So tomorrow I take the plane for Grand Prix Madrid in Team Modern Unified, my Merfolck team mate will finally play Humans instead of his fishes.
Humans / Affinity / Jund (2 agressive decks and 1 midrange).
Here what I've tested a lot during last weekd and what I'll play this week-end : Jund Moon
- Jund DS / Burn / Elves
- Eldra Tron / BW Smallpow / Grixis Reanimator (classic Reanimator but with Kiki-jiki combo and Blood Moon in SB too)
We'll see wich one go the farest
Gus
I he not running Dark Confidant in Humans? That seems like an unfortunate loss for his deck (as Bob is one of the main reasons I personally like that deck). All in all though, good luck to you guys!
So tomorrow I take the plane for Grand Prix Madrid in Team Modern Unified, my Merfolck team mate will finally play Humans instead of his fishes.
Humans / Affinity / Jund (2 agressive decks and 1 midrange).
Here what I've tested a lot during last weekd and what I'll play this week-end : Jund Moon
- Jund DS / Burn / Elves
- Eldra Tron / BW Smallpow / Grixis Reanimator (classic Reanimator but with Kiki-jiki combo and Blood Moon in SB too)
We'll see wich one go the farest
Gus
Good luck to you, Jund 'em all out!
One note though, don't you think another basic might be a good idea, to support BM more? I feel like 3 basics is too few for it. Also I don't think 23 land list can support BM as good as 24 land lists. Anyway, best of luck for the tournament.
So tomorrow I take the plane for Grand Prix Madrid in Team Modern Unified, my Merfolck team mate will finally play Humans instead of his fishes.
Humans / Affinity / Jund (2 agressive decks and 1 midrange).
Here what I've tested a lot during last weekd and what I'll play this week-end : Jund Moon
- Jund DS / Burn / Elves
- Eldra Tron / BW Smallpow / Grixis Reanimator (classic Reanimator but with Kiki-jiki combo and Blood Moon in SB too)
We'll see wich one go the farest
Gus
I he not running Dark Confidant in Humans? That seems like an unfortunate loss for his deck (as Bob is one of the main reasons I personally like that deck). All in all though, good luck to you guys!
He replaced Dark Confidant by Tireless Tracker (which is pretty good too)
3-1 at Thursday Night Modern last night with essentially the same list posted before (tried Hazoret instead of Kalitas in the main, still haven't had a chance to look for my 4th Bob).
Round 1 Eggs (the top 8 player and deck from the Geek Fortress 1k the previous weekend) (2-1) [1-0]: Game 1 and 2 were both very close. In game 1 I got to the point I could ultimate LotV with my opponent on no cards but he had essentially all the pieces he needed to go off the next turn. I did make the wrong pile decision which netted him 1 extra mana but it never mattered as he always had a spare mana while he combo'd off. He got a little lucky and ripped Ichor Wellspring into a Terrarium off the top and that gave him just enough gas to combo off. Game 2 I had disruption backed by threat of Goyf and Rabblemaster. I forced him back a turn leaving him with a scrap trawler in play which I promptly terminated and attacked for lethal. Game 3 can be found here at 43:27. Both myself and my opponent kept 1 landers so that was fun.
Round 2 Humans (2-1)[2-0]: This was my good friend and the Humans player who won the 1k at Geek Fortress last weekend with the same list. Game 1 I was able to sequence a pretty aggressive start of IoK into Goyf into K. Command kill your lord, shatter your vial hit you for 5. My opponent almost stabilized as I started hitting lands and he found a Dark Confidant which flipped him into a Mantis Rider (and he drew a 2nd). This put him with enough blockers to attack out and not worry about crackback. However he was at 1 with Dark Confidant still in play. Bob flipped a Champion of the Parish to kill him. Game 2 I kept a 2 land hand (swamp/fetch) and then drew a 2nd swamp off the top for my first draw. I then saw no more lands for the rest of the game, drew both 4 drops, my anger and my 1 forest wasn't good enough for me to out scooze his aggression. I did have a sequence for like 3-5 turns where if I had found the 4th land I get to run away with the game but it wasn't meant to be. Game 3 is why I like Huntmaster. I stick Bob and Goyf with and my opponent and I poke at each other's hands and things in play but when I dropped Huntmaster, it warped the game around it. I was able to time Huntmaster and Mayor of Avabruck to flip on my opponent's upkeep so that I could kill Mayor before it actually flipped. I then managed to flip it back and forth a few times and make some good attacks with Goyf and a large scooze which forced my opponent to make some awkward trades/chumps. This set up what was supposed to be a penultimate attack with a 5/5 Ravine, Ravager of the Fells and Dark Confidant into my opponents 3 blockers (he knows that I have a terminate in hand). We both did a lot of math before and after attackers (very interesting board state where if I over extend on the attack he might live at 1-2 and then kill me on the crackback from like 15 due to 2 Hanweir Garrisons and a Thalia's LT). In the end he double blocked the Ravager and the Dark Confidant opting to take 5 (from 7) from the Ravine. He forgot Ravager of the Fells had trample so the Terminate let 2 damage trample over for exactly lethal. All in all a very fun match and I am super happy this deck exists and is staying popular and successful. It feels like the exact kind of deck Jund wants to play against and really rewards tight play.
