A: For people who weren't around for Shards of Alara/Zendikar standard, Jund was a Green/Red/Black mid-range deck that burst onto the scene in the wake of Faeries. While Jund was in many regards an aggro deck, it also was a control deck, but mostly, it was a midrange deck that focused on gaining card advantage as well as tempo, primarily through the Cascade mechanic off of Bloodbraid Elf. For people who are older to the game, Jund essentially is an aggressive "rock" deck that wants to win off 2 for 1 effects, hand disruption, and winning wars of attrition.
Fast forwarding to modern..
Must-Haves in Jund
1.Dark Confidant. Dubbed by many the best creature ever printed. If left unchecked, he'll typically just net too much card advantage for an opponent to ever overcome. If he ever gets too close to your life total for comfort, you can use your own removal to deal with him. All things being equal, Confidant just wins, and drawing cards for a slight loss of life just isn't that big of a deal (especially if you're built to be able to absorb the life-loss). He even has the added bonus of being able to swing for some damage on top of everything else.
2.Tarmogoyf. With Goyf, you're essentially playing 2/3 of the best creatures ever printed, with Stoneforge Mystic being the third (and conveniently on the ban list). Turn 2, you almost always want to tap out to play Goyf or Bob. He's your best finisher, best blocker, and typically requires a path or some other hard removal to be answered.
3. (RIP) Bloodbraid Elf. Elf + really good cards that cost 2 & 3 mana = win. Well... BBE is banned, so this is a moot point, but I'm going to leave this section here just for people who are interested. Elf should essentially top off the curve in Modern Jund. One mistake of playing elf is playing it while an opponent has no board presence. Typically it's a smarter play to hold your elf until an opponent casts some sort of creature, since cascading into a removal spell while they have nothing except lands isn't the best plan for success.
4. Thoughtseize // Inquisition of Kozilek. Having at least 4 of these maindeck is very important when playing against combo decks, control decks, and can help even when playing opposing aggro decks. Determining the proper split between these can be tough, since thoughtseize while traditionally better, is a bit suicidal vs. aggro decks when coupled with confidant, shocklands, and opposing burn spells. That being said, Seize is much stronger vs. combo decks as well as control decks these days, so it's likely the better inclusion. I'm currently playing 3 thoughtseize with 2+ Inquisition, with an additional inquisition & duress in the sideboard. This setup has worked relatively well for me. You probably don't want more than 6 maindeck spot discard spells since they're not always the best cascades, and they aren't very strong topdecks either. In an aggro-heavy meta, you'll probably want to switch the Seizes with Inquisitions.
5. Liliana of the Veil. Liliana is absolutely gross in Jund. Since you generally don't mind being in topdeck mode, Liliana can cause nightmares for combo or control decks, and will frequently 2 for 1 aggro decks via edicting them multiple times. She really is good against just about every archetype, as her +1 and -2 effects are either good against control, or good against creature decks where you want to be edicting them. Threatening to blow up half the opponent's board forces control opponents to be proactive, or to simply lose to her -6.
6. Deathrite Shaman. Deathrite shaman is really just a bonkers card that pushed Jund over the edge from "the format's most average deck" to what has now become the format's best deck. When Shaman was printed, a lot of people discredited it saying it was an underpowered birds of paradise, or an underpowered grim lavamancer. While it's true that Shaman isn't the best mana dork in the world, or the best damage dealer, the utility it offers for a mere 1 mana is groundbreaking, and it's not uncommon for an unchecked shaman to deal upwards of 4-8 damage in a match. For a single mana, shaman accelerates into turn 2 Lilianas, forces your opponent to kill it or die to it (and yes, it is a must kill for 90% of opponents) and helps out in most of Jund's matchups that were previously bad (storm, RDW, etc).
The supporting cast
While the previous cards are all essential "must haves" in Jund, the supporting cast is incredibly important to determine how or whether you win your games. Despite this, many of these cards are relatively debateable as to whether they do or do not belong in a properly constructed Jund deck. It's important to metagame properly with a deck like this, and some of the creatures and spells below may be decent choices when choosing to build your deck.
Supporting Creatures - What are the options?
1. Kitchen Finks. Finks is a Jund staple, and fits just about every part of the overall jund gameplan. If other Aggro decks didn't exist, Finks wouldn't as strong, but regardless, it's still a solid 3 mana creature that can get damage through, gain life, and often requires 2 removal spells to be dealt with. Most modern decks still try to win with creatures, making finks a very relevant card, especially against tempo decks and aggro decks. Kitchen finks also serves the role of offsetting life lost through dark confidant. If you're in more of a control or combo-heavy metagame, you may want to consider another 3 drop card such as Geralf's Messenger (races better) or Lingering Souls (more difficult for control to handle, and also helps against infect combo and affinity more).
2. Eternal Witness. Witness isn't very aggro, but if games drag out really long, witness is going to be the best topdeck you could ever ask for. I tried it for a bit, and wasn't that impressed, but she still fits the 2 for 1 nature of Jund, so I wouldn't discount her as a 1-2 of in a properly constructed deck.
3. Vampire Nighthawk. For whatever reason, Nighthawk didn't see a ton of play in Jund when it was in standard. While I can't remember the specific reason, Nighthawk has been a very solid 3 drop. It's nothing particularly amazing, but the lifelink is a strong anti-aggro tool, and the fact that it can block any pesky fliers, or even just give you evasion vs. an opposing wall of creatures can be huge. I originally played Nighthawk as an extra means to deal with Zoo prior to Wild Nacatl being banned, and I would still consider it relevant if you expect lots of aggro in your meta.
4. Geralf's Messenger. Messenger is similar to Finks, except better in non-aggro matchups, and slightly more difficult to cast. Typically, if you're not playing Finks, Geralf's messenger can give you a much more aggressive clock that's very difficult to handle without path to exile.
5. Rakdos Augermage. This isn't hugely popular, but it's a 3 drop that can deal some damage while also helping to disrupt combo decks. It's worth considering at least, although you're generally better off with finks, messenger, or souls.
6. Grim Lavamancer. While I'm a big lavamancer fan, he's not necessarily the best fit in Jund. There are two primary problems, the first being the fact that he's a bad cascade, and the other being the fact that he's anti-synergistic with Goyf. That being said, Lavamancer can cause some serious problems for tempo decks like Faeries, Delver, or even Caw Blade, and even if it has a bit of anti-synergy, it's still an amazing card that wins creature battles and can push through damage.
7. "5 mana creatures". There are a lot of ways you can go here, traditionally speaking, they're difficult to play with Dark Confidant in a reliable fashion. The fact is, playing Dark Confidant is better than playing any 5 mana creature, and the two are difficult to play together. If you want to play 5 drops in Jund, your best options are 5 mana cards that can gain you life back, thus offsetting the risk of ripping them off Dark Confidant. If you're not playing Dark Confidant, you should have more options to play 5 mana creatures, which can actually be gamebreaking in a Jund Mirror match.
5 mana creatures Worth Considering
Thragtusk - Not really much needs to be said here. It gains you life, trades profitably with anything, and can deal damage quickly. Siege-Gang Commander - A Staple from standard jund decks, SGC can deal upwards of 8 damage simply by sacrificing its own goblins, and is difficult for an opponent to profitably handle without a wrath effect. Thundermaw Hellkite - Fast, aggressive, big, and quite powerful against lingering souls or Faeries. Hellkite is likely a meta choice, but it's always going to be a very aggressive attacker that can get damage through while being great in any lingering souls mirrors. Demigod of Revenge - Demigod is quite a powerful attacker that gets stronger the longer the game draws out. Demigod offers insane inevitability to Jund decks, and also synergizes well when played with Fauna Shaman. The main caveats here are that you may end up going down a different jund strategy than what is traditionally popular, and Demigod also needs to be a 4-of in your deck to guarantee effectiveness.
8.Boggart-Ram-Gang. Ram-Gang is an older staple of extended and standard jund decks, but he doesn't really isn't worthwhile in modern jund. Against aggro decks, Finks is just flat out Better, and Finks is no worse against control decks as well. Vs. Combo, both of these creatures are pretty lame, but Finks at least gains you some life vs. any type of storm-based combo deck.
9. Sprouting Thrinax. Just like Ram-Gang, he's a solid choice, but probably just not in the right place. That being said, I do like Thrinax's ability to block a goyf, then poop out tokens to chump block more aggro threats. That being said, this is only relevant if it actually sets up a winning board position. Finks is probably just a little bit better at what he does, but Thrinax could definitely see some play as well, especially since he wont' get burned off as easily by lavamancer or Punishing Fire.
10. Anathemancer. Anathemancer is oft forgotten about, but against control decks or scapeshift, he's a really strong source of inevitability, and in a format where people play a lot of suicidal cards and non-basic manabases, the mancer can often deal upwards of 4-5 damage when he first enters play, and if you ever get to unearth him, he'll likely just win the game for you on the spot. That being said, Anathemancer is generally a little bit slower than you want, and the 2/2 body is largely irrelevant.
