Pauper Jund (Pauper MTG Deck)

Pauper Jund

Pauper BRG (Jund) Competitive Midrange Pauper

ilobmirt

REMOVAL (17)

XEROX (6)

CREATURES (17)

LANDS (20)

Sideboard

Other (15)

Maybeboard

REMOVAL (12)

FETCHLANDS (8)

CREATURES (10)

XEROX (3)

3x Merchant of the Vale

BOARDWIPES (8)

When in doubt, Jund em out!

WHAT'S THIS DECK ABOUT?

This deck is but a simple deck. The most fancy thing about it is the snow-land package just for Skred. All you really need to kick ass in magic are some good creatures that stand on their own and some good spells to wipe your opponent's stuff off the map.

WHY NO CASCADE?

I saw other Jund decks in the wild and I felt that building an entire deck around cascade added too much complexity to the deck. You not only have to have the land count for your gigantic spells, but also an added toolkit for ramping out those big spells. This can become more of a hindrance more than a help because you might be aching for a removal spell within your deck instead of your hand, but rather cascade into that, you just cascade into more ramp. Sure, the cascade creatures Annoyed Altisaur and Boarding Party are always gonna be a 2-for-1 because that's what cascade does. But those 6 and 7 mana spells die to the same 0 mana Snuff Out, 2 mana Cast Down, or 2 mana Terminate

If the creature may die anyways, even if the thing is a 2-for-1, why not pay in <=3 mana into it instead? Rather than adding cascade to the deck, I just cantrip instead? The space you get freeing up from those ramp spells can be thus spent towards the bread and butter of what makes Jund JUND. Good Dumb beaters and Removal.

LANDS

They're ice cold! Careful to wear gloves when tapping them.

Okay though. It's a mix of the snow basics to work with Skred, but there also is a fetchland package because we also want to feed the Gurmag Angler and sometimes trick your opponent out with an instant speed fetch-swamp into Snuff Out

I use Riveteers Overlook to dull the bite that the overall burn/tempo meta has been throwing at us as of late. Its only downside being that you can't hold it for the opportunity to trip up your opponent with your plays and you can't hold it to avoid getting hit with Stone Rain effects.

Bedsides that, for fetches, I use Evolving Wilds over Terramorphic Expanse because they've been coming up with some sweet art lately.

I've avoided Ash Barrens because its burned me in the butt just staring at it and nothing else in my opening hand, making it utterly unplayable. But suppose you're not the one with bad RNG, it does offer utility in being an untapped mana generating land itself and you can basic-cycle for the color of land you need and then play that land untapped. It may be even more efficient of a fetchland than Evolving Wilds or Terramorphic Expanse if you can avoid that dreaded starting hand issue.

SNOW-DUALS:

Yes, having lands that could tap for more than one color will allow for more flexibility in what spells are able to be cast that turn. Lands like Highland Forest, Sulfurous Mire, and Woodland Chasm add to the snow count for Skred. Buuuuuut...

There's always a chance that the dual land isn't the color you need right now.
Pauper's Fetchlands are unable to get these cards.
Your pet Gurmag Angler will have no delve food for tonight. You should feel bad about that kind of negligence.
And, worst of all, there's not that much art of it. So If I'm wrong and it's really good, everyone will be seeing this one piece of art for a long time

WHAT ABOUT BRIDGES?

No. Here in jundland we burn bridges. Bridges don't:

Feed your pet Gurmag Angler
Empower 1 mana removal for creatures with 5+ toughness like Skred
Turn on Snuff Out

But for all your troubles, here's the benefits to working with bridges:

BOOM!!! Bye Bye Bridges! Bridges, not even once.

WHAT ABOUT GATES?

Unlikely, but that's because I do like Gurmag Angler, Skred, and Snuff Out too much. But suppose I ever do move on from these cards, yeah. I see it having legs. But I'm simply looking at the new bridges from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate These new gates, unlike the old gates, the snow duals, and the Tarkir gain lands allow you to get the color you need when drawing them. It happens to be all the rage right now in other decks due to Basilisk Gate. It's a near free way to sorcery speed Untamed Might with buyback your creatures and make them dummy thikk for 3 mana EACH TURN. That puts quite some pressure on your opponents.

For this deck though, perhaps not.

