I change the side from what I play in my store (I pick a Deadbridge Chant yesterday and I decided the Acidic Slimes this morning), and I added the Bonfires thanks to a friend that give them to me until next week; Liliana is good, but I think she needs to play arround her effects, so I decide to leave her out.
I think I have some options (actually I'm a little noob, only two years playing competition), but I want to hear more experienced people, any help will be heared.
It seems like there is nothing obvious that is wrong with the deck. I might not play 3 Slaughter Games and the 1 Sever the Bloodline, but just keep testing things out and seeing what works.
I was talking about jund in an aggro heavy meta and by aggro I mean blitz 2/5ths of the time and my friend mentioned weregarruk as a 1 of with 2 primal hunters. It worked out well and I got 2nd at game day. Is it just a fluke or something everyone but me knows?
I've been toying around with the MD Vraska instead of Garruk #2, but I'm probably going to switch it back the way it was. I think vampire nighthawk MD might been too ambitious and I might go back to MD ground seal #2. Another conflict is duress vs. Afb, as I am still 50/50 on both. (especially since some more Jund/midrange popped up recently) Lastly, I like where the count of my Tragic Slips' are at as it just isn't that effective in my meta (so I loaded up on pillar/bonfire instead). If you guys have any questions/comments feel free to post them. I think I can tighten up my SB a little more but I'm not quite sure what to move around.
I was talking about jund in an aggro heavy meta and by aggro I mean blitz 2/5ths of the time and my friend mentioned weregarruk as a 1 of with 2 primal hunters. It worked out well and I got 2nd at game day. Is it just a fluke or something everyone but me knows?
Garruk Relentless is better vs aggro, so I would say it wasn't the wrong choice there.
Garruk Relentless is better vs aggro, so I would say it wasn't the wrong choice there.
Would you run 3 garruks and if so how would you split it? Weregarruk let's you stabilize so that primal garruk can take over the game but I have had games where I drew 3 garruks by t5. Sorry for all the questions but its been proven that my ideas for jund don't cut it in competitive tourneys
Would you run 3 garruks and if so how would you split it? Weregarruk let's you stabilize so that primal garruk can take over the game but I have had games where I drew 3 garruks by t5. Sorry for all the questions but its been proven that my ideas for jund don't cut it in competitive tourneys
I personally just do 2 Primal Hunter's and no Garruk Relentless. But if your metagame was REALLY aggro, then it might be worth dropping to 2-1 split with 2 Primal Hunters. Although, it's worth considering in that case dropping the Relentless for another Abrupt Decay.
I think Garruk Primal Hunter needs to be a 2 of unless control or midrange decks just completely disappear from the metagame. The potential Garruk has to just draw you 3-5 cards is pretty big.
how to play 'vs hard counter(Grixis, American, etc...)'??????
Honestly, if I'm just playing out my hand against a deck that plays counters, a good plan is to play your "lesser threats" first. So usually stuff like Huntmaster/Olivia, then Garruk, then Thragtusk/Sire/RR. If they just have one counter and correctly nab the last spell, then you take the loss and live with resolving your other two cards. A lot of the time control players are going to get antsy and they might counter the Garruk and then you can drop Thragtusk/Sire and go to town. If they had two counters, they probably counter the last two cards. There is nothing you can do. It's generally not a good idea to wait and hope you draw a Cavern, because if you let Control decks set up, they will eat you alive.
The only time I'd probably play around a counter is if my opponent has already played multiple Sphinx's Revelations, and they discarded down to 7... you have Sire in your hand. It's pretty good odds that one of those cards is a counter spell. And you can do a lot to catch back up by playing Caverns and Sire. They could still have instant removal, but if that were the case the game would be over no matter what anyway.
how you think "now jund midrange" and "elf jund midrange"?
elf jund is more speedy and powerful.
I plan 2elf, 2 hellkite in main instead of 2 sire, 2 Ground Seal
(They go to SB)
How you think this plan?
I need advise plz...
The simple answer is that currently Jund is a big deck and is built the way it's build presumably as a result of a lot of testing. So I think it's safe to say that we can get away with simply netdecking and maybe making a few tweaks that make sense.
