Yeah, I think I like 1 EE and 1 Anger as Sweepers. I personally like a second LtLH in the SB as additional small creature hate. Might subtitute Kalitas with Huntmaster or Olivia? Maybe the latter actually, that way you don't have anti synergy.
Yeah, I think I like 1 EE and 1 Anger as Sweepers. I personally like a second LtLH in the SB as additional small creature hate. Might subtitute Kalitas with Huntmaster or Olivia? Maybe the latter actually, that way you don't have anti synergy.
What about 1/1 split of Kalitas and Huntmaster. Olivia sounds good as well; she's great against decks filled with creatures, especially decks with lots of x/1's. I've always liked Olivia but she felt out of favor after Kalitas got printed. I was tying with idea of playing Olivia recently and actually gave her a try, although just in sb.
It's also possible that I'm too worried about that anti synergy since you won't always have both Kalitas and AotG in the play at the same time and when you do AotG still kills creatures which is the main purpose of mass removal anyway. Also I feel like 1 Kalitas is enough which makes it less likely to have both.
I'm currently on a 1-1 split between Huntmaster and Olivia in the Side Board. So far it's played out good, but I've only got in one FNM's worth of testing at the moment. Would recommend this!
When considering the four-drops in the mainboard, it all comes down to...
1) If they're even needed. Sometimes this question is overlooked, but it's very crucial to ask to make sure if there's any alternatives to your choices.
2) How they solve the issue at hand in your metagame.
3) Where is this card at its best, and alternatively, where is it at its worst? Sometimes a card that shines in certain places is overall mediocre is others; and we all know that just won't do.
Huntmaster, Olivia, Kalitas, and Chandra all have their ups and downs so choose wisely
Really like this list also. What matchups would you want to bring Grim Lavamancer in? Would you primarily side it in to shoot small creature decks? And what would you typically take out to make room for it?
Make a case for the best sweeper jund has to offer.
Anger of the Gods is most people's go to. The problem (and benefit) I have with it is that it exiles. It's a total nombo with Scooze and Kalitas. Damnation destroys literally everything, but that includes any creatures of your own, and chances are a creature deck you're playing against is going to recover much faster than you. Engineered Explosives not hitting every creature on the battlefield because you have to set it to a specific CMC has always bugged me. Kozilek's Return INSTANT, but only 2 damage leaves a lot living. Languish Yahenni's Expertise Radiant Flames Consume the Meek Sweltering Suns
I've tried them all and there just isn't a perfect sweeper that does everything I want. What are your thoughts and reasons for what you choose to play?
Its like our 4 drop issue, there is no one which literally does everything we want. Its a matter of meta and what decks you want to hit. You will have to change the sweeper up like every week or so, to be most efficient with it. But if you want to be safe, always have a Damnation in board for all cases. I personally like it as an emergency brake.
For me, there are basically always only 3 sweepers which I change from or to sometimes: Its Anger, EE and Damnation. I think Kozilek's Return is too weak in Jund in general. Languish is often a worse Damnation and Yahenni's Expertise is two halfes of different cards wanting to do different stuff in my opinion. If I want a sweeper, I want the most efficient sweeper, not this one.
Not sure why you would ever run Radiant Flames over Swelting suns, if you would do it in the first place.
Probably gonna get hate for this, but I usually run damnation, jund charm, golgari charm. With both anger and EE in my deck box in case certain people who show up. As a general rule in my meta both jund charm and golgari charm run better due to the versatility they present which usually shores up all the decks I play against better then damnation, anger, EE ever could.
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Standard: No Time
Modern: Jund Midrange BRG
Legacy: Shardless Bug BUG
Make a case for the best sweeper jund has to offer.
Anger of the Gods is most people's go to. The problem (and benefit) I have with it is that it exiles. It's a total nombo with Scooze and Kalitas. Damnation destroys literally everything, but that includes any creatures of your own, and chances are a creature deck you're playing against is going to recover much faster than you. Engineered Explosives not hitting every creature on the battlefield because you have to set it to a specific CMC has always bugged me. Kozilek's Return INSTANT, but only 2 damage leaves a lot living. Languish Yahenni's Expertise Radiant Flames Consume the Meek Sweltering Suns
I've tried them all and there just isn't a perfect sweeper that does everything I want. What are your thoughts and reasons for what you choose to play?
