Jund
A Standard deck, by Korey Fay
4th place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States on 2011-07-17
As reported at http://www.starcitygames.com/openseries
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Maindeck:
Artifact Creatures
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures
3 Grave Titan
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lotus Cobra
Instants
3 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
2 Lightning Bolt
Planeswalkers
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Sorceries
1 Despise
1 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Memoricide
Basic Lands
3 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Swamp
Lands
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Copperline Gorge
4 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Marsh Flats
4 Raging Ravine
4 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard:
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Liliana Vess
1 Duress
2 Memoricide
2 Pyroclasm
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While some pundits have declared this a brand new archetype, the card advantage style of Jund has had a devoted following all year. Solemn Simulacrum, Grim Lavamancer, and Garruk, Primal Hunter give it far more new weapons than almost anyone else, which when combined with Jace, the Mind Sculptor being banned (its biggest problem), we have all the makings of a big new winner.
Grim Lavamancer is often not going to hit the table on turn one, but it doesn't need to. Even leading with a turn one manland, followed by a turn two Inquisition plus Lavamancer is a fantastic opening. So often, the people that would get wrecked by Lavamancer the most don't have more than a single answer in their opening hand. He could put a little pressure on opponents (and all those little dudes add up), but he also provides even more card advantage. This deck really is a Jund deck in spirit, not just color combination.
Solemn Simulacrum is a perfect fit for these new Jund decks, as it provides basically a Jace's Ingenuity worth of card advantage, while continuing the theme of incremental edge dudes to work away at opponents. As always, the prospect on turn 5 Titans is always nice.
Speaking of fast Titans, Lotus Cobra is better than over here. In addition to fixing your mana, he now has a ton of legitimate threats to accelerate into, thanks to my favorite M12 card: Garruk, Primal Hunter. A thorough discussion on why Garruk kicks so much ass can be found here . Long story short, he provides a fantastic board presence, a variety of excellent forms of card advantage, and is generally at a very high power level. This isn't going to be Garruk's only home, but he is why I believe this archetype is the real deal. Garruk isn't as strong as Jace, but he really is more of a Jace than a Gideon in terms of how he plays.
Jund has enough removal (black and red for creatures, green for enchantments and artifacts) and disruption (discard, Memoricide, Phyrexian Revoker) to legitimately fight combo decks. Its huge amount of good card advantage lets you contest Caw-Blade for the role of best mid-range deck. The cheap removal, card advantage creatures, and Titan gives you a legit plan against aggro. A lot of people are excited about this strategy getting enough new weapons to really break through, and frankly, I am one of them.
Patrick Chapin
"The Innovator"
