To quote Todd Anderson,

“Just. Play. Jund.

Just do it.

Stop being an idiot and go pick up the cards you need to play it.”

While Todd was speaking about Standard back in 2013 I feel as if this applies more than ever to Modern right now.

SCG Columbus Invitational.

I’ve been playing Infect for awhile now to some very strong results but this tournament was abysmal. I managed to make Day 2 with a record of 5-2-1 but I was carried by Dragon Megamorph in standard giving me a 3-0-1 record with my new best friend [card]Dragonlord Silumgar[/card]. On day 2 I managed to bring my Modern record to a pitiful 4-4 including a massive punt against Ben Friedman in round 10. After round 13 I dropped having been knocked out of prizes with a loss in standard. The Modern metagame in Columbus was not what I was expecting and was incredibly hostile towards Infect as a result. I had seen the rise of Jund in the weeks before so my initial goal was to beat the rock paper scissors of Tron, Jund, and Infect while having game against most forms of Splinter Twin as well. I played against every flavor of Grixis, Twin, Delver, and Control and they all felt horrible to play against especially when they got to cast [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card]. On top of that picking up a loss to Jund made me feel as though I was on the bad side of the metagame and I needed to change for GP Charlotte.

GP Charlotte

Picking up a deck with only a week to learn it is not something I am a big fan of but after messing around with Zoo for a little bit I decided I should just play Jund. Our Jund however is just a little bit spicier.

Before I reveal the decklist I just want to give credit where credit is due. This deck was designed by Barrett Goss who played it in the Invitational and went 6-2 in Modern beating Brad Nelson in a pseudo mirror and taking the only match in Modern off of Luis Alfonso who went 7-1 with Grixis Control.

[Deck title=Jund]
[creatures]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Tasigur the Golden Fang
[/creatures]
[Spells]
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Terminate
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
[/spells]
[Lands]
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Raging Ravine
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Feed the Clan
1 Damnation
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Night of soul’s Betrayal
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Outpost Siege
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Ancient Grudge
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

So you may have noticed a sever lack of [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] and the strange addition of Blue mana. The main thinking behind this is  you will beat the mirror and most creature decks by playing Ashiok including beating the CoCo combo deck even after they have achieved infinite life. You also get to attack the Grixis decks from a different angle in the long games and use their utility creatures like [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], and [card]Vendilion Clique[/card] against them. While our maindeck is the same my sideboard is incredibly different as I chose to play Keranos and a more diverse suite of board sweepers while Barrett was more conservative with his mana base besides being an idiot and sideboarding Blood Moon.

I do want to make some key changes to the list. I feel like Bonfire of the Damned is just not what we need to be doing especially because Anger of the Gods is infinitely better against the Collected Company decks while also being very strong vs both Elves and Merfolk which I expect to both see an upswing in popularity after their recent success in the Invitational and at the GP. I also feel that we need some type of graveyard hate but I am still testing out whether [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] or [card]Leyline of the Void[/card] is the correct play.

In the GP I ended up dropping at 4-3 after losing to a turn 1 Blood Moon against affinity followed by a beating from GR Tron. Barrett ended the day at a solid 6-3. In the Super Sunday Series I ended 6-3 while he finished at 7-2 good for prizes but nowhere near Top 8 contention. Overall I think this deck is very real and will be playing it in a bunch of PPTQs this summer and hopefully some SCG 5ks if I can make it out.