Blightning should not be cut from the deck, it is a very important spell to this deck, so much so, people add hate for the spell alone. Resolving one against faeries is really key to winning that matchup.
I disagree. Faeries have so many context-specific value cards that in most situations they're happy to pitch two cards and take the Lave Spike, and in situations that Blightning would actually have a profound impact on the matchup (i.e. hitting a Cryptic), they are usually in a position to counter it (sometimes with the cryptic). While there is an argument to be made because of Faeries' difficulty generating card quantity advantage, I've found spot-discard spells like Thoughtseize more effective.
I don't claim that Blightning is bad, per-se; Fae is definitely one of the matchups that Blightning gets some mileage. However, considering the state of the metagame as a whole, there just aren't very many matchups where I'm happier to see a Blightning than a removal spell or Kitchen Finks, or Thoughtseize. Curve considerations also lead me to favor Thoughtseize. I'll be playing a pretty experimental list tomorrow in a PTQ, so hopefully my next post will carry substance to go along with the ideas I propose. We'll see.
We are the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
Blightning should not be cut from the deck, it is a very important spell to this deck, so much so, people add hate for the spell alone. Resolving one against faeries is really key to winning that matchup.
I don't disagree, it's an incredibly important spell, but there are so many cards to bring in for the Faeries matchup that I think it's superfluous at this point with the crowded 3-spot.
I disagree. Faeries have so many context-specific value cards that in most situations they're happy to pitch two cards and take the Lave Spike, and in situations that Blightning would actually have a profound impact on the matchup (i.e. hitting a Cryptic), they are usually in a position to counter it (sometimes with the cryptic). While there is an argument to be made because of Faeries' difficulty generating card quantity advantage, I've found spot-discard spells like Thoughtseize more effective. I'll be playing a pretty experimental list tomorrow in a PTQ, so hopefully my next post will carry substance to go along with the ideas I propose. We'll see.
I'm in the same boat, taking inspiration from Lauren Lee's PTQ Top-8 list and running 3/1 Thoughtseize MD/SB and zero Blightning in the MTGO PTQ tonight. We'll see how that goes
In all my testing against faeries, which includes a lot of tourneys at a game store we go to to test for PTQ's and the like, Blightning is more often than not the reason why I've won the game. Faeries can't afford to just pitch two cards to blightning, against Jund, they need as many cards in hand as possible, and then factoring in Thoughtseize, they can't handle the hand disruption. Creating some pressure requires the deck to interact with you in ways they don't want to, forcing a cryptic just to tap down your creatures is a big one, and one I find they never want to do unless they can back it up with pressure of their own, but they never can, and blightning in those situations becomes game winning. I always say that the first blightning resolved against them is crippling, the second one is often times game winning, and so far through testing and tournaments, I've been right on both accounts, having a high winning percentage against the deck, so much so, I'm actually taking out specific hate cards, such as GSS and fallout. I may put in Jund Charms as that ooze deck is kind of killer, while also not losing anything to say elves if they decide to show up, and still giving me a sweeper for faeries if I choose to use one.
What PTQ was it? I never seen these results. It's interesting, and if it works for you then great, I firmly believe that it does belong and that it is an integral part of the deck, and I enjoy seeing it every time, whether it's drawing it or cascading into it. It's just too good in some matchups.
Mythic and Naya are both matchups that I'm not happy to face with Jund. Naya in particular outclasses all of your creatures, also has BBE, and has Knight of the Reliquary too. Both also have the mana acceleration to really make your life hell, and Mythic can go over-the-top from nowhere with Sovereigns of Lost Alara.
RDW is another matchup I'm not happy about. Even with 4x Kitchen Finks in the maindeck and 3x Obstinate Baloth postboard, I'm not sure the deck is quick enough to beat even an average RDW draw.
Overall though, I'm happy with the configuration of the deck and I think it's solidly Tier 1.5 at the worst. I got punished with some bad draws, though I also won a couple of very fortunate games that went to time. However, if I wanted to play a creature deck, I'd play Mythic, and if I wanted to play a midrange/control deck, I'd play Faeries.
4x Fallout is too many. 3x is probably right. Cunning Sparkmage (over Anathemancer, probably) may be the key to regaining an edge against Mythic and Naya, though I'm not sure. 4x Lightning Bolt is a must. Maelstrom Pulse is weaker now than it has been in ages, and Terminate may be appropriate in some number instead. Knight of the Reliquary is such a headache otherwise with just Pulse to fall back on.