11. Fulminator Mage. Awesome utility card against decks like Tron. Mage is a stone rain that can attack for 2 when you don't need to destroy one of your opponent's lands.
12. Lotus Cobra. Cobra is likely a card that you would play when you're trying to pair it with 5 mana creatures, but it's a bit of a "tech" card that can give you a huge tempo boost if it's not removed. Since Jund is a fairly mana hungry deck, having a cobra stick around for a turn or two can be disastrous for your opponent. Most of the time, you would play cobra in conjunction with 5 mana cards, as it can give you a boost of 2 mana per turn when combined with fetches.
13. Thrun, the Last Troll. Thrun is a card that started showing up as a singleton, and depending on how many control decks are in a meta, can easily be moved up. Obviously thrun is good against control, but he's also pretty solid against decks like zoo, where he's essentially a wall that can't be killed, and can block any of their creatures.
14. Burning Tree Shaman. Shaman is a pretty efficient creature that helps to shut down Splinter twin to a large degree, is useful against Melira Pod, and will generally deal anywhere from 1-5 damage without even having to attack. He's not amazing, but great in a meta with lots of twin & pod running around.
15. Huntsmaster of the Fells. Another "decent" creature that can be a decent anti-aggro threat, but he really doesn't do anything you're not already getting at a more efficient value with in kitchen finks. He's rarely the "Best" card to play, but is often a good placeholder that is never awful, and can help offset some of your suicidal tendencies.
16. Olivia Voldaren. Olivia is really strong in creature matchups, specifically those which feature a lot of small critters trying to attack you. A resolved olivia causes major headaches for Affinity, Martyr WW, and if unchecked in mirror matches, can cause problems there too.
17. Falkenrath Aristocrat. Aristocrat has yet to see any mainstream play in Jund, but it's a card that I've felt could easily break through jund Mirror matches assuming your opponent isn't playing Lingering Souls. Aristocrat can swing in and deal a ton of damage in a rapid fashion, and unlike most other cards that would be played in Jund, it has a lot of evasion, and is very difficult to kill as well.
18. Garruk Relentless. He's a pretty strong 4 drop that can generate a constant stream of creatures, and occasionally pick off an opposing creature or two. He wont ever wow you with being dominant, but he can be a solid roleplayer that sits towards the top of the curve.
19. Chandra Pyromaster. Her 0 effect is pretty strong in jund since most of the cards you would gain off that affect you can cast right away. Her +1 effect is also surprisingly relevant in the modern format with a lot of mana dorks and x'1 creatures around.
20. Xenagos, the Reveler. I think Xenagos is pretty comparable to Garruk, Relentless since they both pump out 2/2 creatures, and start at 3 loyalty. I like xenagos a little more in an aggressive variant as the haste provides a much quicker clock. His +1 can help activate manlands, or simply take him out of lightning bolt range.
Supporting Disruption // Utility
1. Lightning Bolt. It's bolt, nothing else really needs to be said here that isn't self explanatory. It kills 90% of the creatures you want to kill in Modern, goes to the face, and is incredibly efficient.
2. Maelstrom Pulse. The closest thing Modern has to Vindicate. It's a very strong card that's greatest strength is it's versatility. If you hit multiples, it's just an additional bonus. I only play 2 because the sorcery speed clause can be a bit "slow" at times, but the times where pulse shines, it really shines in the most brilliant ways.
3. Putrefy.In most cases, Putrefy is a Pulse that can work at instant speed & kill manlands. There just aren't that many Enchantments or Planeswalkers that are random in Modern right now, so most of the time, all you'll care about is hitting an artifact or a creature, and being instant speed makes a world of difference.
4. Blightning. Blightning previously saw more play, but is often a bit slow for it's effect. It's still insane off a cascade, but is pretty dead against decks like Affinity, UWR delver, or any deck where you're forced to play defense against an aggro assault. I started out using Rise // Fall as a pseudo Hymn to Tourach, that took a bit more skill & Timing. As a Cascade, Rise // Fall could be played for it's blue cost to play rise for a nice effect as well. That being said, Blightning deals 3 damage, and gaurantees hitting 2 separate cards. The 3 damage might not seem relevant at first, but the damage definitely adds up.
5. Abrupt Decay. It kills 90% of the format's permanents, is very strong against tempo decks, and is a maindeck instant speed answer to problematic permanents like Vedalken Shackles, Cranial Plating, Pyromancer Ascension, and Prismatic Omen. The only weakness is that there are still a variety of cards that cost more than 3 in the format that are must-kills. Since Naya pod combo is still a deck, it's probably not a great idea to use decay as your only spot removal spell.
6. Terminate. The second best kill spell in the format. It's pretty plain, but gets the job done. It's not entirely necessary with Putrefy & Pulse, but in zoo heavy metas, it'll be a very welcome card.
7. Slagstorm / Anger of the Gods. Probably better as a Sideboard card, slagstorm & anger are very strong vs. any swarm-based aggro, with slagstorm being better against planeswalkers and combo, while anger is much better against birthing pod or persist decks. I put 3 in my board, and smile every time I draw it vs. aggro variants. The only caveat to these cards is that they'll kill your own shamans and confidants, but they're still worth running when you play against decks like RG zoo, Affinity, or even merfolk.
8. Molten Rain. It's great vs. tron, and a solid choice against control / scapeshift. The caveat here, is that it can be downright useless vs. aggro decks. Probably best in the board, but can be a decent meta decision if played right.
9. Slaughter Games. Exclusively for the sideboard, slaughter games is very strong against combo decks. Just be careful that your opponent doesn't sideboard into leyline of sanctity, which can cause your anti-combo gameplan to be entirely useless.
10. Garruk Relentless. Garruk has started to show up in a few Jund decks as a curve topper, coupled with another singleton Thrun. He fits the deck's strategy in that he's a strong way to gain utility, present a growing threat, and is pretty tough to get rid of.
11. Primal Command. I've always loved Primal Command in that it's pure card advantage, and on an open board, a resolved Command essentially time walks your opponent while allowing you to tutor up the best creature you need. While Command has a cost of 5, it's not unplayable with Confidant since it can also gain you 7 life when necessary. I wouldn't play more than 2 ever, but it's definitely a unique card to consider that can also add a bit of late-game power to your arsenal.
12. Swords. Take your pick of which you need most, Swords are always good cards, and can be quite effective when placed with manlands that have cheap activations (treetop village). If you're playing swords, it may not be a terrible idea to include a singleton dryad arbor in your deck as well, since instant speed fetching for a creature to equip can really surprise a lot of opponents and put a lot of pressure on them to not let you equip it. Sword of Light and Shadow, Feast and Famine, and Fire and Ice are all valid choices, and if you choose to use swords of any type, it'll probably be a meta-decision.
13. Jund Charm. The amount of versatility Jund charm offers is incredible, with the ability to serve as both graveyard hate and an instant speed sweeper at the same time. Jund charm is such a good "hate" card that it's easy maindeck material, and can even serve as creature removal via combat tricks with the +2+2 application.
14. Rakdos Charm. Another allstar sideboard option - Rakdos charm is similar to Jund charm in that it can play multiple roles. Against any deck that wants to play a copy combo with kiki jiki, deceiver exarch, restoration angel, or splinter twin, Rakdos charm can often deal your opponent lethal damage when they try to combo off. Against graveyard combo decks, charm destroys your opponent's graveyard, and against affinity style decks, it destroys problem artifacts such as Cranial plating.
15. Ajani Vengeant. Ajani is an allstar in the white splash variant. Outside Lingering souls, Ajani is probably the primary reason to why you would want to play white with Jund. He gains life back with his -2, can keep opponents off valuable manlands (or tron lands), and is difficult for control decks to profitably deal with prior to getting hit with a one sided armageddon.
16. Rakdos' Return. Most of the time, it'll be a slower blightning, but if you notice your games are going longer, it starts to become a much stronger topdeck than blightning could ever be, and often will end the game in one big spell.
Strengths of the Deck
One of the biggest strengths of Jund is that it can realistically be tuned to beat just about anything. In a combo/control heavy meta, you up the hand disruption. Against ramp strategies, you up the land disruption. Against aggro strategies, you play more Finks & removal spells. Unlike a lot of linear strategies, Jund doesn't have any real way of being completely "hated" out of a format since it attacks from so many different angles.
One of the only real strong weaknesses Jund has is that it IS slightly suicidal at it's most "normal" state. Playing Thoughtseize + Confidant + shocklands makes it easy for RDW decks to string easy wins on you. This makes it very important to have maindeck lifegain options. It'll also get into late-game mode where it'll seem like you're just topdecking lands and durdling around sometimes.
Against most aggro decks, you'll take on the role of the Control Deck early on, but don't be afraid to start applying pressure if they have a swarm of weak creatures. Forcing them to block a large Goyf will have them play into your hands anyway. If an aggro match lasts until late-game, you'll probably be able to walk away with the win, but it's definitely necessary to be able to put a clock on decks like RDW, or else they'll eventually just be able to burn you off.
