Hey guys, new to Jund here. I am looking for help with the mana base and general opinions on this build. This build is inspired by some of the mono-black midrange decks like The Gate.
Key differences between typical Jund builds: +Vampire Nighthawk-At worst trades with pretty much anything, at best continuously gives us life and flies over threats. +Abyssal Persecutor-In my opinion, one of the best threats in the game, T4 6/6 Flying, Trample ain't no joke. His downside isn't terribly hard to deal with considering the amount of removal Liliana and Geth's provide. +Geth's Verdict-Looking for opinions on this piece of removal, can be bad when they have a cluttered board, but it will kill anything and also remove Abyssal if hes still on the board after they have negative life. -Tarmogoyf-Yes hes an all star beater, but he doesn't have any evasion or ETB benefits. Usually all he ends up doing is saving you a few life against faster decks or at best he will get in a beat or two for some damage before they can answer. Most of the time I would rather have something else. -Dark Confidant-CMC is too high for him. +Phyrexian Arena-Better and harder to kill version of bob, unfortunately comes down T3, which is big. +Thragtusk-Hes here mainly for stabilizing with the ridiculous life-gain and CA. Are there any alternatives?
If a player would draw a card, instead that player chooses a card from his or her graveyard and puts it into his or her hand.
If a player would search a library, he searches his graveyard instead.
Pay 1 life: Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.
I think Hexproof would be less relevant if Wizards wouldn't print such cheap and useful removal cards. Things like Abrupt Decay, even Dismember are extremely efficient at removing threats. This means that Hexproof becomes a completely viable way for Wizards to print cheap, powerful removal and have their creatures too.
Then you get decks that center around hexproof enchant, because the drawback to enchanting your creature has largely been eliminated. And many of the auras that are printed with the assumption that while the aura may give a large P/T boost, it is a 2-for-1. This means the aura decks are very efficient at creating big nasty creatures that cannot be killed via creature damage or via removal spells.
Shroud should be reserved for 1 and 2 drops because of this, with Hexproof at higher CMC. This forces those aura decks to slow down and thus fixes the "imbalance." But this all doesn't matter too much because the cat is already out of the bag so to speak.
Looks pretty solid. I would put rest in peace into the side unless you are fighting a lot of eggs. Then you can up the count of O-ring and wrath or something.
I like the spellskite. I dont own any of those but I think I need to get them and test them. They seem great here for soaking up removal spells. They can defend both your lock pieces and the planeswalkers themselves. Nice.
Rest in peace is in there because I find whenever the opposing deck is running some graveyard shenanigans, whether it be pod, unburial, snapcaster etc. they always seem to pull some bull**** and win game 1. But yeah your probably right I should stick it in the SB. I feel like it helps me win game 1 against more often than it is a useless card.
Spellskite is an all-star, it makes your lock that much harder to crack and on top of it is a great T2 play to keep anything from hitting you. I am super happy with it in the deck as well. On top of all that, trading post can get it for you if they somehow kill it.
I am really wondering how Gatecrash is going to affect this deck. I am thinking 3-4x Boros Charm as direct damage/lock protection and maybe 2x Aurelia's Fury for finishing the game via direct damage or eliminating blockers. Also still waiting for a playable extort card for this deck. Blind Obedience isn't very good compared to what is available.
Hey guys I am currently running this list and wanted to know what you think of vexing shusher as a SB option against decks with lots of counterspells? Also I currently have 4x Luminarch Ascension as my primary win con, but it seems kinda bad when they SB in any sort of enchantment hate (which I think is going into many SBs after the GW Enchant/Hexproof deck win). I sorta like the idea behind the new token generator card because of it's ability to ramp up to large numbers. This list seems very resilient against almost all decks in the format.
The idea for this deck is to gain enormous advantage via Isochron Scepter and various instants. A key way the deck gains advantage is thru the split cards which can be copied for 2 even though they are CMC 5. This can get us a 3 card draw for 2 mana at instant speed (Research//Development)!
I am looking for some suggestions. As of now I beat most tier 2 decks with ease, but haven't played against a lot of tier 1.
While playing with the deck I think my biggest weaknesses might be super heavy aggro, someone want to suggest something better than Supreme Verdict?
Also, Guttersnipe is sort-of the clock in the deck, but I feel that it might be sub-par. With all the counterspells and other hate at our disposal I usually can protect them, but it may not be good enough against Liliana of the Veil for example.
Guys I'm trying to make a deck that is like a nivmagus deck, but with an Ad Nauseam finisher. The idea is that nivmagus either wins or loses on T2-T3, but with a card like Ad Naseum we can literally draw half our deck and win on it's resolution on T4+.