That's kind of what you are trying to do here, but I think you are taking out the wrong cards. Ground Seal is pretty good against Snapcaster Mage and Junk, Sire is good against control. What is Thundermaw good against? It's decent against Junk in that it can win the game faster, and for the same reason it's good against control. But you are replacing 2 cards that are better in those matchups with one card that is only solid.
I would only bother with this if for whatever reason Junk or Control aren't major players in the metagame.
The simple answer is that currently Jund is a big deck and is built the way it's build presumably as a result of a lot of testing. So I think it's safe to say that we can get away with simply netdecking and maybe making a few tweaks that make sense.
That's kind of what you are trying to do here, but I think you are taking out the wrong cards. Ground Seal is pretty good against Snapcaster Mage and Junk, Sire is good against control. What is Thundermaw good against? It's decent against Junk in that it can win the game faster, and for the same reason it's good against control. But you are replacing 2 cards that are better in those matchups with one card that is only solid.
I would only bother with this if for whatever reason Junk or Control aren't major players in the metagame.
Arbor Elf is just kind of hit or miss. You just have to test the card and see if you like how it plays. It's good because it offers acceleration more often, allowing you to hit turn 3 Huntmasters and Olivias and such more often. But outside of that it's a dead card. So just play with the card and determine for yourself if you want a 5th and 6th ramp card.
Any changes one would make to the standard list in a meta full of Blitz and other aggro decks?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Original quote byTacosnape "All ideas that give me knowledge without any effort involved on my part are good ideas. Chop chop, my dear fellow."
DCI L2 Judge GP:Madrid 2010 45th GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th GP:London 2013 67th Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
Any changes one would make to the standard list in a meta full of Blitz and other aggro decks?
Perhaps maindeck less ground seals and play 2 removal spells/bonfire in their place? I've heard of people playing 4 Bonfire.
On a related note, I FNMd today, and ended up facing a lot of aggro... and it sort of worked out that every time I took out 7 cards: 2 Garruk, 2 Sire of Insanity, 1 Rakdos Return, 2 Ground Seal... and those were basically the 7 worst cards against aggro. I would've had to start dipping into Putrefys and Dreadbores if I wanted to take out any more cards. And I had exactly 7 cards from my sideboard to bring in: 2 Pillar, 1 Tragic Slip, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Mortars, 2 Nighthawks.
I didn't do this by design, but it just kind of worked out that I had exactly 7 cards I wanted to take out as well as bring back in. Does anyone else build their sideboards like that? Or do you just try to take out the worst cards even if it's something that's actually not that bad against control/aggro/whatever?
It is not the best card when you are on the draw. Champion of the Parish can easily outgrow your mana, and it cannot deal with their 3/3s for several turns. I run four bonfires but often wish they were mizzium mortars instead. Just some food for thought.
It is not the best card when you are on the draw. Champion of the Parish can easily outgrow your mana, and it cannot deal with their 3/3s for several turns. I run four bonfires but often wish they were mizzium mortars instead. Just some food for thought.
I understand that Bonfire is actually pretty mediocre against Blitz for that reason (although maybe only on the draw? I don't know). But RG, or any other midrange it's pretty brutal.
Perhaps maindeck less ground seals and play 2 removal spells/bonfire in their place? I've heard of people playing 4 Bonfire.
On a related note, I FNMd today, and ended up facing a lot of aggro... and it sort of worked out that every time I took out 7 cards: 2 Garruk, 2 Sire of Insanity, 1 Rakdos Return, 2 Ground Seal... and those were basically the 7 worst cards against aggro. I would've had to start dipping into Putrefys and Dreadbores if I wanted to take out any more cards. And I had exactly 7 cards from my sideboard to bring in: 2 Pillar, 1 Tragic Slip, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Mortars, 2 Nighthawks.
I didn't do this by design, but it just kind of worked out that I had exactly 7 cards I wanted to take out as well as bring back in. Does anyone else build their sideboards like that? Or do you just try to take out the worst cards even if it's something that's actually not that bad against control/aggro/whatever?
That's pretty much how I build my decks/sideboards.
Back when I played Duke's stock list I would always remove 2 Sire and 2 Ground seal to bring in 2 Pillar and 2 Nighthawk. Depending on the build of aggro deck I was facing I would side out 1 Garruk/RR for 1 Tragic slip as well.
I typically like sideboarding against aggro as it is the easiest to side against for Jund I think.
