Post by John Galli on Mar 3, 2013 21:09:57 GMT -5
Thanks again to everyone for loaning cards and the support. Was glad I went and I felt very confident about the deck going in despite having some soul-crushing stumbles.
Here was the list I settled on this morning:
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
4 Raging Ravine
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Savage Lands
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Swamp
1 Forest
(24 Lands)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Dark Confidant
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
(18 Creatures)
3 Lingering Souls
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Jund Charm
(18 Spells)
Sideboard:
3 Rakdos Charm
3 Sowing Salt
2 Stony Silence
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Batterskull
1 Dismember
The list obviously changed a lot since Green Bay and since my thoughts on it this last week. I couldn't sleep last night due to the tournament and sore limbs, so I went online and ended up finding a dech-tech on Willy Edel's Jund who won the GP Toronto tournament (the same one the other guy Jon Stern got 7th at with the article I posted on here earlier). He had some really off-kilter ideas, but I liked his rational for them and it revolved around some of the cards I was either not enjoying or on the fence about.
For instance, Liliana seemed very underpowered in this deck compared to the standard counterpart. She frequently goes to 1 counter, and anytime you want to use her as discard she ends up netting you a lot of card disadvantage. Your either discarding a land you need to activate manlands or your discarding a value card. A few UWR players tried to argue it's "good" against them, but the truth is it's marginal. This was proved assuredly in my match today. It's also recommended to be sided out in a lot of matches from top players. Anyhoo, I cut all 4 and never looked back. I wanted a few jund charms to have some maindeck resistence to eggs, to replace liliana's ability to kill Geist of Saint Traft, and a little more value against tokens and aggro. At the very least, it's a nice combat trick or an additional pressure card when you know your opponent is on the backfoot.
Another move he made was to cut 2 dark confidant. While the card might be worth a lot of money and seem like an auto 4 of in Jund, the damage you take from Bob is frequently a problem and you almost never want to cast 2 of them. I think you want some element of this effect in the deck; he's still very powerful, but between drawing too many and having him killed a lot anyways, 2 was really all I wanted. It worked out well today, I still drew Bob often but not too often like I was before and never multiples. It allowed me to squeeze in more value cards like Kitchen Finks and Thundermaw Hellkite. Hellkite was a card he ran also, and from what he was saying I could see how powerful it was in the mirror and UWR not to mention being effective against a lot of decks. I thought about my RDW deck in standard and realized that it's very similar in mana and curve and that if that deck can cast it and beat with it, then Jund should be able to also. I wasn't running Edel's Cobra's, so the deck isn't as explosive sometimes, but having Cobra as a 2-of seemed very marginal to me and I never liked him anyways. Like Bob, he's a liability at times and not running him meant running more value instead. To counter-balance the lessening of two drops, I kept the removal suite (besides charm) at 2 terminate and 2 abrupt decay so that zoo / affinity / infect wouldn't just steam roll me.
The sideboard I was very comfortable with going into the tournament and didn't change anything between Friday and Saturday. If I'd make a change today, I'd probably cut 1 or 2 cards meant for UWR and the mirror as I already had a great handle on that match and I would run a 4th sowing salt and an additional 1 mana discard spell (or a Slaughter Games). Tron is such a nasty deck, and even though I'd board heavily against them you really need key cards. I was already running more salts than most builds, but it still was a problem. Otherwise, my board was impeccable and I felt like I had more than enough cards for each match. I liked Olivia a lot, I'd probably run another of her over the batterskull.
The Tournament:
Round 1 vs B/W/R Burn
I saw the smattering of top 8 SCG pins on the guy's playmat when we first sat down and was immediately primed to take this as seriously as possible. Game 1 was long; it went for about 25 minutes and I think when he saw Jund he was probably thinking the same thing I was; that the match is fairly in his favor although I was hoping my particular build would be more resilient with finks + huntmaster + souls. This proved correct, as Kitchen finks and huntmaster barely kept me alive and an early thundermaw + raging ravine provided enough pressure to win while I was at 5 life. Game 2 I brought in batterskull, olivia, dismember (i think), pulses (against blood moon) and ended up playing goyf, lingering souls, runner runner huntmaster and took the match easily.
1-0 (2-0 games)
Round 2 vs UWR Control
Ah yes, the matchup I was hoping to play again. Since I had played a lot of it in Green Bay I knew I was a slight favorite, but having the experience and making changes to my deck that gave me a lot more value against them I knew it was probably a lot more of a favorite now. Game 1 I played deathrite into burn, then lingering souls + flashback + goyf and took it down quickly. Game 2 I had thoughtseize + inquisition to strip away a bolt and a sphinx's revelation and give me knowledge of his 2 azorious charms and a cryptic. I played into / around these, leaving him with really just manlands left and me having double huntmaster + thundermaw + raging ravine. He was frantically trying to draw cards to get in the match, but I still had Bob in hand, double maelstrom pulse and double abupt decay. That match wasn't going anywhere.
