In between my last post and this post, I have managed to assemble a new Magic deck. And no, its not Red Deck Wins! This time, I decided to play 3 colours instead of one. So, without further ado, I present....
Jund Feud!
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Evolving Wilds
10 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Mountain
2 Swamp
24 land
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Galvanic Juggernaut
2 Manor Gargoyle
1 Primal Clay
3 Stuffy Doll
4 Volatile Rig
17 creatures
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Blasphemous Act
4 Farseek
2 Guild Feud
3 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Treasured Find
17 other spells
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Vraska the Unseen
2 planeswalkers
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Blasphemous Act
2 Electrickery
2 Naturalize
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Sever the Bloodline
3 Slaughter Games
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Treasured Find
15 sideboard cards
Deck Tech - Creatures
With a lot of inspiration from Matt Higgs (from Untap Target Player), I have successfully assembled this rather unusual decklist. It was a tonne of fun to playtest, and I hope you enjoy this deck tech!
Elvish Visionary
This card is essential. With a tonne of aggressive decks in the format, he can just chump block AND draw you a card. In playtesting, I have realized how flexible this card is. Four is definitely the right number.
Galvanic Juggernaut
This aggressively costed juggernaut is an excellent fit for this deck. If you reveal this off a Guild Feud, it will outright kill Geist of Saint Traft, Huntmaster of the Fells, Restoration Angel and more! It also trades with Thragtusk. The "locked in the untap step" wording is usually irrelevent, as creatures are usually dying left right a centre. I decided to play three of this card.
Manor Gargoyle
This card is a very underrated one. It recently saw play at a Standard Grand Prix, showing off how good he is. It blocks a lot of the best creatures in the format and (usually), lives to tell the tale. It has been excellent in playtesting. He is a little clunky, so I only decided to play two.
Primal Clay
This is a very flexible card. Although not great in your hand, he is excellent from Guild Feud reveal. He makes for a nice singleton.
Stuffy Doll
I love this card. THE FLAVOR! He looks like he is Creepy Doll's older brother! This doll's role in the deck is too punish high power creatures on a Guild Feud reveal. He also combines well with Blasphemous Act. Three seems to be a good number.
Volatile Rig
Um... awkward?
When I put this card in the deck, I considered changing the deck's name to "Tension Feud," as the die rolling is just crazy. Although he is unpredictable, I chose to play a playset.
Other Spells
I am lucky enough to have an Abrupt Decay in my trade binder. Now, I am lucky enough to have an Abrupt Decay in my Jund Feud deck. This is pretty straight forward, mainly to wipe Liliana of the Veil from the board. I only have one copy, so one copy it is!
Blasphemous Act
This card is excellent in this format. With decks like RDW and Humans running around, this just wipes them out, and usually they will never see it coming. He also combines well with Stuffy Doll. I chose to play three maindeck, with a fourth in the sideboard.
Farseek/Rakdos Keyrune
I decided to cover these two cards together, as they functionally do the same thing.
I have no shocklands in the Jund colours, so Farseek does become significantly worse. However, it functions as a Rampant Growth, and this deck needs as many ramp effects it can get. I decided to play a playset.
Rakdos Keyrune, however, is a much more versatile card. It ramps you up from 3 to 5 on turn 4, and it becomes a decent creature when you need it. You don't want to draw a handful, so I decided to play three.
Guild Feud
Where the deck gets its name, Guild Feud is the "build-around" card of this deck. There are so many possible scenarios this card can produce, which makes for some fun games. It is VERY clunky to draw at least two, so I decided to play just two copies.
Rakdos's Return
When I was planning this deck out, I didn't have any copies of Rakdos's Return. However, a trading session with friends at my local game store landed my TWO of them. So I threw them in. I mean, why not? He punished pretty much every deck. And with all the ramp in the deck, its pretty easy to wipe someone's hand with this.
Treasured Find
This is a very underrated card. This card can return ANYTHING from your graveyard. ANYTHING. A Wolf Run, Garruk, Blaspehmous Act. ANYTHING. I only played two in the maindeck, but this is THE CARD you want against a deck that has the ability remove a range of your permanents.
Planeswalkers
Garruk, Primal Hunter
This guy is fantastic! I only have one, but one is probably the right number anyway! Garruk is a great source of card advantage against control and aggro alike.
Vraska the Unseen
I have a Vraska, so why not play her? This deck is lacking removal, so having the flexibility of destroying anything over and over (very...slowly) is valuable. Nothing much to say, she is always welcome in this deck.
Lands
The mana base is pretty shaky. I have no shocklands in these colours, only a playset of Dragonskull Summits (wonder where they came from). I decided to play a single Wolf Run for the late game when you have a tonne of mana in play. The Wilds are there to fix if you are desperate.
