I've even started to like her against aggro decks.
I don't know, after playing with jund a lot, I've come to think that
A.) LOTV is sided out far too much against creature heavy decks
B.) Sweepers are more of a crutch
I do love me some LTLH, but unless the meta became creature heavy (it's not), then cutting LOTV is a gigantic mistake. You have to justifiably cut her out in my opinion.
I think next game is win and in if I win? I'd be 7 1 and could I'D 1
If you win next round you have a decent chance at least to draw into top 8. Its not guaranteed though, watch the standings! It depends on the tiebrakers!
That’s still great, they said there was over 300 people in the event. What were your matchups? I didn’t see much big mana, but I think the highest table I was at was 19. There was an absurd amount of company/zoo decks in my vicinity.
Tournament Report for the Philadelphia Modern Classic. I have been jamming all sorts of GBx decks all month in anticipation for this tournament, because truthfully I didn’t know which form of Rock would be well suited for it. Reid Duke’s new GBx series didn’t help my indecisiveness. I ended up jamming pretty much every deck list he wrote about. My issue with junk is that lingering souls is the best and worst card in the deck, and is infuriating to see when you’re up against combo and agro. This deck would have been an awful choice at the classic, as Blood Moon was EVERYWHERE. Hell, I was sitting next to that Blue Living End guy who was playing Blood Moons. It was that prevalent! Tron was everywhere as well in the earlier rounds of the tournament, but they seemed to be eaten up as the tournament progressed. Traverse was too shaky due to all the Jeskai, Blood Moon and FoR decks that had become popularized; my prediction was right and I was justified in not playing Traverse. The night before the Classic, I chickened out on going with Todd Stevens GB Rock deck and decided on Jund, against Reid Duke’s recommendation.
Creature (13):
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Dark Confidant
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
1x Hazoret, the Fervent
Spells (24):
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
3x Fatal Push
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Terminate
2x Kolaghan’s Command
4x Liliana of the Veil
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Sideboard (15):
3x Blood Moon
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Collective Brutality
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Grafdigger’s Cage
1x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Ancient Grudge
Match 1: UB Mill
Game 1: I won the die roll and kept a good hand in the dark, consisting of Bob, Goyf, Push and lands. He played a Crab and I immediately felt good about the hand I kept. I pushed it at the end of his turn and then slammed Goyf down. I avoided fetching since I had no discard and didn’t want to have archive hit me and have him dig for cards. Despite having the perfect start, he got me down to about 24 cards or so before goyf beat him down.
Sideboard:
-3 Terminate, +2 Ancient Grudge, +1 Collective Brutality
Game 2: He played hideaway, which makes me fear it’s some janky Emrakul combo or something. I IOK him and see he kept an awful hand consisting of some form of fog and an Ensnaring Bridge. It wasn’t a good keep by my opponent, I think he was possibly tilted and nervous? I took it, even with an abrupt decay in my hand. I play Goyf, he topdecks a push. I play another creature and he pushes. I eventually land Scooze and hit for a while as he floods. I land Bob. I land LOTV, and here’s where I made a small punt. I had a Collective Brutality in hand and open mana. I could have just discarded the Bob, eaten him with Scooze, and CB’d for exact. I regretted it the second Bob resolved, seeing my mistake. He topdecked Damnation. I topdeck K-Command and burn him for exactly. He was really far behind, but It was still a punt by me.
That was a great game 1 to start off on, it was a tier 3 deck that gave me confidence to go off on.
Match 2: Ponza
Game 1: He plays Birds, I push or bolt it. He utopia’s, I decay it. He’s stuck on 2 or 3 mana for a good while. I honestly dismantled all of his ramp. I beat his face in. I broken down his deck pretty bad.
Sideboard: -2 Kolaghan’s Command, +1 Last Hope, +1 Grim Lavamancer
Game 2: On the draw, I already feel behind. He Utopia Sprawls which means I have no answer if he Blood Moons me on his turn 3. He Stone Rains me, leaving me at 1 land, I think. He stone rains me again. Then he plays Chandra. I kill Chandra with the threat of Goyf and Rabblemaster. He plays Inferno Titan, I terminate it. He plays Storm dragon and another Titan and I scoop. He beat me down pretty hard. I had a Last Hope stranded in my hand the entire game and questioned whether it was smart to bring her in, I already have LOTV being a costly but necessary card for the matchup.
Sideboard -1 Last Hope, +1 Kolaghan’s Command (This sideboard feels wrong outside of grim lavamancer).
Game 3: I have a decision to make. He Utopia Sprawls. I’m very certain he has blood moon in his hand---do I destroy the ramp or save up for the moon? I think I had something like Goyf and Rabble in hand, with an IOK and bolt. Or I’m remembering them as topdecks that come soon after. I decide to delay him and destroy the ramp. He plays the second land and passes. I IOK and see Moon and Tireless Tracker to choose from. I have no removal and feel pressured to take the Tracker, if I don’t it runs away with the game. He plays Moon. I IOK again with my black source, taking the other Tireless he had topdecked. I play Goblin Rabblemaster soon after and he cannot answer it. The card singlehandedly wins me the match.
