Running Modern Jund

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...