Sideboard
Nothing much here. I'll dot point this section.
Ancient Grudge - Um.. Artifacts?
Blasphemous Act - Aggro
Electrickery - Lingering Souls/Tokens
Naturalize - .....
Pithing Needle - Planeswalkers
Rakdos Charm - Reanimator
Sever the Bloodline - Tokens/Entreat the Angels
Slaughter Games - :) - Midrange/Control
Treasured Find - Control/OTT Removal
Tormod's Crypt - Reanimator
Anyway, that's the deck!
I was trying to arrange a time to take this deck for a run. However, I was held up a little bit, with end of year stuff. So, I ended up taking this deck to a GP Trial.
WHAT?!
I also took along my mate, Cale. He stayed at my place on the night before the tournament, so we ended up playing a lot of Magic. The deck he was piloting was Azorius Control (Not UW Flash). Like me, he does not have access to EVERY CARD IN THE STANDARD FORMAT LIKE ALL THE "PRO" PLAYERS OUT THERE, so his deck was... okay.
Anyway, me and Cale were driven down to our LGS by my Mum. The event was WAY smaller then I thought it would be, with only sixteen players. After chatting together, me and Cale were sent to separate tables for the players' meeting. After going over some rules, pairings were put up for Round 1 out of 5.
Round 1 - vs. Grant (Izzet Guttersnipe)
In Round 1, I sat down across from Grant, a friendly man. After shuffling up, we began.
After realizing his strategy all too late, I fell to some curious, damage-dealing, card-drawing goblins (AKA 2 Guttersnipes enchanted by Curiosity, and lots of card-drawing/burn spells).
Game 2 was just as bad for me, although it took Grant a while to find a third land, while his Delver decided it wanted to stay human. He eventually resolved a Curious Guttersnipe, draw him through possibly half his deck. After a flurry of burn spells were sent my way, there was little I could do as he burned me 4 lethal.
0-1
That matchup was a bad one. If this deck had more removal, it might have evened the odds a little, but it still would struggle against burn and counter.
I went over to see how Cale was doing. He had lost his first round too.
"We could be facing each other", I remarked.
We didn't.
Round 2 - vs. Ryan (Junk Midrange/Reanimator)
I sat down for round 2 across from Ryan, another friendly chap (everyone at my LGS seems to be very friendly). I won the die roll, and decided to play.
In game 1 I had an excellent start, Farseeking into a Galvanic Juggernaut on turn 3. After summoning some other undercosted creatures, Game 1 ended in my favour.
For sideboarding, Slaughter Games, Rakdos Charm and Tormod's Crypt came in, as Ryan's deck had some reanimation targets as well as midrange creatures.
Game 2 went quick, Ryan curved out well with a turn 1 Arbor Elf; turn 2 Silverblade Paladin; turn 3 Sublime Archangel, bond with Paladin, attack for 10. Yeah, that game was definitely his.
Game 3 was very close. Ryan and I started with some smaller threats and started removing them. However, I was falling behind. I a vital turn, my Juggernaut had to attack, so it did so. Ryan called no blocks, so I pumped my juggernaut with my Wolf Run to sneak in 2 extra damage, putting Ryan at 6, while I was at 10. However, I had left 2 mana up. On the next turn, when Ryan attempted to Unburial Rites his Craterhoof Behemoth, I cast Rakdos Charm, removing his graveyard. He then attacked with his Archangel, putting me at 4.
On the next turn, I attacked with a Visionary and a Juggernaut. When Ryan declared blocks on the Juggernaut, I pumped my Visionary for +5/+0, which was exactly lethal.
1-1
I was so happy to have that Rakdos Charm in hand. What a win!
I went to see how Cale had gone. He had lost again. I kept saying to him,"Don't worry. You'll WILL get a win."
Callum: 1-1
Cale: 0-2
After having some lunch, everyone was called for Round 3.
Round 3 - vs. Matthew (USA Control)
In Round 3 I sat down across from Matthew, one of the game store's "legends" in my opinion. From memory, Matthew won the die roll and decided to play.
Game 1 was a slow, agonising death, as I played a Visionary and not much else. He eventually resolved a Gisela, and hit me for half my lift total, then hit me dead. I got a warning for not announcing my Stuffy Doll's ETB ability (it's very easy to forget), so I would have to tread carefully for the rest of the tournament.
For game 2, I sided in Slaughter Games and Pithing Needle, as his deck contained Jace.
Game 2, however, was just like game 1, except I struggled on land. When I hit my fourth land, I cast Slaughter Games on Jace, then I Gamed his Sphinx's Revelation, which Matthew found odd. However, it didn't matter, as he resolved a Sigarda off a Cavern of Souls, and hit me with her until he attacked 4 lethal.