Mythic and Naya aren't hard matchups, you need a lot of targeted removal, they can be tricky matchups but for the most part Jund should take care of them no problem. At least I haven't had any issues with them, kill their mana dudes, force them to play a slower paced game, you win out in the long run. Mythic and the mirror match are probably the only decks I take out Blightning for, the mirror because every Jund deck is running Demigods, and Mythic because you need as much removal as possible, and they don't do anything in those matchups other than seal it for you late game, but a lot of times it's unneeded.
Mythic and Naya aren't hard matchups, you need a lot of targeted removal, they can be tricky matchups but for the most part Jund should take care of them no problem. At least I haven't had any issues with them, kill their mana dudes, force them to play a slower paced game, you win out in the long run. Mythic and the mirror match are probably the only decks I take out Blightning for, the mirror because every Jund deck is running Demigods, and Mythic because you need as much removal as possible, and they don't do anything in those matchups other than seal it for you late game, but a lot of times it's unneeded.
exactly. is the format is going to be more creature populated (rdw, naya) why not run red and black fore removal?
Just pick the right extra removal. maybe arc trail or bituminous blast (which can be a good response to mistbind clique)
Mythic and Naya are both matchups that I'm not happy to face with Jund. Naya in particular outclasses all of your creatures, also has BBE, and has Knight of the Reliquary too. Both also have the mana acceleration to really make your life hell, and Mythic can go over-the-top from nowhere with Sovereigns of Lost Alara.
RDW is another matchup I'm not happy about. Even with 4x Kitchen Finks in the maindeck and 3x Obstinate Baloth postboard, I'm not sure the deck is quick enough to beat even an average RDW draw.
Overall though, I'm happy with the configuration of the deck and I think it's solidly Tier 1.5 at the worst. I got punished with some bad draws, though I also won a couple of very fortunate games that went to time. However, if I wanted to play a creature deck, I'd play Mythic, and if I wanted to play a midrange/control deck, I'd play Faeries.
4x Fallout is too many. 3x is probably right. Cunning Sparkmage (over Anathemancer, probably) may be the key to regaining an edge against Mythic and Naya, though I'm not sure. 4x Lightning Bolt is a must. Maelstrom Pulse is weaker now than it has been in ages, and Terminate may be appropriate in some number instead. Knight of the Reliquary is such a headache otherwise with just Pulse to fall back on.
Naya and Mythic give you problems because you have zero terminates in your 75, which is terrible. You also aren't running Deathmarks, which are also popular to deal with them.
I had a little bit of trouble today with a Tempered Steel Artifact aggro deck. While I don't really think that the deck is good, a quick draw is really hard to deak with. Fracturing Gust seems like it would just be an outright blow out against them, as well as really making them racing us pretty much impossible.
So, as I mentioned in as earlier post, I intended to pilot a niche Jund build in an upcoming PTQ. Today was the day, and unfortunately things did not go according to plan. I went 1-3 drop on the day, getting to play real, interactive magic in probably less than 50% of my matchups. I do not dare to claim I played perfectly, but I generally view the results of the day and a simple series of unfortunate events. That said, I would hope there is still knowledge to be gained from this. For those curious, here is the list and report.
Let me start by saying that the Johnny in me couldn't resist the urge to run Fulminator Mage and Grim Discovery shenanigans at a higher REL event. It was a late substitution, inspired by the fact that I felt that Anathemancer wasn't very well-positioned in the meta outlined by the pros. The inclusion of Fulminator was designed to give me an edge in the Jund mirror, and against Scapeshift, since i've found Anathemancer to be one of the weakest draws in that matchup. Next up was that I knew I wanted to run Wurmcoil Engine, since it's one of the scariest cards I could run into on a stalemate board. If ya can't beat em, join em. With Kitchen Finks, and Wurmcoil solidifying their positions in my 75, Obstinate Baloth became a general big, dumb green guy; granted, a big, dumb green guy that pantses players playing Blightning. That in mind, I wanted to find a replacement that would recoup advantage generated by opposing Blightnings, smooth out my mana, answer opposing Fulminator Mages, and ensure I hit land drops to curve up to Wurmcoil while also adding to my threat denisty and strengthening my game against opposing aggro decks. Enter: Grim Discovery. This card performed at all levels. Things got even sillier when introducing the full set of Fauna Shamans, enabling such curveouts against aggro opponents as:
T2: Shaman, T3: fetch, tutor Shriekmaw, Evoke, T4: Discovery, recurring fetch and Maw, play fetch, kill another dude.
This engine, in theory, allowed me to cheat slightly on removal spells, which enabled me to tune my maindeck with pure aggression in mind, and the option to sideboard into a very controlling rock-style deck with legitimate finishers in Demigod and Wurmcoil Engine. Great in theory, had I read the metagame properly...
The top tables were seemingly all comprised of Naya, Tempered Steel, Mythic, RDW, and a few control decks. Notably absent were Faeries, Jund, and Scapeshift.
