MTG Salvation

I feel like it should be obvious that MM is intended to increase the number of modern players (hence the need to do a small reprint run), rather than to be a random act of generosity where everybody who doesn't have all of the cards they want gets a small reward for their loyalty to the game in the form of said cards being slightly cheaper to acquire.

You could also need an extra storm but only have 2 cards in your own library.

We have better ways to stabilise against aggro (ie thragtusk and huntmaster), so a 3 mana x/2 blocker isn't that good, especially since Dreg Mangler and Wolfir Avenger are x/3s for the same cmc and also have benefits. The manafixing isn't as good as Rakdos Keyrune, it's direct competitor since it doesn't ramp and the keyrune fixes either red or black, which is usually all you'd need to fix (aside from in heavy green builds) as you need green to cast BLR anyway. We also often skip the 3cmc zone due to farseek, so it's often just as easy to play Huntmaster for 4, gain some life and get a blocker + a threat instead.

Quote from fractius

I've started with 4, but reduce to 0 because the only matchup i would want them was vs zombies.

This is my situation also.

At game day I raced frites game 1, then lost against armada wurm games 2 and 3. That thing is a nuisance out of the board.

I've tried all of those except BLR, but Dreg Mangler has actually been incredible for me as a 4 of.

I've cut them completely. Shaman out of the board is just as useful as a pillar.

I think that the main advantage to Death Wind out of the board is that it's instant removal in other matchups. GWx aggro with Silverblade Paladins, Sublime Archangels, etc is one where instant speed removal is very important for combat tricks and rancors. Dealing with Aristocrat and Lotleth Troll is also nice. I just feel that we need some instant speed removal to bring in for a couple of matchups and usefulness against zombies could tilt the scales in favour of Death Wind.

I'm considering trying out 2 Annihilating Fires in the sideboard at gameday vs Zombies and GW aggro. Ultimate price hits better big creatures (such as Hellkite, Angel, Wolfir, etc as mentioned), but Annihilating Fire hits all the creatures in the matchups I'd board it in for (Zombies, GWx Aggro, RDW) and an extra red isn't a huge concern in an already red-centric build, I don't think.

Sorry guys, must have accidentally swapped tabs; I thought I was posting in the Jund primer! All the awkward.

Connections is so much better than I'd first though (and I rated it fairly highly already). Especially with farseek, you can start drawing cards off it on turn 3. One of the best parts about it is that it lets you draw more thragtusks and huntmasters, so you can afford to take a few hits while you're doing other things.

I side Nighthawk out in the mirror. He doesn't even need to be pinged with Olivia to be stolen.

So Jund seems to be becoming very popular, so I think it's safe to say that we'll be seeing a lot of Jund decks on the other side of the table. What our our strong and weak cards in the mirror? I'll start off with some suggestions:

Strong:

Appetite for Brains: Hits just about every serious threat in a Jund list.

Rakdos's Return: Other than Sever the Bloodline we don't tend to utilise the graveyard much.

Olivia Voldaren: Requires an answer or it's game over.

What about Death Wind as an instant speed option to deal with rancor decks, etc? Tragic Slip is a good card, but we don't always have the option to let something die when we want to cast it. Death Wind probably isn't quite as efficient at killing things as Ultimate Price but it's much more flexible when we have the mana (and we often have the mana). It also kills Falkenrath Aristocrat, which Murder, [/CARD]Dreadbore[/CARD], Pillar of Flame, etc don't.

Quote from Tiemuuu

List'd.

It's very interesting to see Disciple of Bolas played. I am tempted to try her out, but I'm just afraid about not having any valid targets. Is sacrificing a BLR a good play at all? Should Disciple be treated as a 6-drop instead? I could see Big Garruk doing work with her.

I played with Disciple of Bolas for a while. It's really good whenever you can get a Thragtusk or something out before it, but more than once I'd draw it near the start of the game or get stuck with nothing to sacrifice (or something important I didn't want to sacrifice). I think Big Garruk does his job in the situation it's beneficial without being a dead card or replacing a big creature with a smaller one.

Quote from Lyserg

Anyone tried Zealous Conscript in SB against control ?

Conscripts is amazing. If they -2 Jace straight off, you can steal it, -2 to kill it and gain heaps of advantage. Plus it has haste. With Wolf Run, I've tended to pack my deck full of heaps of haste creatures, otherwise these Sphinx's Revelation/Angel of Serenity control decks will just be able to wipe the board every turn until we run out of cards.