Updating Power Hungry

Howdy, folks. Today I'm finally getting around to posting my first Commander 2013 improvement article. We are, to my own suprise, going to be starting with Power Hungry, the Jund deck, led by Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. I picked this one to start with because I wanted to share a little anecdote about my playtesting.

So, this is my very first "goldfish" game after sleeving up the changes I will outline below. The following creatures were attacking:
A 74/72 Thromok the Insatiable
A 7/5 Prossh
An 8/6 Reaper from the Abyss
and sixteen 2/1 Kobolds.

This was Turn 7.

And I had misplayed the turn before, wasting some mana. Because of this, Grave Pact was in my hand and not on the Battlefield.

Anyway, for your reference, here's the original decklist prior to any changes:


Prossh, Skyraider of Kher

Brooding Saurian
Capricious Efreet
Charnelhoard Wurm
Deathbringer Thoctar
Deepfire Elemental
Elvish Skysweeper
Endless Cockroaches
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
Fell Shepherd
Goblin Sharpshooter
Golgari Guildmage
Hooded Horror
Hua Tuo, Honored Physician
Hunted Troll
Inferno Titan
Jade Mage
Ophiomancer
Quagmire Druid
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Scarland Thrinax
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Shattergang Brothers
Silklash Spider
Sprouting Thrinax
Stalking Vengeance
Stronghold Assassin
Terra Ravager
Viscera Seer
Walker of the Grove
Wight of Precinct Six

Armillary Sphere
Blood Rites
Carnage Altar
Curse of Chaos
Curse of Predation
Curse of Shallow Graves
Dirge of Dread
Fecundity
Foster
Furnace Celebration
Goblin Bombardment
Jar of Eyeballs
Jund Charm
Mass Mutiny
Night Soil
Obelisk of Jund
Plague Boiler
Primal Vigor
Reincarnation
Restore
Rough // Tumble
Sol Ring
Spine of Ish Sah
Spoils of Victory
Sudden Demise
Swiftfoot Boots
Tempt with Vengeance
Tooth and Claw
Vile Requiem
Widespread Panic

Akoum Refuge
Command Tower
Evolving Wilds
Forest x7
Golgari Guildgate
Golgari Rot Farm
Grim Backwoods
Gruul Guildgate
Jund Panorama
Kazandu Refuge
Khalni Garden
Kher Keep
Llanowar Reborn
Mountain x7
Opal Palace
Rakdos Guildgate
Rupture Spire
Savage Lands
Swamp x6
Temple of the False God
Terramorphic Expanse
Vivid Grove

Okay, before we get into the changes I made to my own version, I'm going to run down the list and group all of the cards into three categories: PASS, FAIL and NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. Those titles should be pretty self-explanatory, but I'll explain a bit more below.

PASS - These cards are good enough to keep in the deck more or less unconditionally. Obviously going with some really outside-the-box theme might alter the usefulness, but in a general sense these cards should provide power or utility on par with "constructed" EDH decks. The following cards receive a grade of PASS for this deck:

Sakura-Tribe Elder
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
Shattergang Brothers
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Deathbringer Thoctar
Goblin Bombardment
Sudden Demise
Fecundity
Reincarnation
Foster
Sol Ring
Kher Keep

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT - This category represents the selection of cards that are perhaps not the best possible option but are servicable enough that you could keep them if you don't have better options, or if you just like the card a lot. They won't noticably weaken your deck unless your deck is just filled with these. I'm a big fan of running some subpar options in almost any deck, because beating someone with a card that isn't the most obvious card ever is fun! But if your entire deck is middle-tier, then you probably won't get that chance very often.

Charnelhoard Wurm
Fell Shepherd
Goblin Sharpshooter
Hua Tuo, Honored Physician
Inferno Titan
Ophiomancer
Sprouting Thrinax
Scarland Thrinax
Silklash Spider
Stalking Vengeance
Viscera Seer
Furnace Celebration
Mass Mutiny
Night Soil
Obelisk of Jund
Primal Vigor
Restore
Spoils of Victory
Swiftfoot Boots
Tempt with Vengeance
Tooth and Claw

FAIL - These are the cards that just plain suck and will almost always serve to dilute the power of your deck, rarely justifying their inclusion, if ever. They usually lack any synergy with your overall deck, or provide such a weak effect that they will just never pull their weight. This list is where you should start first, when making improvements.

