Hello MTGS community, it's been a very long time since I've posted much of anything. So I've been playing Magic a bit more and more lately since I've had some free time. While I don't really have the drive to grind tournaments like I used to, I still love the EDH format. I recently moved to Las Vegas to start a new part of my life. It appears that most of the EDH players here are rather competitive. Now I've had some mixed experiences with EDH in the past (I've always loved the format, but honestly my old group kinda just sucked). I usually play Savra, Queen of the Golgari, but it turns out there is a pretty vicious Sigarda player here. Seeing that my stupid sac shenanigans deck really didn't have a chance, I turned to something a bit more competitive. Now I play Xira Arien (pretty much just for her colors since I can't think of another Jund general that suits control well). Now that you have a bit of background information, I'd like to move on to the main topic. How can I make my deck more valuable? Not in a monetary way, but in a mechanical way. Right now I have this Jund Ramp/Control shell that just looks to always get value based on it's plays. I'm really looking for more 2-for-1's or other value cards/creatures I might have missed. Below is a list of some cards I already have in the area of 2-for-1's and other value cards.
I also have an ETB sub-theme going on as I want almost every card in the deck to generate value. Win conditions being Hellkite Overlord as a very hard to deal with threat and two different wins from Tooth and Nail being Mike and Trike or Kiki + Conscripts. As it is I am pretty happy with the deck, but I feel like it's missing something. Are there any other good value cards in Jund aside from the obvious ones? I already know about the Praetors and other common staples (E-Witness, Avenger of Zendikar, etc). How is this premise for competitive EDH? Is the second Tooth and Nail combo needed? TBH it's just been too long since I've looked at this game and I feel like my deck isn't as optimal as it could be. I'm also not sure if I'm playing too much Ramp. I should also mention that I do have Kessig-Wolf Run in the deck too, so maybe that much ramp is okay. Any other suggestions?
Utility Creatures Fierce Empath and Woodland Bellower are BFFs. The Bellower is also tight with Eternal Witness, Reclamation Sage, Wood Elves, Sakura-Tribe Elder or any green utility dorks you happen to be running. I'd replace Flametongue Kavu with Inferno Titan because it can potentially remove three creatures with its triggers (and do it repeatedly) and puts a lot more pressure on our opponent (plus if you have an infinite sacrifice combo, it'll straight-up win the game). Balefire Dragon is a good analogue to Inferno Titan, but is hampered somewhat by lack of ETB. A high count of utility creatures is always good with Sneak Attack too. Insurrection is a lot stronger than Molten Primordial.
Ramp
Your ramp seems fine (I'm not sure how you'd be worried about running "too much ramp" when your main goal is casting a 9-mana spell), but I'd replace Darksteel Ingot with Fellwar Stone and Farseek with Nature's Lore.
Win Conditions
While Mike and Trike and Kiki-Conscripts are good, another Tooth and Nail du jour is Craterhoof Behemoth and Avenger of Zendikar. It doesn't go infinite, but the Trike and Conscripts are usually pretty unexciting outside of combos, and Jund has very easy access to mass haste (hi there, Fires of Yavimaya) to kill the whole table. You can also swap out the Behemoth for Purphoros, God of the Forge (you should run him anyway, actually.) Hellkite Overlord by himself is not a win condition, and your deck doesn't seem aggressive enough to do anything with Broodmate Dragon.
Thanks for the reply. Sorry, been really busy with work so I haven't been able to post a full list. Was already playing Beast Within and Dreadbore to answer walkers. Hmm, which Reanimation creatures would you play? I'm already playing the Delver since it interacts well with the deck. Sheoldred I'm kind of iffy on since it really needs to live a full turn to get value.
EDIT: Hmm, should I be playing Birthing Pod in this deck? It almost feels like I should. Do I need insurrection? About how many Win-conditions should I be playing in this build? Been a while since I just built a straight up good stuff deck, so I'm not sure anymore. Seems kind of silly to me to run both Insurrection and Rise if I am already running Tooth and Nail. Should I even run all 3 or just 2?
EDIT 2: Also, are there any better Generals then Xira Arien? She's not terrible, just a bit underwhelming and slow. More then anything I hate her art.
