Extremely Way Too Early WAR Spoilers

Chester Bennington definitely would have been a Jund player.

So I am pumped as hell for this set. Planeswalkers are midrange gold.

So of course I'm a big Bitterblossom fan, and this card is the first thing I gravitate towards. Lemme give y'all a little history lesson.

The original 5 Planeswalkers were pretty good. Garruk Wildspeaker was really good right out of the gates, Ajani Goldmane was solid once Spectral Procession was printed. The thing about them was that the format was pretty hostile towards them. Time Spiral had all of these tempo cards like cheap counterspells, Tarmogoyf, Ancestral Vision, good red cards. And Lorwyn was a tribal-themed set, which of course leads to really linear decks that are pretty obvious builds. You've gotta have a really good reason to put a planeswalker in your Goblin deck instead of a different Goblin. The real nail in the coffin was Bitterblossom, which was was impossible to interact with and provided a once-per-turn value add at a cheaper and less vulnerable card type than Planeswalkers, plus the tokens were super good at pressuring opposing Planeswalkers.

What happened when people started putting Jace Beleren in Faeries, though, is that we learned how good Bitterblossom was at blocking and making your planeswalkers better. All of a sudden you had two card advantage engines that, while small, cost 0 mana per turn and worked really well in concert with each other. The best thing to with Planeswalkers is to just cast one every turn and snowball them together, but that's only possible if you can keep them alive. What's great about Bitterblossom is that it basically is a planeswalker, but also plays great defense to keep your bigger Planeswalkers alive. Also, Bitterblossom only costs two mana, which is the other thing wrong with the Planeswalker into Planeswalker plan: they all cost four and five mana.

We can talk about the reasons why Dreadhorde Invasion is worse than Bitterblossom, but as some pros point out when cards that are similar to classic cards are printed, "Bitterblossom isn't legal, so it's not worth comparing this card to it." But just to point out some differences, losing flying is a huge deal. That said, you actually get to attack with the extra counter you put on the creature in your upkeep. Bitterblossom, you would attack with some tokens but one would have summoning sickness, but with Dreadhorde you get to attack for that extra point of damage. That makes it better in multiples, since the difference between attacking for 3 then 5 then 7 is huge compared to attacking for 1 then 3 then 5. Also, and this is a big deal, is that sometimes you would lose to your life total even though Bitterblossom had totally taken over the game, while Dreadhorde has a safety valve for that with the lifelink ability. It won't come up often, but it's there.

The other thing that's interesting about this card vs Bitterblossom is just how awful Bitterblossom would have been if Goblin Chainwhirler was in the format (Well, that's not true, Bitterblossom still would have been the best card. They printed Volcanic Fallout, Zealous Persecution, and Great Sable Stag and couldn't stop it.). Dreadhorde actually plays around Chainwhirler a little bit. And while Bitterblossom had great Faerie synergies...

I'm pretty stoked for this as a sideboard card. I've finally started adding Cry of the Carnarium to my Jund sideboard to deal with Red and White and Selesnya, and this card leaves a creature in its wake and doesn't blow up your zombie tokens. And, you know, Wraths and blockers are great for keeping your Planeswalkers alive. I'm really excited about this one as well.

For a while I've kind of hoped that we had a good ramp spell, something like Farseek or Sylvan Caryatid that was good in the past. Llanowar Elves doesn't really do it, since it adds green and is nigh-uncastable on turn one. Now we have that option available to us, the question will now be if we want it or not. We run headlong into Chainwhirler with this card, but it can't really be interacted with outside of that, and unlike Sylvan Caryatid it can actually attack a Planeswalker if need be. And, you know, another thing that's good with Planeswalkers is casting them a turn early. Vraska Golgari Queen or Karn, Scion of Urza both seem great on turn 3, and Angrath or Vivien on turn 4 seems awesome too. plus the Druid does a little bit of defensive work in a pinch.

As for actual Planeswalkers from the set, this is kind of the only one that's really sparked my interest. The problem is two-fold: do you want a 6 mana planeswalker in your deck, and is it better than Vraska Relic Seeker.

Vraska has some problems associated with it as well. Sometimes it sucks that it's your top end and then on the next turn you don't have anything good to cast and have to hope Vraska gets you there. Liliana has a nice little card advantage engine built in, and notice that it doesn't say non-token creatures for the extra Dreadhorde value. Vraska also gets trumped by Carnage Tyrant, while Liliana's -4 takes care of implacable death lizards quite nicely. You probably just want to make sure you don't play your own Carny Boiz in the same deck as Liliana, but she's got great synergy with Rekindling Phoenix.

Six mana is a lot, though, so who knows. I think it'll definitely see play, but whether it's good enough for our awesome unbeatable Jund Planeswalkers deck is yet to be decided.

