PTQ Amsterdam Report

This past weekend I attended a PTQ in Fargo, ND. I played Jund designed by Matt Mcclough and went 4-3. Continue reading at your leisure.



The deck:
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terremorphic Expanse
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Swamp

4 Leech
4 Thrinax
4 Elf
2 Seige-Gang
2 Broodmate
2 Lotus Cobra

4 Bolt
4 Blightning
3 Pulse
2 Bit Blast
2 Sarkhan
1 Terminate

Sideboard:
3 Doom Blade
3 Duress
1 Grim Discovery
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
2 Prophetic Prism
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Sarkhan
1 Bit Blast
1 Pulse

Yes, I played Matt's 75. Yes, the last time I did this I 2-5'd with Dark Depths. No, it's not his fault.

Round 1: Esper
Game 1: I mull to 5 on the draw and keep Lotus Cobra, Elf, and lands. He does nothing until turn 3 where my Elf cascades into Thrinax and he takes 5. He EOT Esper Charms me to discard 2. Next turn he does this again on my draw step so I am hellbent. He does further nothing and dies.

SB: -2 Bit Blast -1 Terminate -4 Bolt -2 Dragon +2 Prism +2 Bloodwitch +1 Pulse +1 Sarkhan +3 Duress

Dragon is replaced by Bloodwitch as one can't be path'd.

Game 2: His deck is still not real and Leech plus 3 Pulse for his Baneslayers and Sarkhan finish him. He has multiple Consuming Vapors but each one only hits one guy as I simply waited it out before casting Bloodbraid.

Round 2: Monored LD
Game 1: I have the read he is monored so I kept the triple Blightning and Elf hand. Unfortunately for me after he plays his second mountain he casts Everflowing Chalice. I get to play Blightning once before my Dragonskull Summit is blown up by Ruinblaster and I never draw another land.

SB: -2 Siege-Gang Commander -2 Sarkhan -2 Dragon +3 Doom Blade +1 Grim Discovery +2 Prophetic Prism

Game 2: I lose to double Rolling Terrain keeping me off 4 mana even through Grim Discovery. In retrospect Lightning Bolt is terrible even though he showed my Kiln Fiend while shuffling. Had it been Duress I would've been able to take the second Terrain and won handidly with Elves.

EDIT: Definitely boarded in Duresses. Probably for Pulses. I remember Duressing him during this game and whiffing, seeing Hellkite Charger and Conquering Manticore after he cast Burst Lightning on my Leech to make me pay 2 life.

Round 3: 4 color Vengevine.

Game 1: I have a strong Putrid Leech into Thrinax opening while he does a lot of nothing with Sea Gate Oracle and Elf into Borderland Ranger. Sedraxis Specter hits, and I discard Siege Gang and keep Blastsince Siege Gang is terrible against possible Bolts or Pulses whereas Blast will provide value worst case. Blast hits Blightning and he discards some random dorks. His Vengevines don't show up so he dies.

SB: -2 Dragon -1 Terminate -1 Siege Gang +1 Sarkhan +1 Master +1 Grim Discovery +1 Blast
I figured Duress is bad since he appears to be all guys to help Vengevine. Blightning is suboptimal but I thought I could time it correctly.

Game 2: He has a fast Sedraxis Specter which trades hits with my Thrinax. My Master meets a surprise Pulse. His Vengevines show up in full force this game and on the last turn his Elf cascades into a creature to bring back 2x Vengevine and I die. I Blightning'd him once this game and he discarded Borderland Ranger and a land so my read on being able to play it at the right time was fine.

SB: -4 Blightning +2 Dragon +1 Pulse +1 Grim Discovery

I really wanted Dragons to be able to block in the air and aid in the finishing stroke as the last game came down to a topdeck war that I wasn't equipped to handle. Grim Discovery provides nice outs to Specter and the Pulse comes in because he has stuff I want dead.

Game 3: I have Lightning Bolt for his Thrinax, and just know Elf will hit Maelstrom Pulse. He has a second Thrinax and my second Elf cascades into Thrinax. The ground is gummed up afterwards with Sea Gate Oracle, Vengevine and tokens. He hits his Sarkhan before I can get to my 5th mana for Siege-Gang so I am forced to deal with his dragon and Specters with my goblins. My Sarkhan isn't enough to deal with the unearth and the second Vengevine hardcast.

I consider dropping at this point but as I couldn't go drink at the bar I had nothing to do.

Round 4: Monored
Game 1: He leads with Kiln Fiend, Slash your Thrinax, second Kiln Fiend. I have the Maelstrom Pulse so he has no chance.

SB: -2 Siege-Gang -2 Sarkhan -2 Cobra +3 Doom Blade +3 Duress
Goblin is weak against Earthquake and Cobras are unnecessary since the game is all about the grind and being able to cascade into real blockers. Dragon is better than Sarkhan as 8 toughness > 5.

