Standard Jund Midrange (heavy creature base) - Feedback requested

What you have there is somewhere between Jund Midrange and Jund aggro.

Here is my current list Im playing for Jund midrange. http://deckbox.org/sets/326292

Midrange is almost a control deck with a light creature base that does stuff nearly as soon as they hit the board.  Your focus on vexing devil and varolz is an aggro plan of scavenging to make big hitters like lotleth troll. It's all over the place right now and you need to focus on one strategy or another. 

This deck has more of the aggro components than midrange components. 

Creatures. In which case you can cut Arbor elf, Legion Loyalist, rebblebelt maaka ruric, and sire. You need a couple more lotleth trolls and corpsejack doesn't need to be in, on turn 4, you need to be holding mana for burn/removal.   Sire and ruric while powerful are midrange cards. 6 is too much for an agro deck.

Spells. You can put lili on the side and cut the charm.  You should run some searing spears to help with removal.

Try the list below and see how it might work for you.  I listed possible substitutes as well.

4 Slumbering Dragon
4 Vexing Devil
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Scavenging Ooze - strangle root geist
4 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Dreg mangler
2 Thunder Maw Hellkite - Exava

3 Pillar of Flame
2 Rancor
3 Searing Spears

2 Domri Rade
1 Garruk Relentless

Land
3 Blood Crypt
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Mountain
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Rootbound Crag
3 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Woodland Cemetery

#60

Sideboard:
3 Volcanic Str
3 Skullcrack
3 Abrupt decay
2 Putrefy
4 xxxx

This is just my opinion but a cohesive strategy lends itself to more victories.  You're def closer to a deck like this than you are the midrange.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-07-17 12:45:13)

If you build around varolz you want 4.  If you have more than one now with the legendary rule you you can just play it and sac whichever or discard it to lotleth and eat him... nom nom, counters.

These cards....

Arbor Elf
Dreadbore
Abrupt Decay
Vampire Nighthawk
Olivia Voldaren
Mizzium Mortars

These are all midrange cards.  He doesn't have a midrange deck.  Making some kind of funky hybrid isn't going to help him.  If you play the midrange, you need the huntmasters, the olivias, the thrags and the bonfires... the deck just doesn't work without them. 

You don't need to "balance" the curve in an aggro deck like this, It's about eating stuff with varolz. You want to be at a 2 drop/3 drop pretty quick.  I've seen them played, they do "okay" they're not great decks but it's better than a hybrid that doesn't have a focused plan. Haste does not an aggro deck make.

There's lots of good ways to deal with the hydra, Doomblade, putrefy, dreadbore, murder, detention sphere, oblivion ring, azorious charm, angel of serentiy, ... block?  Until rotation Kolonian is just another big chumpy target for removal... all the decks can deal with it.  I wouldn't try to play it if you weren't in R/G aggro/ big naya. which he's not.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-07-17 13:50:18)

The varolz build is an aggro variation, not a midrange variation. 

those cards you listed are all good choices.  Except legion loyalist. That should probably be rakdos cackler.

The variations I saw played lotleth troll.  Turn 2 lothleth + pitch vexing etc... is better than trying to depend on the initial damage. Lotleth is more resilient too. You can't burning tree into lotleth.  This deck has  little more reach than then average aggro and the ability to regenerate gives it more resiliency.

If you go straight Jund aggro then you can burning tree into the boar etc... You don't even play varolz in that case though, You'd more likely play reckoner or mangler.  Life gain does stall aggro decks. nothing you can do there.

I agree midrange is better, but the deck he has, and the deck your suggesting isn't the jund midrange you want to play.

Thank you everyone for the feedback. It made me realize I wasn't catering enough to the engine.

So, I updated the deck a bit... the sideboard needs work and I need to re-balance the land, but the sample hands and card draws look promising and consistent, even with a mulligan or 2.

This deck is Jund in color only, with what I feel is a slightly faster than average mid-range tempo.
The engine is scavenge and until rotation, fling seems to feed this very well as a response/mitigation to removal.

Please let me know what you think of the changes.
If I can manage to find the cards I'm missing by next Monday, I'll try it out in my LGS standard game and report back how it does.