Prossh still terrorizes Commander, but Power Hungry needs modernization

Prossh still terrorizes Commander

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher has not stopped being a problem. The commander still anchors Power Hungry as a Jund sacrifice-and-token machine, and the reason is simple: Prossh turns every cast into a pile of bodies, then rewards you for cashing those bodies in. EDHREC currently shows recommendations from 6,737 Commander decks for Prossh, and it groups the commander around Aristocrats, Tokens, and Sacrifice, which tells you this is not a nostalgic relic so much as a live, well-supported game plan.

That modern profile matters because Prossh is no longer just a fair token commander. EDHREC’s combo data lists 1,871 combos associated with Prossh, including Food Chain lines and altar-based loops, so the commander now lives in a space where explosive kills are expected, not accidental. If you sit down with the old precon shell and leave Prossh untouched, the commander still does work. What changes is how much help the rest of the 99 now need to keep pace.

What Power Hungry got right in 2013

Commander 2013 was a different world. Wizards announced the product at San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2013, and released it on November 1, 2013 as five 100-card shard-colored preconstructed decks with multiple possible commanders in each list. That was part of Wizards of the Coast’s response to Commander’s growing popularity, and Power Hungry reflects that moment clearly: it is a Jund shell built to make tokens, sacrifice them, and create a multiplayer mess.

The old list still contains plenty of cards that map cleanly onto Prossh’s plan. Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Ophiomancer, Viscera Seer, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Goblin Bombardment, Primal Vigor, Fecundity, Tempt with Vengeance, and Mass Mutiny all point in the same direction: make bodies, turn them into value, and keep the pressure on. Even the deck’s curses and tempting-offer cards fit Commander 2013’s more social, splashy design philosophy, where the goal was to make the table feel big and dramatic rather than hyper-efficient.

That core is why Power Hungry still deserves attention. The deck already understands the baseline Prossh experience, which is to turn sacrifice into momentum. What it lacks is the speed and precision that modern Commander tables now expect from a deck trying to close games instead of merely participating in them.

What has aged out

The biggest problem is not the commander. It is the supporting cast and the 2013-era infrastructure around it. Commander has gotten faster, more efficient, and much better at converting small engines into immediate wins, while the original Power Hungry list still leans on older, clunkier cards and a mana base built for an earlier stage of the format.

That is where modernization starts. The slowest pieces are the cards that do not immediately advance the sac plan, do not replace themselves, or ask for too much mana before they matter. In practice, that means trimming the splashy but low-efficiency parts of the old precon first, especially the cards that only shine when the table is moving slowly and nobody is pressuring the board.

If you found this deck in a closet or are rebuilding it from singles, the first test is brutally simple: does the card make bodies, sacrifice bodies, or draw cards off bodies? If the answer is no, it is probably a candidate for the cut pile. Prossh rewards redundancy, not ornamentation, and every slot that does not improve token production, sacrifice outlets, ramp, or draw weakens the deck’s ability to snowball.

The cheapest modernization path

The good news is that Power Hungry does not need to be rebuilt from zero. The skeleton is already there, and the most expensive mistake is usually trying to transform it into something it is not. Keep Prossh in the command zone, keep the Jund sacrifice identity, and spend your money where the deck gains the most speed per dollar: smoother ramp, more reliable fodder, and better card flow.

A practical upgrade path looks like this:

• Keep the strongest originals that already do the job, especially Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Ophiomancer, Viscera Seer, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Goblin Bombardment.

• Move out of the slowest 2013-style filler, especially cards that are only good when everyone else is also durdling.

• Improve the mana base before chasing flashy finishers, because Prossh is much better when your colors line up cleanly and you can cast him on time.

• Add more ways to turn every token into value, because that is where the commander’s modern strength actually lives.

• Prioritize card draw and repeatable sacrifice payoffs over one-shot spectacle, since the deck’s best turns are the ones that keep chaining resources forward.

EDHREC’s alternate-commanders data also explains why this archetype still has room to grow. On the Power Hungry page, Prossh is the clear face of the list, but players have also explored Shattergang Brothers, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Wasitora, Nekoru Queen, and Kresh the Bloodbraided. That spread shows how Jund sacrifice evolved after Commander 2013, from a precon-era value pile into a family of commanders that can support much sharper engines and more punishing payoffs.

Why the old shell still matters

Power Hungry is not obsolete. It is a time capsule with a live heart, and Prossh is still one of the cleanest examples of a commander that turns a board full of expendable creatures into real pressure. The precon’s original list has enough of the right cards to remind you why the archetype worked in the first place, but it also makes clear how much Commander has accelerated since 2013.

That is the real modernization lesson here: Prossh still terrorizes Commander, but Power Hungry only keeps up if you strip out the slowest parts, strengthen the engine, and let the commander do what it has always done best.