Here's where I'm currently at.
And when I say I'm currently at, very little of this is set in stone or proven. Jund Midrange in Historic is getting a little bit of traction at the moment and I don't think that anyone has anything close to a set in stone list ready to go.
Crokeyz, who has got to be Magic's number one streamer right now, played this list recently. It's got no Chevill and includes Knight of the Ebon Legion. It's also got no double face cards, so no Mammoths and no Shatterskulls, but it includes all four Chandra and all four Bonecrusher.
Bonecrusher I can get behind right now. As far as Knight of the Ebon Legion goes, some folks swear by it. For me, it's clearly a strong card but it doesn't do what I'm looking for. I think Ooze is certainly better as far as a card that you can cast early and dump mana into late, but maybe there's more room for that kind of effect. I think the difference is that my list has more mana sinks, most notably Castle Locthwain, and it's also not as aggressive on the opponent's life total, where Knight shines. If you're looking for a more aggressive slant to the deck, then it's really good there. It just feels like the strategy of casting Chevill and Knight are at odds with each other. I'll test some more, but I like the threat suite that we have. The cards complement each other pretty well.
Speaking of that, folks in the social medias were talking about Glint-Sleeve Siphoner. I gave it a shot, mixing around some stuff to include it in place of Channeler. I was impressed. Siphoner definitely is a card that doesn't need extra help to get some good work out of it. It's a little like Bitterblossom has been in Modern for me, where on it's face it looks like you want some Scion of Oona or Intangible Virtues to get the best out of it, but by itself it's just a really good card. Running no copies of Aether Hub or Attune with Aether, to say the least of Harnessed Lightning et al, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner held its own. It was really good in matchups where my life total didn't matter that much. That's not necessarily because I was losing 1 life to draw a card, it's because it had pretty low ability to block. That was the kicker for me, that Channeler was a better defensive card early in the game and good on offense late, the right kind of timing for this deck. Glint-Sleeve was offiensive all the time. I think that you could change some numbers around to make the deck more Glint-Sleeve friendly and have it be better than our current list against some portion of the metagame, but again, it's a little more matchup dependent than I'd like when there's a perfectly good substitute that isn't.
Shatterskull Smashing has been impressive to me. The double faced cards are always going to be pretty good, but Shatterskull is even more versatile than the most versatile cards, and unlike the rest of the mythic double faced lands that were printed, it's good early too. Emeria's Call is great when you have seven or more lands, but Shatterskull is still good if you have five or six. Creatures in this format are often small but still dangerous, and if we can make sure we're keeping up with them with cheap removal, Shatterskull ensures we don't run out of gas later. Plus, it's an amazing draw on turn 12, unlike Mammoth which is better than a land in the super late game but not as good as Shatterskull. It reminds me a little bit like Bonfire of the Damned, but with a lower ceiling and higher floor, and that card was phenomenal in its day.
It's just a one-of in my list above, but I have been trying out Grakmaw a little bit and haven't hated it. Then I figured, well if we're doing Grakmaw, how about we roll with the original Grakmaw? I think we can afford one big drop in the deck, especially if it's the kind of card that can shift a race when it comes down, and five drops get better since we're running Chandra instead of Liliana these days. The reason I like Thragtusk is because it's the five drop of the format that's best against black decks, which seems to be the most popular color these days, but it's also huge to resolve one against a U/W Control deck. Whereas Elder Gargaroth is a liability against a Murderous Rider or Teferi, Thragtusk excels in that scenario, while still being a big stop sign to anyone pressuring your life total. If a five-drop has a place in the deck, I think that this one is the one, for now, although I also like Angrath quite a bit.
What do we do about Forsaken Monument? Well, I've started trying to help that by adding one copy of By Force. I think By Force against the Monument deck is just about as close to an instant win as exists in Magic, but what matters is how many copies we can afford to play. Unlike Grafdigger's Cage, it's really only great in the one matchup, but it's okay-ish in a couple of others. If the Monument deck keeps showing up, it might be right to add more copies to the board. But then the question becomes, what do we take out, followed by the other question, what do we do to the maindeck to fix the matchup that we just cut sideboard cards for? Brad Nelson says that it's more important to have an anti-aggro main deck and fix the rest with the sideboard, and I have to say that I mostly agree. That said, I still want some action to bring in when I cut my Thoughtseizes against the aggro decks of the format, and what's nice is that Abrade is great in that capacity and against Forsaken Monument. I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet, but should the day arise, I think we go to four Abrade in the board and no Fatal Push or other one mana removal spells, then lower our curve in the main a little bit. Something like this:
4 Abrade
3 By Force
3 Grafdigger's Cage
5 Discard spell/value cards, like Angrath, Liliana, Duress, Davriel, Casualties of War
Big mana decks are usually a big problem for low-to-the-ground midrange decks, but if the tools are available in the format, you can beat it, if you want to. That's a real question though, because the cost is your sideboard space, but if you really want to, you can take this thing down.
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Thanks for reading. I'm hoping to fire up the stream some more this coming week, since I'll be not traveling. Stay safe out there.
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