There have been some other Planeswalkers leaked, but the pictures of them suck and none of them in the Jund colors are really that good. However, while I was writing this post, this beautiful card was spoiled: 

First thing I thought of was actually not Standard, but Modern. In Modern, we already play at least 4 Liliana planeswalkers, and this would make a pretty good cast for adding in a couple more. This deals nicely with Thing in the Ice and opposing Death's Shadows and Tarmogoyfs and whatnots. Making them pitch an extra card in the process is amazing when you can get it off. It doesn't even target so it gets around Leyline of Sanctity out of the Bogles decks. EAT SHIT SLIPPERY BOGLE!!!!!!! Also, who's discarding cards now, Reality Smasher? And I can't wait until someone Through the Breaches and Emrakul at me and we toast 'em. I am PUMPED.

I'll definitely be playing a couple of these in Modern Jund going forward for the forseeable future, and possibly some Liliana the Last Hope to help facilitate it. I love it. Absolutely love it.

UPDATE:

Angrath's Anger (?) -  Sorcery RB - Choose one, Target player sacrifices an artifact, Target player sacrifices a creature, Target player sacrifices a Planeswalker.

Looks great. It's clearly less powerful than Bedevil for a lot of reasons, but being cheaper and not requiring double black is a pretty big deal.

Sacrifice effects are usually pretty bad when your opponent has something like Llanowar Elves laying around and you want to hit their big baddie, but if the card you want to hit is a Planeswalker, you're in the clear. Is that enough to warrant this over Bedevil? Maybe it's not an either/or situation, but a 3/3 split? It's tough to have all your removal be the expensive and versatile stuff. Also, sacrifice effects are good for the same reasons Liliana's -4 and Liliana's Triumph are good: Carnage Tyrant, Dive Down. All good stuff here. Removal that's not dead against Esper (like Bedevil and Vraska's Contempt) is great, but cheap removal that's not dead against Esper and lets you keep pace with the aggro decks is awesome. Plus, if we're going to play a bunch of Planeswalkers, the more answers to The Immortal Sun we have, the better.

Cards That Miss The Cut

In my last post, I talked about Standard Jund. It's a list that I've worked on for pretty much the entirety of Arena's existence, so I've tried and passed on a bunch of different cards. Here's the list for reference:

Basically, I just want to talk about the cards that didn't make it into this deck. Standard is full of a lot of really good cards, so deciding which ones to play is really tough, since you are likely to be winning a game with Card A even though Card B is the card you should have been playing.

Llanowar Elves

This card, however, is unlike all the other cards in the format because it dictates how you build the entire rest of your deck. It became clear to me that this wasn't going to be a Llanowar Elves deck when I decided that I wanted Rekindling Phoenix and Bedevil. The extra green mana from the elf isn't that big of a help, and you also need to warp your land base to be able to cast it on the first turn. It's certainly powerful, but we also aren't losing games because we draw Llanowar Elves in the late game when we need to draw action, and we aren't losing games because our opponent had removal for our land-light elf-heavy hand.

Dire Fleet Daredevil, Thorn Lieutenant

I like both of these cards because they are early game plays that scale up in power as the game goes on, so they are good topdecks late but can also help put on pressure or play defense early. However, the biggest reason that I cut them is that mono-blue decks are all the rage right now and they don't do enough to either help you hit land drops and cast your big stuff or fight their flying attackers. All the other creatures in the deck do that, kind of. I think that, as the metagame fluctuates, these two cards might find their way back into the 75.

Incubation Druid, Growth Chamber Guardian

Growth Chamber Guardian was pretty bad. We're tapping out early and often and turning a 2/2 into a 4/4 isn't really worth spending our mana on in the early game. Not to mention, if you play one of these you kind of have to play four, which I don't want to do. Incubation Druid ran into same problem that Llanowar Elves did, in that it's a boost but only if your opponents want you to have it. The adapt ability costs a lot of mana, so it doesn't really come into play too often.

Wildgrowth Walker

The reason I don't have Wildgrowth Walker in the list is because I play District Guide over Jadelight Ranger. I would probably change the list a lot otherwise, because right now Walker is a pretty good plan, although that doesn't always seem to be the case in this format.

Jadelight Ranger

This card is really really good, but the problem is the mana requirements. Similarly to the Llanowar Elves land situation, it's tough to guarantee that we can have 1GG on turn three of the game. Additionally, Jadelight Ranger doesn't always let you hit your land drops, while District Guide does, and it gives you the color you're missing 100% of the time. You can hit two lands off of Jadelight Ranger but also still miss the black source you're missing for Chupacabra.

