@mike
I really enjoyed testing your solar flare shell, I was wondering if I could get some feed back on this U/W control shell. I'm still not sure what I should cut for a singleton Wurmcoil.
For this particular list, I have a few thoughts. First, why the gut shots? At this point, the card isn't doing much in the metagame, with the exception of taking out a Delver. Honestly, delver shouldn't be whats killing you in that match anyway, Geist of Saint Traft+Sword is the real issue. You're paying two life to (usually) take out a 1/1. Why not just run Ratchet Bombs instead? You take one hit from their one drop then its dead, without costing any life. Against any deck running tokens, Ratchet Bomb is just better. Against Delver even; you drop a turn 2 Bomb on the play against their Delver, you've essentially killed it already no matter what they do. Either they flip it and it dies immediately, or they don't and you take 1 damage. You don't mind tapping mana for it there (which I guess would be an argument for Gut Shot) because nothing they do on two mana matters to you anyway (Invisible Stalker isn't exactly killing you by itself; you can always save countermagic for the Sword)
If you go that route, I would definitely include at least one Sun Titan as well.
I would also cut one of the Knowledge pools; it does literally nothing on its own without a curse and you'll want to /wrists when you draw a second. You have Treasure mage for a reason; it allows you to not have to run more than 1 Knowledge Pool. Cut one for a Wurmcoil Engine, you'll thank yourself later.
Pristine Talisman is in there for ramp mostly, I'm assuming. The lifegain is mostly irrelevant now because decks it used to be good against are now running Geist of Saint Traft+Sword, which makes Talisman really bad. YOu generally want to keep mana up for counterspells/Snapcaster Mage, so tapping out for a talisman seems bad. I might cut it, but thats up to you.
now now sir. I had no intent to flame and I rightfully got a warning for my post.
Along with many lists that exist already. the list posted in the article feels as if the list posted lacked. it's win con is a singleton wurmcoil engine and two titans.
Its a solar flare-esque list. How many "wincons" were you expecting? Also, if you're not sold that a resolved "combo" wins you the game, why are you even exploring the deck concept to begin with? (Ie, you're making the assumption that achieving the lock doesn't win you the game, according to your post).
Additionally, you have 2 Treasure Mages to tutor up your Wurmcoil, giving you a virtual 3 copies and a 2/2 to step in the way against Aggro. Sun Titan even brings the Mage back to tutor for the Pool later in the game.
unburial rites was thrown in the deck due to a lack of wincons obviously just incase they were taken care of at one point or B because it was milled from alchemy.
Rites is a pure value card in this deck. If your creatures are good enough to include, they are definitely good enough to get a double re-buy on.
I personally do not see how 7 counter spells and two days would take care of a tier 1 deck any more. any thing with green will be running at least 2-3 stranglefoots.
Ratchet bomb, while you disparage it later in your post, is the reason you only run 2 Days. When I wrote the article, Strangleroot Geist.dek hadn't yet been debuted at SCG Richmond and the expected metagame included Tokens and Delver, both of which Ratchet Bomb is awesome against. The synergy with Sun Titan shouldn't be ignored either.
the deck is going to need more than treasure mage to pull you out of a rut to look for a wurmcoil engine.
True; it has Ratchet Bombs, Days, Mana Leaks, et al to get you to the point where Wurmcoil can turn the game around. Post-board, matchups get alot better, as the deck was designed for a metagame of tokens and Delver. Since the metagame is shifting towards mono-green, the maindeck would obviously change.
biggest point of reason that I dislike the deck personally is friends have run decks that are very much like it. tier 2-3 decks rip it apart, decks like Puresteel or uw humans day has little to no effect when next turn the flayer husk you couldnt counter becomes a 5/5 with prot GBWR and untaps, causes you to discard, deals x and they gain x.
Then you cast ratchet bomb (or you had one anyway) or Sun Titan, recur Ratchet Bomb, and you're back to being in good shape. You discredit Ratchet Bomb as a bad card, but it does good work.
with this deck unless you pulled a magic hand and got the lock in place you would win past that it does very little to ensure it keeps the board clean.
