[Standard Development] Jund Midrange

[justinhering]

I think in the current meta, both control and aggro are strong deck choices; therefore I think midrange may be a good option to fight against both. I am looking at Jund colors (green, red, black) to provide enough control and aggro to beat the top decks in standard today.

Here's the preliminary decklist:

[Creatures] 19

3 Goblin Guide
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
3 Glissa, the Traitor
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Inferno Titan
2 Grave Titan

[Spells] 11

3 Lightning Bolt
2 Crush
2 Go for the Throat
2 Doom Blade
3 Awakening Zone

[Planeswalkers] 5
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Sarkhan the Mad

[Lands] 24:
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rootbound Crag
1 Raging Ravine
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
5 Forest
2 Mountain
3 Swamp

[Sideboard] 15:
3 Obstinate Baloth
3 Forked Bolt
2 Pyroclasm
2 Duress
2 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Manic Vandal
1 Wurmcoil Engine

The deck is complex and simple at the same time, with a variety of win-conditions. One thing the deck does is produce a lot of targets for Sarkhan's -2 ability. Awakening Zone, Garruk Wildspeaker and even Grave Titan all make tokens. Imagine dropping Grave Titan with Sarkhan online and turning both of the zombies into a 5/5 dragons. That's 16 power for 6 mana...seems good. On their own, the titans could beat most players. I could even see Thrun and Glissa beating someone down under the right circumstances.

The swords give this deck trouble, which is why I chose to mainboard Crush for cheap artifact removal. I feel if they are not present, it would be a blowout in game 1 against Boros and CawGo. Post-sideboard I really like my chances. Against CawGo I bring in Forked Bolts for hawks, Manic Vandals, the Wurmcoil Engine and the Baloths (so even if the swords gets through my defense I can discard the Baloth for free). Duress is also added to remove counterspells and Planeswalkers.

Its pretty much the same plan against Boros, sans the Forked Bolts and Duress.

Against Valakut, bring in Pyroclasm to deal with Avenger of Zendikar and Goblin Ruinblaster to blow up the Valakuts.

Goblin Ruinblaster also makes an appearance against Eldrazi Ramp.

This deck matches pretty well against RUG I think, but I would board in the Forked Bolts to kill Lotus Cobras, Duress and Pyroclasm if they are playing Avenger.

Anyway, I think its an interesting build with a lot of potential. I plan on building it (with some proxies ) and playtesting at the store.

Let me know what you think.

[justinhering]

Already making changes in the Sideboard...

-3 Forked Bolt

+2 Arc Trail
+1 Thrun, the Last Troll

I could use the extra Thrun against control. Against Boros and CawGo I board out 2 of the black spot removal for the arc trails to deal with hawks + Mirran Crusader or Stoneforge Mystic. Arc Trail also kills Hero of Oxid Ridge.

[chulak]

I really like the decklist here. The only thing is IDK if Goblin Guide is good in this type of midrangfe deck. I feel like there are better one drops in this type of deck, inquisition of kozilek might be a little better becasue its more of a midrange deck. Even an artifact that you can get value out of with glissa might be good. what made Jund so good was the many 2 for ones it had. some ways to revive that are maybe skinrender and other things of that sort. I think Vampire Nighthawk is a living 2 3 for one.

[justinhering]

Yep...Goblin Guide too agro-ish. I thought about Vampire Nighthawk, Skinrender, even Necrogen Scudder passed through my mind.

Inquisition is so nasty, and is probably a better one-drop. Also, 4 lightning bolts is a must. I'm so bad at this game.

I've been really into decktech lately, trying to break the format...

Concerning Glissa, I think she is still the best 3-drop available in this deck due to first strike and deathtouch. My only concern is that she sits in bolt range. She becomes a lightning rod very fast.

[aaren]

hey justin, well due to the format I would do one of 2 things, somehow add slag storms and green sun zenith and maybe drop fauna shaman/ sarhan the mad. The second is the deck i seem to like a whole lot is to add 4 hawks/stoneforge mystic with the 2 swords. I like this build better due to the fact that you can stay with the format that way. also thrun/glissa equip is pretty good, also glissa brings back the swords once they get divine offering'd.

The super secret tech I would add is Wall of the tagnle cord as a 4 of!. Its amazing... blocks hawks since u have green, it stops a double fetched geopede and legit everything in the format while living except titans, deathtouch or like huge nukes.... Its an amazing card that dies to divine offering and artifact removal which they would be crazy to do since your playing swords....

I personally love the white version and would run 2 glissa, 2 thrun, 2 kemba. I might have happened to make a similar list that is called "League of Legends" you can search for thrun/glissa with green sun's and get walls/swords back. I love your midrange idea and would love to see some durress/ inquisition with inquisition running first. I feel as long as you dont over extend you will be fine against day of judgement (and thrun as regen anyways). It has the ability to block boros/cawblade all day....