For generals, it depends what you want your commander to do. Shattergang Brothers is the most grindy and control-oriented Jund commander and can generate value out of just about any permanent you happen to have, but is usually more staxy than controlly. Vaevictis Asmadi is a brutal finisher and can end games quickly (and has no deck-building requirements beyond "play Jund colors"). Adun Oakenshield can help you recycle your ETB guys, but I'm not sure how helpful that is since you don't seem to have a prevalent sacrifice theme. I'd recommend Shattergang Brothers first, followed by Vaevictis.
The other Jund commanders are either more aggro/sacrifice focused than you seem to want (like Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper or Kresh, the Bloodbraided), or they play to a theme that you're not using (Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund; you could play him just as a beatstick, but Vaevectis fills that role better) or they're combo commanders that most people are sick of before even playing against (Prossh, Skyraider of Kher).
No deck needsInsurrection, but it's useful as an instant win spell in multiplayer (in 1v1 it's garbage, of course). Playing it or not isn't a huge difference, it's just one of many finisher spells you can run, and is one of the better ones (I'd run it over Rise of the Dark Realms, actually).
Birthing Pod is extremely powerful, but it requires a whole different kind of deck to accommodate it. It's not a goodstuff card, it's a central combo piece and is basically an archetype unto itself (but I'm also not sure how goodstuffy your deck actually is, since you're running combos like Mike&Trike and Kiki-Conscripts. I don't think a real goodstuff deck would run Trike or Conscripts). You'd need to significantly up your creature count, work out 3 or 4 pod chains, and before you know it, half your cards are swapped out and you're probably running Kresh or Sek'Kuar as your general. Something like Natural Order (or your current Tooth and Nail) is better for goodstuff since it's not as finnicky, plus it lets you turn random green tokens into Craterhoof Behemoth without having to cycle through a bunch of other creatures in between.
The question of "number of win conditions" is also more suited to a control or combo deck than goodstuff. In goodstuff, a sizeable portion of your creatures are pretty much win conditions anyway (a good example being Omnath, Locus of Rage), plus a couple bombs like Insurrection or Exsanguinate. If you're thinking about on-the-spot win combos, three is a good number.
If you want to keep your reanimation creature-based, Apprentice Necromancer is probably your best option because of the haste, and sac EOT gives you more chances to reuse ETBs. Doomed Necromancer is slower but gives you lasting board presence.
For generals, it depends what you want your commander to do. Shattergang Brothers is the most grindy and control-oriented Jund commander and can generate value out of just about any permanent you happen to have, but is usually more staxy than controlly. Vaevictis Asmadi is a brutal finisher and can end games quickly (and has no deck-building requirements beyond "play Jund colors"). Adun Oakenshield can help you recycle your ETB guys, but I'm not sure how helpful that is since you don't seem to have a prevalent sacrifice theme. I'd recommend Shattergang Brothers first, followed by Vaevictis.
The other Jund commanders are either more aggro/sacrifice focused than you seem to want (like Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper or Kresh, the Bloodbraided), or they play to a theme that you're not using (Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund; you could play him just as a beatstick, but Vaevectis fills that role better) or they're combo commanders that most people are sick of before even playing against (Prossh, Skyraider of Kher).
No deck needsInsurrection, but it's useful as an instant win spell in multiplayer (in 1v1 it's garbage, of course). Playing it or not isn't a huge difference, it's just one of many finisher spells you can run, and is one of the better ones (I'd run it over Rise of the Dark Realms, actually).
Birthing Pod is extremely powerful, but it requires a whole different kind of deck to accommodate it. It's not a goodstuff card, it's a central combo piece and is basically an archetype unto itself (but I'm also not sure how goodstuffy your deck actually is, since you're running combos like Mike&Trike and Kiki-Conscripts. I don't think a real goodstuff deck would run Trike or Conscripts). You'd need to significantly up your creature count, work out 3 or 4 pod chains, and before you know it, half your cards are swapped out and you're probably running Kresh or Sek'Kuar as your general. Something like Natural Order (or your current Tooth and Nail) is better for goodstuff since it's not as finnicky, plus it lets you turn random green tokens into Craterhoof Behemoth without having to cycle through a bunch of other creatures in between.
The question of "number of win conditions" is also more suited to a control or combo deck than goodstuff. In goodstuff, a sizeable portion of your creatures are pretty much win conditions anyway (a good example being Omnath, Locus of Rage), plus a couple bombs like Insurrection or Exsanguinate. If you're thinking about on-the-spot win combos, three is a good number.