Once again, 4 Ratchet bombs in a metagame dominated by Tokens and Delver (which Richmond was rumored to be, and I wrote the article before Richmond) definitely helps keep the board clean. 4 Bombs, 2 Days, and countermagic I would argue does a great job of keeping the board managed as long as you don't "throw away" your mass removal by wasting it when you're not dead yet. Thats a mistake alot of players make, and one I would suggest your friends playing wrath effects look out for in the future.
i also do not like the fact that there are 4 ratchet bombs maindeck. i feel this is too much. anything non 0 or 1 cmc ends up being too slow to help unless you get it out early ( which you cant in order to keep counter magic up ) and start picking up counters in preparation for something.
Your paragraph here, while attempting to bash the inclusion of Ratchet Bombs, actually helps the argument FOR Ratchet Bomb. Its versatile! It slows down the fast starts, and if your opponent didn't do anything until turn 2/3, you're probably ok anyway, as you have a much superior late game. If you're under a quick rush or a critical mass of tokens, Ratchet Bomb is awesome. If not? You have time to prepare for whatever your concern is (I'm looking at you, Geist of Saint Traft) while holding up countermagic after turn 2.
I know the posted list also did not have a sideboard to accompany it so i cannot comment on what game two would look like, but for g1 i feel it would be horribly inconsistent and or an auto loss.
I think you're looking at individual card choices and not the overall plan. You don't want to "control" the opponent for the whole game. U/B wants to do that. If this deck is worth playing, its because the combo wins you the game. If you don't feel the combo does that, don't play this deck. If you feel it does win you the game, you just want to survive until you lock them down. Thats what this deck is designed to do. If you're just trying to survive until you lock the opponent out for good, then Ratchet Bomb does a great job against early rushes. Is Ratchet Bomb bad against Titans? Of course! But you've got countermagic until you can achieve your lock. The deck was designed to play out a certain way, but it seems your playstyle doesn't lend itself to playing the deck in that way. I'm being mindful of what the deck needs: ways to survive until you can achieve a late-game state, where your deck just takes over. Ratchet Bomb does that, and Sun Titan bringing back Ratchet Bomb helps seal the deal. Day is a catch-all, not the main plan. Treasure Mage allows you to run a tutor package for all of your late-game shenanigans. You just need to get there, and this deck was designed to do that.
Obviously you can't hold up countermagic and drop a turn 2 Bomb; however, this comes down to playskill and game-state. Can you beat whatever he can do with 3 mana without countering it? Are you under so much pressure that you can't wait? Its a matter of knowing the situation and playing accordingly. Keep that in mind.
Thanks for the constructive feedback. I appreciate you putting in the time and effort to point out the flaws with the deck, proposing solutions and alternatives and opening a positive and productive dialogue.
Seriously though, what are you confused about with the list? My intent is simply to run a Solar Flare-esque list with the end-game of a knowledge pool/curse lock. "No focus" implies the deck is simply a list of 50 some odd cards and a couple of combo pieces. The "focus" of the deck is a Solar Flare shell that has an end-game of Curse/Pool but also has great alternatives through the Treasure Mage "toolbox".
Sure, you're not a dedicated combo deck, but that is probably more of a positive thing than you seem to think. Your "combo" doesn't win you the game when you're already dead on board and cast a 6-drop "do nothing". Curse is horrid when your opponent already has a geist and a sword out. What "focus" are you looking for here? Do you want to simply have 4 Curse, 4 Pool, 4 Treasure Mage, 4 Bitterheart Witch, 44 lands? Truly that's focus, right?
