So welcome to "A Casual Competitive Perspective!" Before I get started on the first discussion, let me take a second to explain a little bit about me. I am a college student majoring in Game Design, who spends a large amount of my free time playing any kind of games I can get me hands on, specifically, Magic: The Gathering. I'm part of a play group here who plays just about any format you can think of at least once. Currently our favorites include: All constructed formats except perhaps Vintage, Massive Multi-player Free for All, All limited formats (especially draft), Cube Drafting, Elder Dragon Highlander, and Make Your Own Standard. We love to play and experiment with new things to mess around with. But enough about me, I'm sure I can bore you with more details about me later, let's get to the Magic.

Last Friday we hosted our first Standard Friday Night Magic (FNM) in a post-Zendikar format (We usually do drafts, as it's more popular.). After hearing week after week that Jund is just the hottest deck in the format, I decided that I'd shuffle it up and give it a go. Here is the list that I ended up taking:

Jund
Lands (26) 4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Forest 4 Rootbound Craig 4 Savage Lands 4 Swamp 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Mountain Creatures (17) 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Putrid Leech 4 Sprouting Thrinax 3 Broodmate Dragon 2 Great Sable Stag	Spells (15) 4 Blightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Bituminious Blast Planeswalkers (2) 2 Garruk Wildspeaker	Sideboard (15) 4 Jund Charm 4 Terminate 2 Deathmark 2 Great Sable Stag 2 Haunting Echoes

The sideboard was mostly to fight a bunch swarm decks, specifically Vampires, as I knew a couple of guys who told me that's what they were going to play. I also expected very little control, as most of the people around here don't own Baneslayer Angels, and as such, the meta would probably be a lot of Aggro and Burn.

So as I set out in this tournament, I was feeling good about my deck and it's ability to just play better cards than my opponent until eventually they ran out of ways to deal with me. Here's how it went:

Round 1: BR Bloodchief Ascension Burn

My Roommate's brother, he had come up for the tournament joking that he was playing "counter-burn". I had played him before and knew that he was a solid player, as well as a lot of fun, so I was excited for the match. Turns out the "counters" were Bloodchief Ascension counters. Game one was weird; I double Blightning-ed him, one of which was off a Bloodbraid Elf, reduced his hand to shreds, and somehow still I lost. It was sort of a blur, and I don't really understand how it happened, but I think it involved him ripping Lightning Bolts and Blightnings off the top with an online Ascension and me not able to find a Pulse for it.

Game two was much better, I boarded in the Great Sable Stags for some Bituminous Blasts and just rolled over him. I drew triple Ascension and almost no burn to turn it on, and when it got close from my own Leeches (an awkward interaction that I realized) I just pulsed them away.

Going into game three, I felt pretty good, as I figured my deck just had a fluke game one and just some bad luck. My first hand was unkeepable, but the hand had TWO Bloodbraid Elves, two Lightning Bolts, and two lands (I believe it was Savage Lands and a Forest), so I decided to roll with it; being on the play and only needing one more land to make the hand good and two more to make it amazing. My first draw was a Dragon Skull Summit, so I was all set. He played turn two Bloodchief with End of Turn Bolt to start it up. I proceeded to draw: Broodmate Dragon, Bituminous Blast, a THIRD Bloodbraid Elf, a third Lightning Bolt, a Stag (which he killed), another Broodmate, and finally a Blightning. I never hit that fourth land, never found a Pulse, and just died in disbelief.

Round 2: Naya Blades

It was a home-brew Green/White/Splash Red deck revolving around Bant Sureblades, Jund Hackblades and Naya Hushblades, as well as a bunch of other multicolored two-drops, and then dropping Knight of New Alara as a sort of Overrun effect. Game one we just slugged it out just like my deck is supposed to, with me slowly getting card advantage out of my Bloodbraid Elves, Bituminous Blasts, and Blightnings; I finally dropped a pair of Broodmate Dragons to finish it off. I boarded in Terminates and Jund Charms to just give me some extra protection.