Lava Coil, Cast Down, Assassin's Trophy

Honestly Assassin's Trophy shouldn't even be in this category since you really don't want to cast it on turn two, but sometimes you have to. The thing I want to avoid with this deck's removal suite is to have cards that are dead against Esper Control. Bedevil at least answers their planeswalkers, Carnival/Carnage is Blightning if you want it to be, and Rakdos Firewheeler is a pretty solid aggressive creature. If I was going to play one of these cards, it would be Cast Down, since the instant speed is really important against Mono Blue. Assassin's Trophy isn't really that much of a consideration since I don't want to cast it early against aggro decks anyways.

Legion Warboss, Gruul Spellbreaker

These two cards I actually kind of like, but they fit with the theme of the deck a little less than Midnight Reaper and the other stuff we've got going on. Spellbreaker is solid enough against Red and White aggro, but not against Blue. Warboss is fine if you get to your combat step, but the 1/1 creature has to suicide attack a lot of the time, and the Boss itself doesn't block well at all. While I like these cards, the room for slots is tight and they just don't quite fit the theme well enough of hitting land drops and letting us cast planeswalkers and two-for-ones.

Ripjaw Raptor

I think there's a version of this deck that's a little different and plays this, Carnage Tyrant, and Regisaur Alpha, maybe even Ranging Raptors, and then Thunderherd Migration. It's pretty bad, but I just so badly want to play with Thragtusk, y'know? Anyways, Ripjaw Raptor might be a consideration if people were still playing red in their control decks instead of black, but the difference between Cast Down and Justice Strike on this is huge. Plus, the aggro decks nowadays aren't all just ground creatures and burn spells, it's flying creatures that Ripjaw Raptor does nothing against.

Vraksa's Contempt

We've got Bedevil, and I very rarely run into opposing Rekindling Phoenixes and Seraph of the Scales.

Regisaur Alpha, Siege Gang Commander, Biogenic Ooze

The problem with these cards is how soft they are to Kaya's Wrath (and Cleansing Nova, et al). Granted, they pretty much require a wrath by themselves, but when you get your board wiped and follow up with a planeswalker, you're way ahead. If you do that with one of these but then get wrathed again, you're kind of nowhere.

Doom Whisperer, Skarrgan Hellkite

I think an interesting situation has come up where Vivien Reid is so good against big flying creatures that people don't want to play them, but Mono Blue Tempo is so good against the absence of big flying creatures and it might be right to play them again. When I was playing 50% Vivien mirrors, these cards seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. At this point in the metagame, it might be time to give them a spin again. However, that means cutting some cards, specifically the more expensive ones in the deck like Vivien or Angrath, which are basically the best cards you have. I could see Skarragan Hellkite being a really good option if the format gets flooded with Mono-Blue, more so than it is now.

Carnage Tyrant, Vraska Relic Seeker

Six mana is just too much to fight the aggro decks in the format. Carnage Tyrant was originally in the list pretty much to fight other Carnage Tyrants. Midrange mirrors devolved into a battle of Carnage Tyrants, getting them back with Memorial to Folly and Find/Finality, and just bashing them into each other until someone forgot to cast a Carnage Tyrant for a turn and died. Now that everyone is doing Hydroid Krasis, Carnage Tyrant doesn't really work anymore and we don't need it. Vraska is better than Carnage Tyrant right now, but in this format, it doesn't seem to be worth playing a six-mana card. Even the midrange mirrors have Disdainful Stroke!

Find/Finality

This is a more recent cut, because I had it in the deck for a long time but eventually experimented with shaving a few and didn't miss it. While it's awesome against white aggro, if it's not good against Red or Blue, why is it in the deck? It's a card that's undeniably powerful, but requires a lot of setup to get value out of either side that you either don't draw the required resources for or don't have time for.

Memorial to Folly

This one's tough, because I really miss it, but I think we're better off without it. This particular Standard format has taught me a lot about hitting land drops, having them untapped, and just being able to cast your stuff on time. That hasn't always been the case for me in Standard, I'm always a little greedy trying to get some juice out of my lands. Some of the time, though, the best mana fixing is the value lands, like Temple of Malady or Hissing Quagmire. That's definitely not the case in this format, where you are stretched to cast three colors of spells, try to squeeze value out of your lands, and play enough basics to play around Assassin's Trophy and Field of Ruin. It's tough, but in the format as it exists right now, you don't have enough time in lots of your matchups to make use of Memorial to Folly anyways, and in those matchups in particular, the entering tapped is a huge cost.

Getting to this point has been a fun process. I still don't think I'm done with this deck, because let's face it, I never am done with tinkering and trying new stuff out. But I like where it's at and I'm going to try to grind some rankings with it this month. Stay tuned for that, I'll be doing a bunch on my Twitch channel and on Youtube. Thanks for reading!

District Guide is the Best Card Ever Printed Ever

You know what I'm going to do? A legit-ass deck run-through and sideboard guide.

Because this deck is legit.

