"You’re playing Mono-Green…Jund? What is this???"
This past weekend, all of my friends at the suite and I decided to enter a computer programming event known as Hack RU, which is just 24 hours of straight programming, getting free food and accessories, and hanging out with your favorite people! The only problem was that I don’t really know how to program; I did it for a year in high school and haven’t done it since.
I decided to help my friends the only way I knew how. First, I tried to help them come up with ideas for an hour or two. Then, the other 22 hours consisted of me playing Magic Online and various other games on a projector that was in the room. It was fun distracting my friends from their task by playing turn 3 Predator Ooze nearly every game. Don’t worry; they finished with an hour to spare.
How did I decide to come up with a deck I wanted to play in Block Constructed? It’s no secret that I haven’t been able to play much Magic because of my studies. At least my sophomore year will conclude in two weeks! So what’s a Watchwolf to do when he isn’t sure what to play? Well… "I get by with a little help from my friends."
Whenever I go online, I usually message some of my friends that are a little bit more active so they can give me a quick rundown of the format I wish to play along with the deck they recommend. One of my buddies, Ray Wickersham aka xsebishopp on Magic Online, seemed to have quite a spicy looking deck. It was a deck that was able to make Green Mage of the suite Hepburn Best smile when he saw it. It was a Mono-Green Jund deck. Here’s the list that I played for the weekend (Ray switched a Vorapede with an Olivia Voldaren):
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (11)
Before you ask, yes, it’s possible to play turn 3 Predator Ooze. You have 18-19 green sources.
Anyhow, what does this deck have going for it? First of all, it tries to tackle one of the biggest decks in the format: R/W Aggro. The problem with this deck is that it can come out blisteringly fast with Champion of the Parish into Gather the Townsfolk. Another "combo" that’s extremely hard to play around is Midnight Haunting into Hellrider. That’s a whole lot of damage. How does Ray’s deck attempt to solve these problems?
In the beginning of the game, Dawntreader Elk and Strangleroot Geist serve as speed bumps. As a quick tip, you don’t want to attack with Strangleroot Geist into a Champion of the Parish, even if you’re on the play. The problem is the possibility of Gather the Townsfolk. Sure, you can’t really kill the Champion of the Parish in this situation. However, you will instead have a card that is GG for a 3/2 when it comes into play gains three life, which is definitely worth it. Alternatively, if they don’t play a Gather the Townsfolk, you will likely prevent them from attacking.
Either way, your life total is the one that matters in this matchup, not theirs. When you play with Dawntreader Elk, you want to run him out on turn 2 if you don’t have a Strangleroot Geist, even if you’re short of mana and really need the land. Chances are that they won’t "waste" a Brimstone Volley or Devil’s Play on your little Elk. The real goal in the end is to be in a decent position at the end of turn 4.
The way we supplement this is with the potential for the ultimate haymaker at three mana: Predator Ooze. At the beginning of this weekend, I thought this card was just attempting to be very cute in being able to attack every turn but just get blocked for the first couple of turns while its owner just dies. However, it plays a much different role than this.
He’s the wall that can kill them. He’s indestructible for crying out loud. In my opinion, this card is just hilarious because he does his job so well. He’s probably the best turn 3 answer to Champion of the Parish into Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. If they attack with both, you chomp on Thalia because her first strike is irrelevant since your card is indestructible. They obviously can’t just attack with Champion of the Parish. This means that they only have two possible plays: don’t attack or spend a Fiend Hunter on him.
While Thalia, Guardian of Thraben seems like it could be a hassle, sometimes her ability won’t hinder your plays that much, especially if you have a creature heavy hand. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I would simply lose the game to Thalia and my Blasphemous Act, Garruk Relentless, Sever the Bloodline hand on the draw. However, the number of Thalias people are playing is always less than (or equal) to the number of Gather the Townsfolks in their deck. I have run into Champion of the Parish into Gather the Townsfolk a lot more than Champion of the Parish into Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.
Anyhow, back to the main story. No matter what their start, Predator Ooze will usually be the card that you want to play on turn 3 if you can. If they Fiend Hunter it, you have an opportunity to Devil’s Play, Sever the Bloodline, or best of all, have Garruk Relentless fight said Fiend Hunter. Being able to have this wall that can kill them is very important, as we can observe from a very strong synergy within this deck.
Have you found that synergy yet?
That’s right; this deck plays extremely well with Blasphemous Act. First of all, you have undying creatures. Both Strangleroot Geist and Vorapede will not only make Blasphemous Act cost less, they will also likely come back into play and usually with the Strangleroot Geist tapped and attacking. Garruk Relentless, or any planeswalker for that matter, usually plays very well with Wrath of God effects. However, Garruk Relentless making a Wolf token the turn you really need to Blasphemous Act could give you the exact amount of mana that you want to be able to cast this card.