Brooding Saurian
Capricious Efreet
Deepfire Elemental
Elvish Skysweeper
Endless Cockroaches
Golgari Guildmage
Hooded Horror
Hunted Troll
Jade Mage
Quagmire Druid
Stalking Vengeance
Stronghold Assassin
Terra Ravager
Walker of the Grove
Wight of Precinct Six
Armillary Sphere
Blood Rites
Carnage Altar
Curse of Chaos
Curse of Predation
Curse of Shallow Graves
Dirge of Dread
Jar of Eyeballs
Jund Charm
Plague Boiler
Rough // Tumble
Spine of Ish Sah
Vile Requiem
Widespread Panic

Now, some of these cards on the FAIL list, you might be saying "But, wait, this card is playable in EDH!". That might be true. Many of these cards I do see played in the format. Brooding Saurion, for example, is a fine EDH card. It's just a little too conditional in this deck, and often times it will just be a generic 4/4 for four mana, which is just flat-out something this deck doesn't care about. Then we have stuff like Armillary Sphere, which I'm fine playing in Grixis, but in a color scheme that involves green? Green has access to SO many ramp spells, there is just NO justification for resorting to such a mediocre card.

In short, about half of the cards on the FAIL list would be upgraded to NEEDS IMPROVEMENT or maybe even PASS if we were in different colors, or there wasn't a variety of cards that all severely outclass the card in question.

So, now we can get to the actual changes.

My first thought for Power Hungry, based on the name of the deck and the mechanical themes contained within, I really thought this deck wanted a Devour theme (as in the Jund keyword mechanic). However, once I got started on the changes, I discovered two things: One, there was a distinct lack of Devour cards that were really worth playing, and two, that approach required even more deck space for Devour enablers and jamming all of those things in just took up too much room.

In the end, a few Devour cards made it in, as well as a fair number of ways to enable the mechanic, but only because sacrificing tokens for value was a strong enough theme even before we got to the Devour cards.

Anyway, the easiest first place to start fixing the deck up is to look for cards where we can just do a straight "upgrade" - putting in a card that fulfills the same basic purpose, but is just a better overall card to do it. Occasionally we might even get the coveted "strictly better", but most of the time these will just be "almost always better".

Golgari Guildmage --> Korozda Guildmage - Here's a good example. GG is expensive and clunky to use, and doesn't really line up with the mechanical themes of the deck. KG on the other hand is slightly cheaper to use, and his abilities have better synergy. His second ability is the one we usually want, but the first can help Prossh get through blockers for a lethal strike.

Jade Mage --> Skirsdag High Priest - This one is a bit unintuitive at first glance, but I knew I wanted a really cheap token producer like Jade Mage, but one that was less mana-intensive. In playtesting the deck before changes, I could just NEVER afford to make tokens with the Mage, and if I was making tokens that always meant my hand was utterly terrible and I was desperate. Not a good sign for a card. SHP comes in at the same CMC, makes much bigger tokens, and requires no additional mana investment. You'll be surprised how easy it is to activate this guy with Prossh at your General.

Viscera Seer --> Reaper of the Wilds - Yes, it's a pretty steep jump in mana cost, but the benefits are worth it. First, the Seer requires you to choose between sac-ing to Scry or sac-ing to pump Prossh or get some other value. You almost always have a more powerful sac-for-value effect on the table meaning you never want to use the Seer. Reaper on the other hand, just adds the Scry value to your other sac effects. So you can sac to Prossh and still get the Srcy bonus tacked on.

Fell Shepherd --> Phyrexian Plaguelord - A painful change, I admit. I really wanted the Shepherd to be good, and perhaps he will be, but not in this deck. Plaguelord does much of the same job but at a much more efficient price. True he doesn't have the recursion aspect to offer, but I was never once able to trigger Fell Shepherd's recursion ability so I don't see that as a real loss.

