Ok so I've recently decided to give commander a try
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Feb. 4, 2014, 5:04 p.m. by abenz419
I've talked my friend into trying to build our first decks and we've made our attempt, but because I want to actually start playing more often I wanted to give myself somewhere to start from. So, I went out and bought the Power Hungry commander 2013 deck. I'm gonna play with it as is for a little bit as I learn the game more, but I know there are definitely ways it can be improved so I was curious, what are some cards I should keep my eye out for that would be good improvements to the deck? That way as I'm learn more I can figure out which ideas I like the best and can start looking for those cards.
One guy at the shop that plays a lot of EDH suggested Grave Pact as a card I may consider once I start to make changes. He also explained that the who deck revolves around a lot of token production and creature sacing to do things. So a couple of cards that immediately popped into my head that I know I have are Reaper of the Wilds and Attrition . I wasn't sure if the reaper really fit in with the whole theme of the deck, but with all of the sacrificing I thought the scry might be good, I just don't know how often scry is used in EDH. Also, I figured with all of the token being produced that Attrition would be good to sac them to.
February 4, 2014 5:17 p.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #4
If you are still using Prossh, Skyraider of Kher as the commander, Purphoros, God of the Forge is utterly disgusting with him.
February 4, 2014 5:35 p.m.
Oh, good, you also need Food Chain , Doubling Season ,, Parallel Lives and Primal Vigor . I will more than attest to how ugly Purphoros, God of the Forge is in this deck. It just wins games.
February 4, 2014 5:40 p.m.
the deck already has primal vigor in it and I have a Purphoros, God of the Forge as well, except it's foil and I've kind of planned to use that as trade bait once I need something lol. The others are all things I'll definitely keep an eye out for as I learn more. Just looking through the deck I can see how many token can be created so I can only Imagine how many can be produced with more Primal Vigor like cards. Which also would make a card like Death Pact that much more devastating.
February 4, 2014 5:50 p.m.
One day, I'll put my list for you too look at. I just haven't had time and I'm pretty happy with where it is at right now.
February 4, 2014 5:52 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #8
Food Chain is pretty much a must have when using prossh, for an infinite combo.
Beastmaster Ascension isn't too hard to enable, and making your kobalds have 5 attack isn't too bad.
Perilous Forays for some mid game ramp.
Shivan Harvest to destroy some of those multicolored decks, tri colored is bound to run a bunch of nonbasics.
Showstopper is a decent consideration, can deal quite a bit out of nowhere.
February 4, 2014 6 p.m.
Like I said, just looking at the deck I can see how it would be something fun to play as you almost always have something to do whether it's sac'ing or casting something or both. But i'm completely new to the format, so I'm gonna try and start playing some up at the shop with some people there that play to learn the deck and the game better. Then I'm gonna start making improvements to it. That way I have a better understanding of a how the card works and determine if it's expendable or not, because I for sure really like the idea of adding in Purphoros, God of the Forge , Grave Pact , Doubling Season , and Parallel Lives but would have no idea where to begin when finding something I can remove that's in the deck already
February 4, 2014 6:03 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #10
I have the power hungry deck. for me, I just removed anything that wasn't close to the theme of Saccing and such and all the subpar cards. That was a good 15+ cards. EDH is really a personalized deck, do whatever seems fun and is fun to you.
February 4, 2014 6:08 p.m.
@aFriendlyAlly some more solid ideas. What's the infinite combo your talking about with Food Chain ?
February 4, 2014 6:08 p.m.
yeah I see what you mean about them being personalized decks, but I guess just being completely new I wanted to get a better idea of things I should keep in mind. And, right away with the suggestions made, I can easily see how adding in more cards with ETB or LTB effects would be good. That might be kind of obvious, especially after playing some with the deck, but I've also gotten ideas for cards that are all very similar to Primal Vigor , a card already in the deck, which can give a feeling of consistency, I suppose, so that the deck can function like your expecting.
