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Thread: What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

  1. #1

    What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

    Hi there! I'm Dustin Green and I jund hard, in all formats. All of the time. This is my first post so bear with me here. I've always been drawn to fair strategies. I'm not a fan of getting cute or clever with my card choices or deck selection. I play jund because it has game against everything and there's almost always something you could have done differently to better your odds. If you are playing jund perfectly and losing often, then your definition of perfect is lacking. Enough of that though, let's get on with why I'm posting today, I just won a legacy iq and The RUG Doctor himself, Taylor Scott, wants me to post a report so let's get to it.

    My usual road dogs, Taylor and Clay, would not be attending this event. We swap decks a lot during playtesting and I'm somewhat drawn to rug delver. It's solid, focused, and proactive. Qualities I appreciate. It's lack of late game power is a real turn off for me though. Taylor let me borrow rug and I thought I should at least give the deck a shot in at least one tournament, as Taylor rarely misses legacy events and I wouldn't have the opportunity very often.

    I decided to play delver when I showed up at Battlegrounds Games and Movies in Dalton, Georgia. I registered, got my decklist and started filling it out. Taylor had given me a huge amount of cards to tune the deck to my liking, including a lot of solid sideboard cards. This is where I got worried. Do I want all of these burn spells? What does he bring in clique against? What do I board out? Do I want to play TNN? I had 55 cards from the deck written down on my decklist before I crumbled it up, got another decklist, and wrote down my jund list off the top of my head. Here's the list that decided to do battle with.

    http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=68747

    I felt relieved and a little foolish for thinking I could pilot delver effectively just because I screw around with it with my friends. I let my friend Eddie Warren think that I was on delver for the majority of the tournament though, because I believe in the small advantages and i was sure that I'd meet him at the top tables eventually. So let's dive in to the actual games.

    Round 1 Hypergenesis
    My opponent wins the die roll and goes forest go, I'm putting her on elves at this point. I keep a reasonable hand or 2 fetches, swamp, deathrite shaman, bob, Bloodbraid Elf, lightning bolt. I draw another deathrite shaman and play the swamp into deathrite shaman. On my end step she exiles a simian spirit guide and an elvish spirit guide, cast violent outburst into hypergenesis and untaps with a progenitus, empyral archangel, and magister sphinx in play. I thought this was fate trolling me after I just opted to not play the bane of combo decks everywhere. I don't let these things bother me anymore though, I knew this when I built the deck and have made peace with it.

    I have no experience against this deck but anticombo cards are fairly interchangeable for Jund.
    Out
    2 bolts
    2 fires
    3 decays

    In
    3 Duress
    2 Surgical extraction
    2 Ensnaring bridge

    I wanted to board out the last fire but I didn't think any of my other sideboard cards really did anything. Fire at least let's me get more value out of liliana which is why it got the nod over bolt.

    Game 2 My hand is great in the dark. Deathrite Shaman, Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, Bloodbraid Elf, a dual and 2 fetches. This is something you have to learn to accept with jund, the whole "lands? Spells? I'll keep!" Thing won't get you there in certain match ups. This was one of them. I decide to keep fetch, bayou, wasteland, hymn to tourach, liliana, and ensnaring bridge. My turn 2 hymn hits a land and Progenitus. She misses her 2nd land drop and I smell blood with the wasteland in my hand. I debate for a little while and decide to go for the waste and get my freshly drawn bob out there, over liliana, on turn 3. She finds a blue source but doesn't do anything, I'm fairly puzzled as to what she could have because I've never played against the deck before. She finds her next land a little too late as I've stripped her hand of action with more discard spells, compliments of dark confidant. I surgical a random card in her graveyard before dealing lethal damage to get some information. Leyline of Sanctity is among the cards of interest, but she only has 2. Bogarden hellkite and kokusho cause me to raise an eyebrow for a moment and I wonder if this is a brew or the actual stock list for the deck.

