What is up dudes and dudettes! My name is Bard Narson, but my close friends know me as “The Jund Guy”! I play Jund, like all the time. I see no reason why
everyone doesn’t. Modern seems like a diverse metagame with something like 400 different decks to choose from, but nothing is better than Jund. People must
like options because barely anyone plays it anymore even though it’s obviously the best deck in the format. Luckily for all of you out there, Cedric
Phillips has allowed me to write an article for Starcitygames.com so that you too can play the best deck in Modern. Today we talk about perfection!
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
These are the 75 cards I chose to play in the Grand Prix this past weekend in Oklahoma City. I should have won the whole tournament, but that’s another
story. Let’s just say that the three people lucky enough to beat me did exactly that–got lucky! Those who play Jund know how great all the cards in the
deck are so I don’t have to waste your precious time, but I better catch up the players who have been playing inferior decks for the past couple years. I
mean, it’s not their fault they choose to play from behind. Wait, it totally is! Well whatever, they deserve a chance to be enlightened like we once were
in the past. I won’t go over everything in the deck, but will talk about the important role players.
This one should be obvious. Tarmogoyf is the best card in the format and should be played in every deck. Patrick Dickmann learned the secret of the format
and found himself in a Pro Tour Top 8 because of it a whole year ago. There’s no possible way he would have gotten there by just making infinite Faeries.
It took some big muscle to scare opponents into being tricked into tapping out.
Speaking of Patrick Dickmann, some blue mages say the best card in Modern is Snapcaster Mage, but that little punk has nothing on my boy Tarmogoyf. Even
putting that puny blue dork in the same discussion as Goyf is just insulting. Tarmogoyf spends his days eating nothing but electrolytes, bench pressing
Eldrazi, and stealing your girlfriend. All Snapcaster Mage does is rummage through your garbage and you call him the greatest of all time. I just don’t get
it!
Next up is my boy Bob Maher. He hasn’t been playing much Magic in the last decade, but that man sure did crush tournaments in his hay day. His legacy lives
on in one of the best Magic cards in the format. Drawing cards is great, attacking is great, and forcing opponents to deal with this guy is great. If
that’s not enough to turn you into a Jund player, just think about how badly Bob Maher could beat up Tiago Chan. Yeah, you’re sold.
A couple months back, E-sports organizers clamped down hard on performance-enhancing drug use in competitive events. It won’t be much longer before Wizards
follows suit and bans this juicing phenomenon. Scavenging Ooze is a house in this deck! You kill’em, he’ll eat’em! This symmetry is downright beautiful! I
used to go into battle without three of this little guy, but that was just stupid. Scavenging Ooze plays an important role in enough matchups to justify
his place.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang ties the whole deck together, but don’t think for a second you can take a leak on this bad boy. No Jund deck should go anywhere
without a singleton of this card. Casting two spells a turn is what this deck wants to do when Liliana of the Veil isn’t making your opponent’s life
miserable. When Liliana of the Veil is in play, this card combos quite nicely with the attrition-based game the simplistic sorcerer is playing by drawing
extra cards.
I keep seeing people on Magic Online only playing three of this demonic deity, and I don’t have a flipping clue why. Maybe they can’t afford the fourth
copy? I bet they would have the money to buy another one if they played four and won more! Playing less than four Liliana of the Veil should get you thrown
in the loony bin. This is the best card in the deck and it’s not close! This heretical heroin helps you win so many of the tough matchups and plays the
most important role against those tricky Splinter Twin decks. They try to combo you out of nowhere, but how are they going to assemble a combo when they
got no hand? Think about that one why don’t you!
I’ve liked this card for a while, but it’s about time to bench one of the copies. It’s just not as good as it used to be. I still think the deck should run
one since it’s so good against some of the field and lets you get an easy two-for-one, but drawing it too much is a real headache. It’s time to trim a copy
for the third Abrupt Decay.
If you thought I was actually going to explain why you should play four Lightning Bolt in this deck, you are out of your mind. Obviously you play four
Lightning Bolts. It’s flipping great! Sometimes they are at three and they die. Sometimes they cast creatures. Well most of the time they cast creatures.
You kill creatures. That’s your job. If you don’t want to kill creatures, go play a combo deck or something. Just don’t expect to play this format with
these cards and pretend you shouldn’t be playing Lightning Bolt. You might end up like Willy Edel playing white cards over red ones and thinking you have a
chance to win a game. Lingering Souls is the training wheels of Modern. I said it!
I’m getting sick of talking about why each and every card is in the deck, so I’m moving on. Sometimes you teach a man to fish and sometimes you feed him.
You’ll get the hang of it over time and be able to make changes to the deck, but before then, you should just follow some tips on to how to build the
perfect 75 of Jund every week. Usually that is just whatever Reid Duke plays.