February 4, 2014 6:15 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #13
Have Food Chain out, play prossh. Sac prossh and his kobald friends, (prossh refunding his own mana + 1 for each kobald) = tons of mana. Use tons of mana to recast prossh once again and repeat.
Results in a bunch of kobalds and mana and can be insane if you have haste for Prossh.
February 4, 2014 6:15 p.m.
yeah that was something I was thinking about. When Purphoros was brought up it made me think of Hammer of Purphoros because it would give haste and it creates tokens, but you have to sac a land and since the deck is 3 colors I wasn't sure if land sac'ing would be worth it especially since most of the tokens are just getting sac'd to something else. What do you think? Does my thought process make sense or is the extra tokens and haste worth a spot?
February 4, 2014 6:26 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #15
Exile* for Food Chain , its what makes it useful because its your commander, since you can recast it after its exiled.
February 4, 2014 6:27 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #16
Hammer of Purphoros is probably just going to be used for the haste in a Prossh deck, so I would think that Anger or Fervor would be better, due to being hit by less removal. However if you were running Shattergang Brothers as your commander, its awesome since the token can be used for any of his effects.
February 4, 2014 6:32 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #17
I would also run a couple more ramp spells than whats in the stock EDH deck, and green is in fact available to you. Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar are also pretty awesome to ensure you have the mana you need.
February 4, 2014 6:35 p.m.
What about Deathrite Shaman how do you think that would work? I'm sure there will be plenty of lands and instants and sorceries to eat from graveyards
February 4, 2014 6:45 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #19
Deathrite Shaman is a pretty decent choice as an all around good card.
Skullclamp could probably play a role too.
February 4, 2014 6:50 p.m.
That is a cool little thing there with Shattergang Brothers
although like I said before with 3 colors sacrificing lands might not be the greatest idea. I don't know all these cards to begin with let alone off the top of my head so if I do try to add a haste element into the deck then i'll keep Anger
and Fervor
in mind. I like that with a mountain out I can sac Anger
to Prossh and give him +1/+0 and haste at the same time.
February 4, 2014 6:50 p.m.
aFriendlyAlly says... #21
Well since he can't be used in modern anymore, why not lol. DRS could be used in pretty much any deck tbh.
Some of the cheaper cards can be pretty useful like Kodama's Reach . Oracle of Mul Daya is a pretty nice staple although it has a pretty high cost as well.
February 4, 2014 6:52 p.m.
@MindAblaze! thanks, the guy I know up at the shop mentioned Skullclamp as well when he mentioned Grave Pact but I couldn't remember it when I got home. With all of the tokens the deck makes, Skullclamp can used like it basically says tap 1 colorless draw 2 cards so I can see how that would work out great.
February 4, 2014 6:54 p.m.
It's wise to chuck in all the staples like Sol Ring , Sensei's Divining Top , shocklands, Nature's Lore , Skyshroud Claim etc etc. Other good ideas are perhaps something like Blood Artist ?
February 4, 2014 7:24 p.m.
Sol Ring came in the deck so i'm good there. I like the synergy Blood Artist has with all of the sacrificing I can do.
February 4, 2014 8:01 p.m.
drpeppercan says... #25
Epochalyptik has a bunch of EDH staple lists, I'd advise checking them out, they're an awesome go-to resource when looking for cards to add.
February 4, 2014 8:33 p.m.
I've got a few really good ideas so far that I know would work with the deck, I really need to play it a few times so I can figure out what's removable because as of right now, I don't know how many cards I can say for sure that i'll be able to swap out for something.
February 4, 2014 9:08 p.m.
Trollhoffer says... #27
When altering the Prossh deck, if you keep Prossh as the commander, keep in mind that the deck always wants to be doing two things:
Deploying creatures.
Using those creatures to acquire different resources.
What you want, then, is high-efficiency creature cards, creatures that produce more creatures, other permanents that produce creatures, and cards that work off creatures dying. Among those things, you'll want sacrifice outlets, too; you might have a lot of mana and want to restrock Prossh, sacrificing him, or you might want to protect Prossh from a traitor effect or tuck. Those same sacrifice outlets are also useful for gaining general advantage.
