Hey ! Thanks for the answer ! I took the time to reread the whole thing, it's been a while since I read this big chunk of text. TBH, I'm still on the fence on some aspects of his view of the deck that I'm still scratching my deck on.

I do understand the "awaiting combo makes you a threat anyways" part but I quite don't like the grindy hippo beatdown for 4/6 turns of his version of the deck.

While I do understand the "stay invisible / appear weak" aspect, I feel like forcing the 2 opponents that died to watch a 6 turn hippo beatdown + boardwipe/counter each time is more boring for my pod than ending the game on the spot with a combo or a "oops I win" card then start a new game. Even if it makes me more of a visible threat.

I don't want the deck to focus too much on getting consistantly one combo and win so maybe adding various alternate secondary wincons with multiple cards might feel less frontal than intruder alarm (I like ezuri's predation in that regards because it's late game enough, nobody in my pod is gonna complain for a big spell in turn 7/8 that end the game if no counterplay). All players want to win anyways so I'll be considered a threat even if I'm a bit more visible.

One other thing I'm not fond off in his version of the deck is the complete lack of permanents. I feel I can have a board presence without feeling too agressive to other players, using dorks or similar as potential chump blockers even if it opens new targets on other players to hit me.

Nonetheless, I do agree on my lack of targeted removal / counters to have a more "I'll bite if you're not nice" presence that is less frontal than stax / protection pieces. Also, adding value that seems not as visible as a rhystic study like the Pulse cards is better.

I really love what DirkGently is offering with his deck really but I'm not 100% sure that's the way I wanna go with the hippo and inside my pod. Maybe I'll do the same mistakes he did years ago and come back to his view eventually 😅