2-0 (4-0 games)
Round 3 vs Bloodhall Ooze Jund
This round I played against the more aggressive Jund build piloted by a guy who said he just top 8'd a ptq and got 9th in Iowa the day before. I had heard the ooze version was good in the mirror, I don't know who came up with that theory as I crushed him. He had no ability to stop Lingering Souls in game 1 combined with Kitchen Finks and Huntmaster. Game 2 he got stuck on 2 r/g lands and had a mit full of blightnings and pulses to my gigantic board state + the batterskull and olivia in my hand. Lingering Souls + Finks + Huntmaster = very good.
Round 4 vs Tron
I caught an accidental glimpse while he was shuffling and saw he was on Tron, not that the information gave me much but my opening hand was a pair of bolts, a goyf, and something else (maybe a deathrite). I was able to apply a good deal of early pressure and it was clear that while he was going to get tron it was going to be turn 6 or 7 at least as opposed to 3 or 4. I got him down to 3 life, but at that point he unfortunately played Karn and then Wurmcoil Engine to take the win. In game 2 I boarded in 2/3 of my sideboard, and I stuck a turn 2 stony silence on the play. Unfortunately I made the mistake of boarding out inquisitions and instead having more artifact hate and I forgot that he runs ancient stirrings and Sylvan Scrying, both cards I still want to nab. After the stony silence shut down his turn one expedition map he just played back to back sylvan scryings, got tron, and finished me off.
3-1 (6-2 games)
Round 5 vs RBW Midrange
This was an ornery fellow who was I think testing with the Madison "Pro" crew (Brazz, Severa, etc) and his deck was some kind of project they had worked on it was clear. At first I thought he was tokens since in game 1 he put in a lot of work on me with Lingering Souls. I managed to recover in that game though with double goyf and double huntmaster, both of which flipped forcing him to read the card and then promptly get owned by it. Game 2 him and I battled, he pathed 3 of my guys (mostly giant goyfs), I pulsed his guys, we traded guys, destroyed manlands, etc, all the good stuff. He then got Ajani Vengeant and Desecration Demon going against me and that sealed the deal. Game 3, almost exactly like game 2 except I had excellent board state with 2 goyfs, deathrite shaman, and huntmaster + wolf but I had overextended into the 2 tarmogoyfs that were both 1/2 and a timely pyroclasm rip off of his phyrexian arena allowed him to completely wrath the board and leave me with nothing in hand but lands. He followed it up with the same cards as game 2 and I couldn't recover. To be fair, Phyrexian Arena drew him like 10 cards that game otherwise I think I still would have taken it.
3-2 (7-4 games)
Round 6 vs Tron
Game 1 my opponent seemed to not be sure of himself or his plan, and it appeared he had a very slow hand. I didn't do much other than play goyf and huntmasters, but eventually as it looked like he wasn't going to do anything I activated ravine, crashed with the team and got there. Game 2 was way too long. He got a turn 3 or 4 tron assembled and played Karn. He exiled a card in my hand keeping Karn out of the range of my tiny tarmogoyf on the table. Next turn I sowing salt'd his Urza's Tower to keep him away from anything more. Then I battled with Karn for about 5 or 6 turns, and somehow at the point where I thought it was lost he let a Bob stick around for a few turns to draw me into a ton of cards. I was able to pulse the Karn, he followed up with another, and eventually I dealt with that. He had 6 lands and an eldrazi land left. I should have sowing salted the eldrazi land. I don't know what i was thinking, my process was basically that he has like 18 to 19 land in his deck so why not just get one of the tron lands he has out and cut even more land out of his deck. I don't know how I forgot that the eldrazi land could also get wurmcoils. He missed a lot of search turns for wurmcoil for some reason (I have no clue) but the mistake cost me dearly. I was able to deal with one wurmcoil with a terminate and attack for exactly lethal with the lifelink wurm left behind leaving him at exactly 3 life. Next turn his o-stone became active and I was back to square 1. Quite a few minutes later the match was decided in his favor with 1:35 on the clock. We started game 3 but it was hopeless and we went to five turns for the draw.
3-2-1 DROP
Conclusion - Modern is fun, Jund is very competitive. The deck has the legs it needs to get there, it just needs to absolutely have an anti-combo focus in the board and probably 1-2 maindeck switches to have some kind of game against them game 1. Abrupt Decay was really weak, despite being there for a casting cost reason. I should just played the pulses main or a split of pulse and dismember (something like that). Otherwise, I felt the rest of the cards were very solid and the aggro/midrange matches felt extremely in my favor the whole time.