3 Seekers' Squire, 4 Merfolk Branchwalker

I've talked about this a lot before, but these are the perfect cards for the deck. You get to keep up the pace on the board by playing some pretty solid rate creatures, you get to hit land drops or even get a little scry value, and you get to do this while adding to your creature count to help Vivien Reid and Find/Finality have plenty of targets. I'm down to seven total copies of this effect, because we are in need of some extra late game help, and they aren't at their best against the mono-blue tempo deck. By the way, the mono-blue tempo deck is Enemy #1 right now, but it's perfectly beatable if you tune your deck to beat it.

4 District Guide, 2 Midnight Reaper, 2 Thrashing Brontodon

So District Guide is just straight up better than Jadelight Ranger in this deck. The reason is that we don't need a ton of lands, but we do need specific ones, since we have strict color requirements. If we needed a large volume of mana, for say, Hydroid Krasis, we would want Jadelight because it can get you two lands at a time. District Guide is just perfect for us.

I've been impressed by Midnight Reaper, but it's an effect I don't think I want too many of. Multiples being drawn could net you a lot of cards, but you're likely to lose a lot of life in that way and it becomes a problem, and in a related story, it's bad against red. It is, however, awesome with Angrath and with Vraska, Golgari Queen.

Brontodon lives on the chopping block in the 60. It's your best card against anything with Gates, anything with Wilderness Reclamation, red, and it's great against control decks, too. However, it's at its worst against any midrange mirror or against decks that don't care about the body. It has the perfect stats to be useless against Crackling Drake, Enigma Drake, and Tempest Djinn, as well, so I take them out there. I like having 4 in the 75, and they aren't the worst draw in the world even if the activated ability is a blank.

2 Bedevil, 1 Vraska's Contempt, 3 Carnival/Carnage

I'm not sure about the split here, but Contempt's life gain and exiling is certainly welcome so I don't mind having access to it. If you end up facing more Rekindling Phoenixes, then by all means go to more copies of Contempt, but the cheaper removal spells are important.

Carnival/Carnage is a card that I tried to get into the list here and there in the past, but now I'm not playing without it. If you can answer the tempo and aggro decks one-for-one and break even on mana, you're way way way ahead of the game. It's a godsend against Sultai, since fast Llanowar Elf draws are the most common way to lose the matchup, but Carnage isn't dead in the late game. If it could hit planeswalkers like Blightning could, it would be absolutely amazing, but I think it's great anyways.

4 Rekindling Phoenix, 2 Ravenous Chupacabra, 2 Rakdos Firewheeler, 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen

The thing about Chupacabra at the moment is that it's the only dead card against Esper control. Every other card in the deck at least does something, even if targeting a Teferi with a removal spell isn't really the best thing in the world, it's at least got value. That said, the effect of a value creature that deals with your opponent's stuff and then pressures their planeswalkers is really really good in the format. Firewheeler does this too, while not being completely dead against control decks, it's like a 4/3 with crappy haste. It can't hit the big creatures, but, not a lot of big creatures exist that don't have flying, and those ones can get picked off by Vivien. Being the deck with Firewheeler when both decks have a Vivien Reid going is a big deal.

Vraska kind of has this same effect of a removal spell attached to a permanent of varying value. If you can remove something and force your opponent to attack into a blocker, that's usually pretty good. It also is another answer to Search for Azcanta, which can't be understated. The ultimate threat is helpful but it rarely ever happens. Don't be afraid to cash in a Vraska when you feel pressured, it doesn't have a ton of value outside of the removal spell aspect, and if you can get two Abrupt Decays out of it, you're doing great.

2 Vivien Reid, 3 Angrath, the Flame-Chained, 1 Find/Finality

These are your big payoff spells, which is actually pretty light considering everything. I've been pretty happy cutting Find/Finality and using those slots on the cheaper Carnival/Carnage. C/C always has at least some effect on the game, but F/F can make your hands quite clunky and is really susceptible to Spell Pierce. Being able to play at instant speed can make or break the mono-blue matchup.

Angrath has moved from sideboard-flex-slot-maybe card to the main source of late-game power in the deck. I'm just so impressed when it's in play, it's either a really awesome removal spell that deals your opponent damage, or it gives you an incredible inevitability engine while clocking them and taking away their resources. The fact that the +1 ability hits them from two angles is phenomenal, and alongside Vraska, Golgari Queen and Midnight Reaper, you can even get a little bit of extra value out of the Threaten effect. If you're sitting there hoping your opponent plays a 12/12 Krasis, that's a good card.

I've even brought Vivien Reid down to a 2-of to make room for Angrath. Vivien is awesome in her own right, however. I don't think I need to expand much on why, but Naturalize effects and shooting down flyers happens to be really strong in the format right now, not to mention she has a huge amount of loyalty and helps you either draw a card or hit land drops every turn, whichever one is better for you.