Round 3: UW Control (0-2)[2-1]: Game 1 I drew 2 creatures (Hazoret and Rabblemaster). My opponent was a very green pilot so I took advantage of his eagerness and anciness a lot during game 1 but not drawing threats was the death knell. I forced a trade of Rabblemaster and Kcommand for Verdict Snap Verdict and a Cryptic to tap my team in between. The turn he used the Cryptic I got him to do it in main phase so I was able to resolve Hazoret but he had the Path. Ended up leaving him at 5 as he drew Gideon and I drew land land discard push. Game 2 I keep a fetch/swamp hand with Bob, goyf, ooze. I stick bob on turn 2. He spreading seas my shock land. I proceed to hit 8 non-land cards in a row as Bob does me 17 damage and I end up essentially dying to it. Just really unfortunate luck there. I am going to go up to 24 lands but seriously, the chance of not drawing land #3 through that many cards is unreal.
Round 4: Dredge (2-0)[3-1]: Let's be fair, this is not a good matchup but things definitely went my way. Game 1 my opponent's neonate dredge draw bricked on another dredger and by the time he had gotten Prized Amalgam out, he was forced to Conflagrate to eat my Goyf and Bob. This let me Fatal Push the Amalgam and then Ooze to eat it. My opponent now on no cards in hand and pretty low on gas couldn't stop me as i killed him over the next 2 turns. Game 2 my opponent kept a risky 1 land hand with a neonate and several bloodghasts and a Stinkweed. He bricked yet again on a dredger with the neonate and Goyf+Rabblemaster made quick work of him as he couldn't deal with both. I found my grafdigger's cage which really sealed up the game as well.
So all in all, I am still thrilled with the list. It does the Jund stuff. I will probably cut/move Hazoret for the 24th land. This is mainly because it is a 5 drop but I am also just not convinced enough that he is good enough. I can see lots of matches (like DS) where he could be very very good but I don't think I need him in the main. In fact, Chandra has been meh as well so they'll probably slide along and knock her out of the 75. I will say, I haven't missed Pulse in the main and Rabblemaster has still been quite literally the nuts. That card is fantastic. No big event this weekend and I can't make it to FNM tonight but that's my report from last night. FNM's competitive level can vary drastically from venue to venue and event to event. Mox Boarding House in Bellevue tends to be one of the tougher competitive metagames I have faced (as noted by my first 2 opponents) and I was happy to get to play against 3 real decks and 1 deck coming off a great performance the previous weekend (eggs).
I like Sam Black, but I'm glad that Jund player kicked his ass, I don't want lantern decks catching on in modern, it's incredibly not fun to play against
The list is inspired mainly by what Jadine Klomparens played at the SCG invi, with just a few changes. Hers I believe had 4/2 IoK/TS split in the main and 2 TS sideboard. I made mine 3/3 split in main and 1/1 sideboard, mainly just cause my local meta has a lot of Eldrazi tron and GDS. I also switched out the Kalitas and Olivia main for 2 rabblemasters in the main. Other than that I think it's card for card.
Round 1: Fetchlands U/R Storm [1-0]
Game 1 I didn't draw any removal but ended up drawing all 4 of my goyfs and 3 bobs, but no removal, so he was able to keep a Baral in play, while I had 2 goyfs and a bob in play, with 2 more goyfs and 1 more bob in my hand. I got him down to 8 life, but he was able to go off and win with two grapeshots when I was at 19 life.
Sideboard Plan:
Out: 1 LtLH, 3 Terminate, 4 Push, 1 KCommand
In: 2 Brutality, 2 EE, 1 Cage, 2 Spellbomb, 1 IoK, 1 TS
Game 2 went a bit long, I was struggling on lands in the beginning and couldn't put much pressure, but I got to use a spellbomb which was great in stopping Past in Flames. He was left with a manamorphose in hand with nothing else, but a pretty high storm count.. and he topdecks empty the warrens to make something like 14 goblins. I was still at 16 life so I was able to hold off a couple turns with a goyf and a rabblemaster. On my last draw step, I top deck a maelstrom pulse to get rid of the goblins and swing for lethal. Game 3 was quick. I was able to play a goyf and 2 rabblemasters in play, dealing 13 damage in one turn to quickly end the game. I also had an EE in hand in case of empty the warrens.
Round 2: Burn [1-1]
I lost both games 1 and 2 but both games I got him down to 4 life. Game 1 I had a good amount of spot removal to answer his eidolon, swiftspear, and goblin guide. I had a rabblemaster in play with lethal next turn but he top decks a skullcrack to end it.