Carnage Altar -- > Greater Good - Much less mana, draws way more cards. Yeah, you don't get anywhere sacrificing tokens to Greater Good, but it's still a huge improvement regardless.

Stronghold Assassin --> Attrition - Bascially, Attrition offers two things the Assassin doesn't: survives Wrath of God, and can be activated several times a turn rather than just once.

Plague Boiler --> Gaze of Granite - This should actually be Pernicious Deed, but even I don't have enough of those lying around so Gaze of Granite it is. Yes, it's more mana, but it is still less clunky to use.

Primal Vigor --> Doubling Season - Some of you will run both. If your the only token deck, that's fine, go for it. But I see things like Ghave or Rite of Replication far to often for me to feel safe using Primal Vigor.

Wight of Precinct Six --> Blood Artist - Wight gets value from dead creatures. Blood Artist gets value from dying creatues. And the life drain aspect seems way more valuable than just a generically large guy with no evasion or abilities.

Jar of Eyeballs --> Skullclamp - The designers of these decks sure had some funny notions about card advantage. At least they got Fecundity right, but still...

Deepfire Elemental --> Reaper from the Abyss - I mentioned earlier about triggering Morbid really easily in this deck... Reaper will kill a LOT of shit for you. Sometimes he'll kill your own guys, as he doesn't have the word "may" anywhere in his text. That's okay, though. You've got plenty of fodder.

Vicious Shadows --> Stalking Vengeance - I really wanted to have both in the deck, but the mana curve just wouldn't support it. Of the two, the Enchantment is by far the more explosive of the two and will just win out of nowhere quite easily. The main argument for running Vengeance instead is that Shadows might be TOO good and too easy.

Rough//Tumble --> Chain Reaction - This was going to be Scourge of Kher Ridge for obvious reasons of both mechanical and flavor varieties. But again I had mana concerns and when I remembered Chain Reaction existed, I had to give it a shot.

Okay, that's about it for the 1-for-1 upgrades. Let's get to the bulk fixes now. We'll start with the Ramp as that's one of the most critical aspects of this deck. It is quite mana hungry, as you'll find out playing it. The ramp included just doesn't cut it.

We'll be keeping Sakura-Tribe Elder and Sol Ring for sure, but gutting the rest.

OUT: 1 land, Spoils of Victory, Restore, Obelisk of Jund, Armillary Sphere
IN: Wood Elves, Yavimaya Elder, Awakening Zone, Coalition Relic, Skyshroud Claim

We want to cut some of the spell-based ramp for creature-based ramp because, duh. You can't sac Spoils of Victory to Prossh can you? Yavimaya Elder is such a perfect fit it's a wonder they didn't include it to begin with. I like Coalition Relic over Obelisk of Jund because, well, it is strictly better, but in a more specific sense it can enable a turn-four Prossh if you hit that 4th land.

I would also consider Seedguide Ash, especially if you're playing all the ABUR duals and RAV shocklands. I didn't add him myself mainly because I was getting stuck on 4 mana most of the time and didn't want to rely on a 5-drop to solve that problem.

I also want to find two things to cut for Ashnod's Altar and Pawn of Ulamog. Both provide some huge mana bonuses but I don't necessarily count them as "ramp" for the fact that they are incredibly difficult to rely on in the early game. They both work best later on, after you've already built up a considerable board presence, but have the potential to propel you for the mid-game phase to the rain-doom-upon-thine-enemies phase in a single turn.

OUT: Endless Cockroaches, Swiftfoot Boots
IN: Pawn of Ulamog, Ashnod's Altar

Next up, we've got the Devour Package.

OUT: Capricious Efreet, Hooded Horror, Inferno Titan, Hunted Troll
IN: Mycoloth, Dragon Broodmother, Thromok the Insatiable, Preyseizer Dragon

These were the four best Devour cards in my opinion. So I just cut generic dorks that were in the same CMC range and viola! Instant Devour subtheme. Sure, it's little more than a cursory nod to the mechanic but each of these four cards can have tremendous impact on the game so not much more is needed, I feel.

Now we need a few more cards to enable Devour and other sacrifice mechanics.

