Get To Know Your Metagame: Jund
Features
KrazyCaley
12 May 2010
1286 views
12 May 2010
1286 views
I had a lot of positive feedback about that last article introducing some new standard contenders, so I thought it would be good to add an article detailing the REST of the metagame! This is the first of a 7-part series.
Jund is still the boss as far as I'm concerned. To be The Man, you have to beat The Man, and if you want your standard deck to win tournaments, it will have to be able to beat Jund.
Core cards (basically always there)
Bloodbraid Elf, Blightning, Sprouting Thrinax, Putrid Leech, Lightning Bolt, Maelstrom Pulse
Secondary cards (Depends on which build you see)
Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Broodmate Dragon, Garruk Wildspeaker, Jund Charm, several others.
How it works
Jund is essentially a midrange/aggro deck. It will win by pummelling you to death with relatively small creatures that stack up over time. What makes it work so well is that all or most of its cards are VERY efficient. For instance, no Jund deck would be complete without 4x Bloodbraid Elf. For four mana, you get a hasty 3/2 AND something else. While the extra bonus depends on the individual workings of each deck, Bloodbraid Elf typically turns over, in increasing order of awfulness, Lightning Bolt, Terminate, Maelstrom Pulse (these removal cards are more rarely turned over; most Jund decks prefer not to run too much removal, though most do keep at least some around), Putrid Leech, Sprouting Thrinax, and Blightning.
It's tough to keep up with this kind of efficiency! When Jund pays mana and uses a card from their hand, they are usually getting better net value than most decks. In the worst case scenario, for the low cost of one card from your hand and four mana, you are getting a 3/2, dealing 3 damage to your opponent, and making them discard two. That's a very nasty play indeed. And cards like Putrid Leech and Sprouting Thrinax are also painful- the leech is a two-drop that can hit for four damage, and the Sprouting Thrinax is obviously efficient.
How to beat it
To kill Jund, you need the right tools. First of all, you will have to have removal cards of SOME sort. Running a few walls will not be enough; Jund can put down LOTS of creatures very quickly. Preferably you will remove multiple creatures at once so that you can equalize with Jund in getting the same bang for your buck when you play a card. At the least you'll need a few Path to Exiles or other instant-speed removal so you can slow them down a bit. Day of Judgment is a great card against Jund; Infest and Volcanic Fallout aren't so much, though. Path to Exile is the preferred spot removal, as Jund isn't a particularly mana-thirsty deck, and it helps in getting rid of those damned Sprouting Thrinaxes without having to deal with all the 1/1s.
Planeswalkers usually work well against Jund; they pull damage off of you and onto themselves, and they are competitive in terms of efficiency because you can use them multiple times. If you go this route, you will probably want the more controll-y planeswalkers. (See the American Planeswalkers deck in the last article).
Finally, you do have to be able to take a Blightning and keep on ticking. Decks that try to be faster than Jund in terms of creatures (like Vampires for instance) tend not to do so well because Jund can quickly catch up in board position by about turn 4, and because Blightning will absolutely crush these fast aggro-creature decks by making them run out of gas much more quickly. Swerve is a great sideboard card for those of you running decks with U and R; Swerving a Blightning back at Jund is usually game over for them since each individual card has such high value for them. (Making Jund discard in general is a very good idea). If you can't Swerve the Blightnings, make sure that you have those efficient cards, like Day of Judgment, Planeswalkers, or your mass-removal/repeatable effect of choice.
In sum, think of playing against Jund as a card-efficiency contest. They are getting a certain value for their plays- four mana nets them a 3/2 and something else nasty. You will have to get a GREATER value if you want to win- your four mana will have to kill a LOT of creatures, or bring down a Planeswalker that will survive a while, etc. No matter what deck you play, be PATIENT against Jund. Don't be afraid to take a bit of damage in order to maximize the value of your plays. And make sure you have a late game plan- the ONLY way to beat Jund is to get cards of superior quality, if a higher mana cost. If you try to go toe to toe with Jund by having better cards in the 1-5 CMC range, you will lose. Jund HAS many or most of the best cards in the 1-5 CMC range.
Good sideboard choices
Swerve, Day of Judgment, Double Negative, Mind Rot, Duress or Inquisition of Kozilek, Lightning Bolt, Celestial Purge, Slave of Bolas, Path to Exile, Brave the Elements, Kor Firewalker, etc.
DeckBuilder345 says... #3
This is why decks that can survive long enough to get to the late game with mana ramp abilities and pull out an eldrazi or two are very successful. I have been testing out some decks with mana ramp, and seems like they win 50% of the time vs your standard jund deck. Making it to 8 mana is key to beating jund in those decks, but getting that first eldrazi out is usually the win. Haven't found one i am real happy with yet, but i think that has a lot to do with not having enough time to work on it.