Match 3: Jeskai Control
Game 1: I keep a reasonable hand in the dark. When he plays Azcana I assume I’m playing against the control version. This is not a good matchup for Jund, we’re probably the weakest GBx to this. I did learn an incredibly valuable thing from watching the Ben v Kevin Jones matchup---keep the blue player on the backfoot so much that they have to use their mana inefficiently. Force them to answer even when it’s not always looking good for you. If you give them time to search for cards you will not win. He lets his guard down where I can slam LOTV down. I know he has Cryptic so LOTV won’t get to ult. I play around it and land threats that he has to answer, while still being aware of LOTV. With knowledge of his CC, I force him to worry about bouncing LOTV more than countering a creature. I make sure to only discard things I don’t want, I’m pretty certain I never discard anything of value to me. He’s forced to bounce LOTV back. I play LOTV again while hitting him with Ravine. He’s low on resources in his hand. I ult LOTV and separate his land into 4x lands and 1x Land and 1x Azcanta. He chooses the 4x Lands. Jund can’t beat that card, so I had to ult to basically destroy just 1 land. I land a scooze and make sure to always leave 1x green open and represented. His face completely gives it away that Scooze is squeezing him. He plays Snap targeting path, I eat it in response. He chumps the Ravine. He has another Snap, but it’s too late. I grind him out.
Sideboard: -3 Push, -2 Bolt, -3 Terminate, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Last Hope, +3 Blood Moon, +1 Thrun, the Last Troll, +1 Huntmaster
Game 2: This game was hilarious. My opening hand is 6 lands and a Bob so I mull. My 6 is two lands, Bob, Blood Moon, Hazoret. I keep. I IOK and his hand is good. It was Snap, Path, Path, Azcanta, Land, Land, Verdict. I take Azcanta. I play Bob, he answers on his turn, I don’t remember why he needed to. I fetch a forest, even though I don’t have a swamp and Bobs in my hand I’d rather topdeck a Goyf and be able to pressure with that, Bob can just be bolted. With 1 mana open I slam down Blood Moon and see my opponent’s shoulders deflate. I then play Hazoret. Hazoret beats him down for several turns and I win one of my easiest games of the day. Hilarious.
Match 4: Jeskai Breach
Game 1: Another one! I keep a very so so hand against a control deck. I’m not going to just run out all my threats one by one. I do play Bob just to curve out. I do go draw and have him force to play around my K-Command. I manage to grind him out again the same way I did the previous player. He goes to play Azcanta, which makes it easy to land LOTV, he kills her with Colonnade at some point. I play LOTV again when he's tapped out, except now I can terminate if he repeats his action. LOTV and Ravine get me there. This again references that you need to make blue players make suboptimal choices. Don't let them use their mana they way they prefer. Bad jeskai and UW Control players will refuse to be flexible, the good one's will adjust on the fly. That isn't to say this Jeskai player was bad, he played very fast and decisively. He was confident with his deck and rightly so.
Sideboard: -3 Push, -2 Bolt, -3 Terminate, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Last Hope, +3 Blood Moon, +1 Thrun, the Last Troll, +1 Huntmaster
Game 2: He remands me at one point, which should have given something away. I thought it was strange to see remand but I had just played Jeskai Control previously and assumed too much. He plays Timely Reinforcements, which makes me feel really good about landing Last Hope. I play a Kitchen Finks next. He plays a Breach and says, “it looks like you were setting up for the long game, I don’t do that”.
Ok, I have to completely change how I do this. I have to be fast. I don’t remember exactly how I adjust my sideboard here. I do remember taking out -2 Blood Moons and leaving in just 1, in case, but I wasn't thrilled with it. I left one in as a hedge and shock factor if he couldn't combo and needed rely on the manland or bolt snap bolt plan. I definitely took Last Hope out, and probably Finks, too. I remember wanting my bolts back
Game 3: Turn 1 I bolt him and he comments on my aggression. Turn 2 I play Goyf and he pushes. Turn 3 I attempt Rabblemaster but he remands. I try Rabblemaster again but I think he counters or kills it. He may have path'd it, which is fine, I don't mind getting a 2 for 1. I eventually land an LOTV. I land a creature, too. He’s low on resources and decided to race me, ignoring LOTV. I’m actually in some trouble here. He has 3 Tokens from Reinforcements. I have grim lavamancer on board who pings his creatures down to clear the way for Goyf. I’m at 6 life, I topdeck the 1 of Moon I left in. He’s definitely not happy about it, and says, “Jund boards in Moon?” Honestly, had the card been a fulminator, it would have been the same effect to stop him from racing. Goyf and Lavamancer win me the game.
Match 5: Dredge.
Game 1: I keep an ok hand in the dark. Another scalding tarn! It ended up being Dredge. He didn’t have THE nuts, but it was pretty damn good. He ended up burning me a ton on turn 3 with Conflagarate and then having a huge board. I died quickly.
