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Agrias: Lord Dycedarg and the duke would use her as a pawn in their game of thrones

This is true even if Protean Hydra has no +1/+1 counters on it at all (and is able to remain on the battlefield because some other effect is boosting its toughness)

Or you can turn its downside into an upside by adding to its counters with proliferate cards like Contagion Engine to increase your hand size rather than decrease it, or by running it in a Madness deck as a discard outlet for stuff like Asylum Visitor

If the melded permanent goes to your graveyard from the battlefield, both cards are put into your graveyard

If you can hardcast it and your deck is capable of holding off Burn and Abzan decks on its own, you'll find this very powerful whether it's in the opener or not