With burn and Bant seeming to rise in popularity, I wonder if 4x stubborn is mandatory now.. I've held out of adding blue back into my list because I love the consistency. But it's hard to bear burn without it
I would also recommend everyone interested in this deck to take a look at this article where we get a more in-depth look at the archetype and specifically why it's become a contender once again.
I haven't been able to take on an event recently but I'm really excited to try out Once Upon a time and Murderous Rider
Oh thanks! I was confusing it with the Sideboard Artifact hate adventure that people are using, which is a Sorcery. (the name escapes me)
Having two traversable answers to PW is nice though. In a meta with lots of Jund and UW I think I would play both the Giant and Rider. But as it stands I think I like Plague Engineer in the main now more than ever. Murderous is probably too low of an opportunity cost NOT to include in the deck, and I have a personal affinity for GCR. It's won me so many games, I would almost never sleeve up without it.
Did a 3-1 at a local shop. Played a list similiar to the Leo Lahonen from Grand Prix Ghent. The 3 Kologhan's command were great and felt like the best card. I still have Assassin's trophy and Tarfire in the mainboard and I always liked drawing those too.
Once Upon a Time looks cool might have to try that.
Oh and one more thing. If you've ever played jund/abzan midrange it's really tempting to sit back and play a grindy game but this deck doesn't really do that. A lot of bad habits to break I can't explain it.
Did you include the extra TBR in your Sideboard? That was probably the most notable thing from that list, besides maybe 3x Kcmd in the main board. Which honestly seems excessive to me. Likely a meta call expecting lots of SFM. I think 1-2 is probably reasonable still.
Here's the list I've been testing. I'm waiting on OUT and Murderous Rider so swap and test them out, but for now this has been doing so-so
I'm also a little skeptical of the Bonecrusher Giant but it is nice that it can target Planeswalkers. Being a Sorcery is kinda lame though..
I haven't seen much of Humans in my area and there's consistently tons of Tron and Valakut and UWx control so I'm sticking with Fulminator Mage over the GQ / W6 plan.
Stephen Snelsen is a great Jund Shadow player from the SCG Philly area whose lists I've been following for over a year now. He's got a new spicy one sporting OUT and main board LOTV
Had trouble getting delerium without instants sometimes. Manamorphose probably fixes that.
Really wanna go to 3 k-command plus a single liliana of the veil. Wondering if its too slow. K-comm seems really good especially with street wraith usually in the yard.
Does mishras bauble and street wraith ever get boarded out? Or are they too important for turning on delerium?
I never board out Bauble but Street Wraith comes out against burn. I usually shave 1-2 Street Wraith against Humans and Spirits because I don't want my life total getting too low
Manamorphose is great at enabling delirium early. Personally I feel like 4x 3-drops is too much if you're only running 18 land
I don't find there to be a ton of value from LOTV in the main board. Some match-up it's fairly dead, others is great.
With the new showings of JDS here and also here maybe we can get some theory crafting going back up again in this thread? I'll note that Manamorphose is back in nearly every list and also Plague Engineer main board seems popular as well.
I feel confident in my Humans and Phoenix match up. Jund and Burn are another story. And Hogaak 2.0 doesn't particularly concern me. I do miss having Surgical in my main board but the addition of W6 has been great
I've been really loving W6 lately... It's synergy with our deck is great. Going less all-in on the delirium theme and just trying to play more like normal jund with a combo kill. My current list
I'd like to fit a third W6 in somehow but there's just no room.
Lower Bauble and Traverse count means I needed more land so I'm up to 19 now, but I cut 4 slots total (2 each Bauble/Traverse) so I had two flex slots that I'm trying out Dreadhorde Arcanist in. I played a bunch of matches with the Mardu Shadow list over the last week and while I do love them, I'm a BGx player at heart so I'm trying to find ways to improve my current favorite deck using the lessons from Mardu.
While Tarmogoyf certainly misses the consistent 5/6 provided by the full set of Bauble, I think Gurmag is nowhere in the meta right now the 4/5 is usually good enough. I've played about 8 matches with this list so far in practice.
The other big change you may notice is that I switched from basic forest to basic mountain. This is because I'm much heavier on red now. Open to critique here. Thanks
I could definitely get behind some Hexdrinker in traditional Jund but not in Traverse Shadow. We just hardly have mana to spare for something like that.
Also, it has protection from instants so you can't use TBR on it.
Played in a 66 person even yesterday with my recent list, only changes :
-1 Dismember
+1 Wrenn and Six
-1 Anger of the gods SB
+1 Plague Engineer SB
Did not do so well this time, going 3-3 and drop. My losses were to Boros Burn, Tron, and UG infect. My wins were against Zoo, Esper Mentor, and Hog Vine. Other than some questionable choices against infect, I didn't really make any misplays so that felt nice. I think it's time to retire my Tarfire because the amount of games I've lost to infect is getting out of hand. Being able to save their creature with any random +2/+2 effect is too big of a problem. W6 felt good also, even though she only came in a couple games. Not having Stubborn Denial really hurts when paired against Burn and Tron. I will say that beating Bridge Vine felt great. It's a scary deck that I'm building mostly for testing purposes, but I steamrolled that match yesterday 2-0. Turn 1 Thoughtseize takes Alter and that hamstrings them pretty badly.