Here was the list I settled on this morning:
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
4 Raging Ravine
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Savage Lands
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Swamp
1 Forest
(24 Lands)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Dark Confidant
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
(18 Creatures)
3 Lingering Souls
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Jund Charm
(18 Spells)
Sideboard:
3 Rakdos Charm
3 Sowing Salt
2 Stony Silence
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Batterskull
1 Dismember
The list obviously changed a lot since Green Bay and since my thoughts on it this last week. I couldn't sleep last night due to the tournament and sore limbs, so I went online and ended up finding a dech-tech on Willy Edel's Jund who won the GP Toronto tournament (the same one the other guy Jon Stern got 7th at with the article I posted on here earlier). He had some really off-kilter ideas, but I liked his rational for them and it revolved around some of the cards I was either not enjoying or on the fence about.
For instance, Liliana seemed very underpowered in this deck compared to the standard counterpart. She frequently goes to 1 counter, and anytime you want to use her as discard she ends up netting you a lot of card disadvantage. Your either discarding a land you need to activate manlands or your discarding a value card. A few UWR players tried to argue it's "good" against them, but the truth is it's marginal. This was proved assuredly in my match today. It's also recommended to be sided out in a lot of matches from top players. Anyhoo, I cut all 4 and never looked back. I wanted a few jund charms to have some maindeck resistence to eggs, to replace liliana's ability to kill Geist of Saint Traft, and a little more value against tokens and aggro. At the very least, it's a nice combat trick or an additional pressure card when you know your opponent is on the backfoot.
Another move he made was to cut 2 dark confidant. While the card might be worth a lot of money and seem like an auto 4 of in Jund, the damage you take from Bob is frequently a problem and you almost never want to cast 2 of them. I think you want some element of this effect in the deck; he's still very powerful, but between drawing too many and having him killed a lot anyways, 2 was really all I wanted. It worked out well today, I still drew Bob often but not too often like I was before and never multiples. It allowed me to squeeze in more value cards like Kitchen Finks and Thundermaw Hellkite. Hellkite was a card he ran also, and from what he was saying I could see how powerful it was in the mirror and UWR not to mention being effective against a lot of decks. I thought about my RDW deck in standard and realized that it's very similar in mana and curve and that if that deck can cast it and beat with it, then Jund should be able to also. I wasn't running Edel's Cobra's, so the deck isn't as explosive sometimes, but having Cobra as a 2-of seemed very marginal to me and I never liked him anyways. Like Bob, he's a liability at times and not running him meant running more value instead. To counter-balance the lessening of two drops, I kept the removal suite (besides charm) at 2 terminate and 2 abrupt decay so that zoo / affinity / infect wouldn't just steam roll me.
The sideboard I was very comfortable with going into the tournament and didn't change anything between Friday and Saturday. If I'd make a change today, I'd probably cut 1 or 2 cards meant for UWR and the mirror as I already had a great handle on that match and I would run a 4th sowing salt and an additional 1 mana discard spell (or a Slaughter Games). Tron is such a nasty deck, and even though I'd board heavily against them you really need key cards. I was already running more salts than most builds, but it still was a problem. Otherwise, my board was impeccable and I felt like I had more than enough cards for each match. I liked Olivia a lot, I'd probably run another of her over the batterskull.
The Tournament:
Round 1 vs B/W/R Burn
I saw the smattering of top 8 SCG pins on the guy's playmat when we first sat down and was immediately primed to take this as seriously as possible. Game 1 was long; it went for about 25 minutes and I think when he saw Jund he was probably thinking the same thing I was; that the match is fairly in his favor although I was hoping my particular build would be more resilient with finks + huntmaster + souls. This proved correct, as Kitchen finks and huntmaster barely kept me alive and an early thundermaw + raging ravine provided enough pressure to win while I was at 5 life. Game 2 I brought in batterskull, olivia, dismember (i think), pulses (against blood moon) and ended up playing goyf, lingering souls, runner runner huntmaster and took the match easily.
1-0 (2-0 games)
Round 2 vs UWR Control
Ah yes, the matchup I was hoping to play again. Since I had played a lot of it in Green Bay I knew I was a slight favorite, but having the experience and making changes to my deck that gave me a lot more value against them I knew it was probably a lot more of a favorite now. Game 1 I played deathrite into burn, then lingering souls + flashback + goyf and took it down quickly. Game 2 I had thoughtseize + inquisition to strip away a bolt and a sphinx's revelation and give me knowledge of his 2 azorious charms and a cryptic. I played into / around these, leaving him with really just manlands left and me having double huntmaster + thundermaw + raging ravine. He was frantically trying to draw cards to get in the match, but I still had Bob in hand, double maelstrom pulse and double abupt decay. That match wasn't going anywhere.