Vs. Control and combo, you're obviously going to cut back on the removal spells, and play more aggro backed by hand disruption. It's pretty common to steal wins against control decks simply by resolving Liliana of the Veil. The other good thing Jund has going for it against Control is that it's difficult for them to trade 1 for 1 with your threats. Be smart with your creatures and try not to overextend into a wrath, but you also need to be careful to get the game in a winnable state before they rip off a large revelation.
Vs. Combo decks, you're going to play midrange. You want to play enough disruption to keep them from going off early, then kill them before they ever reassemble their combo pieces.
Overall, judging which role to play takes a bit of skill, and while some will say Jund is a Mindless deck, it's a far cry from it's standard variant where you simply play creatures and then play removal.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Well, if I'm going to write about strengths, I may as well post a section about weaknesses as well. To me, Jund's biggest weakness is that while it doesn't really have any terrible matchups, especially if it's fine tuned for a meta, it's a bit of a jack of all trades in that it's not particularly *great* at doing any one thing. It's less disruptive than control, it's not as fast of an aggro deck as Zoo, and it's not as good at grinding out games as a dedicated rock deck like Death Cloud (especially with the ban of Punishing Fire). I would also argue that Jund has a bit of a problem with decks that can go "bigger" than it does such as tron or scapeshift.
Ajundi (Jund with with white splash and Ajani Vengeant)
Sideboard Ideas
Building a proper sideboard really just depends on your opponents. That being said, it's important to know the biggest offenders.
vs. Combo decks: You'll want at least 1-4 extra spot discard spells. This will depend how many you have maindeck, but vs. a good combo or control deck, you never want to be without hand disruption as early as turn 1-2. Getting multiples will make it really hard for them to pull out a victory too. Depending on maindeck staples, duress, inquisition, and thoughtseize are the obvious choices here. Having additional Extraction effects (extirpate or Surgical Extraction) and arbitrary artifact hate such as Torpor Orb and Thorn of Amethyst can be quite helpful as well.
Vs. Tron/big mana decks: The best choice is likely Molten Rain, Fulminator Mage, and Sowing Salt. If you tweak your manabase enough, it's not out of the question to play sideboard blood moons, but if you do this, splashing will be out of the question.
Vs. Aggro: Obstinate Baloth, Vampire Nighthawk, Kitchen Finks, Slagstorm & Firespout, & Terminate are typically your strongest options. Once again, these will be dependent on your opponent as well as your maindeck choices.
Frequent Mistakes when building Modern Jund
Having played with, against, and spectated a LOT of modern decks, including quite a few different Jund decks I can say there are a lot of really bad jund builds, or a rather a lot of frequent mistakes when putting together a Jund list.
Mistake 1: Trying to play pure-aggro - If you want to play straight up aggro, just play Zoo. It's better at being exclusively aggro. Cards like Goblin Guide not only go directly against the Jund Gameplan, but don't even make you that much more aggressive than you already are.
Mistake 2: Being too suicidal - As another poster mentioned in another thread, he can frequently beat Jund red aggro decks, simply because Jund can be so suicidal. If you're going to play Confidant and Thoughtseize, you better be playing at least some way to gain back life in your deck, otherwise you can write off aggro as an auto-loss. More than just Finks & Nighthawk however, you don't really need to be playing a ridiculously suicidal manabase. You don't need to play 10 shocklands and 10 fetches for mana fixing. You can play 6-7 fetches, and 5 shocklands, and limit the rest of your mana to manlands, fastlands, checklands, or basics.
Mistake 3: Making your curve too high - Nothing is THAT worth playing that's over 4 mana. Furthermore, you want to be playing Confidant, so playing anything that costs 4 or higher (or too many 4 mana cards) is going to be too risky for you to play. The only cards you may want to consider that cost more than 4 are cards that can directly offset the life lost from flipping them off Confidant such as Batterskull, Thragtusk, or Primal Command.
Mistake 4: Not playing Manlands. Once again, this goes into manabase construction. If i made a section on building the manabase, I probably wouldn't have posted this here. Nonetheless, long story short, Raging Ravine & Treetop Village are still really good in here. I only play 24 lands, but I'll still randomly get flooded, and when I do, I'll frequently be saved by my manlands. Unlike decks like Zoo, playing a land that comes into play tapped turn 1, is rarely a problem in Jund, since the 1 drop slot is largely ignored for more powerful spells and creatures that are a bit more expensive. Another land that I think is worth playing is Kessig Wolf Run, since it can turn even a lonely kitchen finks into a major threat during late-game attrition wars.
Mistake 5: Playing too many lands - This may be something of a more personal opinion, but I constantly see Jund decks with upwards of 26-27 lands maindeck. This is just wayy too many lands for a deck which has a curve that tops out at 4. Getting flooded is a very specific weakness of Jund, and you just don't want to be topdecking lands against a powerful control deck when you should be killing them instead. Back in old standard, Jund played 26 or so lands, but it was also aiming to cast Broodmate Dragon, and Siege Gang Commander on-curve.
General Matchup Discussion
These matchups are very much a "rough" estimate, since the modern meta is so diverse, and so many things are subject to fine-tuning. This also is rarely updated, but some of these are still decently relevant.
Vs. Tron - 45-55: You can expect to lose game 1 vs. tron most of the time. By default, this puts you at a large disadvantage. Game 2 and 3, you sideboard in sowing salt, molten rain, or fulminator mages, hope to draw them, and hold Tron off long enough to kill them before they win. That being said, sowing salt often comes online after they assemble tron, and molten rain and fulminator mage will only slow tron down.
Vs. Zoo- 50/50: I would generally say this is about 55/45 in your favor, assuming you have some sideboard slots dedicated to zoo. The good thing about the Zoo matchup, is you have a stronger sideboard against them, than they do against you. The second strength against zoo, is you have Kitchen Finks maindeck, while they don't. Typically, the more creatures Zoo plays, the better off you are against them since you're overall weaker to burn than you are to creatures turning sideways. At Worlds, Jund beat zoo about 60% of the time, but I don't think the matchup is that far in Jund's Favor. Having access to cards like Firespout or Slagstorm is important here, since you will typically be running more than enough spot removal spells to deal with goyfs and knights.
Vs. Melira pod combo- 50/50: This matchup previously was much better when Punishing Fire was legal, but it's still winnable. Hand disruption coupled with some hard removal helps a lot, but they can buy lots of time off Finks, Wall of Roots, and once Pod gets going, it can be troublesome.
Vs. Naya Pod Combo- 45/55: Naya pod causes jund more problems than Melira pod does for a few reasons. First off, the deck runs off a 2 card combo, making it easier to assemble. Second, it's really difficult to push damage through a wall of Kitchen Finks, Restoration angels, Wall of Roots, and kiki jikis, which can either combo out, or copy kitchen finks to cause more problems. Rakdos charm helps a lot in this matchup, but you need to have it in your sideboard, and you also have to be able to apply enough pressure to win before they outvalue you, or combo out.
vs. Storm Combo variants- 55/45: Game 1, it's going to come down to how much discard you're able to draw against Storm combo. Games 2 & 3, you should be very much favored, and it's probably not a bad idea to mulligan into hate cards like Thorn of Amethyst, Relic of Progenitus, and Discard. Liliana is a pretty strong card here overall, since nuking their hand size goes a long way towards lowering their ability to launch past in flames. The biggest problem here is that they can still go off with a relatively low hand size, thanks to past in flames, but assuming you're putting a clock on them, you should be able to kill them before they accrue the resources required to win. It's important to note that Maelstrom Pulse is an important card here to knock out both Pyromancer's Ascension as well as large armies of Goblins created off Empty the Warrens (which is probably the bigger threat overall, due to low mass removal spells).
Vs. Hive Mind, Ad Nauseam, & Hulk combo- 60/40: I'm grouping these together since they're pretty similar in their speed, method of winning, as well as your gameplan to disrupt them. Their biggest advantage over a storm based combo deck is that they're potentially more resilient, at least to permission-based control. That being said, they also have more separate combo pieces they need to assemble, and less redundancy overall. Thoughtseizing away through the breach or hive mind while they have 2-3 other combo pieces in hand is very frustrating for them. You'll probably want to mulligan into hand disruption for this matchup, but getting enough discard effects is generally enough to win here.
Living End- 40/60: This is one of the few combo matchups that you really have no way of disrupting outside discarding one of their cascade spells. Even if you discard their cascade enablers, it's only a matter of time until they draw into another through cycling. This is a very bad matchup, especially when Fulminator Mage starts wrecking your manabase. The caveat here, is few jund charms added to the sideboard makes this a pretty easy matchup, but you'll still be punting game 1, and looking for grave hate game 2 & 3. If you can manage to extract living end or can simply get enough discard before they can resolve a cascade spell, you might be able to win, but otherwise, you're just going to be praying for enough graveyard hate and trying to hopefully steal a game or two. Jund charm helps here, but it wont save your board from being wrathed, and won't save them from cycling through and getting a second living end off.