Anyways,
R1: vs. Vinny Scibatta w/ Pyromancer Ascension
At the beginning of the match, I am notified that I receive a game loss for deck reg error (forgot a basic Mountain). Off to a good start. Fortunately, the matchup is, I believe, heavily in my favor. The tempo of the games seemed to agree. He cantripped a bunch while I built my threat base, and established a board presence where I believe he had zero outs. He played Cryptic, tapping down my guys and correctly bounced my Raging Ravine to stave off lethal, but I simply used the mana before resolution to activate my second Ravine after resolution and swing in.
-2 Terminate -1 Shriekmaw, +3 Deglamer
Game two is a long, drawn out affair, with him cantripping into oblivion, and me casting 3 Kitchen Finks into 3 Flashfreezes, and playing off the top with my hand of four of five of my disenchant effects. He resolves a Nihil Spellbomb while I stare at the Demigod in-hand. I induce a sacrifice with the 3rd Deglamer I draw and follow up with Demigod. He casts Flashfreeze.
I read his hand as a bunch of Cryptics from the way he has divvied up his lands. We fight over some Ascensions, and he eventually sticks two. I bait Cryptic with EOT Deglamer, which he counters and draws. I follow up with Maelstrom Pulse, decimating his board, and buying me more than enough time to match his Timewarps with Bloodbraid Elves, one of which cascaded into Anathemancer, locking up the game.
R2: Lucas Siow w/ Mythic Bant (Maindeck Chameleon Colossus)
Here, the trend of me not being able to interact begins. He curves manadork into Knight of the Reliquary, both of which I bolt at the appropriate times. He drops T4 Colossus, and my terminates point and laugh as I'm throughly squashed soon after.
With MD Colossus, I expected him to side into stags as well to complete the haterator package. Generally, I feel that Volcanic Fallout is too slow in this matchup to make an impact, but I expected Shriekmaw recursion woould be even slower and have no value against pro-black creatures regardless.
I keep a hand with 2 Bloodbraid Elves, Shriekmaw, Bolt, and lands. Surprisingly, he has no early-game plays. He attempts KoTR, which is promptly bolted. I cast BBE into bolt to the face. He plays KoTR, which I hardcast Shriekmaw into and attack him to 11. He plays fetch and Sovereigns and passes the turn. Here's where things get interesting:
Life totals: 19 to 10 in my favor
Board: Shriekmaw, BBE vs Sovereigns
In-Hand: Bloodbraid Elf, lands.
I cast Bloodbraid Elf into Thoughtseize, revealing Noble Hierarch, Jace, and Celestial Colonnade. I take a moment and review my scorepad. We both have a good laugh about the idea of seizing his T7 Hierarch, and me seriously considering taking it. With the Bloodbraid Elf in hand, I am presenting lethal next turn. If I take the Jace, his only outs are presumably 3 Hierarch, 1 Sovereigns. If I take the Hierarch, Jace offers him the option to brainstorm for his life, opening me to unknowns on his side, including removal for my Shriekmaw, which would allow him to stabilize and bash with the Sovereigns. I ultimately bet on the 10% out ratio that is the exalted creatures, since he seemed to build with Jund in mind and I was unsure of his sideboard strategy. I attack in, he rips Hierarch, we once again have a good laugh about it, he attacks in for exactsies, thanks to triple Exalted. We talk some more afterwards, and he mentions that Kitchen Finks was probably the correct sub, since he has inevitability against me and Leech beats backed by disruption are one of the few ways Jund wins that match. I agreed, wished him luck and moved on.
R3: Eric Garcia w/ White Weenie
Game one starts with a mull into a hand of Fauna Shaman, Bloodbraid Elf, black removal, and no black sources. I keep, figuring a mull to five would leave me draw-dependent anyways. I then proceed to draw no black sources. and get beat down by procession tokens, a Figure of Destiny and a Knight.
I open with a double mull on the play into 2 lands, bolt, and two finks. Good enough. I put up a valiant effort, with Kitchen Finks holding the fort against his hatebears (White Knight, Kor Firewalker), and Grim Discovery recursion holding the line and even allowing me go on the offensive. I draw into a couple Bloodbraid Elves, but he follows with Armored Ascension on his White Knight and the game is over shortly thereafter.
R4: Lyle Waldman w/ White Weenie
I weather the early offense with favorable cascades and Fauna Shaman sculpting my draws vs his board of infinite Steppe Lynxes bears and tokens. I start chaining Demigods at the earliest opportunity, attacking with one per turn, eating tokens while leaving up one demigod to diversify my creature colors and play around Brave the Elements. His deck stops delivering him lands to fuel the Lynxes, and once his flying armada has been fed to my Demigods, they moved on to eating his face.