Here is my new list designed to meet the meta in my local area. I seen alot of Voice of Resurgence last night when I dropped by during FNM. There's a win a box today and I knew I needed to do some tuning to have a good chance against decks I seen last night.
Here it is.
Since my worst matchup has to be the Barely Boros deck my friend plays I decided a little extra lifegain and body would be best possibly. I went with cutting my 3rd putrefy and a tragic slip(not much Aristocrats) for 2 maindeck VNH, with a 3rd waiting in the side.
Then there seem to be an overabundance of UWR playing Reckoner in my meta. I decided I needed some better answers other than 2 Putrefy and 1 Abrupt decay(non burn answers). I removed keyrune and placed abrupt decay #2 in the list. It's a quick answer to the Advent of the Wurm beatdown as well.
I put sever in place of an Olivia. Why? Because typically when I see one reckoner, one Voice, on Wurm token, even 1 thragtusk. 2-3 more typically follow. So what better way to deal with them all at once than to remove them all from the game together for 4 mana. Plus with flashback it plays faorably with Ground seal, giving us another shot at removing a problematic pack of creatures later on as well.
My biggest issue vs Barely boros is he gets around 2 reckoner and some little guys out. I'm throwing Huntmaster after huntmaster and his companion under the bus just to stay alive. But the biggest issue is Hellrider. I hope to keep his board clear and damage to a minimum. Hopefully have some board presence which includes a VNH hopefully.
I lose a little bit of power vs control by cutting Liliana to the board but she was just typically too underwhelming in other matchups I face usually.
I thought I would provide some reasoning for the changes. Any thoughts, questions, comments? Is the anything you would do different with a meta of what looked like a good number of UWR. Even better number of aggro. Little midrange and reanimator with even less if any control?
I'm going to work a bit on the Primer. But now, here's my list I'm gonna play tomorrow at my LGS. Many players are off for a WMCQ, but I decided to stay in town this time.
Deadbridge Chant is something I haven't tried yet so I'm not sure how it will perform. Arbor Elf continues to get love from me, I played yesterday against some people who were going to go the WMCQ and I actually got to play both turn 2 Liliana of the Veil and a turn 3 Sire. That's overperforming of course, but it's really nice when good things like that happen. I dropped RRs from the main because there seemed to less control stragies around, and replaced it with a Mizzium Mortars. Otherwise everything is very stock.
I didn't do this by design, but it just kind of worked out that I had exactly 7 cards I wanted to take out as well as bring back in. Does anyone else build their sideboards like that? Or do you just try to take out the worst cards even if it's something that's actually not that bad against control/aggro/whatever?
I think that's how you should build your SB. I always try to figure out my slots to have a solid SB plan against control, aggro and reanimator as it will also make SBing a lot easier and less time consuming. Control is kind of an unsolved puzzle right now because I'd have to keep in Olivias, Ground Seals or excessive removal.
Back when I played Duke's stock list I would always remove 2 Sire and 2 Ground seal to bring in 2 Pillar and 2 Nighthawk. Depending on the build of aggro deck I was facing I would side out 1 Garruk/RR for 1 Tragic slip as well.
I typically like sideboarding against aggro as it is the easiest to side against for Jund I think.
Here is my new list designed to meet the meta in my local area. I seen alot of Voice of Resurgence last night when I dropped by during FNM. There's a win a box today and I knew I needed to do some tuning to have a good chance against decks I seen last night.
Here it is.
Since my worst matchup has to be the Barely Boros deck my friend plays I decided a little extra lifegain and body would be best possibly. I went with cutting my 3rd putrefy and a tragic slip(not much Aristocrats) for 2 maindeck VNH, with a 3rd waiting in the side.
Then there seem to be an overabundance of UWR playing Reckoner in my meta. I decided I needed some better answers other than 2 Putrefy and 1 Abrupt decay(non burn answers). I removed keyrune and placed abrupt decay #2 in the list. It's a quick answer to the Advent of the Wurm beatdown as well.
I put sever in place of an Olivia. Why? Because typically when I see one reckoner, one Voice, on Wurm token, even 1 thragtusk. 2-3 more typically follow. So what better way to deal with them all at once than to remove them all from the game together for 4 mana. Plus with flashback it plays faorably with Ground seal, giving us another shot at removing a problematic pack of creatures later on as well.
