This past weekend I followed my own advice and played B/W/G (aka White Jund) at Grand Prix San Diego to a Top 64 finish. While Modern PTQ season is now over, there are a lot of things that can be learned from the decisions I made at this event for future Grand Prix and hopefully smaller local events that exist for the format.
First of all, the list I ended up playing:
Creatures (16)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (17)
Something you are going to notice: a lot of our deckbuilding decisions were much more tuned for the Day 1 metagame full of U/W/R Geist and control than the Day 2 metagame mostly loaded with mirrors. In the future, I would expect the mirror, Tron, and Splinter Twin to be much more important concerns, which likely means you would add red to the deck (more on this below) and play an additional Fulminator Mage in the sideboard.
2 Loxodon Smiter, 1 Kitchen Finks
This looks pretty much the same as the argument for Loxodon Smiter against Centaur Healer in Standard. The 4/4 body is a much better clock against the unfair decks of the format, crashes into Restoration Angels, and in mirror matches more readily trades for a Tarmogoyf alongside a single additional blocker (4/5 being the usual Goyf size). The can’t be countered half of the hate abilities is very good at punishing the Remand decks for trying to curve out with that spell in the early game, but the discard ability is fairly marginal. Usually the Liliana of the Veil decks will board that card out against you because it is already bad against Lingering Souls, so you only get one game of potential utility out of that interaction.
Smiter is also a threat that isn’t affected by Relic of Progenitus.
The one Finks was because I wanted access to three of that card post-board against R/G Aggro and Burn and only had two sideboard slots. In retrospect, this was a huge mistake, and I should have had zero of the card in the 75. The card has almost no impact against Burn, and the 4/4 clock would be much better. I was even boarding out Finks in the mirror because it doesn’t trade with anything and is terrible against Deathrite Shaman. If I needed more cards against a Liliana -2 I might consider it, but with four Lingering Souls it was straight-up wrong. If I need something against Burn, I’ll play a real card like Obstinate Baloth.
It’s possible that Doran, the Siege Tower or Knight of the Reliquary is a better card in this slot. I’m not inclined to play the latter with Deathrite Shamans everywhere and in my deck, but if a 4/4 is good, a 5/5 has to be better than some number of the card.
3 Liliana of the Veil
I played three of this card since it seemed like a three-of you wouldn’t want multiples of, but this card is way too good. I should have had the fourth in the deck somewhere, if not the main. Even in the mirror where I always board it out due to Lingering Souls it sometimes just wrecks them.
1 Thrun, the Last Troll, 2 Batterskull
The list I posted in my last article from the Magic Online PTQ played a mix of Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad in the high slot. Neither of these cards had a large immediate board impact, which was a real issue against almost anything.
Instead, we opted for another Batterskull and a Thrun, the Last Troll. Both were quite awesome against all of the fair decks: Jund mirrors, U/W/R, and aggro. Against all of the unfair decks, these were terrible, but there isn’t really a Bloodbraid Elf anymore that is solid against actually everything.
I lost a match to Josh Utter-Leyton playing Ajani Vengeant in what was likely the same deck Eric Froehlich made Top 4 with, and that card seemed like another amazing option for this slot. The +1 to "Stone Rain" is definitely relevant against most of the unfair decks, and the -2 to Lightning Helix puts it in a similar space as Liliana of the Veil. The thing that really makes me want to try the card is the fact that the +1 handles Tarmogoyf, something no other planeswalker is really able to do. Actually, most four- or five-drops don’t handle Tarmogoyf profitably. Thundermaw Hellkite is another awesome high-end option that helps break Lingering Souls parity in the mirror, which is otherwise a really hard fight to win.
The red splash also brings Lightning Bolt, which may or may not be better than Path to Exile in the mirror. The fight over Dark Confidant is quite important and Lightning Bolt is better there and against early Deathrite Shamans, but the fight over Tarmogoyfs is often just as important and Path still kills Dark Confidants and handles late game Deathrite Shamans.
Basically, I’m saying that the red splash list is likely better if you expect to be playing mirror matches instead of having to beat U/W/R midrange decks.
2 Abrupt Decay, 3 Path to Exile, 1 Dismember
Warning: This removal split was not the result of precise testing.
Why two Abrupt Decay and not more? Most of this had to do with the U/W/R matchup and specifically Celestial Colonnade. Decay has a decent range of targets, but against U/W/R it’s almost unplayable. At best, it kills Snapcaster Mage. I wanted spells that could kill a 4/4 flying land.