SB: same as above.
I open with mulligan into Shamans and removal spells. Good enough. He opens with T1 land, pass. Off to a good start. He casts T2 Figure, I Bolt, he counters with Brave the Elements. I get a Shaman out there. He follows with Student of Warfare and bears that drop my life total at an alarming rate. He attacks in with Student, Figure, and random bears. I double block his Student of Warfare with two finks, and throw something else at the Figure. He casts a second Brave, which I respond with Bolt, targetting figure. In hindsight, I probably should've taken out the Student.
My board is two Fauna Shaman and Kitchen Finks (2/1) vs his board of double Student (lv 2 and lv1), and bears. My hand is Leech, Leech, Fallout and lands. I should have probably cast Fallout and taken the hit, but I didn't view Student of Warfare vs my nothing as a favorable board state, and I figured that since he didnt have enough lands to level both students to ideal levels that I would have enough time to tutor Wurmcoil Engine, giving me a post-fallout game plan. I roll the dice, tutoring up BBE, counting about 50% odds to hit removal. It whiffs into Finks. He follows up with Honor of the Pure, which nukes my Fallout as an out and the game falls apart shortly thereafter. Regardless, I believe tutoring up Wurmcoil and casting Fallout was probably the correct play, but interestingly enough, I tutored for Shriekmaw the following turn, hardcast, and got blown up by Brave again. I prefer to believe that it was simply just not my game to win.
G3 is an utter blowout. I double mull into two lands, two leech, and something. He triples up on Honor of the Pure and casts a Ranger of Eos. GG sir. I check the drop mark and that was that.
Yes, it is alot of text for a 1-3 drop report, but the writer in me hopes it's an interesting read, and I still truly feel that there is alot of information to be gleaned from this post. That said, I'm inclined to agree with prior posts stating that Jund is not very well positioned in this metagame. My main concerns in pilotting Jund was its color intensity, vulnerability to incidental hate that would be seeing play anyways, and "Rock" syndrome, AKA drawing answer cards at inappropriate times. All three of these concerns proved legitimate, and for that reason I will probably be shying away from Jund in the future. I must admit it was fun while it lasted, and I wish y'all the best of luck.
We are the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
Wow, what an awesome report!
After a lot of reading of online tourney reports, I have noticed that aggro seems to be the "in" thing right now. I have tweeked my build to be almost identical to the one posted by Tangucho. Also, Ananthemancer has been put to SB in favor of Ramgang. I kno it dies to bolt, but, against mythic, fae and just about everything BUT red mana, its nutz and a great cascade. I have seen a lot. Of Colossus in main decks and that is just pure hate for jund, and rightfully so. Ram gang pretty much solves that problem.
Please don't yell @ me, but, in order to fit 2x terminate in and keep the spells @ 12 or less I cut blightning and Pulse down to 3. The fourth copy is in the SB for the matchups that need them.
When I get home from work (typing this from my Droid) I will post a full list that Imm pretty will be what I play in ATL this weekend. I would like thoughts and comments both Positive and Negative so I can make the right decisions.
Basically my testing disproved the three major myths that I see people applying to jund:
Myth 1: Boggart ram-gang is bad
Myth 2: Demigod is uncuttable
Myth 3: You should play fauna shaman to supplement your demigod
Basically I didn't buy the argument that "ram-gang dies to everything under the sun" coming from the same people that advocate fauna shaman.
Essentially this list is more aggressive than most decks in the format for game one and post sideboard can play a more controlling game than most other decks. Don't have time for a full report right now, but the event went like this:
Round 1: 2-0 against faeries.
Round 2: 2-1 mirror.
Round 3: 2-1 against rug splintermite
Round 4: 2-1 mirror.
Round 5: 2-0 against UW.
Round 6: 2-0 against soul sisters.
Round 7 and 8: ID with GW trap.
Top eight, lost game three to trap after I mulled to five.
I was checking the lists that top made top eight in the online PTQ this weekend and one of them had Skinrender main and it just seems like such a good card for todays metagame. I always thought how awesome it would be to play Flame toung kavu in Jund and I think this is the closest I will get to that. It is also great against kitchen finks which have proved very problematic against me
Some ideas: -3 boggart ram-gang +1 Fauna Shaman +2 Vengevine
While Demigod of Revenge is quicker and better in most ways vengevine is harder to get rid of so maybe having a back up for the demigod (the vengevines) might not be a bad idea. I think it'll be okay because of the bloodbraid elfs.
i played this list at the ptq in columbus yesterday and went 3-5 :/ im convinced that the current jund lists are not doing anything unfair which is what needs to be done to succeed in this format so im going to try out some new jund lists but if i cant get some amazing results i will have to switch decks.
the ooze deck should be a good MU but he just went with land d both games and screwed my mana then bashed with thornling
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Basically my testing disproved the three major myths that I see people applying to jund:
Myth 1: Boggart ram-gang is bad
Myth 2: Demigod is uncuttable
Myth 3: You should play fauna shaman to supplement your demigod
Basically I didn't buy the argument that "ram-gang dies to everything under the sun" coming from the same people that advocate fauna shaman.