My biggest issue vs Barely boros is he gets around 2 reckoner and some little guys out. I'm throwing Huntmaster after huntmaster and his companion under the bus just to stay alive. But the biggest issue is Hellrider. I hope to keep his board clear and damage to a minimum. Hopefully have some board presence which includes a VNH hopefully.
I lose a little bit of power vs control by cutting Liliana to the board but she was just typically too underwhelming in other matchups I face usually.
I thought I would provide some reasoning for the changes. Any thoughts, questions, comments? Is the anything you would do different with a meta of what looked like a good number of UWR. Even better number of aggro. Little midrange and reanimator with even less if any control?
I don't like Sever in there. If your meta has lots of aggro it's way too slow. Arbor Elf is where you want to be in a meta like that. Cut 1 Rakdos's Return, 2 Vampire Nighthawks (this is just me though -some people like VNH against aggro, but in my experience they're just way too slow and easily dealt with), 1 Sever the Bloodline. If your meta has TONS of aggro and only little Reanimator, I'd remove the Ground Seals from the mainboard. If there's only little Reanimator and no Aristocrat.dec, cut the Tragic Slip as well.
That leaves you with 7 empty slots. I'd personally add 3 Arbor Elves, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Mizzium Mortars, 1 Bonfire of the Damned, 1 Liliana of the Veil. Now you should be wildly favoured.
I played against Naya Aggro (new version running around with Advent/boros charm/smiter), B/G Midrange (the rock), Bant Aggro, and Esper control. I will type up a detailed tournament report later, but in the meantime I have some things to address. First off, I was expecting a bunch of aggro/control, and the 4th bonfire really paid off. Overall there wasn't much control, but there was at 3 least three 4-color reanimator, and 2 B/W/G Aristocrats. I wanted to know in the long run if I am shooting myself in the foot by MD'ing only 1 Ground Seal or if 2 would be more advantageous? I am also considering replacing Vraska #2 with a 2nd Afb as I seldom need/use her, and rarely find situations where I "have" to sideboard here in. Anyway, let me know what you guys think, and thanks in advance!
Minor variations from what is generally floating around.
No Lili.
Magmaquake as a one-of for speed purposes.
One more Keyrune compared to most lists for "ramp" and for the 3/1 FS creature effect.
I've been getting by with 3 Farseeks, but I'll probably go back up to 4 and drop something that has been subpar.
Tragic Slip hasn't been getting it done for me. Most times I draw into it I end up wishing it was something else. I haven't been seeing much in the way of Aristocrats. I'll probably trade it for some different removal (and then regret it later...).
Not positive about Garruk, either. I'd love to hear some comments on him. If he ultimates he is a game-winner, but I feel like with the speed of the meta right now he is better coming out of the SB and having more MD "faster" threats. Anyone feel strongly one way or another about him?
Thought I might comment with the decisions I have made since I started playing jund a few weeks ago. I have only played it twice but came second at FNM and won my game day (second in a row :D) with it.
The key things:
1) I played 2 arbor elf. I wanted to be able to play relevant spells faster in what I expected to be a pretty fast meta. In the end I only played Blitz once (and was killed easily when I drew no removal and he had sweet hands - it happens). This said, I think the deck seems a little smoother with them in and for now I think they will be staying. I was broadly less impressed with keyrune but it wasn't horrible.
2) I played 2 Liliana and 1 Garruk. Essentially I had seen a number of decks that had hexproof dudes, felt that with the arbor elfs in the deck the prospect of turn 2 Liliana was still sweet and realised I did not own a second Garruk :p. I had a pretty bad time with discard (RR and sire, not Liliana) where I gave my opponent two smiters in two consecutive games but I like Liliana enough.
3) I didn't play any Mizzium Mortars and maindecked 2 tragic slip. Not sure how right or wrong this is really but it worked for me.
Everything else was pretty stock. I had a couple of chants in my SB and rarely wanted them (and never got one online). I think I will keep one in and wait and see.
How many Arbors do you run? What was Slip hitting for you? Any decklist you can post? It sounds like an interesting build. I've seen people be pretty divided about having Arbor in there.
^this. I mean, Garruk is just way too good against control and other value decks. Dropping even one or two key cards against those decks can significantly lower your winning %.