There's a lot of different graveyard effects in this game, so you'll want to choose one or two directions and run with them. Prossh chooses a direction for you; sacrificing creatures that have already entered the battlefield. Given that, sometimes, those creatures will not be tokens, that leaves you a question -- what do I do with what's left in the graveyard?
In EDH, many games are won or lost depending on who has better graveyard interaction and graveyard hate. Some of the good news is that Prossh's colours have access to some excellent cards that both make use of your graveyard or can be used to thin out an opponent's. Necrogenesis is perfect; you can take things out of your or an opponent's graveyard and turn them into saproling tokens. It's very cheap to cast and very cheap to use. Night Soil is quite similar, although I think a tad worse. You also have access to Scavenging Ooze , which splashes some lifegain in there. Deathrite Shaman doesn't build itself into a beater, but you get similar functionality.
Those kinds of cards are more likely to be used attacking an opponent's graveyard than making use of yours, though. There's other ways to use these resources, but you should choose some kind of focus, because there isn't enough room in a Commander deck for you to try to do everything. So we'll say that, in our graveyard-related deck building space, there's room left for one more point of focus. If you have lots of creatures with entry abilities that often get sacrificed afterwards, you might want to look at the direction that counts the number of creatures in your graveyard and then applies an effect. A good example is Kessig Cagebreakers , which is both counts your graveyard and provides tokens, which is excellent in a Prossh deck. Lord of Extinction , Nighthowler , Bonehoard and many more are solid choices for this direction.
But perhaps you don't run so many creatures like that, tending towards higher value creatures, or creatures with high-impact entry effects. If that's the case, then perhaps reanimation is better for you. It's also favourable because it gets you a second use out of your best creatures in your graveyard, and usually those creatures are good enough that even using them once has high impact. Lacking white and blue, Prossh doesn't really have access to blink or flicker effects, so reanimation and recursion are the next best thing. Champion of Stray Souls is a recent release that begs to be in Prossh decks. The creature and its activations are costly, but their value is limited only by the contents of your graveyard. Whip of Erebos , Reanimate , Reincarnation , Phyrexian Delver , Tempt with Immortality -- all solid cards that ought to be reasonably accessible. All fine tools for reanimation.
So, if you choose to have a graveyard-inclusive strategy that harnesses nontoken creatures, you'll have to decide which creatures to include. If you're new to EDH, the obvious desire is to include a kill-team of impossibly powerful creatures in the deck. This is the correct decision for some decks, but not all of them, and not for Prossh. Prossh himself is already impossibly powerful with the correct support, so other creatures and spells at his CMC or above have to justify themselves quite well. The most important place to start is with the creatures that will be most playable, especially at different stages of the game. You'll want Yavimaya Elder , Viridian Emissary , Sakura-Tribe Elder , Farhaven Elf and other such ramp or mana fixing creatures to ensure the consistency of your mid and late game plays.
Once you have an organisation of smaller creatures that assist you with consistency (and can be sacrificed to Prossh!), the next concern is cheap disruption. Vithian Renegades will almost always have a high-value target, Shriekmaw , Ingot Chewer , Spitebellows and Briarhorn are all really solid creatures in Prossh, because they can be used like noncreature spells early on, or become more powerful mid-game drops that produce significant advantage and fuel the graveyard. Ghor-Clan Rampager and other cards with the bloodrush mechanic are similarly useful and produce similar value in terms of their diversity of application. Look for mechanics that give you multiple viable and valuable options.
In terms of noncreature removal, Vandalblast is indispensable. Consider Maelstrom Pulse , Sever the Bloodline , Gild , Hero's Downfall , Dreadbore and other efficient removal spells. You don't want too many of these, but enough that you can clear the way of problems your opponents will be presenting you. Prossh wants to be the deck with the biggest, baddest threat of them all, and a creature board that can defend without care against most other threats. So you really just want enough removal that you can deal with the things that Prossh can't fly past, win against or outrace. Sphinx of the Steel Wind jumps to mind.
