I’m a somewhat recent convert to the Church of Jund. I haven’t been on the bandwagon as long as some players. In fact, after last year’s StarCityGames.com Philadelphia Open, more than one local player shot- gunned onto Jund, one of which was Christian, my testing partner. I, however, did not immediately love Jund like Christian. He acquired a full boat of Maelstrom Pulses, and that was it. He was riding the Jund train until it derailed on him.
Or so he thought. About two months ago, he just got tired of it. He’d been running Jund almost every week for months, and he wanted something different. Extended gave him a little respite, but really, he was burnt out on Jund. So he started building decks and borrowing cards, trying things he saw or thought of that he might liked.
He tried Opening some Vaults, a la GerryT, but it wasn’t quite consistent enough for him. He’s currently tweaking up a Mono-White Control deck, similar to the one Dave Meddish wrote about recently.
So, Christian would mosey on down to Friday night Magic, Jund deck and new deck side by side in his bag. I had a Naya deck built, but Kurt liked it quite a bit, and was having some actual success with it. So Christian loaned me his Jund deck, and I loaned Kurt my Naya deck, and it was smiles all around. I’d become a Jundite. When we found out Christian wouldn’t make it to Regionals Nationals Qualifiers, I locked in with the Jund deck, and Kurt with Naya.
For reference, here is the Jund deck as I played it at the Nat Qs:
Creatures (18)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (21)
Spells (19)
Sideboard
And here is the Naya deck list Kurt ran, from last week’s article
Creatures (26)
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Wild Nacatl
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 1 Goblin Bushwhacker
- 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
- 3 Vengevine
Lands (15)
Spells (19)
I’ve since made a few changes, trading the Explores for Nest Invaders at RoE Game Day, and the Deathmarks for Doom Blades. I’m still on the fence about it, largely for the mirror. Deathmark hits Thrinax and Putrid Leech, but Doom Blade hit Siege-Gang. Broodmate Dragon is a wash, as they each hit one half and not the other. However, I still think that Doom Blade has more uses overall, and thus gets the nod, especially for being instant speed. Sarkhan the Mad will also be making an appearance, although I’m sure I’ll have to check the Oracle wording more than once. See, I can only manage to pull him in Russian and Japanese. English would be too easy, of course.
I get a lot of questions about why we have no main deck Terminates, instead choosing to go with only Pulses. The truth is, a lot of opponents playa round it anyway, or build around it, in the case of Jwar Jwar Sphinx. It allows me to run more main deck threats and a higher game 1 win percentage against almost everything but Mythic.
Last week in the forums, I was asked what I do and don’t like about the deck, and an overall rundown of the deck, sideboard, etc. To be honest, I don’t think there’s anything to add beyond what the plethora of other internet writers have said, but I’ll add my two cents, since I was asked.
First off, what do I like about the deck? The power and synergy certainly come to mind. It attacks from multiple angles, with hasty critters, direct damage, flexible removal, and hand disruption. It seems like whatever questions another deck wants to ask, you can have either an answer, or a Keiga-like better threat. I’ve won games by swinging through a Baneslayer Angel, by flinging a multitude of goblins at people’s faces, and with good old fashioned Putrid Leech beats and removal.
However, the one thing I dislike about the deck is the fragility of the mana. Most games I’ve lost with this deck can be directly attributed to having mana issues. These are hands I probably should have mulliganed, which is another need for the deck, aggressive mulligans. I don’t mulligan as often as I should (which is a pretty common error amongst Magic players, from what I’ve gathered). The fact that, with 27 lands, Jund often rewards my poor Mulligan decision anyway with a nice shard-land or something similarly helpful off the top doesn’t help. In fact, at RoE Game Day this past weekend, I went X-0 through the Swiss (drawing the final round) by mulliganing far more aggressively than past performances. However, I got into the Semifinals and threw it all away by keeping terrible hands in the first and third games. Christian, rail birding over my shoulder, laid into me afterwards, because these were hands that, while not snap mulligans, still should have been mulliganed, and I knew it.
A quick aside about Mulligans: I was talking with a fellow player about mulligans today, and we were watching baseball, and a quote came across that was wildly applicable, which I thought I’d share here. It’s paraphrased, as I can’t find the exact quote:
You can talk smart about hitting; have all the knowledge in the world. But you step into that batter’s box, and all of a sudden you’re a third grader again.
Mulligans feel exactly this way. I tend to talk well about mulligans, and when PV or whoever is doing their Mulligan article with examples, I tend to side with the majority of pros. In fact, if you show me those two hands in an article, I respond in the forums with Mulligans, no contest. But in-game, something is different. I’m just a third-grader again; at least I am if it’s the semis. [/aside]
As for what I’d change, I think the deck needs to be built more with Sarkhan in mind. Here’s a rough list I’ve been working on:
Creatures (27)
- 3 Broodmate Dragon
- 4 Sprouting Thrinax
- 4 Putrid Leech
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 4 Bloodghast
- 4 Nest Invader
- 4 Vengevine
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (21)
Spells (8)
This deck is based solely around Sarkhan the Mad, and ways to make him a beating. It’s full of value creatures that serve at least one of three purposes:
1) Provide a clock. Be capable of putting an opponent on a short clock that gives the opponent a small number of turns to answer.
2) Recur Vengevine. Either directly (Bloodbraid Elf flips nothing but Creatures except two Maelstrom Pulse) or indirectly, (12 creatures cost 2, making it very possible to cast two in one turn)
3) Provide Sarkhan fodder at value. Nest Invader’s token, Thrinax replacing itself, or Vengevine and Bloodghast being easily recurred.
The only cards that don’t serve one of these purposes are Maelstrom Pulse, although it definitely can help with the clock part, and Broodmate Dragon. However, I’ve seen games just end by going turn 5 Sarkhan, make a Dragon, pass. Turn 6 Broodmate Dragon, -4 Sarkhan to deal you 13, attack with a 5/5 Dragon and probably some other stuff, like a now-hasty, regrown Bloodghast. That may not be every turn 5/6 combo, but Broodmate is pretty good on his own, I hear.
This deck is also amazing against Jund, as Blightning is less valuable against you. Much like Wilt-Leaf Liege stunted its power when Lorwyn was around, Vengevine and Bloodghast can make the Blightning a little less powerful as well. A few concerns I have so far is that Bloodghast strains what is already a stretched manabase, meaning it’s often easier to get Bloodghast out of the graveyard than your hand.
For the sideboard, I imagine we’ll become a much more traditional Jund deck, with removal and disruption, etc. Take out the Bloodghasts and whatnot, and morph into what they now believe you aren’t: a typical Jund deck.
The Ancient Ziggurat may need to some out and become Exotic Orchard. It’s a colorless land against U/W Control, but it has some measure of value against the other matchups, being at worst a Forest (Mythic) and at best an untapped tri-land in the mirror. To be honest, I think Exotic Orchard is getting overlooked in a lot of places. I think it would be good in GerryT’s Vengevine Naya as well, where it really has no “dead” matchups, being at worst some form of Basic Land. Michael J’s Grixis list likely could make good use of it as well, being a Dual against Jund and an Island against U/W and Mythic, and one that always Enters the Battlefield untapped.
I’m also running a less radical Sarkhan deck, basically just an updated Jund list with more Rise.
Creatures (17)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (20)
Spells (19)
Sideboard
So far it’s just a test deck, but I’m hopeful for some of the options, especially the Banefire in the sideboard.
Until next time, this is Jeff Phillips, reminding you: Don’t make the Loser Choice.
Teflon_Jeff @ Hotmail.com
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