Same Old Song and Dance

Last weekend, I jammed Jund at a PTQ. This is what went right and what went wrong.


Lets start off with the list:

4 Putrid Leech
2 Lotus Cobra
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Sarkhan the Mad
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Grave Titan


4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Blightning
3 Bituminous Blast


4 Raging Ravine
4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Swamp


SB:
3 Duress
3 Doom Blade
3 Liliana's Specter
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Sarkhan the Mad
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Slave of Bolas


The key innovation was realizing I just didn't care about Obstinate Baloth. And by innovation, I mean the main deck is 3 cards off of the last list I had. Garruk didn't make the cut as I was more interested in just punishing random creature decks with Terminates and Blasts all day.

As for the new things, Slave of Bolas was for the mirror as it actually kills the entire Sarkhan and can also be used in the cascade games to get ahead on a Thrinax, Grave Titan was a test to see if it was better than Broodmate, and Liliana's Specter was for UW Control as all I every wanted was another creature that didn't cost infinite mana while still beating Wall of Omens and getting value.

Prophetic Prism got cut as I was sick of losing to UW because they out drew me on business spells. I would rather lose the games they go turbo LD on me than just lose because I made my deck much worse. Grim Discovery was too conditional, and Ruinblaster actually sucks unless you have it turn 4 on the play and they don't just have all basics.


Round 1: Jund

G1: Opponent mulls to 5, I go Leech, Thrinax, Elf into Leech. He graciously shows me he is playing Jund by using his fetch, playing a Summit, then scooping.

-3 Pulse, -2 Bolt, +1 Master, +1 Sarkhan, +1 Slave, +2 Duress

G2: Neither of us get a Sarkhan, so we play something closer to real Magic. I draw gas in the late game, he floods. To be fair, he probably punted with a man land somewhere in there too. I ended up drawing Grave Titan this game. If it was Broodmate, he would have died 2 turns sooner.

1-0

Round 2: Jund

G1: I miss my third land drop. I draw it the next turn, then play Thrinax, Elf, Elf, Elf, Blast to get back into it. Eventually life totals are 4 to 7, and I have a Ravine that can get through. I try to rip Lightning Bolt for the win as I have 6 mana, but instead rip Bituminous Blast and win anyways.

-3 Pulse, -2 Bolt, +1 Master, +1 Sarkhan, +1 Slave, +2 Duress

G2: I Duress on 2 taking Bituminous Blast and seeing Abyssal Persecutor, Obstinate Baloth, and some other cards. I miss my third land again, but my opponent misses their 4th. I get more land and a bunch of Thrinaxes, they don't, I resolve Sarkhan and when they play Persecutor I have the Slave of Bolas to get it. For what it's worth, I protected the Slave from Blightning the whole game so I could actually beat Persecutor.

2-0

Round 3: UW Control

G1: We trade a bunch of cards like normal, but I play so that my removal all lines up with his threats. I eventually Blast my Thrinax in response to a Condemn on it and hit Elf into Thrinax, forcing him to blow all his cards. I end up putting him to 3 through some Colonnades and draw a Bolt before he kills me.

-4 Lightning Bolt, -2 Terminate, -2 Bituminous Blast, -1 Grave Titan, -2 Sarkhan, -1 Lotus Cobra, +3 Duress, +3 Specter, +2 Bloodwitch, +1 Pulse, +2 Doom Blade, +1 Master of the Wild Hunt

He had Baneslayer, so I wanted Doom Blades. One Cobra came out as I still wanted 1 Blast.

G2: I curve Leech, Blightning, Elf into Duress (whiffs, seeing Baneslayer and Wall of Omens as his only 2 cards), Pulse your Angel + Doom Blade your Firewalker and kill Elspeth on the attack, Elf into Liliana's Specter. Thanks for playing. He also didn't run Spreading Seas.

3-0

Round 4: Jund

G1: Neither of us cast Sarkhan. I did some stuff and won.