Board sweepers don't work with Prossh quite like they work in other decks. Your creature board is your lifeblood, so preserve it if possible; if not, then sacrifice your things for value. So you want to play sweepers that don't hit your own state, but rain hell on opponents. Lavalanche is just what the doctor ordered, but let's not stop there. Grave Pact and Butcher of Malakir aren't traditional sweeper spells, but they come to much the same effect in a Prossh deck. Consider combining them with Eater of Hope for absolute, maximum cruelty. If you're willing to slam down the cash, and can take the in-game hit from time to time, Damnation is worth considering. It doesn't follow the "don't blow up your own boardstate in this deck" guideline from above, but its raw power is difficult to argue against. And sometimes, you just need to hit everything.
The last thing I'd like to talk about is card advantage. This deck doesn't have blue, but that's not so bad. Black, green and red have plenty of ways to get stupid amounts of cards and/or value if you're willing to pay the right costs. Disciple of Bolas is great, because at the very least, you can pump Prossh, swing, then bring down this guy during the second main phase for incredible card draw. You'll most likely draw into the lands you'll need to play Prossh again, if you don't already have them. Skullmulcher has a similar effect, but wants to hit quantity rather than quality. Both are worth running and both get you lots of cards. Harvester of Souls gets you cards from nontoken creature deaths; very good if you have lots of removal, or if you deploy a lot of creatures with entry effects meant to be sacrificed to Prossh afterwards. But I feel as though the absolute, undisputed lord of card draw in this deck is, appropriately enough, Dragon Appeasement . You skip your draw step. So what? In the Prossh deck, Dragon Appeasement fuels itself nearly automatically. The thing is, people tend not to react strongly to it, and just let you draw cards for sacrificing things, not understanding that it's arguably the most powerful raw draw tool in this kind of deck.
Just remember that these three colours can achieve almost any effect in MtG when placed together in the same deck. A Jund deck can destroy anything, and then it can exile that thing from its owner's graveyard. It can deploy massive threats, kill creatures, burn players, gain life, sweep the board, harness its graveyard, draw cards, deploy an army, expend that army, then deploy another one. This colour combination is all about raw efficiency paired with access to broad effects, so take advantage of that, and you ought to put up a hard fight each and every game.
February 10, 2014 7:38 a.m.
I disagree with a lot of the above
Interacting with an opponents graveyard is a simple matter of utilising things like Bojuka Bog , Relic of Progenitus and other effects that allow you to instantly put an end to total graveyard shenanigans. A lot of the time single card removal is slow and ineffective.
Kessig Cagebreakers , Lord of Extinction , Nighthowler etc are all ineffective in EDH. It generally inadvisable to pick creatures for the power and toughness but instead to focus on their abilities. It is worth remembering that the format is absolutely littered with removal and board clear. High power and toughness creatures will rarely make an impact, you want to be focusing on ones that come in and actually do something.
Vandalblast is ok but pales in comparison to what green can do. Bane of Progress , Fracturing Gust are important, however, Krosan Grip is the most commonly used. You want the flexibility to destroy both artifacts and enchantments.
Despite sweepers screwing you over you really want to include a few just because there will be times when you simply can't keep up with an opponent. Most players find a way to sacrifice their things to draw cards or ping damage and then sweep the board. That way you get profit from removing everything. I would really strongly recommend you have board sweepers because some crazy game states can be prevented with them. No matter how good you think your deck is - someone elses will always be better. In those cases - use Damnation etc.
The section on card advantage is just wrong. Black doescard advantage best in EDH with Phyrexian Arena , Necropotence etc. Blue doesn't have many effects that allow you to draw more every upkeep. Sylvan Library is also great. You don't want to be drawing small amounts of cards you want to have a steady, large stream of them every turn.
My perspective is that utility is key. You want to do as much as possible with as little as possible. Large activated abilities, board sweepers and lots of card advantage are the order of the day. Creatures without abilities that don't leave a lasting impression, I find very ineffective, along with single creature removal spells. EDH for me is about going hard or going home.