Lastly, we can’t forget our favorite Ooze. Predator Ooze and Blasphemous Act are like best friends in this deck. At least once a match in every match I played this past weekend, I was attacking with a Predator Ooze with thirteen damage on it. Sometimes it will be worth it to attack with Predator Ooze into your opponent’s board if you think they will block, because if they do you can follow up with Blasphemous Act to give your Predator Ooze an additional +1/+1 counter.
The rest of the cards round out the R/W Aggro matchup. Devil’s Play and Sever the Bloodline kill the best threat they can. On the play, casting a Devil’s Play for one on their Champion of the Parish is usually more important than trying to lay down a green source every turn; Champion of the Parish and Hellrider are their primary source of damage, so don’t let them have either for more than a turn if you can avoid it.
As for sideboarding, personally I only like Rolling Temblor on the draw over Devil’s Play. On the play, you can usually Devil’s Play the card that’s giving you a hard time. Also, Vorapede usually gets the ax for Tree of Redemption. You really don’t want to get burned out if you can avoid it. Also, remember that if your life total is higher than thirteen, you can switch life totals with Tree of Redemption before casting Blasphemous Act so that way it can stick around. Olivia Voldaren is iffy; I bring her in when I feel like it’s appropriate. Sometimes one is good to have in your deck because of Garruk Relentless.
That’s enough about the R/W Aggro matchup; how about we talk about the other ones?
Self Mill is a deck that appears to be very popular, likely due to the cost of the deck. If you want to get into Block Constructed on Magic Online, I highly recommend either this or R/W Aggro.
The matchup is quite an interesting one. Your Predator Ooze can hold off their Ghoultree and Boneyard Wurm, while you really need Sever the Bloodline for Splinterfright. You really don’t want them to untap with a Splinterfright if you can avoid it. Sever the Bloodline and Olivia Voldaren are the reasons why Ray chose to go with Jund colors instead of just R/G. Lastly, Blasphemous Act is really good against them as well. This matchup doesn’t seem that rough, right? You just have to kill a few threats, use Predator Ooze and/or Garruk Relentless to hold them off for a little bit, and then you win.
All of this logic would be all well and good, except for the fact that someone broke this matchup open in favor of the Self Mill players. I wish I could find the person that first came up with this, but here’s the tech: a lot of Self Mill players will play Kessig Wolf Run. With Mulch and just naturally drawing for the turn, you have a fairly decent chance of drawing one of these bad boys.
When you do, you typically want to hold it in your hand (preferably with it not being the last card in your hand because of Liliana of the Veil), and then you just lay it down as your trump card when the situation calls for it. Ray tried to one up them with Bramblecrush out of the sideboard, but that’s another reason why it’s a good idea to hold on to Kessig Wolf Run until it really matters.
The last tool that we have to fight Self-Mill is Olivia Voldaren. As far as I can tell, the most popular answer to her is either Silent Departure or Blasphemous Act, but both of those will in essence Time Walk themselves. Also, if you get to untap with Olivia Voldaren things look in very good shape. Remember that you can deal one damage to your tapped Strangleroot Geist for an on-board trick. Dealing one damage to Predator Ooze over and over again to pump your Olivia is another trick that shouldn’t be ignored. Another related/unrelated point is that you can use Garruk Relentless to fight your own Predator Ooze just to flip it if your opponent doesn’t have any creatures that will allow you to flip your planeswalker.
In the end, the Self-Mill matchup is a fine one. Always hope that they mill all of their Kessig Wolf Runs and you’ll definitely be fine.
Lastly, I would like to address the R/G and other Jund matchups. Against R/G Aggro Garruk Relentless is the most important card, but remember that they have Brimstone Volley and you don’t. However, Sever the Bloodline can help get you back into games. Remember that Sever the Bloodline is your only "real" answer to Predator Ooze besides your own Predator Ooze. Try to attack with your Predator Ooze before you give your opponent the chance to play Curse of Death’s Hold (which will kill a 1/1 Predator Ooze even though it’s indestructible).
We finally get to use some of our sideboard tools in these matchups. Heretic’s Punishment is, and has always been, an all-star in the Jund mirror. It allows you to just take over games barring a Naturalize, Bramblecrush, and Witchbane Orb. Oh gee… I wonder why we bring in Bramblecrush and Naturalize now. Vorapede and Devil’s Play allow you to have a ton of two-for-ones that can just tip the game in your favor. Just like when Innistrad was the only set in Block Constructed, having two Devil’s Play and enough time to cast them will usually just end the game.
As a side note, the mana base is rock solid. The singleton Caravan Vigil and Shimmering Grotto are two things that Ray found necessary for the consistency of the deck. Personally, I took his word for it.
And there we have it! Enjoy your local Prereleases this weekend; I’ll try to come up with an awesome deck for you guys next week!
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan "Watchwolf92" Sukenik