Game 2 I IoK'd turn 1 and saw a bunch of burn spells and rest in peace. Given that the only threat in my hand was goyf, I took the RiP. I remember using brutality on all three modes, discarding 2 terminates to get rid of a goblin guide, take out a lightning bolt, and gain 2 life, which was awesome. I eventually got to a 5/6 goyf with him at 16 life and me at 12 life. It came down to a race. He lava spiked 2 times, and had a lightning helix to have him recover from 6 life to 9 life while I'm at 3. I finally got him down to 4 life, but he again top decks a skullcrack to deal the last 3 damage.
Round 3: Affinity [2-1]
Rabblemaster main deck came in clutch for game 1. He hit me for 6 poison with an inkmoth and cranial. When he attacked next turn with the same thing, I was able to KCommand, getting rid of the cranial plating and 2 damage to get rid of the inkmoth. From there I was able to get out rabblemaster. My opponent played 2 more cranial platings, with blinkmoth at the ready, but thanks to a 4/5 goyf, rabble, and 3 goblin tokens, I was able to deal lethal when he was at 11 life.
Game 2 I had no removal, and with an etched champion, vault skirge, and master of etherium, I couldn't do much about it. Game 3 I would say I got bit lucky, as he ended up mulling to 4 and couldn't get anything going. I also had a KCommand in my starting hand so that stopped an arcbound ravager from putting too much pressure on me. His last card in hand was a blood moon but needed one more artifact for metalcraft on Mox Opal. I had a swamp in play so it wouldn't have been too bad.
Overall thoughts: I like the 2 rabble in the main and will continue having this for now. I was missing the ancient grudges from my sideboard against Affinity but I liked having the extra discard in my other matchups, plus EE can sort of act as artifact removal.
If anyone has thoughts on my sideboard plans, I'd love to hear it.
I've been working on Jund, and have been doing really well. I like the way the deck is positioned against the field, except against affinity. How are you guys beating etched champion? If they get one down it feels almost impossible to win. I will say that my sweeper is anger of the gods with no damnation or kozilek's return, but I don't want to change up sweepers just to beat champion.
Also, I haven't tested rabblemaster yet. It seems awful against the humans, company, merfolk, jeskai, and dnt decks. Is it better in those matchups than it appears?
Private Mod Note
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I like Sam Black, but I'm glad that Jund player kicked his ass, I don't want lantern decks catching on in modern, it's incredibly not fun to play against
As someone who plays Lantern (and Jund), I have never really understood why Lantern gets so much hate, especially compared to other decks. Other decks quite often have draws where you get a horribly uninteractive game - burn, storm, sun & moon, ad nauseum, bogles, affinity, tron, death & texes, dredge, infect etc. but they don't get anywhere near the hate. And Jund has a ton of good cards versus Lantern.
I think Lantern is totally fine for us, I think its a even matchup at worst. My personal record is definitely positive. We have excellent cards against them, and often a single Goyf on the board does the trick.
I've been working on Jund, and have been doing really well. I like the way the deck is positioned against the field, except against affinity. How are you guys beating etched champion? If they get one down it feels almost impossible to win. I will say that my sweeper is anger of the gods with no damnation or kozilek's return, but I don't want to change up sweepers just to beat champion.
Also, I haven't tested rabblemaster yet. It seems awful against the humans, company, merfolk, jeskai, and dnt decks. Is it better in those matchups than it appears?
It would be helpful to see your list and sideboard plan for it!
Affinity, on average, is one of my most favourite matchups to play against. I think we are really favoured here. It is true that Etched Champion sometimes messes up the win percentage against the deck though. I think that in reality, the best answer we have for champion is to discard it via IOK from their hand. As long as the affinity player doesn't topdeck a second one, we are fine here. Since Affinity does not have card draw, this is more often the case than not. I personally like IOK in that matchups very much due to this. Obviously, KReturn and Damnation are also really great against Champion. If you have to deal with too much affinity, consider running a Damnation over Anger.
That being said, it is not the end of the world if they have one champion on the field, unless no plating is involved (which we can deal with). If you lets say 2 Goyfs or a Ravine and Goyf and pressuring the affinity player hard, at some point Champion must stay back to block rather than attack. And if you have 2 big attackers there, then we win eventually.
Of course sometimes things don't align in our favor and we loose to a single Champion, but that is variance. Overall I have a pretty good record against Affinity, and I personally am fine with them running Champion which sometimes gets us, its part of the game.
If anyone has thoughts on my sideboard plans, I'd love to hear it.
I personally am not a big fan of Brutality against Affinity. I really think you should have kept the 2 IOK in instead of CB, IOK can snatch Champions and Platings which can win you the game on the spot basically. Discard is ofc not the best against affinity, but we are siding out TS due to this. Some discard is ok to hit Champion as our primary target. Brutality has the problem that its clunky as hell and can definitely not kill anything major important here. Most of the times you cant kill an Arcbound, no Champion, no master, no manlands, only memnites, skirges and thopters and possibly Steel Overseers which they side out 1-2 copies since its bad against removal heavy decks in general. So Overall its a really bad trade for 2 mana and its a sorcery as well. Don't think the extra life is also that important.