Game 2: I keep an ok hand. It has Scooze. My opponent mulls to 5. He doesn’t have a fast start and Scooze is an issue for him but I'm stuck on 2 land for a while and debate if I should let the shields down and play Bob. I eventually beat him down with Scooze and Bob. He eventually kills Scooze but he still can't find what he needs and dies to creature beats. It was a slow, grindy game but he was always 1 piece off from dredging what he needed
Game 3: My two opening hands will not win me the game, they’re too typical. It was a serviceable hand against a fair deck. I sigh in defeat and mull to 5. I keep a 5 hander with 1 land and 1 Cage. I scry to the top to see Ravine and feel better. He immediately loots away Amalgam and another creature. I would have liked to thoughtseize him to protect cage but I can clearly see he’s about to go off, so I play cage. He’s stuck for so many turns doing nothing. I eventually get the lands. I play Grim lavamancer. He says, “guess I’m going to do this the hard way”. He has stinkweed imp. I play Goyf, he kills it. I eventually play Rabble. I pulse away his two stinkweeds. I start getting in. He kept milling all his hate cards. I’m pretty certain I saw 2x Decays and 1x Pulse occur when he dredged a few times. He plays amalgam which now walls me off from hitting with Rabblemaster. I only attack with a token, he blocks, I push Amalgam. I then start just pinging his Stinkweeds with Lavaman and get in. I had won with a mull to 5 with 1 land as Jund.
Match 6: Storm—against Caleb
Game 1: Calebs a super nice guy and we joke around a little. I have an ok hand, but I wish my Bob was a Goyf. He grapeshots Bob, which I expected but I had a second Bob. We play our game not doing much…and then I punt. I fetched without a source to activate Ravine. I’m not 100% sure this mistake would have costed me. Caleb storms off.
I play Jund fairly quickly outside of board stalls and needing to tank. I haven't gone to time with this deck in almost a year and a half? My issue with playing so fast with the deck is sometimes I make awful punts and fetch wrong.
Game 2: I had to mull. I mulled to a very embarrassing hand. I’m stuck at 1 mana, because I doubt a 5 hander will look better. Caleb makes 10 Goblins on turn 3 without having an enabler. I feel a little better knowing I needed a pretty good hand to have won regardless. The grave hate post board isn’t very good against Storm and I know that.
He is just a flat out better player and it's not even close. He knows his deck way better than I know jund. I'm not upset discouraged from that loss.
Match 7: Ponza
Game 1: Nothing exciting, I get locked out quickly. He draws too many threats, I scoop.
Sideboard: ? I don’t remember too well. I remember bringing in Lavamancer.
Game 2: I’m nervous losing game 1 against Ponza. Game 2 I really crushed him, everything died.
Game 3: He eventually locks me out with Moon after I take everything relevant from him. The game goes long where he’s drawing mana dorks. I ping off his dorks with Lavaman so that he doesn’t cast Stormbreath or Titan. Eventually I topdeck Hazoret, and she does 9 damage in one turn. I won a game I had no business winning thanks to Hazoret. Lavaman got in for some decent damage, too. I like him because he does something on turn 1 and kills arbor elf.
Match 8: Mono Blue Mefolk
Game 1: This is the only match of the entire day where I felt as though variance swung completely against me and luck was entirely on my opponents side. He spreading seas both lands which makes Decay and K-Command awkward. I do one for one him for a while but I IOK’d him knowing he has 2x Masters of Seas in his hand. The Spreading Seas just leaves him with too many tokens, despite me killing his creatures. He attacks me for over 20 damage on turn 5.
Game 2: I had a great hand with 2x Bobs I kill everything he has. I know he has 1x Master in hand but I have so much removal it’s not worrisome. I play LOTV and get a lord out of his hand with her so that he doesn’t hit me with too much with Master. I’m about to stabilize and he knows it…and then he topdecks another Master. I nearly have enough answers for him and his tokens. I was a little salty that he topdecked a Master of Waves, I’m not sure he could have won otherwise. I was also annoyed with myself that I didn’t shuffle his deck, it seems like it was probably the 2x Masters clunked together from game 1. That’s part of magic though, sometimes you do absolutely nothing wrong and you’re going to lose regardless. While he was incredibly lucky both games I could very much tell he was skilled with Merfolk. While I was salty I had to remind myself that sometimes it's just going to happen.
Match 9: E-Tron
Our opponent and I are resigned to knowing me missed 2 win and ins.
Game 1: I beat down with Rabblemaster when I answer his Smasher with Pulse and his Thought-Knot with Terminate
Game 2: We go back and forth but he All Is Dusts my board
Game 3: He has nothing but Urza lands in hand. He must have like 20 mana worth. I know that if he topdecks anything I lose. I lock myself out of the game with Moon. I was really relying on a topdeck red creature to carry me to victory. He draws awful, but does topdeck a wasteland. He does nothing for so many turns, which makes me kick myself. I probably could have singlehandedly won with Raging Ravine. He eventually finds a thought-knot, I bolt and trade it with Scooze. He kills me with Smasher.
The player next to me agreed that playing Blood Moon seemed right, even with locking myself out. That much mana makes every topdeck game ending.
