G/B Depths vs. Jund

G/B Depths vs. Death and Taxes

Jund Depths vs. Death and Taxes

Jund Depths vs. Esper Deathblade

I’m experimenting with not doing deck techs since so much of the article preceding the related video format is in service of building greater understanding of the deck and then showing it in action. If you all feel like you’re missing out on something, feel free to let me know what you’d like to see, and I’d be happy to include it in future recordings.

As far as compare and contrast recordings go, this feels very useful. I didn’t expect the G/B Depths deck to have so much utility or such an incredible ability to peel out of bad situations. Game 1 against Jund was particularly interesting, as I committed to playing around Liliana of the Veil early—a likely mistake—and played straight into Wasteland. From there my opponent punted back by not Wastelanding Dark Depths while I was tapped below Thespian’s Stage mana, allowing the standoff to resume. Then I peeled Vampire Hexmage to force their hand, eventually getting a 20/20 indestructible out of the deal and winning with that.

Getting to play against Death and Taxes—a very anti-Marit Lage kind of deck, what with Swords to Plowshares and Wastelands and multiple Karakas and the ability to Aether Vial in a Flickerwisp—with both decks was really cool. Both decks excelled against it in game 1 but in different ways. The G/B Depths deck digs for the right answers—and it has plenty—while the Jund Depths deck just brute forces through all of their cards.

It’s important to remember that our early Liliana of the Veil was the real game winner against Death and Taxes, not our Life from the Loam recursion engine. If our opponent had developed normally—lands and spells in a more even distribution—we would have been in a lot of trouble. It’s the aggro-control situation all over again—our opponent had an answer for all of our threats, but they weren’t clocking us at all. By the time they had any action, they had been forced to negate their own pressure by sending multiple 20/20s to the farm. We had all the time in the world to Loam back Stage and Depths from that spot, but it could have easily gone differently.

Sideboarded games felt weird, both because I knew that I wasn’t sideboarding perfectly with the Jund deck and because I have a sneaking suspicion that the G/B Depths sideboard needs more anti-combo cards and fewer anti-creature cards. When you play against Death and Taxes and don’t want Infest, it probably shouldn’t be in your sideboard. It should either be Massacre—if you’re really in the market to kill Thalia, Guardian of Thraben—or Thoughtseize since the G/B deck is very likely a huge underdog to other combo decks in its current form.

The Jund Depths deck felt very weak to a resolved Rest in Peace. I get that the plan is to Entomb for Ray of Revelation, but holding up two mana a turn for Entomb + Flashback is probably close to as crippling as them just having Rest in Peace in play. Besides, sometimes they don’t draw it. But when they did, I felt helpless.

As far as maindeck changes go, Steely Resolve is probably just worse than Sylvan Safekeeper in the G/B Depths deck. The various toughness-based sweepers should probably just be Massacres, but I’m still not sure that the deck needs a way to beat Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as much as it needs a way to beat Dark Ritual and Show and Tell.

Overall, I enjoyed both Depths variants quite a bit and would enthusiastically recommend either to someone looking for a sweet deck for this weekend. The G/B Depths deck is further off of an ideal composition, but as far as I can tell only one person has been playing the deck up to this point. Any deck at that point in its existence can be improved.