XEROX

Faithless Looting:

Red's own little brainstorm™. Faithless looting is a busted legacy level card that saw itself get banned out of modern for the sheer velocity it gave decks. 1 mana divination effects are pretty sweet. Getting to be able to also do it from the graveyard is also sweet. Alright, sure, discarding 2 cards makes it not like divination at all. It actually makes it a sorcery speed Rite of Flame stapled to a Divination!!!! Muahahaha!!!!

When it comes to taking care of your pet Gurmag Angler and Masked Vandal, go with the brand of card that vets trust most. Faithless Looting the only card that efficiently fills that graveyard with what delve creatures love.

Abundant Growth:

There used to be a sweet card called Arcum's Astrolabe and everyone freaked out because even monoblack decks were playing ALL THE COLORS when it was around. Fun times.

This isn't the best one mana color fixing cantrip ever. No. This is merely a tribute.

REMOVAL

Lightning Bolt:

This card reads:

But I suppose destroying creatures with <=3 toughness at instant speed has its utility too. I just love the reach it gives any deck to close the last bits of damage.

Skred:

It can bolt the bird like any turn 1 damage spell, but the beauty and reason why I have this in the deck is that you can kill dummy thikk creatures mid to late game that even lightning bolt can't even reach. It doesn't reach face unfortunately, but its efficiency makes it acceptable.

Snuff Out:

4 Words -

What's 4 life when you're tapped out and that non-black creature absolutely must go? You're usually not spending any mana to drop your opponent's stuff dead and it only takes one swamp being in play on your side to let this happen.

Terminate:

TERMINATE - for when it absolutely has to drop dead.™ I see you Guardian of the Guildpact and I got you a little gift.

If for some rational reason you are not fond of terminate such as:

Your experience with RNG screwing with you when you need to cast this card like your life depends on it
Seeing a ton of Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast in your meta
Unlikely to see a wild Guardian of the Guildpact, River Boa, or Wrap in Vigor in your meta

You probably could swap this card with Cast Down

Chainer's Edict:

From the words of the wise Hank Hill...

Thank you mister Hank Hill of Texas. When targeting systems are offline, you need to resort to using edicts to eliminate hexproof creatures. Chainer's Edict lets you do it again from the graveyard which is sweet. usually, sorcery speed edicts with flashback are enough, but depending on the meta, you might need an instant speed edict.

Devour Flesh - For burn heavy metas, you could turn it against your creatures if needed to stay above a kill spell
Diabolic Edict - Like Chainer's Edict trading flashback for instant speed
Debt to the Kami - May cost an additional mana more, but it also touches enchantments and they are gone for good

Fiery Cannonade:

Go-wide decks exist, and chances are, they've already prepared to have the cards to side in against that wimpy Electrickery In this version, we have Fiery Cannonade to still act like a one-sided board wipe taking out most things at instant speed with toughness 2 or less.

Could consider trading this out for Breath Weapon if by chance you start seeing pirates in your meta. But if you're seeing lots of Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast in your meta, it may be safe to go for Arms of Hadar

CREATURES

Gurmag Angler

World's best 1 drop creature in pauper. Just add graveyard. It may be a dumb beater, but it's a dummy thikk beater that smiles in the face of Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast It will require a hard kill spell or some creativity from your opponent to take down just from you investing 1 mana into the creature.

Just be sure you feed the fish though. Because if you don't, you will be paying full price for this creature at a whopping 7 mana.

Sarulf's Packmate

Move over Spirited Companion and let the real wolf pack show you how 2 drops are done. We can foretell that fido doesn't measure up to this cantripping 3/3 which you can pay 2 easy payments of 2 mana into. All fido can do is face-tank this bad boy, eat pirate-clasm, and lie. Sarulf's packmate is the definition of the value midrange beater.

That also said, a new midrange challenger appeared. Some brave soul might trade in the ease of foretell for Owlbear a 5 mana cantripping 4/4. Which does go over this wolf. I see its value midgame. But I like that I can play the puppy early on turn 3 without help.

Trufflesnout

Weird pick yeah? Why not another decent body like Jewel Thief? Well, this piece of pork is my reverse uno card to burn, tempo, and myself getting too deep with Snuff Out. When you're up a creek, this lil pig can help stabilize your life total till you slap down more threats or dig into removal. When you're feeling fine, this is an on-curve vanilla 3/3 for 3 mana.

