Today I'm going to run down all the different Jund cards that I like to use in sideboards. This isn't a list of what my sideboard is right now, it'll be more of a list of cards that I like to have access to, and by that I mean own, that I have practice with and can register for an event when I feel like it. It's not only important to have these cards (and potentially other cards that you might like) but to have used them in the past so you know how to play with them, and how to build your sideboard correctly in order to utilize them. Also, certain cards are going to fit in better with your maindeck plan depending on your exact list at a given time, so it's good to have lots of tricks up your sleeve.
Grim Lavamancer, Shadow Guildmage
Lavadude is one of the go-to anti-creature cards in Jund. It cleans up opposing Birds and Hierarchs, Affinity creatures, Humans, Glistener Elves, lots of stuff like that. Shadow Guildmage is another card that fills the same role, but has fewer applicable targets and can't turn onto your opponent's face as well as Lavamancer. However, Guildmage doesn't depend on your graveyard and is repeatable as often as you want, which is useful not only because you are free to use it more indiscriminately, but post-board opponents are more likely to have graveyard hate for you. Shadow Guildmage is more of a surgical strike when you know Affinity and Noble Hierarch decks will be popular, Grim Lavamancer is worse in those matchups but better across the board and has more applications. And while Lavamancer is reasonable but not great against Burn, Guildmage is a complete blank. Also, (and this is a theme with this deck to watch out for) be careful of utilizing the graveyard too much, since Lavamancer can run out of food quickly if played in the same deck as Tasigurs, Murderous Cuts, or other graveyard-matters cards.
Anger of the Gods, Pyroclasm, Jund Charm, Kozilek's Return
As opposed to the machine-gun-your-squad approach from Lavamancer and Guildmage, these cards look to Plague Wind your opponent's board. That comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages, but most notably they are better on the draw and against Bogles. They are definitely worse when you have your own Dark Confidants or Faerie Rogue tokens hanging out, but you can plan accordingly when you know they are coming. Of these, Anger of the Gods is the most powerful, since it hits Dredge and Kitchen Finks pretty effectively. Pyroclasm is fantastic at catching you up since you can cast it on turn two, and it will usually kill Champion of the Parish before it gets out of control. Jund Charm and Kozilek's Return being an instant are pretty cool, though the only upgrade I can see for Return over Charm is to kill an Etched Champion. Jund Charm is genius against Storm because it hits their Past in Flames and their Empty the Warrens tokens.
Fulminator Mage, Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter, Damping Sphere
Big mana decks are the enemy, so having some land hate is key. Fulminator Mage is solid, but never a knockout blow against anything, just an annoyance. The same is true for Ghost Quarter, but it misses out on any of Fulminator's advantages with Kolaghan's Command and Liliana the Last Hope. Blood Moon is quite good against Tron and lights-out against Valakut and Amulet Titan. It's also solid in some other matchups when opponents don't expect it, including Bogles and Abzan. The problem is that it hurts you significantly, and if you are running the Blood Moon plan, you'll have to set your whole 75 up accordingly. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not. Damping Sphere has been a godsend, since it nukes Tron, Amulet, and some other problems like Storm and Griselbrand. It doesn't do anything against Valakut, however, so you'll need a different plan against them (or just try and win without the hate, which of the big mana decks, is the most susceptible to normal disruption + a clock Magic).
Ancient Grudge, Nature's Claim, Seal of Primordium, Deglamer
These kinds of cards are useful, but not always super important. I used to like having Nature's Claim and Seal of Primordium to fight Splinter Twin, but that's certainly not a problem anymore. However, Leyline of Sanctity is still a problem for you in lots of matchups, and these are always useful against Affinity and Lantern. Deglamer can handle Wurmcoil Engine, so that's cool, but Wurmcoil isn't even that numerous in Tron these days. They all can also tag a Blood Moon in a pinch. Ancient Grudge, while being unable to hit enchantments, is of course extremely powerful. In fact, just having a copy in your 75 makes your Lantern matchup much, much better, since you don't even need to draw it for it to be good.
Duress, Extra Thoughtseizes, Collective Brutality
There are matchups where your spot discard is awful, and there are matchups where your spot discard is the only thing keeping you in the game. One or two more discard spells can help a lot, I like to be able to go up to 8 or 9 against Combo and Control decks. Since those are the decks you want the discard for the most, it makes sense that you can slot in Duress, but Snapcaster Mage is the most important card to hit in the Control matchups, and it noticeably misses there. However, your other 6 or 7 discard spells will snag the Snapcaster, and extra Thoughtseizes are awful against Burn, where you discard is actually pretty solid. As for Collective Brutality, I'm certainly in the minority, but I've just never liked it. I hate missing with the discard effect, the life drain is just small enough to be inconsequential lots of times, and a sorcery speed two-mana disfigure hits a lot fewer creatures than you would think when those creatures already have a Kolaghan's Command waiting for them.