RDW- 45/55: With Finks and Nighthawk maindeck, you wouldn't think RDW would be so bad, but the raw efficiency RDW has is a big problem here. The other primary problem with RDW is that they'll frequently board into blood moon style effects, which can be a bigtime problem. Most of the time your best strategy is to get a few discard spells off (hopefully not thoughtseize) to slow them down, then just race them with a Goyf. Discard is actually pretty helpful here, at least for the first few turns, since it'll eliminate their resources to just burn you off.
Affinity- 50/50: Affinity is still in all likelihood, the fastest creature-based aggro deck in the format. Luckily, you have access ancient grudge & cheap board sweepers in the sideboard, which can make it difficult for them. Since you're heavy on removal, this aggro matchup is much easier than playing against RDW or even something such as Boros. That being said, their raw speed can occasionally pose some problems even with some hate included, and since most affinity lists play etched champion somewhere in their 75, they have ways to deal with removal. If your opponent is playing red affinity with blood moons, this becomes a lot more difficult, but still manageable thanks to abrupt decay.
Faeries // Merfolk- 60/40: I'm lumping these together as blue-based aggro variants. In either case, these decks are quite easy to beat, seeing as they're based off lots of low toughness creatures, which Jund will tear apart in multiple ways. The biggest thing to look out for in these matchups (at least against faeries) is artifact enablers such as Sword of Feast and Famine, or potentially Vedalken Shackles.
Cruel Control // Gifts control- 55/45: Assuming that these are versions that are designed to pick apart aggro variants. If so, these decks can be tough to handle, since they'll likely play a 6 mana creature (titan or wurmcoil) that you wont be able to do anything about. If they can reach the point where they drop a wurmcoil (or in gifts case, gifts for unburial rites + wurmcoil), you're in trouble. Liliana and thoughtseizes are your best friends here.
Splinter Twin 55/45: Like most Combo decks Twin should be pretty easy to spot by a primarily U/R manabase. This matchup SHOULD be pretty easy, but the one difficult part these decks have is that they frequently sideboard into Blood Moon which can catch you way off guard and win the match for them. Nature's Claim is a pretty good option in the board against Twin since it gets rid of Spellskites, Splinter Twins, along with pesky blood moons. Cut the pk fires and bring in the full discard suite here and it shouldn't be too difficult assuming you're prepared and don't keep bad hands w/o hate. The other primary problem to watch out for is Blood moon, so be prepared for a turn 3 blood moon in a lot of the game 2 & 3's. Nature's claim is quite strong here since it can deal with the moon as well as the twin (assuming no dispels of course).
Delver tempo variants 55/45: Generally you're playing all the cards a delver deck absolutely hates seeing. Efficient removal & disruption, and creatures that are bigger than they play. Generally this match is somewhat easy, but they can nut draw and out-tempo you to a win. RUG delver is generally more difficult than UB variants, but they both play somewhat similarly.
Mono White control // Martyr // Ghostly Prison Control - 45/55: I'm lumping these together because they largely play the same game. These aren't that easy to play against since they slow the game down to a snail's pace, and a lot of them have more late-game inevitability than you do (especially if they're playing Emeria). These are no doubt decks where you wish you had blue spells to play against them, since counterspells are quite strong against these kind of archetypes. Your best bet is to go all in on the hand disruption and hope to kill them before they top a wrath or prison. It's certainly possible to win, but if they get behind early wall of omens followed by other barriers, you're going to have a hard time winning.
UW Caw-Blade // UW Restoration (UW control) 55/45 : This is a matchup that used to be way worse, but got way better with Deathrite shaman and Decay.
Please keep discussion civil! I'll update primer as needed!
FWIW, I'm not going to discuss splashing in this. There is no real need for it, and it doesn't help the deck out at all. And yes, I have tested splashes, they just make the manabase worse, and don't really help any specific matchups.
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Thought Scour is terrible in BV. How many flashback spells are being run? Say roughly 15. This gives you a roughly 38% chance of milling one flashback spell. And even if you do, you paid one mana to cantrip and dump an overcosted spell. Alchemy, Geistflame, Devil's play, etc. all cost much more to flash back than your average card, so you're not getting full value out of it.
You'd much rather play Ponder. At least that generates a tangible advantage.
I really don't like Rise//Fall over Blightning. If you flip it with Bob you take four, and I don't think the random discard is worth losing the free bolt that comes with Blightning.
Putrid Leech was the biggest staple for old jund, it should make a return, it is essentially a 4/4 for 2
It's also trumped by Goyf, Bob, and is very very suicidal. And it's NOT a 2/2 for 4. It gets burned off by every aggro deck in the format in response to it pumping itself. As I mentioned in the primer, this isn't standard, and while Leech is good, it's not necessary here or helpful for the overall gameplan. You already have 8 2 drop creatures, so playing an additional 4 floods the curve at the 2 mana slot, which isn't really where you want to be for Jund.
I really don't like Rise//Fall over Blightning. If you flip it with Bob you take four, and I don't think the random discard is worth losing the free bolt that comes with Blightning
As I've mentioned, it's a judgment call, and something best figured out by playtesting. The deck-list I posted in the OP actually is currrently playing Blightning, but I figured I'd switch out Rise // Fall just to get people thinking and testing stuff "outside the box" here. As for the randomness, the Randomness is absolutely worth it. Anybody who's ever been hit with a Hymn To Tourach in Legacy can tell you how rough it is to get hit with a 2 mana "discard 2 at random" spell can be.
Finally, the deck-list is a SAMPLE deck list. I'm not looking for critiques or suggestions on the deck build, this is just a thread for the overall development of the Jund Archetype. If you've actually playtested with Jund, I'll be happy to update the primer on any findings or notes.
Nicely written. I was going to do a primer but you've captured most of thoughts nicely.
Molten Rain is interesting, but right now I'm prefering Blood Moon . Blood Moon can be killer against 12post.
I also have Thought Hemorrhages as an answer to control, though they can be a bit slow at times.
My Jund decklist is very similar to the sample one, except it runs Bolts. I think it might be feasible to cut them for, as you've done, more "hard" removal (Putrefy) and creatures. Not sure yet. Might have to try that out.
Grim Lavamancer is a really good card and should be in the deck as a three of. I prefer rise//fall over blightning because blightning doesn't really cripple combo/decks and it comes out on turn two which makes it more effective against combo.
Putrid Leech was the biggest staple for old jund, it should make a return, it is essentially a 4/4 for 2
As was already said, it's very suicidal. In was fantastic in Old Jund. But Old Jund didn't run Dark Confidant and Shocklands. You could get yourself in some sticky situations against Zoo and various aggro decks by paying his cost.
Im having a hard time deciding if I'm playing Bob and Putrid leech or not. Its too much lifeloss between shocks, fetches and Darkie. Plus the CMC on jund is too high for Bob alone.
¿Nobody tried Phyrexian Arena?
I guess it depends on what you're going for. I'd play Bob over Putrid Leech and Phyrexian Arena, personally, but I could be wrong.
Putrid Leech was the biggest staple for old jund, it should make a return, it is essentially a 4/4 for 2
I know it was already mentioned, but Putrid Leech is essentially, a worse goyf, mainly for the life needed to make leech good. The first thing that made me excited for jund in modern was that goyf was legal.
Grim Lavamancer is a really good card and should be in the deck as a three of. I prefer rise//fall over blightning because blightning doesn't really cripple combo/decks and it comes out on turn two which makes it more effective against combo.
Grim Lavamancer doesn't do what jund wants to. As removal, we have far better answers, and as the OP said, for just straight up damage, this is not the deck the mancer belongs in.
As far as the OP goes, I think it is very well written. I might consider Dismember as a possible removal choice for its sheer power and cost, and cascades from BBE. I also don't see the PF/Grove combo being that good against zoo, as the only creatures it kills straight up are Goblin Guide and Bloodbraided Elf. As far as winning goyf wars, I like the other options much better.
Fall by itself, is not that impressive, and at the 2 slot, I would much rather be casting goyf or bob.
also if molten rain isn't good against aggro try fulminator mage. It is almost the same thing, except it blocks for one turn or at least waste an opponents removal spells. Oh, and its easier to cast, and beats when you don't need the land destruction.
In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
However, this is a better thread for general discussion of Jund, because it opens up with a primer that discusses the archetype in-depth and quite extensively, while that one starts with a discussion of the OP's decklist.
Also, from among the Standard Jund staples, Anathemancer seems like it could still make the cut as he can punish almost every deck for playing shock duals.
In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
I'm working on a four color variant that uses KotR over Goyf (because I don't have Goyf) and uses the white splash to also run Lightning Helix (as OP mentioned) and Glittering Wish.
Still in the very early stages, and I have a lot of concerns. Still fiddling with the numbers of the 4-ofs and vacillating. Manabase is all over the place and needs testing and refinement. No Punishing Fire + Grove hurts in the reach department. I'm concerned it might not have enough "oomph" to "get there", hence the Broodmate in the wishboard.
Just to be explicit, I know it needs Goyf, Grove, and Thoughtseize, but unfortunately they're outside my budget.