I personally am not a big fan of Brutality against Affinity. I really think you should have kept the 2 IOK in instead of CB, IOK can snatch Champions and Platings which can win you the game on the spot basically. Discard is ofc not the best against affinity, but we are siding out TS due to this. Some discard is ok to hit Champion as our primary target. Brutality has the problem that its clunky as hell and can definitely not kill anything major important here. Most of the times you cant kill an Arcbound, no Champion, no master, no manlands, only memnites, skirges and thopters and possibly Steel Overseers which they side out 1-2 copies since its bad against removal heavy decks in general. So Overall its a really bad trade for 2 mana and its a sorcery as well. Don't think the extra life is also that important.
Definitely a good point, I sided brutality in for the reasoning of hitting the flyers, but you're right that it won't end up hitting a lot of the affinity field. Thanks for the input!
I've been working on Jund, and have been doing really well. I like the way the deck is positioned against the field, except against affinity. How are you guys beating etched champion? If they get one down it feels almost impossible to win. I will say that my sweeper is anger of the gods with no damnation or kozilek's return, but I don't want to change up sweepers just to beat champion.
Also, I haven't tested rabblemaster yet. It seems awful against the humans, company, merfolk, jeskai, and dnt decks. Is it better in those matchups than it appears?
It would be helpful to see your list and sideboard plan for it!
Affinity, on average, is one of my most favourite matchups to play against. I think we are really favoured here. It is true that Etched Champion sometimes messes up the win percentage against the deck though. I think that in reality, the best answer we have for champion is to discard it via IOK from their hand. As long as the affinity player doesn't topdeck a second one, we are fine here. Since Affinity does not have card draw, this is more often the case than not. I personally like IOK in that matchups very much due to this. Obviously, KReturn and Damnation are also really great against Champion. If you have to deal with too much affinity, consider running a Damnation over Anger.
That being said, it is not the end of the world if they have one champion on the field, unless no plating is involved (which we can deal with). If you lets say 2 Goyfs or a Ravine and Goyf and pressuring the affinity player hard, at some point Champion must stay back to block rather than attack. And if you have 2 big attackers there, then we win eventually.
Of course sometimes things don't align in our favor and we loose to a single Champion, but that is variance. Overall I have a pretty good record against Affinity, and I personally am fine with them running Champion which sometimes gets us, its part of the game.
I 5-0ed a competitive mtgo league with this a few days ago.
I think I went like this for affinity.
-3 thoughtseize, -1 confidant, -4 liliana of the veil, -1 hazoret
+1 lavamancer, +1 grudge, +4 anger, +2 fulminator mage, +1 pia and kiran
In the league where I 5-0ed, I beat storm, ad nauseoum, company, lantern control (opp misplayed and gave me a hazoret lol), and tron. Since then, I've lost to affinity twice and I lost to jeskai, but I played kind of loose.
There's a slight upside to one anger being a damnation since it covers e tron too if I come across it. I guess I could run 1 re over another anger. Idk I just want a consistent sweeper against these small creature decks, and anger also covers dredge.
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I like Sam Black, but I'm glad that Jund player kicked his ass, I don't want lantern decks catching on in modern, it's incredibly not fun to play against
As someone who plays Lantern (and Jund), I have never really understood why Lantern gets so much hate, especially compared to other decks. Other decks quite often have draws where you get a horribly uninteractive game - burn, storm, sun & moon, ad nauseum, bogles, affinity, tron, death & texes, dredge, infect etc. but they don't get anywhere near the hate. And Jund has a ton of good cards versus Lantern.
It's because Lantern actively attempts to make the game uninteractive for their opponents over many turns - the majority of the rest you named just try to win the game as fast as possible so that interaction isn't, then, possible. I don't have an issue with Lantern myself as Jund has answers, however, it can be a frustrating deck to face.
But I let people cast Tarmogoyfs all the time, isn't that what people like to do.
I think I went like this for affinity.
-3 thoughtseize, -1 confidant, -4 liliana of the veil, -1 hazoret
+1 lavamancer, +1 grudge, +4 anger, +2 fulminator mage, +1 pia and kiran
In the league where I 5-0ed, I beat storm, ad nauseoum, company, lantern control (opp misplayed and gave me a hazoret lol), and tron. Since then, I've lost to affinity twice and I lost to jeskai, but I played kind of loose.
There's a slight upside to one anger being a damnation since it covers e tron too if I come across it. I guess I could run 1 re over another anger. Idk I just want a consistent sweeper against these small creature decks, and anger also covers dredge.
Pls, just play 24 lands, or at least cut a Ravine. I think a mountain is really bad for our manabase, cant recommend running it. You want the fourth Blackcleave instead.
I think 2 Hazoret are too much, I would max run 1 maindeck. Collective Brutality is a Sideboard card fro Jund, if you want to run it maindeck, I would not run more than 1.
4 Anger is way too many. I would cut one 2 completely and add a Damnation and another SB card to strengthen worse matchups. We have a ton of removal naturally, you don't need 4 Anger in the side. Your GY hate is really low. You are lacking terminates completely.
