Ah yes, Jund. The modern boogeyman. But is it any good in Standard? High level tournament results would say no, but I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with Vraska, my serpent haired maiden of doom and her best girlfriend Olivia!
Once again I’d decided to play midrange, and since my meta is filled with aggro I always feel as though I’ve made the correct choice. This deck has gone 9-1 in the past 2 FNM’s and I was able to pull out a victory in the final turn of round 5 and win a Searing Spear this past week! Considering how obsessed I’ve been with that card lately I’m glad to finally have a foil to add to my deck(s).
Let’s go over the list:
CARL SZALICH’S MIDRANGE “GOOD STUFF” JUND DECK
SPELLS (16)
4x Farseek
4x Searing Spear
3x Mizzuim Mortars
3x Dreadbore
2x Sever the Bloodline
Holy removal Batman! Since this deck doesn’t really apply any pressure in the early game I needed ways to take care of early threats before I died. Having a full 12 removal spells main (1/5 of the deck!) really helped keep me alive until I could start playing some baddies of my own.
Searing Spear is still my “damage” removal of choice, even though most people still seem to prefer pillar of flame. Again I love the extra point of damage and the fact that it’s an instant, which is even more relevant when you’re playing a few werewolves in your deck.
Both MIzzium Mortars and Sever the Bloodline are card advantage machines. It was a tough choice as to whether I should go with Mortars or Bonfire of the Damned in this deck, but in the end since I don’t really have many early creatures I decided that the consistency of just being able to deal with a creature on turn 2 with Mortars was better than the blowout that is casting a miracled Bonfire. In a creature heavy deck I’d probably still choose Bonfire but in this build sometimes you just need to kill that annoying Loxodon Hierarch before it kills you.
Dreadbore is as good as the hype that surrounded it and I think its price has pretty well bottomed out so if you don’t have your playset now is the time to get one. In the control matchups it was a 2 mana “kill target planeswalker” and against any creature deck it was a sorcery speed terminate. It felt really good when I was able to deal with my opponents Tamyo and still have mana available to do other things.
CREATURES (16)
1x Daybreak Ranger
2x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Huntmaster of the Fells
2x Olivia Voldaren
4x Thragtusk
3x Thundermaw Hellkite
What can I say? I like playing the most powerful creatures in standard. I regret not playing 3x Daybreak Ranger instead of 1x + 2x Nighthawk but felt like I really needed to be able to have more lifegain for some reason… as though the Huntmasters / Thragtusk weren’t enough (they were). Olivia is a house and does the work of 1000 men on her own and do I really need to tell you how good Thundermaw Hellkite is? He’s $40 for a reason. I killed 6x Spirit tokens at once, swung and took out a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and got to keep a 5/5 flyer in play for 5. Value town!
PLANESWALKERS (2)
2x Vraska, the Unseen
The first week I used this deck I played Garruk, Primal Hunter main and had Vraska in my sideboard. Then I figured let’s mix it up a little and see what Vraska is capable of for week 2. I can’t say she was BETTER than Garruk per say, but she did what she was supposed to… eat creatures and planeswalkers! I was even able to win a game with assassin tokens, which felt really good considering my opponent was still at 20 and I was down to 9 vs a deck packed with burn and Guttersnipes. Sometimes her mere presence on the board is enough to lock an opponent out of the game. When she’s chillin’ with 6 counters and your opponent knows that whatever they play is just going to get stoned by her -3 ability you’re in good shape. It’s especially fun to play her the turn after you’ve wiped their board with a Mizzium Mortars and everything they play has to ask the question: “Swing and kill Vraska in a suicide charge or just die to her -3?”
Again I’m not sure if she’s better than Garruk because sometimes she just sat there and +1’d herself, but if you’re going to give Jund a try and have acess to swamps, why not take her for a spin and test out her wheels?
ARTIFACTS (2)
2x Rakdos Keyrune
It’s accel and can block opposing Thragtusks without dying. It survives Wrath effects and sorcery speed removal. With a Kessig Wolf Run activation it’s not just a house… it’s a mobile home travelling 100 MPH in a 60 zone. I didn’t realize how good it actually was until I had to play AGAINST it vs my friend Paul Dobbs deck and after it shut me out a few times I knew it had to be played in any midrange deck that involved B/R.
LANDS (24)
4x Overgrown Tomb
3x Blood Crypt (forgot to get the one I’d lent!)
4x Dragonskull Summit (1 should have been a B-Crypt)
4x Rootbound Crag
3x Woodland Cemetery
1x Kessig Wolf Run (Should have been 2x)
3x Forest (Should have been 2x)
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
I missed not having the 2nd Kessig Wolf run and that’s about the only change I’d make (-1 Forest +1 KWR). I’d lend out my 4th Blood Crypt to Dobbs who assured me I’d get it back for the tourney but then we both forgot.