    No changes to board plan. If she wants to mulligan into leyline then that's fine with me, golgari charm was considered but I felt more comfortable just hoping she didn't hit it. This is part of sideboarding in general, it's an art, not a science. If she mulls into it and finds it then yeah, my discard spells are blanked but she starts with fewer cards and she needs a really good 4-5 to win. I'm not saying what I did was correct, but I felt it was the stronger game plan against only 2 copies of leyline. If she had more then, things would have been different.

    My game 3 hand is fine but not great thoughtseize, lands, Sylvan library, and Bloodbraid elf. I consider a mulligan but the thoughtseize convinces me. She mulls to 5 and doesn't find leyline. I thoughtseize a violent outburst over random fatties and note that she only has 1 land in hand and 1 in play, library on 2, goyf on 3. On her end step I decide to surgical a fatty just to see her hand because she hadn't done anything since I saw it on turn 1. I see 2 show and tells and fatties. She has no blue mana atm. On my turn 4,I only have Bloodbraid elf and a land in hand, my library reveals a thoughtseize. I take the thoughtseize over the 2 lands and decide to cast it over Bloodbraid elf. She's at 20 and if I cast bbe this turn then she goes to 12 to 4 to dead. But if I cast Bloodbraid next turn then it's the same 3 turn clock and I get to see 3 more cards with Sylvan next turn when I crack my fetchland. So I decided to just cast the thoughtseize and take progenitus which is the only fattie I can't beat with my current board seeing as she can't get both of her magister sphinx out at the same time unless she hits violent outburst in which case I just die, and hope to set up a good cascade next turn. She draws air and passes, on my next turn I pay 4 life to get a thoughtseize and a 5th land. I play the land and cast bbe and hit a hymn, then I thoughtseize her last show and tell, hit her down to seven. She draws and extends the hand. I felt good overcoming a combo deck in round 1. Chi Hoi Yim was watching my match and had good advice for the future. Because most of her creatures can kill me with etb effects, ensnaring bridge was probably worse than bolt as it could help end the game quicker. I can see his point, she has ashen riders and other things that kill the bridge and I can't sit behind bridge for too long anyway so that's something to consider in the future.
    2-1 me
    1-0
    Round 2 Sneak and Show
    Fate is not done making an example of me it seems. I'm more comfortable against sneak and show than most combo decks though, discard is stronger and liliana is a beating so I try to stay focused on what matters.

    I keep a solid hand: double goyf, lands, thoughtseize, abrupt decay, and liliana.
    My opponent is on the play and fetches a volcanic to cast ponder. So he could be a lot of things at this point. I'm guessing patriot because I saw a lot of it being played during registration. I start to just play a land and pass but that would be dumb. The thoughtseize is going to grow my goyfs even if it's countered and I can't sit there and do nothing. My thoughtseize resolves and I sigh pretty heavily. His hand wasn't great though, I just wanted to not play against another combo deck this early. Fortunately his show and tell was the clear choice. His hand was non sol lands, brain storm, show and tell, and griselbrand. He didn't shuffle off of ponder but unless he Brainstorms into sol land plus petal plus show and tell then I'm fine. Turns out he left another copy of show and tell on top of his deck with ponder but didn't find the sol land or the petal with his brainstorm. I draw another thoughtseize which makes the wasteland I drew on my first turn a much more promising option. I waste him first to play around daze, then thoughtseize seize again to see his new hand: another show and tell, emrakul, griselbrand, and nonsol lands. I take the griselbrand because he's out of cantrips and he can't draw both sneak attack and a sol land, and liliana can deal with emrakul because he has no counter magic. He draws, plays a land and passes. I draw a land and get a goyf down. He plays a land show and tell, I put it in goyf to his emrakul. I draw a diabolic edict and chuckle a little. Liliana was correct though, I can't use the mana I save from casting edict and liliana will do more work next turn. Liliana deals with emrakul and my goyfs are actually only 2/3 because my opponents yard is no longer there and I only have lands and thoughtseize in my yard. My opponent draws, plays a land and passes. I draw a Bloodbraid elf and realize that the jund life is great. I activate liliana and my opponent pitches a land and I pitch abrupt decay, growing my tarmogoyfs. I blood braid into bolt and put my opponent to 10 and my attack puts him to 1. He draws and scoops as we move to game 2