February 10, 2014 7:59 a.m.
Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate all of the help. You guys have given me quite a bit of advice and I've been making sure to keep note of all of it. I was able to play a couple of games the other day with it and I must say that the deck was fun to play. I made a few changes to it already, I added in Purphoros, God of the Forge
, Attrition
, Deathrite Shaman
, Hammer of Purphoros
, Chromatic Lantern
, and a couple of others that I can't think of right now. Purphoros is absolutely devastating in this deck and giving Prossh haste with the hammer is just down right mean. I definitely have some ideas for more cards to keep a look out for.
February 10, 2014 10:23 a.m.
Trollhoffer says... #30
You're free to disagree, of course, but I think you're missing a lot of context here. Remember that this isn't any EDH deck, but a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher EDH deck, and it wants things that interact with what Prossh does best. The basic plan is to win with commander damage, so maximising the resources that allow one to do that, at the very least, creates a strong creature board.
For instance, Kessig Cagebreakers may not be very good in most EDH decks, but say you're playing a Prossh deck and you have four creature cards in your graveyard; a reasonable amount. You swing with the Cagebreakers and earn yourself four 2/2 wolf tokens -- not bad for one card. Even better if you have sources of haste in the deck (and you're Jund colours, so it's not that tough) and Prossh out. Even better if you do what most Prossh decks do and run Purphoros, God of the Forge . In the example above, not only are you generating four 2/2s for no mana investment past casting Kessig Cagebreakers , you're dealing eight damage to each of your opponents -- all before considering the possibility (or probability) that Prossh is on the field and swinging as well, ready to eat those tokens. Hell, you can even trigger Kessig Cagebreakers, sacrifice it before the trigger resolves, and get at least one additional 2/2 wolf.
Nighthowler is also good because it's every graveyard. In my experience, while one or two graveyards might be empty in a game of EDH at any given moment, the others won't be. Even if you bestow Nighthowler on Prossh and he only gets, say, +2/+2, that turns him into a 7/7. Prossh being a 7/7 hits a threshold in terms of a damage clock and reduces the sacrifice investment required to hit higher thresholds (those being 11, 16 and 21 power). That's a conservative example, and in most cases, Nighthowler is going to provide more than a +2/+2 bonus.
Vandalblast misses your own artifacts, and that's what makes it good. It's one-sided, so you keep the value you already have on the board while removing everyone else's. I personally only run one artifact in my Prossh deck, but that's atypical of most decks, including other Prossh decks. Most EDH decks with red in them do very well to include Vandalblast , because there is literally no downside to it. You keep your artifacts, others don't. For five mana, with only one red symbol in the cost. Completely bonkers in general, and beyond silly against artifact heavy decks. And in an absolutely worst-case scenario, you can use it for one red mana to destroy an individually problematic artifact.
On the graveyard hate aspect, the point is that cards like Necrogenesis and Scavenging Ooze don't just hit opponent's graveyards (or unnecessary elements of yours), but that they gain advantage by doing so. Bojuka Bog is definitely a great answer to a graveyard shenanigans deck, but it doesn't produce saproling tokens or gain you life. That's the difference; the cards I suggested build your board state while whittling away your opponents' graveyards, and they're in no way mutually exclusive with broader or "sweepier" graveyard hate.
And finally, it's worth noting that card advantage comes in at least several different forms, not just from straight-up drawing lots of cards. For instance, you implied that you considered Fracturing Gust better than Vandalblast . And certainly, there will be cases where that's true. But unless you build your deck around Fracturing Gust having minimal impact against your board state, casting it will bin several of your own permanents, and enchantments in particular can be a difficult card type to retrieve from the graveyard unless you're heavily committed to that. Vandalblast is the superior card in terms of card advantage, though, because you inherently keep more of your own board state and therefore waste fewer of the previous cards you played and the turns spent playing them -- also making it better in terms of tempo.