Masked Vandal

This is the worst creature in the deck. It only has one power, so it's not much of a clock, why run it? Turns out, artifacts and enchantments exist in pauper. Many of them are pretty damn good. Like you got the bridges that ponza cant usually touch with those Stone Rains then you got Makeshift Munitions and Rancor that deserve removal. Masked Vandal is the card I use to maindeck that hate. It's no guarantee though, its low cost of 2 mana is offset by the need to exile a creature from your own graveyard. Magical Christmas land will let you do that through Faithless Looting on turn 1 followed up with this card.

It just felt right to have a body that has an ETB that dealt with artifacts and enchantments. Would love to see a downshift from Reclamation Sage But for now, it's the most mana efficient on a stick with Masked Vandal

Sideboard this if you aren't seeing much in the way of an artifact or enchantment strategy. Or aren't seeing ninja-faerie decks.

Thorn of the Black Rose

I kid, I kid. But hey, turns out getting exclusive rights to drawing more cards every turn is powerful, and holding onto that can be back breaking to your opponent. The monarch adds pressure with the advantage you have letting you draw into more threats and answers than your opponent could possibly keep up with. But if you lose it, you're in for a bad day.

Sideboard this if you don't feel like you can keep or take back the monarch emblem

SIDEBOARD

Duress

Used against spell heavy decks or combo decks that really shine with their non-creature spells. For the things that our board wipes and Terminate's can't touch. I would put this in against burn, boggles, and curve decks.

Return to Nature

Well rounded Naturalize with added utility in grave hate. Would throw this in for affinity, boggles, moggwarts, and familiars.

Chainer's Edict

For the boggles and mono-white heroic matchup. Also for decks that ask for even more removal than maindeck like hotdogs.

Fiery Cannonade

This is sided in against go-wide decks with a large volume of tiny creatures like elves, tokens, and ninja-faeries

Nihil Spellbomb

This is sided in against graveyard value decks such as moggwarts and familiars

Weather the Storm

This is sided in against burn decks

MATCHUPS

Words go here...got any suggestions?

Perhaps could go into side-boarding and strats against these decks

MONO-RED BURN

THEIR DECK

This can be a stupid-fast linear deck with the single minded goal of burning you to death. It's possible for them to go straight for the kill turn 3 in a fair manner until you get down to 4 life where they are then free to Fireblast you for lethal at instant speed

FIGHTING MONO-RED BURN

Game 1 - Trufflesnout was made for this. You're likely opting to gain life over having a 3/3 body. Be sure to destroy their Thermo-Alchemist on sight and Masked Vandal their Curse of the Pierced Heart.

Game 2+3 - This gets a lil bit better as you got targeted discard and life gain. If you can take away their Searing Blaze, then they may be forced to target your creatures instead of your face as you build up pressure on board. Searing Blaze is typically their only creature centric removal spell as they want to aim face so this may slow them down so you can close the game out.

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RAKDOS MADNESS BURN

THEIR DECK

Where Mono-red tries to get you dead as fast as a Lightning Bolt, Rakdos Burn will aim to burn you out consistently using certain looting effects and madness effects. This deck is certainly helped in part with the blood token mechanic from Innistrad: Crimson Vow and Kitchen Imp for being a quick cheap impression of a goblin guide without downside

FIGHTING RAKDOS MADNESS BURN

Game 1 - You are the control deck. Try slowing down their clock by removing all their Kitchen Imps, leaving blockers for their Voldaren Epicure and gaining life with Trufflesnout. Their best creature is that imp so if you can keep the skies clear, you have total domination of the board state.

Game 2+3 - This will get a bit easier with board wipes and more sources of life gain. While tempting to use discard against burn, Duress would just enable their madness spells. It's possible you might see more dedicated creature removal from their sideboard. Be sure to stay on top that board state and you should be fine.

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U(r/b?) NINJA-FAERIES

THEIR DECK

The top dog of this archetype tends to be mono-blue, but sometimes, this deck would also splash red or black to leverage better removal spells. The core with this deck is to leverage cheap + evasive creatures with a useful ETB and have ninjas re-buy those ETB effects. Notable faeries being Faerie Seer being like a Preordain trading the draw with a 1/1 flier, and Spellstutter Sprite just being a strictly better Counterspell against most things in this eternal format provided you also have the number of faeries to counter the spell. The notable ninjas that make this deck work are Ninja of the Deep Hours and Moon-Circuit Hacker they both are pretty much most of the xerox of the deck and buy back those faerie ETB effects. Combined, you get a fast and reactive tempo deck meant to frustrate and out-clock opponents till the GGs start rollin out.

