PRIMER: JUND MIDRANGE
I'm posting this thread here since Jund is a Midrange deck, so I don't think that Combo or Aggro definition fits it well. The first turns Jund is able to disrupts opponent's hand and from 3rd-4th turn, Tarmogoyf and man-lands are able to do tons of damages against the probably empty board of the opponent. Jund has answers also for creatures and other permanents thanks to cards like Terminate, Lightning Bolt, Maelstrom Pulse and so on (now replaced in the white version with other one, but we'll see this later).Since I'm writing this primer now, I want to talk about
the new Jund deck that splashes white. A little history: the old iteration, with the strict B/R/G built was dominating the meta with the almighty Bloodbraid Elf. Wizards has decided to ban this card to make the general meta more mixed. In my opinion, the only results has been that now the meta is dominated by U/W/B midrange and the rising of the super-funny (for who's playing it, of course) Eggs. For those who don't know it, it's a totally uninteractive deck that when hits his combo, it allows you to look your opponent shaeningans for 10-20 minutes until infinite damage kills you.
Back on topic, I'll try to analyze every card and I'll add later a matchup section, with a syntetic sideboarding guide in the end.
The list:
[deck]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Raging Ravine
2 Stirring Wildwood
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite
Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
3 Lingering Souls
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Liliana of the Veil
Sideboard:
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Batterskull
2 Sowing Salt
2 Damnation
1 Olivia Voldaren
2 Rakdos Charm
3 Stony Silence
2 Timely Reinforcements
[/deck]
Lands:
Basic, Fetch, Shock: the core of the lands it's a mix of shocks, fetchs to fix the mana (but also pumping goyf and feeding Deathrite Shaman) and a 4x Blackcleave Cliffs, that are always useful. First turns they are free duals, late game... are always a source of mana.
Stirring Wildwood: it comes into play tapped, but it's a dual or a 3/4 beater with reach. Great card, a 2x since it comes into play tapped.
Raging Ravine: same as above, but even better: 3/3 that whenever it attacks, it gets a +1/+1 counter on it. If used well, this land can become a
huge threat.
Creatures:
Deathrite Shaman: this guy does everything. With fetchland it allows mana accelleration (turn 2 Liliana....), it gains you life (between fetch, shocks and confidant Jund is a pretty suicidal deck), and drain opponents one (eliminating their flashback/snapcaster targets). A 4x, period.
Dark Confidant: with him on the field, the +1 of Liliana is not a problem. Huge card advantage, but can costs you game. Luckily Jund has so many removals that can be used even on him. Another 4x.
Tarmogoyf: very often, a 3/4 for 1G. Late game, a 5/6 too. Very synergic with this deck (fetches + hand disruption), it's your main beater. Guess what? Another 4x.
Thundermaw Hellkite: a really interesting choise. Lingering Souls is seen more and more around, he's the answer. Dangerous to see with Confidant, but even
if he's not efficient as our little banned Elf, he's still a 5/5 flying dragon with haste, putting a terrific clock on the opponent.
Planewalkers:
Liliana of the Veil: one of the best plainswalker ever printed. She helps our hand disruption plan, she's able to laugh to Geist of Saint Traft, her ultimate is GG. As we already said, she can be dropped turn 2 thanks to Shaman.
Ajani Vengeant: the first new entry with the white splash. He's huge: with his +1 he can gain us tempo tapping lands/creatures/whatever else is annoying. His -2 is Lightning Helix, really useful for eliminating creatures and gaining us life (always crucial). With many others walker, his ultimate is GG.
Spells:
Lightning Bolt: a 4x: R for 3 damages to whatever we want is huge. Best burn spell ever, it's never a dead card in hand.
Thoughtseize: we
pay 2 life for this, but it's huge. Discarding everything but lands is terrific for our game plan. A 3x, because there's also:
Inquisizion of Kozilek: whatever costs 3 mana or less, it's discarded. Another great opening for disrupting hand. Turn 1 fetch, this (let's say we have discarded a creature) means that you can land a 3/4 Goyf turn 2.
Path to Exile: the best creature removal in modern, simply put. Use it wisely, because it accelerates your opponent. That's the drawback you have to pay for exiling at just W.
Lingering Souls: huge card. It gives us more flying blocker (but also damage if we are in a good position), it has flashback (so if discarded with Liliana's +1 is not that bad). There's nothing more to say.
Abrupt Decay: uncounterable instant at BG that destroy a permanent with mana cost of 3 or less. The simple definition of this card should be enough for
putting it in the deck.
Sideboard:
Aven Mindcensor: this is for the damned Tron and Kiki-Jiki Pod. No more deck searching, plus it's a 2/1 flying body. Another solid choise opened up by white.
Batterskull: in the mirror matchup and U/W/R too a resolved Batterskull is often the main win condition. Very suggested.
Sowing Salt: tron is a bad matchup for jund, so more hate is always a good thing. It can also shut down other non-basic lands, for 2RR breaking your opponent's game is honest.
Olivia Voldaren: new zoo is dead with her. She can be useful in the mirror too and the general durdles deck. I really like her.
Damnation: hatebear deck is born to demolish Jund. Luckily, we have a lot of answers and this is the best one against them. Just be sure to cast/draw it soon enough.
[card]Rakdos Charm[/card:
3ttxd915]: game-breaker against Eggs if used right, huge against all graveyard decks and can demolish even Kiki-Jiki combo. Endless creature? Endless damage, but to the controller of them.
Stony Silence: this is our answer for Affinity and Eggs too. Very similar to the GG effect of Blood Moon against some kind of decks.
Timely Reinforcements: our saviour vs aggro decks: 6 life+more bodies is really helpful.
As we can see, white splash open up a lot of answers for Jund, both mainboard and even more in the sideboard. For sure the deck is not a budget one, but is fun as hell to play.
I've tried to fuse the sideboarding guide and the SB description explaining what cards are useful against the other archtypes. For every question, criticism, opinions and so on, I'm at disposal!
