How to Build the Jund Deck for Zendikar Standard
November 2, 2009
I’ve updated the decklist with Worldwake cards. Check it out.
If you’ve been following Zendikar Standard, you’ve heard about the Jund deck. This is probably the best deck in Standard. It took five spots in the top eight of a big 5K tournament and it regularly posts top for finishes in big Magic-League.com tournaments.
It’s very resilient with a lot of card advantage from cascade, Blightning, Broodmate Dragon, and Garruk. It’s got great sideboard options to fight aggro, control, and even combo.
I started playing it again since the Magic League metagame has shifted towards a more balanced metagame with many different aggro and control decks. My pet deck, Naya/Jund Cascade Control, struggles against control but Jund is great in a varied metagame.
There are many ways to build Jund. After over 100 games playing this deck, here is the configuration I’ve come up with.
| Jund Aggro-Control | |||||||||||
Creatures (15) Spells (20) | Lands (25) Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
Creatures Analysis
4 Putrid Leech
I used to play three but that was just wrong. Putrid Leech is the best imitation we have of Tarmogoyf in T2. And it’s solid in all matchups. It’s an early drop to block the cheap aggro creatures like Goblin Guide and Elite Vanguard. And it’s a 4/4 clock versus control and combo.
4 Sprouting Thrinax
Another card that’s good against both aggro and control. It slows down aggro a lot and it’s wrath proof versus control. Sure, Path to Exile deals with it well but Path lets you ramp up your mana, which can be relevant since you’re playing six drops. And double Blightning on turn five is not bad either.
4 Bloodbraid Elf
Probably the best creature in Standard especially since Blightning exists.
3 Broodmate Dragon
Card advantage and a good mana to power ratio.
It’s a six drop with only 25 land but I’m playing three Garruk. I think three Broodmates is a good number. You want to draw one in most games but playing four is too much since it is expensive and you don’t want two of them in your opening hand.
Check out the latest eBay auctions on the Jund creatures:
Spells Analysis
4 Lightning Bolt
Stops cheap aggro creatures at low cost. Especially relevant against haste guys like Ball Lightning and Hellspark Elemental. It’s not bad against control since it goes to the dome. Also, it can lower the loyalty of planeswalkers.
2 Terminate
Magic pro, PV, has Great Sable Stag instead of Terminate, but I think Terminate is better. It’s an extra out for Baneslayer and it can deal with cheap aggro guys including the ones with haste. One of the cards that’s been gaining in popularity is Hell’s Thunder since it avoids Bolt and Jund’s ground creatures. But Terminate deals with it well.
4 Blightning
I used to have Sign in Blood instead but Blightning is so much better. Sign in Blood is pretty bad versus burn decks. However, Blightning allows you to race the aggro decks and it gives you card advantage versus the control decks.
I would never cut this card in games 2 and 3. Bloodbraid into Blightning is the best thing you can do in Standard.
4 Maelstrom Pulse
This card is one of the reasons why Jund has a good chance versus any deck. It kills everything except land and pro-black dudes. What other card stops planeswalkers, Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, Conqueror’s Pledge, Bloodchief Ascension, Pyromancer Ascension, and Baneslayer?
Plus, you sometimes luck out and kill two Plated Geopedes with one Pulse on turn three.
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
Great Sable Stag is too narrow but Garruk is good in all matchups. I’ve never cut Garruk in sideboarded games. He provides card advantage versus control but even aggro decks usually have to spend a Bolt to kill him. His beast tokens block Stag and he ramps up your mana for the turn five Broodmate.
3 Bituminous Blast
I only play three because it is expensive and it doesn’t always deal with Baneslayer. I’ve found that many of the creatures you want to kill in Type Two are either cheap aggro dudes or Baneslayer.
Versus aggro, you probably don’t want to see multiple Blasts early because aggro can deal 20 in four turns. But if you survive the early rush, Blast is pretty good.
