Running Modern Jund

Original Fatal Push art credit: Eric Deschamps & WOTC It has long been said by Magic players older and wiser than me that white is, far and away, the worst maindeck color in the Modern format, perhaps all formats. The reasons are varied and pretty sound, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about how things are only going to get worse for white, in the Modern meta in particular, as Fatal Push continues to settle in and transform the format. As I've covered before on this blog, I don't think Fatal Push was a significant shake-up to decks that want to play Lightning Bolt . Those decks (such as Jund) have long had access to targeted removal that came with no drawback. Path to Exile , the most played white card in Modern, was always the answer for the threats that couldn't be answered outside of black and Bolt. Tarmogoyf is a perfect example. You had to play black to destroy goyf, as Bolt is almost always a dud against it. Unless  you played whi...

Credit: Dominick Domingo, Raymond Swanland, Steve Argyle. WOTC. If Liliana is the queen of Jund, then surely the banned-in-modern  Bloodbraid Elf is the long-lost princess. This 4-Drop was so dominant in the archetype (and thus the Jund-dominated meta of a few years ago) that it actually got banned before  the "perhaps-best-creature-ever-printed" Deathrite Shaman  was. Many people (mostly Jund-fans) have since complained that BBE was targeted unjustly for a problem that was actually caused by our little elf shaman. Their logic usually goes as follows: Sure, BBE is very strong, but so are Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf . Why ban one strong card that costs a whole four  mana when the whole deck is made of crazy powerful cards that cost only two  mana? Going shaman into t3 BBE is a little much, but BBE on turn 4 is not unfair. Ultimately, the real question posed by those who are pro-BBE unban is this: Is Jund a legitimate archetype in modern MTG? And ...

Credit: WOTC & Jason Chan Vampire Nighthawk 1BB Creature - Vampire Shaman Flying, Deathtouch, Lifelink 2/3 Artist: Jason Chan Although I wasn't playing MTG when this guy was first released in Zendikar block, I have heard the stories of his dominance in limited. It isn't hard to believe: this uncommon packs more board value than most bulk rares, even most mythic rares now that they are a thing. But you virtually never see this guy in a modern jund deck. In all my scouring of decklists online, I think I've only ever spotted this draft all-star once, and it was as a 'fun-of' in the sideboard. Of course, we're all aware that cards that are great in limited are not necessarily great in constructed formats, especially older constructed formats. And yet, any card that was this dominant in any  format is worth talking about in others. So let's talk about what this vampire shaman can offer jund. Let's start by discussing the obvious downsides...

Credit: WOTC & Todd Lockwood Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 2BB Legendary Creature - Vampire Warrior Lifelink If a nontoken creature an opponent controls would die, instead exile that card and create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token. 2B, Sacrifice another Vampire or Zombie: Put two +1/+1 counters on Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. 3/4 Artist: Todd Lockwood Kalitas is only a few years old, but he's already the king of the jund 4-drop slot. He's got several strengths that immediately caught the eye of jund pilots, and has been a contender for curve-topper since Oath of the Gatewatch  was released. So without further ado, let's discuss the revamped Bloodchief. Strengths Double black cost: This might be a downside in some decks, but since jund is structured to reliably hit double black for lili by turn 3 anyway, this works in our favor. Compared to double red or double green, double black is a plus. Size 4 butt: We'll talk about how this plays out now, but a...

It's hard to find a current jund list that runs 4x bolt and no fatal push . And that makes sense, right? Push just solves soooo many problems that bolt doesn't. I mean, it can kill a goyf  24/7, it can kill death's shadow all day, and even take out Kalitas when revolt is active! That's a lot of value, isn't it? And what do we give up by taking out bolts? Not much. Bolt only kills like, 95% of what push does, and it closes out tight games off the top, and it takes out planeswalkers, and  you can play it for full value at end of turn even if your opponent has nothing on the board. Small price to pay to fit the "best removal spell in modern" into the jund main deck, right? Have you caught the sarcasm yet? Jund didn't have a removal problem before push was printed. Abzan  did. Path is a removal spell that ramps your opponent, which is a dangerous line for BGx midrange decks to play, or at least Reid Duke thought so not too long ago . But w...