Game two was really awkward, as he played a turn one Wildfield Borderpost, and then TRIPLE Naya Hushblades (yes, the one with shroud) over the next three turns as I looked at a hand of Terminate, Terminate, and Lightning Bolt. We sort of stared back and forth for a while. I played some guys, which he just killed with burn. He finally dropped a Knight, and I think I got a bit greedy at this point, as I dropped some Leeches and passed the turn with Terminate mana up. He swung, I blocked (also incorrect), and then reached for Terminate on the Knight, only to run into Vines of Vastwood! I looked down and realized that I had just condemned my Leeches to a viscous death and shook my head. I untapped next turn and tried to Terminate it again, only to run into ANOTHER VINES. Shaking my head, I played some chump blocker and passed the turn. He untaped, and played a third Vines, kicked, to kill me.


At this point I told myself that I needed to tighten up my play and be aware of the Vines as I went into game three. I decided to keep a hand of double Jund Charm (remembering the stupid shroud guys), Lightning Bolt, and Terminate -- figuring that I'll just not die and I'll win. My lands were Summit, Mountain, Mountain, and I expected to draw a Green source (it's the most plentiful color in my deck...) before turn four. Needless to say, I never did and just get ran over.

Round 3: Bant

Thoroughly depressed at this point that I'm 0-2 with this supposedly amazing deck, I figured that I'll just crush my round three opponent. Turns out that I faced my brother, playing a Bant deck that I designed specifically to beat midrange aggro.... Great.

I think at this point I started to loose my composure a bit, joking with him, and just sort of laughing at my shitty luck all night. I kept a hand with Verdant Catacombs, Swamp, and all Red Spells. I don't think it really mattered anyway, as he went with a turn one Noble Hierarch, turn two Lotus Cobra, turn three Fetchland into Baneslayer Angel, turn four Fetchland, turn five drop another Fetch, crack both, play Iona, Shield of Emeria, naming Black -- just like I built the deck to do. I just looked down at my board, realized that this is the first time Baneslayer has been the LEAST of my worries, and scoop them up.

Game two he didn't draw an Blue source and I just tore his hand appart with Blightnings and finished him off with Elves and Leeches.

Game three, he drew removal and I mulliganed down to a hand with two Savage Lands and four spells. Sighing, I decide that I'll just keep it and chalk up another game lost to mana screw. Over the course of the next 12 turns he didn't draw a threat that I couldn't burn out, but I drew 10 lands. At the end of the game I had enough mana to cast even a double Broodmate Dragon. I looked at my graveyard, which rocked eight spells (two of the six non-lands were Bloodbraid Elves) and just die to double Baneslayer.

Round Four: Bye

So that's how my night went. Playing, supposedly, the best deck in the room, I didn't win a match. I'm know that I'm being a bit melodramatic, as I know I just had some tough luck in some bad match-ups, and realistically, the deck is still really tight.

All in all I don't think Jund is the dominating force that people crack it up to be, which leaves me the option to pick up some other decks to play this season (like I originally intended). I was pretty impressed by my Bant build that my brother played, which I think is really flexible and packs a lot of power. I'm looking to play something along those lines in my next standard event. Here's the list I'm looking at now:

Bant
Lands (25) 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Seaside Citadel 4 Sunpetal Grove 3 Glacial Fortress 2 Arid Mesa 2 Forest 2 Island 2 Plains 2 Terramorphic Expanse Creatures (19) 4 Baneslayer Angel 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Noble Heirarch 4 Rhox Warmonk 2 Rafiq of the Many 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria	Spells (13) 4 Bant Charm 4 Path to Exile 3 Mind Spring 2 Finest Hour Planeswalkers (2) 2 Elspeth, Knight Errant

So that's it for this perspective, sorry it went on for a bit and was mostly just story. Next time I'll try to go into a bit of Zendikar limited, specifically draft, as it's the format that I probably play the most in competitive play. Until next time!

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