We have a lot of ground to cover today. With the StarCityGames.com Atlanta Standard Open and about a month of Rise of the Eldrazi play under our belts, it’s time to focus our attention on picking the best deck for the National Qualifiers (I’m still going to call it Regionals) and getting a grasp on the evolved metagame.
Obviously, the biggest decks are shining the brightest. Jund may have been taken down a notch, and it seems as though UW has made a name for itself as the true “deck to beat.” The biggest question now is, is the Red splash for Ajani Vengeant worth it? In reality, though, this is an unfair question. If you compare the UW deck to the UWR deck side-by-side, it becomes clear that we are dealing with two totally different and distinct monsters here. It’s not just as simple as saying “well, Ajani Vengeant sure is good,” because you have to consider that one of these decks is playing Everflowing Chalice and Mind Spring, which both behave far differently from Gideon Jura and Ajani Vengeant.
Cedric Phillips mentioned that he feels that UW is still superior to UWR, and I am not in a position right now to agree or disagree, though I have a feeling that he could potentially right. A common argument for a third color is commonly that adding more colors “hurts your mana,” but it certainly does not with the UWR deck. The single Mountain is truthfully the only land that needs to be entirely different, as we’re looking at only a copy or two of Sejiri Refuge as just “better” lands in the UW deck. The real argument against the UWR deck, in my opinion, is whether or not Ajani Vengeant is better than having Mind Spring, faster mana, and a more realistic clock (Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Baneslayer Angel). While I’ve yet to miss Chalice (the faster mana part of it, not the “bigger spells” part of it) and Sphinx/Angel, I do certainly miss Mind Spring. Divination does what it needs to do, but no number of planeswalker triggers will ever truly equal a Mind Spring for six, so there is a case to be made for UW.
In addition, UW is still better against Jund. Jund is a strange beast right now, though, as the way in which it ought to be built is still being debated. UWR is solid against the Jund deck, and probably slightly favored if they aren’t playing Vengevine, but I do not feel the same confidence in that match-up that I do with UW. I mean, if your goal is to just have a great match-up with Jund, then UW is by far the best realistic option for you. The problem then, of course, is equipping UW with the tools to beat UWR, which is a great feat in and of itself. This however, in turn, makes me look forward to the PTQ season — we have some actual diversity in the format!
The way the lines have been drawn, we’re looking at these decks for a testing gauntlet:
Jund
UW Control
UWR Planeswalker Control
Mythic Bant
Mono-Red
Polymorph
Yeah, that’s about it. Suspiciously missing is Naya, but anyone who’s put any time into Standard in the past few weeks will see that Naya actually isn’t all it was cracked up to be, which may or may not come as a big surprise. Could you potentially play against it at Regionals? Yes, yes you could. Should you put lots of time into testing against it? No, no you should not. Besides, the idea of a gauntlet is to build a set of decks that you will play against in the tournament you are testing for, and I don’t feel as though decks like Naya Allies, Open the Vaults, Vampires, White Weenie, and Naya are worth as much testing time as the above decks. If you have excess time to test these match-ups as well (who has that much time?), then of course you should do so.
The first of these decks that I want to talk about is Jund. Two weeks ago I wrote about some ideas I had for Jund, and since then I have even more. If you want to build a stock Jund list for your testing pod then you should do so, but I recommend having two Jund lists: one with Vengevine and one without. I seem to be one of the few really pushing for this card in Jund, but I’ve seen what it can do and I literally feel like I am at a disadvantage when playing against it if I don’t have my own in my deck — regardless of the deck I am piloting. I will reiterate this one last time before I go on: Vengevine is a 4/3 hasted creature for four mana.
No, one more time. Vengevine is a 4/3 hasted creature for four mana.
Okay, that should do it. Yes, a 4/3 for four isn’t amazing, but one with haste is pretty darn good… and one that quite literally demands a Path to Exile is actually just superb. Standard is becoming increasingly more and more sorcery-based, and at this stage the only way to beat a Vengevine on your opponent’s turn is with Path. How many of those can go in your deck, again? Oh, right — just four. And how many haste creatures can we play in Jund…?
The idea is this: Jund’s evolution needs to be toward more aggression, not less. Its biggest strength against the UW and UWR decks is its ability to play cards like Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf. Oblivion Ring on a hasted creature is loose, because if they deal with it via Pulse they can get surprise damage out of nowhere. The same is true for Jace’s bounce ability — go ahead, bounce a Vengevine or a Bloodbraid Elf with Jace. I dare you. Heck, even a card like Goblin Ruinblaster maindeck makes more sense right now, but probably even more so because he has haste even than his awesome ability. Haste is the key right now in Jund, and I fear that those dismissing Vengevine in Jund are doing it for the wrong reasons.
Oh, you’ve got a Wall of Omens? My Vengevine is a 4/3. Nice wall, bro.
Oh, you’ve got a Wall of Denial? I have Consuming Vapors. Nice wall, bro.
Oh, you’ve played Day of Judgment? I have Bloodbraid Elf… into Goblin Ruinblaster, which brings back Vengevine. Nice life total, bro.
