I knew my fascination with Jund was more than just my unwillingness to move on from Innistrad Standard, but over the course of a month I couldn’t even get a winning record at an FNM with it. And then I realized that I was playing terribly because I was simply burned out on Magic and needed a break. No matter how much I wanted to play, I forced myself to not play Magic. Now I’m back, and with Matt Costa’s recent victory with Jund at SCG Providence, I’m in a good position to discuss where Jund should go from here.

This is where I started for with Jund for this Standard season.

[deck title= Jund Midrange by Josh Milliken]

[Creatures]

*4 Sylvan Caryatid

*3 Scavenging Ooze

*4 Reaper of the Wilds

*4 Stormbreath Dragon

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*1 Abrupt Decay

*2 Magma Jet

*4 Mizzium Mortars

*3 Hero’s Downfall

*3 Read the Bones

*1 Rakdos Keyrune

*1 Whip of Erebos

*2 Chandra Pyromaster

*1 Vraska the Unseen

*2 Rakdos’s Return

[/Spells]

[Land]

*4 Temple of Abandon

*4 Overgrown Tomb

*4 Blood Crypt

*4 Stomping Ground

*3 Rakdos Guildgate

*2 Golgari Guildgate

*1 Gruul Guildgate

*3 Swamp

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*4 Thoughtseize

*2 Pharika’s Cure

*1 Dreadbore

*2 Golgari Charm

*2 Anger of the Gods

*1 Whip of Erebos

*1 Vraska the Unseen

*2 Sire of Insanity

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

As you can see, I was very prepared for aggressive decks, but also kept the flexibility to really go after control decks post sideboard. The biggest issues the deck had included a horrible matchup against WBR midrange and matches that took forever against Esper decks.

Fast forward a month and I hear that someone is tearing it up with Jund at SCG Providence. This didn’t surprise me, given how good the deck should be against the Mono-Blue Devotion and Mono-Black Devotion decks that have been dominating the format. I found myself rooting for Matt to take down the tournament, and was not surprised when he swept through a sea of Mono-Blue decks to win.

[deck title= Jund Midrange by Matt Costa]

[Creatures]

*3 Reaper of the Wilds

*3 Scavenging Ooze

*4 Stormbreath Dragon

*4 Sylvan Caryatid

*2 Polukranos, World Eater

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Abrupt Decay

*4 Hero’s Downfall

*2 Anger of the Gods

*1 Mizzium Mortars

*2 Rakdos’s Return

*3 Read the Bones

*3 Thoughtseize

[/Spells]

[Land]

*3 Forest

*1 Mountain

*5 Swamp

*4 Blood Crypt

*4 Overgrown Tomb

*4 Stomping Ground

*4 Temple of Abandon

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*2 Mistcutter Hydra

*1 Sire of Insanity

*2 Underworld Connections

*2 Doom Blade

*2 Golgari Charm

*2 Anger of the Gods

*2 Duress

*1 Rakdos’s Return

*1 Thoughtseize

[/Sideboard]

[/Deck]

The biggest issue I see with Matt’s list is that he’s not running enough sweepers in the main – this is a format dominated by decks that are forced to overextend to win. The other problem is [CARD]Thoughtseize[/CARD] in the main deck with so many decks that push through super quick damage.

With the metagame pushing more and more towards Mono-Blue Devotion, Mono-Black Devotion, and a hint of Esper, this is where I ended up:

[deck title= Jund Midrange by Josh Milliken]

[Creatures]

*3 Scavenging Ooze

*4 Sylvan Caryatid

*2 Polukranos, World Eater

*3 Reaper of the Wilds

*4 Stormbreath Dragon

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*2 Abrupt Decay

*2 Dreadbore

*3 Mizzium Mortars

*3 Read the Bones

*2 Anger of the Gods

*4 Hero’s Downfall

*1 Whip of Erebos

*2 Rakdos’s Return

[/Spells]

[Land]

*4 Blood Crypt

*4 Overgrown Tomb

*4 Stomping Ground

*4 Temple of Abandon

*3 Rakdos Guildgate

*3 Swamp

*2 Forest

*1 Mountain

[/Land]

[Sideboard]

*4 Thoughtseize

*2 Pharika’s Cure

*1 Mizzium Mortars

*2 Golgari Charm

*2 Underworld Connections

*1 Anger of the Gods

*1 Whip of Erebos

*2 Sire of Insanity

[/Sideboard]

[/DECK]

With [CARD]Pack Rat[/CARD] being a very prevalent threat, my primary sweeper of choice is [CARD]Mizzium Mortars[/CARD], which gives me a turn-two answer but also provides a sweeper that kills [CARD]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/CARD] and [CARD]Frostburn Weird[/CARD]. Also, with instant speed mattering much less on [CARD]Abrupt Decay[/CARD], I moved toward [CARD]Dreadbore[/CARD] to be able to deal with planeswalkers and [CARD]Desecration Demon[/CARD] more easily. Bringing in [CARD]Whip of Erebos[/CARD] allows me to occasionally race aggro decks while also providing additional threats against Esper.

Sideboarding

Here’s how I would sideboard against the top three decks in the format:

Mono-Blue Devotion

In

2 [Card]Golgari Charm[/Card]

1 [Card]Mizzium Mortars[/Card]

1 [Card]Anger of the Gods[/Card]

Out

1 [Card]Abrupt Decay[/Card]

1 [Card]Whip of Erebos[/Card]

2 [Card]Rakdos’s Return[/Card]

Mono-Black Devotion

In

1 [Card]Mizzium Mortars[/Card]

2 [Card]Underworld Connections[/Card]

1 [Card]Whip of Erebos[/Card]

4 [Card]Thoughtseize[/Card]

Out

2 [Card]Anger of the Gods[/Card]

2 [Card]Polukranos, World Eater[/Card]

3 [Card]Read the Bones[/Card]

1 [Card]Rakdos’s Return[/Card]

Esper Control

In

4 [Card]Thoughtseize[/Card]

2 [Card]Golgari Charm[/Card]

2 [Card]Underworld Connections[/Card]

1 [Card]Whip of Erebos[/Card]

2 [Card]Sire of Insanity[/Card]

Out

2 [Card]Abrupt Decay[/Card]

3 [Card]Scavenging Ooze[/Card]

3 [Card]Mizzium Mortars[/Card]

2 [Card]Anger of the Gods[/Card]

1 [Card]Read the Bones[/Card]

It’s great to be back after what feels like an eternity away from Magic, and I hope to see you all out there in the trenches slinging the cards we all love. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below and I will try to reply.

Thanks for reading,

Josh Milliken

@joshuamilliken on Twitter