1-2
I have found Slaughter Games to be a very difficult card to play. At first, I found it simple, just name their "big" card and remove it. However, when playing a game, you have to take in the board state, life totals and the probability of drawing a particular card. In this case, when I named Revelation, I should have named Angel of Serenity, as I had seen it in his hand after the first Slaughter Games.
Cale was not doing well either, losing his third round in a row.
Callum - 1-2
Cale - 0-3
Soon after, Round 4 was upon us.
Round 4 - vs. Erik (GW Tokens splash black)
I sat down across from Erik in Round 4. Erik is a very young, bright and funny person, however he is very serious while playing Magic. After shuffling, I decided to play after a good die roll.
Game 1 was very easy. After resolving two Galvanic Juggernauts, Erik had to go into chump-block mode with his Lingering Souls tokens. After a Rakdos Keyrune joined the party, we moved on to game to.
For sideboarding, Blasphemous Act, Sever the Bloodline and Electrickery came in.
Game 2 was also easy. After holding off some Midnight Haunting tokens, I resolved a Stuffy Doll (remembering the trigger this time), and next turn using a Blasphemous Act (only costing 1R). After playing another Blasphmous Act next turn, Erik scooped as I sweeped 4 lethal.
2-2
This was a relatively easy match, as Blasphemous Act pretty much demolishes tokens.
Cale, however, still hadn't won a match. I was feeling sorry for him, as he wasn't having the best of times.
Callum - 2-2
Cale - 0-4
Unlike FNM, this tournament had 5 rounds. The pairings were soon put up and we were underway.
Round 5 - vs. Matthew (Jund Aggro)
For the last round, I sat across from (another) Matthew, who was playing a very mana-hungry Jund list. As we got underway, I realised how mana intensive Matt's deck was, as he played creatures from Strangleroot Geist to Geralf's Messenger to Hellrider to Predator Ooze. That was only game 1, and I lost very convincingly.
For sideboarding, Slaughter Games (his deck took a little while to set up) and Sever the Bloodline came in. Cards like Strangleroot Geist, Geralf's Messenger and Predator Ooze are very good against Blasphemous Act.
Game 2 was close, but a Garruk helped pull me ahead. After killing Garruk to draw 5 cards, I used Treasured Find on him, and played him again to make a Beast. Next turn, 5 more cards. Soon, I had assembled the Stuuf Doll + Blasphemous Act combo, and I won game 2.
Game 3 was fairly easy, mostly because Matthew got mana screwed. He did get me down to 5 life, but his deck was too mana-hungry to do anything else, and he could only shake his head as I attacked 4 lethal.
3-2
That match was a comeback in progress. I was glad to win against a deck with resilience to sweepers.
Cale, unfortunately, lost his last match, putting a very dismal end to his dismal day.
Callum - 3-2
Cale - 0-5
There were 16 participants, and I finished 7th, surprising myself, and the shopkeeper. Poor Cale got 16th. I won 4 boosters, choosing 2 RTR and 2 M13. The M13 boosters held an Ajani, Caller of the Pride, a Diabolic Revelation and a foil Touch of the Eternal. The RTR boosters were less exciting, holding my third Cyclonic Rift, and my fifth Jarad's Orders. However, after some trading, I now only own 1 Jarad's Orders.
Overall, the deck performed okay. In the third round, I knew my opponent had counterspell mana up, but when I played some oddball creatures (Volatile Rig?), he simply let them resolve. This was one of the strategys that the deck used to defeat a range of decks.
I won't go over the MVPs, as nearly every card in the deck pulled its weight. However, there was one card that I never cast during the whole tournament.
This card spent its time clogging my hand while I played more relevant spells like Galvanic Juggernaut and Stuffy Doll. I was actually worried at some stages to cast Guild Feud, fearing that my opponent would hit a creature and I wouldn't. So, overall, the card that gives the deck its name was the worst card in the deck.
In the sideboard, Slaughter Games, Sever the Bloodline and Blasphemous Act were the all stars (and who could forget that use of Rakdos Charm that won me Round 2!). Games removed my opponents good cards, while Sever dealt with tokens and indestructible creatures alike. The fourth Blasphemous Act was excellent. It definitely wasn't a card that I wanted four-of in the maindeck, but against aggressive decks, having this available was the icing on the cake.
I like to end this article to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends and I hope you all get some neat prezzies!
I would also like to give you guys a sneak peek at what deck I will be covering in the next article. It's in code, but see if you can work it out.
IWDLEBSAMTSAETR
Hint: IW = WI
Hope you can figure it out!
Until next time, good luck when you attack 4 lethal!
And Merry Christmas!
Callum