It seems like there is nothing obvious that is wrong with the deck. I might not play 3 Slaughter Games and the 1 Sever the Bloodline, but just keep testing things out and seeing what works.
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Cavern of Souls
// Creatures
4 Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells
4 Thragtusk
3 Olivia Voldaren
2 Sire of Insanity
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Tragic Slip
4 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Dreadbore
4 Farseek
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Putrefy
1 Ground Seal
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Vraska the Unseen
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Tragic Slip
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Vraska the Unseen
1 Ground Seal
3 Pillar of Flame
1 Deadbridge Chant
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Appetite for Brains
I've been toying around with the MD Vraska instead of Garruk #2, but I'm probably going to switch it back the way it was. I think vampire nighthawk MD might been too ambitious and I might go back to MD ground seal #2. Another conflict is duress vs. Afb, as I am still 50/50 on both. (especially since some more Jund/midrange popped up recently) Lastly, I like where the count of my Tragic Slips' are at as it just isn't that effective in my meta (so I loaded up on pillar/bonfire instead). If you guys have any questions/comments feel free to post them. I think I can tighten up my SB a little more but I'm not quite sure what to move around.
Garruk Relentless is better vs aggro, so I would say it wasn't the wrong choice there.
Would you run 3 garruks and if so how would you split it? Weregarruk let's you stabilize so that primal garruk can take over the game but I have had games where I drew 3 garruks by t5. Sorry for all the questions but its been proven that my ideas for jund don't cut it in competitive tourneys
I personally just do 2 Primal Hunter's and no Garruk Relentless. But if your metagame was REALLY aggro, then it might be worth dropping to 2-1 split with 2 Primal Hunters. Although, it's worth considering in that case dropping the Relentless for another Abrupt Decay.
I think Garruk Primal Hunter needs to be a 2 of unless control or midrange decks just completely disappear from the metagame. The potential Garruk has to just draw you 3-5 cards is pretty big.
Honestly, if I'm just playing out my hand against a deck that plays counters, a good plan is to play your "lesser threats" first. So usually stuff like Huntmaster/Olivia, then Garruk, then Thragtusk/Sire/RR. If they just have one counter and correctly nab the last spell, then you take the loss and live with resolving your other two cards. A lot of the time control players are going to get antsy and they might counter the Garruk and then you can drop Thragtusk/Sire and go to town. If they had two counters, they probably counter the last two cards. There is nothing you can do. It's generally not a good idea to wait and hope you draw a Cavern, because if you let Control decks set up, they will eat you alive.
The only time I'd probably play around a counter is if my opponent has already played multiple Sphinx's Revelations, and they discarded down to 7... you have Sire in your hand. It's pretty good odds that one of those cards is a counter spell. And you can do a lot to catch back up by playing Caverns and Sire. They could still have instant removal, but if that were the case the game would be over no matter what anyway.
elf jund is more speedy and powerful.
I plan 2elf, 2 hellkite in main instead of 2 sire, 2 Ground Seal
(They go to SB)
How you think this plan?
I need advise plz...
The simple answer is that currently Jund is a big deck and is built the way it's build presumably as a result of a lot of testing. So I think it's safe to say that we can get away with simply netdecking and maybe making a few tweaks that make sense.
That's kind of what you are trying to do here, but I think you are taking out the wrong cards. Ground Seal is pretty good against Snapcaster Mage and Junk, Sire is good against control. What is Thundermaw good against? It's decent against Junk in that it can win the game faster, and for the same reason it's good against control. But you are replacing 2 cards that are better in those matchups with one card that is only solid.
I would only bother with this if for whatever reason Junk or Control aren't major players in the metagame.
thx advise
So,
How u think arbor elf for speed?
I think jund depend on farseek very much.
and elf and RR, bonfire are good synergy
So I will change Mizzium Mortars into arbor elf
How u think that??
DCI L2 Judge
GP:Madrid 2010 45th
GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th
GP:London 2013 67th
Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
Perhaps maindeck less ground seals and play 2 removal spells/bonfire in their place? I've heard of people playing 4 Bonfire.
On a related note, I FNMd today, and ended up facing a lot of aggro... and it sort of worked out that every time I took out 7 cards: 2 Garruk, 2 Sire of Insanity, 1 Rakdos Return, 2 Ground Seal... and those were basically the 7 worst cards against aggro. I would've had to start dipping into Putrefys and Dreadbores if I wanted to take out any more cards. And I had exactly 7 cards from my sideboard to bring in: 2 Pillar, 1 Tragic Slip, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Mortars, 2 Nighthawks.