Buy the Jund spells at eBay:
Mana Base Analysis
I have 22 green cards main deck including 2GG for Garruk. Plus, I have the 1GG of Stag in the sideboard. So, I play 16 green mana sources.
I have 24 red cards and 24 black cards main deck so I play 14 red and black sources. Many Jund decks I see only have 13 red sources, which seems too low. You want early red mana to play Bolt, Terminate, Blightning, and Thrinax. And if you have Goblin Ruinblaster in your sideboard, it can difficult to kick it early with only 13 red sources.
25 lands seems better than 24 since you have Broodmate and Blast. You can’t always count on Garruk since he can be killed and you often want to make a 3/3 token the turn he enters the battlefield, which leaves him open to Bolt.
Get great deals on the Jund lands at eBay:
Sideboard Plans and Analysis
2 Terminate
More Baneslayer insurance. Also, it’s solid against decks with a lot of haste creatures.
4 Mind Rot
This card seems better than Goblin Ruinblaster. It’s cheaper and easier to cast. You can bring it in versus control decks that don’t have a lot of non-basic lands.
Plus, it’s a better cascade card for Bloodbraid Elf on turn four. Cascading to a 2/1 haste creature is not very good.
3 Duress
Swerve can be devastating but Duress protects you and it can’t be Swerved.
3 Jund Charm
Instant speed mass removal for small dudes. It’s especially good against Goblin Bushwhacker.
3 Great Sable Stag
Comes in versus Vampires and the mirror match. Also, it’s solid against blue shroud creatures like Wall of Denial and Sphinx of Jwar Isle.
Vs Mirror
+3 Stag
+4 Mind Rot
+1 Terminate
-4 Bolt
-4 Pulse
Vs Boros Bushwhacker
+3 Jund Charm
+1 Terminate
-4 Pulse
Vs RDW (Red Deck Wins)
+2 Jund Charm
+2 Terminate
-4 Pulse
Mono Black Vampires
+3 Stag
+2 Terminate
-4 Bolt
-1 Pulse
Get the latest eBay auction prices on the Jund sideboard cards:
Playing the Deck and My Results
If your opponent has red open, don’t pump Leech because he could have Bolt or Burst Lightning.
In most matchups, Bloodbraid Elf is a removal spell. Don’t run him out on an empty battlefield unless that’s your only play. You don’t want to play him on an empty board and cascade into Pulse and then your opponent plays Baneslayer lol.
Against decks more aggressive than you (like Boros Bushwhacker and RDW), you want to play the control role. Your goal is to get to the middle game with a healthy amount of life because your late game cards are much better than theirs. For example, trade Leech for Goblin Guide and Thrinax for Hellspark Elemental to save life.
Also, try to leave up mana for your instant speed removal so you don’t get rocked by Ball Lightning or Elemental Appeal.
With this deck, I’ve gone 22-15 in matches and 61-40 in games. My results should be better but I made a couple misplays that cost me three matches. Also, in 11 of my match losses, I won one game.
Here are my match results versus different archetypes:
Boros Bushwhacker 4-1
Mono Black Vampires 2-3
RDW 1-3
GR Aggro 2-2
RWU Control 2-1
5 Color Cascade Control 2-0
Grixis Control 1-0
Mono White Soldiers 1-0
5 Color Control 1-0
Jund 0-1
RU Runeflare Trap/Font of Mythos Combo 1-0
Howling Mine Red Burn 1-0
UBR Vampires 1-0
Goblins 1-0
Naya Bushwhacker 0-1
GRB Land Destruction 0-1
GR Elves 0-1
Naya Midrange with Knight of the Reliquary and Scute Mob 0-1
Mono Black Control 1-0
Crypt of Agadeem Ramp 1-0
Try it out the deck and let me know what you think. If you have any questions like sideboarding plans against other decks, feel free to leave a comment.
33 Responses to “How to Build the Jund Deck for Zendikar Standard”
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Very well written article! Just out of curiousity how were you able to beat boros bushwacker 4 out of 5 times? From what i have seen bushwacker is one of the worst match ups for jund.