Its like our 4 drop issue, there is no one which literally does everything we want. Its a matter of meta and what decks you want to hit. You will have to change the sweeper up like every week or so, to be most efficient with it. But if you want to be safe, always have a Damnation in board for all cases. I personally like it as an emergency brake.
For me, there are basically always only 3 sweepers which I change from or to sometimes: Its Anger, EE and Damnation. I think Kozilek's Return is too weak in Jund in general. Languish is often a worse Damnation and Yahenni's Expertise is two halfes of different cards wanting to do different stuff in my opinion. If I want a sweeper, I want the most efficient sweeper, not this one.
Not sure why you would ever run Radiant Flames over Swelting suns, if you would do it in the first place.
Probably gonna get hate for this, but I usually run damnation, jund charm, golgari charm. With both anger and EE in my deck box in case certain people who show up. As a general rule in my meta both jund charm and golgari charm run better due to the versatility they present which usually shores up all the decks I play against better then damnation, anger, EE ever could.
No hate here! I actually like this plan. Used to do it myself, actually. But I feel as though some sweepers are more "focused" as far as cards go. When you get modal abilities with charms and commands, they often include lesser versions of the real thing; which I feel are more beneficial in niche situations, but lack-luster in most.
I'm on two Anger of the Gods, and that's simply because I feel I get the most "bang for our buck" when I cast this card vs other sweepers. I'm maxing the amount of damage done to creatures WITH an exile clause on top of it. So while the spell doesn't kill ALL threats, it often leaves our goyfs/oozes untouched while narrowing (often eliminating) their side of the board. The catch is that it's sorcery speed, deals damage instead of just killing, it's 1RR to cast, and it's a narrow card. (i.e. I can't bring a card like this in a Abzan Matchup that has lingering souls)
There is my current list. Went 4-2 for 12th place at the Geek Fortress 1k this weekend. Overall had a pretty great day with some minor misfortune dashing my hopes for top 8. Even with that, got my entry fee (and then some) back for getting top 16 and it felt great to have Jund be "relevant" again. I didn't feel like I was fighting an uphill or downhill battle on the day in terms of matchups, just pretty level even field which is what you want to feel with Jund.
Round 1 Lantern Control (2-1) [1-0]:
Game 1 was pretty clean and simple. Rabblemaster and Dark Confidant pressured my opponent's life total, the K. Command in my opener hit the first bridge, he ripped a 2nd but couldn't answer my LotV. An ultimate later (bridge in 1 pile, everything else in the other with lethal onboard) he was unable to play his top card so the goblin tokens killed him. Game 2 was extremely close but I had about 6-7 turns where I was drawing 2 cards a turn and he only had 1 mill rock. Never saw 2 good cards in a row and he eventually found 2nd and 3rd mill rock. I conceded with ~15 min left in the round to give us enough time for game 3 (he also had double welding jar so even ancient grudge wasn't going to be good enough). Game 3 was pretty simple, he kept a heavy pithing needle hand but by the time he could Whir for Bridge, he still had 2 cards in hand and the Rabblemaster and tokens on my board alone were enough to kill him.
Round 2 Amulet Titan (2-1) [2-0]:
This is one of my good friends and a very strong pilot. Him and I have discussed this Amulet deck a lot as I used to play it (about a year before it hit the PT and became really popular). This knowledge helped me in game 1 as I used a combination of early discard, spot removal for his Azusa's and a Rabblemaster to quickly overrun him before he could keep a titan in play. Game 2 went pretty close to game 1 except that he found a Dragonlord Atarka the turn before I had lethal which killed off my Rabble and bros. The following turn he followed it up with a Titan and that was all she wrote. Game 3 I mulliganed to 6 and kept the following hand (2x Thoughtseize, 2x Bolt, 1x Swamp, 1x Blood Moon). I decided to keep this hand because I felt confidant that I could probably slow him down enough to draw into land #2 which has a high likelihood to be red so I could pop an Azusa and then maybe find my way to a Blood Moon to lock up a win. This didn't quite work exactly as I planned as my thoughtseize took an amulet left him with Azusa x2, some lands and a summoners pact. He ripped the 2nd Amulet off the top (and yeah, i felt pretty screwed). 2nd thoughtseize took the pact. I ended bricking on 3 draws for lands but I found my second land for the turn he drew a pact and played his first titan (which I had terminate for). I knew I needed to rip land #3 off the top. Bam, blackcleave cliffs. I slammed the Blood Moon so he could no longer pay for Pact. I could theoretically have bricked there and not been completely dead (since my opponent would have to spend their next turn paying for pact and transmuting for another pact) but I would have had to hit it the next turn and then find a threat to beat down with. TL;DR, getting blood mooned by a Jund deck feels pretty bad. I'll talk about my sideboard a bit after the rest of the tournament report.