Essentially this list is more aggressive than most decks in the format for game one and post sideboard can play a more controlling game than most other decks. Don't have time for a full report right now, but the event went like this:
Round 1: 2-0 against faeries.
Round 2: 2-1 mirror.
Round 3: 2-1 against rug splintermite
Round 4: 2-1 mirror.
Round 5: 2-0 against UW.
Round 6: 2-0 against soul sisters.
Round 7 and 8: ID with GW trap.
Top eight, lost game three to trap after I mulled to five.
Gratz on your finish. Would you mind telling us about some of your SBing strategies? how is the GW trap matchup?
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I don't claim that Blightning is bad, per-se; Fae is definitely one of the matchups that Blightning gets some mileage. However, considering the state of the metagame as a whole, there just aren't very many matchups where I'm happier to see a Blightning than a removal spell or Kitchen Finks, or Thoughtseize. Curve considerations also lead me to favor Thoughtseize. I'll be playing a pretty experimental list tomorrow in a PTQ, so hopefully my next post will carry substance to go along with the ideas I propose. We'll see.
I don't disagree, it's an incredibly important spell, but there are so many cards to bring in for the Faeries matchup that I think it's superfluous at this point with the crowded 3-spot.
I'm in the same boat, taking inspiration from Lauren Lee's PTQ Top-8 list and running 3/1 Thoughtseize MD/SB and zero Blightning in the MTGO PTQ tonight. We'll see how that goes
She also said that she wished she never played it in her 75.
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I don't miss it, FWIW.
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Thoughtseize
4 Putrid Leech
3 Fauna Shaman
3 Anathemancer
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Savage Lands
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Copperline Gorge
4 Raging Ravine
2 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Forest
SB:
1 Thoughtseize
4 Volcanic Fallout
1 Cloudthresher
3 Obstinate Baloth
2 Great Sable Stag
2 Deglamer
1 Nature's Claim
1 Wurmcoil Engine
I went 2-4-drop and 1-1 in Extended queues just after. Here are my thoughts:
First, I don't know if Jund is Tier 1 anymore.
R1: RG Shamans (W)
R2: RDW (L)
R3: Wargate (W)
R4: Mythic (L)
R5: Faeries (L)
R6: Naya (L)
2-man queues:
RG Valakut (L)
Faeries (W)
Mythic and Naya are both matchups that I'm not happy to face with Jund. Naya in particular outclasses all of your creatures, also has BBE, and has Knight of the Reliquary too. Both also have the mana acceleration to really make your life hell, and Mythic can go over-the-top from nowhere with Sovereigns of Lost Alara.
RDW is another matchup I'm not happy about. Even with 4x Kitchen Finks in the maindeck and 3x Obstinate Baloth postboard, I'm not sure the deck is quick enough to beat even an average RDW draw.
Overall though, I'm happy with the configuration of the deck and I think it's solidly Tier 1.5 at the worst. I got punished with some bad draws, though I also won a couple of very fortunate games that went to time. However, if I wanted to play a creature deck, I'd play Mythic, and if I wanted to play a midrange/control deck, I'd play Faeries.
4x Fallout is too many. 3x is probably right. Cunning Sparkmage (over Anathemancer, probably) may be the key to regaining an edge against Mythic and Naya, though I'm not sure. 4x Lightning Bolt is a must. Maelstrom Pulse is weaker now than it has been in ages, and Terminate may be appropriate in some number instead. Knight of the Reliquary is such a headache otherwise with just Pulse to fall back on.
exactly. is the format is going to be more creature populated (rdw, naya) why not run red and black fore removal?
Just pick the right extra removal. maybe arc trail or bituminous blast (which can be a good response to mistbind clique)
i dont think that is a good idea.
Naya and Mythic give you problems because you have zero terminates in your 75, which is terrible. You also aren't running Deathmarks, which are also popular to deal with them.
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This would be my quick approach if I go to a tourney tomorrow.