SIDEBOARD (15)
3x Deathrite Shaman
2x Golgari Charm
2x Flames of the Firebrand
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Rakdos’s Return
1x Slaughter Games
I’ve always been a little weak at choosing sideboard cards… probably because I don’t put enough time into deckbuilding to go through the proper process of deducing my board outs / ins against different decks in the metagame. In the end things worked out ok, but in the finals I felt like I needed something more to combat the “Humans Combo Deck” that uses Angel of Retribution and Unburial Rites. I didn’t really need the Flames of the Firebrand as creature decks were already basically an auto win because of the amount of removal I was packing main deck already so a 2nd or 3rd Slaughter games would have been really helpful.
MATCHUPS / SIDEBOARDING STRATEGIES
1) Aggro / Creature based strategies get the overkill treatment.
· -2 Farseek / +2 Flames of the Firebrand
Aside from the 12 removal spells main (5 of which are often 2 for 1’s or more) you’ve also got Daybreak Ranger and 2x Vraska. Unless you get mana screwed it’s hard to lose against these strategies.
2) Midrange is always about card advantage and being able to draw relevant spells at all stages of the game. Vraska is surprisingly efficient all by herself as she’s a trump to opposing planeswalkers main plus you’ve got dreadbore which can normally deal with the fat stuff that they’re also trying to shellshock you with. There is no need to board into ultimate price & friends… Your anti-midrange tools are built in!
· -2 Farseek / +2 Liliana of the Veil
· -2 Farseek / +2 Garruk, Primal HUnter
Yep, it’s almost as though Farseek is just a placeholder for the cards that are good against other decks. As I’ve always said these matches are just about grinding, and planeswalkers embody the very essence that is CA. Depending on how creature heavy the deck I’m facing is I’ll often even consider removing the Vampire Nighthawks / Daybreak Rangers for Rakdos’s Returns. If they’re playing a top heavy deck like this one where the majority of their threats come down turn 5, I’d suggest running them when you’re on the PLAY. They’d be too slow on the draw IMHO.
3) Control decks have a tough time against this deck because most of the cards are “must counter / must remove”. You can often just play out a Thragtusk and nothing else and force them to “waste” removal on it or die to the 4 turn clock it represents. Rakdos Keyrune is again surprisingly effective here! After boarding out some of the more useless spells you end up in even better shape because almost everything becomes a must counter.
· -3 Fraseek / +3 Rakdos’s Return
· -1 Farseek -1 Mizzium Mortars / +2Liliana
· -2 Missium Mortars / +2 Garruk
If you can resolve a Rakdos’s Return before they resolve a Sphinx’s Revelation, you’re probably going to win. They are like ying and the yang in this matchup. Just like against midrange you’ve already got a lot of anti-control cards built in like Dreadbore and Vraska against their planeswalkers or few creature threats. Lilly and Garruk one again offer you card advantage because you don’t need to ramp when they’re also just stalling for time. Oh yea, I like to leave my good buddy Searing Spear in to take out planeswalkers or do those last few points of damage to the dome, and Sever the Bloodline is good against the few big guys they’re probably using as finishers.
4) COMBO! We’re definitely weak to combo, as their plan can happen much before we’re able to kill them with our grindy midrange deck. Graveyard based strategies are tough for us to deal with, as all we really have are Deathrite Shamans and a single Slaughter Games. It really depends on what kind of deck you’re facing to make a proper boarding call, because sometimes you want to race, and others you want to go all in on discard. I’ll just offer a few suggestions as to what to add, but you’ll have to decide on your own what to remove based on the matchup… call it homework for your deductive skills!
· Rakdos’s Return
· Deathrite Shaman
· Liliana of the Veil
· Slaughter Games
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS
I didn’t really feel like there was a deck out there that really caused any huge problems for this one. In fact, I hadn’t even dropped a game until the final round when I faced Human Combo and lost game 1 only to take it back game 2 and 3. The amount of versatility involved in it’s main deck is what gave me an edge in almost every game 1, and game 2 / 3 was just about sticking to the plan that works best against the deck you’re facing… whether that’s assuming the role of the control deck, or the aggro deck (because this deck can do both!).
Next week I MAY take a step off the midrange train and try something else, but really… it just keeps working so I’m hesitant to break the rhythm!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
I’ve decided to stop adding these to this blog as I’ve created another that I’m going to use to talk about politics, society, life and change. I’ll post a link or two if I’ve got some new material to share, but I feel I’d be able to go more in depth with the concepts and Ideas I’ve been abridging here if I were to devote an entire article to them.
Sometimes even I want to talk about things other than CCGs… and I’m nothing if not controversial! :P
Here is a link to the blog and the first article: HOW TO KILL THE CANADIAN DREAM: BILL C-45
http://365daysayearyoureyou.blogspot.ca/2013/01/how-to-kill-canadian-dream-bill-c-45.html
Good luck next Friday!
Carl Szalich