If you want to keep your reanimation creature-based, Apprentice Necromancer is probably your best option because of the haste, and sac EOT gives you more chances to reuse ETBs. Doomed Necromancer is slower but gives you lasting board presence.
You wouldn't play Mike and Trike combo or Conscripts combo in the deck? I just thought it would be good since it's an "I win" button that can just take the game. Mike seems good enough on his own . . . I do agree with Conscripts/Trike though. I figured I needed some sort of infinite combo to win the game in such a hardcore environment. Any other suggestions to replace them? Why do you not like them but are okay with Purph/Avenger off of Tooth and Nail? Not sure about Shattergang since I don't really run any enchantments and only very few artifacts. Just kinda curious is all.
EDIT: Regardless of the combo inclusions or not, you still like Mike, Kiki, and Tooth and Nail in the deck right? I admit I am kind of a combo player, so a piece of me wanted them in the deck to just kill my opponents on the spot via combo. Also, thoughts on Withered Wretch for grave hate? I know I have access to Scooze, but Wretch is easier on mana and I am already playing Jund Charm as an option as well. Also playing Darigaaz's Charm for that matter.
You absolutely should be playing birthing pod. Birthing pod is extremely strong. I run it in my riku of two reflections goodstuff list, and on average i win 4 turns after pod comes out if its not removed, mind you i run no infinites in my list as well.
Deathrite shaman could be good as your one drop. You certainly seem to be running a lot of ramp to me, when i was running that much ramp in riku i got these awkeard games where i drew the ramp half of my deck and never anything to do with it a little too frequently
Edit: kiki-conscripts is the better combo to run, since kiki and conscripts are at least decent on there own, while mikaeus is alright and triskellion is trash
You absolutely should be playing birthing pod. Birthing pod is extremely strong. I run it in my riku of two reflections goodstuff list, and on average i win 4 turns after pod comes out if its not removed, mind you i run no infinites in my list as well.
Deathrite shaman could be good as your one drop. You certainly seem to be running a lot of ramp to me, when i was running that much ramp in riku i got these awkeard games where i drew the ramp half of my deck and never anything to do with it a little too frequently
Edit: kiki-conscripts is the better combo to run, since kiki and conscripts are at least decent on there own, while mikaeus is alright and triskellion is trash
That's what I thought. I had Deathrite in the list initially but I cut him. I could probably put him back in. Hmm, any other ideas/suggestions I may have missed?
You absolutely should be playing birthing pod. Birthing pod is extremely strong. I run it in my riku of two reflections goodstuff list, and on average i win 4 turns after pod comes out if its not removed, mind you i run no infinites in my list as well.
Deathrite shaman could be good as your one drop. You certainly seem to be running a lot of ramp to me, when i was running that much ramp in riku i got these awkeard games where i drew the ramp half of my deck and never anything to do with it a little too frequently
Edit: kiki-conscripts is the better combo to run, since kiki and conscripts are at least decent on there own, while mikaeus is alright and triskellion is trash
That's what I thought. I had Deathrite in the list initially but I cut him. I could probably put him back in. Hmm, any other ideas/suggestions I may have missed?
I dont know what your meta is like, but your deck is heavily etb focused. My riku list straight up folds to torpor orb, and it pops up in several decks in my groups. I run both vandalblast and ancient grudge to deal with these, as well as to deal witb t1 sol rings and whatnot
You absolutely should be playing birthing pod. Birthing pod is extremely strong. I run it in my riku of two reflections goodstuff list, and on average i win 4 turns after pod comes out if its not removed, mind you i run no infinites in my list as well.
Deathrite shaman could be good as your one drop. You certainly seem to be running a lot of ramp to me, when i was running that much ramp in riku i got these awkeard games where i drew the ramp half of my deck and never anything to do with it a little too frequently
Edit: kiki-conscripts is the better combo to run, since kiki and conscripts are at least decent on there own, while mikaeus is alright and triskellion is trash
That's what I thought. I had Deathrite in the list initially but I cut him. I could probably put him back in. Hmm, any other ideas/suggestions I may have missed?
I dont know what your meta is like, but your deck is heavily etb focused. My riku list straight up folds to torpor orb, and it pops up in several decks in my groups. I run both vandalblast and ancient grudge to deal with these, as well as to deal witb t1 sol rings and whatnot
I know Torpor Orb wrecks me, but I have quite a few answers. Hull Breach, Violent Ultimatum, Maelstrom Pulse, Krosan Grip, Decimate, Putrefy, and Beast Within.
