemane Lion" href="#" target="_blank">Whitemane Lion</a> seems like a useless card at first, but it's super helpful in any deck that cares about casting creatures.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Karametra, God of Harvests" href="#" target="_blank">Karametra, God of Harvests</a> 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a>!
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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zacama, Primal Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Zacama, Primal Calamity</a>.
In order to untap all our lands when it enters, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zacama, Primal Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Zacama, Primal Calamity</a> has to be cast, which is why the deck runs <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whitemane Lion" href="#" target="_blank">Whitemane Lion</a> instead of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cloudshift" href="#" target="_blank">Cloudshift</a>, or blinkers like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a>.
Buuutt, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> gets really useful if we're blinking the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whitemane Lion" href="#" target="_blank">Whitemane Lion</a> instead. At the bare minimum, it's a handy way to use the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whitemane Lion" href="#" target="_blank">Whitemane Lion</a> more than once.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Zacama, Primal Calamity"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Whitemane Lion"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Flickering Hound"></div></div>
Consider what happens if we've got a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whitemane Lion" href="#" target="_blank">Whitemane Lion</a> and a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> on the battlefield and Zacama in hand. We can cast Zacama, triggering <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a>. 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whitemane Lion" href="#" target="_blank">Whitemane Lion</a>, 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> to blink another creature that essentially blinks a third creature.
<h2>The Most Evil Way To Use Flickering Hound</h2>
Oh man, I know the answer to this question.
It's <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stonehorn Dignitary" href="#" target="_blank">Stonehorn Dignitary</a>.
I HATE that card. I don't care if you want to draw like 20 cards a turn with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brago, King Eternal" href="#" target="_blank">Brago, King Eternal</a>, or drain me for half my life with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Corpse Knight" href="#" target="_blank">Corpse Knight</a>, 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> than it is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stonehorn Dignitary" href="#" target="_blank">Stonehorn Dignitary</a>, but <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> makes it way too easy to retrigger <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stonehorn Dignitary" href="#" target="_blank">Stonehorn Dignitary</a> every turn, and far too many decks are already running these cards in tandem.
Keep me so far away from that.
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<h2>The Best Combo With Flickering Hound</h2>
That combo I outlined with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zacama, Primal Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Zacama, Primal Calamity</a> 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spell Queller" href="#" target="_blank">Spell Queller</a> that involves suspending two creatures in exile and repeatedly casting them and countering them over and over again.
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It's super cool, but slightly complicated, so let me do my best to break it down.
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Essentially, with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spell Queller" href="#" target="_blank">Spell Queller</a> on the battlefield, whenever we cast a creature, we can blink <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spell Queller" href="#" target="_blank">Spell Queller</a> before that creature resolves, exiling that creature and leaving to be cast later.
Then when we do it a second time and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spell Queller" href="#" target="_blank">Spell Queller</a> 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spell Queller" href="#" target="_blank">Spell Queller</a> 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!
<h2>The Most Competitive Deck For Flickering Hound</h2>
I almost went with EDHREC's first pick for this commander, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pantlaza, Sun-Favored" href="#" target="_blank">Pantlaza, Sun-Favored</a>, because in a deck that's all creatures, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> is essentially a second copy of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Primal Vigor" href="#" target="_blank">Primal Vigor</a>, 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.
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Instead, I think <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> fits best in <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Derevi, Empyrial Tactician" href="#" target="_blank">Derevi, Empyrial Tactician</a>, 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, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> can blink Derevi, who then untaps a land.
And because the deck is all about untapping lands, I've built it with enchantments like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dawn&#039;s Reflection" href="#" target="_blank">Dawn&#039;s Reflection</a>.
Put all that together, and one-mana creatures are mana positive by 200%. Nice! Combine that with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coastal Piracy" href="#" target="_blank">Coastal Piracy</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reconnaissance Mission" href="#" target="_blank">Reconnaissance Mission</a> 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!
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<h2>The Worst Deck For Flickering Hound</h2>
Once again, I'm trying to find a terrible deck for a card with a completely optional ability.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jared Carthalion, True Heir" href="#" target="_blank">Jared Carthalion, True Heir</a>. 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> on Jared essentially sets us back to square one! This is s a deck where <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a> is better off doing nothing at all.
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<h2>Blink Dogs Unite</h2>
That's <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a>, 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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flickering Hound" href="#" target="_blank">Flickering Hound</a>?
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combat step denial

Flickering Hound: Five Ways to Use It in Commander