gbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgbgb arbeit macht frei

this week i was running something that is said to give jund a hard time. first off i would like to share a link my playtest mate QS shared with me

so yeah if tl:dr then the main point of that article is jund get beaten by spirit jund, spirit jund get beaten by thundermaw hellkite jund. then deathrite shaman got banned and people thought jund is dead and played twin. and now jund is back.

seriously... jund is just a goodstuff midrange deck. even if you ban this ban that, ultimately something is going to take its place. the GB shell is just too good. QS played pure GB for a while and he said he didnt even miss lightning bolt. i wonder does he miss terminate and anger of the gods against pod. is scavenging ooze really enough?

speaking of GB, recently i lent out my whole(!) uwr kiki control deck to CW because he was bored of regular uwr midrange. therefore i built a gbw junk with whatever i have left. here's what i played these 2 weeks

4x verdant catacombs
3x misty rainforest
4x marsh flats
2x overgrown tomb
1x temple garden
1x godless shrine
2x ghost quarters
1x twilight mire
1x stirring wildwood
2x forest
1x swamp
1x plains

4x knight of the reliquary
4x tarmogoyf
4x birds of paradise
4x scavenging ooze
3x courser of kruphix

4x liliana of the veil
1x garruk relentless
4x lingering souls
2x thoughtseize
2x inquisition of kozilek
2x abrupt decay
2x golgari charm
1x dismember

basically a gb deck without dark confidant. god i hate that card. oh well at least its good removal bait. i know it is a good card. but it just doesnt work well for me. it always kills me! therefore i decided to try white, knight of the reliquary and lingering souls for a change since jund is on the uprise again. sort of not like what willy edel suggested. but what am i trying to do is to go over the top. most of the time whenever i played it its at least a 5/5. whenever i untap with it i usually win... baring some disgusting topdeck from the opponent. then at that point onwards it becomes something opponent must answer. i also feel he dig as hard as, if not harder than courser of kruphix. they kind of ensure you draw spells after spells. he feels like... psychatog. lol

garruk relentless have to go. its neither a removal when i need it nor ramp when i need it. i also wanted more removals. i only have 5 removals... not very good for a midrange deck. at some point of the games i felt like i was playing mono green stompy. hilarious. i feel this deck has more potential that it looks. perhaps more testing and tuning will tell. sideboard is also very rough now therefore i didnt want to put up here. i definitely like what willy edel has done. he has like at least 7 cards to bring in for each tier 1 decks. gut gemacht!

last night QS brought RUG twin. to me it feels like RUG good stuffs with twin combo built in. usual goyfs, oozes, snapcaster mages and pestermite/deceiver exarch. he told me he is trying to play it like tempo. but most of the time i feel like he have to keep answering my threats. i dont feel any pressure at all. he keep countering my threats. when he lands something it got eaten by liliana of the veil or being forced into a bad block. typical turns goes like this. i played goyf he spell snare. i play ooze he remands. he play goyf i play liliana of the veil. he snap bolt to my liliana of the veil and i abrupt decay on snapcaster mage etc. the RUG twin aint tempoing me out. if he run out of answers i win. if i run out of answers he win. if hes trying to 1for1 me then most likely gbx or any other midrange will pull up ahead.

RUG twin is like a tempo deck with a midrange plan. late game reach is difficult unless you already have some board presence. drawing a cryptic command without anything on the board is nothing but a fog. RUG twin doesnt have a liliana of the veil or knight of the reliquary to take over the game. things like liliana of the veil, tarmogoyf, scavenging ooze and knight of the reliquary are things that take over the game.

last night was a game of topdecks. 1 game he topdecks a spellsnare. the other game was cryptic command. some games was some swords, splinter twins and KERANOS!!! and nice nonland rips from the top of the deck to burn me off. keranos isnt bad is it? nevertheless i had some godly draws of my own too. multiple goyfs, oozes and lilianas. liliana is disgusting when shes a 2for1.


all in all i think in this turn4 format, gbx is still the king. snapcaster mage and restoration angel are still a far second. its really hard for tempo to survive and prosper in this format even with the unbanning of the most powerful tempo card, bitterblossom. although the loss of deathrite shaman is tragic but gbx decks are defintely still playable just that it is not very forgiving as before. over time i think more anti jund decks will pop out. things like tron and death and taxes and stuffs like that. but one is for sure. jund will not die off.