The deck I listed basically aims to control the board long enough to get something big online. Whether that be the Pool/Curse lock, a Sun Titan-Phantasmal Image chain, an Unburial Rites kicking back off a Sun Titan Chain, or even something as wacky as a Sun Titan-Mindslaver lock through Buried Ruin activations. While I admit I didn't sit for hours fine tuning a list, I will say that the general concept is one that seems to be a bit more focused on "winning the game" rather than focusing on getting your cute combo into play. I care more about winning the game overall than simply achieving a lock then dying to a sworded Geist of Saint Traft.
(Also, to the guy above this poster who said that splashing black just for Unburial Rites is bad, keep in mind that Forbidden Alchemy requires black mana to flashback. Also, Rites isn't the focus of the deck, but with so many sick creatures sure to make it into the graveyard through Alchemy, Rites becomes an insane top deck late in the game, giving you rebuys on two of your guys. We'd run evolving wilds in a list with Sun Titans anyway, why not add one swamp to get a ton of value?)
Just my thoughts. Again, thanks for the constructive criticisms and great feedback. Keeps the great ideas flowing and the innovations encouraged. Wouldn't want to belittle any ideas in a forum for a wacky deck idea now, would we?
I honestly think that the point is being missed here. With the results from pt san diego, people are going to run ww a lot more since itbgives you accessto both white knight and kor firewalker. Currently, the only md answers to the walker is maelstrom pulse (and putrid leech as a blocker). I think he's concerned with that matchup and wants a md answer that maintains relevance against the rest of the field.
Smother is great for this. It hits pretty much everything of relevance, and other than malakir bloodwitch and baneslayer, lightning bolt can clean up the rest. Honestly I expect to see more MD kor firewalkers than baneslayers and vamps is already a good matchup, so the bloodwitch isn't a huge concern. Doom blade is horrible with jund being the most popular deck and vampires being heavily played. Deathmark is just too narrow to md...
Yes, I have to agree with the above two posters... You people are advocating the very "answers" that haven't done anything to stop Jund to this point, which shows why Jund still has yet to be answered. You see Celestial Purge and think "Oh, thats the answer!" when, in reality, Purging your optimum target, a thrinax, simply makes the thrinax into a trained armadon and your purge into a terminate. All it does is bring ONE Jund spell back down to a fair level. The next turn, when the Jund player goes BBE->Blightning, what then? Your "answer" never really "answered" anything, simply brought Jund back down to "fair" for a turn.
You must be a great Jund player because the matches that I've seen Jund go up against Fae and 5CC have been fairly tough for them. I'd put the Fae matchup at 60/40 in favor of Fae and 5CC 55/45 in favor of 5CC.
However I agree that BFT and Reveillark were hell on the deck. I personally beat 4 Jund decks at the last Standard PTQ I went to with my Merfolk deck simply by continually drawing my sideboarded Reveillarks and BFTs. It was just devastating to the Jund player, even after mulliganing and then playing 1st or 2nd turn BFT.
It simply had to do with preparation... I came packing full sets of main deck anathemancers and fallouts. Wasn't too hard after that. Then, when GSS came out, well...
uh, remind me how many Naya decks there actually were in the tournament compared to Jund...
Naya put up a higher win percentage across the board. There was something like 5 Jund decks for every Naya and in the end there were 2 Naya decks in the Semi Finals and only one Jund.
Look at the "top performing decks" for the standard portion. Pay special attention to the 50% chunk of that number that Jund occupies. Note that Jund was 35% of the overall field. Naya CAN beat Jund, yes... a better deck it is not though. I agree with the poster saying that the Jund player got incredibly unlucky (as well as Lybaert, who got insanely unlucky against Coimbra). Look into more than just numbers and results. Look at reasons and the chain of events that led to that end result.