With a deck that has so much suicide to it, it seems running filter lands and reflecting pool as the best choice! Of course you would pack 4 Verdant Catacombs with possible one of each shockland (aka: Overgrown Tomb, Stomping Grounds and Blood Crypt.
Why has nobody considered it????? Apart from being a better mana base, its also much cheaper! With cards like Dark Confidant "pinging" you every turn, it seem necessary to even have an even game against zoo.
That's just my 2 cents.
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Q: What is Jund?
A: For people who weren't around for Shards of Alara/Zendikar standard, Jund was a Green/Red/Black mid-range deck that burst onto the scene in the wake of Faeries. While Jund was in many regards an aggro deck, it also was a control deck, but mostly, it was a midrange deck that focused on gaining card advantage as well as tempo, primarily through the Cascade mechanic off of Bloodbraid Elf. For people who are older to the game, Jund essentially is an aggressive "rock" deck that wants to win off 2 for 1 effects, hand disruption, and winning wars of attrition.
Fast forwarding to modern..
Must-Haves in Jund
1. Dark Confidant. Dubbed by many the best creature ever printed. If left unchecked, he'll typically just net too much card advantage for an opponent to ever overcome. If he ever gets too close to your life total for comfort, you can use your own removal to deal with him. All things being equal, Confidant just wins, and drawing cards for a slight loss of life just isn't that big of a deal (especially if you're built to be able to absorb the life-loss). He even has the added bonus of being able to swing for some damage on top of everything else.
2. Tarmogoyf. With Goyf, you're essentially playing 2/3 of the best creatures ever printed, with Stoneforge Mystic being the third (and conveniently on the ban list). Turn 2, you almost always want to tap out to play Goyf or Bob. He's your best finisher, best blocker, and typically requires a path or some other hard removal to be answered.
3. (RIP) Bloodbraid Elf. Elf + really good cards that cost 2 & 3 mana = win. Well... BBE is banned, so this is a moot point, but I'm going to leave this section here just for people who are interested. Elf should essentially top off the curve in Modern Jund. One mistake of playing elf is playing it while an opponent has no board presence. Typically it's a smarter play to hold your elf until an opponent casts some sort of creature, since cascading into a removal spell while they have nothing except lands isn't the best plan for success.
4. Thoughtseize // Inquisition of Kozilek. Having at least 4 of these maindeck is very important when playing against combo decks, control decks, and can help even when playing opposing aggro decks. Determining the proper split between these can be tough, since thoughtseize while traditionally better, is a bit suicidal vs. aggro decks when coupled with confidant, shocklands, and opposing burn spells. That being said, Seize is much stronger vs. combo decks as well as control decks these days, so it's likely the better inclusion. I'm currently playing 3 thoughtseize with 2+ Inquisition, with an additional inquisition & duress in the sideboard. This setup has worked relatively well for me. You probably don't want more than 6 maindeck spot discard spells since they're not always the best cascades, and they aren't very strong topdecks either. In an aggro-heavy meta, you'll probably want to switch the Seizes with Inquisitions.
5. Liliana of the Veil. Liliana is absolutely gross in Jund. Since you generally don't mind being in topdeck mode, Liliana can cause nightmares for combo or control decks, and will frequently 2 for 1 aggro decks via edicting them multiple times. She really is good against just about every archetype, as her +1 and -2 effects are either good against control, or good against creature decks where you want to be edicting them. Threatening to blow up half the opponent's board forces control opponents to be proactive, or to simply lose to her -6.
6. Deathrite Shaman. Deathrite shaman is really just a bonkers card that pushed Jund over the edge from "the format's most average deck" to what has now become the format's best deck. When Shaman was printed, a lot of people discredited it saying it was an underpowered birds of paradise, or an underpowered grim lavamancer. While it's true that Shaman isn't the best mana dork in the world, or the best damage dealer, the utility it offers for a mere 1 mana is groundbreaking, and it's not uncommon for an unchecked shaman to deal upwards of 4-8 damage in a match. For a single mana, shaman accelerates into turn 2 Lilianas, forces your opponent to kill it or die to it (and yes, it is a must kill for 90% of opponents) and helps out in most of Jund's matchups that were previously bad (storm, RDW, etc).
The supporting cast
While the previous cards are all essential "must haves" in Jund, the supporting cast is incredibly important to determine how or whether you win your games. Despite this, many of these cards are relatively debateable as to whether they do or do not belong in a properly constructed Jund deck. It's important to metagame properly with a deck like this, and some of the creatures and spells below may be decent choices when choosing to build your deck.
Supporting Creatures - What are the options?
2. Eternal Witness. Witness isn't very aggro, but if games drag out really long, witness is going to be the best topdeck you could ever ask for. I tried it for a bit, and wasn't that impressed, but she still fits the 2 for 1 nature of Jund, so I wouldn't discount her as a 1-2 of in a properly constructed deck.
3. Vampire Nighthawk. For whatever reason, Nighthawk didn't see a ton of play in Jund when it was in standard. While I can't remember the specific reason, Nighthawk has been a very solid 3 drop. It's nothing particularly amazing, but the lifelink is a strong anti-aggro tool, and the fact that it can block any pesky fliers, or even just give you evasion vs. an opposing wall of creatures can be huge. I originally played Nighthawk as an extra means to deal with Zoo prior to Wild Nacatl being banned, and I would still consider it relevant if you expect lots of aggro in your meta.
4. Geralf's Messenger. Messenger is similar to Finks, except better in non-aggro matchups, and slightly more difficult to cast. Typically, if you're not playing Finks, Geralf's messenger can give you a much more aggressive clock that's very difficult to handle without path to exile.
5. Rakdos Augermage. This isn't hugely popular, but it's a 3 drop that can deal some damage while also helping to disrupt combo decks. It's worth considering at least, although you're generally better off with finks, messenger, or souls.
6. Grim Lavamancer. While I'm a big lavamancer fan, he's not necessarily the best fit in Jund. There are two primary problems, the first being the fact that he's a bad cascade, and the other being the fact that he's anti-synergistic with Goyf. That being said, Lavamancer can cause some serious problems for tempo decks like Faeries, Delver, or even Caw Blade, and even if it has a bit of anti-synergy, it's still an amazing card that wins creature battles and can push through damage.
7. "5 mana creatures". There are a lot of ways you can go here, traditionally speaking, they're difficult to play with Dark Confidant in a reliable fashion. The fact is, playing Dark Confidant is better than playing any 5 mana creature, and the two are difficult to play together. If you want to play 5 drops in Jund, your best options are 5 mana cards that can gain you life back, thus offsetting the risk of ripping them off Dark Confidant. If you're not playing Dark Confidant, you should have more options to play 5 mana creatures, which can actually be gamebreaking in a Jund Mirror match.
5 mana creatures Worth Considering
Thragtusk - Not really much needs to be said here. It gains you life, trades profitably with anything, and can deal damage quickly.
Siege-Gang Commander - A Staple from standard jund decks, SGC can deal upwards of 8 damage simply by sacrificing its own goblins, and is difficult for an opponent to profitably handle without a wrath effect.
Thundermaw Hellkite - Fast, aggressive, big, and quite powerful against lingering souls or Faeries. Hellkite is likely a meta choice, but it's always going to be a very aggressive attacker that can get damage through while being great in any lingering souls mirrors.
Demigod of Revenge - Demigod is quite a powerful attacker that gets stronger the longer the game draws out. Demigod offers insane inevitability to Jund decks, and also synergizes well when played with Fauna Shaman. The main caveats here are that you may end up going down a different jund strategy than what is traditionally popular, and Demigod also needs to be a 4-of in your deck to guarantee effectiveness.
8.Boggart-Ram-Gang. Ram-Gang is an older staple of extended and standard jund decks, but he doesn't really isn't worthwhile in modern jund. Against aggro decks, Finks is just flat out Better, and Finks is no worse against control decks as well. Vs. Combo, both of these creatures are pretty lame, but Finks at least gains you some life vs. any type of storm-based combo deck.
9. Sprouting Thrinax. Just like Ram-Gang, he's a solid choice, but probably just not in the right place. That being said, I do like Thrinax's ability to block a goyf, then poop out tokens to chump block more aggro threats. That being said, this is only relevant if it actually sets up a winning board position. Finks is probably just a little bit better at what he does, but Thrinax could definitely see some play as well, especially since he wont' get burned off as easily by lavamancer or Punishing Fire.
10. Anathemancer. Anathemancer is oft forgotten about, but against control decks or scapeshift, he's a really strong source of inevitability, and in a format where people play a lot of suicidal cards and non-basic manabases, the mancer can often deal upwards of 4-5 damage when he first enters play, and if you ever get to unearth him, he'll likely just win the game for you on the spot. That being said, Anathemancer is generally a little bit slower than you want, and the 2/2 body is largely irrelevant.
11. Fulminator Mage. Awesome utility card against decks like Tron. Mage is a stone rain that can attack for 2 when you don't need to destroy one of your opponent's lands.