FIGHTING NINJA-FAERIES

Game 1 - You got 17 creatures that can stand on their own against this deck. Any one of them should definitely be more than capable of holding the ground against a ninja. I'd worry more about the Faeries because those can go over us and none of our stuff has flying or reach. Take out the evasive threats and your opponent will be forced to pay full-price for a bad and easily blockable beater. Take note that it's best to remove creatures outside of the combat step because ninjutsu will mess with targeted removal. Odd enough, it's odd seeing Moon-Circuit Hacker is an enchantment, but that means your Masked Vandal gets free value on its ETB as an actual removal spell.

Game 2+3 - You may see a playset of Hydroblast but also, you sided in more removal against their deck. So it's a washup as far as removal is concerned. Gameplay should be the same as usual. You got good creatures that will win a 1 on 1 match against their board. Keep the skies clear and tax their ninjas. Work around ninjutsu with your removal.

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MOGGWARTS

THEIR DECK

First Day of Class + Putrid Goblin + Skirk Prospector That's the combo. With these three cards, your opponent will have as much mana as their heart desired. Throw in mana outlets like Dark-Dweller Oracle to give them access to the rest of their deck and Makeshift Munitions (or worse for you... Pyromatics and Flamewave Invoker) to burn you out and you're toast.

This deck also proactively carries between 2-4 Duress maindeck to protect their combo. And to help get and keep these important pieces for said combo will be Goblin Matron to tutor the combo and Unearth to get it back into play if any of its pieces ate removal.

The only thing going for you this matchup is that they shouldn't have answers to your creatures. That said, they hope to combo you out before you hope to deal lethal combat damage with 3/3s and 5/5s

FIGHTING MOGGWARTS

Game 1 - Initially your opponent will be tough to fight against. They have so many ways to keep combo creatures in play against removal. If they do happen to play Makeshift Munitions before the combo this could be punished with Masked Vandal hopefully buying you time as they need to go find the other Munitions. If they are on a combo turn, note that you can point removal at Skirk Prospector before the persist trigger on Putrid Goblin resolves. You're not going to have much against this combo otherwise and this is hoping that they don't carry anything to tutor or reanimate Skirk Prospector second mainphase while First Day of Class is in effect. You need to hold and save your removal against their key pieces to win.

Game 2+3 - Pray the combo away. But for real tho, hitting the combo payoffs with Duress will go a long way. They got support for their creature engine, but they don't have much support for getting their non-creature payoffs. Also pray in that time, you can catch a Putrid Goblin mid persist with your 5 pieces of grave hate. If you can weather that much, your creatures and bolts can then close the distance.

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GRIXIS AFFINITY

THEIR DECK

Grixis Affinity is a deck that has enjoyed a ridiculously explosive past with Atog + Fling or even a good Disciple of the Vault or two. But now it's just a grindy midrange value deck with a solid xerox and removal package. Deadly Dispute + Ichor Wellspring is basically build-your-own Ancestral Recall But Deadly Dispute certainly can work to draw cards from creatures or lands already doomed to go into the bin. Myr Enforcer and Frogmite are their bread + butter threat package though you may also find across the table Gurmag Angler and/or Gearseeker Serpent typically being rebought later in game with a Blood Fountain. Also let's not forget Makeshift Munitions for giving the deck reach to close out the game as well as help control the board. It's one of this deck's better value pieces.

FIGHTING GRIXIS AFFINITY

Game 1 - Try saving the Masked Vandal for their Makeshift Munitions and Blood Fountain (if tapped out) but besides that, everything outside of Lightning Bolt is going to take care of their creatures. I'd worry if they manage to dump a large and wide boardstate of Myr Enforcer in one turn. But if that's not the case, we should try and be the tempo deck, not the control deck.

Game 2+3 - This should get a bit easier with extra hate pieces like Return to Nature that actually have teeth against their deck over Lightning Bolt. An explosive turn on thier part would still probably make you sad, but you should be more tuned to disrupt their gameplan with Duress

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GATES

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PONZA

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BOROS MIDRANGE

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BOGGLES

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MONO-WHITE HEROIC

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MONO-BLACK CONTROL

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UW FAMILIARS

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HOTDOGS

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ELVES

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INFECT

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URx CURVE

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Casual

94% Competitive

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WU
Key combos	Atog + Fling First Day of Class + Putrid Goblin + Skirk Prospector Deadly Dispute + Ichor Wellspring
Legality	This deck is Pauper legal.
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.77
Tokens	Foretell, Monarch Emblem
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