Round 3 Jund (2-0) [3-0]:
This is one of those mirrors where it became obvious pretty early that I knew how to Jund better than my opponent. He got pretty unlucky on the whole for certain and while i didn't have perfect knowledge of his hand to cite exact misplays, there were definitely turns were I think my sequencing and mana efficiency is what swung the match in my favor in such a decisive fashion. Things like him Terminating my Dark Confidant on turn 3 so that I could untap and play Rabblemaster on my turn 3. Or me throwing out a Goyf into a known LotV so that I could follow up with a Scavenging Ooze which then grew out of control and let me shrink his goyfs so that I won trades. My opponent did get unlucky (drew like 3-4 lands too many in game 1 and mulliganed to 5 in game 2) but there were decisions made that definitely cost him any chance he had at the match. He also notably left in all his discard which really came back to bite him in game 2 when he was drawing blanks rather than spells.
Round 4 Titanshift (0-2) [3-1]:
Game 1 I got him to an empty hand with 5 lands in play (1 being Valakut). I'm not particularly close to having him lethal on board but it's like a 2-3 turn clock. He rips Hour of Promise into over the 2 turns. Game 2 I gave myself the chance to find victory but it just wasn't meant to be. Awkward Relic timings left my Goyfs as 2/3's and when I went to drop the Blood Moon he was able to clear the board with Valakut triggers. This isn't the end of the world for me though as I have my basics in play (2 swamps and 2 forests), he only has 1 forest and he is at 4 life. I proceed to draw 0 creatures the rest of the game, instead drawing multiple Termiantes and discard spells (which I notable cast the IoK's to keep my handsize low in case I found Hazoret) my opponent found a wood elves immediately which gave him his 2nd forest. He then ripped 3 hour of promise to thin his deck and finally found a pact of negation. He made the correct choice and got Chameleon Colossus (I had terminate in hand if he tried to get Titan). Even with Colossus on the board, with him at 4 and me at a reasonably high life total, pretty much any of my creatures would have been outs. He had to pay for pact the following turn and if he was dead to any crackbacks. It just wasn't meant to be I guess. For titanshift, the games were interesting enough so I didn't mind losing the bad matchup since I went down swinging.
Round 5 Grixis Death Shadow (0-2) [3-2]:
This match was a frustrating way to be knocked out of top 8 after setting things up at 3-0 where I got to play 2 win and ins in a row. Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and keep Thoughtseize x2, Bob x2, swamp. I feel like this was fine enough for a 5 card hand. early disruption from thoughseize and bob meant i could probably draw out of the mulligan. Even if the first one got removed, I had the backup. I thoughtseize my opponent and see what he is dealing with 2 fetches, Thoughtseize x2, Terminate, Thoughtscour, Serum Visions. I take the terminate with the mindset that if I could find my 2nd land, a bob would get to live and then I'd be able to come back. As I predicted, his first thoughtseize took my 2nd. I then proceed to brick on land drops as he ripped 3rd land and got low enough to play Death Shadow. It was pretty much over from there. Game 2 I saw zero actual removal spells. Don't know how I accomplished that feat but there you have it. I ended up leaving him at 1 where I had 3 draws to find either a removal spell for his death shadow or a bolt effect for his face. There was also several turns where Hazoret or Rabblemaster would have been good enough as well. Pretty unfortunate on the whole but thems the beats sometimes.
Round 6 Affinity (2-0) [4-2]: I was paired up against an X-1-1 who still had a shot for top 8. I very much considered scooping to him if he knew for certain that his tiebreakers would be enough to lock him for top 8. He wasn't sure so we played it out. If the event wasn't paying down to top 16, i'd have scooped to him anyway but at this point $30 was on the line and I didn't want to scoop only to have him miss top 8 anyway. Game 1 went as I feel a lot of games against affinity go against Jund. I had lots and lots of removal and was backed by a quick clock of scooze and goyf. Game 2 I made a couple critical errors but neither of them cost me. One I forgot to bring in my Angers and Kozilek's return. This was just me forgetting they were in my sideboard after a long day. The 2nd was that I used an Abrupt Decay to get a Ravager off the board when he had no other creatures instead of hitting the cranial plating. Nearly died to the inkmoth nexus he ripped off the top but luckily I found the removal and we stabilized. Got into a weird grindy game where I stared down his etched champions and I made a 9/9 scooze. Rabblemaster was again fantastic. It allowed me to go wide enough that he had to stop attacking and then eventually wide enough to kill him. Being able to rebuy him with Liliana the Last Hope and K. Command was also big game.