Reid Duke is our Jund Master. If he tells you to jump, you ask “off which cliff?” If he says it’s time to bench Olivia Voldaren, you throw her worthless
butt into the sideboard. If he says Kitchen Finks and Huntmaster of the Fells is enough Burn hate, you rip up those Feed the Clans and embrace the
sweltering heat of those Lava Spikes. He is our godfather, and you treat every soothing word out of his mouth about Jund as law.
The only problem with this approach is sometimes our leader betrays us and plays different decks. He never does well with them, which makes me wonder why
he ever puts Jund down since it always gives him a much needed top 8, but it isn’t on us to dissect genius. Our job is to survive the barren times when
Reid Duke isn’t around to tell us what to do. So here are my steps to building the best Jund deck.
Step 1: There is no Metagame
Modern doesn’t have a metagame. The human brain can’t comprehend how many different decks and variables actually go into this format so we use the term
“metagame” for reassurance much like we used our blanky as a child. You can’t predict anything when it comes to this format. Did anyone think Latern
Control was going to win the Grand Prix? I bet even the guy who won the whole thing wouldn’t have guessed that. I played two Naya Company decks at the
Grand Prix and I forgot that was even a deck. I played against Experiment One for crying out loud! You can’t predict anything in this crazy format, so
don’t try to! This really only applies to tournaments like Opens and Grand Prix. You can and should metagame appropriately at your local game store. You
just need to know the secret to metagaming as “The Jund Guy”!
What you can do is have a box of cards along with you when you get to the event. I call this my “Jund Box.” This deck box contains every card you could
ever imagine playing in a Jund deck. It might make owning the deck more expensive, but this little puppy has made me my money back time and time again. I
take it with me every time I go to my local store to play in some IQs. I walk around the room and see what people are playing and only then do I build my
deck.
“CVM’s not in the room, guess I don’t need Amulet Bloom hate.”
“Tom Ross decided to roll out of bed, guess these Night’s of Souls’ Betrayals are staying sleeved.”
Things like that. It’s important when playing Jund to get as much information as possible before the event to know exactly what cards you should be
playing. You don’t want to be the idiot in the room with Fulminator Mages in your sideboard without a Tron piece in sight!
Speaking of Tron, that brings us to the second step in becoming a Jund master.
Step 2: Know When You are Beat
Jund kills creatures and beats Twin. It’s not even that bad against some combo decks, but it does have some miserable matchups. Here is a list of what
those matchups are.
1. Tron
I’ve never beaten this deck. Even when I had a whole set of Fulminator Mages, three Ghost Quarters, and two Blood Moons! The lucky jerk still topdecked
everything he needed to get himself out of the stranglehold I had him in. Tron Guy is the luckiest person in the room, and you should just sign the slip
and go get some lunch.
2. Amulet Bloom
This is the most random matchup out there. I sometimes win with only discard spells, while sometimes I lose when I rip apart their hand and kill some of
their lands. I don’t really understand the deck’s existence. To me it feels like a combo deck that only loses to its fail rate, but that rate is like 40%
or something. It’s a stupid deck, and you just not waste your time on sideboard cards.
3. Jeskai Control
This deck is stupid. It’s not even good, but for some reason, those outdated Shaun McLaren fans are still playing this deck. Now don’t get me wrong, that
man has a way with words that I will never possess, but his deck’s days are done. It doesn’t beat anything except Jund. They just have your number every
step of the way.
4. Grixis Control
Similar to Jeskai Control, but they make you feel like you have a chance. I am always ahead at some point in the game thanks to Liliana of the Veil, but
the washed-up witch isn’t enough to get the job done. They obviously always draw one of fifteen outs and start chaining Kolaghan’s Commands and Snapcaster
Mages like a broken record. We really don’t have a way to stop this since we always draw Scavenging Ooze when they have Spell Snare and never when they
have nothing.
5. Abzan Midrange
Abzan only exists so that bad Jund players can beat the good Jund players that whoop them in the mirror match week after week.
Rarely do you want to have anything in your deck to beat these matchups. You just take your licks and keep on ticking. If you add too many cards to your
deck to beat the bad matchups, you will find yourself losing to the good ones due to lack of resources. Building a Jund 75 walks a fine line between
beating everything and beating nothing. Don’t get cute when playing this deck. Jund kills creatures. That is your one job; you do it proudly!
Step 3: Make Sure you Kill Creatures!
One of the biggest mistakes I see people do when building a Jund deck is not playing the correct removal. It’s difficult to know exactly what that removal
is when Reid Duke is off playing with Bant Charms and Willy Edel is casting Lingering Souls, but it’s pretty easy to figure out if you think about it. For
example, let’s look at the pre-Oklahoma City metagame and see how I got to the list I played.
We saw Todd Anderson crush the Open in Cincinnati with Infect while decks like Affinity and Merfolk all did well. This would make these three aggressive
decks as the targets for our removal. We now want to make sure that our deck can beat these three matchups. The work isn’t over though. Now we have to try
to figure out what other people are going to do with this information.