Before we continue, I'm noticing that it's really easy to make this article just be, like, "here are the cards I play, I play them because they are good." when in reality, the whole problem with deck building is figuring out what to cut from the deck, not add. I think my next post will be about the cards I'm not playing, which is maybe more interesting. At least it'll give insight to how I build decks and why I choose the cards I do.

24 Land, including 5 basics and 0 Memorial to Folly

5 basics is the bare minimum for District Guide. You draw them pretty infrequently, but even when you do, they help out your check-lands but don't cost you life. One Forest is the worst one to draw because it doesn't help cast Rakdos Firewheeler or Bedevil, but I have yet to have that come up.

0 Memorial could be wrong, but again, unlike the Sultai decks with their Jadelights and Llanowar Elves, we have good and enough mana, but not excessive amounts usually. Not having late game mana sinks isn't as big of a deal when you can hit every spot on your curve with the strongest threat at each mana cost, and Memorial costs us in that department.

Sideboard

The sideboard for this deck has been an interesting puzzle to figure out. 4 Duress is a must, but which removal spells and how many is a big question. Shivan Fire has been a godsend, since it helps with both aggro decks with cheap creatures and aggro decks with big creatures. I don't want Shock or Moment of Craving against Gruul or Mono-Green, but being able to shoot a Llanowar Elf on curve is something I'll take when it's available to me.

In addition to that, we've got the rest of the Thrashing Brontodons to round out 4 in the 75. Don't leave home without 'em. Outside of that, we're just looking for cards that add a bunch of value, but specifically aren't so expensive that we lose some of our advantage in the midrange mirror. 1 Vraska, Relic Seeker is the deepest I'll go down the midrange arms-race rabbit hole, since it actually deals with Hydroid Krasis pretty effectively. Siege-Gang Commander is the next card on the chopping block, as I haven't found myself bringing it in very often.

Sideboard Guide

Mono Blue Tempo: +2 Shivan Fire, +2 Moment of Craving, +2 Cast Down, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, -2 Thrashing Brontodon, -1 Vivien Reid, -2 Angrath the Flame Chained, -1 Seekers' Squire, -1 Find/Finality

I could be convinced that Duress is worth bringing in, now that these decks play a lot more non-creature spells. But either way, the idea is to just have really cheap and instant speed removal to help not get tempo'd out. That's basically the trick to the whole matchup, keep the board as clear as you can, say go with an instant speed removal spell up, and when they counter it, untap and use a Planeswalker or Nekrataal to kill the creature instead.

Red: +2 Cast Down, +2 Shivan Fire, +2 Moment of Craving, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, +2 Thrashing Brontodon, -2 Angrath, -2 Bedevil, -2 Midnight Reaper, -1 Find/Finality, -2 Merfolk Branchwalker

Vivien is okay here to have some insurance against Experimental Frenzy, but she's not at her best. She doesn't hit any creatures, and so is kinda useless at affecting the board outside of Frenzy. It's a red deck, their whole plan is pretty easy to figure out, if not very easy to actually beat. Knowing how and when to turn the corner is tricky, and you need to do it fast because they don't need a lot of time to kill you off the top of their library.

Esper Control: -2 Ravenous Chupacabra, -2 Rakdos Firewheeler, -3 Seekers' Squire, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, +4 Duress, +2 Thrashing Brontodon

I hate boarding out the Seekers' Squires, but at the same time you kind of have to. You'll hopefully draw one Explore creature and then no more for the rest of the game, but having all 11 copies of mana-smoother creatures doesn't really work out in the late game. I leave in Bedevil and Vraska's Contempt to fight their creature plan out of the sideboard, but at the same time, you can't get caught against Teferi with Cast Downs in your hand. Luckily our Planeswalkers are awesome against the creature plan if they take that route, just try and make sure you can beat a Thief of Sanity.

Sultai: -2 Thrashing Brontodon, -2 Seekers' Squire, +2 Cast Down, +1 Vraska, Golgari Queen, +1 Vraska Relic Seeker

The trick here is to spend the early turns controlling the board, which pretty much centers around Wildgrowth Walker. If you can have yourself a better board presence for when Vivien comes down, you'll be doing fine. Rakdos Firewheeler and Angrath are great here at taking out opposing creatures and letting you deal with Vivien the old fashioned way. The Krasis plan is tough to deal with, but it's slow, and we have a lot of answers for the creature itself that are pretty cheap and easy. If they are just going to load up on cards and life but only add the one creature to the board every turn, you can usually just race it with Planeswalkers and Phoenixes.

That just about covers the majority of the format. Similarly to all Jund decks ever, the plan for combo decks is just identical to beating Esper Control, take out removal and board in discard and disruption.

I really, honestly think that this deck is in a great spot. It's pretty focused on beating a few things right now, but all the tools are versatile enough to hit whatever crazy stuff people play these days. It's also incredibly consistent, which is a major plus when trying to grind on the Arena rankings or play traditional events. Give it a spin!