Also, what are people's thoughts on Cauldron Dance? It's a card I've always liked to play in these kinds of decks.
Some of the choices are a bit whack (Cabal Coffers, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, etc.) but the basic spirit is in the right place. The deck still runs Mike in order to reuse the creatures you sac to pod, and he can also win with Murderous Redcap (better than the Trike because he can be sacrificed twice to the Pod). It also runs Tooth and Nail and Kiki-Conscripts like you were doing originally, so you can keep that (the Conscripts become a lot better with more sac outlets). If you want to go a more combo-focused route, I'd run more creature sac outlets. The best is Viscera Seer; some decks run crappy ones like Bloodthrone Vampire and Scarland Thrinaxso you can always pod into a combo piece.
If your goal is to win in a "hardcore environment", you probably can't in Jund (well, maybe with a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher+Food Chain deck, but it would have to be built and played flawlessly). Hardcore commander decks (at least, the very hardest of the hardcore) are basically all combo decks that are faster than Pod or prison/permission/stax decks that will render everyone else unable to cast a spell that costs more than 3 mana if they're lucky. But at any reasonable drop-in Commander game, Jund Pod should do well.
Some of the choices are a bit whack (Cabal Coffers, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, etc.) but the basic spirit is in the right place. The deck still runs Mike in order to reuse the creatures you sac to pod, and he can also win with Murderous Redcap (better than the Trike because he can be sacrificed twice to the Pod). It also runs Tooth and Nail and Kiki-Conscripts like you were doing originally, so you can keep that (the Conscripts become a lot better with more sac outlets). If you want to go a more combo-focused route, I'd run more creature sac outlets. The best is Viscera Seer; some decks run crappy ones like Bloodthrone Vampire and Scarland Thrinaxso you can always pod into a combo piece.
If your goal is to win in a "hardcore environment", you probably can't in Jund (well, maybe with a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher+Food Chain deck, but it would have to be built and played flawlessly). Hardcore commander decks (at least, the very hardest of the hardcore) are basically all combo decks that are faster than Pod or prison/permission/stax decks that will render everyone else unable to cast a spell that costs more than 3 mana if they're lucky. But at any reasonable drop-in Commander game, Jund Pod should do well.
What kinds of combos come from the sac engine? I already am familiar with Redcap and Mike, but aren't there a few others that can get some mileage too?
Lots of these decks win with Blood Artist and its spinoffs (Zulaport Cutthroat and others), or make infinite mana off Phyrexian Altar, draw tons of cards off Grim Haruspex and win with Exsanguinate (or just win off Purphoros triggers). Decks of this type generally just go for infinite sacrifice --> infinite damage --> win, and can do it fast and consistently enough that they don't need a diverse array of combos. More versions of the same combo can be facilitated with Nim Deathmantle but I don't know those very well.
I know it's been a thousand years, but if I found this threas, someone else might be looking for tips aswell.
What you have to notice is that, in EDH, a traditional 2 for 1 is not card advantage. You have to 3 for 1 at least, since you are wasting your card to get rid of at least one card from each opponent.
With that in mind, wraths and mass sacrifice are always the best value. I run a Kresh that that has no sacrificing theme, but makes it so Kresg gets its power from me controlling the board. It's basically a jund rock or nic fit for EDH. Ramp a lot and get mass value from big spells and grow Kresh at the same time.
Also, you are loaded with 2-3 mana ramp spells. I think you need to diversify and put in some bigger ramp, ones that get you really far in land count.
And here is my ramp package (maybe too much ramp?)
I also have an ETB sub-theme going on as I want almost every card in the deck to generate value. Win conditions being Hellkite Overlord as a very hard to deal with threat and two different wins from Tooth and Nail being Mike and Trike or Kiki + Conscripts. As it is I am pretty happy with the deck, but I feel like it's missing something. Are there any other good value cards in Jund aside from the obvious ones? I already know about the Praetors and other common staples (E-Witness, Avenger of Zendikar, etc). How is this premise for competitive EDH? Is the second Tooth and Nail combo needed? TBH it's just been too long since I've looked at this game and I feel like my deck isn't as optimal as it could be. I'm also not sure if I'm playing too much Ramp. I should also mention that I do have Kessig-Wolf Run in the deck too, so maybe that much ramp is okay. Any other suggestions?