On the whole I felt like I had a pretty good day. 2 bad matchups, 1 good and then 3 mediums. Split the bad matchups, won the good and then went 2-1 in the mediums. Can't complain too badly about that. I love Rabblemaster. He was always excellent and provided much needed aggression when I needed to be the beat down. I think I am going to swap the MB Kalitas for the SB Hazoret. Neither really came up on the day but I feel like I'd rather have Hazoret in the main since I brought him and wanted to see him more on the day and didn't need Kalitas.
You'll also notice I only have 3 Dark Confidants. I own a 4th but for the life of me couldn't find it before the event. It'll probably be 4 Dark Confidants and 2 Rabblemasters or 4 Confidants and only 1 4 drop moving forward.
I should also mention that this tournament and all my FNM type modern events plus a 1k in 2 weeks is all preparation for GP Santa Clara. The Team Trios metagame looks to be friendlier to Jund than the regular one is and the event structure also means I don't have to win all my matches just a good majority of them. I feel like Jund is a great pick for this.
Best cards to have are LoTV, targeted discard (TS, IOK, CB) and hard to remove threats like Thrun and Fulminator Mage. PKN is also quite nice, since it is good against single target removal. Then you can have Spellbombs to attack their Snapcasters, but would not bring in Grafdigger or Surgical. Any control matchup is a little bit though, but some are better than other ones. I think right now UW is the hardest to beat, followed by the Jeskai PW version and the easiest right now is Jeskai Tempo out of those.
I would board out some Pushes/Terminates (You want some removal for their manlands still and note that Termiante can kill Gideon Jura) I think against all white Control decks KCommand is mediocre due to Path, for which reason I would cut it. Against Jeskai I would cut Decay I think.
Liliana, the Last Hope is also excellent here, since she can win the game on her own. I would always bring them in. She is weaker against Jeksai due to Bolts though.
UW is pretty though, I would cut Pushes all togehter and some bolts, as well as KCommand. You want Decay for Sphere and Spreading Seas. Malestrom Pulse is great against their PWs and Enchantments.
23 lands with with all those 4 drops and your sideboard look bad.
What do you mean? there is only 2 4 drops. My sideboard is pretty standard based on other lists which have placed well. Couple of flex slots as I test out various cards but on the whole it's pretty normal. 23 lands isn't that unusual either and I'd rather be screwed than flooded in the current meta (and given that my average cmc is still extremely low.
Weird, I didn't mean to say your sideboard looked bad
I meant to say it ups the curve postboard and makes 23 land at odds with it
I mean, by all means keep reporting, I'm curious to hear if the mana base supports it
So typically you are swapping 4 drops not adding them. The only matchups where I'd add more 4 drops and up the curve would be matchups where the games are going to go long and thus you are going to get your land drops.
Went 4-2 for 12th place at the Geek Fortress 1k this weekend. Overall had a pretty great day with some minor misfortune dashing my hopes for top 8. Even with that, got my entry fee (and then some) back for getting top 16 and it felt great to have Jund be "relevant" again. I didn't feel like I was fighting an uphill or downhill battle on the day in terms of matchups, just pretty level even field which is what you want to feel with Jund.
Congrats on 12th place Exatraz! I came in at 20th so you beat me by a few
Chandra was never great in the main and honestly, rarely comes up in the side. There are several matchups in which she excels but I still don't know if she is worth it. Definitely a flex slot if I feel like there is something better positioned (like Finks/Thragtusk if Burn is more present or whatever). I do love the split of Liliana's. One thing is I don't own a 4th LotV but everytime I consider buying the 4th, I run into situations and games where LtLH is great in the main. With the change to the planeswalker rule, I like no longer having a dead duplicate which happens when you run 4 of something legendary. Also she plays really well with this variant with Rabblemasters. It lets you throw them willingly into combat to trade off with something and then pick them up and use them again. With the increase in decks like Humans and such, she helps as well (either shrinking the larger attackers, killing Thalias, noble hierarchs, thalia's lt and champion of parish if your opponent can't play 2 humans in a turn, Mayors etc).