New Format, New Client, Same Jund

Hey folks!

Today we're going to talk about Jund. Weird, I know, but I've been doing lots of Arena Standard as of late and I've got some conclusions to share. And decklists!

So if you were with me last time, this is where I entered into Ravnica Allegiances at. This is what I call the "District Jund" since it has District Guide. District Guide kind of messes some stuff up, notably, you need to play a lot of basic lands, while on its face, it would seem that the best way to build a manabase is just 4X of each shock and M10 land. You also might note that we've only got 23 land here, since between Seekers' Squire, Merfolk Branchwalker, and District Guide, hitting land drops shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The virtual and actual card advantage gained by a low land count and lots of creatures that give you lands is somewhat negated by losing access to Memorial to Folly. We could play it, I just can't bring myself to do it. Not playing Memorial, though, makes it so all of our lands enter untapped pretty much all the time, which is very nice.

One card I've been high on lately is Thrashing Brontodon. Wilderness Reclamation scares me, and it also happens to be fantastic against the Red decks and the White aggro decks, since it both gums up the ground very effectively early and kills their good enchantments late. In addition to that, Search for Azcanta is always a problem that gets solved pretty cleanly with it, and its worst case scenario is just a three-mana 3/4, which isn't that bad anyways. That's the biggest reason why Jadelight Ranger is absent from most of these lists. Jadelight is great, but I want to play Brontodon when I can, and we don't really do the whole Wildgrowth Waker plan anyways.

Another thing with this deck is that the basic lands let you punish opposing Settle the Wreckage and Assassin's Trophy much better. Personally, I don't like Assassin's Trophy and giving my opponents extra mana, but I also play basic-light decks that often draw the one basic land and get punished for it. You don't really run into that here.

Out of the lists here, I think that this is the one with the most potential. The actual numbers here are pretty bad because I've spent most of my time 

Also, what is up with those card prices?!? I think they're for Magic Online and they are the total for all the copies of that card, but wowza, Vivien is pretty pricey.

So here's a lot of the same stuff, except no District Guide. Memorial makes our long game a little better, but our early game is a little hampered by lands entering the battlefield tapped and maybe missing out on some fixing.

The big problem with having a late-game focused deck is that the late-game might not be a winnable fight against Hydroid Krasis. The way that I've been able to beat the Sultai decks is to wipe up their Wildgrowth Walker early game and then pressure them enough so that they have to cast Krasis before they want to. There's always a bigger fish. There's also merit to putting on some pressure against the control decks early to keep them off balance. Explore-guy plus District Guide might not require a sweeper, but it's certainly a noticeable clock, and you got to hit land drops out of the deal. This deck is still capable of presenting a quick clock but not as consistently.

The other thing is that this deck doesn't really even have extra mana to work with, so it's not like we're really running away with the game with our Siege-Gang Commanders and Biogenic Oozes. These two cards are really quite good, though. They gum up the ground and are pretty useful mana sinks in the late game. I'm not sure which one is better, they have different applications. The Ooze can tangle with Carnage Tyrants and get better as the game goes on. Siege-Gang is a little bit more of a defensive card but doesn't beat Carnage Tyrant as well. Untapping with either against a control opponent is usually game. The decider might be Goblin Chainwhirler: if the red deck becomes more popular in the Best of Three Arena Events, then I might swap to Ooze.

You'll also note that we cut Carnage Tyrant altogether here, except for one in the board. I think that eventually I'll end up doing that with the previous list as well. Carny Boy isn't all it's cracked up to be anymore, honestly. I think the format is a little bit more prepared for it, with Kaya's Wrath and  and the Sultai nee Golgari lists can go over the top of it anyways. That wasn't the case before Hydroid Krasis, where if you were playing Memorials, Find/Finalities, and a bunch of Tyrants of your own, then you were on even footing with them. To be clear, Carnage Tyrant is a good card against the Sultai decks, but it might not fit the plan we need to be able to beat the midrange decks and have good game against everyone else. We are no longer Golgari plus red, we are differentiating ourselves more than that. You don't want to be a worse version of something else.

A couple of cards that I am really liking are Vraska, Golgari Queen and Angrath the Flame Chained. They are both long-game threats that are at worst removal spells for a big Wildgrowth Walker. A lot needs to go wrong for you to really get taken out by a Walker draw, including you not drawing removal and them having multiple Jadelight Rangers or Branchwalkers, but when that happens it's really hard to win. That's why I'm always glad to have extra ways to kill opposing Wildgrowth Walkers and take that element out of the game. These two planeswalkers do that and then some, helping turn the corner and create some late game advantage. Notably they both kill Hydroid Krasis as well, although when Krasis is an 8/8 or whatever, it's not actually the body that's important.