Consider another kind of card advantage -- Planeswalkers. Each one of them is only one literal card, but most have access to two of their three abilities as soon as they hit the field. In terms of board impact, any given Planeswalker is often worth two actual cards, or at least more than one literal piece of cardboard. And what about token generators? Again, they don't net you literal cards, but they reduce the need to play out so many creatures, potentially saving you mana, improving tempo and allowing you to keep cards back for when they're more needed. Another type of card advantage is mana ramp that pulls lands out of your library, reducing the likelihood that you'll draw into land. One or two ramp spells of this nature won't do much to your odds, but if you commit to pulling lands out of your library, you can significantly improve the chances of you drawing your best cards.
Raw card draw is all well and good, but again, it's not mutually exclusive with other forms of card advantage. Incrementally smaller forms of card advantage will add up, eventually, and they might be better in some cases by virtue of being more subtle and less costly. Remember that, ultimately, you're trying to win. And a combo deck might do so by drawing lots of cards, and so will a control deck. But Prossh, Skyraider of Kher wins by dealing huge amounts of damage in a small amount of time, and he also provides his own fodder for increasing his damage. One player might be out of action courtesy of a Wrecking Ogre in your hand, because that's 22 commander damage if Prossh swings and eats all of his own tokens -- and that's only the first casting.
What you say might be true in a more general sense, but this isn't a general sense. We're talking about a specific set of colours with a specific general.
February 10, 2014 10:47 a.m.
I have a Prossh deck, I know how to play both it and EDH in general.
Large creatures in EDH are unimpressive when you're playing with 3 other people all with spot removal and board clears.
Reducing utility by running cards that only hit artifacts or enchantments is a dangerous game. You want to maximise the number of decks yoru deck can compete with. By including vandalblast over something that hits both arti's and enchants you're reducing durability against decks such as Zur Voltron.
Necrogenesis and ScOoze are too slow for what they do.
Planeswalkers don't usually live long enough to earn back their mana cost.
I'm not talking about a general sense. I'm talking about the highest levels of EDH where you need to make absolutely sure that no card is a dead card and everything runs absolutely smoothly and for the minimum mana possible. Where I play being able to even keep your general for a whole turn before he can swing is extremely uncommon. This is why I'm completely unimpressed with large creatures in general. Proper EDH decks are exceedingly cut-throat.
February 10, 2014 10:55 a.m.
Trollhoffer says... #32
"Proper" is loaded language, given that EDH is a diverse format slanted towards casual play. There's plenty of "proper" ways to build and play EDH decks, and they're subject to the local metagame and the social agreements between EDH players. Even at higher levels of play, different metagames are going to call for different answers -- and sometimes sweeping away your own board state is going to be inefficient when you could be using that time and mana to just win rather than defend. Taking out twelve of your opponents' cards with one sweeper sounds good as far as raw card advantage is concerned, but card advantage is a means to win the game, not victory itself.
Prossh himself is a large, evasive beater that enters the board with the resources to halfway take a player out without support, and it's easy in these colours to provide haste to reduce lag between casting and damage output. If your commander is, in themselves, a win condition, then worrying too heavily about defending is probably an inefficient way to build a deck around that commander. That goes double for the sacrifice deck that Prossh wants built around himself, because everything that dies in that deck is potentially another resource and can bring you closer to winning.
This is, after all, EDH. It's much harder to use control strategies like sweeping, bouncing and whatnot to win because it's that much more difficult to exhaust the resources of your opponents. Unless you intend to combo out, then aggressively generating value on a consistent basis and forcing your opponents to inefficiently expend resources to deal with your threats is probably the better option. That's not to say that sweepers, bounce cards or other control cards are inherently bad options, but I feel that they're generally worse than continuing to churn out threats in this kind of deck. And this is especially true if you build a Prossh deck at ease with the fact that your creatures are going to die quickly, be that by interception or by design.
February 10, 2014 12:01 p.m.