I also felt like a lot wins can only come from TBR so I'm considering going up to 3x. My gut tells me that's too much especially with GCR who I would not consider removing. I'll start with these changes
I know the Shriekmaw is an old school Traverse technique but there were several times throughout my last two comp REL events where I really needed to be able to Traverse for removal. I'm swapping it out for one of my Angers, with the concession that dredge is going away with the rise of Hog Vine, and Anger doesn't help nearly as much for that match up. Humans is still a concern but Shriekmaw is still great here as it's evoke cost doesn't get taxed by Thalia. I've decided to incorporate the blue splash again, only out of the Sideboard. Swapping all my Brutality for Stubs since Stub is good in all the matches that Brutality is good, but then I can also use Stub against Tron and Scapeshift, where I normally wouldn't be bringing in Brutality. Stub is also good against traditional Dredge, so losing my Anger doesn't hurt as much.
I don't think you need to give up W6 for the sake of this new threat. W6 has easily replaced LOTV as the premier PW for this deck. Two CMC is huge and it pings rather than edicts which helps where we need it most (Humans, Spirits, Infect) but my thoughts are that Embodiment could replace Grim Flayer as the additional token creature.
Most games I feel like my deck wins through the control element of my spells, and my creatures are only for big dumb beats. Can you imagine dropping this for 6 or 7?.. This is likely to get damage through faster than Grim Flayer.
Let's look at the stats of our deck and consider the potential to drop this creature at 5/5 or higher (the frequency of which will determine its usefulness IMO). For the sake of this exercise I'll exclude Tarmogoyf, TBR and Shadow, because they rarely end up in the graveyard except against certain opponents. B 10-12 (incl 2-4 Fatal Push) G 4 BG 1-3 (Trophy, Decay, Flayer) R 1-4 (Looting, Bolt, Tarfire) 0 4 3BB 4 1PP 1-2 (Dismember) P 0-2 (Surgical) RG 0-2 (W6)
That's a pretty wide variety of mana costs, all of which are dumped into the graveyard rapidly over the first three turns. I would estimate its highly likely to drop as a 4/4 but I'm not sure that's worth it. Maybe with a faster combo-oriented meta game on the horizon, it's time we bring back Manamorphose? Which is another free & different mana cost to power out this guy faster and bigger.
He seems very good with Mutagenic Growth coupled with Dismember or even TBR. But a two mana creature that doesn't get in for much damage on its own doesn't sound worth it to me. But I am no expert with that version of the deck
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Dreadhorde Arcanist
4 Tarmogoyf
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Temur Battle Rage
3 Become Immense
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
2 Nurturing Peatland
2 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping
1 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Collective Brutality
1 Weather the Storm
1 Claim//Fame
3 Hooting Mandrills
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Assassin's Trophy
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I haven't been able to take on an event recently but I'm really excited to try out Once Upon a time and Murderous Rider
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Having two traversable answers to PW is nice though. In a meta with lots of Jund and UW I think I would play both the Giant and Rider. But as it stands I think I like Plague Engineer in the main now more than ever. Murderous is probably too low of an opportunity cost NOT to include in the deck, and I have a personal affinity for GCR. It's won me so many games, I would almost never sleeve up without it.
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Did you include the extra TBR in your Sideboard? That was probably the most notable thing from that list, besides maybe 3x Kcmd in the main board. Which honestly seems excessive to me. Likely a meta call expecting lots of SFM. I think 1-2 is probably reasonable still.
Here's the list I've been testing. I'm waiting on OUT and Murderous Rider so swap and test them out, but for now this has been doing so-so
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Manamorphose
4 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's trophy
1 Kolaghan's command
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Temur battle rage
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Nurturing Peatland
2 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Collective Brutality
1 Weather the Storm
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Plague Engineer
1 Assassin's trophy
1 Kolaghan's command
1 Collector Ouphe
2 Surgical Extraction
I'm also a little skeptical of the Bonecrusher Giant but it is nice that it can target Planeswalkers. Being a Sorcery is kinda lame though..
I haven't seen much of Humans in my area and there's consistently tons of Tron and Valakut and UWx control so I'm sticking with Fulminator Mage over the GQ / W6 plan.
Stephen Snelsen is a great Jund Shadow player from the SCG Philly area whose lists I've been following for over a year now. He's got a new spicy one sporting OUT and main board LOTV
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I never board out Bauble but Street Wraith comes out against burn. I usually shave 1-2 Street Wraith against Humans and Spirits because I don't want my life total getting too low
Manamorphose is great at enabling delirium early. Personally I feel like 4x 3-drops is too much if you're only running 18 land
I don't find there to be a ton of value from LOTV in the main board. Some match-up it's fairly dead, others is great.