Thx!
I don’t remember exactly. It’s tough to remember exact games when you’ve played over 100 of them lol.
I probably had better draws. Boros can have some pretty inconsistent draws. Also, I lost a couple times to other aggro decks like GR Aggro and RDW so I was able to learn from those games how to play against aggro.
Hyper aggro decks are tough matchups imo but if you play super tight, you still have a good chance of winning. Remember they don’t always get their nut draws.
But playskill is super important vs them. I spend more time thinking about my plays vs aggro than I do vs control (unless their playing Swerve lol).
The key is to converse your life as much as possible in the early plays. You want to make it to the midgame with a healthy life total because in the midgame, your card advantage and big spells (Broodmate, Bit Blast) can overwhelm them.
Do all you can to save life early in the game so you can reach the late game and overwhelm them with card advantage.
So, early in the game, don’t be afraid to make these trades:
And don’t play Bloodbraid on an empty board unless that’s your only play or you can actually race them but those situations are rare. Bloodbraid is a removal spell. You don’t want to play him on an empty board and cascade into Terminate or Pulse. Four mana for a 3/2 haste is bad. Wait until they have a creature out like Goblin Guide or Plated Geopede.
This is one of the most skill intensive matchups so just practice a lot.
Finally, get in the control role mindset. You won’t be racing a deck full of burn and haste creatures including 6/1 and 7/1 dudes!
Nice guide, thanks, anyway I don’t like to take out all the bolts vs Vampires beacuse you want ever kill nighthawks and noctornus (the only good spells) I prefer to take out 2 garruks and 1 bolt.
In the sideboard I play also 4 Jund Charm, our best weapon vs boros.
Bye
Excellent article and deck, thank you for the post. I’ve built the deck and I like it, I feel like the early turns are a bit awkward with so many lands coming into play tapped. Some more discussion on sideboarding general strategies would be much appreciated also. Like, when to add the rots and duress’, what to pull for them, etc. Thanks mate!
Cutting out Blightning on Games 2 and 3 would depend on the matchup. I usually sided them out on Jund mirror or vamps as they usually has no effect on the battlefield and you really need creatures, spot removals, etc on those match ups.
Hi,
i’m testing this deck.
first of all, great article.
I want to know how you play the mirror matchup and how you sideboard against control deck like MWC, MRC and 4cc ?
Very nice article. I agree and disagree with many things on here though. One, I don’t think 4 out of 5 with Boros is uncommon. Jund has so much flexibility that it should be 4 out of 5. It just comes down to how you pilot your deck. You just have to survive until turn 4 or 5 then turn on the heat. I think siding out Blightning against the mirror is horrible. The best way to overcome getting Blightning-ed is to Blightning them right back. I also think you’re way too quick to side out pulse. It just handles way too many situations. The only situation where I clearly side out pulse is the mirror. Other than that, excellent article! Keep it up!
In your opinion/experience, how well does Jund match up against a Turbo Fog deck? I recently played my Vampires against Turbo Fog and got destroyed, so I made Jund instead, but have yet to test it.
I think the matchup is slightly favorable for Turbo Fog since Jund has some dead cards game one. Also, it’s not a very fast deck so Turbo Fog has a chance to setup. However, Jund definitely has a chance.
Early Pulses are very good since they destroy Turbo Fog’s card drawers (Mine, Jace, Font).
Also, sometimes a fast start just gets there. Turn 2 Leech and then Blightnings and Bolts can quickly kill Turbo Fog before they stabilize.
If you expect a lot of Turbo Fog in a tournament, you could board in 2-3 Unstable Footings. That card is really good against Fog and probably makes the matchup slightly favorable for Jund.
Ive begun to side in runeflare trap just because of the amount of jacarator that is played in my area, its fairly fun to have them tap out with 10+ cards in their hand and saying sorry.