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Fierce Empath and Woodland Bellower are BFFs. The Bellower is also tight with Eternal Witness, Reclamation Sage, Wood Elves, Sakura-Tribe Elder or any green utility dorks you happen to be running. I'd replace Flametongue Kavu with Inferno Titan because it can potentially remove three creatures with its triggers (and do it repeatedly) and puts a lot more pressure on our opponent (plus if you have an infinite sacrifice combo, it'll straight-up win the game). Balefire Dragon is a good analogue to Inferno Titan, but is hampered somewhat by lack of ETB. A high count of utility creatures is always good with Sneak Attack too. Insurrection is a lot stronger than Molten Primordial.
Ramp
Your ramp seems fine (I'm not sure how you'd be worried about running "too much ramp" when your main goal is casting a 9-mana spell), but I'd replace Darksteel Ingot with Fellwar Stone and Farseek with Nature's Lore.
Win Conditions
While Mike and Trike and Kiki-Conscripts are good, another Tooth and Nail du jour is Craterhoof Behemoth and Avenger of Zendikar. It doesn't go infinite, but the Trike and Conscripts are usually pretty unexciting outside of combos, and Jund has very easy access to mass haste (hi there, Fires of Yavimaya) to kill the whole table. You can also swap out the Behemoth for Purphoros, God of the Forge (you should run him anyway, actually.)
Hellkite Overlord by himself is not a win condition, and your deck doesn't seem aggressive enough to do anything with Broodmate Dragon.
Removal
I'm noticing a suspicious lack of kill-on-ETB guys like Shriekmaw, Fleshbag Marauder, Bone Shredder, Big Game Hunter or Nekrataal. The Marauder (and his functional equivalent Merciless Executioner and big brother Slum Reaper) are the best in terms of general value, but targeted removal is sometimes better. Big Game Hunter is usually the best of the targeted guys. I'm a bit concerned about your lack of planeswalker removal. Hero's Downfall is usually all you need. Also, Beast Within is a must. Violent Ultimatum is cool, but Pernicious Deed is usually better.Indrik Stomphowler should be either Bane of Progress or Wave of Vitriol.
Reanimation
You haven't mentioned a single reanimation spell, which is odd given a focus on ETBs. I'd run at least Reanimate (and maybe its creature version Phyrexian Delver) and Animate Dead/Necromancy. Volrath's Stronghold is a must. Other good options are Dread Return, Torrent of Souls, Doomed Necromancer, Apprentice Necromancer, Ever After and Coffin Queen. Your ramp base can probably support Rise of the Dark Realms. Dawn of the Dead and Corpse Dance are good if you're heavy on sac outlets, and Sheoldred, Whispering One is good in basically everything ever.
EDIT: Hmm, should I be playing Birthing Pod in this deck? It almost feels like I should. Do I need insurrection? About how many Win-conditions should I be playing in this build? Been a while since I just built a straight up good stuff deck, so I'm not sure anymore. Seems kind of silly to me to run both Insurrection and Rise if I am already running Tooth and Nail. Should I even run all 3 or just 2?
EDIT 2: Also, are there any better Generals then Xira Arien? She's not terrible, just a bit underwhelming and slow. More then anything I hate her art.
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The other Jund commanders are either more aggro/sacrifice focused than you seem to want (like Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper or Kresh, the Bloodbraided), or they play to a theme that you're not using (Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund; you could play him just as a beatstick, but Vaevectis fills that role better) or they're combo commanders that most people are sick of before even playing against (Prossh, Skyraider of Kher).
No deck needs Insurrection, but it's useful as an instant win spell in multiplayer (in 1v1 it's garbage, of course). Playing it or not isn't a huge difference, it's just one of many finisher spells you can run, and is one of the better ones (I'd run it over Rise of the Dark Realms, actually).
Birthing Pod is extremely powerful, but it requires a whole different kind of deck to accommodate it. It's not a goodstuff card, it's a central combo piece and is basically an archetype unto itself (but I'm also not sure how goodstuffy your deck actually is, since you're running combos like Mike&Trike and Kiki-Conscripts. I don't think a real goodstuff deck would run Trike or Conscripts). You'd need to significantly up your creature count, work out 3 or 4 pod chains, and before you know it, half your cards are swapped out and you're probably running Kresh or Sek'Kuar as your general. Something like Natural Order (or your current Tooth and Nail) is better for goodstuff since it's not as finnicky, plus it lets you turn random green tokens into Craterhoof Behemoth without having to cycle through a bunch of other creatures in between.