Turns out his win against me lead to him being the only person who went X-2 that made top 8. It makes me wonder if I actually missed 3 win and ins. We both played half-heartedly, just hoping for placing top 32. While I'm sad I missed a few chances to reach top 8 of the Classic I squeaked into 32nd place. I'm still proud that I did that well with over 300+ Players.
Final thoughts: I would not play Blood Moon in Jund. Yes, it was hilarious and cute when I locked a Jeskai player out. Had he known he could have fetched around it and the jig would have been up for game 3, had it gone that long. You need to have confidence in your play, the matchup isn't good, but it isn't devastatingly bad. It's somewhere in the 40/45 range if both players are equally skilled.
The entire day, playing with and against Blood Moon I had to bend backwards to play it, often locking myself out. I’m lucky that I was only punished once in my final game, but had it been fulminator mage it may have won me the game. I know we want to beat Tron and Titanshift, but it’s not worth it, especially at these huge tournaments. You could face anything. Blood Moon may be ok at your local FNM, but as a long time Jund player, I 100% recommend against it. Play your fulminators, it’s way more versatile and can get beats in.
Grim Lavamancer is easily one of the best cards in Jund. I think it is so wrong to not have 1 of him in the 75.
I would like to put in at least one sweeper in the 75. Maybe a K-Command or Anger. I don’t think Jund players should play too many sweepers, we want to one for one players and never be so far behind we have to play sweepers. My Merfolk opponent got beyond lucky and he even said it himself, but those scenarios aren’t normal.
Gobblin Rabblemaster and Hazoret were fantastic, they won me several games. Unless BBE is unbanned, I think it’s right to play either some combination of the red power houses, either the 3/1 split, 3 Rabbles or 2 Haz. It depends on what you want.
The rest of my sideboard was standard, as was my maindeck
Jund isn’t positioned well but modern is playing what you know, if you leverage your skill you can beat the average opponent.
Jund isn't in a great spot now, but at these huge tournaments you'll see everything. I had to work for nearly every win, but I often found myself with 15 to 20 minutes with time left on average. Modern has definitely become a know your deck format, and not flocking to every E-Tron/Shadow deck of the month. I'm sure if I thought I was good enough I would jam Shadow, but I don't, so I'd rather play a worse deck optimally than a better deck that I can't even compete on an FNM level!
Phenomenal Report, Spsiegel1987! Thanks so much for sharing your tournament.
You definitely convinced me on a few things.
1.) Blood Moon is bad in Jund. Play Fulminator Mage's and accept the long road ahead against Valakut decks.
2.) If you're on Jund, Rabble/Haz is now a must. They squeaked out wins against less-than-favorable matchups in your summary.
3.) Lavamancer is our best sideboard card. I'm on two now in my 15 and couldn't be happier.
4.) Even though the deck doesn't have it's favorable matchups, it still has game, and LOTS of it.
Positive stuff going on I feel like we're finally tuning this deck to be the well-oiled machine it needs to be to compete.
Amazing report, and amazing finish! Be proud of yourself!
Glad you came to the same conclusion now. Blood Moon is just bad in Jund. Your report is a very good example that its too swingy of a card and often times you ruin your own gameplan. You can't rely on that card.
I am really looking forward to the next weeks. I am hoping every day that we get our beloved Elf back that pushes our deck up again to be able to compete with the top tier decks better. Even if it won't make us tier 1, I dont care about tiers, its just a powerful card that we lack.
That’s still great, they said there was over 300 people in the event. What were your matchups? I didn’t see much big mana, but I think the highest table I was at was 19. There was an absurd amount of company/zoo decks in my vicinity.
Man, in my free time I walked around the tables. I saw SO much of Tron in the first four rounds.
I was at the top table for quite a bit of the day, I was even at Table 3 or 4 against dredge.
I expected a lot of company, it's why I opted to play 2x Cages/1x Spellbomb instead of the other way around.
Amazing report, and amazing finish! Be proud of yourself!
Glad you came to the same conclusion now. Blood Moon is just bad in Jund. Your report is a very good example that its too swingy of a card and often times you ruin your own gameplan. You can't rely on that card.
I am really looking forward to the next weeks. I am hoping every day that we get our beloved Elf back that pushes our deck up again to be able to compete with the top tier decks better. Even if it won't make us tier 1, I dont care about tiers, its just a powerful card that we lack.
Yeah, playing Jund on a bigger stage definitely made me realize that Blood Moon doesn't belong in the deck. Period.
Outside of one Jeskai game, I never felt benefited by it. Hazoret, Rabble and Grim Lavamancer had to bail me out of all my locked out games.
I'm firmly in the fulminator plan now, and unless something drastic happens that won't change my mind.
Interesting, I'm not sure what the Tron players were running into that was so hostile to them. I was in the mid/upper-mid tables and saw 0 traditional Tron all day. I did see more E-Tron than I've seen in a little while, so maybe the meta swung in a way that made the Eldrazi a better choice for that event?