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4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Mishra's Bauble
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Wrenn and Six
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Temur battle rage
2 Lightning bolt
2 Fatal Push
2 Assassin's Trophy
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
2 Nurturing Peatland
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood crypt
1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Plague Engineer
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Fatal Push
1 Damping Sphere
1 Assassin's trophy
2 Kolaghan's command
2 Collective brutality
I feel confident in my Humans and Phoenix match up. Jund and Burn are another story. And Hogaak 2.0 doesn't particularly concern me. I do miss having Surgical in my main board but the addition of W6 has been great
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4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Dreadhorde Arcanist
Spells (28)
2 Faithless Looting
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning bolt
2 Fatal Push
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Wrenn and Six
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Temur battle rage
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
3 Nurturing Peatland
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Kolaghan's command
1 Plague Engineer
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Collective Brutality
1 Anger of the gods
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's trophy
2 Fatal push
I'd like to fit a third W6 in somehow but there's just no room.
Lower Bauble and Traverse count means I needed more land so I'm up to 19 now, but I cut 4 slots total (2 each Bauble/Traverse) so I had two flex slots that I'm trying out Dreadhorde Arcanist in. I played a bunch of matches with the Mardu Shadow list over the last week and while I do love them, I'm a BGx player at heart so I'm trying to find ways to improve my current favorite deck using the lessons from Mardu.
While Tarmogoyf certainly misses the consistent 5/6 provided by the full set of Bauble, I think Gurmag is nowhere in the meta right now the 4/5 is usually good enough. I've played about 8 matches with this list so far in practice.
The other big change you may notice is that I switched from basic forest to basic mountain. This is because I'm much heavier on red now. Open to critique here. Thanks
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Also, it has protection from instants so you can't use TBR on it.
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-1 Dismember
+1 Wrenn and Six
-1 Anger of the gods SB
+1 Plague Engineer SB
Did not do so well this time, going 3-3 and drop. My losses were to Boros Burn, Tron, and UG infect. My wins were against Zoo, Esper Mentor, and Hog Vine. Other than some questionable choices against infect, I didn't really make any misplays so that felt nice. I think it's time to retire my Tarfire because the amount of games I've lost to infect is getting out of hand. Being able to save their creature with any random +2/+2 effect is too big of a problem. W6 felt good also, even though she only came in a couple games. Not having Stubborn Denial really hurts when paired against Burn and Tron. I will say that beating Bridge Vine felt great. It's a scary deck that I'm building mostly for testing purposes, but I steamrolled that match yesterday 2-0. Turn 1 Thoughtseize takes Alter and that hamstrings them pretty badly.
I also felt like a lot wins can only come from TBR so I'm considering going up to 3x. My gut tells me that's too much especially with GCR who I would not consider removing. I'll start with these changes
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Street Wraith
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
Spells (30)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Fatal Push
2 Lightning bolt
2 Assassin's Trophy
1 Dismember
1 Wrenn and Six
2 Temur battle rage
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Faithless looting
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
2 Blood crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding pool
1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Wrenn and Six
1 Anger of the gods
1 Shriekmaw
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Assassin's trophy
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Kolaghan's command
I know the Shriekmaw is an old school Traverse technique but there were several times throughout my last two comp REL events where I really needed to be able to Traverse for removal. I'm swapping it out for one of my Angers, with the concession that dredge is going away with the rise of Hog Vine, and Anger doesn't help nearly as much for that match up. Humans is still a concern but Shriekmaw is still great here as it's evoke cost doesn't get taxed by Thalia. I've decided to incorporate the blue splash again, only out of the Sideboard. Swapping all my Brutality for Stubs since Stub is good in all the matches that Brutality is good, but then I can also use Stub against Tron and Scapeshift, where I normally wouldn't be bringing in Brutality. Stub is also good against traditional Dredge, so losing my Anger doesn't hurt as much.
Also thinking of trying a more Jund ish build
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Street Wraith
Spells (27)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Faithless Looting
3 Fatal Push
3 Lightning bolt
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Wrenn and Six
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Temur battle rage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
3 Wooded foothills
2 Blood crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Unearth
2 Kolaghan's command
1 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Anger of the gods
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Yixlid Jailer
3 Collective Brutality
1 Harsh Mentor
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Most games I feel like my deck wins through the control element of my spells, and my creatures are only for big dumb beats. Can you imagine dropping this for 6 or 7?.. This is likely to get damage through faster than Grim Flayer.
Let's look at the stats of our deck and consider the potential to drop this creature at 5/5 or higher (the frequency of which will determine its usefulness IMO). For the sake of this exercise I'll exclude Tarmogoyf, TBR and Shadow, because they rarely end up in the graveyard except against certain opponents.
B 10-12 (incl 2-4 Fatal Push)
G 4
BG 1-3 (Trophy, Decay, Flayer)
R 1-4 (Looting, Bolt, Tarfire)
0 4
3BB 4
1PP 1-2 (Dismember)
P 0-2 (Surgical)
RG 0-2 (W6)
That's a pretty wide variety of mana costs, all of which are dumped into the graveyard rapidly over the first three turns. I would estimate its highly likely to drop as a 4/4 but I'm not sure that's worth it. Maybe with a faster combo-oriented meta game on the horizon, it's time we bring back Manamorphose? Which is another free & different mana cost to power out this guy faster and bigger.
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