Engineered Explosives, Damnation, Gaze of Granite
These two cards could go in the Anger of the Gods section, but they are kind of a different animal. They are more expensive and generally more powerful effects, but kinda unwieldy. Explosives has always been great for me, since it is useful against a huge amount of matchups, including the dangerous Bogles deck. It's a great answer to Etched Champion and other stuff that is specifically hard to interact with. Damnation has few applications where it's better than a Pyroclasm effect, since if you aren't getting swarmed, you are most likely winning on the board with the biggest creatures. If you're getting your Reality Smashed a lot, then this looks a little better. Gaze of Granite is kinda the best of both worlds, hitting only the creatures and permanents you want, but all of them. However, it's way too expensive for a lot of the quicker decks in the format, so in matchups where you'd most need it, lots of times you are getting run out of the gym or not drawing your lands on time for it to work.
Blightning, Liliana the Last Hope, Painful Truths, Planeswalkers
Depending on the shape of the metagame, there might be times where you're looking for a little more value to power through some matchups. Of these, what I like about Blightning is that it counts as a disruption spell against Combo decks while still giving you a two- or three-for-one. It clocks the opponent in a combo matchup, or it can nuke a Planeswalker from a midrange mirror, all while taking out pieces of cardboard from your opponent's hand. Yes, they get to choose the two cards, but you are either attacking their resources in the midst of an attrition battle, or you're attacking their hand with your other discard spells, reducing their options and lots of times just making them get rid of the last two cards they have. Painful Truths is of course a nombo with Bloodbraid Elf and a huge tempo loss, but Planeswalkers are solid and extremely versatile. Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Garruk Relentless, Chandra Pyromaster, and even Garruk Wildspeaker can do work in the right matchup.
Obstinate Baloth, Kitchen Finks, Huntmaster of the Fells
These are my go-to value animals to bring in against Control decks, Burn decks, and the mirror match or other attrition matchups. Each of them are solid for their own reasons, but basically I try and figure out what decks I expect the most and figure out which of these to play. Finks is the best against Burn, Baloth is the best against the mirror, and Huntmaster is best against Control. Huntmaster is also a fine maindeck card, whereas the other two here are sideboard only. If you don't expect any Blue and White control decks, then Baloth is the best, and is even good against Hollow One and The Rack. But it doesn't do anything about Celestial Colonnade decks, while Huntmaster and Finks are fantastic there.
My plan over the years has been to play at least three or four of these creatures, since the matchups where you want them are the kinds of matchups where you have large swaths of cards to take out. You want to take out all the discard in the mirror, you want no removal against control, and you want no life-loss inducing cards against Burn, so if you can set your deck up to replace all of those cards post-board you'll be doing great.
Grafdigger's Cage, Nihil Spellbomb, Leyline of the Void, extra Scavenging Oozes
Jund runs just enough of its own graveyard utilization to make Relic of Progenitus and Rest in Peace (if you are bold enough for a white splash) pretty poor. However, these other cards are fantastic against graveyard decks.
Grafdigger's Cage is pretty much lights out against Dredge, and helps a lot against Storm and Griselfbrand, but for some weird reason with the rules, it doesn't interact at all with the card Living End, so it's useless there. However, it does turn off Collected Company and Chord of Calling, so if those decks are popping up, Grafdigger's Cage might be your go-to graveyard hate.
Nihil Spellbomb actually removes the whole yard, which is awesome against stuff like Gurmag Angler and Kolaghan's Command rebuys, but worse since it is a one-time effect, then the opponent can reload their yard. Drawing a card makes this card a lot more palatable in various midrange matchups, where it's useful but doesn't cost you anything to play it. I like it against stuff like Grixis Death's Shadow where they utilize their graveyard but not enough so that I want really want to spend resources attacking it.
Leyline of the Void runs the same problem as any other Leyline card, where it's fantastic in your opener but sucks if you draw it later. It does, however, totally KO most graveyard decks on turn 0 of the game, which is nice. I like it less than Spellbomb most of the time because it has fewer applications and is a worse topdeck.
Throwing an extra Scavenging Ooze in your sideboard isn't the worst idea, especially if you're looking for another one of the Kitchen Finks/Obstinate Baloth effects. It's much slower and therefore less reliable against graveyard strategies, but when backed up by a discard spell or two, you will usually have time to make use of it.
Extra Maelstrom Pulse, Abrupt Decay, Fatal Push, Murderous Cut, etc
I don't usually like loading up the sideboard with versatility, since that's what the maindeck is for, but these can be okay to round out the numbers post-board. I always just feel like I can do better with my sideboard slots, but it's not the worse plan to have trusty old Maelstrom Pulse around to have your back. Currently, enemies number 1 and 1A in Modern are Humans and Hollow One, so to round out the deck a little I've been slotting in a single Murderous Cut. It's never amazing but always solid in the matchups where I want it, and versatile enough to come in and do work against a bunch of stuff. It's not typically the role of your sideboard cards, but you just kinda should do what feels good.
And I guess that's the whole idea behind Jund, really, is get in your reps, experiment a lot, and figure out what works for you. You're going to want to be able to be flexible and switch up your sideboard and whole 75 when a new deck comes along or gains popularity. Metagames shift, card selections evolve, the strategy is timeless, not just in-game, but as a concept for Magic as a whole. Identify threats, utilize research, clock and disruption, win tournaments, Jund for life, let's go.
If you'd like to see some Jund in action, check out my YouTube channel or follow me on Twitter. Sometimes, you can even catch me streaming on Twitch. Thanks for reading!
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