I'm glad you come to the conclusion that you still wanted Fulminators over Blood Moon, my reaction when I saw your list was "Ah crap, I might have to play Blood Moon now". I like your 75 though, I probably would have registered the exact same list if I was on Jund this past weekend, but with Fulminators over Blood Moon.
I ended up playing 4 color (Jund with white in the side) and went 5-4. The list felt very solid and I didn't miss the blue at all. I'll put some kind of a write-up in the Death's Shadow thread after work, but my basic takeaways are that the deck is great in an open field and the Jeskai matchup is very complicated. Given the decks I saw, it's possible that I would have done better on regular Jund by virtue of it just being easier to pilot, but ultimately I felt like my losses had more to do with my own play than my deck choice. The one loss that I think was less of my fault was to the Grixis As Foretold list that took second, which was one of the funniest matches of Magic I've ever lost. That deck is every bit as awesome as it looks and is extremely hard to deal with.
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I've even started to like her against aggro decks.
I don't know, after playing with jund a lot, I've come to think that
A.) LOTV is sided out far too much against creature heavy decks
B.) Sweepers are more of a crutch
I do love me some LTLH, but unless the meta became creature heavy (it's not), then cutting LOTV is a gigantic mistake. You have to justifiably cut her out in my opinion.
People on the jund forums were so happy when Push was revealed; I felt like the only level headed one, even if I came off super negative.
I'm super mentally fatitued already
Beat dredge game 3 on a mull to 5
tell us later about your matches.
I think next game is win and in if I win? I'd be 7 1 and could I'D 1
If you win next round you have a decent chance at least to draw into top 8. Its not guaranteed though, watch the standings! It depends on the tiebrakers!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your!
Just playing for top 32 in my next game.
I'm ok with a 6 3 victory, I thought I'd scrub out of this classic
Wish I could have top 8d but it's still respectable
Creature (13):
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Dark Confidant
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
1x Hazoret, the Fervent
Spells (24):
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
3x Fatal Push
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Terminate
2x Kolaghan’s Command
4x Liliana of the Veil
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Land (23):
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Bloodstained Mire
1x Wooded Foothills
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Stomping Ground
1x Blood Crypt
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Raging Ravine
2x Forest
2x Swamp
Sideboard (15):
3x Blood Moon
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Collective Brutality
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Grafdigger’s Cage
1x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Ancient Grudge
Match 1: UB Mill
Game 1: I won the die roll and kept a good hand in the dark, consisting of Bob, Goyf, Push and lands. He played a Crab and I immediately felt good about the hand I kept. I pushed it at the end of his turn and then slammed Goyf down. I avoided fetching since I had no discard and didn’t want to have archive hit me and have him dig for cards. Despite having the perfect start, he got me down to about 24 cards or so before goyf beat him down.
Sideboard:
-3 Terminate, +2 Ancient Grudge, +1 Collective Brutality
Game 2: He played hideaway, which makes me fear it’s some janky Emrakul combo or something. I IOK him and see he kept an awful hand consisting of some form of fog and an Ensnaring Bridge. It wasn’t a good keep by my opponent, I think he was possibly tilted and nervous? I took it, even with an abrupt decay in my hand. I play Goyf, he topdecks a push. I play another creature and he pushes. I eventually land Scooze and hit for a while as he floods. I land Bob. I land LOTV, and here’s where I made a small punt. I had a Collective Brutality in hand and open mana. I could have just discarded the Bob, eaten him with Scooze, and CB’d for exact. I regretted it the second Bob resolved, seeing my mistake. He topdecked Damnation. I topdeck K-Command and burn him for exactly. He was really far behind, but It was still a punt by me.
That was a great game 1 to start off on, it was a tier 3 deck that gave me confidence to go off on.
Match 2: Ponza
Game 1: He plays Birds, I push or bolt it. He utopia’s, I decay it. He’s stuck on 2 or 3 mana for a good while. I honestly dismantled all of his ramp. I beat his face in. I broken down his deck pretty bad.
Sideboard: -2 Kolaghan’s Command, +1 Last Hope, +1 Grim Lavamancer
Game 2: On the draw, I already feel behind. He Utopia Sprawls which means I have no answer if he Blood Moons me on his turn 3. He Stone Rains me, leaving me at 1 land, I think. He stone rains me again. Then he plays Chandra. I kill Chandra with the threat of Goyf and Rabblemaster. He plays Inferno Titan, I terminate it. He plays Storm dragon and another Titan and I scoop. He beat me down pretty hard. I had a Last Hope stranded in my hand the entire game and questioned whether it was smart to bring her in, I already have LOTV being a costly but necessary card for the matchup.
Sideboard -1 Last Hope, +1 Kolaghan’s Command (This sideboard feels wrong outside of grim lavamancer).
Game 3: I have a decision to make. He Utopia Sprawls. I’m very certain he has blood moon in his hand---do I destroy the ramp or save up for the moon? I think I had something like Goyf and Rabble in hand, with an IOK and bolt. Or I’m remembering them as topdecks that come soon after. I decide to delay him and destroy the ramp. He plays the second land and passes. I IOK and see Moon and Tireless Tracker to choose from. I have no removal and feel pressured to take the Tracker, if I don’t it runs away with the game. He plays Moon. I IOK again with my black source, taking the other Tireless he had topdecked. I play Goblin Rabblemaster soon after and he cannot answer it. The card singlehandedly wins me the match.