4 Putrid Leech
4 Demigod of Revenge
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Fauna Shaman
1 Anathemancer
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Shriekmaw
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Blightning
2 Terminate
1 Bituminous Blast
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Graven Cairns
3 Copperline Gorge
1 Fire-lit Thicket
4 Raging Ravine
2 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Forest
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Obstinate Baloth
2 Deglamer
3 Great Stable Stag
4 Thoughtseize
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Demigod of Revenge
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
1 Shriekmaw
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Terminate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Mountain
2 Swamp
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Murmuring Bosk
4 Raging Ravine
3 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bituminous Blast
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Grim Discovery
3 Deglamer
Let me start by saying that the Johnny in me couldn't resist the urge to run Fulminator Mage and Grim Discovery shenanigans at a higher REL event. It was a late substitution, inspired by the fact that I felt that Anathemancer wasn't very well-positioned in the meta outlined by the pros. The inclusion of Fulminator was designed to give me an edge in the Jund mirror, and against Scapeshift, since i've found Anathemancer to be one of the weakest draws in that matchup. Next up was that I knew I wanted to run Wurmcoil Engine, since it's one of the scariest cards I could run into on a stalemate board. If ya can't beat em, join em. With Kitchen Finks, and Wurmcoil solidifying their positions in my 75, Obstinate Baloth became a general big, dumb green guy; granted, a big, dumb green guy that pantses players playing Blightning. That in mind, I wanted to find a replacement that would recoup advantage generated by opposing Blightnings, smooth out my mana, answer opposing Fulminator Mages, and ensure I hit land drops to curve up to Wurmcoil while also adding to my threat denisty and strengthening my game against opposing aggro decks. Enter: Grim Discovery. This card performed at all levels. Things got even sillier when introducing the full set of Fauna Shamans, enabling such curveouts against aggro opponents as:
T2: Shaman, T3: fetch, tutor Shriekmaw, Evoke, T4: Discovery, recurring fetch and Maw, play fetch, kill another dude.
This engine, in theory, allowed me to cheat slightly on removal spells, which enabled me to tune my maindeck with pure aggression in mind, and the option to sideboard into a very controlling rock-style deck with legitimate finishers in Demigod and Wurmcoil Engine. Great in theory, had I read the metagame properly...
The top tables were seemingly all comprised of Naya, Tempered Steel, Mythic, RDW, and a few control decks. Notably absent were Faeries, Jund, and Scapeshift.
Anyways,
R1: vs. Vinny Scibatta w/ Pyromancer Ascension
At the beginning of the match, I am notified that I receive a game loss for deck reg error (forgot a basic Mountain). Off to a good start. Fortunately, the matchup is, I believe, heavily in my favor. The tempo of the games seemed to agree. He cantripped a bunch while I built my threat base, and established a board presence where I believe he had zero outs. He played Cryptic, tapping down my guys and correctly bounced my Raging Ravine to stave off lethal, but I simply used the mana before resolution to activate my second Ravine after resolution and swing in.
-2 Terminate -1 Shriekmaw, +3 Deglamer
Game two is a long, drawn out affair, with him cantripping into oblivion, and me casting 3 Kitchen Finks into 3 Flashfreezes, and playing off the top with my hand of four of five of my disenchant effects. He resolves a Nihil Spellbomb while I stare at the Demigod in-hand. I induce a sacrifice with the 3rd Deglamer I draw and follow up with Demigod. He casts Flashfreeze.
I read his hand as a bunch of Cryptics from the way he has divvied up his lands. We fight over some Ascensions, and he eventually sticks two. I bait Cryptic with EOT Deglamer, which he counters and draws. I follow up with Maelstrom Pulse, decimating his board, and buying me more than enough time to match his Timewarps with Bloodbraid Elves, one of which cascaded into Anathemancer, locking up the game.
R2: Lucas Siow w/ Mythic Bant (Maindeck Chameleon Colossus)
Here, the trend of me not being able to interact begins. He curves manadork into Knight of the Reliquary, both of which I bolt at the appropriate times. He drops T4 Colossus, and my terminates point and laugh as I'm throughly squashed soon after.
-4 Putrid Leech -2 Anathemancer, +2 Volcanic Fallout +1 Grim Discovery +2 Bit Blast +1 Wurmcoil Engine
With MD Colossus, I expected him to side into stags as well to complete the haterator package. Generally, I feel that Volcanic Fallout is too slow in this matchup to make an impact, but I expected Shriekmaw recursion woould be even slower and have no value against pro-black creatures regardless.
I keep a hand with 2 Bloodbraid Elves, Shriekmaw, Bolt, and lands. Surprisingly, he has no early-game plays. He attempts KoTR, which is promptly bolted. I cast BBE into bolt to the face. He plays KoTR, which I hardcast Shriekmaw into and attack him to 11. He plays fetch and Sovereigns and passes the turn. Here's where things get interesting:
Life totals: 19 to 10 in my favor
Board: Shriekmaw, BBE vs Sovereigns
In-Hand: Bloodbraid Elf, lands.