12. Lotus Cobra. Cobra is likely a card that you would play when you're trying to pair it with 5 mana creatures, but it's a bit of a "tech" card that can give you a huge tempo boost if it's not removed. Since Jund is a fairly mana hungry deck, having a cobra stick around for a turn or two can be disastrous for your opponent. Most of the time, you would play cobra in conjunction with 5 mana cards, as it can give you a boost of 2 mana per turn when combined with fetches.
13. Thrun, the Last Troll. Thrun is a card that started showing up as a singleton, and depending on how many control decks are in a meta, can easily be moved up. Obviously thrun is good against control, but he's also pretty solid against decks like zoo, where he's essentially a wall that can't be killed, and can block any of their creatures.
14. Burning Tree Shaman. Shaman is a pretty efficient creature that helps to shut down Splinter twin to a large degree, is useful against Melira Pod, and will generally deal anywhere from 1-5 damage without even having to attack. He's not amazing, but great in a meta with lots of twin & pod running around.
15. Huntsmaster of the Fells. Another "decent" creature that can be a decent anti-aggro threat, but he really doesn't do anything you're not already getting at a more efficient value with in kitchen finks. He's rarely the "Best" card to play, but is often a good placeholder that is never awful, and can help offset some of your suicidal tendencies.
16. Olivia Voldaren. Olivia is really strong in creature matchups, specifically those which feature a lot of small critters trying to attack you. A resolved olivia causes major headaches for Affinity, Martyr WW, and if unchecked in mirror matches, can cause problems there too.
17. Falkenrath Aristocrat. Aristocrat has yet to see any mainstream play in Jund, but it's a card that I've felt could easily break through jund Mirror matches assuming your opponent isn't playing Lingering Souls. Aristocrat can swing in and deal a ton of damage in a rapid fashion, and unlike most other cards that would be played in Jund, it has a lot of evasion, and is very difficult to kill as well.
18. Garruk Relentless. He's a pretty strong 4 drop that can generate a constant stream of creatures, and occasionally pick off an opposing creature or two. He wont ever wow you with being dominant, but he can be a solid roleplayer that sits towards the top of the curve.
19. Chandra Pyromaster. Her 0 effect is pretty strong in jund since most of the cards you would gain off that affect you can cast right away. Her +1 effect is also surprisingly relevant in the modern format with a lot of mana dorks and x'1 creatures around.
20. Xenagos, the Reveler. I think Xenagos is pretty comparable to Garruk, Relentless since they both pump out 2/2 creatures, and start at 3 loyalty. I like xenagos a little more in an aggressive variant as the haste provides a much quicker clock. His +1 can help activate manlands, or simply take him out of lightning bolt range.
Supporting Disruption // Utility
1. Lightning Bolt. It's bolt, nothing else really needs to be said here that isn't self explanatory. It kills 90% of the creatures you want to kill in Modern, goes to the face, and is incredibly efficient.
2. Maelstrom Pulse. The closest thing Modern has to Vindicate. It's a very strong card that's greatest strength is it's versatility. If you hit multiples, it's just an additional bonus. I only play 2 because the sorcery speed clause can be a bit "slow" at times, but the times where pulse shines, it really shines in the most brilliant ways.
3. Putrefy.In most cases, Putrefy is a Pulse that can work at instant speed & kill manlands. There just aren't that many Enchantments or Planeswalkers that are random in Modern right now, so most of the time, all you'll care about is hitting an artifact or a creature, and being instant speed makes a world of difference.
4. Blightning. Blightning previously saw more play, but is often a bit slow for it's effect. It's still insane off a cascade, but is pretty dead against decks like Affinity, UWR delver, or any deck where you're forced to play defense against an aggro assault. I started out using Rise // Fall as a pseudo Hymn to Tourach, that took a bit more skill & Timing. As a Cascade, Rise // Fall could be played for it's blue cost to play rise for a nice effect as well. That being said, Blightning deals 3 damage, and gaurantees hitting 2 separate cards. The 3 damage might not seem relevant at first, but the damage definitely adds up.
5. Abrupt Decay. It kills 90% of the format's permanents, is very strong against tempo decks, and is a maindeck instant speed answer to problematic permanents like Vedalken Shackles, Cranial Plating, Pyromancer Ascension, and Prismatic Omen. The only weakness is that there are still a variety of cards that cost more than 3 in the format that are must-kills. Since Naya pod combo is still a deck, it's probably not a great idea to use decay as your only spot removal spell.
6. Terminate. The second best kill spell in the format. It's pretty plain, but gets the job done. It's not entirely necessary with Putrefy & Pulse, but in zoo heavy metas, it'll be a very welcome card.
7. Slagstorm / Anger of the Gods. Probably better as a Sideboard card, slagstorm & anger are very strong vs. any swarm-based aggro, with slagstorm being better against planeswalkers and combo, while anger is much better against birthing pod or persist decks. I put 3 in my board, and smile every time I draw it vs. aggro variants. The only caveat to these cards is that they'll kill your own shamans and confidants, but they're still worth running when you play against decks like RG zoo, Affinity, or even merfolk.
8. Molten Rain. It's great vs. tron, and a solid choice against control / scapeshift. The caveat here, is that it can be downright useless vs. aggro decks. Probably best in the board, but can be a decent meta decision if played right.
9. Slaughter Games. Exclusively for the sideboard, slaughter games is very strong against combo decks. Just be careful that your opponent doesn't sideboard into leyline of sanctity, which can cause your anti-combo gameplan to be entirely useless.
10. Garruk Relentless. Garruk has started to show up in a few Jund decks as a curve topper, coupled with another singleton Thrun. He fits the deck's strategy in that he's a strong way to gain utility, present a growing threat, and is pretty tough to get rid of.
11. Primal Command. I've always loved Primal Command in that it's pure card advantage, and on an open board, a resolved Command essentially time walks your opponent while allowing you to tutor up the best creature you need. While Command has a cost of 5, it's not unplayable with Confidant since it can also gain you 7 life when necessary. I wouldn't play more than 2 ever, but it's definitely a unique card to consider that can also add a bit of late-game power to your arsenal.
12. Swords. Take your pick of which you need most, Swords are always good cards, and can be quite effective when placed with manlands that have cheap activations (treetop village). If you're playing swords, it may not be a terrible idea to include a singleton dryad arbor in your deck as well, since instant speed fetching for a creature to equip can really surprise a lot of opponents and put a lot of pressure on them to not let you equip it. Sword of Light and Shadow, Feast and Famine, and Fire and Ice are all valid choices, and if you choose to use swords of any type, it'll probably be a meta-decision.
13. Jund Charm. The amount of versatility Jund charm offers is incredible, with the ability to serve as both graveyard hate and an instant speed sweeper at the same time. Jund charm is such a good "hate" card that it's easy maindeck material, and can even serve as creature removal via combat tricks with the +2+2 application.
14. Rakdos Charm. Another allstar sideboard option - Rakdos charm is similar to Jund charm in that it can play multiple roles. Against any deck that wants to play a copy combo with kiki jiki, deceiver exarch, restoration angel, or splinter twin, Rakdos charm can often deal your opponent lethal damage when they try to combo off. Against graveyard combo decks, charm destroys your opponent's graveyard, and against affinity style decks, it destroys problem artifacts such as Cranial plating.
15. Ajani Vengeant. Ajani is an allstar in the white splash variant. Outside Lingering souls, Ajani is probably the primary reason to why you would want to play white with Jund. He gains life back with his -2, can keep opponents off valuable manlands (or tron lands), and is difficult for control decks to profitably deal with prior to getting hit with a one sided armageddon.
16. Rakdos' Return. Most of the time, it'll be a slower blightning, but if you notice your games are going longer, it starts to become a much stronger topdeck than blightning could ever be, and often will end the game in one big spell.
Strengths of the Deck
One of the biggest strengths of Jund is that it can realistically be tuned to beat just about anything. In a combo/control heavy meta, you up the hand disruption. Against ramp strategies, you up the land disruption. Against aggro strategies, you play more Finks & removal spells. Unlike a lot of linear strategies, Jund doesn't have any real way of being completely "hated" out of a format since it attacks from so many different angles.
One of the only real strong weaknesses Jund has is that it IS slightly suicidal at it's most "normal" state. Playing Thoughtseize + Confidant + shocklands makes it easy for RDW decks to string easy wins on you. This makes it very important to have maindeck lifegain options. It'll also get into late-game mode where it'll seem like you're just topdecking lands and durdling around sometimes.
Against most aggro decks, you'll take on the role of the Control Deck early on, but don't be afraid to start applying pressure if they have a swarm of weak creatures. Forcing them to block a large Goyf will have them play into your hands anyway. If an aggro match lasts until late-game, you'll probably be able to walk away with the win, but it's definitely necessary to be able to put a clock on decks like RDW, or else they'll eventually just be able to burn you off.
Vs. Control and combo, you're obviously going to cut back on the removal spells, and play more aggro backed by hand disruption. It's pretty common to steal wins against control decks simply by resolving Liliana of the Veil. The other good thing Jund has going for it against Control is that it's difficult for them to trade 1 for 1 with your threats. Be smart with your creatures and try not to overextend into a wrath, but you also need to be careful to get the game in a winnable state before they rip off a large revelation.