Match 3: Jeskai Control
Game 1: I keep a reasonable hand in the dark. When he plays Azcana I assume I’m playing against the control version. This is not a good matchup for Jund, we’re probably the weakest GBx to this. I did learn an incredibly valuable thing from watching the Ben v Kevin Jones matchup---keep the blue player on the backfoot so much that they have to use their mana inefficiently. Force them to answer even when it’s not always looking good for you. If you give them time to search for cards you will not win. He lets his guard down where I can slam LOTV down. I know he has Cryptic so LOTV won’t get to ult. I play around it and land threats that he has to answer, while still being aware of LOTV. With knowledge of his CC, I force him to worry about bouncing LOTV more than countering a creature. I make sure to only discard things I don’t want, I’m pretty certain I never discard anything of value to me. He’s forced to bounce LOTV back. I play LOTV again while hitting him with Ravine. He’s low on resources in his hand. I ult LOTV and separate his land into 4x lands and 1x Land and 1x Azcanta. He chooses the 4x Lands. Jund can’t beat that card, so I had to ult to basically destroy just 1 land. I land a scooze and make sure to always leave 1x green open and represented. His face completely gives it away that Scooze is squeezing him. He plays Snap targeting path, I eat it in response. He chumps the Ravine. He has another Snap, but it’s too late. I grind him out.
Sideboard: -3 Push, -2 Bolt, -3 Terminate, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Last Hope, +3 Blood Moon, +1 Thrun, the Last Troll, +1 Huntmaster
Game 2: This game was hilarious. My opening hand is 6 lands and a Bob so I mull. My 6 is two lands, Bob, Blood Moon, Hazoret. I keep. I IOK and his hand is good. It was Snap, Path, Path, Azcanta, Land, Land, Verdict. I take Azcanta. I play Bob, he answers on his turn, I don’t remember why he needed to. I fetch a forest, even though I don’t have a swamp and Bobs in my hand I’d rather topdeck a Goyf and be able to pressure with that, Bob can just be bolted. With 1 mana open I slam down Blood Moon and see my opponent’s shoulders deflate. I then play Hazoret. Hazoret beats him down for several turns and I win one of my easiest games of the day. Hilarious.
Match 4: Jeskai Breach
Game 1: Another one! I keep a very so so hand against a control deck. I’m not going to just run out all my threats one by one. I do play Bob just to curve out. I do go draw and have him force to play around my K-Command. I manage to grind him out again the same way I did the previous player. He goes to play Azcanta, which makes it easy to land LOTV, he kills her with Colonnade at some point. I play LOTV again when he's tapped out, except now I can terminate if he repeats his action. LOTV and Ravine get me there. This again references that you need to make blue players make suboptimal choices. Don't let them use their mana they way they prefer. Bad jeskai and UW Control players will refuse to be flexible, the good one's will adjust on the fly. That isn't to say this Jeskai player was bad, he played very fast and decisively. He was confident with his deck and rightly so.
Sideboard: -3 Push, -2 Bolt, -3 Terminate, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Last Hope, +3 Blood Moon, +1 Thrun, the Last Troll, +1 Huntmaster
Game 2: He remands me at one point, which should have given something away. I thought it was strange to see remand but I had just played Jeskai Control previously and assumed too much. He plays Timely Reinforcements, which makes me feel really good about landing Last Hope. I play a Kitchen Finks next. He plays a Breach and says, “it looks like you were setting up for the long game, I don’t do that”.
Ok, I have to completely change how I do this. I have to be fast. I don’t remember exactly how I adjust my sideboard here. I do remember taking out -2 Blood Moons and leaving in just 1, in case, but I wasn't thrilled with it. I left one in as a hedge and shock factor if he couldn't combo and needed rely on the manland or bolt snap bolt plan. I definitely took Last Hope out, and probably Finks, too. I remember wanting my bolts back
Sideboard: -1 Last Hope, -2 Blood Moon, +1 Grim, +2 Bolt
Game 3: Turn 1 I bolt him and he comments on my aggression. Turn 2 I play Goyf and he pushes. Turn 3 I attempt Rabblemaster but he remands. I try Rabblemaster again but I think he counters or kills it. He may have path'd it, which is fine, I don't mind getting a 2 for 1. I eventually land an LOTV. I land a creature, too. He’s low on resources and decided to race me, ignoring LOTV. I’m actually in some trouble here. He has 3 Tokens from Reinforcements. I have grim lavamancer on board who pings his creatures down to clear the way for Goyf. I’m at 6 life, I topdeck the 1 of Moon I left in. He’s definitely not happy about it, and says, “Jund boards in Moon?” Honestly, had the card been a fulminator, it would have been the same effect to stop him from racing. Goyf and Lavamancer win me the game.
Match 5: Dredge.
