The second Commander deck to review is Devour for Power! The Green-Blue-Black wedge that loves graveyard recursion almost as much as Counterpunch, Devour for Power is full of great cards to augment any Commander deck. To keep this review somewhat reasonable, I’ll be doing a card breakdown. Much like the other decks, this one includes a card box that is too small, some oversized cards that serve little purpose and some fantastic new singles.
When The Mimeoplasm becomes your commander, death becomes your friend. Opponents will watch in helpless terror as you devour creatures from one graveyard to help you pound creatures into another. It’s a fiendish carnival of cadavers, and you’ll be the ringmaster!
First up are the potential commanders! Vorosh the Hunter is the dragon reprint and the only legend in these colors up until now. He still plays well with proliferate and loves killing off players permanently with Commander damage. But he’s old – onto something exciting!
The Mimeoplasm is billed as the Commander of the deck and he’s quite the slimy mess. Made up by smashes together two creatures in graveyards to make some super creature, he gives your creatures a second chance at life – or even better, steals your opponents best parts and pieces to make an ultimate monster! A great card that is a lot of fun to play.
Damia, Sage of Stone is an interesting take on the black-green theme of skipping your draw step. Being able to always get up to seven cards on your upkeep is a dangerous ability worth considering. Plus, you can still draw cards while she’s on the battlefield unlike Maralen. Sure, a 4/4 with deathtouch for seven mana feels high, but a 4/4 for seven that lets you draw 3 or 4 extra cards a turn seems worth it.
The two-colored Commander who is begging to be specially built around is Skullbriar, the Walking Grave. Taking a page from Whirling Dervish, Skullbriar breaks so many rules that I can’t help but love him. He can really only be answered by shuffling and bounce. Just be warned, if an opponent gets a single -1/-1 counter on him, he isn’t coming back for a long, long time.
The two Join Forces cards play well together with the Minds Aglow being a twist on teamwork Prosperity and Shared Trauma is some mass milling that is bound to make some players very happy and others much less so. They’re both cards that really move the game along unlike Alliance of Arms which just makes a road block.
Riddlekeeper is an odd little homunculus that helps deter would-be attackers. In casual, I can see him being very popular since milling for two is just enough to get under someone’s skin. For Commander, he’s okay and will keep you safe but milling as a win condition stopped being viable as soon as the Eldrazi showed up.
Sewer Nemesis is a quirky guy who works well in this theme, but with graveyard hate reaching terrifying levels, it’s going to be hard to keep him alive. Remember though, you can target yourself with him. Scythe Specter though is exactly what multiplayer Magic needs! From the FAQ, each opponent chooses a card to discard and then reveal them all the same time – no chance to rethink! Being able to swing for four and also force three people to discard? Amazing!
Three Vows are back again and what I said before still holds true – I love these things! Politic popsicles that can boost your stuff, boost someone else’s or just cause nightmares for everyone (I’m still waiting on four being cast on the same creature), I love the design of these.
Spell Crumple is a second version of Hinder that is a mean way to keep Commanders gone for good. I expect every blue deck to be running this in Commander from here on out, so get used to it!
Tribute to the Wild, Syphon Flesh and Command Tower were all included in Counterpunch. They’re all solid additions to the Commander format.
In addition to the new Commander legends, three more legends got included! Wrexial, the Risen Deep is always a blast to play – especially with all this milling, but hasn’t exactly been hard to find. Szadek is in a similar boat of being big and fun, but easy to find. Last is Parton of the Nezumi which has one of my favorite keyworded abilities: Rat Offering! A 6/6 for 7 isn’t bad – especially when he can be cast as though he has flash by sacrificing a rat! But his ability really shines because it’s whenever a permanent is put into a graveyard whether that is milling, discard or destruction! People are going to die very fast.
Memory Erosion and Grave Pact are the rare enchantments. Grave Pact is a lot of fun and Memory Erosion plays well in this group, but neither card will make you any friends. Living Death can get very dangerous with this much milling. Finally Oblivion Stone fills a void left by the absence of Nevinyrral’s Disk.
The noteworthy rare reprints include Solemn Simulacrum, a much needed reprint, Avatar of Woe (the fan favorite assassin) and Troll Ascetic – debuting the use of hexproof! The remaining rares (full deck list at the bottom of this post) are decent but nothing super exciting.
The uncommons in this deck cover some much needed ground too. Lightning Greaves and Sol Ring are present – two of absolute staples in the format. But Wonder and Brawn are some of the most fun incarnations available (so glad Filth didn’t get thrown in). Plus Fact or Fiction and Windfall provide obscene amounts of card drawing while Buried Alive and Eternal Witness give some non-classical tutoring.
The commons are mostly utility like the Signets and some mana fixing via Cultivate and Yavimaya Elder. Oddly, no landcycling was included.
The mana base is much like Counterpunch with the Ravnica block bounce lands, the Onslaught cycle lands and a smattering of others like Svogthos the Relestless Tomb, Ruptured Spire and Temple of the False God. The basic land art is okay but mostly newer stuff which is boring.
As a deck, this one seems confused about what it wants to be. Part of it is about graveyard recursion and part is about milling. I know there is some overlap there, but the deck seems to be fighting itself between what Black-Green and Blue-Black want, while the Blue-Green side is completely ignored. There are a lot of fantastic cards in this deck, but the focus needs to be fixed before it can really shine.
Devour for Power Deck List
General
1 The Mimeoplasm
Lands
1 Barren Moor
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dreadship Reef
8 Forest
1 Golgari Rot Farm
8 Island
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Rupture Spire
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
11 Swamp
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Thicket
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Brawn
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Damia, Sage of Stone
1 Dark Hatchling
1 Desecrator Hag
1 Dreamborn Muse
1 Eternal Witness
1 Extractor Demon
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Gravedigger
1 Lhurgoyf
1 Mortivore
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Patron of the Nezumi
1 Riddlekeeper
1 Scythe Specter
1 Sewer Nemesis
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1 Slipstream Eel
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Szadek, Lord of Secrets
1 Triskelavus
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Vorosh, the Hunter
1 Vulturous Zombie
1 Wonder
1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
1 Yavimaya Elder
Other spells
1 Buried Alive
1 Cultivate
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Golgari Signet
1 Grave Pact
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Living Death
1 Memory Erosion
1 Minds Aglow
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Relic Crush
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Shared Trauma
1 Sign in Blood
1 Simic Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Spell Crumple
1 Stitch Together
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Syphon Mind
1 Tribute to the Wild
1 Unnerve
1 Vow of Flight
1 Vow of Malice
1 Vow of Wildness
1 Windfall
Tags: black, blue, commander, damia sage of stone, devour for power, edh, game, green, magic: the gathering, Reviews, the mimeoplasm, vorosh the hunter
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