Jund Love in Standard...

I'm with you that stuff in there is expensive, but you're sitting on 10 removal spells mainboard with the option of even more out of the board against faster opponents.  Admittedly perhaps the deck is in need of Voyaging Satyr or some sort of ramping, even Satyr Hedonist would help power out your four-drops on turn two.

I also feel like the four-drop is rather flooded at the moment, I'm thinking Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch and Chandra, Pyromaster are the weakest options there at the moment.

But having a lot of (potentially expensive) major threats that are hard to deal with is sort of the definition of a mid-range deck though... that and adding Master of Cruelties, another five drop, really wouldn't help with the issue you've identified...

I'm thinking Deadbridge Chant isn't ideal given the number of ways to deal with it, resulting in you just milling yourself 10 cards.

Gaze is alright, but you'll likely want to run some sort of devotion or two-color build for it.

I cannot sing enough praises for Whip of Erebos.  The lifelink is HUGE and the ability to reanimate just about anything, well, it does some solid work.

Vraska, I believe is better suited than at any point up until now in the standard metagame.  She tends to work beautifully with Reaper of the Wilds (which is arguably one of the best, but most overlooked creatures in standard these days).

As far as Ember Swallower is concerned, I think that's a non-jund build as you're going to want more ramping.  Conveniently, I've been tinkering with a R/G build that plays off the mono-green devotion shenanigans to power out Ember Swallower and set him off early.  Admittedly I was fishbowling, but the build is able to set him off on T4 quite frequently.

That all being said, what about the jund setup more specifically?  We're short two of the scry lands, but we have a variety of options available... should I take it in a more control direction or is this good as it stands?  Thinking about the matchups, I can see where it will perform well against mono-black and mono-blue, I'm not sure about the Esper matchup, but I think there's enough removal to be resilient against aggro... I don't know... I have almost all of the pieces, but I can't say how well it will hold up without more playtesting (sadly my LGS doesn't do standard constructed as much as I would like...).

I'm with you.  I really want to make the deck work, it seems like "something" should be there.  abrupt decay, dreadbore, rakdos return, thoughtseize, hero's downfall, stormbreath, xenagos, vraska, sylvan, reaper, chandra.... Just so many good cards.  I have been thinking about it for a while. 

The only viable option i see is to take the RBW midrange and remove the white and find a way to put the green in.  being 3 color devotion is out of the question, you're missing the life gain that RBW has in the form of baron and obzedat though.

Chances are you're playing gates to stabilize the manabase, we could play saurli gate keepers (green 2/4) gain 7 if you have two gates.  instead of ramp, you might be able to do, gate creeper to help with that activation.  Yougotta have the life gain, with shocks, RTB, thoughtseize and just normal combat damage.  Whip is not enough alone.

But if you do that, wouldn't it be better to just go Br or Bg and get on the devotion train with Gary?

I think our best course of action is to hang on to our reapers and xenagos and hope we get more "stuff" with the next set in February, unfortunately.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-11-08 14:37:20)

Underworld cerebus is interesting.  I _think_ it goes in a deck where you nuke their creatures and eat their yard.  Perhaps, the cards just aren't there yet.  Or if you're able to just exile their creatures. 

rakdos keyrune is okay, but what made good in jund before was kessig wolfrun.  kessig made anything a threat and we just don't have access to that.  The big threats in those colors are really heavyily invested in those colors too.  Stormbreath is probably the easiest to cast and most effective. 

I've seen a few people kicking around the jund control build on other websites, i just don't think it's there.  I'd be happy to eat my words though if you figure it out.

alternately.  I'm feeling the BR brew, similar from the world tour but with more of a devotion aspect ATM.  Getting on the Gary Train... woot woot...

the thing about the 2 drop deck is anger of the gods just invalidates your strategy.

Also, burning tree has zero synergy with these cards.

4x Ash Zealot
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Rakdos Shred-Freak

I have a hard time believing an aggressive deck can play a 3 color mana base atm and still win.  3 color is only viable for midrange and control atm.

spice it up with a splash of white, you got boros charm.

EDIT: though BTE wont give it to you for free, it still makes it cost 1 red less which still kinda helps anyways. ive never been dissapointed myself playing it in my mono red devotion deck which runs on a smiliar principal

Last edited by VampireArmy (2013-11-08 20:37:32)

I mean that goes along the basis of just running Deso-Demon.  If it hasn't been there, doesn't mean it shouldn't be.  I mean, for example i remember when i was running Desecration demon the minute he was released and back then i recieved a lot of flack about how it was a terrible card. (Admitingly tokens was more of a thing back then) still, i won't argue if you think it's so terrible and sure maybe not ptq material but you'd never know until ya try.  im out.

P.s. My aggro Vamps have once destroyed Delver control on several occasion during IND-Scars time.  Not all crazy deck ideas amount to nothing sir! lol im just havin' fun now really i needa get out of here

Comically, VampireArmy, I actually sleeved up a rakdos aggro build just last night on pretty much that premise.... (http://deckbox.org/sets/523269) as I was trying to use the GP Santiago deck idea but with my own non-Xathrid Necromancer twist (as I just traded my only two away...).  Sadly, it just doesn't get the job done as consistently as a pure RDW or something of that ilk.  That and things like Selesnya will just eat you alive, as their two-drops are just bigger and better...  So to that end, sure, you put down Cerberus and he can get all your stuff back... but it's stuff that you wouldn't want to top-deck on T-6 anyway.  I mean the natural card to use him with is Rakdos Charm as you exile their yard in response to him dying... but at the moment there isn't really a board wipe or anything on your side of the table to really make that setup in your advantage.  Anger goes and exiles them...

If you really want to have some fun with Rakdos, I put together a total budget rakdos minotaur build if you're looking for something to sleeve up for less than $100... (http://deckbox.org/sets/526973" onclick="Tcg.mtgCard.showNewCard('http://deckbox.org/sets/526973');return false">http://deckbox.org/sets/526973).

I guess I'll have to keep on tinkering... I want the Jund to work, but perhaps I'll just have to wait until Born of the Gods...