Game 1: I keep an ok hand in the dark. Another scalding tarn! It ended up being Dredge. He didn’t have THE nuts, but it was pretty damn good. He ended up burning me a ton on turn 3 with Conflagarate and then having a huge board. I died quickly.
Sideboard: -4 LOTV, -2 Terminate, +2 Graddigger’s Cage, +1 Spellbomb, +1 Grim Lavamancer, +1 Huntmaster, +1 CB
Game 2: I keep an ok hand. It has Scooze. My opponent mulls to 5. He doesn’t have a fast start and Scooze is an issue for him but I'm stuck on 2 land for a while and debate if I should let the shields down and play Bob. I eventually beat him down with Scooze and Bob. He eventually kills Scooze but he still can't find what he needs and dies to creature beats. It was a slow, grindy game but he was always 1 piece off from dredging what he needed
Game 3: My two opening hands will not win me the game, they’re too typical. It was a serviceable hand against a fair deck. I sigh in defeat and mull to 5. I keep a 5 hander with 1 land and 1 Cage. I scry to the top to see Ravine and feel better. He immediately loots away Amalgam and another creature. I would have liked to thoughtseize him to protect cage but I can clearly see he’s about to go off, so I play cage. He’s stuck for so many turns doing nothing. I eventually get the lands. I play Grim lavamancer. He says, “guess I’m going to do this the hard way”. He has stinkweed imp. I play Goyf, he kills it. I eventually play Rabble. I pulse away his two stinkweeds. I start getting in. He kept milling all his hate cards. I’m pretty certain I saw 2x Decays and 1x Pulse occur when he dredged a few times. He plays amalgam which now walls me off from hitting with Rabblemaster. I only attack with a token, he blocks, I push Amalgam. I then start just pinging his Stinkweeds with Lavaman and get in. I had won with a mull to 5 with 1 land as Jund.
Match 6: Storm—against Caleb
Game 1: Calebs a super nice guy and we joke around a little. I have an ok hand, but I wish my Bob was a Goyf. He grapeshots Bob, which I expected but I had a second Bob. We play our game not doing much…and then I punt. I fetched without a source to activate Ravine. I’m not 100% sure this mistake would have costed me. Caleb storms off.
I play Jund fairly quickly outside of board stalls and needing to tank. I haven't gone to time with this deck in almost a year and a half? My issue with playing so fast with the deck is sometimes I make awful punts and fetch wrong.
Sideboard: -2 Terminate, -2 Abrupt Decay, -1 Hazoret +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Spellbomb, +2 Cage
Game 2: I had to mull. I mulled to a very embarrassing hand. I’m stuck at 1 mana, because I doubt a 5 hander will look better. Caleb makes 10 Goblins on turn 3 without having an enabler. I feel a little better knowing I needed a pretty good hand to have won regardless. The grave hate post board isn’t very good against Storm and I know that.
He is just a flat out better player and it's not even close. He knows his deck way better than I know jund. I'm not upset discouraged from that loss.
Match 7: Ponza
Game 1: Nothing exciting, I get locked out quickly. He draws too many threats, I scoop.
Sideboard: ? I don’t remember too well. I remember bringing in Lavamancer.
Game 2: I’m nervous losing game 1 against Ponza. Game 2 I really crushed him, everything died.
Game 3: He eventually locks me out with Moon after I take everything relevant from him. The game goes long where he’s drawing mana dorks. I ping off his dorks with Lavaman so that he doesn’t cast Stormbreath or Titan. Eventually I topdeck Hazoret, and she does 9 damage in one turn. I won a game I had no business winning thanks to Hazoret. Lavaman got in for some decent damage, too. I like him because he does something on turn 1 and kills arbor elf.
Match 8: Mono Blue Mefolk
Game 1: This is the only match of the entire day where I felt as though variance swung completely against me and luck was entirely on my opponents side. He spreading seas both lands which makes Decay and K-Command awkward. I do one for one him for a while but I IOK’d him knowing he has 2x Masters of Seas in his hand. The Spreading Seas just leaves him with too many tokens, despite me killing his creatures. He attacks me for over 20 damage on turn 5.
Game 2: I had a great hand with 2x Bobs I kill everything he has. I know he has 1x Master in hand but I have so much removal it’s not worrisome. I play LOTV and get a lord out of his hand with her so that he doesn’t hit me with too much with Master. I’m about to stabilize and he knows it…and then he topdecks another Master. I nearly have enough answers for him and his tokens. I was a little salty that he topdecked a Master of Waves, I’m not sure he could have won otherwise. I was also annoyed with myself that I didn’t shuffle his deck, it seems like it was probably the 2x Masters clunked together from game 1. That’s part of magic though, sometimes you do absolutely nothing wrong and you’re going to lose regardless. While he was incredibly lucky both games I could very much tell he was skilled with Merfolk. While I was salty I had to remind myself that sometimes it's just going to happen.
Match 9: E-Tron
Our opponent and I are resigned to knowing me missed 2 win and ins.