Dire Fleet Daredevil has been hit or miss. You can't always depend on your opponent to have cards that are good against themselves. Against Esper Control, for instance, if they don't have Thought Erasure, it's almost a blank. Similarly to Thrashing Brontodon, the fail state of a two mana 2/1 first striker isn't awful. Plus, Dire Fleet's best matchup might be the mirror match. Hitting an opposing copy of Find/Finality helps quite a lot, and any Cast Down or Vraska's Contempt replicates Ravenous Chupacabra very well, which is an effect you can't have too much of. A card that I'm interested in trying in its slot is Growth-Chamber Guardian, which is another mana sink-esque cheap creature. 

I've worked on this deck the least of all so far. It's an attempt to get back to the Farseek/Thragtusk decks of RTR/Innistrad standard, where you had a mana ramp source that didn't depend on a creature surviving. Rejuvenator is no Farseek, but it is a 1/1 creature, which isn't insignificant. Your planeswalkers are far more likely to live if they come down a turn earlier and have a 1/1 chump blocker for them. The problem is getting them to resolve, which doesn't always happen.

See, what makes a deck like this work is that you load up with cheap removal and expensive haymakers, then have a light ramp element to help fix and facilitate the late game. You try and keep up with aggressive decks until you get enough mana to start slamming big stuff. Against control opponents, that strategy doesn't work well at all, and you need to let your sideboard do lots of heavy lifting. Even still, the way to win those games isn't necessarily to board in Duress. You're threat light because you have ramp spells. You need to be taking two or more cards with you every time you cast a business spell. In the past that meant things like Rakdos's Return, Thragtusk, Huntmaster of the Fells, Garruk Primal Hunter. The cards we have available to us now don't seem like they quite can fit the roles in that plan as well. Also, in 2012, we never had to play against Teferi.

The other big problem for Jund in 2012 was Junk Reanimator (that now would be called Abzan Reanimator). They went way over the top of you and did the big value creature thing much better than you did, plus they had more mana dorks and beat you on that front too. But, Olivia Voldaren and Bonfire of the Damned were incredible against them, and we don't have that luxury in 2019. Find Finality is the closest thing to Bonfire of the Damned I can think of these days, and it pales in comparison, plus our version of the Junk Reanimator deck, Sultai, runs their own.

Without those tools, I don't think that a Jund deck can fight a long-game fight against Hydroid Krasis or Angel of Serenity or whatever there is for supermassive top-end. In fact, that's kind of the case for Black/Green strategies throughout all formats: Lingering Souls and Snapcaster Mage are fantastic in the Jund mirror in Modern, it's the other end of the spectrum that we're worried about when we play Red instead of Blue card advantage or White resiliency. The advantage comes from better, cheaper removal options and consistency that comes from having fewer moving parts.

I do like some of the flexibility you get from some of these cards though. Shivan Fire seems awesome when you have a bunch of mana available to you, but can't always expect to. Same goes for Carnival/Carnage, which is a card that I've been trying to squeeze into my decks and can never find the room. It doesn't really work as a sideboard card, but like I've said before, you have to have a really really good reason to play a non-creature in a Vivien Reid deck. Vivien is at its worst in this deck of any of the Jund lists I've tried, so there's another detractor for this plan.

Moving forward, I also want to try the Wildgrowth Walker package in one of these shells. It probably has to be the no-District Guide and no-Rejuvenator list, since I'm not sure Jadelight Ranger co-exists very well with those. I like not worrying about Wildgrowth Walker, since in a draw with no Explorers it is really, really bad, and drawing more than one Walker in that scenario is atrocious. Those are the kind of deckbuilding decisions I try to stay away from, where your cards are interdependent, but you still don't have any library manipulation or tutoring to fit the pieces together. Still, if the Chainwhirlers start to whirl their chains, it might be time to do some Explore shenanigans.

One last card I want to note is Incubation Druid, which I think is just a non-starter. Unlike Llanowar Elves, it has more late game capabilities and adds more than just green mana, which is super important. But costing two instead of one is huge of course, but also, just the fact that we depend on a creature's survival to get its payoff doesn't really work in this environment on such a killable creature. I really hate losing tempo in the early part of the game, which Llanowar Elves does not do when it dies to a Shock, but this does.

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2019 JUNDVENTURES

So it's been a minute since I really did anything. I had all these big plans around the beginning of Autumn 2018 to up all my production of stuff: videos, streams, blog posts, all that. Then my laptop pretty much went out of commission, not really anything specific, but I just got to the point where it was really hindering any content creation process. Not enough power to run Premiere or OBS or even Magic Online that effectively. So I started working to re-tool my old gaming PC that had been sitting in my buddy's basement forever. After a lot of work and learning how to build a computer a bunch of times, I'm back!

