Josh Milliken – Jund: The Villain is Now the Hero

I knew my fascination with Jund was more than just my unwillingness to move on from Innistrad Standard, but over the course of a month I couldn’t even get a winning record at an FNM with it. And then I realized that I was playing terribly because I was simply burned out on Magic and needed a break. No matter how much I wanted to play, I forced myself to not play Magic. Now I’m back, and with Matt Costa’s recent victory with Jund at SCG Providence, I’m in a good position to discuss where Jund should go from here.

This is where I started for with Jund for this Standard season.

[deck title= Jund Midrange by Josh Milliken]

[Creatures]
*4 Sylvan Caryatid
*3 Scavenging Ooze
*4 Reaper of the Wilds
*4 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
*1 Abrupt Decay
*2 Magma Jet
*4 Mizzium Mortars
*3 Hero’s Downfall
*3 Read the Bones
*1 Rakdos Keyrune
*1 Whip of Erebos
*2 Chandra Pyromaster
*1 Vraska the Unseen
*2 Rakdos’s Return
[/Spells]

[Land]
*4 Temple of Abandon
*4 Overgrown Tomb
*4 Blood Crypt
*4 Stomping Ground
*3 Rakdos Guildgate
*2 Golgari Guildgate
*1 Gruul Guildgate
*3 Swamp
[/Land]

[Sideboard]
*4 Thoughtseize
*2 Pharika’s Cure
*1 Dreadbore
*2 Golgari Charm
*2 Anger of the Gods
*1 Whip of Erebos
*1 Vraska the Unseen
*2 Sire of Insanity
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

As you can see, I was very prepared for aggressive decks, but also kept the flexibility to really go after control decks post sideboard. The biggest issues the deck had included a horrible matchup against WBR midrange and matches that took forever against Esper decks.

Fast forward a month and I hear that someone is tearing it up with Jund at SCG Providence. This didn’t surprise me, given how good the deck should be against the Mono-Blue Devotion and Mono-Black Devotion decks that have been dominating the format. I found myself rooting for Matt to take down the tournament, and was not surprised when he swept through a sea of Mono-Blue decks to win.

[deck title= Jund Midrange by Matt Costa]

[Creatures]
*3 Reaper of the Wilds
*3 Scavenging Ooze
*4 Stormbreath Dragon
*4 Sylvan Caryatid
*2 Polukranos, World Eater
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
*4 Abrupt Decay
*4 Hero’s Downfall
*2 Anger of the Gods
*1 Mizzium Mortars
*2 Rakdos’s Return
*3 Read the Bones
*3 Thoughtseize
[/Spells]

[Land]
*3 Forest
*1 Mountain
*5 Swamp
*4 Blood Crypt
*4 Overgrown Tomb
*4 Stomping Ground
*4 Temple of Abandon
[/Land]

[Sideboard]
*2 Mistcutter Hydra
*1 Sire of Insanity
*2 Underworld Connections
*2 Doom Blade
*2 Golgari Charm
*2 Anger of the Gods
*2 Duress
*1 Rakdos’s Return
*1 Thoughtseize
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

The biggest issue I see with Matt’s list is that he’s not running enough sweepers in the main – this is a format dominated by decks that are forced to overextend to win. The other problem is [CARD]Thoughtseize[/CARD] in the main deck with so many decks that push through super quick damage.

With the metagame pushing more and more towards Mono-Blue Devotion, Mono-Black Devotion, and a hint of Esper, this is where I ended up:

[deck title= Jund Midrange by Josh Milliken]

[Creatures]
*3 Scavenging Ooze
*4 Sylvan Caryatid
*2 Polukranos, World Eater
*3 Reaper of the Wilds
*4 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
*2 Abrupt Decay
*2 Dreadbore
*3 Mizzium Mortars
*3 Read the Bones
*2 Anger of the Gods
*4 Hero’s Downfall
*1 Whip of Erebos
*2 Rakdos’s Return
[/Spells]

[Land]
*4 Blood Crypt
*4 Overgrown Tomb
*4 Stomping Ground
*4 Temple of Abandon
*3 Rakdos Guildgate
*3 Swamp
*2 Forest
*1 Mountain
[/Land]

[Sideboard]
*4 Thoughtseize
*2 Pharika’s Cure
*1 Mizzium Mortars
*2 Golgari Charm
*2 Underworld Connections
*1 Anger of the Gods
*1 Whip of Erebos
*2 Sire of Insanity
[/Sideboard]
[/DECK]

With [CARD]Pack Rat[/CARD] being a very prevalent threat, my primary sweeper of choice is [CARD]Mizzium Mortars[/CARD], which gives me a turn-two answer but also provides a sweeper that kills [CARD]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/CARD] and [CARD]Frostburn Weird[/CARD]. Also, with instant speed mattering much less on [CARD]Abrupt Decay[/CARD], I moved toward [CARD]Dreadbore[/CARD] to be able to deal with planeswalkers and [CARD]Desecration Demon[/CARD] more easily. Bringing in [CARD]Whip of Erebos[/CARD] allows me to occasionally race aggro decks while also providing additional threats against Esper.