Also do we know when the meta snapshot was taken? Odd they don't have Lantern Control listed because I definitely faced it round 1. Maybe they classified it as "mill" but that's a bit disingenuous. Still pretty odd meta on the whole, lots of Jund floating around the top tables for sure. Felt very well positioned for the majority of the day even if none of us ended up making the top 8.
It's very difficult to have a snapshot of Modern because it's so diverse. A lot of people don't have the money to just drop their deck for what's meta until you start going to huge opens and gps.
I still think shadow, etron, affinity and storm dictate what modern looks like at the moment.
Heh, the moment you realize you know who someone is online. I know we talked about Hazoret a ton and she definitely is the four drop that lets you punish people the hardest and I think should be in the main. I'm surprised you weren't on 24 lands but preference, I guess. The good part of Hazoret and 24 lands is the flood while Hazoret is out doesn't hurt you nearly as much.
I don't think the meta page is quite right since the placing page says there were five Jund lists and I only see four on the pie. I know it got the Elf totals right (myself being one for 13th) so the chart isn't 100% correct but probably close enough to use for conversation.
Anyway, good job on 12th. Are you going to run it back on Thursday with Hazoret this time?
Heh, the moment you realize you know who someone is online. I know we talked about Hazoret a ton and she definitely is the four drop that lets you punish people the hardest and I think should be in the main. I'm surprised you weren't on 24 lands but preference, I guess. The good part of Hazoret and 24 lands is the flood while Hazoret is out doesn't hurt you nearly as much.
I don't think the meta page is quite right since the placing page says there were five Jund lists and I only see four on the pie. I know it got the Elf totals right (myself being one for 13th) so the chart isn't 100% correct but probably close enough to use for conversation.
Anyway, good job on 12th. Are you going to run it back on Thursday with Hazoret this time?
I may or may not make it to modern tonight at Shanes in Renton, or MBH on Thurs/Fri (got 2 new puppies I am house training at home so I'm a bit distracted during the week) but I am going to the MBH 1k this saturday and I am essentially running it back with Hazoret in the main and hopefully I can find that 4th Bob amongst my stuff.
I make no secret as to who I am, and frequently stream and post here and on Reddit under this username. It's always good to chat details on Jund with folks. Grats on getting 13th!
It's very difficult to have a snapshot of Modern because it's so diverse. A lot of people don't have the money to just drop their deck for what's meta until you start going to huge opens and gps.
I still think shadow, etron, affinity and storm dictate what modern looks like at the moment.
Jund looks better than it did months ago though
I 100% agree with you, the format was toxic to jund up til the 2nd week or so of November when Humans really started to take off. It is the primary driver of why Jund is better positioned in the current format. It's been pushing back against E. Tron and Storm while increasing the number of Jeskai Tempo and other midrange/control decks. We'll see how long it lasts but for the first time in a long long LONG time, I don't feel like complete garbage for taking Jund to local events.
Also do we know when the meta snapshot was taken? Odd they don't have Lantern Control listed because I definitely faced it round 1. Maybe they classified it as "mill" but that's a bit disingenuous. Still pretty odd meta on the whole, lots of Jund floating around the top tables for sure. Felt very well positioned for the majority of the day even if none of us ended up making the top 8.
The meta snapshot was compiled in round 5 I believe. It shows 49 decks of 55 or something like that.
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I'm currently on a 1-1 split between Huntmaster and Olivia in the Side Board. So far it's played out good, but I've only got in one FNM's worth of testing at the moment. Would recommend this!
When considering the four-drops in the mainboard, it all comes down to...
1) If they're even needed. Sometimes this question is overlooked, but it's very crucial to ask to make sure if there's any alternatives to your choices.
2) How they solve the issue at hand in your metagame.
3) Where is this card at its best, and alternatively, where is it at its worst? Sometimes a card that shines in certain places is overall mediocre is others; and we all know that just won't do.
Huntmaster, Olivia, Kalitas, and Chandra all have their ups and downs so choose wisely
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Raging Ravine
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
Creatures [13]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Collective Brutality
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Grim Lavamancer
Really like this list also. What matchups would you want to bring Grim Lavamancer in? Would you primarily side it in to shoot small creature decks? And what would you typically take out to make room for it?