So all in all I would:
-2 CB
-1 Hazoret
-1 Mountain
+1 Blackcleave
+1 Blooming Marsh/Swamp/Forest
+2 Terminate
and for the SB:
-2 Anger
-1 Grim
-1 Fulminator
-1 Lost Legacy
+1 Damnation
+1 Ancient Grudge
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
+2 CB
Am personally not a fan of Lost legacy and 4 Fulminator, but I dont consider it completely wrong if it works for you. I would personally run 2 CB instead of Lost Legacy.
Your SB plan is ok for your current list, but I think the main problem is that you have CB maindeck, no terminates and only 1 Grudge in the SB why you are doing badly vs Affinity. 4 Anger is just too many and is not the best vs. affinity. Hazoret as your big creature is also quite useless here.
Its great that you 5-0d the league, but I think your list is still suboptimal. Dont get me wrong here, props for having a finish like that, but you have to consider that 4 of your 5 matchups where actually good ones. Company must have of course felt easy as hell with 4 anger. But the thing is, the format is usually more diverse and affinity is a thing.
I'm not so sure playing 24 lands in the main deck is a sacred cow. We can't control our draws like several other decks, have no tutors and no ways to dig. Jund needs a bit more of an aggressive edge imo. Cutting 1 land from a typical list for a cheap spell isn't a big deal imo. I hate all of the current Jund 4-CMC spells anyway, including Damnation in the sideboard.
We can't control our draws like several other decks, have no tutors and no ways to dig.
Thats one perfect argument for actually running 24 lands in my opinion. We have to naturally draw our lands to play them. Decks with loads of cantrips can cut lands. Patrick Chapin said that usually per 4 cantrip you play you can cut a land as a rule of thumb. And you are right. We are not running any (not counting Bob as a relyable cantrip) and thats why we need to hit landdrops to not loose against ourselves.
I guess that the thought of going down to 23 lands is to turn the Jund deck into a more proactive version than a reactive one. But I personally think that this basically hurts the deck. It turns the deck into one thats able to react, as well as proact, but both not executing very well compared to other decks in the format. I consider Jund to still be a reactive deck. If we now change the deck into an half aggro/ half control-ish style of deck, its basically a worse Grixis DS in my opinion. Grixis DS just does everything we want better at this point. So why mimicing the deck here? I don't see any advantage to run a Jund version of Grixis DS.
If you look at any deck with a lower land count I bet hardly you will find a deck that plays tapped lands like Ravine. I find it very weird to cut untapped lands to actually increase the chance of hitting either no land, or one tapped land. That being said, the only way I could see a 23 land version working smoothly, is to cut a Ravine. That doesnt lower the count of untapped lands at least.
I he not running Dark Confidant in Humans? That seems like an unfortunate loss for his deck (as Bob is one of the main reasons I personally like that deck). All in all though, good luck to you guys!
I think it might be a bit too much. 9 Fetchland is the sweetspot I feel. Didn't give it a try yet though. I think I would rather play a basic instead.
Good luck to you, Jund 'em all out!
One note though, don't you think another basic might be a good idea, to support BM more? I feel like 3 basics is too few for it. Also I don't think 23 land list can support BM as good as 24 land lists. Anyway, best of luck for the tournament.
He replaced Dark Confidant by Tireless Tracker (which is pretty good too)
Gus
Round 1 Eggs (the top 8 player and deck from the Geek Fortress 1k the previous weekend) (2-1) [1-0]: Game 1 and 2 were both very close. In game 1 I got to the point I could ultimate LotV with my opponent on no cards but he had essentially all the pieces he needed to go off the next turn. I did make the wrong pile decision which netted him 1 extra mana but it never mattered as he always had a spare mana while he combo'd off. He got a little lucky and ripped Ichor Wellspring into a Terrarium off the top and that gave him just enough gas to combo off. Game 2 I had disruption backed by threat of Goyf and Rabblemaster. I forced him back a turn leaving him with a scrap trawler in play which I promptly terminated and attacked for lethal. Game 3 can be found here at 43:27. Both myself and my opponent kept 1 landers so that was fun.
