Alright, have been trying to figure out a good way to take advantage of the fun and awesomeness that is Kresh the Bloodbraided, so here is my attempt at a quasi combo deck with him. The goal is to pump up the counters on Kresh or Mycoloth (or both) and fling at your opponent if they are blocking. Very satisfying when it works (They never see it coming).

Graveborn Muse, Elvish Visionary, and Ragers are there to keep the draw engine running (be careful not draw too much though with Blockade present). Cultivate is a nice choice for mana fixing and getting to 5-7 mana quickly.
We have a sweet removal package with Ground Assault, Auger Spree, and Shock. Auger Spree can also add an extra 4 counters to Kresh on any kill so that is always nice.

Corpse Blockade self sacrifices to add counters to Kresh and is also a good chump blocker or can add to draw if needed when Graveborn Muse is on the board. Rune-scarred Demon and Treasured Find can tutor Kresh since he is only a one of. Phytotitan is a threat in its own right, however it is best use to pump Kresh's counters. Inferno Titan can win on its own.

So, this is not a top tier deck, but if you are looking for a combo-ish deck that you carefully have to play and a fun payoff when it works, this one is for you. Planar cleansing and Anger of the God's can be very frustrating to this deck sometimes, but having to worry about 4 cards isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. I am certainly not an expert deck builder so any feedback will be considered.

Enjoy!

Edit 1: After doing some play testing and going 7-3, definitely wanted to make some changes
-1 Rune-Scarred Demon
-2 Phytotitan
+1 Cultivate
+1 Shock
+1 Inferno Titan

I am having a lot of success and more importantly, fun with this deck.



Sometimes I find myself wanting trample, but then I win next turn with burning anger. Getting the juggernaut out on turn 4 followed by burning anger turn 5 is hilarious. Its a strong combo but not what the deck is about, thats just an added bonus. Juggernaut just seemed to fit right in at the 4 mana spot especially being colourless. The thing I like most about this deck is the number of win conditions because I get wins unearthing kathari bombers, wins with mycoloth, with kresh, with juggernaut, with burning anger placed on 5/5 zombie token....

If you try it out any feedback would be really appreciated, perhaps a trample card like enlarge or hunter's prowess? I'm really happy with the way it is playing. Some really close games with huge comebacks

I'd at least suggest Satyr Wayfinder to help with your mana (it's good food too) and would suggest you reconsider the 11 tap lands. With basically half your lands coming into play tapped, you should often end up behind at least 1 possibly even 2 turns to your opponents plays. Devour strategies take time to set up and a fair amount of investment so you'll want to maximize each of your turns.

You also mentioned trample so I'd at least drop Gorger Wurm for Thorn-Thrash Viashino. He comes down earlier, gets more value out of it's food and has a trample threat (not to mention single cost making it easier to cast than the Wurm)


elk

Updated my Jund Devour deck as per below:



Would really love to have some feedback on it, with the Rabblemaster in, it is a lot more consistent in winning. Still quite vulnerable to fliers and to removal on your big dudes but very fun to play IMO.

@ Elk thanks for the advice, dropping the worms for viashinos has worked very well. Still working on the lands. Someone suggested doubling season also however I beleive it messes with my play. Will return with more feedback after extensive testing but I'm pretty sure doubling season would just be over kill. Having lots of fun so far!

How is Scavenger Drake treating you? To me it looks like a subpar creature. On the other hand Thorn-Thrash Viashino can get immense really fast may be add a 4th copy? I am curious as to the Warstorm Surge how is that card working out? You could use Bloodghast as a decent sac outlet too, may be even Hellspark Elemental.

Scavenger Drake has won me games quite often when it came out actually so I don't think I would cut it. Sometimes it gets killed right away (which can be ok since your real threats are devour creatures) but when the opponent doesn't deal with it in time it gets out of control very fast. It's also another of those "I don't really care if my creatures die" card, which goes well not only with other devour creatures but also with Goblin Rabblemaster and Quest for the Gravelord. I definitely wouldn't put more than 2 in my deck though.