Its the same thing as Kali Anderson getting credit for the 5k win in Nashville when her and her opponent agreed to a split and he didn't care about the trophy. Not to say she wouldn't have won, but people looked online the next day, saw *1st* next to her name and deck, and started going nuts. No one even knows who placed second. My point is that everyone needs to stop being so results oriented, especially with such a limited data set (in this case, 2 matches in the top 8). Last season, a 5CC player loses to Kithkin due to not drawing into their 4th land in 3 out of 4 games; does that mean that Kithkin strictly beats 5CC, or that it was bad beats for the 5CC player? Wait, see what happens when Jund players are allowed to prepare for the deck (and not hand games to the deck due to horrible luck when faced with great top-decking skills by the Naya player). The same thing will happen that happened with Eldrazi Elves: people will realize its' not going to dethrone anyone anytime soon.
What I would give for Paladin en-Vec right now. Something which was a Jund hoser on the level of that card would be fantastic. But here's the real issue. Cascade is *insane*. You needed Cryptic Command and Faeries to keep that beast in check.
Well, until someone comes up with a viable combo. Then, we all cry. Here's to some mediocre but consistent combo dominating post WWK standard.
No one responded to this, so I fear I must. Fae wasn't the issue for Jund last season. I say this because I'm a seasoned Jund pilot, and Fae was never an issue. Same with 5CC. However, BFT... now THAT was an issue. Same goes for that Reveillark guy...
You put Malakir bloodwitch in your sideboard for your Jund deck, which I find pretty interesting. What's weird though is that LSV and his teammates also run the bloodwitch sideboard, and you posted this article before there lists were revealed. Meaning you are a step ahead sir
Nice article buddy and I look forward to reading more :]
-Ali
Well thank you, random MTGsalvation observer! lol thanks man, I appreciate it. And I'm glad SOMEONE noticed my "tech", even if the "pros" will get all the credit. *sigh*
Good to see you finally got the article up! I've been looking forward to reading it.
It was great meeting you and getting destroyed by you round 6 at the Nashville 5k (I was running that WRU planeswalker list).
I like your Grixis list. I really like how affordable it is. I might just switch up what deck I use, I haven't been too impressed with my planeswalkers.
Then again, GR Valakut has become rampant (see what I did there?) where I play, and my list basically auto-loses against them, even if I do see Baneslayers...
Keep up the good work, I look forward to reading more articles!
-Chris
Thanks man, I do remember you. (I got your message too, just forgot to reply lol). I think W/U/R is a very workable archetype right now, and it will be in an upcoming article. However, I'm also working on a piece that deals with actually choosing Jund, since no one is advocating it, rather just what to do to beat it. Honestly, why not play it? So thats likely my next work, but the W/U/R list, an update to this list, and an Esper list will likely follow.
I looked over the lists and wondered if you can take a step up against Jund by replacing the fetch lands... sure 1 life doesn't seem like a huge loss, but it also thins your deck of lands (at least ones that effectively tap for mana) and brings you 1 closer to that all important death. Have you play tested at all replacing fetches with basics and the duals from zendikar that give you a life? With the minimal amount of optimal draw in this format, I'd think you'd want every land you play to add mana (like you said, you're trying to hit seven mana consistently).
To be honest, I considered dropping the fetches in favor of Terramorphic Expanses. I actually considered the Zen ETBT lands over the M10 lands as well. However, the difference in life total was negligible when compared with the fact that I can have the M10 lands (and fetched basics) into play untapped and can play the spells necessary to answer their threats. The 1 life is inconsequential when you need your red mana to cast a terminate on a Putrid Leech thats been getting in there for 4.
this is just a thought but i run platinum angels in place of the Sphinx of lost truths and by the time late game i plop him down i have enough swerve and negate/ countersquall to keep him around. also i run 3 hedron crabs as an early alternatvie. kill the crabs or eat some of your library. its a win win. wither they lose a turn of plopping down beaters or they run the risk of losing some of their control. I have been told on a couple of occasions my deck is a mill deck when the only mill is hedron crab... just food for thought.
Unfortunately, after testing the deck out, I don't really have room for more "win cons". The main point was that, by running Sphinx of Jwar Isle that I wouldn't have to devote a lot of deck space to finishers, rather using the remaining slots as answers to incoming threats. The crab, while admittedly great at what it does, doesn't seem to fit in with what I'm trying to accomplish.