Probably gonna get hate for this, but I usually run damnation, jund charm, golgari charm. With both anger and EE in my deck box in case certain people who show up. As a general rule in my meta both jund charm and golgari charm run better due to the versatility they present which usually shores up all the decks I play against better then damnation, anger, EE ever could.
Modern: Jund Midrange BRG
Legacy: Shardless Bug BUG
No hate here! I actually like this plan. Used to do it myself, actually. But I feel as though some sweepers are more "focused" as far as cards go. When you get modal abilities with charms and commands, they often include lesser versions of the real thing; which I feel are more beneficial in niche situations, but lack-luster in most.
I'm on two Anger of the Gods, and that's simply because I feel I get the most "bang for our buck" when I cast this card vs other sweepers. I'm maxing the amount of damage done to creatures WITH an exile clause on top of it. So while the spell doesn't kill ALL threats, it often leaves our goyfs/oozes untouched while narrowing (often eliminating) their side of the board. The catch is that it's sorcery speed, deals damage instead of just killing, it's 1RR to cast, and it's a narrow card. (i.e. I can't bring a card like this in a Abzan Matchup that has lingering souls)
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
3x Bloodstained Mire
2x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
3x Raging Ravine
1x Stomping Ground
2x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Wooded Foothills
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
3x Goblin Rabblemaster
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Huntmaster of the Fells
3x Scavenging Ooze
4x Tarmogoyf
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Fatal Push
1x Kolaghan's Command
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Terminate
3x Liliana of the Veil
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Blood Moon
1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2x Collective Brutality
2x Fulminator Mage
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Hazoret the Fervent
1x Kozilek's Return
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Nihil Spellbomb
There is my current list. Went 4-2 for 12th place at the Geek Fortress 1k this weekend. Overall had a pretty great day with some minor misfortune dashing my hopes for top 8. Even with that, got my entry fee (and then some) back for getting top 16 and it felt great to have Jund be "relevant" again. I didn't feel like I was fighting an uphill or downhill battle on the day in terms of matchups, just pretty level even field which is what you want to feel with Jund.
Round 1 Lantern Control (2-1) [1-0]:
Game 1 was pretty clean and simple. Rabblemaster and Dark Confidant pressured my opponent's life total, the K. Command in my opener hit the first bridge, he ripped a 2nd but couldn't answer my LotV. An ultimate later (bridge in 1 pile, everything else in the other with lethal onboard) he was unable to play his top card so the goblin tokens killed him. Game 2 was extremely close but I had about 6-7 turns where I was drawing 2 cards a turn and he only had 1 mill rock. Never saw 2 good cards in a row and he eventually found 2nd and 3rd mill rock. I conceded with ~15 min left in the round to give us enough time for game 3 (he also had double welding jar so even ancient grudge wasn't going to be good enough). Game 3 was pretty simple, he kept a heavy pithing needle hand but by the time he could Whir for Bridge, he still had 2 cards in hand and the Rabblemaster and tokens on my board alone were enough to kill him.
Round 2 Amulet Titan (2-1) [2-0]:
This is one of my good friends and a very strong pilot. Him and I have discussed this Amulet deck a lot as I used to play it (about a year before it hit the PT and became really popular). This knowledge helped me in game 1 as I used a combination of early discard, spot removal for his Azusa's and a Rabblemaster to quickly overrun him before he could keep a titan in play. Game 2 went pretty close to game 1 except that he found a Dragonlord Atarka the turn before I had lethal which killed off my Rabble and bros. The following turn he followed it up with a Titan and that was all she wrote. Game 3 I mulliganed to 6 and kept the following hand (2x Thoughtseize, 2x Bolt, 1x Swamp, 1x Blood Moon). I decided to keep this hand because I felt confidant that I could probably slow him down enough to draw into land #2 which has a high likelihood to be red so I could pop an Azusa and then maybe find my way to a Blood Moon to lock up a win. This didn't quite work exactly as I planned as my thoughtseize took an amulet left him with Azusa x2, some lands and a summoners pact. He ripped the 2nd Amulet off the top (and yeah, i felt pretty screwed). 2nd thoughtseize took the pact. I ended bricking on 3 draws for lands but I found my second land for the turn he drew a pact and played his first titan (which I had terminate for). I knew I needed to rip land #3 off the top. Bam, blackcleave cliffs. I slammed the Blood Moon so he could no longer pay for Pact. I could theoretically have bricked there and not been completely dead (since my opponent would have to spend their next turn paying for pact and transmuting for another pact) but I would have had to hit it the next turn and then find a threat to beat down with. TL;DR, getting blood mooned by a Jund deck feels pretty bad. I'll talk about my sideboard a bit after the rest of the tournament report.