Joking aside, this isn’t all that funny. As someone who wanted to play Gideon, Jace, and Elspeth this weekend, I’m finding it hard to do. I don’t care if you’re playing UW or UWR, Vengevine is a real threat, and easily the deciding factor between losing to those decks and being able to crush them. It doesn’t matter if “Jund is not the best deck for Vengevine,” nor do I care if Ranger of Eos and Vengevine play well together. What I do know, though, is that 4/3 haste creatures for four mana are good, and ones that have the potential to be returned to play are absurd. Jund needs to play Vengevine. I stand by that 100%, even if the results have not yet reflected it. Jund should play to its strengths, and embrace the keyword haste — it is currently its strongest asset.
But how do you incorporate Vengevine? Two weeks ago I suggested playing Borderland Rangers possibly to up the creature count, but we don’t even need to go that far. Take a look at my list:
Creatures (21)
Lands (26)
Spells (13)
Sideboard
First and foremost, Nest Invader. Yes, yes, I realize it’s a “bad card,” but it is miles better than I had expected. It does not fix your mana, but it accelerates you into Bloodbraid Elf and Goblin Ruinblaster and serves as two blockers against Mono-Red. I still don’t think Mono-Red is very beatable, but Consuming Vapors, Momentous Fall, Doom Blade, and Nest Invader could go a long way if you draw moderately well. Invader is also a creature, which benefits Vengevine triggers and makes our Rampant Growths into threats (albeit small ones). I was impressed with the card, much more than I thought I would be.
It should be known that there are no tricks with Vengevine here. No, in this list he is merely a beater, and that is all he needs to be. It is very possible to play defensive and lean on early Bolts/Doom Blades to enable a fifth turn Vengevine graveyard trigger with a Leech and a Thrinax, but otherwise the idea is just to dome your opponents for four with it. Again, embrace the fact that you can apply fast pressure out of nowhere, as this will allow you to dance around UW’s tricks. Remember, you still have Blighting too, and because of Vengevine’s built-in counterspell immunity (countering it when the Jund player has additional mana and cards in hand can be a bad play, since he can just return it to play anyway after he casts another creature spell) drastically improves the UWx match-up anyway.
In addition, four Pulses are mandatory right now. Between Oblivion Ring, soldier tokens, planeswalkers, and Everflowing Chalice, there is always something good to blow up even against the control decks, so it is a good idea to pack as many of these as you can. I also originally had only three Lightning Bolts, but Bolt is so good against Allies and Red that it is worth making the room for the fourth.
The only other thing I feel needs to be mentioned is the lack of Broodmate Dragon. Cutting a long story short, his time is up. He is, in my opinion, one of your worst cards against UW and UWR (he costs too much and is too easy to deal with, often not even requiring any sort of card disadvantage because of their planeswalkers), and he is way too slow against Red decks and the combo strategies. Siege-Gang comes down sooner and has an overall stronger board presence (in the late game against UWx he can blow it out, whereas Broodmate is easily manageable). Broodmate might still have a place, however, as Sarkhan the Mad is actually a good card, and builds playing that card (read: ones that want a great edge in the mirror) would certainly want to play dragons to enable a burnout plan with the planeswalker.
Beyond that, I’m not sure there is much else to say about Jund. I’ve made my case for Vengevine — it’s insanely powerful, and if you look at it at face value you’ll see that it is exactly what Jund is looking for. If you want to play Jund at Regionals and you’re interested in winning the event, put in time with Vengevine. It’s as good as I say it is.
Okay, so now you’ve heard my thoughts on that guy. But what about UW? How would I build it?
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (26)
Spells (22)
Sphinx of Jwar Isle has lost some value because of Consuming Vapors, and Gideon is ultimately a better card, but it’s still better than Baneslayer Angel in a lot of cases. The maindeck isn’t that surprising, and the sideboard isn’t all that different either. The only thing that really stands out is All Is Dust, a card that is very good against the UWR deck and even all the creature decks. You can typically defend yourself with a planeswalker for a while, and then drop All Is Dust once they’ve finally dealt with it. The card is even better if you can manage to bait out Oblivion Rings in the mirror and then have it reset the board in your favor, as well as keeping your Chalices intact. It’s actually a really powerful sideboard plan if you do it right, and it may just be the adaptation that UW needs for combating the UWR deck. It’s miles ahead of Planar Cleansing anyway, although Pithing Needle might just be a more efficient answer.
As far as the remaining decks go, the only one I would personally recommend to play at Regionals (aside from the UWR deck, that is) is Mythic Conscription, a deck that has a lot going for it right now and just so happens to benefit from the same “sorcery speed” format that Jund does. I find Polymorph to be really lacking, but Open the Vaults is really good if you’re skilled with it. The idea is this: none of the gauntlet decks are actually a bad choice. I don’t like Mono-Red or Polymorph, sure, but they aren’t terrible choices either. Mono-Red probably has the best shot of “making it big” right now, though, since it is great against Jund and has a decent match-up with the UWx decks. At this stage it is about testing match-ups and finding out which ones you’re okay with having weaker than others in favor of an advantage somewhere else, which is mostly based on your expected meta. UW probably has the best numbers overall if you can make it beat UWR, and Jund still has the most raw power. For me, it will be a close call in terms of which one I battle with on Saturday.
Good luck everyone, and I hope this helped a bit with your testing!
Until next time…
Chris Jobin
Team RIW
Shinjutsei on MTGO