    Out
    2 bolts
    3 abrupt decay
    3 punishing fire
    1 ooze
    1 Grove

    In
    2 Surgical extraction
    3 Duress
    1 red elemental blast
    1 pyroblast
    2 Ensnaring bridge

    I didn't bring in the 3rd blast because they try to win with through the breach and Sneak attack in the post board games. I had no reason to think my opponent was boarding leyline because most decks have abandoned that card. I was weary of blood moon though, enough to fetch my basics but not enough to keep the abrupt decays or bring in the golgari charm. The blasts are also really bad to cascade into so I didn't want the third. I also felt that boarding out the Grove was fine because he's not killing my lands and I don't want too many non black sources anyway.

    Game 2. My hand is insane. Swamp, fetch, duress, duress, deathrite shaman, hymn to tourach, Dark Confidant. My opponent mulls to 6 and leads off with a fetchland. I duress and see 2 lands ,sneak attack and through the breach and griselbrand. I take sneak attack and pass. He plays a land. I draw a red blast, I duress again and see he's drawn a blood moon. I take the moon felling confident that my hymn with get either through the breach or griselbrand or possibly both! I fetch a bayou and deathrite shaman and pass. He top decks a ponder and shuffles, gets a random card and passes after playing a land. My hymn hits through the breach and something I can't remember. We play draw go as I grind him out with deathrite shaman and dark confidant. I find a library and draw all of the gas. I blast a cantrip almost without thinking but I knew he had to find gas soon and I wanted to cut him off of it. I cast a liliana which gets forced pitching show and tell and he show and tells a freshly drawn emrakul next turn. Bob hits the land I knew about. Library reveals bbe liliana and a land. I put liliana back and the land on top of my deck. Bbe cascades into her bff liliana and the result is so beautiful that emrakul promptly kills himself while I get in for near lethal. My opponent Brainstorms and show and tells a griselbrand into play. Bob reveals thoughtseize which isn't what I need. Library has a bridge though. I resolve the bridge and go all in on deathrite shaman. He's dead on my next turn unless he deals with bridge, which he doesn't.

    I feel like my opponents so far have been fairly unlucky and I don't feel particularly accomplished. I go talk to Eddie Warren who is now 1-1 after a tough loss to death and taxes. He asks me about my record and I tell him that I've beat 2 combo decks (he still thinks I'm on delver) and he says "See? You would've never beat those decks if you were on jund" I go into my next round feeling like the biggest lucksack in the room.
    2-0 me
    Now 2-0
    Round 3 Merfolk
    Fires are red
    These guys are blue
    They died to my deck
    And my opponent did too
    There are fine points in this match up but it's fairly unnecessary. If there's demand for detail then I'll go into it but I'm pretty sure no one needs help here

    Out
    3 Hymn to tourach
    1 thoughtseize


    In
    2 pyroblast
    1 red elemental blast
    1 toxic deluge

    2-0 me
    Now 3-0

    Round 4 Burn
    Fellow Alabamian and legacy enthusiast, Brian Guess is my opponent this round. He plays out his burn spells and I have 2 goyfs in play by the time we hit top deck mode. Not much going in here. I'm at 6 and he needs runner runner to kill me, he doesn't get there and my goyfs trample him.

    Out
    4 Dark confidant
    1 diabolic edict

    In
    3 Duress
    2 Surgical extraction

    I just want to get his burn spells and not be hanging by a thread if we hit top deck mode

    Game 2. Blood mooned out because I'm an idiot.

    Game 3 My hand is nuts. I have the basic forest, a fetch for the swamp, duress, hymn to tourach, badlands, and scavenging ooze. Duress shows me burn spells and blood moon, I've already beat blood moon so I take a burn spell. He melts my face with a bolt and passes. I hymn him, he flame rifts, I play ooze, he taps out for blood moon. I slow rolled my basic forest by playing my other lands first. Moon gets decayed, ooze eats a guy and I begin an attempt to run away with the game. I don't remember much after this point but I get it.
    2-1 me
    Now 4-0
    Round 5 Burn
    WHERE ARE THE FAIR DECKS?! Eidolon of the great revel melts my face off 2 games in a row.
    4-1

    Standings go up and I'm in 3rd. My round 5 Opponent is in first and my opponents from round 3 and 4 are undefeated against players not named Dustin Green. My round 6 opponent is on rug delver. We agreed to split to lock up top 8.