Round 3 Jund (2-0) [3-0]:
This is one of those mirrors where it became obvious pretty early that I knew how to Jund better than my opponent. He got pretty unlucky on the whole for certain and while i didn't have perfect knowledge of his hand to cite exact misplays, there were definitely turns were I think my sequencing and mana efficiency is what swung the match in my favor in such a decisive fashion. Things like him Terminating my Dark Confidant on turn 3 so that I could untap and play Rabblemaster on my turn 3. Or me throwing out a Goyf into a known LotV so that I could follow up with a Scavenging Ooze which then grew out of control and let me shrink his goyfs so that I won trades. My opponent did get unlucky (drew like 3-4 lands too many in game 1 and mulliganed to 5 in game 2) but there were decisions made that definitely cost him any chance he had at the match. He also notably left in all his discard which really came back to bite him in game 2 when he was drawing blanks rather than spells.
Round 4 Titanshift (0-2) [3-1]:
Game 1 I got him to an empty hand with 5 lands in play (1 being Valakut). I'm not particularly close to having him lethal on board but it's like a 2-3 turn clock. He rips Hour of Promise into over the 2 turns. Game 2 I gave myself the chance to find victory but it just wasn't meant to be. Awkward Relic timings left my Goyfs as 2/3's and when I went to drop the Blood Moon he was able to clear the board with Valakut triggers. This isn't the end of the world for me though as I have my basics in play (2 swamps and 2 forests), he only has 1 forest and he is at 4 life. I proceed to draw 0 creatures the rest of the game, instead drawing multiple Termiantes and discard spells (which I notable cast the IoK's to keep my handsize low in case I found Hazoret) my opponent found a wood elves immediately which gave him his 2nd forest. He then ripped 3 hour of promise to thin his deck and finally found a pact of negation. He made the correct choice and got Chameleon Colossus (I had terminate in hand if he tried to get Titan). Even with Colossus on the board, with him at 4 and me at a reasonably high life total, pretty much any of my creatures would have been outs. He had to pay for pact the following turn and if he was dead to any crackbacks. It just wasn't meant to be I guess. For titanshift, the games were interesting enough so I didn't mind losing the bad matchup since I went down swinging.
Round 5 Grixis Death Shadow (0-2) [3-2]:
This match was a frustrating way to be knocked out of top 8 after setting things up at 3-0 where I got to play 2 win and ins in a row. Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and keep Thoughtseize x2, Bob x2, swamp. I feel like this was fine enough for a 5 card hand. early disruption from thoughseize and bob meant i could probably draw out of the mulligan. Even if the first one got removed, I had the backup. I thoughtseize my opponent and see what he is dealing with 2 fetches, Thoughtseize x2, Terminate, Thoughtscour, Serum Visions. I take the terminate with the mindset that if I could find my 2nd land, a bob would get to live and then I'd be able to come back. As I predicted, his first thoughtseize took my 2nd. I then proceed to brick on land drops as he ripped 3rd land and got low enough to play Death Shadow. It was pretty much over from there. Game 2 I saw zero actual removal spells. Don't know how I accomplished that feat but there you have it. I ended up leaving him at 1 where I had 3 draws to find either a removal spell for his death shadow or a bolt effect for his face. There was also several turns where Hazoret or Rabblemaster would have been good enough as well. Pretty unfortunate on the whole but thems the beats sometimes.
Round 6 Affinity (2-0) [4-2]: I was paired up against an X-1-1 who still had a shot for top 8. I very much considered scooping to him if he knew for certain that his tiebreakers would be enough to lock him for top 8. He wasn't sure so we played it out. If the event wasn't paying down to top 16, i'd have scooped to him anyway but at this point $30 was on the line and I didn't want to scoop only to have him miss top 8 anyway. Game 1 went as I feel a lot of games against affinity go against Jund. I had lots and lots of removal and was backed by a quick clock of scooze and goyf. Game 2 I made a couple critical errors but neither of them cost me. One I forgot to bring in my Angers and Kozilek's return. This was just me forgetting they were in my sideboard after a long day. The 2nd was that I used an Abrupt Decay to get a Ravager off the board when he had no other creatures instead of hitting the cranial plating. Nearly died to the inkmoth nexus he ripped off the top but luckily I found the removal and we stabilized. Got into a weird grindy game where I stared down his etched champions and I made a 9/9 scooze. Rabblemaster was again fantastic. It allowed me to go wide enough that he had to stop attacking and then eventually wide enough to kill him. Being able to rebuy him with Liliana the Last Hope and K. Command was also big game.