Vs. Combo decks, you're going to play midrange. You want to play enough disruption to keep them from going off early, then kill them before they ever reassemble their combo pieces.
Overall, judging which role to play takes a bit of skill, and while some will say Jund is a Mindless deck, it's a far cry from it's standard variant where you simply play creatures and then play removal.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Well, if I'm going to write about strengths, I may as well post a section about weaknesses as well. To me, Jund's biggest weakness is that while it doesn't really have any terrible matchups, especially if it's fine tuned for a meta, it's a bit of a jack of all trades in that it's not particularly *great* at doing any one thing. It's less disruptive than control, it's not as fast of an aggro deck as Zoo, and it's not as good at grinding out games as a dedicated rock deck like Death Cloud (especially with the ban of Punishing Fire). I would also argue that Jund has a bit of a problem with decks that can go "bigger" than it does such as tron or scapeshift.
Ajundi (Jund with with white splash and Ajani Vengeant)
4x Dark Confidant
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Thundermaw Hellkite
Planeswalkers
3x Ajani Vengeant
4x Liliana of the Veil
Instants/Sorceries
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Path to Exile
3x Lingering Souls
1x Arid Mesa
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
1x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Raging Ravine
2x Stirring Wildwood
1x Stomping Ground
1x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Thoughtseize
2x Sowing Salt
2x Stony Silence
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Lighning Helix
2x Jund Charm
Standard RGB Jund
Creatures
4x Dark Confidant
4x Deathrite Shaman
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Thundermaw Hellkite
Planeswalkers
4x Liliana of the Veil
Spells
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Terminate
4x Thoughtseize
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
1x Forest
3x Marsh Flats
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Overgrown Tomb
2x Raging Ravine
1x Stomping Ground
2x Swamp
3x Treetop Village
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Ancient Grudge
1x Batterskull
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Jund Charm
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Olivia Voldaren
4x Sowing Salt
2x Thrun, the Last Troll
Sideboard Ideas
Building a proper sideboard really just depends on your opponents. That being said, it's important to know the biggest offenders.
vs. Combo decks: You'll want at least 1-4 extra spot discard spells. This will depend how many you have maindeck, but vs. a good combo or control deck, you never want to be without hand disruption as early as turn 1-2. Getting multiples will make it really hard for them to pull out a victory too. Depending on maindeck staples, duress, inquisition, and thoughtseize are the obvious choices here. Having additional Extraction effects (extirpate or Surgical Extraction) and arbitrary artifact hate such as Torpor Orb and Thorn of Amethyst can be quite helpful as well.
Vs. Tron/big mana decks: The best choice is likely Molten Rain, Fulminator Mage, and Sowing Salt. If you tweak your manabase enough, it's not out of the question to play sideboard blood moons, but if you do this, splashing will be out of the question.
Vs. Aggro: Obstinate Baloth, Vampire Nighthawk, Kitchen Finks, Slagstorm & Firespout, & Terminate are typically your strongest options. Once again, these will be dependent on your opponent as well as your maindeck choices.
Frequent Mistakes when building Modern Jund
Having played with, against, and spectated a LOT of modern decks, including quite a few different Jund decks I can say there are a lot of really bad jund builds, or a rather a lot of frequent mistakes when putting together a Jund list.
Mistake 1: Trying to play pure-aggro - If you want to play straight up aggro, just play Zoo. It's better at being exclusively aggro. Cards like Goblin Guide not only go directly against the Jund Gameplan, but don't even make you that much more aggressive than you already are.
Mistake 2: Being too suicidal - As another poster mentioned in another thread, he can frequently beat Jund red aggro decks, simply because Jund can be so suicidal. If you're going to play Confidant and Thoughtseize, you better be playing at least some way to gain back life in your deck, otherwise you can write off aggro as an auto-loss. More than just Finks & Nighthawk however, you don't really need to be playing a ridiculously suicidal manabase. You don't need to play 10 shocklands and 10 fetches for mana fixing. You can play 6-7 fetches, and 5 shocklands, and limit the rest of your mana to manlands, fastlands, checklands, or basics.
Mistake 3: Making your curve too high - Nothing is THAT worth playing that's over 4 mana. Furthermore, you want to be playing Confidant, so playing anything that costs 4 or higher (or too many 4 mana cards) is going to be too risky for you to play. The only cards you may want to consider that cost more than 4 are cards that can directly offset the life lost from flipping them off Confidant such as Batterskull, Thragtusk, or Primal Command.
Mistake 4: Not playing Manlands. Once again, this goes into manabase construction. If i made a section on building the manabase, I probably wouldn't have posted this here. Nonetheless, long story short, Raging Ravine & Treetop Village are still really good in here. I only play 24 lands, but I'll still randomly get flooded, and when I do, I'll frequently be saved by my manlands. Unlike decks like Zoo, playing a land that comes into play tapped turn 1, is rarely a problem in Jund, since the 1 drop slot is largely ignored for more powerful spells and creatures that are a bit more expensive. Another land that I think is worth playing is Kessig Wolf Run, since it can turn even a lonely kitchen finks into a major threat during late-game attrition wars.
Mistake 5: Playing too many lands - This may be something of a more personal opinion, but I constantly see Jund decks with upwards of 26-27 lands maindeck. This is just wayy too many lands for a deck which has a curve that tops out at 4. Getting flooded is a very specific weakness of Jund, and you just don't want to be topdecking lands against a powerful control deck when you should be killing them instead. Back in old standard, Jund played 26 or so lands, but it was also aiming to cast Broodmate Dragon, and Siege Gang Commander on-curve.
General Matchup Discussion
These matchups are very much a "rough" estimate, since the modern meta is so diverse, and so many things are subject to fine-tuning. This also is rarely updated, but some of these are still decently relevant.
Vs. Tron - 45-55: You can expect to lose game 1 vs. tron most of the time. By default, this puts you at a large disadvantage. Game 2 and 3, you sideboard in sowing salt, molten rain, or fulminator mages, hope to draw them, and hold Tron off long enough to kill them before they win. That being said, sowing salt often comes online after they assemble tron, and molten rain and fulminator mage will only slow tron down.
Vs. Zoo- 50/50: I would generally say this is about 55/45 in your favor, assuming you have some sideboard slots dedicated to zoo. The good thing about the Zoo matchup, is you have a stronger sideboard against them, than they do against you. The second strength against zoo, is you have Kitchen Finks maindeck, while they don't. Typically, the more creatures Zoo plays, the better off you are against them since you're overall weaker to burn than you are to creatures turning sideways. At Worlds, Jund beat zoo about 60% of the time, but I don't think the matchup is that far in Jund's Favor. Having access to cards like Firespout or Slagstorm is important here, since you will typically be running more than enough spot removal spells to deal with goyfs and knights.
Vs. Melira pod combo- 50/50: This matchup previously was much better when Punishing Fire was legal, but it's still winnable. Hand disruption coupled with some hard removal helps a lot, but they can buy lots of time off Finks, Wall of Roots, and once Pod gets going, it can be troublesome.
Vs. Naya Pod Combo- 45/55: Naya pod causes jund more problems than Melira pod does for a few reasons. First off, the deck runs off a 2 card combo, making it easier to assemble. Second, it's really difficult to push damage through a wall of Kitchen Finks, Restoration angels, Wall of Roots, and kiki jikis, which can either combo out, or copy kitchen finks to cause more problems. Rakdos charm helps a lot in this matchup, but you need to have it in your sideboard, and you also have to be able to apply enough pressure to win before they outvalue you, or combo out.
vs. Storm Combo variants- 55/45: Game 1, it's going to come down to how much discard you're able to draw against Storm combo. Games 2 & 3, you should be very much favored, and it's probably not a bad idea to mulligan into hate cards like Thorn of Amethyst, Relic of Progenitus, and Discard. Liliana is a pretty strong card here overall, since nuking their hand size goes a long way towards lowering their ability to launch past in flames. The biggest problem here is that they can still go off with a relatively low hand size, thanks to past in flames, but assuming you're putting a clock on them, you should be able to kill them before they accrue the resources required to win. It's important to note that Maelstrom Pulse is an important card here to knock out both Pyromancer's Ascension as well as large armies of Goblins created off Empty the Warrens (which is probably the bigger threat overall, due to low mass removal spells).
Vs. Hive Mind, Ad Nauseam, & Hulk combo- 60/40: I'm grouping these together since they're pretty similar in their speed, method of winning, as well as your gameplan to disrupt them. Their biggest advantage over a storm based combo deck is that they're potentially more resilient, at least to permission-based control. That being said, they also have more separate combo pieces they need to assemble, and less redundancy overall. Thoughtseizing away through the breach or hive mind while they have 2-3 other combo pieces in hand is very frustrating for them. You'll probably want to mulligan into hand disruption for this matchup, but getting enough discard effects is generally enough to win here.
