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Bringing the Best Deck
Josh Silvestri
11/6/2009  this article! - or -
[Article discussion now available to all readers!] Today I'll be discussing the best deck in the format, Jund. Very little has actually been written about the deck in regards to construction or playability, as these aspects are simply taken for granted by most players. It doesn't help that the main focus as of late has been beating it rather than exploring the Jund deck and seeing what choices could be improved upon. This is sort of an interesting contrast to Faeries and 5cc when they were tier one material, both of which had huge numbers of articles written about them. For me I think it's important to understand why the best deck is the best deck and what could be done to possibly make it better, for the mirror or to cover its weaknesses. First let's take a look at what could best be described as the ‘gold standard' for Jund decks, Jack Wang's winning 5k list.
Now I won't bother with explaining why Putrid Leech or Bloodbraid Elf are good cards, but rather I want to look at certain decisions like only running three Bituminous Blast or Maelstrom Pulse. Many of these decisions have been emulated online and it annoys me, because while Jack was going into a more unrefined metagame, anyone playing Magic Online should know the metagame is predominantly Jund. Knowing this should make the decision on the number of Cascade spells an easy one, but instead I've seen others drop to two even.
So why is this so wrong? There are three (and a half*) ways you can gain a clear-cut edge in the Jund mirror. The first involves land destruction and beating the opponent because he then stumbles on hitting the proper colors or amount of lands to actually cast his spells. Post-board games can easily be decided by a turn two Putrid Leech followed by a turn four Goblin Ruinblaster taking out a crucial Rootbound Crag or Savage Lands. Discard Overload is the second way of winning the mirror, double Blightning being the most common game over scenario. However people have been learning from this and some have taken the next step of including Mind Rot in the board for a higher chance of resource blowouts. Of course the third way is the one people always complain about; winning the Cascade lottery. If you play a couple of Cascade cards during the Jund mirror and you hit half-decent Cascade's it becomes very difficult to lose. Even a single Cascade off Bituminous Blast could lead to Bloodbraid Elf plus Maelstrom Pulse / Sprouting Thrinax shenanigans. With one spell, the board position can be completely flipped around or a stalemate can become a one-sided route. *The half I refer to is the use of incremental advantage cards like Oran-Rief the Vastwood or multiple Planeswalkers in the deck. They aren't the kind of turnaround blowouts that the other strategies evoke, but they can be deadly over a longer Attrition war. So with Jund becoming the major player on the field, there's no reason not to maindeck a full set of Bit Blast, simply because it helps you win the Cascade lottery. The more Cascade cards you run, the more chances you have to win, plus it's a fine card against Boros and many other aggressive strategies seeing play. Even if you expect Jund and Boros to comprise only a small portion of the field (say 25%), it would be ideal to run the full set. The only matches where they end up mostly dead is against Sphinx Control or Mono-White Control decks, where there's very little to shoot. Even in those matches; you can use Bit Blast on your own men at times in response to removal and gain some possible value from the Cascade. As for Maelstrom Pulse, including the fourth in the maindeck is a trickier proposition. Ultimately Pulse is just a utility removal spell and really doesn't have a huge impact on how the deck typically plays out. This can be seen by the number of budget builds succeeding online without having access to Pulse or Verdant Catacombs. Simply put, the card isn't crucial for the deck's success. Having said that, Pulse still makes Jund a better deck against an open field by giving you access to a Planeswalker and Baneslayer killer. Online part of the reason Pulse isn't needed quite as badly is because the metagame is skewed toward the established decks. People are mostly looking to go infinite via Constructed or to test for real life events; as for the former, this means Pulse is often going to seem symmetrical in the mirror. What this means for you is that running the fourth Maelstrom Pulse makes the most sense from a utility standpoint. It also helps maximize the consistency in your deck by upping the number of 4-of's which in turn helps the Cascade lottery. Yes, Pulse can sometimes be a dead Cascade, but more often than not it ends up being one of the best things you can hit. LSV did it a few times in his Jund vs. Boros playtest sessions which just led to complete one-sided blowouts and I've done it plenty of times on MTGO where it led to me winning shortly after. So what do we cut for these two additions? Well friend, that's an easy one, we cut the two Resounding Thunder sticking out like sore thumbs. Unfortunately this still leaves us with two Terminate, typically gumming up Cascade and usually are terrible, except when they kill Baneslayer Angel. However if you drop them, the Boros match game one becomes even worse, since then you have to heavily lean on Lightning Bolt and Putrid Leech to play defense. Of course