Every freakin’ Standard season, someone has to be that personand put together a deck of red, green, and black cards. It just won’t die.
Seriously. What gives? We throw everything in the arsenal that this deck, every G/W Tokens and W/R Humans we can build, and these Jund People keep coming. They feel no remorse. No pity. No fear. And they will not stop, until you are dead.
If you think it’s okay to have never seen Terminator, regardless of your reasons, you are wrong.
Just as the sun rises in the east, so has Jund returned to knock you out of your FNMs and PPTQs. The cool thing about this list is that it’s not Languish-based, as most Jund lists have been over the course of this season. It still has Radiant Flames as a sweeper, but it’s more proactive, since it relies on planeswalkers to control the battlefield and generate advantages over time.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Arlinn Kord flood the battlefield with creatures, while Ob Nixilis Reignited and Chandra, Flamecaller provide plenty of card advantage. These planeswalkers are supplemented by staples of the archetype in Sylvan Advocate and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, the latter of which helps protect your planeswalkers by making plenty of Zombie blockers. There’s a typical slate of removal spells. Oath of Nissa helps smooth out your draws and provides some mana fixing.
James also plays some straight card advantage spells with Painful Truths and Read the Bones, which I do not find appropriate for the archetype. When properly protected, planeswalkers will generate enough material advantage to win games, and both Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Arlinn Kord function best when you are able to develop a significant battlefield. More creatures like Tireless Tracker, Lambholt Pacifist, or even Catacomb Sifter would bolster this aspect of the deck while also letting you protect your planeswalkers more effectively.
I could also see playing more removal spells, with Ultimate Price and Oath of Chandra being the top contenders. Last, Transgress the Mind could work to break up your opponent’s curve before your deploy your planeswalkers and also get rid of cards like Ruinous Path that directly remove them.
The sideboard is a pretty typical collection of removal spells and card advantage threats for longer games, but there is also a nice little package to go over the top of other midrange decks with From Beyond and big Eldrazi creatures.
From Beyond already players nicely with your planeswalkers, providing plenty of blockers and also giving your more bodies to pump with your Anthems, but given enough time, you can use From Beyond to find the singleton copy of World Breaker or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as an end-game trump. It’s a really cool little package that fairly seamlessly fits into the deck.
Plus it fits the “Jund never freakin’ dies” theme, so you pick up those all-important flavor points.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (11)
Lands (25)
Spells (17)
