Devour is a mechanic that flavorfully does exactly what it says on the tin, and makes some truly huge threats as a result.
Devour appears solely on creature cards, and represents some monster getting larger as it, well, devours other creatures. When a creature with Devour would enter the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. If you do, the creature enters with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the Devour number multiplied by the number of creatures devoured.
So yes, you can make some big ol’ gargantuan creatures with Devour, Of note:
- It doesn’t matter how the creature is entering the battlefield, Devour will still work.
- You can also always choose not to sacrificing anything.
- Also, Devour happens once the creature is already entering the battlefield, so your opponents don’t get to know what you’re going to Devour or not before they choose to counter the spell or try to get rid of anything already there.
This is a super flavorful mechanic that wasn’t overly popular when it came out, most because it’s very resource intensive. But if you’re willing to put in the legwork, you can make some truly impressive beasts with it.
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