Either way let me know what you decide, if you are set on staying in red I would recommend cutting the guides, birds, fuana shaman and sarkhan. I would add pyroclasm, slagtorm, hero of the oxid ridge and green sun's zenith. It would work much better against the caw-blade, boros, and rug matchup and the red deck wins matchup. Crush in the mainboard is really debatable due to the fact that valakut, red deck wins dont run aritfacts and boros/cawblade still can do fairly well even without the artifacts. I would also throw a 3rd garruk in mayeb even 4th cause that leaves more room for overrun and 2 mana open for the removal and even for pyroclasm. Also after being curious and being bored I playtested with both ur build and mine, and inquisition is a nasty beast!!! i would consider 3-4 of em.

Either way good luck buddy

[aaren]

the mana base might be off but I was bored so I posted a white version here if you want to try to work off of it. magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=793364

[justinhering]

I really like the ideas, Aaren. I think Inquisition is amazing right now in the standard meta and would run four of them in place of Goblin Guide. It is just dirty and kills swords, hawks, mystics, and mirran crusader (let's not forget him).

I'm going to modify the list and repost with changes.

Thanks, again.

[justinhering]

The deck is completely different and no longer Jund...

Its not really midrange either...well sorta.

[Creatures] 24
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Glissa, the Traitor
2 Grave Titan
2 Kemba, Kha Regent
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sun Titan
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Wall of Tanglecord

[Spells] 9
2 Doom Blade
2 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Journey to Nowhere

[artifacts] 3
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

[lands] 24
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Stirring Wildwood
4 Sunpetal Grove
8 Swamp

Sideboard:
1 Baneslayer Angel
3 Divine Offering
2 Glissa's Courier
3 Go for the Throat
1 Journey to Nowhere
2 Kor Firewalker
3 Obstinate Baloth

Birds of Paradise really help with the mana-fixing and provide another target for the swords, believe it or not. The removal package may look a bit awkward, but I think its a good balance of hand disruption, instant speed and exile. I added Sun Titan because he brings back almost everything on this list, even Journey to Nowhere if it was removed somehow. You could bring back Glissa, which in turn brings back a sword of choice in the graveyard.

I just like Grave Titan. He tends to finish long games and I think this deck needs another finisher. 2 more Green Sun's Zenith add some utility to the deck and allow you to search for birds, Glissa, or Thrun as well as the baloths off the bench.

If I was to cut any card right now it would be Kemba. She may be alright in this build, but I tend to find her slow in general.

Thoughts?

[aaren]

To be honest I would agree with the kemba, but my largest reccommendation would be to run a 4th stoneforge, its an amazing card and goes well with the entire deck. I dont think that sun titan is as relevant as it seems... I like baneslayer over sun titan and so maybe 2 baneslayer and add a stoneforge. To cut 2 kemba and a sun titan. My favorite thing about baneslayer is how it gains life and if you dont think life is relevant, I was 2 life off of making top 4. If I dropped a baneslayer instead of another card, the outcome of the game would have changed. Not to mention it blocks Shawk ALL DAY LONG!

I might even throw in awakening zone over journey to nowhere and 1 basilisk collar which would be 3 zones. I would side the collar for boros/ red deck wins and maybe even caw-blade. I mean it sounds odd but if u hit one of ur 4 birds u get awakening zone turn 2 then turn 3 you could even drop baneslayer or even green sun's zenith into thrun/glissa or alot of other stuff... point being turn 3, 5 drop seems pretty good not to mention it blocks ground units from red deck wins, boros, and artifacts from tezz all day long while being able to accel you. Its a constant accelant that allows baneslayer turn 3 then grave titan turn 4 (which is prolly over extending but still a good option). My final arguement is the extreme lack of enchantment removal in the formatt, at least for now anyways the only enchantments people are even considering are leylines, which the only ones that ive seen is the red in red deck wins and white in some decks but thats even a rarity. Naturalize is the only card I can see hurting awakening zone which im sure they would much rather use on a sword or your wall, than awakening zone. That is just my opinion.

Good luck either way Justin I think this deck has alot of potential.

[aaren]

ok i just looked at the sideboard lol... The sideboard I would make being parallel to the suggestions I gave you would be...

1 basilisk collar
1 doom blade
2 go for the throat
3 divine offering
3 kor firewalkers
2 obstinate baloth
3 leyline of sanctity

In agreement with the adjustments I would make with the main board, I would run the basilisk collar instead of the baneslayer with the 2 baneslayers mainboard. I would run 1 of doomblade and 2 go for the throat side purely for the diversity and instant speed is very nice so I would drop the journeys. The biggest reason for leyline would be you have pretty much zero answers to valakut. and that deals pretty nicely. I am not sure how I would work it maybe drop the doomblade/go for the throat for ratchet bombs. To be honest the doombalde/ go for the throat deals with what your deck already deals with. And the main reason for adding more would be to stop swadron hawk cause you dont draw into your anti air (which is unlikely) and its usually protected by the sword making your doomblade/go for the throat useless or multiples of them are coming out. Ratchet bomb deals with avenger of zendikar tokens which is played in rug/ valakut and kudoltha red. But this much is up to you and which standard meta you are in.