I'm really having trouble finding the right balance of cards (this is at 62), but this is what I've come up with so far:
How does Accorder Paladin work out for you? I've tried it, but most of the time I don't want to attack with it because it dies to just about everything. Also, knights isn't a swarm deck.
Accorder Paladin ends up being a solid beater. Usually he gets +1/+1 from something so hes at least 4/2. Otherwise it's fine because they usually don't want to lose their creature of power < 3. If you have more than one creature on the board then he can add a lot of damage (Hero and Accorder are best buds).
Regarding the sideboard options, I recommend the following:
3 Kataki, War's Wage - Because affinity is always around
3 Leyline of Sanctity - Great against Valakut, Seismic Assault and Pyromancer Ascension decks, to name a few
3 Rest in Peace - Best graveyard hate in white; Dredge and Living End
3 Nevermore - If you fear they run something like Death Cloud or Eldrazis
3 Pitching Needle - Stop problematic PWs and whatever activated abilities they rely upon for winning.
I also would use 4 vials maindeck for sure. Control players heavy on counters hate seeing turn 1 vial, and you won't need to run Thalia nor Grand Abolisher SB.
I will consider those changes; but I still think I need 3 wrath of god in here somewhere. I need a good way to manage boards that I lose control of in those matchups where board position is out of wack. I got most control covered between cavern and abolisher; but maybe i'll try a variant with 4 vials in the SB. Honestly vial doesn't seem to help me main deck. It might be the meta I'm playing in.
I gotta go I'll look at some of those other changes later.
I have been playing some people on Cockatrice with this deck and it seems to work fairly well against just about everything. I lose some games to decks that combo and win T3; but hopefully with my sideboard I can solve that. I am looking for suggestions to make it tournament quality; also wondering if a control or blue splashed variant might be more effective. I don't run Elspeth because she is good but frankly I would rather pump the mana into dropping a sword or leveling student or playing hero. Vial is another thing I'm not running, mainly due to the fact that it doesn't seem to do anything that remarkable. Either I can deal with their attacking creatures or I can't. I haven't had many cases where flashing in a 2 or 3 cmc creature would have really gave me board advantage. If they are out-aggroing me then I side in wrath and just use the fact that my creatures are really strong to win.
Hey guys I just getting into Magic and thought I would build a standard deck, I need some suggestions and am looking for help on what could be done to make the deck either better or cheaper or both.
I originally built this deck with Extended cards and had 4x Unholy Strength instead of most of the equipment. I ended up attempting to replace them with cheap equipment as I couldn't find a good U or B replacement for Unholy Strength.
I don't have any hard budget, but under $80 seems like a good target to me.
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Abyssal Persecutor
3 Thragtusk
Removal (5)
2 Geth's Verdict
1 Damnation
2 Lightning Bolt
Discard (8)
3 Blightning
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
Card Advantage (6)
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
Land (24)
3 Blood Crypt
1 Dragonskull Summit
4 Marsh Flats
1 Mountain
1 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Slaughter Games
2 Extirpate
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Void
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pyroclasm
2 Duress
1 Damnation
Key differences between typical Jund builds:
+Vampire Nighthawk-At worst trades with pretty much anything, at best continuously gives us life and flies over threats.
+Abyssal Persecutor-In my opinion, one of the best threats in the game, T4 6/6 Flying, Trample ain't no joke. His downside isn't terribly hard to deal with considering the amount of removal Liliana and Geth's provide.
+Geth's Verdict-Looking for opinions on this piece of removal, can be bad when they have a cluttered board, but it will kill anything and also remove Abyssal if hes still on the board after they have negative life.
-Tarmogoyf-Yes hes an all star beater, but he doesn't have any evasion or ETB benefits. Usually all he ends up doing is saving you a few life against faster decks or at best he will get in a beat or two for some damage before they can answer. Most of the time I would rather have something else.
-Dark Confidant-CMC is too high for him.
+Phyrexian Arena-Better and harder to kill version of bob, unfortunately comes down T3, which is big.
+Thragtusk-Hes here mainly for stabilizing with the ridiculous life-gain and CA. Are there any alternatives?
Graveyards are now your libraries.
If a player would draw a card, instead that player chooses a card from his or her graveyard and puts it into his or her hand.
If a player would search a library, he searches his graveyard instead.
Pay 1 life: Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.
Then you get decks that center around hexproof enchant, because the drawback to enchanting your creature has largely been eliminated. And many of the auras that are printed with the assumption that while the aura may give a large P/T boost, it is a 2-for-1. This means the aura decks are very efficient at creating big nasty creatures that cannot be killed via creature damage or via removal spells.