Game 2: His turn 1 Goblin Guide hits multiple lands for me and I discard Putrid Leech on 2 rather than play anything. He plays into the obvious Doom Blade anyways by playing Hell's Thunder. He makes the masterful play of Burst Lightning my face and then attack Kiln Fiend and Guide. Thrinasty blocks the Fiend and Elf into Doom Blade puts him on the defensive...which is not where monored wants to be.

Round 5: Conscription
This round I'm paired against one of the guys I came to Fargo with so I knew his list. I wish I hadn't given him the SB Mind Spring tech but such is life. For those not in the know, against Jund postboard Jund's main goal is to kill anything that's not a mana producer and win at leisure. This enables an abundance of mana to turn Mind Spring into a win condition on its own.

Game 1: I have Putrid Leech on 2 and am able to follow up with Bolt on Hierarch since his first land came into play tapped. A Knight of the Reliquary meets with a second Bolt and Leech finishes the job by himself.

SB: -2 Broodmate -4 Thrinax -2 Cobra -1 Blightning +2 Bloodwitch +1 Master +1 Sarkhan +1 Pulse +1 Blast +3 Doom Blade

The Dragons don't interact well with Baneslayer while the Sarkhan does. Additionaly Sarkhan can be used as Dark Confidant to continue drawing removal spells. Blightnings aren't too good in the matchup so I cut one and left in the Terminate.

Game 2: We both mull to 6 and he leads with Birds of Paradise. I decline to Bolt it since a followup Knight would be boltable and I can beat an Elspeth. I play Blightning instead and he discards Oblivion Ring and a land. He doesn't have a fourth land but does have the Elspeth. My Master goes hunting on his birds and soldiers and soon wolves turn to his Elspeth, then his face.

Round 6: G/W threats
This was another guy I traveled with, and I had designed his deck. It's G/W with high quality threats, Vengevine, and Ranger of Eos package. In testing he had actually been favored against Jund due to sheer threat density. The last fatty they can't answer kills them. He started 3-0 before losing 2 rounds to Conscription, which is not really surprising.

Game 1: I have Leech on 2 and remove his Knight with Terminate. He has no followup, lamenting a bad keep, and random assorted creatures finish him.

SB: same as last round.

Game 2: I mull 6 land Bolt into 2 land and removal. Master 1 is Bolted. Master 2 Doom Bladed. Master 3 Terminated. Elf cascades into Doom Blade, which has no targets. Leech shows up and the two of them along with Sarkhan get the job done.

Round 7: Grixis
Game 1: I crush him with Leech into Thrinax into Elf. He plays a Jace and dies.

SB: -2 Cobra -2 Bolt -2 Blast -1 Terminate  +2 Prism + 1 Grim Discovery +3 Duress +1 Sarkhan

Game 2: I mull to 6 and keep a reasonable hand. Duress tears his hand apart and he lands Siege Gang. I Bolt it but can't hit my 5th land for the 2 Sarkhans in my hand and the Broodmate. So instead I Blightning him down to 1 card. He has Sedraxis Specter(obviously topdecked) next turn while I draw a Prism into a tapland. He rips Blightning so I am hellbent. I then rip all lands and die.

Game 3: I mull to 6 and have Duress + Leech + Duress on the play. I hit no more lands and he draws a Terminate eventually.

Losing to random decks is not fun, but that's why I like playing blue decks more than not. Being able to draw/brainstorm into more cards gives more fluidity and more options. While the Jund deck's raw power and resiliency is undeniable, it just wasn't my style. But we didn't have more Jaces to go around so it was the best I could do. I could've sideboarded better in two of the rounds I lost. I did mulligan better in this tournament than I usually do, so some lessons were learned.

After the PTQ was over I drafted a no rare cube and ended up Grixis where every creature was a flametongue or a mulldrifter and all the spells were CA or impulse. I lost to the monored LD deck as the one Moroii I had played as a finisher got Unwilling Recruited and domed me for 8. The second game I mulled 6 land Phyrexian Gargantuan which might've been a fine keep as he didn't have the pressure he did in the first game with multiple aggressive creatures. Instead my 6 couldn't stand up to Pillage into Avalanche Riders.

GerryT showed up, watched some games, went to sleep, moved to another table, then went to sleep again. I probably have more in common with that guy than advisable.

Brad Nelson seemed cool. Is also one of the largest people I've seen in a while. His bro ended up making top 8 but lost in the first round.

Turboland lost to NLBant in the finals but the Turboland player was not good and should've won by a mile both games. He had the fear as he lost game 1 to Elspeth + Vengevine and boarded in Fogs. That was a bad move as the Mind Springs he took out would've easily won the game for him. Oh, and his Fog was spent to prevent Birds of Paradise + Exalted from killing him. Max value.

Afterwards went to a Chinese Buffet place and had lots of sauce with side of food. Was a good time.

Shout out to Adam, who provided the deck and ride to Fargo. Good luck in Idaho!
Also shout out to Matt for the list. Is probably the best Jund deck in the format. Just not my style of deck.