This past month of magic has been pretty good to me. For starters, I got to pilot my online Jund deck to first place in a paper PTQ. This was the list I played:
The main difference here, is I cut the 4x Lightning Bolt for the one-of Rootbound Crag and 3x Cunning Sparkmage. I had only tested this change once online, a day before the event, but it led to a 4-0 daily, so it seemed fine for the PTQ. In fact, it was more than fine. In my opinion it was tech that simply beat the entire meta for that event. Granted, this event was not the largest. PTQs in Columbus generally draw crowds of around 250-300 people. This particular PTQ took place at Origins, a convention which, like Ohio itself, has seen better years. Total attendance was just over sixty. Still, plenty of good players and good decks turned out. Specifically, Jund, Mythic, and UW(R) Walkers, dominated the top tables
Sparkmage is good in all of these match-ups. Mythic really needs no explanation. I've played in dailies where opponents have scooped up after seeing one Mage hit the table. Some online Mythic lists have taken to boarding Celestial Purge just to get around auto-losing to Sparky, and I'm sure they aren't happy about it.
Against U/W, I was boarding Sparkmage out, as I had done for bolt, and putting in Duress. In game three round one of the top eight, I decided I'd rather try and agro out with Sparkmage than mess around with Duress. What I didn't realize is Cunning Sparkmage also gives you a great out to one of U/Ws toughest cards for Jund, (Elspeth, Knight Errant). If you don't have a Pulse immediately, Elspeth quickly gets out of hand. A Pulse draw a few turns later puts you in the awkward position of killing tokens and trying to attack or pulsing Elspeth and not breaking through for a few turns. Sticking a Sparkmage on turn three means their Elspeth isn't doing much for at least five turns. From this position, it's best to just ignore Elspeth and try to end it as quickly as possible. My matchup against U/W got immensely better after this realization, and Sparkmage continued to harass Ajani, Jace, and Elspeth for the rest of the weekend.
In the mirror, Sparkmage may seem suspect, but I think it's actually quite strong. Jund mirrors are usually not very diverse. At the very least, your creature bases should both include play sets of Putrid Leech, Sprouting Thrinax, and Bloodbraid Elf. These three creatures form something of a rock-paper-scissors relationship. Leech alone is pretty good against a Thrinax alone, because you can hopefully pump to kill the Thrinax then kill the tokens as a 2/2. Thrinax is good against Bloodbraid, because even if they hit removal, the tokens can still trade and leave you with a 1/1. Bloodbraid should give you enough card advantage to outmaneuver just a Leech.
One Cunning Sparkmage, however, swings all combat in your favor. Your Thrinaxes now trade with Leech and set your opponent back two life. Opposing Thrinaxes can be cut to one token in one turn [if you activate at their end and your main] and out of tokens in two. Sparky also makes turn five Siege-gang look weak and stops Sarkhan tokens from easily blocking Leeches. Sparkmage is obviously better in multiples, but still easily gets around Pulse as long as you always leave one up before their end step.
Shortly after the PTQ there was a GPT that many of the same people participated in. I ended up splitting top two in that event, making it clear to me that I had the right deck for the event.
While that Con was all sugar and lollipops, there is always the daily grind to come back to. Here's the list I'm playing online now.
The changes are mostly minor, but reflect a large shift in the online meta game. U/W is a deck people have [rightly] given up on for the time being. The three decks that matter online right now are Jund, Mythic, and Red. In my opinion, Jund is the best positioned deck right now. We have a strong Mythic match up and a relatively good game against Red. Jund is also better against random swag than Red, and is generally more consistent.
One for one removal is pretty subpar in this matchup, and Pulse is situationally terrible. Ruinblaster is an obvious board, and can often win games by himself. On the draw, Ranger is trying to stop you from losing to Ruinblaster. Bit Blast is always good because its removal with potential for a lot of card advantage, which is often what this matchup comes down to.
Removal is the name of the game in this matchup. Your priority is to kill all of their guys ASAP. If you do, the win should come pretty easily. Again, Sparkmage is king here.
The cards we cut all might as well be dead here. Don't dream any pipe dreams about Sparkmage killing (Ball Lightnings), it'll never happen. The goal here is to prevent as much damage as possible, while still getting in for damage. You have to try and read what Red can play and try to prevent as much damage from it as you can. Always block. Leech is almost always out of burn range as long as you never pump. Leech should also be traded aggressively with Goblin Guide. If you can get your opponent on a clock while still keeping up removal, you should have it locked.
Other Notes:
Prism is for any deck that tries to get cheeky with Spreading Seas. I've seen people use it in the mirror to counter Ruinblaster hate, but it seems bad to me. Tempo loses that game much more often than color screw. When playing against random control decks, think about what they are trying to play and play against it. Sarkhan is generally good for flying over walls and trading with Sphinx. If they play Baneslayer Angel, play Doom Blade. If they play Elspeth, play Sparkmage. Ruinblaster is generally always playable against control, even on the draw. Turboland is a tricky matchup. Doom Blade, Pulse, and Leech are your best weapons.
I'll leave you with the cards that I think Jund will care about in M11.
Let's start with a card that everyone is going to have to care about. Competitive players love blue so much, that they'll often play a worse deck as long as it's blue. I know several local players who play nothing but blue, because they think other colors don't offer a skill based game. This is wrong for a number of reasons I won't go into here. The point is, people are going to play with Mana Leak and we need to be ready for it. Cards like Siege-Gang and Sarkhan will still be playable, but maybe not on turn five. Fortunately, our cascade and aggressive spells get a little better. Blue mages aren't going to tap out as much, making Wall of Omens less of a hindrance. The information you can get from Blightning is also going to be much more important. It's value in the late game should also improve.
