I’m playing Jund again. Here’s my deck again:
4 Bloodbraid Elf /// 4 Putrid Leech /// 4 Sprouting Thrinax /// 3 Great Sable Stag /// 2 Thornling /// 1 Broodmate Dragon
Thornling did so well for me last night that I decided to add one more and drop a Broodmate just to try it out. Sable Stag is becoming less and less effective for me, so I may only keep Sable Stag main for another week or two at most because there are less and less Vampire/Jund decks out there.
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Blightning /// 4 Lightning Bolt /// 4 Maelstrom Pulse /// 3 Bituminous Blast
I’m totally happy with playing 4 Pulses instead of 2 Pulses and 2 Terminates because there are definitely more Planeswalkers out there now. I like playing with 3 Bit Blasts, 4 seems like too many and 2 seems too few. Plus the only dead cards I have against control decks are Bit Blasts, if I played with 2 Terminates, that would give me 5 dead cards against them.
2 Verdant Catacombs /// 1 Scalding Tarn /// 3 Terramorphic Expanse /// 4 Savage Lands /// 2 Dragonskull Summit /// 2 Rootbound Crag /// 4 Forest /// 3 Mountain /// 3 Swamp /// 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood was an amazing card for me. It pushes a lot of my creatures over the top, plus it’s very synergistic with Garruk.
Sideboard:
3 Vampire Nighthawk /// 3 Jund Charm /// 2 Pyroclasm /// 3 Duress /// 2 Thought Hemorrhage /// 2 Slave of Bolas
Slave of Bolas is nice but I never got a chance to play it because there just were any targets for me.
Round 1 vs. John’s Boros Bushwacker Deck
Game 1: John goes agro with a turn 1 Steppe Lynx that brings me down to 16 before I can lay down a Putrid Leech to stop the offensive. We quickly go back and forth trading creatures for creatures and removal spells. I draw a Blightning and he has one card in his hand but withhold it because I wanted to get maximum return from Blightning. Fortunately he plays a land and a Ranger of Eos his next turn, fetching a Bushwacker and a Steppe Lynx, but he was tapped out. I draw a Bit Blast and Blightning him for his Bushwacker and Lynx. I take three more from his Ranger, bringing me down to 7, he’s at 4, but on his next turn I Bit Blast his Ranger, cascading into a Bloodbraid into a Thrinax. He plays another Ranger of Eos and we’re back at it. I play my Oran-Rief, the Vastwood. I attack with my Bloodbraid and it runs into a Ranger. The next turn he plays a Steppe Lynx and a kicked Bushwacker. I block the Lynx with the Thrinax and pump up my Saprolings with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, making them 2/2s. Next turn I swing with my 3 2/2 Saprolings for the win.
I side out my Leeches for 2 Pyroclasms and 2 Jund Charms.
Game 2: His deck curves out perfectly. Turn 1 Lynx, Turn 2 Fetch land, which he cracks for another land and plays a Geopede, Turn 3 he plays another Fetch land and continues to smash. I play a turn 4 Jund Charm but he redirects it via Harms way to bring me down to 14. He eventually brings me down to 1 and Bolts me for the game.
I side out my Blightnings because I wanted to cascade into my mass removals spells (Jund Charm & Pyroclasm).
Game 3: He starts smashing me with a turn 1 Lynx and another creature, next thing I know I’m at 12 life, before I’m able to play my first spell; a Bloodbraid into a Pyroclasm which wipes his board. He plays a Ranger of Eos for a Lynx and a Bushwacker. I keep my Bloodbraid back to block. He plays his Lynx and Bushwacker, I respond with a Jund Charm. He redirects the two from his Lynx back to me, I take 3 from Ranger and drop to 7. I play an Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and pass the turn, he draws and passes the turn. I play a Garruk and swing with my Thrinax and he responds by Bolting it, I make my 1/1 Saprolings into 3/3’s thanks to Garruk and Oren-Rief. He plays his 2nd Ranger and passes the turn. I draw and make a 4/4 Beast token from Garruk & Oren-Rief and pass the turn. He plays a fetch land, a Steppe Lynx, and Bushwacker and attacks with those two creatures as well as two Rangers. We trade creatures and he’s left with a Steppe Lynx. I draw a Bit Blast, untap two lands and pass the turn with no creatures on the board. He plays a Teetering Peeks and I Bit Blast the 0/1 Lynx before any Landfall triggers resolve, I hit gold with a Bloodbraid and Leech. Bloodbraid and Leech swing for 5 brining him down to 8, I’m still at 7 and at this point we’re both in top deck mode, luckily for me I have 2 creatures and a Garruk with 4 counters on it. He draws a card and then extends his hand as time is called.
Whew, that was a tough match because of the Harm’s Way and Rangers that he kept on playing. Thankfully I was able to get Oren-Rief, the Vastwood out making my creatures tougher to kill.
Round result: 2-1
Game results: 2-1
Match results: 1-0
Round 2 vs. Sou’s Jund deck (Sou and Vandy are two cool guys! One night Vern was trading with the two of them but had to leave early because he had to watch Wes. Out of nowhere Vern calls me after the 1st round and asks me if those two other Hmong guys are still there. He tells me to befriend them so after Vern and I hang up, I walk up to the two of them ask them how they did after the first round. The rest is history. I honestly see these two guys more often at random tournaments in the area then I see Vern, Peter, Blong, or Second at these tournaments.)