Grixis Control has been losing pilots left and right, which would make Splinter Twin a wonderful choice for the weekend. Well not really, but every pro
Magic player loves to talk themselves into playing Twin decks so whenever Twin is well-positioned you can expect all the pros to show up with that deck.
This makes Slaughter Pact a decent choice in the sideboard since it is also very good against all three of these aggressive decks!
Merfolk rarely beats you straight up, so it’s difficult to have a sideboard for this deck. Even if you bring the best cards for the matchup, they might
still flood your lands and crash your waves. I tend to just ignore this matchup and hope to be on the play. They never beat you when you get to go first.
That just leaves Affinity and Infect.
Done! Now wasn’t that easy!
So I guess it’s time to try and talk about matchups. A lot of people following my successful tenth-place finish this past weekend asked me to write about
how to sideboard in all the matchups. Do you know how difficult that would be? That would probably take ten articles to write about! A compromise I am
willing to make is to talk about all the matchups I can think of and what cards can or should be cut from the deck during sideboarding. This will allow you
to make changes to your deck and still know what to take out. Knowing what to bring in is easy anyway!
If you think I forgot to talk about a matchup, you are either correct or I ignored it because I probably don’t have anything for the matchup. Regardless,
you can email me at [email protected]. I will totally answer the non-stupid questions sent to
me in another article if Cedric ever lets me write another article about Jund. Anyway, let’s talk about the important matchups.
Infect
The secret to this matchup is that you will win if you don’t lose. Just kill everything until they run out of stuff to do. This helps significantly if you
have access to Night of Souls’ Betrayal, which is the Mayweather-like knockout punch in the matchup.
Merfolk
Liliana of the Veil actually comes out a lot in this deck, especially in this matchup. They have Spreading Seas, Aether Vial, Mutavault, and Master of
Waves that give our neurotic necromancer a tough time.
Affinity
You really need some haymakers in the sideboard for this matchup to expect to win it. Etched Champion is a real annoyance, which is why I will always play
multiple Shatterstorms when I can if I expect this deck will be in attendance. Dark Confidant and our half-sized hag just can’t cut it in this matchup.
Splinter Twin
This is the only card I 100% cut in Splinter Twin matchups. Maelstrom Pulse seems like a bad card in the matchup, but they often times bring in permanents
while cutting some of their combo. It all depends on what you have to bring in for the matchup, but I have been known to keep in 1-2 Pulse depending on the
variation of Twin deck I am playing against.
Burn
No matter what my 75 looks like for this deck, I will always have six cards in my sideboard that can be upgrades for these six cards in the Burn matchup. I
don’t even think Burn is a good deck or a bad matchup, but I still respect the deck. I can’t even tell you why I do. I just hate losing to Burn!
Tron
Doesn’t matter, just sign the slip. All of your cards suck. Just leave Lightning Bolt in over other bad removal spells and Scavenging Ooze. Sometimes it
kills a Karn, which gives you the smallest hope of actually winning a game. Guess what: you still won’t.
Naya Company
The secret to this matchup is knowing that Dark Confidant is your best card. I can’t tell you how many times I have obliterated this matchup with Bob Maher
tossing me removal spell after removal spell. Nice Collected Company you got there, it would be a shame if I slaughtered the whole pack. The kicker is that
my opponent always gets salty after losing, telling me how good this matchup is for them. I just ignore their negative energy and ask them for their
autograph. Jund’ed!
The Mirror
This is one of your worst matchups in Modern. The best chance you have to actually beating this deck is to take out all of your hand disruption and hope to
draw better than your opponent. I know this may sound like a high-variance shootout, but there really is no other way to beat the best deck in the format.
You will just have to get luckier.
The same thing goes for the Abzan matchup. You just better hope to have some good sideboard cards for the matchup!
The rest should be pretty self-explanatory. I know this isn’t the most comprehensive guide to greatness that you were expecting, but the format is just too
deep to get it all down on paper. You really just have to do what I did. Find a deck you like (the best one) and learn it. The games can be difficult to
win and no sideboard guide is going to teach you how to properly angle your Lightning Bolts at their guys, or if you should tell your opponent to sacrifice
a guy or silently indicate it with a well placed die on one. You will just have to learn those things on your own. I can’t help you with that. All I can do
is gently guide you to the correct path. Whether you take that first step is up to you.
I do have something special for those of you that are feeling robbed of information. This weekend is the last chance to do your country right and qualify
for the World Magic Cup. I’ve been playing a deck that took second in a Magic Online PTQ last weekend. This deck is perfect and has won me so many Play
Points that I could buy floor seats at a Lakers Game. I’d strongly consider playing this decklist this weekend if you are trying to lock up that last slot.
Creatures (20)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (11)
That’s all I have for this week. I hope you guys enjoyed my first article about Jund. Hopefully Cedric liked this article and will have me back in the
future, but if not, don’t be worried. I will play Jund until the day I die, which means I will always do well enough for a published decklist. See you guys
at the next Modern event!