I have a Prossh deck that uses tokens and dragons. I love producing little tokens that I can use in various ways. Good token producers like Dragon Broodmother , Dragonlair Spider , and Mycoloth are great. I go a devour route as well to make huge dragons. It's fun for me.
As far as using your tokens, Ashnod's Altar and Food Chain are good. Food chain goes to infinity and beyond. Beastmaster Ascension and Coat of Arms breaks the deck. Those two cards are insanely powerful, especially Beastmaster because it activates the turn you attack with Prossh and your tokens.
Fecundity is better than Dragon Appeasement and it comes with the Power Hungry. It costs half the mana, you don't skip your draw step, and it works whenever a creature goes to the graveyard and not just when a creature is sacrificed. It will net you more card draw. Fecundity does give your opponents cards too, but that makes it more fun. Foster is also good if you run a lot of creatures. I like Mirri's Guile over Sensei's Divining Top because it doesn't cost mana to filter your 3 cards. The top does avoid removal as well so that's something to keep in mind (except against Krosan Grip ). Controlling sacrifice abilities like Grave Pact works wonders.
Other sacrifice outlets are important. Phyrexian Tower and Attrition to name two other sac outlets.
I run Black Sun's Zenith instead of Damnation due to Damnation being very expensive. Zenith also gets through Indestructibility and shuffles back into your library.
Reliquary Tower belongs in every EDH deck.
Huge creatures in EDH isn't bad. It's my play style and I never have trouble being competitive in my group. With 8 player games, yea there are board wipes, you'd be dumb not running them yourself. Luckily you play black for some graveyard reanimation like Sheoldred, Whispering One , Exhume , Tempt with Immortality , and Rise from the Grave . Playing large creatures is very viable in casual EDH. Anything goes in this format.
My group doesn't play by the commander damage rule because it's a cheap way of winning. Especially because generals like Eight-and-a-Half-Tails can get 21 damage through very reliably, I play him. Getting 21 damage from a single creature is really easy to do (E&aHT), even 40 damage can be done on turn 4:
T1. Forest, Sol Ring
T2. Swamp, any Keyrune/Cluestone/Signet
T3. Mountain, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
T4. Any land, Beastmaster Ascension swing with your 10/10 Prossh and your 6 5/6 Kobolds for 40 damage.
Even if you go against a lifegain deck you can Sorin Markov them down to reasonable range. Or maybe a good Havoc Festival to make things interesting.
February 10, 2014 3:33 p.m.
I think it just depends on if you're playing casually or not. In my meta we all have 3 and 4 drop board clear so that kind of stuff doesn't fly. If you're playing casually then yeh cool.
February 10, 2014 4:37 p.m.
yeah, I can see how this deck can go in many directions. Even if they all have one principle thing in common, creatures and sacrificing them. I really like a lot of the suggestions you've made. Food Chain is something I've already been made aware of because of the infinite mana combo it creates with Prossh, and I've already added Attrition to the deck. The creatures you mentioned at the beginning that all produce tokens are all ideas I like. I've been unimpressed with some of the creatures on the high end of the curve that came in the deck and each of those would be a drastic improvement over what is already available. I've already added in Necropolis Regent because it just feels like it did more for the aggressive nature of this deck. With the regent out, swinging with Prossh for the first time you can sac all his tokens to pump him and then after he hits he's now a 16/16 when the turn ends. I also added in Death's Presence too for some big aggressive swings of damage. Sac a creature to pump Prossh and get +1/+1 counters as well. Looks like I'm gonna have to start card hunting to see if any of these cards are available for trade next FNM.
February 10, 2014 4:50 p.m.
Here's my decklist..... I've updated it to reflect the changes I've made and ones that I want to make. Currently there is 9 cards I still need to acquire.... but how does this look?
power hungry Playtest
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 18 VIEWS
raithe000 says... #2
I enjoyed putting Butcher of Malakir in it, although others did not :). Thromok the Insatiable , Skirsdag High Priest and Reaper of the Wilds all synergize well with the prebuilt deck.
February 4, 2014 5:10 p.m.