May 12, 2010 11:37 p.m.
DeckBuilder345 says... #4
I meant to say 6 mana. Usually at 6 mana you can get some decent fatties that allow you to retake the advantage, and run the board. The problem is getting to 6. Also to clarify my previous comment getting out an eldrazi with annihilator can be quite devastating against jund.
May 12, 2010 11:41 p.m.
I just wanted to put in an update for those that don't really follow the meta much.
Jund (Ex. Jund (Simon Gortzen)) was basically THE deck in standard since Lorwyn rotated out. Bloodbraid Elf is still arguably the strongest card in standard, Blightning and Putrid Leech are up there as well. The reason this deck is so great is it can beat you fast (turn 5-7), but the cascade/card advantage makes it strong at any point in the game.
The jury is still out, but according to many sources the U/W or R/W/U control lists are now strong enough to beat it, thanks to Wall of Omens and Gideon Jura .
In my opinion, Jund is by no means dead, but if you intend to play it at a tournament, you need to fix it so it is either
A) Faster, beating control decks before they are set, or
B) Better against / more answers to Day of Judgment , Martial Coup , Planeswalkers.
One solution that is seeing some play is dropping Broodmate Dragon and playing 4x Plated Geopede to give you eight 2-drops and speed up the deck. See geo-jund. Anyways just an update on how the meta game is evolving!
May 13, 2010 2:34 a.m.
merubhanot says... #7
Good article. I only have 1 issue.
Putrid Leech sees a lot of play in Jund, but there are a number of successful decks that don't play it, so I'd say it's about as debatable (as a staple) as Terminate . On the other hand, almost every jund deck runs at least 2 Broodmate Dragon . I'd consider that more of a staple.
As a side thought, I think Jund is going to take a backseat to Vengevine naya in the new meta. I've been playtesting my deck Bursting with Vigor against Jund with phenomenal results. Discarding two Vengevine s to a Blightning is just so beautiful. Just a thought :-)
May 13, 2010 2:36 a.m.
KC, I love the fact you are going over the standard meta and breaking down the core cards of the decks. I really look forward to seeing this series continue.
May 13, 2010 4:06 a.m.
I don't think Jund is going to go anywhere until the set rotates out in October. It'll retain its deathgrip on Standard because it is efficient. People can say that the deck plays itself and isn't original, but it is hard to argue with card advantage. There are some decks that beat Jund now (and reliably), but I think that Jund still has better match-ups against most decks than most decks have against Jund.
May 13, 2010 4:11 a.m.
merubhanot says... #10
Oh, I think jund will always be tier 1 (until October), but I really think Vengevine is really the edge naya needed to beat it. Naya was (according to most data) about 47-53 against jund, and better than 50 against the rest of the field. (LSV proved that) With Vengevine , which is amazing against blightning, removal, etc, I think that can be raised to 50 something percent. beating the whole field would make Naya the deck to beat.
Just my guess. It may be just because I love my new deck. ;-)
May 13, 2010 4:37 a.m.
The deck to beat is Blue White Control. It beats Jund. Spreading Seas basically sets you up for game.
May 13, 2010 4:54 a.m.
merubhanot says... #13
There is a time when I would have agreed with that, but with Wall of Omens , I think tap-out control has gotten really strong. Gideon + Elspeth + Jace is also a terrifying lock.
May 13, 2010 11:36 a.m.
SupremeAlliesCommander says... #15
I had a chance to read it as originally posted. Twas a great read, but breaking it up into a 7-part series is an improvement. There is plenty to be discussed for each archetype.
Good stuff. Very helpful for a newb like myself.
May 13, 2010 1:14 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #16
@merubhanot
Correct about Putrid Leech . It IS more of a secondary card, but it seems like more Jund players are putting it in these days in an attempt to make the deck faster.
May 13, 2010 5:53 p.m.
tapanmeister says... #17
U/W/R Planeswalkers (I.E. The Superfriends) is an excellent deck, but it has not had the kinks worked out yet. At the PTQ my friends found it to dominate when it worked, and inconsistent when it didn't, which was about half the time.
Jund, in some variation, is still going to be a dominant force until october. People will still need to have their sideboards tuned to deal with it.
In my opinion, Grixis (cruel) control is going to be a growing power. Deprive with Halimar Depths , along with Blightning pwning and jace fatestiching will be giving players fits all summer.
jokercrow says... #1
Thank you so much for the info ! I always been wandering what all those deck type means.
May 12, 2010 10:49 p.m.