OUT: Brooding Saurion, Terra Ravager, Silklash Spider, Walker of the Grove, Charnelhoard Wurm, Spine of Ish Sah
IN: Creekwood Liege, Mitotic Slime, Sporemound, Chancellor of the Forge, Symbiotic Wurm, Artifact Mutation

As much as I like Charnelhoard Wurm, I want tokens, not a regrowth effect. Walker makes one big token, which is less valuable than the many small tokens approach. Brooding Suarion and Terra Raveger lack any kind of synergy and while I am a big fan of Silklash Spider it too doesn't really do what this particular deck asks of it.

I also considered Deranged Hermit, and a few others. Also, shoehorning in a Krenko-fueled goblin subtheme would not be out of the question.

Next up, we need some more ways to make creating lots of tokens and/or sacrificing lots of tokens do something valuable for us. If there is one thing Magic players love it's "value". #value #twoforone #yolo #swag #420

OUT: Vile Requiem, Tooth and Claw, Tempt with Vengeance, Mass Mutiny, Widespread Panic, Blood Rites, Dirge of Dread
IN: Grave Pact, Black Market, Sadistic Hypnotist, Xenagos the Reveler, Ogre Battledriver, Furystoke Giant, Purphoros God of the Forge

This is mostly just some generic stuff that wasn't good enough, replaced by some stuff that is downright amazing. Purphoros, Grave Pact and Xenagos are particularly nasty. Ogre Battledriver is there becuase once in a while "getting value" from your tokens just means smashing face, and we needed something to make 0/1 Koblods at least a little deadly. Black Market might be one "massive mana engine" too many but this was the first deck I've had where it was appropriate so I wanted to try it out. Furystoke Giant is subtly better than he appears. You're never going to have enough tokens to just dome 3 opponents and win, but you can usually kill every creature that isn't yours.

And, finally, we get to the generic utility and "good stuff" section.

OUT:  Jund Charm, All 3 Curses, Quagmire Druid, Ophiomancer, Elvish Skysweeper
IN: Diabolic Intent, Demonic Tutor, Eternal Witness, Fires of Yavimaya, Dread Return, Torrent of Souls, Maelstrom Pulse

Sure, Demonic Tutor and Eternal Witness are boring picks, but they're really really good, which is why they are in almost every deck, which is why their boring. So as yawn-worthy as they may be they are still absolutely worth having. Period. Fires is another haste enabler which is quite relevant in this deck. Diabolic Intent is just another Demonic Tutor but cutely on-them with the sacrifice part. Dread Return and Torrent of Souls are probably the two best possible options for our reanimation needs. Torrent also has the benefit of turning our 1/1 and 0/1 tokens into semi-capable attackers. Maelstrom Pulse is just our one-stop shop for all our spot removal needs.

The Mana Base

The last step is overhauling the mana base for the deck. It's not terrible as-is, but stuff like Rupture Spire and Jund Panorama just have to go. The Guildgates are pretty terrible here, too. They are fine in slower decks, but here they slow us down too much. And we have some demanding mana requirements, like the trip-B's on Grave Pact and such, so we really want a robust mana base for this deck.

First, add as many duals as you can, starting with the Shocklands and ABUR duals. If you add those, then you obviously want the Core/INN "checklands". I would also VERY highly prioritize the Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands, because those will really help you hit those Grave Pact type of stringent color requirements. The more the better, but make sure you have enough basics that all your ramp spells will work!

Obviously, you want to keep Kher Keep. It even says so right in the name. You won't use it that often, but it's best to have just in case.

Gaea's Cradle should be a no-brainer if you have one. If not see if you can pick up a gold-border one for cheap. Yes it IS a real Magic card. It's just not tournament legal, but since when do EDH players play tournaments?

Reflecting Pool (or City of Brass for a cheaper alternative), Reliquary Tower and Bojuka Bog round out my land package. Tower is a must because Greater Good, Fecundity and Skullclamp will get out of hand wildly in some games.