Game 1: I hate playing the mirror because it’s very dependent on who can draw certain cards over the other. The first game is epic and I’m forced to play a turn 3 Blightning over a Thrinax. He responds back with a Blightning of his own. I don’t remember much but eventually we’re down to top deck mode. I draw a Garruk and use it’s +1 ability, he Bolts it in response. I finally draw my 5th land with a Thornling in my hand. Sou’s got one card in his hand so I decide to take the risk of it not being any type of removal, so I lay down my land and tap out for my Thornling. On his next turn, he Pulses it. Darn… Eventually I’m down to 6 life and he’s at 6 as well. I top deck a Leech and he top decks a Thrinax. I draw a Pulse and pass the turn. He attacks with the Thrinax and I block with a pumped Leech, bringing me down to 4 and then I Pulse his Tokens. On my turn, I swing with a 2/2 Leech bringing him down to 4 as well. He draws and passes the turn, I swing with a 2/2 Leech again bringing him down to 2, while I’m at 4. I didn’t want to pump the Leech because I was afraid he might have a Bolt. He draws and passes the turn and I swing with my Leech for the win.
I take my time sideboarding and see that he sides out close to about 10 cards so I assumed that he was going to take out a bunch of his creatures, which make my Pulses less deadly to me.
Game 2: I keep an awkward hand of 4 lands, Blightning, Bit Blast, and Pulse. He plays a turn 3 Nighthawk and I play a turn 3 Blightning. Nighthawk brings me down to 14 and him to back 23. Eventually, I drop a Broodmate Dragon and he’s forced to double Bolt its mate. Broodmate, with no mate, all alone brings Sou from 25 down to 10 before it’s Terminated. He plays Duress on me and sees two Slaves of Bolas. He then Thought Hemorrhages me for Lightning Bolts and plays a Great Sable Stag. Stag brings me down to 11 before I top deck a Bit Blast. I Bit Blast his Putrid Leech and cascade into a Bloodbraid of my own. Next turn, Garruk hits the board and starts pumping out 3/3 Beasts and he can’t keep up.
Round result: 2-0
Game results: 4-1
Match results: 2-0
Round 3 vs. Elen’s Jund deck
Game 1: I mull down to 5 and he lays down the beats. I lose on turn 6.
Game 2: It’s my turn to lay down the beats and his life total goes 20, 17, 14, 11, 0.
Game 3: His Bloodbraid cascades into a kicked Ruinblaster destroying my Savage Lands, leaving me with Mountain and Swamp. Luckily I top deck another Savage Lands and play it tapped. He plays a 2nd Ruinblaster kicked and I’m stuck on 2 lands for a long time. My life totals drop from 20, 17, 12, 5, 4, 3, 0.
His land disruption is too much for me to recover from. I never was a fan of Ruinblaster before but I am now! I also need to get more M10 dual lands as well as 2 more Verdant Catacombs. Not having the right lands totally killed me this match.
Round result: 1-2
Game results: 5-3
Match results: 2-1
Round 4 vs Jim’s Naya deck (I saw that Jim was 3-0 and that I got paired up to him. If I won 2-0, I was for sure going into the top 8. If I won 2-1, there was 25% chance of me not getting into the top 8.)
Game 1: I honestly don’t remember much from this game except that he Path’d 3 of my guys and that it was pretty close until I got my Oran-Rief, the Vastwood and Garruk combo going again. Soon my guys were just a little bit bigger than his.
Game 2: He gets stuck on awkward mana; 1 Forests and an Exotic Orchard. I have BG mana in play. I play a turn 2 Putrid Leech and a turn 3 Vampire Nighthawk that eventually brings me up to 30 life. His life total drops from 18, 12 10 when he draws another Forest and plays a Great Sable Stag. I withhold from playing a Dragonskull Summit because I didn’t want to give him access to R mana. Eventually Vampire Nighthawk finishes him; 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0. I show him my Dragonskull Summit in my hand and he shows me 3 Bloodbraid Elves and we laugh. He said he took out two B/R Refuge lands in exchange for 2 Exotic Orchard because he doesn’t have all the cards he needs and because the Orchards give him access to B & R and don’t come into play tapped. But in the end this sideboarding decision cost him the match.
Round result: 2-0
Game results: 7-3
Match results: 3-1
The top 8 decide to split the prize. I personally didn’t feel like playing another 3 hours of magic in order to increase my winnings from 3 packs to 6 packs. In the end I end up getting 2nd place and Elen, the guy I lost to in the 3rd round takes 1st. If we were to meet up again in the finals, I’m pretty sure he would have won because he had Goblin Ruinblasters and I didn’t.
Big props to Xay and Josh for helping me figure out some card decisions. In the end, I would of traded my 5 packs to be called Zendikar Game Day Champion if there was more incentive in being called the Champion, like a 3 round bye for GP: Mpls, but there wasn’t so I was happy to take my 5 packs and 2 promos.
If I was to play tonight, I would run the following list:
4 Bloodbraid Elf /// 4 Putrid Leech /// 4 Sprouting Thrinax /// 2 Great Sable Stag /// 2 Thornling /// 2 Broodmate Dragon
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Blightning /// 4 Lightning Bolt /// 4 Maelstrom Pulse /// 3 Bituminous Blast
2 Verdant Catacombs /// 1 Scalding Tarn /// 3 Terramorphic Expanse /// 4 Savage Lands /// 2 Dragonskull Summit /// 2 Rootbound Crag /// 3 Forest /// 3 Mountain /// 3 Swamp /// 2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Sideboard:
4 Gobling Ruinblaster /// 1 Great Sable Stag /// 3 Jund Charm /// 2 Pyroclasm /// 3 Duress /// 2 Thought Hemorrhage
Thanks for reading! Peace!
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