I didn't do this by design, but it just kind of worked out that I had exactly 7 cards I wanted to take out as well as bring back in. Does anyone else build their sideboards like that? Or do you just try to take out the worst cards even if it's something that's actually not that bad against control/aggro/whatever?
It is not the best card when you are on the draw. Champion of the Parish can easily outgrow your mana, and it cannot deal with their 3/3s for several turns. I run four bonfires but often wish they were mizzium mortars instead. Just some food for thought.
I understand that Bonfire is actually pretty mediocre against Blitz for that reason (although maybe only on the draw? I don't know). But RG, or any other midrange it's pretty brutal.
That's pretty much how I build my decks/sideboards.
I typically like sideboarding against aggro as it is the easiest to side against for Jund I think.
Here is my new list designed to meet the meta in my local area. I seen alot of Voice of Resurgence last night when I dropped by during FNM. There's a win a box today and I knew I needed to do some tuning to have a good chance against decks I seen last night.
Here it is.
2 olivia voldaren
4 thragtusk
2 sire of insanity
2 vampire nighthawk
2 garruk, primal hunter
2 abrupt decay
3 bonfire of the damned
1 dreadbore
4 farseek
2 ground seal
2 mizzium mortar
2 putrefy
1 rakdos's return
1 sever the bloodline
1 tragic slip
3 dragonskull summit
2 cavern of souls
2 kessig wolf run
4 stomping ground
2 rootbound crag
4 overgrown tomb
4 woodland cemetery
1 rakdos's return
2 slaughter games
1 ground seal
1 deadbridge chant
2 iliana of the veil
1 curse of death's hold
2 vraska the unseen
1 tragic slip
2 pillar of flame
1 vampire nighthawk
1 olivia voldaren
Since my worst matchup has to be the Barely Boros deck my friend plays I decided a little extra lifegain and body would be best possibly. I went with cutting my 3rd putrefy and a tragic slip(not much Aristocrats) for 2 maindeck VNH, with a 3rd waiting in the side.
Then there seem to be an overabundance of UWR playing Reckoner in my meta. I decided I needed some better answers other than 2 Putrefy and 1 Abrupt decay(non burn answers). I removed keyrune and placed abrupt decay #2 in the list. It's a quick answer to the Advent of the Wurm beatdown as well.
I put sever in place of an Olivia. Why? Because typically when I see one reckoner, one Voice, on Wurm token, even 1 thragtusk. 2-3 more typically follow. So what better way to deal with them all at once than to remove them all from the game together for 4 mana. Plus with flashback it plays faorably with Ground seal, giving us another shot at removing a problematic pack of creatures later on as well.
My biggest issue vs Barely boros is he gets around 2 reckoner and some little guys out. I'm throwing Huntmaster after huntmaster and his companion under the bus just to stay alive. But the biggest issue is Hellrider. I hope to keep his board clear and damage to a minimum. Hopefully have some board presence which includes a VNH hopefully.
I lose a little bit of power vs control by cutting Liliana to the board but she was just typically too underwhelming in other matchups I face usually.
I thought I would provide some reasoning for the changes. Any thoughts, questions, comments? Is the anything you would do different with a meta of what looked like a good number of UWR. Even better number of aggro. Little midrange and reanimator with even less if any control?
3 Arbor Ef
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
3 Olivia Voldaren
4 Thragtusk
2 Sire of Insanity
Misc. (7):
2 Ground Seal
4 Farseek
1 Rados Keyrune
PWs (3):
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Removal (10):
3 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Putrefy
1 Tragic Slip
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dreadbore
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Stomping Ground
4 Blood Crypt
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Forest
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Vraska, the Unseen
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Ground Seal
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Tragic Slip
3 Duress
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Deadbridge Chant
Deadbridge Chant is something I haven't tried yet so I'm not sure how it will perform. Arbor Elf continues to get love from me, I played yesterday against some people who were going to go the WMCQ and I actually got to play both turn 2 Liliana of the Veil and a turn 3 Sire. That's overperforming of course, but it's really nice when good things like that happen. I dropped RRs from the main because there seemed to less control stragies around, and replaced it with a Mizzium Mortars. Otherwise everything is very stock.