Living End- 40/60: This is one of the few combo matchups that you really have no way of disrupting outside discarding one of their cascade spells. Even if you discard their cascade enablers, it's only a matter of time until they draw into another through cycling. This is a very bad matchup, especially when Fulminator Mage starts wrecking your manabase. The caveat here, is few jund charms added to the sideboard makes this a pretty easy matchup, but you'll still be punting game 1, and looking for grave hate game 2 & 3. If you can manage to extract living end or can simply get enough discard before they can resolve a cascade spell, you might be able to win, but otherwise, you're just going to be praying for enough graveyard hate and trying to hopefully steal a game or two. Jund charm helps here, but it wont save your board from being wrathed, and won't save them from cycling through and getting a second living end off.
RDW- 45/55: With Finks and Nighthawk maindeck, you wouldn't think RDW would be so bad, but the raw efficiency RDW has is a big problem here. The other primary problem with RDW is that they'll frequently board into blood moon style effects, which can be a bigtime problem. Most of the time your best strategy is to get a few discard spells off (hopefully not thoughtseize) to slow them down, then just race them with a Goyf. Discard is actually pretty helpful here, at least for the first few turns, since it'll eliminate their resources to just burn you off.
Affinity- 50/50: Affinity is still in all likelihood, the fastest creature-based aggro deck in the format. Luckily, you have access ancient grudge & cheap board sweepers in the sideboard, which can make it difficult for them. Since you're heavy on removal, this aggro matchup is much easier than playing against RDW or even something such as Boros. That being said, their raw speed can occasionally pose some problems even with some hate included, and since most affinity lists play etched champion somewhere in their 75, they have ways to deal with removal. If your opponent is playing red affinity with blood moons, this becomes a lot more difficult, but still manageable thanks to abrupt decay.
Faeries // Merfolk- 60/40: I'm lumping these together as blue-based aggro variants. In either case, these decks are quite easy to beat, seeing as they're based off lots of low toughness creatures, which Jund will tear apart in multiple ways. The biggest thing to look out for in these matchups (at least against faeries) is artifact enablers such as Sword of Feast and Famine, or potentially Vedalken Shackles.
Cruel Control // Gifts control- 55/45: Assuming that these are versions that are designed to pick apart aggro variants. If so, these decks can be tough to handle, since they'll likely play a 6 mana creature (titan or wurmcoil) that you wont be able to do anything about. If they can reach the point where they drop a wurmcoil (or in gifts case, gifts for unburial rites + wurmcoil), you're in trouble. Liliana and thoughtseizes are your best friends here.
Splinter Twin 55/45: Like most Combo decks Twin should be pretty easy to spot by a primarily U/R manabase. This matchup SHOULD be pretty easy, but the one difficult part these decks have is that they frequently sideboard into Blood Moon which can catch you way off guard and win the match for them. Nature's Claim is a pretty good option in the board against Twin since it gets rid of Spellskites, Splinter Twins, along with pesky blood moons. Cut the pk fires and bring in the full discard suite here and it shouldn't be too difficult assuming you're prepared and don't keep bad hands w/o hate. The other primary problem to watch out for is Blood moon, so be prepared for a turn 3 blood moon in a lot of the game 2 & 3's. Nature's claim is quite strong here since it can deal with the moon as well as the twin (assuming no dispels of course).
Delver tempo variants 55/45: Generally you're playing all the cards a delver deck absolutely hates seeing. Efficient removal & disruption, and creatures that are bigger than they play. Generally this match is somewhat easy, but they can nut draw and out-tempo you to a win. RUG delver is generally more difficult than UB variants, but they both play somewhat similarly.
Mono White control // Martyr // Ghostly Prison Control - 45/55: I'm lumping these together because they largely play the same game. These aren't that easy to play against since they slow the game down to a snail's pace, and a lot of them have more late-game inevitability than you do (especially if they're playing Emeria). These are no doubt decks where you wish you had blue spells to play against them, since counterspells are quite strong against these kind of archetypes. Your best bet is to go all in on the hand disruption and hope to kill them before they top a wrath or prison. It's certainly possible to win, but if they get behind early wall of omens followed by other barriers, you're going to have a hard time winning.
UW Caw-Blade // UW Restoration (UW control) 55/45 : This is a matchup that used to be way worse, but got way better with Deathrite shaman and Decay.
Please keep discussion civil! I'll update primer as needed!
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FWIW, I'm not going to discuss splashing in this. There is no real need for it, and it doesn't help the deck out at all. And yes, I have tested splashes, they just make the manabase worse, and don't really help any specific matchups.
UThada Adel AcquisitorU
GB Savara, Queen of the Golgori BG
GR Ulasht, the Hate Seed RG
It's also trumped by Goyf, Bob, and is very very suicidal. And it's NOT a 2/2 for 4. It gets burned off by every aggro deck in the format in response to it pumping itself. As I mentioned in the primer, this isn't standard, and while Leech is good, it's not necessary here or helpful for the overall gameplan. You already have 8 2 drop creatures, so playing an additional 4 floods the curve at the 2 mana slot, which isn't really where you want to be for Jund.
As I've mentioned, it's a judgment call, and something best figured out by playtesting. The deck-list I posted in the OP actually is currrently playing Blightning, but I figured I'd switch out Rise // Fall just to get people thinking and testing stuff "outside the box" here. As for the randomness, the Randomness is absolutely worth it. Anybody who's ever been hit with a Hymn To Tourach in Legacy can tell you how rough it is to get hit with a 2 mana "discard 2 at random" spell can be.
Finally, the deck-list is a SAMPLE deck list. I'm not looking for critiques or suggestions on the deck build, this is just a thread for the overall development of the Jund Archetype. If you've actually playtested with Jund, I'll be happy to update the primer on any findings or notes.
Molten Rain is interesting, but right now I'm prefering Blood Moon . Blood Moon can be killer against 12post.
I also have Thought Hemorrhages as an answer to control, though they can be a bit slow at times.
My Jund decklist is very similar to the sample one, except it runs Bolts. I think it might be feasible to cut them for, as you've done, more "hard" removal (Putrefy) and creatures. Not sure yet. Might have to try that out.
For reference, here's my deck so far:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Dark Confidant
Instants
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
Sorceries
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Blightning
Lands
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
2 Marsh Flats
3 Twilight Mire
1 Treetop Village
1 Graven Cairns
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Ancient Grudge
4 Blood Moon
2 Thoughtseize
3 Slagstorm
2 Thought Hemorrhage
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
As was already said, it's very suicidal. In was fantastic in Old Jund. But Old Jund didn't run Dark Confidant and Shocklands. You could get yourself in some sticky situations against Zoo and various aggro decks by paying his cost.
I guess it depends on what you're going for. I'd play Bob over Putrid Leech and Phyrexian Arena, personally, but I could be wrong.
I know it was already mentioned, but Putrid Leech is essentially, a worse goyf, mainly for the life needed to make leech good. The first thing that made me excited for jund in modern was that goyf was legal.
Grim Lavamancer doesn't do what jund wants to. As removal, we have far better answers, and as the OP said, for just straight up damage, this is not the deck the mancer belongs in.
As far as the OP goes, I think it is very well written. I might consider Dismember as a possible removal choice for its sheer power and cost, and cascades from BBE. I also don't see the PF/Grove combo being that good against zoo, as the only creatures it kills straight up are Goblin Guide and Bloodbraided Elf. As far as winning goyf wars, I like the other options much better.
Fall by itself, is not that impressive, and at the 2 slot, I would much rather be casting goyf or bob.
The GJ way path to no lynching:
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=342533
Just letting you know.
However, this is a better thread for general discussion of Jund, because it opens up with a primer that discusses the archetype in-depth and quite extensively, while that one starts with a discussion of the OP's decklist.
Also, from among the Standard Jund staples, Anathemancer seems like it could still make the cut as he can punish almost every deck for playing shock duals.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
3 Marsh Flats
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Teetering Peaks
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag
2 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Dark Confidant
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Bloodbraid Elf
Spells (23)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Glittering Wish
4 Lightning Helix
4 Blightning
3 Terminate
3 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Duress
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Firespout
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Terminate
1 Crime // Punishment
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thought Hemorrhage
1 Broodmate Dragon
Still in the very early stages, and I have a lot of concerns. Still fiddling with the numbers of the 4-ofs and vacillating. Manabase is all over the place and needs testing and refinement. No Punishing Fire + Grove hurts in the reach department. I'm concerned it might not have enough "oomph" to "get there", hence the Broodmate in the wishboard.
Just to be explicit, I know it needs Goyf, Grove, and Thoughtseize, but unfortunately they're outside my budget.
With a deck that has so much suicide to it, it seems running filter lands and reflecting pool as the best choice! Of course you would pack 4 Verdant Catacombs with possible one of each shockland (aka: Overgrown Tomb, Stomping Grounds and Blood Crypt.
Why has nobody considered it????? Apart from being a better mana base, its also much cheaper! With cards like Dark Confidant "pinging" you every turn, it seem necessary to even have an even game against zoo.
That's just my 2 cents.