Same SB as before only -2 Blightning instead of -2 Bolts as I knew he had Baloths.

G2: He curves out into Grave Titan, I don't and die.

G3: He curves Leech, Thrinax, Elf but I Duress his Sarkhan, play a billion Thrinaxes, and stabilize at 3 life. I rip Sarkhan, he doesn't rip burn. At one point he punted by playing a Grave Titan precombat as I obviously had Blast and he was concerned that I could Blast into Blightning him, but he could save the Titan just not having a 6th land for it after. I obviously Blast into Terminate. If Titan had been a Dragon, I would have lost as I could not have afforded to Blast a creature that wasn't attacking that turn leaving me to die to flying beats.

4-0

Round 5: Naya

G1: He mulls to 5.

SB: -4 Blightning, +1 Slave, +1 Master, +2 Doom Blades

G2: He casts 3 Bloodbraid Elves, returning Vengevine each time. 2 of the cascades are just Hierarchs, and I fight back into the game. He forgets to return Vengevine one turn when it would put me at dead, and I rip Blast and slam it on his Sparkmage to push through damage and put him at dead on board with me having a Leech and Cobra up to his 2 cards. He rips his 4th Noble Hierarch and has the Sejeri Steppe to kill me with a Bloodbraid Elf from 4.

G3: I keep Leech, Thrinax, Elf, Slave, 3 lands on the play. He has Cobra, Baneslayer (singleton), Elf into Knight. My Elf hits a Lotus Cobra, and I miss my 5th land to not be able to kill his Knight and die.

4-1

Round 6: Howling Mine Runeflare Trap

G1: I keep a low pressure hand with a bunch of burn, but he ends up killing me through triple Bolt in response to his Trap. I possibly should have played them earlier, but I was saving them to respond to Trap to throw off his math.

-2 Blast, -2 Terminate, -1 Grave Titan, -2 Sarkhan, +3 Specter, +3 Duress, +1 Pulse.

G2: I keep an aggressive Leech hand without Pulse or Duress. He has 2 Wall of Omens to hold off Leech and I die.

4-2

Round 7: Naya

G1: Opponent goes T2 Squadron Hawks, discard Vengevine, T3 something, T4 Elf, T5 Elf, T6 Elf, T7 I'm dead and he flashes me the other Elf. He also missed the Vengevine trigger on turns 4 and 5.

Same SB as before.

G2: See above, only he doesn't miss triggers and only casts 2 Elves but both hit Knight of the Reliquary.

4-3


So, what did we learn?

1. Naya can out Elf you, even if they don't get Fauna Shaman up. Oh wait, knew this for 5 months.
2. Grave Titan needs to fly more.
3. I needed to board in the 3rd Sarkhan vs. Naya to close better. Slave was really just a mediocre removal spell, it's not Blast as it doesn't actually add to your board.
4. Thought Hemorrhage probably should be in the board to combat Destructive Force and rando combo decks like Runeflare Trap and Time Sieve.

The deck needs a little work, but I would say the only card that necessarily has to leave the deck is Grave Titan. I'm currently looking at -1 Liliana's Specter, -1 ?, +2 Thought Hemorrhage for the board for sure, and Garruk might go back to the main deck as it is good against Naya, Mythic, and random decks you have to race, despite sucking against UW control.

If you play in a constructed PTQ this weekend or after dropping out of GP Columbus, I would suggest either Jund, Naya, or Destructive Force be your primary options. If you do play UW for some insane reason, know that Path is much better than Condemn still due to Fauna Shaman and Primeval Titan (though you still probably lose both those match ups) and that you should not cut Spreading Seas as you will lose to Jund. Mythic and Red are both just as reasonable as before, assuming you are the kind of player who just likes to ask your opponent "Is this enough?" each game and hope it is. Next Level Bant is still as much of a do nothing deck as it was before, though the Sovereigns hybrid build is cute.

Either way, Jund is currently my top choice for the PTQ in Detroit this weekend. There is a reasonable chance I just go wild however.