People claim Obstinate Baloth will be the death of Jund. Hardly. I don't think Mythic is going to throw this card around anytime soon. Naya may make a resurgence attempting to play this card and Fauna Shaman, but I think Baloth is most at home in Jund. It's a 4/4 powerhouse in the mirror, and getting one off a Blightning can defiantly turn a game around quick. It also functionally prevents 8 damage against red. Something that nothing short of a lucky Bit Blast can match.
Fauna Shaman is a card I've given a lot of thought to in Jund. Vengevine builds with guaranteed cascades are where this card could be the nuts. Discarding Vegevine for Bloodbraid or fetching a Baloth in response to Blightning puts your opponent in a pretty hellish spot. Whether the compromises need to make a build like this work are worth it remains to be seen.
That's all for this article. Thanks for reading, now win some games.
Good read. I'm now tempted to rename my next article "Losing With Jund", as has been the case before I finally started playing UW again.
I agree with your thoughts on Obstinate Baloth and Fauna Shaman, but as a blatantly bia blue battler (See wat I did thar?) I'm inclined to dissagree with your outlook on Mana Leak. In UW Permission builds, which I tend to favor despite it's slightly less than stellar match vs Jund, it's not Wall of Omens that will be cut, but rather Spreading Seas. It's not your turn 3 play that scares me, as I'll block your Thrinax and prepare for Blightning, but rather the cascade shenanigans starting on turn four. I also disagree, as I believe it's against Cascade that mana Leak really begins to shine. The cascade enablers aren't so much the problem, as is often what's cascaded into. It's unlikely you'll have the mana for your cascade spell having just spent 4 for BBE, or 5 for BitBlast.
These are just my 2c, and I'm sure it'll be up for debate. I just think Mana Leak will be a little more relevant to the Jund player than is implied.
You make a good point, Westane. Thrinax isn't a spell U/W generally needs to counter. Blightning on T3 generally merits a mana leak, but Jund usually wants to play guys on T3 if they have the option.
The thing about Cascade is even if you need to counter the cascade, it was already a good turn. If I play BBE and cascade into something that needs to be countered, say blightning, even if blightning gets leaked I still burned a counter and got a guy. The bad cascades you probably don't want to counter anyway, so while Mana Leak can sometimes make bad situations better, I don't think it ever really "shines" against cascade spells.
Mana Leak, however is really good against Jund's big spells, such as Seige-gang and Sarkhan. It gives them a game one counter, they probably didn't have before. Game two, they probably boarded into Flash Freeze which is almost always better here.
As a token last remark, Spreading Seas is still nuts, and will probably never be cut as long as loose mana bases and man lands stick around.
Let me emphasize how painful cutting Spreading Seas is for me. However, as we gravitate towards more blue in the format, and if not then more stable mana bases, as well as having access to Tectonic Edge, Wall of Omens just has a bit more value to it.
This is also from the permission player's (my) standpoint of not wanting to tap out on turn 2 anyway. I would frequently find myself holding on to Wall of Omens and in some cases even Spreading Seas until turn 4 as it was, so, I guess on time and testing will tell.
3 Comments
Good read. I'm now tempted to rename my next article "Losing With Jund", as has been the case before I finally started playing UW again.
I agree with your thoughts on Obstinate Baloth and Fauna Shaman, but as a blatantly bia blue battler (See wat I did thar?) I'm inclined to dissagree with your outlook on Mana Leak. In UW Permission builds, which I tend to favor despite it's slightly less than stellar match vs Jund, it's not Wall of Omens that will be cut, but rather Spreading Seas. It's not your turn 3 play that scares me, as I'll block your Thrinax and prepare for Blightning, but rather the cascade shenanigans starting on turn four. I also disagree, as I believe it's against Cascade that mana Leak really begins to shine. The cascade enablers aren't so much the problem, as is often what's cascaded into. It's unlikely you'll have the mana for your cascade spell having just spent 4 for BBE, or 5 for BitBlast.
These are just my 2c, and I'm sure it'll be up for debate. I just think Mana Leak will be a little more relevant to the Jund player than is implied.
/longwindedrant
You make a good point, Westane. Thrinax isn't a spell U/W generally needs to counter. Blightning on T3 generally merits a mana leak, but Jund usually wants to play guys on T3 if they have the option.
The thing about Cascade is even if you need to counter the cascade, it was already a good turn. If I play BBE and cascade into something that needs to be countered, say blightning, even if blightning gets leaked I still burned a counter and got a guy. The bad cascades you probably don't want to counter anyway, so while Mana Leak can sometimes make bad situations better, I don't think it ever really "shines" against cascade spells.
Mana Leak, however is really good against Jund's big spells, such as Seige-gang and Sarkhan. It gives them a game one counter, they probably didn't have before. Game two, they probably boarded into Flash Freeze which is almost always better here.
As a token last remark, Spreading Seas is still nuts, and will probably never be cut as long as loose mana bases and man lands stick around.
All good points.
Let me emphasize how painful cutting Spreading Seas is for me. However, as we gravitate towards more blue in the format, and if not then more stable mana bases, as well as having access to Tectonic Edge, Wall of Omens just has a bit more value to it.
This is also from the permission player's (my) standpoint of not wanting to tap out on turn 2 anyway. I would frequently find myself holding on to Wall of Omens and in some cases even Spreading Seas until turn 4 as it was, so, I guess on time and testing will tell.