Putting it all together, we get the following final (for now) list:

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher

Skirsdag High Priest
Blood Artist
Pawn of Ulamog
Disciple of Bolas
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
Sadistic Hypnotist
Phyrexian Plaguelord
Reaper from the Abyss
Goblin Sharpshooter
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Ogre Battledriver
Furystoke Giant
Preyseizer Dragon
Chancellor of the Forge
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Wood Elves
Eternal Witness
Yavimaya Elder
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Sporemound
Symbiotic Wurm
Korozda Guildmage
Sprouting Thrinax
Scarland Thrinax
Creekwood Liege
Reaper of the Wilds
Shattergang Brothers
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Thromok the Insatiable
Deathbringer Thoctar
Dragon Broodmother

Diabolic Intent
Demonic Tutor
Attrition
Dread Return
Grave Pact
Black Market
Goblin Bombardment
Furnace Celebration
Chain Reaction
Vicious Shadows
Sudden Demise
Night Soil
Fecundity
Awakening Zone
Reincarnation
Skyshroud Claim
Greater Good
Foster
Doubling Season
Artifact Mutation
Fires of Yavimaya
Maelstrom Pulse
Xenagos, the Reveler
Torrent of Souls
Gaze of Granite
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Coalition Relic
Ashnod's Altar

Blood Crypt
Stomping Ground
Overgrown Tomb
Dragonskull Summit
Rootbound Crag
Woodland Cemetery
Graven Cairns
Fire-Lit Thicket
Twilight Mire
Akoum Refuge
Kazandu Refuge
Rakdos Carnarium
Gruul Turf
Golgari Rot Farm
Savage Lands
Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
Bojuka Bog
Terramorphic Expanse
Evolving Wilds
Gaea's Cradle
Kher Keep
Temple of the False God
Reliquary Tower
Swamp x4
Mountain x5
Forest x5

And, that's the list I'm rolling with currently. Still haven't been able to get any real multiplayer testing done, but 1v1 results show the deck to be... well I'm trying to think of a word with more positive connotations, but "oppressive" keeps coming to mind. I actually think Prossh will be a lot like Maelstrom Wanderer - the format as a whole can handle him, but he's going to be a real problem for some groups.

Astute readers will likely have noticed that, cumulatively, my changes have increased the average mana cost by some margin, and that is true. But even with that slight upward trend in the mana curve, I still get mana-screwed far less often than I did with the stock list, and the lower-cost spells that I CAN play at 4 or less mana are much more impactful, making the occasional mana-screw a little less of a disaster. But overall the ramp is much more robust and reliable, which definitely helps support the top-end stuff we want to be doing.

Some cards I considered but didn't find room for:

Dark Prophecy
Beastmaster Ascension
Grim Feast
Decree of Pain
Parallel Lives
Deranged Hermit
Avenger of Zendikar
Blasphemous Act
Survival of the Fittest
Phyrexian Reclamation
Barter in Blood
Acidic Slime
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
Scavenging Ooze
Anger
Genesis

And, really that's just scratching the surfact. The card pool for this kind of build is actually very deep and there is a lot of room for personal touches and pet cards. Even I managed to find room for some janky stuff like Sporemound and Korozda Guildmage, knowing uber-powerful stuff like Purphoros and Grave Pact will pick up the slack.

The good thing about Prossh is, unlike something like Maelstrom Wanderer, his inherent power level can be reigned in somewhat by nixing the most powerful and abusive support spells. If I were to depower the above list a bit to make it a little more casual, I'd cut Purphoros, Sadistic Hypnotist and Vicious Shadows for sure, and depending on the metagame, maybe Grave Pact as well. Those seem to be the 4 main "back breaker" spells, and without them the deck would still be really good but not quite as scary.

One last note: I put Furnace Celebration on the NEEDS IMPROVEMENT list, but if you happen to add Ashnod's Alter as I have done (another one you might trim if the deck proves too overwhelming for you individual playgroup), then Furnace Celebration gets upgraded to PASS, as the synergy between those two cards is quite delightful. The Alter both triggers AND pays for the Celebration turning every token you make into a free shock. Quite nifty indeed.

Leave your suggestions in the comments below! I'm especially interested in any "secret tech" ideas that have good synergy with the deck themes, or even random "good stuff" that is more on-theme in this deck than it might be in other decks (like Decree of Pain, for instance).

Enjoy!