I am also trying to find way to play control in this meta, it is very tough. Decks running the mold shamblers and the like kinda make pw's bad, so I really don't like others that ajani v and jace. I thoroughly hate running jace, but what other options do we have for card draw?
If you had a tournament in five mins which deck would you run.(talking to op) Another note splashing a color is easy, and doesn't really mess with consistency much.
Right now? I'm going to have to re-evaluate this after the Nashville results, as the majority of this was written prior to the success of the Eldrazi Elves deck. Testing against that is necessary, but I'd guess it would involve changing the sideboard somewhat to include an answer to the monument (Demolish may be a serious option, what with mono-White control using Emeria, the Sky Ruin as its card advantage engine).
For this particular list, I have a few thoughts. First, why the gut shots? At this point, the card isn't doing much in the metagame, with the exception of taking out a Delver. Honestly, delver shouldn't be whats killing you in that match anyway, Geist of Saint Traft+Sword is the real issue. You're paying two life to (usually) take out a 1/1. Why not just run Ratchet Bombs instead? You take one hit from their one drop then its dead, without costing any life. Against any deck running tokens, Ratchet Bomb is just better. Against Delver even; you drop a turn 2 Bomb on the play against their Delver, you've essentially killed it already no matter what they do. Either they flip it and it dies immediately, or they don't and you take 1 damage. You don't mind tapping mana for it there (which I guess would be an argument for Gut Shot) because nothing they do on two mana matters to you anyway (Invisible Stalker isn't exactly killing you by itself; you can always save countermagic for the Sword)
If you go that route, I would definitely include at least one Sun Titan as well.
I would also cut one of the Knowledge pools; it does literally nothing on its own without a curse and you'll want to /wrists when you draw a second. You have Treasure mage for a reason; it allows you to not have to run more than 1 Knowledge Pool. Cut one for a Wurmcoil Engine, you'll thank yourself later.
Pristine Talisman is in there for ramp mostly, I'm assuming. The lifegain is mostly irrelevant now because decks it used to be good against are now running Geist of Saint Traft+Sword, which makes Talisman really bad. YOu generally want to keep mana up for counterspells/Snapcaster Mage, so tapping out for a talisman seems bad. I might cut it, but thats up to you.
Just some thoughts from me
Its a solar flare-esque list. How many "wincons" were you expecting? Also, if you're not sold that a resolved "combo" wins you the game, why are you even exploring the deck concept to begin with? (Ie, you're making the assumption that achieving the lock doesn't win you the game, according to your post).
Additionally, you have 2 Treasure Mages to tutor up your Wurmcoil, giving you a virtual 3 copies and a 2/2 to step in the way against Aggro. Sun Titan even brings the Mage back to tutor for the Pool later in the game.
Rites is a pure value card in this deck. If your creatures are good enough to include, they are definitely good enough to get a double re-buy on.
Ratchet bomb, while you disparage it later in your post, is the reason you only run 2 Days. When I wrote the article, Strangleroot Geist.dek hadn't yet been debuted at SCG Richmond and the expected metagame included Tokens and Delver, both of which Ratchet Bomb is awesome against. The synergy with Sun Titan shouldn't be ignored either.
True; it has Ratchet Bombs, Days, Mana Leaks, et al to get you to the point where Wurmcoil can turn the game around. Post-board, matchups get alot better, as the deck was designed for a metagame of tokens and Delver. Since the metagame is shifting towards mono-green, the maindeck would obviously change.
Then you cast ratchet bomb (or you had one anyway) or Sun Titan, recur Ratchet Bomb, and you're back to being in good shape. You discredit Ratchet Bomb as a bad card, but it does good work.
Once again, 4 Ratchet bombs in a metagame dominated by Tokens and Delver (which Richmond was rumored to be, and I wrote the article before Richmond) definitely helps keep the board clean. 4 Bombs, 2 Days, and countermagic I would argue does a great job of keeping the board managed as long as you don't "throw away" your mass removal by wasting it when you're not dead yet. Thats a mistake alot of players make, and one I would suggest your friends playing wrath effects look out for in the future.