Path to Exile is the obvious best option, but four of that card can be awkward. There are a lot of things people do with extra mana in this format. At the least it’s activating manlands, but at worst you are pumping their Sphinx’s Revelation or bailing them out of a land-light hand. The card is still amazing, but I wasn’t ready to commit to the full play set.
This left a number of options for the last card. Go for the Throat and Doom Blade were early leaders, but the curve versatility of Dismember won out in the end. It is comparable to Go for the Throat in what it kills (Dark Confidant but not Wurmcoil Engine), still kills a Tarmogoyf, and gives you a lot of additional options. Killing a one-drop accelerant without ramping them is important, playing two spells in the middle turns of the game is important, and later on you can easily play the card at full retail of 1BB. I was pretty happy with the card, but more than one copy is not remotely considerable to me.
3 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Thoughtseize
Many people were boarding these out in the Jund mirrors, and I completely disagree with doing so. The most consistently important battle in the mirror is over Dark Confidant in the early game. These cards not only help you answer their Dark Confidants but help establish yours. A copy or two of Inquisition is negotiable post-board because it doesn’t take Batterskull or the other bomb five-drops, but in general the cards are still quite good.
1 Gavony Township
First of all, I think Township was better than Vault of the Archangel. Doubling up a Lingering Souls’ clock was pretty important, while the best application of Vault (trading up for Tarmogoyf) requires you to leave up a ton of mana and often not use it.
Second, I am unsure if this is a better value land than a Treetop Village or Mutavault. Coming into play tapped would be a huge deal, but the massive expense of activating Township made it almost irrelevant in a lot of games. Another actual threat might just be where it’s at.
4 Stirring Wildwood, 0 Treetop Village
I’m unsure if this should be the full 4-0 split, but being a dual land is a big deal for Wildwood. Not dying to Lightning Bolt is a bonus, but you have a ton of Bolt targets already between Bobs and Deathrite Shamans so you aren’t really blanking the card. Reach is only marginally important since you have very little to do with your mana if you are just holding it up to block with a Wildwood and they don’t attack. Restoration Angel is an option, but it’s not a good one because your valuable targets for it are limited.
2 Swamp, 1 Plains, 1 Forest
I only point this out because often you can’t afford to take much damage from your lands over the course of the game. With four Dark Confidants and no life gain, as well as in the four matches I played against Burn this past weekend, planning this out is essential to your victories.
2 Aven Mindcensor, 2 Fulminator Mage, 3 Stony Silence, 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence, 1 Thoughtseize
These cover about every combo deck you could expect to battle against. Combo is not this deck’s best matchup, but it’s definitely winnable with Liliana, Dark Confidant, and discard main. As such, you want a decent amount of hate since it actually makes a difference in the overall matchup percentage. This split creates overlap against almost everything, which is important when there are at least five major combo decks to be aware of.
Scapeshift: Fulminator Mage, Aven Mindcensor
Birthing Pod: Aven Mindcensor, Fulminator Mage, 1-2 Stony Silence
Tron: All of the above except Linvala
Splinter Twin: Linvala, with potential for Fulminator Mage to do things
Eggs: Aven Mindcensor, Stony Silence
Overall, I felt like I was still a little short at times, but this was enough to have solid game in all of the above matchups.
Note: I am ignoring Goryo’s Vengeance, Dredgevine, and anti-Eggs graveyard hate. This may change in the future (especially if Goryo’s Vengeance gets shown the door as a turn 2-3 combo deck), but for now you are just worried about Eggs in terms of graveyard decks. All of the graveyard hate that doesn’t turn off your cards is targeted, meaning Leyline of Sanctity starts severely cutting into your anti-Eggs interaction.
Also, Linvala is much better than I expected in the mirror match. Turning off Deathrite Shamans going late and bricking Lingering Souls tokens are both very important roles for a card to play.
1 Putrefy, 1 Go for the Throat
I wanted additional spot removal in the mirror to deal with Dark Confidants, Olivia Voldarens, and Tarmogoyfs among other things. They also had to kill Celestial Colonnade. Going through the options, these seemed the most reasonable. Putrefy is another card against Birthing Pod that lets you handle a Pod without being dead when they don’t draw one, and Go for the Throat was just a miser’s card aimed at beating Spellskites out of Splinter Twin (Spellskite isn’t a legal target for the spell, so they can’t redirect it unlike Decay). It’s possible the latter was better off as another Dismember, but I was happy to have the non-damage spell during the weekend.