As for Warstorm Surge, when I think about it now it has actually been quite underwhelming in this deck. When it does come out it's absolutely devastating and fun, but it's above the curve of everything else in the deck and actually ended up as a dead or unseen card pretty often. I love the card but to really make it efficient I may need a second copy of it and maybe add some ramp but this would change things too much. I'm probably going to replace it by the 4th Thorn-Thrash Viashino as you suggested.


Regarding Bloodghast I don't think my deck could sustain it very well. I don't have any ramp, so a lot depends on getting the right mana combinations by turn three to play my creatures (generally you want some green by turn 2 for the visionary, and some black and red on turn 3 to play your 3cmc creatures). With this I'm not sure how often I could play this dude by turn 2 with the cost. Also suffers from the fact that this deck actually doesn't have any sac enablers besides the devour creatures.

As for Hellspark Elemental it's a great card but for the same reason as above (lack of sac enablers) I don't think it would fit in the devour strategy quite well.

In my opinion those two cards and particularly unearth creatures in general (Kathari Bomber is an exception because it creates tokens) would be more suited for a regular sac deck and not specifically a devour one because you need to spend the cost to unearth and then your devour creature on the same turn.

I tried once a devour deck with Bloodflow Connoisseur to always have the possibility to sac, Hellspark Elemental and Viscera Dragger as sac outlets plus Kresh and the other devour creatures I have in this deck. I ended up having not enough fuel most of the time so I decided to focus on tokens as the main sac outlet source.

More of a Rakdos deck with a splash of Green. The deck has a lot of synergy with the unearth and devour. Warstorm Surge is finally a feel good win condition and the poor man's bounce (Undying Evil and Fling) is just so much fun. Instant speed devour is not something a lot of folks are looking for. The deck can exert some good pressure and has quite a few ways to win.





The deck originally had +3 Goblin Arsonist to go with the Goblin Rabblemaster, Krenko's Command and Kathari Bomber which gave it a much better Goblin/fodder theme in conjunction with the Unearth and it was working well (it may find it's way back there). Currently though it's being tested with the +2 Hellspark Elemental and +1 Viscera Dragger since a lot of the devour is pretty late game and the Unearth should improve the deck's pressure.

elk

Figured I'd post some feedback on the testing and Hellspark is just another great fit here (even the trample has been relevant in a couple games). I haven't gone back and looked so if this deck is similar to someone else's than it wasn't plagiarized. It also means I may be about to give some rationalizations that have already been hashed. Still I thought it might be a good idea to post some reasons for how this came about and the thoughts behind it.

My experiences with Devour have taught me that it's slow, expensive and fragile. You have to build a board state of some kind over a couple/few turns and then hope that somehow the huge investment of a creature survives. I have found that it's best success is late game which meant I needed to have some sort of early/mid game that actually did something versus just building a board state. As others have eluded to here, Unearth is just a good compromise. If any of you have tried out Hakeem's Dimir Reckoning build - viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4683&start=240#p238704 you'll know that it's a strong theme and can create a lot of pressure while still having synergy with devour (pieces that you can eat and reuse or reuse and eat just seems a good fit). So with that in mind, the groupings were as follows

Devour/Win Conditions:
Thorn-Thrash Viashino
Mycoloth
Inferno Titan
Warstorm Surge
Fling

Mycoloth is a given and why it's splashed. The Forest also works for Thorn so both cards are immediate answers or wins. Fling is the best answer to the devour investment. Spending that many turns and cards to not get any return is just a recipe for a loss. Fling at least gives you something for your X cards you spent. Side note, Fling and Undying Evil can be used when you're behind. Cast your devour w/o eating. Chump block with your army and then respond (not to mention the extra counter from Undying). Warstorm Surge synergizes with pretty much every level of this deck so although it generally does nothing on the turn it's played, the game is over in the next turn or two because of it (and the deck will usually have some way of casting creatures for triggers - I'm looking at you Unearth!). Devour triggers first so you can get some good bombs or game winners. Warstorm, Undying Evil and Fling or Warstorm, Undying Evil and Devour is also nasty too. Inferno Titan is another card that doesn't need explanation.