I cast Bloodbraid Elf into Thoughtseize, revealing Noble Hierarch, Jace, and Celestial Colonnade. I take a moment and review my scorepad. We both have a good laugh about the idea of seizing his T7 Hierarch, and me seriously considering taking it. With the Bloodbraid Elf in hand, I am presenting lethal next turn. If I take the Jace, his only outs are presumably 3 Hierarch, 1 Sovereigns. If I take the Hierarch, Jace offers him the option to brainstorm for his life, opening me to unknowns on his side, including removal for my Shriekmaw, which would allow him to stabilize and bash with the Sovereigns. I ultimately bet on the 10% out ratio that is the exalted creatures, since he seemed to build with Jund in mind and I was unsure of his sideboard strategy. I attack in, he rips Hierarch, we once again have a good laugh about it, he attacks in for exactsies, thanks to triple Exalted. We talk some more afterwards, and he mentions that Kitchen Finks was probably the correct sub, since he has inevitability against me and Leech beats backed by disruption are one of the few ways Jund wins that match. I agreed, wished him luck and moved on.
R3: Eric Garcia w/ White Weenie
Game one starts with a mull into a hand of Fauna Shaman, Bloodbraid Elf, black removal, and no black sources. I keep, figuring a mull to five would leave me draw-dependent anyways. I then proceed to draw no black sources. and get beat down by procession tokens, a Figure of Destiny and a Knight.
-4 Thoughtseize -2 Anathemancer -2 Leech, +2 Bit Blast +1 Wurmcoil +3 Fallout +2 Discovery
I open with a double mull on the play into 2 lands, bolt, and two finks. Good enough. I put up a valiant effort, with Kitchen Finks holding the fort against his hatebears (White Knight, Kor Firewalker), and Grim Discovery recursion holding the line and even allowing me go on the offensive. I draw into a couple Bloodbraid Elves, but he follows with Armored Ascension on his White Knight and the game is over shortly thereafter.
R4: Lyle Waldman w/ White Weenie
I weather the early offense with favorable cascades and Fauna Shaman sculpting my draws vs his board of infinite Steppe Lynxes bears and tokens. I start chaining Demigods at the earliest opportunity, attacking with one per turn, eating tokens while leaving up one demigod to diversify my creature colors and play around Brave the Elements. His deck stops delivering him lands to fuel the Lynxes, and once his flying armada has been fed to my Demigods, they moved on to eating his face.
SB: same as above.
I open with mulligan into Shamans and removal spells. Good enough. He opens with T1 land, pass. Off to a good start. He casts T2 Figure, I Bolt, he counters with Brave the Elements. I get a Shaman out there. He follows with Student of Warfare and bears that drop my life total at an alarming rate. He attacks in with Student, Figure, and random bears. I double block his Student of Warfare with two finks, and throw something else at the Figure. He casts a second Brave, which I respond with Bolt, targetting figure. In hindsight, I probably should've taken out the Student.
My board is two Fauna Shaman and Kitchen Finks (2/1) vs his board of double Student (lv 2 and lv1), and bears. My hand is Leech, Leech, Fallout and lands. I should have probably cast Fallout and taken the hit, but I didn't view Student of Warfare vs my nothing as a favorable board state, and I figured that since he didnt have enough lands to level both students to ideal levels that I would have enough time to tutor Wurmcoil Engine, giving me a post-fallout game plan. I roll the dice, tutoring up BBE, counting about 50% odds to hit removal. It whiffs into Finks. He follows up with Honor of the Pure, which nukes my Fallout as an out and the game falls apart shortly thereafter. Regardless, I believe tutoring up Wurmcoil and casting Fallout was probably the correct play, but interestingly enough, I tutored for Shriekmaw the following turn, hardcast, and got blown up by Brave again. I prefer to believe that it was simply just not my game to win.
G3 is an utter blowout. I double mull into two lands, two leech, and something. He triples up on Honor of the Pure and casts a Ranger of Eos. GG sir. I check the drop mark and that was that.
Yes, it is alot of text for a 1-3 drop report, but the writer in me hopes it's an interesting read, and I still truly feel that there is alot of information to be gleaned from this post. That said, I'm inclined to agree with prior posts stating that Jund is not very well positioned in this metagame. My main concerns in pilotting Jund was its color intensity, vulnerability to incidental hate that would be seeing play anyways, and "Rock" syndrome, AKA drawing answer cards at inappropriate times. All three of these concerns proved legitimate, and for that reason I will probably be shying away from Jund in the future. I must admit it was fun while it lasted, and I wish y'all the best of luck.