Round 2 Humans (2-1)[2-0]: This was my good friend and the Humans player who won the 1k at Geek Fortress last weekend with the same list. Game 1 I was able to sequence a pretty aggressive start of IoK into Goyf into K. Command kill your lord, shatter your vial hit you for 5. My opponent almost stabilized as I started hitting lands and he found a Dark Confidant which flipped him into a Mantis Rider (and he drew a 2nd). This put him with enough blockers to attack out and not worry about crackback. However he was at 1 with Dark Confidant still in play. Bob flipped a Champion of the Parish to kill him. Game 2 I kept a 2 land hand (swamp/fetch) and then drew a 2nd swamp off the top for my first draw. I then saw no more lands for the rest of the game, drew both 4 drops, my anger and my 1 forest wasn't good enough for me to out scooze his aggression. I did have a sequence for like 3-5 turns where if I had found the 4th land I get to run away with the game but it wasn't meant to be. Game 3 is why I like Huntmaster. I stick Bob and Goyf with and my opponent and I poke at each other's hands and things in play but when I dropped Huntmaster, it warped the game around it. I was able to time Huntmaster and Mayor of Avabruck to flip on my opponent's upkeep so that I could kill Mayor before it actually flipped. I then managed to flip it back and forth a few times and make some good attacks with Goyf and a large scooze which forced my opponent to make some awkward trades/chumps. This set up what was supposed to be a penultimate attack with a 5/5 Ravine, Ravager of the Fells and Dark Confidant into my opponents 3 blockers (he knows that I have a terminate in hand). We both did a lot of math before and after attackers (very interesting board state where if I over extend on the attack he might live at 1-2 and then kill me on the crackback from like 15 due to 2 Hanweir Garrisons and a Thalia's LT). In the end he double blocked the Ravager and the Dark Confidant opting to take 5 (from 7) from the Ravine. He forgot Ravager of the Fells had trample so the Terminate let 2 damage trample over for exactly lethal. All in all a very fun match and I am super happy this deck exists and is staying popular and successful. It feels like the exact kind of deck Jund wants to play against and really rewards tight play.
Round 3: UW Control (0-2)[2-1]: Game 1 I drew 2 creatures (Hazoret and Rabblemaster). My opponent was a very green pilot so I took advantage of his eagerness and anciness a lot during game 1 but not drawing threats was the death knell. I forced a trade of Rabblemaster and Kcommand for Verdict Snap Verdict and a Cryptic to tap my team in between. The turn he used the Cryptic I got him to do it in main phase so I was able to resolve Hazoret but he had the Path. Ended up leaving him at 5 as he drew Gideon and I drew land land discard push. Game 2 I keep a fetch/swamp hand with Bob, goyf, ooze. I stick bob on turn 2. He spreading seas my shock land. I proceed to hit 8 non-land cards in a row as Bob does me 17 damage and I end up essentially dying to it. Just really unfortunate luck there. I am going to go up to 24 lands but seriously, the chance of not drawing land #3 through that many cards is unreal.
Round 4: Dredge (2-0)[3-1]: Let's be fair, this is not a good matchup but things definitely went my way. Game 1 my opponent's neonate dredge draw bricked on another dredger and by the time he had gotten Prized Amalgam out, he was forced to Conflagrate to eat my Goyf and Bob. This let me Fatal Push the Amalgam and then Ooze to eat it. My opponent now on no cards in hand and pretty low on gas couldn't stop me as i killed him over the next 2 turns. Game 2 my opponent kept a risky 1 land hand with a neonate and several bloodghasts and a Stinkweed. He bricked yet again on a dredger with the neonate and Goyf+Rabblemaster made quick work of him as he couldn't deal with both. I found my grafdigger's cage which really sealed up the game as well.
So all in all, I am still thrilled with the list. It does the Jund stuff. I will probably cut/move Hazoret for the 24th land. This is mainly because it is a 5 drop but I am also just not convinced enough that he is good enough. I can see lots of matches (like DS) where he could be very very good but I don't think I need him in the main. In fact, Chandra has been meh as well so they'll probably slide along and knock her out of the 75. I will say, I haven't missed Pulse in the main and Rabblemaster has still been quite literally the nuts. That card is fantastic. No big event this weekend and I can't make it to FNM tonight but that's my report from last night. FNM's competitive level can vary drastically from venue to venue and event to event. Mox Boarding House in Bellevue tends to be one of the tougher competitive metagames I have faced (as noted by my first 2 opponents) and I was happy to get to play against 3 real decks and 1 deck coming off a great performance the previous weekend (eggs).
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
Planeswalkers (5)
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Spells (18)
4 Fatal Push
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Terminate
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blooming Marsh
3 Raging Ravine
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Collective Brutality
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Kolaghan’s Command
The list is inspired mainly by what Jadine Klomparens played at the SCG invi, with just a few changes. Hers I believe had 4/2 IoK/TS split in the main and 2 TS sideboard. I made mine 3/3 split in main and 1/1 sideboard, mainly just cause my local meta has a lot of Eldrazi tron and GDS. I also switched out the Kalitas and Olivia main for 2 rabblemasters in the main. Other than that I think it's card for card.
Round 1: Fetchlands U/R Storm [1-0]
Game 1 I didn't draw any removal but ended up drawing all 4 of my goyfs and 3 bobs, but no removal, so he was able to keep a Baral in play, while I had 2 goyfs and a bob in play, with 2 more goyfs and 1 more bob in my hand. I got him down to 8 life, but he was able to go off and win with two grapeshots when I was at 19 life.