On the whole I felt like I had a pretty good day. 2 bad matchups, 1 good and then 3 mediums. Split the bad matchups, won the good and then went 2-1 in the mediums. Can't complain too badly about that. I love Rabblemaster. He was always excellent and provided much needed aggression when I needed to be the beat down. I think I am going to swap the MB Kalitas for the SB Hazoret. Neither really came up on the day but I feel like I'd rather have Hazoret in the main since I brought him and wanted to see him more on the day and didn't need Kalitas.
You'll also notice I only have 3 Dark Confidants. I own a 4th but for the life of me couldn't find it before the event. It'll probably be 4 Dark Confidants and 2 Rabblemasters or 4 Confidants and only 1 4 drop moving forward.
I should also mention that this tournament and all my FNM type modern events plus a 1k in 2 weeks is all preparation for GP Santa Clara. The Team Trios metagame looks to be friendlier to Jund than the regular one is and the event structure also means I don't have to win all my matches just a good majority of them. I feel like Jund is a great pick for this.
I would board out some Pushes/Terminates (You want some removal for their manlands still and note that Termiante can kill Gideon Jura) I think against all white Control decks KCommand is mediocre due to Path, for which reason I would cut it. Against Jeskai I would cut Decay I think.
Liliana, the Last Hope is also excellent here, since she can win the game on her own. I would always bring them in. She is weaker against Jeksai due to Bolts though.
UW is pretty though, I would cut Pushes all togehter and some bolts, as well as KCommand. You want Decay for Sphere and Spreading Seas. Malestrom Pulse is great against their PWs and Enchantments.
23 lands with with all those 4 drops and your sideboard look bad.
What do you mean? there is only 2 4 drops. My sideboard is pretty standard based on other lists which have placed well. Couple of flex slots as I test out various cards but on the whole it's pretty normal. 23 lands isn't that unusual either and I'd rather be screwed than flooded in the current meta (and given that my average cmc is still extremely low.
I meant to say it ups the curve postboard and makes 23 land at odds with it
I mean, by all means keep reporting, I'm curious to hear if the mana base supports it
So typically you are swapping 4 drops not adding them. The only matchups where I'd add more 4 drops and up the curve would be matchups where the games are going to go long and thus you are going to get your land drops.
Congrats on 12th place Exatraz! I came in at 20th so you beat me by a few
Here is a breakdown of the metagame for the event that someone posted to the Twitch stream, it was pretty diverse: https://www.meta-chart.com/share/geekfortress-1k-metagame-breakdown
How did you feel about your split of Lilianas, as well as the Chandra in the side?
I think she has earned the 1x in the list.
I still think shadow, etron, affinity and storm dictate what modern looks like at the moment.
Jund looks better than it did months ago though
I don't think the meta page is quite right since the placing page says there were five Jund lists and I only see four on the pie. I know it got the Elf totals right (myself being one for 13th) so the chart isn't 100% correct but probably close enough to use for conversation.
Anyway, good job on 12th. Are you going to run it back on Thursday with Hazoret this time?
I may or may not make it to modern tonight at Shanes in Renton, or MBH on Thurs/Fri (got 2 new puppies I am house training at home so I'm a bit distracted during the week) but I am going to the MBH 1k this saturday and I am essentially running it back with Hazoret in the main and hopefully I can find that 4th Bob amongst my stuff.
I make no secret as to who I am, and frequently stream and post here and on Reddit under this username. It's always good to chat details on Jund with folks. Grats on getting 13th!
I 100% agree with you, the format was toxic to jund up til the 2nd week or so of November when Humans really started to take off. It is the primary driver of why Jund is better positioned in the current format. It's been pushing back against E. Tron and Storm while increasing the number of Jeskai Tempo and other midrange/control decks. We'll see how long it lasts but for the first time in a long long LONG time, I don't feel like complete garbage for taking Jund to local events.
The meta snapshot was compiled in round 5 I believe. It shows 49 decks of 55 or something like that.