Sideboarding

Here’s how I would sideboard against the top three decks in the format:

Mono-Blue Devotion

In
2 [Card]Golgari Charm[/Card]
1 [Card]Mizzium Mortars[/Card]
1 [Card]Anger of the Gods[/Card]

Out
1 [Card]Abrupt Decay[/Card]
1 [Card]Whip of Erebos[/Card]
2 [Card]Rakdos’s Return[/Card]

Mono-Black Devotion

In
1 [Card]Mizzium Mortars[/Card]
2 [Card]Underworld Connections[/Card]
1 [Card]Whip of Erebos[/Card]
4 [Card]Thoughtseize[/Card]

Out
2 [Card]Anger of the Gods[/Card]
2 [Card]Polukranos, World Eater[/Card]
3 [Card]Read the Bones[/Card]
1 [Card]Rakdos’s Return[/Card]

Esper Control

In
4 [Card]Thoughtseize[/Card]
2 [Card]Golgari Charm[/Card]
2 [Card]Underworld Connections[/Card]
1 [Card]Whip of Erebos[/Card]
2 [Card]Sire of Insanity[/Card]

Out
2 [Card]Abrupt Decay[/Card]
3 [Card]Scavenging Ooze[/Card]
3 [Card]Mizzium Mortars[/Card]
2 [Card]Anger of the Gods[/Card]
1 [Card]Read the Bones[/Card]

It’s great to be back after what feels like an eternity away from Magic, and I hope to see you all out there in the trenches slinging the cards we all love. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below and I will try to reply.

Thanks for reading,

Josh Milliken

@joshuamilliken on Twitter

About the Author
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10 comments on Josh Milliken – Jund: The Villain is Now the Hero

  1. Jason Alt says:

    I never thought I would be relieved to see a Jund deck emerge. These are dark times…

  2. Anonymous says:

    The “on mouse over” effect appears to not be working. Just letting you know.

    1. Jason Alt says:

      Balls. I will try and figure out what is wrong.

  3. Nick says:

    The lack of Mistcutter Hydra in the sideboard is perplexing to me, and is there no love for Slaughter Games? It has proven to be really good against things like Grey Merchant and these ‘no wincon’ U/W decks floating around.

    I like the addition of Whip, but I’m not sold on Sire of Insanity, I tried him last standard and never really liked discarding my hand.

    Maybe running # angers maindeck, removing the Dreadbores, I’m on the fence about 3 decays, I really like the card, especially since it kills Domri, DSphere, Pack Rat, Specter, etc. I love the addition of the Whip though.

    Does the lack of maindecked Thoughtseizes not hurt at all?

    1. Josh says:

      There is no need for Mistcutter Hydra with all the removal and sweepers in the deck to get rid of problematic blockers out of Mono Blue. Slaughter Games could be good in the sideboard, but isn’t a card I’ve given much thought to this season yet. Lots of people aren’t sold on Sire of Insanity until they see how devastating it is when resolved at the correct time, I definitely hit my fair share of turn 4 and turn 5 Sire of Insanity that flat out won the game. I’m not sure running more Anger of the Gods main is really necessary when there’s already 5 sweepers in the main with 2 sideboard/
      Not having Thoughtseize main is very good in quite a few matchups, but yes can be annoying to not have against Mono Black and Esper. You have to balance how many of those you expect to face vs how many other decks you expect to face to decide if they should be main or not that week.

  4. Cody Foss says:

    4 Temple of Abandon
    4 Stomping Ground
    4 Overgrown Tomb
    4 Blood Crypt
    2 Mutavault
    3 Swamp
    3 Forest

    3 Scavenging Ooze
    4 Sylvan Caryatid
    2 Lifebane Zombie
    3 Reaper of the Wilds
    2 Polukranos, World Eater
    1 Erebos, God of the Dead
    4 Stormbreath Dragon
    1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Abrupt Decay
    3 Mizzium Mortars
    3 Hero’s Downfall
    2 Read the Bones
    1 Rakdos Keyrune
    2 Whip of Erebos

    SB: 1 Primeval Bounty
    SB: 2 Pithing Needle
    SB: 2 Mistcutter Hydra
    SB: 3 Golgari Charm
    SB: 3 Anger of the Gods
    SB: 2 Slaughter Games
    SB: 2 Rakdos’s Return

    This is a list that I’ve been working on for months now, where it originally started with one of each God, Lotleth Trolls, and Domri Rades. That one was adventurous, to say the least. This is much more consistent and concise. I can give you a full breakdown, if you’d like.

    1. Josh says:

      It looks pretty good other than a few cards that will give you issues to have in the main. Lifebane Zombie has no targets against the big 3 in the meta, so should probably be relegated to the sideboard, and Ruric Thar will likely cause you issues in the very creature heavy metagame. My suggestion would be to switch them with the 3 Anger of the Gods in your sideboard if you really want them somewhere in your 75.

      1. Martin Coppersmith says:

        I’ve been seeing 4 of lifebane zombie maindecked by mono-B for devotion and occasional free wins vs people who whiff on removal for 2-3 turns

  5. Martin Coppersmith says:

    I would like to vote in favor of the Slaughter. mono-B and mono-U are HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY on four-of card selections right now and need to have the rug pulled out from under them.

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