Sideboard Plan:
Out: 1 LtLH, 3 Terminate, 4 Push, 1 KCommand
In: 2 Brutality, 2 EE, 1 Cage, 2 Spellbomb, 1 IoK, 1 TS
Game 2 went a bit long, I was struggling on lands in the beginning and couldn't put much pressure, but I got to use a spellbomb which was great in stopping Past in Flames. He was left with a manamorphose in hand with nothing else, but a pretty high storm count.. and he topdecks empty the warrens to make something like 14 goblins. I was still at 16 life so I was able to hold off a couple turns with a goyf and a rabblemaster. On my last draw step, I top deck a maelstrom pulse to get rid of the goblins and swing for lethal. Game 3 was quick. I was able to play a goyf and 2 rabblemasters in play, dealing 13 damage in one turn to quickly end the game. I also had an EE in hand in case of empty the warrens.
Round 2: Burn [1-1]
I lost both games 1 and 2 but both games I got him down to 4 life. Game 1 I had a good amount of spot removal to answer his eidolon, swiftspear, and goblin guide. I had a rabblemaster in play with lethal next turn but he top decks a skullcrack to end it.
Out: 4 Bob, 3 TS, 1 Pulse
In: 2 Brutality, 1 Kalitas, 1 KCommand, 1 IoK, 2 Fulm, 1 EE
Game 2 I IoK'd turn 1 and saw a bunch of burn spells and rest in peace. Given that the only threat in my hand was goyf, I took the RiP. I remember using brutality on all three modes, discarding 2 terminates to get rid of a goblin guide, take out a lightning bolt, and gain 2 life, which was awesome. I eventually got to a 5/6 goyf with him at 16 life and me at 12 life. It came down to a race. He lava spiked 2 times, and had a lightning helix to have him recover from 6 life to 9 life while I'm at 3. I finally got him down to 4 life, but he again top decks a skullcrack to deal the last 3 damage.
Round 3: Affinity [2-1]
Rabblemaster main deck came in clutch for game 1. He hit me for 6 poison with an inkmoth and cranial. When he attacked next turn with the same thing, I was able to KCommand, getting rid of the cranial plating and 2 damage to get rid of the inkmoth. From there I was able to get out rabblemaster. My opponent played 2 more cranial platings, with blinkmoth at the ready, but thanks to a 4/5 goyf, rabble, and 3 goblin tokens, I was able to deal lethal when he was at 11 life.
Out: 4 LoTV, 3 TS, 2 IoK
In: 2 EE, 1 Kalitas, 1 Olivia, 1 KCommand, 2 Brutality, 2 Fulm
Game 2 I had no removal, and with an etched champion, vault skirge, and master of etherium, I couldn't do much about it. Game 3 I would say I got bit lucky, as he ended up mulling to 4 and couldn't get anything going. I also had a KCommand in my starting hand so that stopped an arcbound ravager from putting too much pressure on me. His last card in hand was a blood moon but needed one more artifact for metalcraft on Mox Opal. I had a swamp in play so it wouldn't have been too bad.
Overall thoughts: I like the 2 rabble in the main and will continue having this for now. I was missing the ancient grudges from my sideboard against Affinity but I liked having the extra discard in my other matchups, plus EE can sort of act as artifact removal.
If anyone has thoughts on my sideboard plans, I'd love to hear it.
Also, I haven't tested rabblemaster yet. It seems awful against the humans, company, merfolk, jeskai, and dnt decks. Is it better in those matchups than it appears?
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
As someone who plays Lantern (and Jund), I have never really understood why Lantern gets so much hate, especially compared to other decks. Other decks quite often have draws where you get a horribly uninteractive game - burn, storm, sun & moon, ad nauseum, bogles, affinity, tron, death & texes, dredge, infect etc. but they don't get anywhere near the hate. And Jund has a ton of good cards versus Lantern.
It would be helpful to see your list and sideboard plan for it!
Affinity, on average, is one of my most favourite matchups to play against. I think we are really favoured here. It is true that Etched Champion sometimes messes up the win percentage against the deck though. I think that in reality, the best answer we have for champion is to discard it via IOK from their hand. As long as the affinity player doesn't topdeck a second one, we are fine here. Since Affinity does not have card draw, this is more often the case than not. I personally like IOK in that matchups very much due to this. Obviously, KReturn and Damnation are also really great against Champion. If you have to deal with too much affinity, consider running a Damnation over Anger.
That being said, it is not the end of the world if they have one champion on the field, unless no plating is involved (which we can deal with). If you lets say 2 Goyfs or a Ravine and Goyf and pressuring the affinity player hard, at some point Champion must stay back to block rather than attack. And if you have 2 big attackers there, then we win eventually.
Of course sometimes things don't align in our favor and we loose to a single Champion, but that is variance. Overall I have a pretty good record against Affinity, and I personally am fine with them running Champion which sometimes gets us, its part of the game.
I personally am not a big fan of Brutality against Affinity. I really think you should have kept the 2 IOK in instead of CB, IOK can snatch Champions and Platings which can win you the game on the spot basically. Discard is ofc not the best against affinity, but we are siding out TS due to this. Some discard is ok to hit Champion as our primary target. Brutality has the problem that its clunky as hell and can definitely not kill anything major important here. Most of the times you cant kill an Arcbound, no Champion, no master, no manlands, only memnites, skirges and thopters and possibly Steel Overseers which they side out 1-2 copies since its bad against removal heavy decks in general. So Overall its a really bad trade for 2 mana and its a sorcery as well. Don't think the extra life is also that important.