Neither of these cards is Maelstrom Pulse. Again, I wanted to have the best cards for the mirror that killed manlands, even if it meant not killing planeswalkers or Leyline of Sanctity. The former I was not concerned about with Lingering Souls (though I maybe should have been if they also had Souls) and the latter is beatable as my sideboard options against Leyline decks ignore the card. Being able to Thoughtseize in those scenarios is nice, but the Leyline decks being down a card when they draw it is a significant disadvantage (see: Scapeshift needing actually every card to win a game).
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
This was our mirror trump card. Against Lingering Souls versions, it would likely be better as a Sword of Light and Shadow, but against U/W/R and actual Jund, Sigarda was way ahead.
1 Zealous Persecution
I would play more of this card in a heartbeat. Three of the most important battles in the mirror are Dark Confidant, Lingering Souls, and Tarmogoyf. This card wins all of them (pumps your Goyfs in heads-up fights and kills the other two). Of course, you could also just play red and play with Thundermaw Hellkite, which flies over Goyf, races Bob, and kills Lingering Souls.
Various play decision notes:
– Deriving information about your opponent’s hand early is huge in this format. Examples from the event: Eggs not playing a spell on turn 1 means they likely have multiple Second Sunrise effects in hand. Burn holding up a fetch means they likely have Searing Blaze, and you should play around it accordingly. Tron not leading on a Tron piece and playing a Chromatic Star or Expedition Map implies they don’t have one in hand, meaning you can wait longer on a discard spell.
– Liliana of the Veil is shockingly easy to both use and misuse. If they miss a land drop before hitting the maximum they want, +1ing means you trade what you discard for a spell. In fact, always view the +1 in terms of forcing an exchange and determine if you would trade your discarded card for a spell. Also, if you have no cards in hand and opt to +1 Liliana, watch out for Cryptic Command or Echoing Truth turning into Vindicate by bouncing your permanent in response.
– Playing Deathrite Shaman vs. Deathrite Shaman is often about doing nothing or forcing their activations when their mana is tight.
– Batterskull has two activated abilities. I was using the 5: Equip one much more than the 3: Return this to owner’s hand one. The equip not only pushes middling creatures out of trade range, but it effectively has haste.
Overall, the deck was fine but not amazing. It demolished any poorly built deck I played against, but the good ones were always rough matchups. Of course, this has always been my line about Jund in this format. Bad decks fold to your pile of good cards, while well-tuned decks can get Thoughtseized and continue playing.
That said, I think the phrase "fine but not amazing" defines the current Modern format. It is very hard to gauge positioning of a metagame any amount of time in advance, and there isn’t a stable target now that Jund changes drastically from week to week. As a result, there’s a higher-level decision over whether you want to guess what decks will be big and next level them or just play the deck that is fine against everything, and then from there there’s a lot of conjecture as to what you should expect to play against. As a result, no linear deck is actually a top option for more than a couple weeks, and Birthing Pod gets much worse since choosing your Tutor targets is much harder.
Generally, this isn’t a bad thing, but there have been a lot of complaints about the format as of late. I see these as having two root causes: an issue with card liquidity and the fact that few of the decks in the format sound cool on paper. The former is something I can’t even begin to delve into, but the latter is a fundamental issue resulting from the sheer number of bannings.
While I think most of the cards removed from the format were necessary eliminations, having a few flagship cards really helps bring people into a format. People play Legacy to play with Lion’s Eye Diamond and Brainstorm. Modern is supposed to be a format where those aren’t legal for various reasons, but if you can’t let people play their flagship cards, it gets awkward very fast. A select few decks still have flashy cards headlining them (i.e., Affinity), but most don’t because people don’t currently view Liliana of the Veil or Geist of Saint Traft as awesome cards.
I wish I had an obvious answer to this that meshed with the existing framework of the format, but the best one I can currently come up with is wait a year or two until people aren’t playing against those cards in every format including Standard. Messing with the banned list might help a little, but that is a dangerous topic.
Overall, while season one of Modern made me feel a lot of raw excitement about the direction of the format, season two has developed into a lot of uncertainty. I’m sure there is a lot of time in the off-season to have the format shaken up before the next Pro Tour, if not the next Grand Prix, but this format has many awkward decisions to make.
One closing note: if you decide to play Eggs, the hard part is playing through interaction. The actual goldfishing part is quite easy.
– Ari Lax