[Deck] Jund Scapeshift

[4eak]

Discard and removal can be pretty strong in a control deck with a combo finish. The deck could go aggressive, but I like the control route. Beseech the Queen offers a toolbox (oh, how I loves me a toolbox!).

Here is a list:

// Lands - 25
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Blood Crypt
4 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Mountain
3 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Raging Ravine

// Acceleration - 8
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

// Win - 5
4 Scapeshift
1 Prismatic Omen

// Board Control - 8
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Lightning Bolt

// Hand Control - 8
4 Thoughtseize
4 Rise // Fall

// Toolbox - 6
4 Beseech the Queen
1 Damnation
1 Liliana of the Veil

SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 1 Life from the Loam
SB: 1 Torpor Orb
SB: 4 Spellskite
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Vandalblast
SB: 1 Terminate
SB: 1 Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 1 Courser of Kruphix
SB: 1 Slaughter Games
SB: 1 Anger of the Gods

A lot of the card choices may be wrong. Is it better than blue-based control? I don't know. It lacks card draw, but I think the control elements may be stronger. I'm a huge fan of Rise // Fall, and I like the flexibility of the sideboard. I don't have much to say about it. Any thoughts?


peace,
4eak

[Tormod]

I was experimenting with Jund Omen Shift, mine was a little more combo centric. I ran 3 MD Abrupt Decay 3 anger of the gods and 4 Goyf as my "non-combo" pieces.

I eventually went back to the blue splash because the fetches are better. (Tarn + misty) vs (verdants + tarns)

I would say slaughter pact is amazing, because combo valakut is largely a tap out deck and being able to kill creatures with no mana open allows the deck to play some pretty aggressive lines.

I also recommend more prismatic omen.

[4eak]

Do you have a list? Valtrix and I are still throwing them around. I'd be happy to see anything.

Can you elaborate on why more Omens is worthwhile? I'm already on the fence about the 1-of.


peace,
4eak

[Valtrix]

I sincerely doubt "the fetches were better" was a reason to shift colors entirely. Most scapeshift lists don't run more than 4 fetches anyway. I have to get some more games in with this deck, but I really like what beseech the queen brings to the table in terms of comboing off. That's not all black offers of course, but I see it at as the main draw for scapeshift consistency. I also like decay and the discard, they have been pretty useful. Hard to say exactly the direction to focus on for now though.

Courser of Kruphix strikes me as very good in the non-blue version since you want to tap out most of the time anyway. I like that it's good against aggro and control while really helping us get the necessary amount of lands into play for scapeshift.

P.S. - Deck name is "Royal Scapeshift," none of this Jund crap.

[Piceli89]

The huge gain to me in going black is not Thoughtseize, it is Abrupt Decay. Having a real answer to Tarmogoyf, Deceiver Exarch, Cranial Plating and Liliana solves lots of blue Scapeshift's problems/challenging points.

The huge loss in going black is losing Remand and all those "Draw a card" instant-spells. I'm not going to say Cryptic Command- that you can easily get away without as it's sometimes prohibitive in terms of color heaviness. I talk about Remand, Electrolyze, and also the digging power of Peer Through Depths / the card selection and resilience to discard offered by Serum Visions + Telling Time for the other versions.

Most of all, anyways, the reason why I think blue versions are still superior to black ones is that given the lack of deck manipulation, you are forced to lean on Prismatic Omen and Primeval Titan to increase your ways of killing the opponent. The problem is that in this metagame so fast and combo-centered a cmc6 sorcery-speed spell that also has to have another piece (the Omen) to trigger Valakut immediately is plain horrible. I can witness that every game played with Titan Scapeshift, be it the blue-lighter version that top8ed GP Portland earlier this year or this very black version, he was just too slow or I couldn't afford to tap out in the face of dying to Splinter Twin/Affinity/else.

Omen is very good against control strategies but a poor piece if seen in multiple copies or too late. And it doesn't do anything on its own. Against Jund it remains the only target for Decay avaiable, so it will always go down. Unfortunately, you can't count on always keeping it in hand/topdecking it + Scapeshift for faster wins. Omen is often a controversial pieces, sometimes it gives you sweet bonuses, other times you wished it was an actual spell.
If you want to lean more on Omen, you have to increase your land count to be able to reach 6 lands more naturally and topdeck more once Valakut is online. This comes at the cost of watering down the consistency of the deck further. If you add to these the number of control slots (Anger, Decay, Seize) that don't win you the game when topdecked, this deck starts to become truely bad.
Again-perhaps Izzet Charm justifies running an Omen-based strategies because you can cycle them when they are useless or redundant.

So the issue should not be about the quality of protection or disruption, but the efficacy of supporting Valakut kills. Blue indirectly has still the upper hand in this on a large-scale comparison. The black version should intersect the Scapeshift plan with large creatures or something else to be competitive. Look at Gerry Thompson's latest list with Polukranos to get an idea of what I mean; Polukranos itself sucks asses in Modern but I like the overall approach.

EDIT: As I am seeing that you 4eak rightfully cut Titan as well, I may argue anyways that Beseech the Queen's cost of BBB is difficult to obtain given the RG manabase and the lack of Urborg.

[Valtrix]

Let's be real, is Beseech the queen harder to cast than Cryptic command? Not at all. Beseech as a BBB can usually happen if you want to combo on seven lands. But yeah, I agree that decay is awesome. Beseech the queen is also incredibly powerful. You lack library manipulation, but tutoring for anything is super useful.

[Piceli89]

Let's be real, is Beseech the queen harder to cast than Cryptic command? Not at all. Beseech as a BBB can usually happen if you want to combo on seven lands. But yeah, I agree that decay is awesome. Beseech the queen is also incredibly powerful. You lack library manipulation, but tutoring for anything is super useful.

If you want to ensure more consistently casting BtQ then perhaps you should drop some lands add a couple of Twilight Mires, both to filter for Scapeshift, Baloth and BtQ. I'm open to hear from your testing if it performs well.