Jund -1/-1 counters deck I've been working on slowly but surely. Super psyched for HOU, as it's adding in some much needed upgrades to the Golgari Hapatra decks out there. I started playing MTG when Amonkhet came out, so I'm going to need some help tuning and refining this deck. I don't expect it to be a super competitive deck, but this is definitely a fun deck that I've been playing with on MTGO and so far I've been loving it.

UPDATE AS OF 18JUL2017

I have made some pretty big overhauls and changes to the deck. First of all, I have removed 4x Soul-Scar Mage in favor of 4x Crocodile of the Crossing . Soul-Scar was very underwhelming as many people had commented on Reddit and on here, and it was true. Too often I would have SSM out without any burn spells, or it was just a dead card. Crocodile has not been the case so far as it always comes down as a 5/4 with haste. Usually Ammit is on the field and can just tank the counter. Next, we have completely taken out the burn spells. Abrade has been moved to the sideboard and Magma Spray has been removed. They have been replaced with 4x Driven / Despair and 4x Consuming Fervor . Driven / Despair has been a real devastating card when we have some snakes out as we can usually cast both sides of the card in the same turn. We refill our hand and our opponent discards theirs, and they usually don't see it coming. I usually always discard the Driven portion of the card for Key to the City and just cast despair as it's more beneficial for us. Finally we have Consuming Fervor , which has been an absolute monster of a card for us. I always attempt to put this on Ammit Eternal as he will then be an 8/8 that creates a snake every turn, and pairing him up with Key to the City allows us to get through for combat damage to remove all of his counters. Ammit Eternal is honestly a win condition by himself with Consuming Fervor . Add in Driven / Despair for the trample or menace, and the game is over.

I will leave the original post untouched in case anyone prefers that version over this one.

First and foremost, the creature spells! We will be running 4x Soul-Scar Mage as a way to make all of our burn spells even more effective as they will create -1/-1 counters on our targets rather than just simply do damage to them. This makes spells like Shock and Magma Spray effective against all of our opponent's creatures, as if we have Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons or Nest of Scarabs out, that will create our snake and insect tokens. Soul-Scar Mage's prowess ability also helps greatly as each time we cast a non-creature spell, it will get a +1/+1 counter which makes a huge difference when it comes down to blocking / attacking.

Next up, we have 4x Channeler Initiate. Not only does Channeler Initiate serve as a ramp because of her ability to tap and create a mana, she also is our tank for counters. She comes in to the battlefield with a -3/-3 counter instantly, and if we have Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons or Nest of Scarabs, that's either one snake or three insects. Or both!

Moving on, we have 4x Ammit Eternal, our first Hour of Devastation card coming in to the mix. Ammit Eternal is vital as not only is he a massive 3CMC 5/5, he also has a new effect called Afflict, which means if he's ever blocked, our opponent will still take 3 damage. He also acts as a way to get a massive amount of tokens out, as each time our opponent casts ANY spell, he gets a -1/-1 counter which creates us either a snake or an insect. Whenever Ammit deals combat damage to our opponent, he gets all of his counters removed as well. Definitely a vital piece to our deck!

Our next 4x creature is going to be Obelisk Spider, another new addition from HOU. Obelisk Spider is nuts. 3CMC 1/4 with Reach, a mechanic that seems to be all but forgotten in recent sets. 1/4 with Reach is already important because a lot of fliers go unblocked, and the odds of them being 4/4 or higher are pretty low, so we can block fliers and non-fliers for days with him. In addition to his key blocking ability, each time he deals combat damage to a creature, we put a -1/-1 counter on that creature. Free snakes and insects! Now comes the super important part of this card and a win condition in itself. Whenever we put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature, we gain a life and our opponent loses a life. Considering this deck is built solely around -1/-1 counters, Obelisk Spider is one of our most important cards in this deck and is without a doubt a 4 of.

We'll now introduce our queen of the deck, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. Since this card was first spoiled in Amonkhet and I pulled her without knowing anything about the cards, I loved it. Hapatra is the core of this deck. Whenever we deal damage to our opponent with Hapatra, we put a -1/-1 counter on target creature. We can put these on Ammit Eternal, Channeler Initiate for more ramp, or even on our opponent's creatures if they have any. Whenever we put a -1/-1 counter on a creature, we get a 1/1 green snake with deathtouch. One hell of a combination, as this entire deck deals out -1/-1 counters or absorbs them like candy. Synergy is at the heart of this deck, and I love decks with synergy.