So of course, in the mean time I've been rolling on MTG Arena. The whole 'stream the entirety of my Free-To-Play campaign' didn't work out because of computer issues, but I couldn't just not play. It's too fun. And obviously, once I got my Golgari deck built, I started Junding.

You'll note I don't have the sideboard listed here, because sideboarding isn't really a thing on Arena. That's certainly something that makes this deck worse. I also don't have to play best of ones, but it's the only way to rank up in the ladder. Plus, it helps out free-to-play players because you don't have to craft any sideboard cards. I can focus solely on getting the maindeck the way I want it, then start doing some 'competitive' (aka Best of Three) leagues.

The mana in this deck is not good. I rarely have color problems, which is good in a deck with 2BB, 2RR, and 3GG. I've managed to hold myself back from playing Jadelight Ranger, which is a personal achievement that I'm quite proud of. District Guide is amazing. That being said, the biggest problem with the deck is that a lot of the lands enter the battlefield tapped. I get so many hands that are one each of Woodland Cemetery, Dragonskull Summit, and Rootbound Crag, or something like that. I'm playing my Seekers' Squires really late and getting run over by my opponents when I don't draw Overgrown Tomb or the right basic lands.

That being said, when this deck does draw Overgrown Tomb, it's fantastic. Super smooth, lots of fixing, only Timber Gorge sticking out like a sore thumb making me look pretty bad. I can't even district guide for it. The curve is full of some extremely powerful cards, so when you're running on all cylinders, it's worth the trouble. That makes me excited for Stomping Ground and Blood Crypt (more on that in a bit).

Seekers' Squire and Merfolk Branchwalker are awesome, and honestly makes me wonder if I should have been playing them more often in previous formats. Maybe they'd have been good with Winding Constrictor? I also have been liking a Thorn Lieutenant or two in my Green/Black decks. It's great early and solid enough late, but they're still a little slow and not great in multiples. I don't love having the whole deck be weak to Deafening Clarion and Ritual of Soot. Legion Warboss also eats it to sweepers, but it gets to play both the role of quick, cheap threat and good sweeper follow-up. It's definitely a must answer threat, which we want to have a lot of (duh).

I've decided on the 3 Chupacabra/2 Vraska's Contempt split for a couple reasons. One is that the control decks often have things like Niv Mizzet or Crackling Drake, so only hitting creatures isn't the hugest of deals in lots of scenarios. Vraska's Contempt is clearly better against Teferi, but between Contempt and Assassin's Trophy, we have a lot of answers to Planeswalkers. Chupacabra also fits really well with the creature-density theme of the deck. We are low on removal and high on utility creatures because of how well they work with Find/Finality and Vivien Reid, which are kinda sorta the two best cards in the deck.

Rekindling Phoenix is as awesome as I had hoped. Lava Coil and Vraska's Contempt are problems, but it's not like you are without other targets for them, and they aren't super common. Carnage Boi is awesome as well, obviously. I might go up to a third copy.

Of course, today marks the first day of spoiler season for Ravnica Allegiance (I think that's what it's called, I just want to call it Rivals of Ravnica). And the biggest two cards for Jund were, technically, spoiled:

However, that's about it. We also saw Bedevil, which should probably take the place of Assassin's Trophy in Jund, and might even see Modern play. But instead of new cool stuff, we just saw a bunch of blue cards today, letdown city. Oh well, we'll see what's up tomorrow.

I have hope for Domri. I know I shouldn't, but a straight reprint of Domri Rade would actually be pretty sick in this deck, since it's so creature-heavy and could use a removal spell/card advantage split card. However, you never know what they'll do and maybe it'll be nothing like the original Domri.

Bedevil was the good Rakdos removal spell I was hoping for, although it might do weird things to the mana. Gruul Spellbreaker honestly looks pretty good too, just a big fella or someone who can attack a Teferi and can't get removed on that turn. Maybe it'll take the Legion Warboss slot.

Alternatively, this deck could go through a pretty big transformation with its whole mana base and District Guide setup. It's impossible to maximize District Guide while playing four copies each of the three Shocklands and three Buddy Lands. We could just mix and match some stuff, trim a basic or two, cut the Timber Gorges, but that still leaves us playing basic Forest which isn't great with Bedevil, and basic Swamps and Mountains that aren't great with adding Jadelight Ranger potentially. Not to mention, one thing that I'd really like in this deck is to add Memorial to Folly somewhere. Right now, that's way out of reach, but a 25 land deck that's all Memorials and dual lands could work for us. The fixing would be worse, kinda, but we'd have pretty good late game. I'm going to try to build a District Guide version and a no- or few-basic version and see which is better.

That's about it for now. Next time, I'll go through whatever spoilers we've gotten, and talk about Modern in anticipation for SCG Worcester, my first actual magic tournament since, uh SCG Worcester!

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