I think that's how you should build your SB. I always try to figure out my slots to have a solid SB plan against control, aggro and reanimator as it will also make SBing a lot easier and less time consuming. Control is kind of an unsolved puzzle right now because I'd have to keep in Olivias, Ground Seals or excessive removal.
Arbor Elf, dude. Arbor Elf. Maybe Cut Rakdos Keyrunes and RRs from the mainboard and add removal like Abrupt Decay.
Youtube Channel
I don't like Sever in there. If your meta has lots of aggro it's way too slow. Arbor Elf is where you want to be in a meta like that. Cut 1 Rakdos's Return, 2 Vampire Nighthawks (this is just me though -some people like VNH against aggro, but in my experience they're just way too slow and easily dealt with), 1 Sever the Bloodline. If your meta has TONS of aggro and only little Reanimator, I'd remove the Ground Seals from the mainboard. If there's only little Reanimator and no Aristocrat.dec, cut the Tragic Slip as well.
That leaves you with 7 empty slots. I'd personally add 3 Arbor Elves, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Mizzium Mortars, 1 Bonfire of the Damned, 1 Liliana of the Veil. Now you should be wildly favoured.
Youtube Channel
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Cavern of Souls
// Creatures
4 Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells
4 Thragtusk
3 Olivia Voldaren
2 Sire of Insanity
// Spells
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Tragic Slip
4 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Dreadbore
4 Farseek
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Putrefy
1 Ground Seal
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Tragic Slip
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Vraska the Unseen
2 Ground Seal
3 Pillar of Flame
1 Deadbridge Chant
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Appetite for Brains
I played against Naya Aggro (new version running around with Advent/boros charm/smiter), B/G Midrange (the rock), Bant Aggro, and Esper control. I will type up a detailed tournament report later, but in the meantime I have some things to address. First off, I was expecting a bunch of aggro/control, and the 4th bonfire really paid off. Overall there wasn't much control, but there was at 3 least three 4-color reanimator, and 2 B/W/G Aristocrats. I wanted to know in the long run if I am shooting myself in the foot by MD'ing only 1 Ground Seal or if 2 would be more advantageous? I am also considering replacing Vraska #2 with a 2nd Afb as I seldom need/use her, and rarely find situations where I "have" to sideboard here in. Anyway, let me know what you guys think, and thanks in advance!
4x Blood Crypt
2x Cavern of Souls
2x Dragonskull Summit
1x Forest
2x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Overgrown Tomb
3x Rootbound Crag
4x Stomping Ground
3x Woodland Cemetery
Instant (6)
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Devour Flesh
1x Magmaquake
2x Putrefy
1x Tragic Slip
2x Bonfire of the Damned
1x Dreadbore
3x Farseek
2x Mizzium Mortars
2x Rakdos's Return
Creature (14)
3x Huntmaster of the Fells Flip
3x Olivia Voldaren
1x Sire Of Insanity
4x Thragtusk
3x Vampire Nighthawk
Enchantment (2)
2x Ground Seal
Artifact (2)
2x Rakdos Keyrune
Planeswalker (2)
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Appetite for Brains
1x Dreadbore
2x Duress
1x Ground Seal
2x Pillar of Flame
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Sire Of Insanity
2x Slaughter Games
1x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Vraska the Unseen
Minor variations from what is generally floating around.
No Lili.
Magmaquake as a one-of for speed purposes.
One more Keyrune compared to most lists for "ramp" and for the 3/1 FS creature effect.
I've been getting by with 3 Farseeks, but I'll probably go back up to 4 and drop something that has been subpar.
Tragic Slip hasn't been getting it done for me. Most times I draw into it I end up wishing it was something else. I haven't been seeing much in the way of Aristocrats. I'll probably trade it for some different removal (and then regret it later...).
Not positive about Garruk, either. I'd love to hear some comments on him. If he ultimates he is a game-winner, but I feel like with the speed of the meta right now he is better coming out of the SB and having more MD "faster" threats. Anyone feel strongly one way or another about him?
edit:
How many Arbors do you run? What was Slip hitting for you? Any decklist you can post? It sounds like an interesting build. I've seen people be pretty divided about having Arbor in there.
TBD...
Youtube Channel