Finally, we'll round out our creatures with another new addition from HOU, the deadly The Scorpion God . The Scorpion God is so dope. Firstly, he's a 5CMC for 6/5 and one of the reasons I wanted to bring this deck to in to Jund colors when he was spoiled. Whenever a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, we draw a card. This is huge, as a major problem I've had with this deck in Golgari colors is not being able to draw enough cards or getting the right combination out. With Channeler Initiate ramping us, and our diverse mana-base, I feel like we can get to The Scorpion God quick enough and be able to draw an extra card or two every turn, fueling our burn engine or getting out more counters. For the cost of 1RB, we can put a -1/-1 counter on any creature. Initiate needs more ramp? Drop a counter. They have a card with only 1 toughness on the field? Drop a counter on it, draw a card. It's not as strong as our other burn spells, but having a burn spell at any time and the ability to create a snake or insect will be great for us. Finally, whenever he dies, he's returned to our hand at the beginning of the next turn. Unless he's exiled, he will always be in our hand or on the board. We pack a lot of enchantment and artifact hate in our sideboard, so even if they do manage to exile him game 1, we'll pack enough heat to make sure that doesn't happen again.

On to our non-creature spells!

Firstly, 4x Abrade. I do not know how this card will function exactly yet, but with Soul-Scar Mage on the field as well as Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, we're gonna get some snakes and possibly destroy a creature. If our opponent is rocking the increasingly popular W/U Monument deck, Abrade will take care of that pesky monument as it destroys target artifact as well. I feel like this card would've been so perfect if Aetherworks Marvel was never banned, but that's okay. There's still plenty of artifacts out there that we can destroy with this.

We'll also run 2x Nest of Scarabs. If we can get this out on the field, each time we put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, we get an insect for every counter. Unlike Hapatra which only creatures one snake regardless of the amount of counters, Nest of Scarabs creates a token per counter. That can lead to an insane amount of insects if we get the right card draw.

We'll also run 3x Magma Spray to either exile some popular cards such as Dread Wanderer or Scrapheap Scrounger, or any annoying 2 toughness creature. With Soul-Scar Mage, we'll get those -1/-1 counters and create some snakes and insects again if we have Hapatra and Nest out. If not, their creature is permanently neutered which is always good for us.

Rounding out our non-creature spells we have 3x Grind / Dust which is what I'm going to try to roll with as it's a better version of Splendid Agony as it only costs 2CMC whereas Agony was 3CMC, and it in essence, does the same job. I'm running this at first over other burn spells such as Incendiary Flow which I would probably usually run, because of the ability to create two snakes with Hapatra rather than the one we'd get with Incendiary Flow . If it doesn't work out so well, Incendiary Flow will be taking it's place. In addition to the Grind part, the Dust portion exiles all creatures with -1/-1 counters on them, which would definitely ruin our opponents day. With Channeler Initiate more than likely being on the board, we can tap her for the white mana we need to cast Dust and exile our opponent's board permanently.

Land base is pretty generic, but I do need help with land bases as I'm not great at making them. Currently it runs 4x Blooming Marsh, 4x Game Trail , 3x Smoldering Marsh, 2x Canyon Slough, 2x Sheltered Thicket, 3x Mountain, 3x Swamp, 3x Forest.

Sideboard we're going to run 2x Appetite for the Unnatural for the artifact // enchantment removal. 2x Natural State for the same reason, lower CMC but the disadvantage of only removing 3CMC enchantments. 3x Heroic Intervention if our opponent is running board wipes. 2x Never / Return to get rid of any Planeswalkers or creatures we can't remove right away. 2x Prowling Serpopard for our counter magic friends. 2x Liliana's Defeat for black planeswalkers or black creatures. And finally 2x Chandra's Defeat as Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Glorybringer are running rampant in Temur Energy. My side board needs a ton of help as I'm not really sure what to put here, these were just guesses based of what I expect to see.

This deck is the epitome of synergy. Every card has a place and a purpose, but I'm sure there are cards that I'm missing that are much better than what I have listed because as I said, I am fairly new and this is one of the first decks I've made from scratch, with the help of some other decks of course. Please, please let me know what I can do differently. If something I put in here seems idiotic or dumb, tell me. If you think this deck is dope, let me know! There are a TON of cards in HOU and even in AHK that could replace some of these cards. I will edit the maybeboard when I come up with some other ideas.

Thank you all in advance for your help, it is much needed and very appreciated.