Your paragraph here, while attempting to bash the inclusion of Ratchet Bombs, actually helps the argument FOR Ratchet Bomb. Its versatile! It slows down the fast starts, and if your opponent didn't do anything until turn 2/3, you're probably ok anyway, as you have a much superior late game. If you're under a quick rush or a critical mass of tokens, Ratchet Bomb is awesome. If not? You have time to prepare for whatever your concern is (I'm looking at you, Geist of Saint Traft) while holding up countermagic after turn 2.
I think you're looking at individual card choices and not the overall plan. You don't want to "control" the opponent for the whole game. U/B wants to do that. If this deck is worth playing, its because the combo wins you the game. If you don't feel the combo does that, don't play this deck. If you feel it does win you the game, you just want to survive until you lock them down. Thats what this deck is designed to do. If you're just trying to survive until you lock the opponent out for good, then Ratchet Bomb does a great job against early rushes. Is Ratchet Bomb bad against Titans? Of course! But you've got countermagic until you can achieve your lock. The deck was designed to play out a certain way, but it seems your playstyle doesn't lend itself to playing the deck in that way. I'm being mindful of what the deck needs: ways to survive until you can achieve a late-game state, where your deck just takes over. Ratchet Bomb does that, and Sun Titan bringing back Ratchet Bomb helps seal the deal. Day is a catch-all, not the main plan. Treasure Mage allows you to run a tutor package for all of your late-game shenanigans. You just need to get there, and this deck was designed to do that.
Obviously you can't hold up countermagic and drop a turn 2 Bomb; however, this comes down to playskill and game-state. Can you beat whatever he can do with 3 mana without countering it? Are you under so much pressure that you can't wait? Its a matter of knowing the situation and playing accordingly. Keep that in mind.
Thanks for the constructive feedback. I appreciate you putting in the time and effort to point out the flaws with the deck, proposing solutions and alternatives and opening a positive and productive dialogue.
Seriously though, what are you confused about with the list? My intent is simply to run a Solar Flare-esque list with the end-game of a knowledge pool/curse lock. "No focus" implies the deck is simply a list of 50 some odd cards and a couple of combo pieces. The "focus" of the deck is a Solar Flare shell that has an end-game of Curse/Pool but also has great alternatives through the Treasure Mage "toolbox".
Sure, you're not a dedicated combo deck, but that is probably more of a positive thing than you seem to think. Your "combo" doesn't win you the game when you're already dead on board and cast a 6-drop "do nothing". Curse is horrid when your opponent already has a geist and a sword out. What "focus" are you looking for here? Do you want to simply have 4 Curse, 4 Pool, 4 Treasure Mage, 4 Bitterheart Witch, 44 lands? Truly that's focus, right?
The deck I listed basically aims to control the board long enough to get something big online. Whether that be the Pool/Curse lock, a Sun Titan-Phantasmal Image chain, an Unburial Rites kicking back off a Sun Titan Chain, or even something as wacky as a Sun Titan-Mindslaver lock through Buried Ruin activations. While I admit I didn't sit for hours fine tuning a list, I will say that the general concept is one that seems to be a bit more focused on "winning the game" rather than focusing on getting your cute combo into play. I care more about winning the game overall than simply achieving a lock then dying to a sworded Geist of Saint Traft.
(Also, to the guy above this poster who said that splashing black just for Unburial Rites is bad, keep in mind that Forbidden Alchemy requires black mana to flashback. Also, Rites isn't the focus of the deck, but with so many sick creatures sure to make it into the graveyard through Alchemy, Rites becomes an insane top deck late in the game, giving you rebuys on two of your guys. We'd run evolving wilds in a list with Sun Titans anyway, why not add one swamp to get a ton of value?)