Definitely a good point, I sided brutality in for the reasoning of hitting the flyers, but you're right that it won't end up hitting a lot of the affinity field. Thanks for the input!
I 5-0ed a competitive mtgo league with this a few days ago.
4 verdant catacombs
4 bloodstained mire
1 wooded foothills
3 blackcleave cliffs
3 raging ravine
2 overgrown tomb
1 blood crypt
1 stomping ground
2 swamp
1 forest
1 mountain
1 grim lavamancer
4 tarmogoyf
4 dark confidant
3 scavenging ooze
2 hazoret, the fervent
Spells: 23
4 lightning bolt
2 fatal push
3 thoughtseize
3 inquisition of kozilek
2 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
1 dreadbore
4 liliana of the veil
2 kolaghans command
1 grafdiggers cage
1 grim lavamancer
1 thoughtseize
1 ancient grudge
2 lost legacy
4 anger of the gods
4 fulminator mage
1 pia and kiran nalaar
I think I went like this for affinity.
-3 thoughtseize, -1 confidant, -4 liliana of the veil, -1 hazoret
+1 lavamancer, +1 grudge, +4 anger, +2 fulminator mage, +1 pia and kiran
In the league where I 5-0ed, I beat storm, ad nauseoum, company, lantern control (opp misplayed and gave me a hazoret lol), and tron. Since then, I've lost to affinity twice and I lost to jeskai, but I played kind of loose.
There's a slight upside to one anger being a damnation since it covers e tron too if I come across it. I guess I could run 1 re over another anger. Idk I just want a consistent sweeper against these small creature decks, and anger also covers dredge.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
But I let people cast Tarmogoyfs all the time, isn't that what people like to do.
Midrange looks atrocious based off GP's top 8.
I'm really leaning on the fact that WOTC needs to print answers for big mana, otherwise decks like Jund will just be for FNM hero's
Death's Shadow decks are the current answer. The only big mana deck they're shaky against is Eldrazi Tron. The rest are easy pickings.
Pls, just play 24 lands, or at least cut a Ravine. I think a mountain is really bad for our manabase, cant recommend running it. You want the fourth Blackcleave instead.
I think 2 Hazoret are too much, I would max run 1 maindeck. Collective Brutality is a Sideboard card fro Jund, if you want to run it maindeck, I would not run more than 1.
4 Anger is way too many. I would cut one 2 completely and add a Damnation and another SB card to strengthen worse matchups. We have a ton of removal naturally, you don't need 4 Anger in the side. Your GY hate is really low. You are lacking terminates completely.
So all in all I would:
-2 CB
-1 Hazoret
-1 Mountain
+1 Blackcleave
+1 Blooming Marsh/Swamp/Forest
+2 Terminate
and for the SB:
-2 Anger
-1 Grim
-1 Fulminator
-1 Lost Legacy
+1 Damnation
+1 Ancient Grudge
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
+2 CB
Am personally not a fan of Lost legacy and 4 Fulminator, but I dont consider it completely wrong if it works for you. I would personally run 2 CB instead of Lost Legacy.
Your SB plan is ok for your current list, but I think the main problem is that you have CB maindeck, no terminates and only 1 Grudge in the SB why you are doing badly vs Affinity. 4 Anger is just too many and is not the best vs. affinity. Hazoret as your big creature is also quite useless here.
Its great that you 5-0d the league, but I think your list is still suboptimal. Dont get me wrong here, props for having a finish like that, but you have to consider that 4 of your 5 matchups where actually good ones. Company must have of course felt easy as hell with 4 anger. But the thing is, the format is usually more diverse and affinity is a thing.
Thats one perfect argument for actually running 24 lands in my opinion. We have to naturally draw our lands to play them. Decks with loads of cantrips can cut lands. Patrick Chapin said that usually per 4 cantrip you play you can cut a land as a rule of thumb. And you are right. We are not running any (not counting Bob as a relyable cantrip) and thats why we need to hit landdrops to not loose against ourselves.
I guess that the thought of going down to 23 lands is to turn the Jund deck into a more proactive version than a reactive one. But I personally think that this basically hurts the deck. It turns the deck into one thats able to react, as well as proact, but both not executing very well compared to other decks in the format. I consider Jund to still be a reactive deck. If we now change the deck into an half aggro/ half control-ish style of deck, its basically a worse Grixis DS in my opinion. Grixis DS just does everything we want better at this point. So why mimicing the deck here? I don't see any advantage to run a Jund version of Grixis DS.
If you look at any deck with a lower land count I bet hardly you will find a deck that plays tapped lands like Ravine. I find it very weird to cut untapped lands to actually increase the chance of hitting either no land, or one tapped land. That being said, the only way I could see a 23 land version working smoothly, is to cut a Ravine. That doesnt lower the count of untapped lands at least.