Unearth Conditions:
Bloodghast
Hellspark Elemental
Kathari Bomber
Viscera Dragger

Bloodghast has always been a good card and it's just great here too. Hellspark has been just adding to the pressure and is a 2 mana cast/unearth making it easy to include in devour uses. Viscera Dragger is a great card giving lots of flexibility here. The cycle is great and similar to Hellspark, it's a 2 mana Unearth. Surprisingly it's even viable as a turn 4 play so I'm definitely happy with how this card is preforming here. Kathari is a strange duck but it has a lot of good mesh here. It has evasive pressure and still leaves 2 power on the board noting that these are goblin tokens. It's unearth is 5 but still plays into the curve well and again leaves more tokens. In a bad spot it's still a chump flyer for when you don't have answers to their flyers. Unearthed in conjunction with the Goblins/fodder make for a lot hasted beat down and wide swings.

The rest:
Goblin Rabblemaster
Krenko's Command
Graveborn Muse
Auger Spree
Ground Assault
Undying Evil

Rabblemaster is an auto include here and even stronger with several unearthed cards. Graveborn is a great engine and Viscera Dragger counts so you can set up additional draw for desperate answer cards. Auger is great removal and Ground Assault is arguably the best removal in this game. I've mentioned Undying several times throughout and its a great card here. It's a nonbo if the creature already has counters and does nothing for the unearthed step but it's pseudo protection and makes almost every card something that can be devoured (heck even in desperation, you can use it on the sacs - Hellspark will be a 4/2 chump blocker till their end of turn and a 3/3 Kathari is nothing to scoff at!)


So that's it in a nut shell. If there's any questions let me know. I'd also enjoy to hear feedback from folks who take it out for a spin.

Thanks


elk

Satyr wayfinder seems like an obvious inclusion here, I also like garruk's packleader with the 3 power unearth guys.

Is this based on some play testing or some theorycrafting (just curious)?

I've kept it basically a 2 color deck (green is really late game plays) and there's quite a lot to do in the first few turns so tempo up to 5 or 6 isn't a must. I would think mana base adjustments would be the first move if land colors/counts are your concern. So other than the unearth aspect (which many I would prefer as hand plays first to get the most value out of them) why are you suggesting Satyr? I'd assume then you're walking down the line of Necromancer's Assistant too?

Draw more is always great and Garruk's Packleader could be fun (I'm assuming it would trigger on the devour). With Packleader, Graveborn Muse and Viscera Dragger, there shouldn't be any draw/fixing concerns (making the Satyr tempo suggestion better). What are you cutting then to fit it in and how many? This could mean adjusting land counts again to bump green to 10-12 sources if this idea gets absorbed. Again though I'm curious if you strapped the deck on for a few runs before making the changes/cuts?


elk

I think the issue with wayfinder is his inclusion will force more investment into forests which could slow down the aggresion I feel the deck is aiming to maintain in the early rounds. I do like the thought behind this build and I will surely give it a run for its money as I have been curious about a viable unearth/devour build.

It is just theory crafting at the minute. I am back home tomorrow so will test then. I can see the issues with wayfinder and the mana but I think you could make it work. Then again if you are aggressive enough you might not need it.

Any thought to resounding thunder over auger spree as it can go to face and gives you more reach?

Now this is a recommendation I could get behind. While Augre is really nice against 4 deffense creatures, I think the resounding could be really nice too considering that late game is when more of the 4def creatures show up anyway.

Resounding Thunder has merit for sure and should be tested. I had selected Auger Spree for the X/4's this deck can't trade with. Devour is already a disadvantage mechanic so I wanted to maintain as many 1 for 1's as I could.


elk

Very valid point and exactly why i was against hakeem putting resounding in his jund build. especially since his build sported lots of big fliers/tramplers.

The amoung of times 3 vs 4 matters isn't that much and the upside of Thunder is too big (at least in my deck with four copies of Cultivate).

I understand your reasoning Hakeemypoo. Both options are very solid for your build in my book. The one is slightly better early on and the other is MASSIVELY better later. My concern was usually getting to that later.

Don't forget that Auger Spree can be used as a combat trick too if you have stuff that is X/5.

Thunder is six uncounterable to the face. The combat trick is a bit risky, I use it as removal approximately 99.46% of the time (and that's a lowball estimate).