Shroud should be reserved for 1 and 2 drops because of this, with Hexproof at higher CMC. This forces those aura decks to slow down and thus fixes the "imbalance." But this all doesn't matter too much because the cat is already out of the bag so to speak.
Rest in peace is in there because I find whenever the opposing deck is running some graveyard shenanigans, whether it be pod, unburial, snapcaster etc. they always seem to pull some bull**** and win game 1. But yeah your probably right I should stick it in the SB. I feel like it helps me win game 1 against more often than it is a useless card.
Spellskite is an all-star, it makes your lock that much harder to crack and on top of it is a great T2 play to keep anything from hitting you. I am super happy with it in the deck as well. On top of all that, trading post can get it for you if they somehow kill it.
I am really wondering how Gatecrash is going to affect this deck. I am thinking 3-4x Boros Charm as direct damage/lock protection and maybe 2x Aurelia's Fury for finishing the game via direct damage or eliminating blockers. Also still waiting for a playable extort card for this deck. Blind Obedience isn't very good compared to what is available.
1 Entreat the Angels
4 Luminarch Ascension
3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Trading Post
Hatorade (18)
3 Rest in Peace
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Spellskite
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Ghostly Prison
Removal/Wipes (10)
2 Wrath of God
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Lightning Helix
3 Pyroclasm
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Rugged Prairie
5 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Mistveil Plains
3 Arid Mesa
4 Pithing Needle
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Vexing Shusher
3 Grand Abolisher
I am looking for some suggestions. As of now I beat most tier 2 decks with ease, but haven't played against a lot of tier 1.
Here is the decklist:
4 Isochron Scepter
Creatures (8)
4 Guttersnipe
4 Snapcaster Mage
Instants (21)
4 Lightning Helix
3 Remand
4 Izzet Charm
3 Odds // Ends
3 Research // Development
4 Manamorphose
Board Wipe (3)
3 Supreme Verdict
Land (24)
1 Island
3 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Steam Vents
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Arid Mesa
1 Celestial Colonnade
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Forest
1 Breeding Pool
3 Nevermore
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Hide // Seek
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Pithing Needle
While playing with the deck I think my biggest weaknesses might be super heavy aggro, someone want to suggest something better than Supreme Verdict?
Also, Guttersnipe is sort-of the clock in the deck, but I feel that it might be sub-par. With all the counterspells and other hate at our disposal I usually can protect them, but it may not be good enough against Liliana of the Veil for example.
I'm really having trouble finding the right balance of cards (this is at 62), but this is what I've come up with so far:
4x Nivmagus Elemental
4x Simian Spirit Guide
Protection/Haste (4)
4x Clout of the Dominus
Instants/Sorc (27)
4x Slaughter Pact
4x Pact of the Titan
4x Ad Nauseam
4x Angel's Grace
3x Apostle's Blessing
3x Assault Strobe
4x Pact of Negation
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Tainted Strike
1x Island
4x Godless Shrine
4x Mountain
3x Plains
5x Swamp
Am I trying to do too much?
Accorder Paladin ends up being a solid beater. Usually he gets +1/+1 from something so hes at least 4/2. Otherwise it's fine because they usually don't want to lose their creature of power < 3. If you have more than one creature on the board then he can add a lot of damage (Hero and Accorder are best buds).
I will consider those changes; but I still think I need 3 wrath of god in here somewhere. I need a good way to manage boards that I lose control of in those matchups where board position is out of wack. I got most control covered between cavern and abolisher; but maybe i'll try a variant with 4 vials in the SB. Honestly vial doesn't seem to help me main deck. It might be the meta I'm playing in.
I gotta go I'll look at some of those other changes later.
4 Student of Warfare
4 Knight Exemplar
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Accorder Paladin
4 Knight of the White Orchid
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
Instant (4)
4 Path to Exile
Land (24)
4 Cavern of Souls
20 Plains
3 Grand Abolisher
3 Aura of Silence
2 Leonin Skyhunter
3 Wrath of God
I am sort of also wondering if there is a better way to deal with flying than the 2 Leonin Skyhunter in my sideboard?
Anything else you see please speak up!
2x Dismember
1x Go for the Throat
2x Negate
1x Doom Blade
4x Drowned Catacomb
10x Island
11x Swamp
2x Piston Sledge
2x Sharpened Pitchfork
2x Viridian Claw
4x Spectral Flight
2x Corrupted Conscience
4x Hand of the Praetors
4x Ichorclaw Myr
4x Phyrexian Crusader
I originally built this deck with Extended cards and had 4x Unholy Strength instead of most of the equipment. I ended up attempting to replace them with cheap equipment as I couldn't find a good U or B replacement for Unholy Strength.
I don't have any hard budget, but under $80 seems like a good target to me.