Just my thoughts. Again, thanks for the constructive criticisms and great feedback. Keeps the great ideas flowing and the innovations encouraged. Wouldn't want to belittle any ideas in a forum for a wacky deck idea now, would we?
Smother is great for this. It hits pretty much everything of relevance, and other than malakir bloodwitch and baneslayer, lightning bolt can clean up the rest. Honestly I expect to see more MD kor firewalkers than baneslayers and vamps is already a good matchup, so the bloodwitch isn't a huge concern. Doom blade is horrible with jund being the most popular deck and vampires being heavily played. Deathmark is just too narrow to md...
Or Deathmark out of the board...
It simply had to do with preparation... I came packing full sets of main deck anathemancers and fallouts. Wasn't too hard after that. Then, when GSS came out, well...
Look at the "top performing decks" for the standard portion. Pay special attention to the 50% chunk of that number that Jund occupies. Note that Jund was 35% of the overall field. Naya CAN beat Jund, yes... a better deck it is not though. I agree with the poster saying that the Jund player got incredibly unlucky (as well as Lybaert, who got insanely unlucky against Coimbra). Look into more than just numbers and results. Look at reasons and the chain of events that led to that end result.
Its the same thing as Kali Anderson getting credit for the 5k win in Nashville when her and her opponent agreed to a split and he didn't care about the trophy. Not to say she wouldn't have won, but people looked online the next day, saw *1st* next to her name and deck, and started going nuts. No one even knows who placed second. My point is that everyone needs to stop being so results oriented, especially with such a limited data set (in this case, 2 matches in the top 8). Last season, a 5CC player loses to Kithkin due to not drawing into their 4th land in 3 out of 4 games; does that mean that Kithkin strictly beats 5CC, or that it was bad beats for the 5CC player? Wait, see what happens when Jund players are allowed to prepare for the deck (and not hand games to the deck due to horrible luck when faced with great top-decking skills by the Naya player). The same thing will happen that happened with Eldrazi Elves: people will realize its' not going to dethrone anyone anytime soon.
No one responded to this, so I fear I must. Fae wasn't the issue for Jund last season. I say this because I'm a seasoned Jund pilot, and Fae was never an issue. Same with 5CC. However, BFT... now THAT was an issue. Same goes for that Reveillark guy...
Well thank you, random MTGsalvation observer! lol thanks man, I appreciate it. And I'm glad SOMEONE noticed my "tech", even if the "pros" will get all the credit. *sigh*
Thanks man, I do remember you. (I got your message too, just forgot to reply lol). I think W/U/R is a very workable archetype right now, and it will be in an upcoming article. However, I'm also working on a piece that deals with actually choosing Jund, since no one is advocating it, rather just what to do to beat it. Honestly, why not play it? So thats likely my next work, but the W/U/R list, an update to this list, and an Esper list will likely follow.
Thanks all for the kind words.
To be honest, I considered dropping the fetches in favor of Terramorphic Expanses. I actually considered the Zen ETBT lands over the M10 lands as well. However, the difference in life total was negligible when compared with the fact that I can have the M10 lands (and fetched basics) into play untapped and can play the spells necessary to answer their threats. The 1 life is inconsequential when you need your red mana to cast a terminate on a Putrid Leech thats been getting in there for 4.
Unfortunately, after testing the deck out, I don't really have room for more "win cons". The main point was that, by running Sphinx of Jwar Isle that I wouldn't have to devote a lot of deck space to finishers, rather using the remaining slots as answers to incoming threats. The crab, while admittedly great at what it does, doesn't seem to fit in with what I'm trying to accomplish.
Right now? I'm going to have to re-evaluate this after the Nashville results, as the majority of this was written prior to the success of the Eldrazi Elves deck. Testing against that is necessary, but I'd guess it would involve changing the sideboard somewhat to include an answer to the monument (Demolish may be a serious option, what with mono-White control using Emeria, the Sky Ruin as its card advantage engine).