Game 1: I beat down with Rabblemaster when I answer his Smasher with Pulse and his Thought-Knot with Terminate
Sideboard: -2 IOK, -2 Fatal Push, -1 Abrupt Decay +3 Blood Moon, +2 Ancient Grudge
Game 2: We go back and forth but he All Is Dusts my board
Game 3: He has nothing but Urza lands in hand. He must have like 20 mana worth. I know that if he topdecks anything I lose. I lock myself out of the game with Moon. I was really relying on a topdeck red creature to carry me to victory. He draws awful, but does topdeck a wasteland. He does nothing for so many turns, which makes me kick myself. I probably could have singlehandedly won with Raging Ravine. He eventually finds a thought-knot, I bolt and trade it with Scooze. He kills me with Smasher.
The player next to me agreed that playing Blood Moon seemed right, even with locking myself out. That much mana makes every topdeck game ending.
Turns out his win against me lead to him being the only person who went X-2 that made top 8. It makes me wonder if I actually missed 3 win and ins. We both played half-heartedly, just hoping for placing top 32. While I'm sad I missed a few chances to reach top 8 of the Classic I squeaked into 32nd place. I'm still proud that I did that well with over 300+ Players.
Final thoughts: I would not play Blood Moon in Jund. Yes, it was hilarious and cute when I locked a Jeskai player out. Had he known he could have fetched around it and the jig would have been up for game 3, had it gone that long. You need to have confidence in your play, the matchup isn't good, but it isn't devastatingly bad. It's somewhere in the 40/45 range if both players are equally skilled.
The entire day, playing with and against Blood Moon I had to bend backwards to play it, often locking myself out. I’m lucky that I was only punished once in my final game, but had it been fulminator mage it may have won me the game. I know we want to beat Tron and Titanshift, but it’s not worth it, especially at these huge tournaments. You could face anything. Blood Moon may be ok at your local FNM, but as a long time Jund player, I 100% recommend against it. Play your fulminators, it’s way more versatile and can get beats in.
Grim Lavamancer is easily one of the best cards in Jund. I think it is so wrong to not have 1 of him in the 75.
I would like to put in at least one sweeper in the 75. Maybe a K-Command or Anger. I don’t think Jund players should play too many sweepers, we want to one for one players and never be so far behind we have to play sweepers. My Merfolk opponent got beyond lucky and he even said it himself, but those scenarios aren’t normal.
Gobblin Rabblemaster and Hazoret were fantastic, they won me several games. Unless BBE is unbanned, I think it’s right to play either some combination of the red power houses, either the 3/1 split, 3 Rabbles or 2 Haz. It depends on what you want.
The rest of my sideboard was standard, as was my maindeck
Jund isn’t positioned well but modern is playing what you know, if you leverage your skill you can beat the average opponent.
Jund isn't in a great spot now, but at these huge tournaments you'll see everything. I had to work for nearly every win, but I often found myself with 15 to 20 minutes with time left on average. Modern has definitely become a know your deck format, and not flocking to every E-Tron/Shadow deck of the month. I'm sure if I thought I was good enough I would jam Shadow, but I don't, so I'd rather play a worse deck optimally than a better deck that I can't even compete on an FNM level!
Thanks for reading, guys!
You definitely convinced me on a few things.
1.) Blood Moon is bad in Jund. Play Fulminator Mage's and accept the long road ahead against Valakut decks.
2.) If you're on Jund, Rabble/Haz is now a must. They squeaked out wins against less-than-favorable matchups in your summary.
3.) Lavamancer is our best sideboard card. I'm on two now in my 15 and couldn't be happier.
4.) Even though the deck doesn't have it's favorable matchups, it still has game, and LOTS of it.
Positive stuff going on
Glad you came to the same conclusion now. Blood Moon is just bad in Jund. Your report is a very good example that its too swingy of a card and often times you ruin your own gameplan. You can't rely on that card.
I am really looking forward to the next weeks. I am hoping every day that we get our beloved Elf back that pushes our deck up again to be able to compete with the top tier decks better. Even if it won't make us tier 1, I dont care about tiers, its just a powerful card that we lack.
Man, in my free time I walked around the tables. I saw SO much of Tron in the first four rounds.
I was at the top table for quite a bit of the day, I was even at Table 3 or 4 against dredge.
I expected a lot of company, it's why I opted to play 2x Cages/1x Spellbomb instead of the other way around.
Yeah, playing Jund on a bigger stage definitely made me realize that Blood Moon doesn't belong in the deck. Period.
Outside of one Jeskai game, I never felt benefited by it. Hazoret, Rabble and Grim Lavamancer had to bail me out of all my locked out games.
I'm firmly in the fulminator plan now, and unless something drastic happens that won't change my mind.
I'm glad you come to the conclusion that you still wanted Fulminators over Blood Moon, my reaction when I saw your list was "Ah crap, I might have to play Blood Moon now". I like your 75 though, I probably would have registered the exact same list if I was on Jund this past weekend, but with Fulminators over Blood Moon.
I think I'd change my Huntmaster and Kitchen Fink, but unsure what currently.
Overall, the 75 felt flexible in an open field.
How did your day go? What was your record? How did 5C or Traverse Shadow go? I'd like to hear, since I still have interest in Traverse Shadow.