The question of "number of win conditions" is also more suited to a control or combo deck than goodstuff. In goodstuff, a sizeable portion of your creatures are pretty much win conditions anyway (a good example being Omnath, Locus of Rage), plus a couple bombs like Insurrection or Exsanguinate. If you're thinking about on-the-spot win combos, three is a good number.
If you want to keep your reanimation creature-based, Apprentice Necromancer is probably your best option because of the haste, and sac EOT gives you more chances to reuse ETBs. Doomed Necromancer is slower but gives you lasting board presence.
You wouldn't play Mike and Trike combo or Conscripts combo in the deck? I just thought it would be good since it's an "I win" button that can just take the game. Mike seems good enough on his own . . . I do agree with Conscripts/Trike though. I figured I needed some sort of infinite combo to win the game in such a hardcore environment. Any other suggestions to replace them? Why do you not like them but are okay with Purph/Avenger off of Tooth and Nail? Not sure about Shattergang since I don't really run any enchantments and only very few artifacts. Just kinda curious is all.
EDIT: Regardless of the combo inclusions or not, you still like Mike, Kiki, and Tooth and Nail in the deck right? I admit I am kind of a combo player, so a piece of me wanted them in the deck to just kill my opponents on the spot via combo. Also, thoughts on Withered Wretch for grave hate? I know I have access to Scooze, but Wretch is easier on mana and I am already playing Jund Charm as an option as well. Also playing Darigaaz's Charm for that matter.
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Deathrite shaman could be good as your one drop. You certainly seem to be running a lot of ramp to me, when i was running that much ramp in riku i got these awkeard games where i drew the ramp half of my deck and never anything to do with it a little too frequently
Edit: kiki-conscripts is the better combo to run, since kiki and conscripts are at least decent on there own, while mikaeus is alright and triskellion is trash
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
That's what I thought. I had Deathrite in the list initially but I cut him. I could probably put him back in. Hmm, any other ideas/suggestions I may have missed?
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I dont know what your meta is like, but your deck is heavily etb focused. My riku list straight up folds to torpor orb, and it pops up in several decks in my groups. I run both vandalblast and ancient grudge to deal with these, as well as to deal witb t1 sol rings and whatnot
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
I know Torpor Orb wrecks me, but I have quite a few answers. Hull Breach, Violent Ultimatum, Maelstrom Pulse, Krosan Grip, Decimate, Putrefy, and Beast Within.
Also, what are people's thoughts on Cauldron Dance? It's a card I've always liked to play in these kinds of decks.
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Some of the choices are a bit whack (Cabal Coffers, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, etc.) but the basic spirit is in the right place. The deck still runs Mike in order to reuse the creatures you sac to pod, and he can also win with Murderous Redcap (better than the Trike because he can be sacrificed twice to the Pod). It also runs Tooth and Nail and Kiki-Conscripts like you were doing originally, so you can keep that (the Conscripts become a lot better with more sac outlets). If you want to go a more combo-focused route, I'd run more creature sac outlets. The best is Viscera Seer; some decks run crappy ones like Bloodthrone Vampire and Scarland Thrinaxso you can always pod into a combo piece.
If your goal is to win in a "hardcore environment", you probably can't in Jund (well, maybe with a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher+Food Chain deck, but it would have to be built and played flawlessly). Hardcore commander decks (at least, the very hardest of the hardcore) are basically all combo decks that are faster than Pod or prison/permission/stax decks that will render everyone else unable to cast a spell that costs more than 3 mana if they're lucky. But at any reasonable drop-in Commander game, Jund Pod should do well.
What kinds of combos come from the sac engine? I already am familiar with Redcap and Mike, but aren't there a few others that can get some mileage too?
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What you have to notice is that, in EDH, a traditional 2 for 1 is not card advantage. You have to 3 for 1 at least, since you are wasting your card to get rid of at least one card from each opponent.
With that in mind, wraths and mass sacrifice are always the best value. I run a Kresh that that has no sacrificing theme, but makes it so Kresg gets its power from me controlling the board. It's basically a jund rock or nic fit for EDH. Ramp a lot and get mass value from big spells and grow Kresh at the same time.
Also, you are loaded with 2-3 mana ramp spells. I think you need to diversify and put in some bigger ramp, ones that get you really far in land count.
So you freely admit wrongdoing?
Because necromancy is a crime in these parts, son.