After a lot of reading of online tourney reports, I have noticed that aggro seems to be the "in" thing right now. I have tweeked my build to be almost identical to the one posted by Tangucho. Also, Ananthemancer has been put to SB in favor of Ramgang. I kno it dies to bolt, but, against mythic, fae and just about everything BUT red mana, its nutz and a great cascade. I have seen a lot. Of Colossus in main decks and that is just pure hate for jund, and rightfully so. Ram gang pretty much solves that problem.
Please don't yell @ me, but, in order to fit 2x terminate in and keep the spells @ 12 or less I cut blightning and Pulse down to 3. The fourth copy is in the SB for the matchups that need them.
When I get home from work (typing this from my Droid) I will post a full list that Imm pretty will be what I play in ATL this weekend. I would like thoughts and comments both Positive and Negative so I can make the right decisions.
Thanx!
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Savage Lands
2 Reflecting Pool
4 Raging Ravine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Graven Cairns
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Twilight Mire
1 Swamp
3 Anathemancer
4 Putrid Leech
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Chameleon Colossus
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Blightning
1 Sign in Blood
1 Jund Charm
2 Terminate
Sideboard:
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Jund Charm
2 Terminate
1 Slave of Bolas
3 Deglamer
2 Bituminous Blast
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Obstinate Baloth
Basically my testing disproved the three major myths that I see people applying to jund:
Myth 1: Boggart ram-gang is bad
Myth 2: Demigod is uncuttable
Myth 3: You should play fauna shaman to supplement your demigod
Basically I didn't buy the argument that "ram-gang dies to everything under the sun" coming from the same people that advocate fauna shaman.
Essentially this list is more aggressive than most decks in the format for game one and post sideboard can play a more controlling game than most other decks. Don't have time for a full report right now, but the event went like this:
Round 1: 2-0 against faeries.
Round 2: 2-1 mirror.
Round 3: 2-1 against rug splintermite
Round 4: 2-1 mirror.
Round 5: 2-0 against UW.
Round 6: 2-0 against soul sisters.
Round 7 and 8: ID with GW trap.
Top eight, lost game three to trap after I mulled to five.
http://quazen.com/games/card-games/how-i-followed-my-guts-and-got-an-invite-to-worlds-bolivian-nationals-report-2nd/
also featured at the Starkinton Post
http://www.thestarkingtonpost.com/articles/-/Bolivia_Nationals_2nd
2 Anathemancer
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Demigod of Revenge
3 Fauna Shaman
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
Creatures [23]
3 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
Spells [11]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Copperline Gorge
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Forest
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Mountain
4 Raging Ravine
2 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
4 Twilight Mire
Lands [27]
SIDEBOARD
2 Duress
3 Great Sable Stag
3 Jund Charm
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Nature’s Claim
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Volcanic Fallout
Some ideas: -3 boggart ram-gang +1 Fauna Shaman +2 Vengevine
While Demigod of Revenge is quicker and better in most ways vengevine is harder to get rid of so maybe having a back up for the demigod (the vengevines) might not be a bad idea. I think it'll be okay because of the bloodbraid elfs.
Maybe 2 thought hemorrhage in the sideboard?
// Lands
3 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
1 [TE] Mountain (3)
3 [ALA] Savage Lands
1 [WWK] Lavaclaw Reaches
3 [EVE] Twilight Mire
1 [TE] Forest (1)
4 [WWK] Raging Ravine
2 [TE] Swamp (2)
3 [SOM] Blackcleave Cliffs
3 [SOM] Copperline Gorge
1 [SHM] Fire-Lit Thicket
1 [SHM] Graven Cairns
// Creatures
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
4 [SHM] Demigod of Revenge
1 [M11] Sylvan Ranger
3 [M11] Fauna Shaman
2 [ARB] Anathemancer
// Spells
3 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [M11] Lightning Bolt
2 [ARB] Terminate
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 2 [ARB] Terminate
SB: 2 [ARB] Bituminous Blast
SB: 3 [MOR] Deglamer
SB: 3 [M11] Obstinate Baloth
SB: 1 [ARB] Slave of Bolas
SB: 3 [CFX] Volcanic Fallout
i faced
r1 - elves 2-1
r2 - mythic 1-2
r3 - fae 1-2
r4 - mythic 2-0
r5 - naya 0-2
r6 - ooze 0-2
r7 - soul sisters 2-0
r8 - u/w jund hate control (4 md seas/tec edge) 1-2
the ooze deck should be a good MU but he just went with land d both games and screwed my mana then bashed with thornling
"Some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the relevation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." H.P. Lovecraft
Gratz on your finish. Would you mind telling us about some of your SBing strategies? how is the GW trap matchup?