    Top 8

    Round 1 Bug Delver
    Former Jund Aficionado Zach Koch is my opponent and he's on the play as the 4th seed. We know what each other are on but he seems hopeful in game 1. These games were over so fast I don't really recall them very well. He played things and I killed them then I win by double goyf beatdown.
    Out
    4 thoughtseize

    In
    1 Toxic deluge
    1 Life from the loam
    1 ensnaring bridge
    1 Nihil spellbomb

    These one ofs are really strong and attack bug delver from a lot of different angles. I didn't know if he played tombstalker but I assumed that he did. I can win the deathrite battle because I have infinite removal and he only has decays and disfigures.

    Game 2
    My hand is solid. I play a swamp into deathrite shaman and he kills it. I play a Grove into 2 more shamans. He kills one, I play a goyf. He plays a delver and I bolt it. I crack a fetchland and he attempt to submerge my deathrite in response then we realize I don't control a forest. So I play around submerge for the rest of the game and ride a goyf and a shaman to victory.

    Round 2 Merfolk
    See round 3 or swims

    Round 3
    Rug delver
    We split the money, I get the invite and he gets the packs.

    I tried to play good magic but I still made a lot of mistakes. Sequencing your spells properly is really important for jund players. There were 5 other Jund players there that could only tell me how long they've been playing it when I questioned their card choices. I just drop the conversation at that point because it's hopeless. Example, unless you're playing Thea Steeles non punishing fire version, you should not be playing Taiga. The deck is too black intensive and it honestly runs too many non black sources anyway. 4 groves, 3 wastelands, and a basic forest? That's a lot of non black. And many people don't realize that, even though the namesake of the deck is red, red is a splash. You have 8 red spells that only require one red mana. I would love to hear back from the community and look forward to being active here in the future. Thanks for reading!
    Last edited by Jander78; 06-24-2014 at 02:29 PM. Reason: Added decklist link.

  2. #2
    RUG Doctor
    Exuberance's Avatar
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    Re: What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

    Good to see you on the Source, dogg. Congrats on the finish!

    Any cards you wouldn't mind changing? Thinking about it now, ScOoze doesn't seem like the greatest card these days, but the Edict seems like it works better for you than the Pulse. What about the sideboard? I see no actual answers to a resolved Batterskull, other than killing the Germ token every time. Maybe 1x Ancient Grudge/Krosan Grip?

    dat basic mountain tho
    Pizza, beer, and Canadian Thresh.
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  3. #3

    Re: What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

    I could see cutting or boarding the ooze. I don't really have trouble with batterskull. Mystic rarely lives and between goyf/discard/and killing the germ repeatedly I don't think I need to answer it very often. A grip in the board does have a lot of other applications that I wouldn't mind having access to.

  4. #4
    MTGO Name: Adelorenzi
    ironclad8690's Avatar
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    Re: What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

    Did your merfolk opponent ever get TNN/Phantasmal Image copying TNN out? I have found this to be one of the only ways that we can lose to 'folk.

  5. #5

    Re: What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

    Quote Originally Posted by ironclad8690 View Post
    Did your merfolk opponent ever get TNN/Phantasmal Image copying TNN out? I have found this to be one of the only ways that we can lose to 'folk.
    He resolved tnn a few times but i was already picking off creatures with fire at that point so liliana made quick work of them. Plus i managed to establish a threatening board so tnn was on D every time it came down.

  6. #6

    Re: What to expect when you're junding: First place with Jund

    I actually have had very little difficulty with tnn. It hasn't been a factor to my losses against decks that play it and It doesn't bring them back in the game when I'm ahead

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