2-0 (4-0 games)
Round 3 vs Bloodhall Ooze Jund
This round I played against the more aggressive Jund build piloted by a guy who said he just top 8'd a ptq and got 9th in Iowa the day before. I had heard the ooze version was good in the mirror, I don't know who came up with that theory as I crushed him. He had no ability to stop Lingering Souls in game 1 combined with Kitchen Finks and Huntmaster. Game 2 he got stuck on 2 r/g lands and had a mit full of blightnings and pulses to my gigantic board state + the batterskull and olivia in my hand. Lingering Souls + Finks + Huntmaster = very good.
Round 4 vs Tron
I caught an accidental glimpse while he was shuffling and saw he was on Tron, not that the information gave me much but my opening hand was a pair of bolts, a goyf, and something else (maybe a deathrite). I was able to apply a good deal of early pressure and it was clear that while he was going to get tron it was going to be turn 6 or 7 at least as opposed to 3 or 4. I got him down to 3 life, but at that point he unfortunately played Karn and then Wurmcoil Engine to take the win. In game 2 I boarded in 2/3 of my sideboard, and I stuck a turn 2 stony silence on the play. Unfortunately I made the mistake of boarding out inquisitions and instead having more artifact hate and I forgot that he runs ancient stirrings and Sylvan Scrying, both cards I still want to nab. After the stony silence shut down his turn one expedition map he just played back to back sylvan scryings, got tron, and finished me off.
3-1 (6-2 games)
Round 5 vs RBW Midrange
This was an ornery fellow who was I think testing with the Madison "Pro" crew (Brazz, Severa, etc) and his deck was some kind of project they had worked on it was clear. At first I thought he was tokens since in game 1 he put in a lot of work on me with Lingering Souls. I managed to recover in that game though with double goyf and double huntmaster, both of which flipped forcing him to read the card and then promptly get owned by it. Game 2 him and I battled, he pathed 3 of my guys (mostly giant goyfs), I pulsed his guys, we traded guys, destroyed manlands, etc, all the good stuff. He then got Ajani Vengeant and Desecration Demon going against me and that sealed the deal. Game 3, almost exactly like game 2 except I had excellent board state with 2 goyfs, deathrite shaman, and huntmaster + wolf but I had overextended into the 2 tarmogoyfs that were both 1/2 and a timely pyroclasm rip off of his phyrexian arena allowed him to completely wrath the board and leave me with nothing in hand but lands. He followed it up with the same cards as game 2 and I couldn't recover. To be fair, Phyrexian Arena drew him like 10 cards that game otherwise I think I still would have taken it.
3-2 (7-4 games)
Round 6 vs Tron
Game 1 my opponent seemed to not be sure of himself or his plan, and it appeared he had a very slow hand. I didn't do much other than play goyf and huntmasters, but eventually as it looked like he wasn't going to do anything I activated ravine, crashed with the team and got there. Game 2 was way too long. He got a turn 3 or 4 tron assembled and played Karn. He exiled a card in my hand keeping Karn out of the range of my tiny tarmogoyf on the table. Next turn I sowing salt'd his Urza's Tower to keep him away from anything more. Then I battled with Karn for about 5 or 6 turns, and somehow at the point where I thought it was lost he let a Bob stick around for a few turns to draw me into a ton of cards. I was able to pulse the Karn, he followed up with another, and eventually I dealt with that. He had 6 lands and an eldrazi land left. I should have sowing salted the eldrazi land. I don't know what i was thinking, my process was basically that he has like 18 to 19 land in his deck so why not just get one of the tron lands he has out and cut even more land out of his deck. I don't know how I forgot that the eldrazi land could also get wurmcoils. He missed a lot of search turns for wurmcoil for some reason (I have no clue) but the mistake cost me dearly. I was able to deal with one wurmcoil with a terminate and attack for exactly lethal with the lifelink wurm left behind leaving him at exactly 3 life. Next turn his o-stone became active and I was back to square 1. Quite a few minutes later the match was decided in his favor with 1:35 on the clock. We started game 3 but it was hopeless and we went to five turns for the draw.
3-2-1 DROP
Conclusion - Modern is fun, Jund is very competitive. The deck has the legs it needs to get there, it just needs to absolutely have an anti-combo focus in the board and probably 1-2 maindeck switches to have some kind of game against them game 1. Abrupt Decay was really weak, despite being there for a casting cost reason. I should just played the pulses main or a split of pulse and dismember (something like that). Otherwise, I felt the rest of the cards were very solid and the aggro/midrange matches felt extremely in my favor the whole time.