one idea many people have taken to heart, is replacing extra spell slots with Great Sable Stag. Stag is usually solid in the mirror and just another blocker against Boros and Mono Red. This also gives us a reason to cut back on the number of clunky Broodmate Dragon Jund runs since you now have more creatures to win the game with. Chandra Nalaar is another possible inclusion some online players have been pushing for. Chandra can provide a very credible threat against Control decks while helping stabilize the board against midrange decks. One piece of tech which has slowly emerged and becoming a staple of Jund decks is the usage of a pair of Oran-Reif the Vastwood. These land are sometimes annoying since they only make Green and often can interfere with hitting your normal drops if you want to make full use of them. However in the mirror, which often Boils down to an Attrition war, this card ends up being a complete backbreaker for those who have it. It makes Putrid Leech the biggest guy on the field, turns Thrinax into a super blocker, Garruk Wildspeaker tokens into true Beasts and so on. My favorite trick with Oran-Rief? Using it to pump the three Green 1/1 tokens you get off of a dead Sprouting Thrinax. How sick is that? Like I said before, you don't want more than two in the deck, because it can lead to awkward mana draws and doesn't play well with the M10 duals. However it comes in real handy for decks where there's actual creature combat and you might be forced into a long game. Speaking of the mana-base, the optimal land base seems to be 25 or 26 land depending on who you talk too. The key is to run enough land where you can consistently hit your first four land drops and usually hit RBG by turn three. You won't always be able to get this type of ideal start, but that's what you want to skew for. You can survive a little flooding with Jund, but being color-screwed or missing a land drop for a turn or two is one of the easiest ways to give up free games to the Opposition. Sideboard-wise the most common inclusions are Duress, Goblin Ruinblaster, Jund Charm, Deathmark, Great Sable Stag, Terminate and Thought Hemorrhage. So which of these really deserve their slots? The only two I'd keep for sure are Goblin Ruinblaster and Jund Charm, while the rest should have to work for their slots against more uncommon options. So we have Goblin Ruinblaster and as anyone who has played against Jund on the play can tell you, getting hit by a turn four Ruinblaster after a Putrid Leech or Thrinax, it leaves you in an awkward position of trying to claw back into the game. For decks like Jund, Cascade Control, Bant and really any non-Red deck, Ruinblaster can single-handedly doom you. It doesn't help that a turn three Blightning forces you to choose between dumping your business into the grave or the lands which would potentially save you in case of Ruinblaster. So to me the question should be if this should be backed by Acidic Slime or Mind Rot. Yes, Mind Rot, the original Blightning. Remember back to what I wrote about regarding discard overload? Mind Rot adds Blightning 5-8 (or anywhere in-between) to the mix and two of these spells can easily leave a Jund player with only one card left in hand. Control players usually don't fare much better, usually getting stuck with one or two lands and a single relevant spell with no threats on the board. Even with a Negate or Double Negative on one of them, it significantly damages the number of potential bullets they have left for you. Meanwhile Acidic Slime basically says if you can live long enough, you'll always have a mana advantage in the Jund mirror. Obvious a one-two punch will be lethal against most players, but even assuming you only hit a turn five or six Acidic Slime, you just blew up their best mana source and can still trade with the best non-Broodmate creature on the board. Land destruction has been heavily weakened, but as a result people build mana bases in such a way that they can't take any disruption or they simply fall apart at the seams. So which should you go with? I'm honestly not sure yet, I haven't tested each configuration enough to make a confirmation either way. I would lean towards the Mind Rot plan simply because it keeps your curve less top-heavy, even more important with Ruinblaster in the mix. The fact is though if you want to play Jund, you have to be prepared for the possibility of playing 3-4 mirror matches throughout your day. As for the remaining board slots, Jund Charm is a no-brainer because it's one of the few decent sweep spells in the format against Boros, Mono Green and Mono Red; with some auxiliary uses that pop up every so often. It does enough where it seems silly not to include it in the deck, much like Maelstrom Pulse. Against the remaining decks in the field, I enjoy the use of Fleshbag Marauder, which beats Wall of Denial, Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Baneslayer Angel. Obviously Gatekeeper of Malakir would be preferable, but good luck ever hitting the BBB to kick him. In the end this is what my ideal Jund list is:
The only thing I'm still unsure about is Great Sable Stag over Vampire Nighthawk, which has proven to be ever so useful with Lifelink against Red decks and decent everywhere else thanks to Deathtouch. Perhaps a few more weeks of grinding will let me know the answer. Then again there's that sick Yasooka Crypt Combo deck to try out now… Josh Silvestri |
  
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