Also i have a ton of trouble with the jund match up and could use some advice. I feel like it comes down to who gets more blightnings and bloodbraids.
Wolfe, how many Pulses are you playing? I’ve found that playing a full set of Pulses really helps.
In my opinion the very best card to side in or even maindeck is anathemancer.
[...] Jake and I played a quick hand of Magic the Gathering after dinner this evening. I was playing my old, reliable white deck, and Jake was playing a Jund deck. [...]
Why not run Stag mainboard? I find it helps alot. Oh and what about taking out one broodmate for a thornling? Was an old trick a few months back for naya to use against jund. so I tried it out. and i when it does come out it makes the difference. Also Malakir bloodwitch in the sideboard. for against White weenie is an awsome thing to do also against Naya (insert type here) brings up many possibilitys its not just for vampires anymore!!!
The cards you mentioned could be in the main board. I think it depends on the metagame. Good call on Malakir Bloodwitch. I would definitely have 2-3 in the sb right now, since there are a lot of white decks running around.
Thanks for the comment!
Hey , first of all nice guide,i play with jund from a long time,and i think that adding 2 Oranreef The Vestwood is insane.I mean that with those Garruks and greed Cratures u can easily make a 4/4 monsters witch are outsides Bold and Hellspark range.And Oran + tokens on Trinaxis= GG. SOme times the opponents forget about that part and just kill the trinaxis and then u kick him like hell
Nice article, but I disagree on a few points here. First, I wouldn’t remove the Blightnings (at all). That card is just too good especially when you cast it in the early turns. In mirror matches, the player who casts Blightnings first gets the upper hand. I also wouldn’t remove all the Pulses. I always run at least 2 in the main deck. Against mirror, just remove the threat, then play the card you just removed. It is the best removal card in the current meta.
Can’t complain about your mana base, other than the lands are just too expensive! lol
In my version of Jund, I run 2 Haunting Echoes in the main (no Garruk). I only lost one time vs. Jund, and that was a game penalty. (I was late!) My record against Jund is 5-1.
In the sideboard, I’d put at least 2 Thought Hemorrhage. This card can remove Vampire Nighthawk, Malakir Bloodwitch, Blightning, Archive Trap, etc. before they hit the board. I play Jund rather defensively unless playing against a control deck.
so, I played jund this weekend at FNM, and lost every mirror because I didn’t have broodmate(had to run seige gang instead). that dragon is a MUST. also, I’m thinking about using the Sprouting thrinaxes in sideboard, and mainboarding stable stags, but that’s because I’m running into path to exile way too much, and the only non white answer to it is bolt. I’ve also seen jund run both seige gang and broodmate. any opinions on that? I also run 21 lands and have only had mana problems twice, but that was before I had savage lands. now it works for me every game, because of Garruk. I’ve also been told that with worldwake, raging ravine is a must as well.
@Ron
Yes, Dragon is a must.
Thrinax is one of the best cards. I would never cut it unless your meta is full of White Weenie.
2-3 Stags is probably good to mainboard.
Playing both Siege-Gang and Broodmate is a good idea. Actually, many pros have been cutting Bit Blast to add more Siege-Gangs and Broodmates. I think this is a good idea since Bit Blast has gotten worse with White Weenie playing a bunch of pro-black and pro-red creatures and many control decks are basically going creatureless or just shroud creatures.
And yes, 3-4 Raging Ravine is a must. Try to trade for them as soon as possible since they are probably rising a lot in price since the PT winner played Jund.
Dee, thank you SO much for showing me no only the best cards, but also WHY they do so well. I especially liked the sideboard strategy. I never know what to take out of a deck when i side.
Thanks, Marc!
I’m pretty sure everyone knows about Jund if they play Standard Magic.
Also, I’m curious as to why you were winless vs. MonoB Vampires, as it is one of Jund’s easiest match-ups, to the point of almost being a bye in any tournament.
Otherwise, it all seems to fit.
I think I was just unlucky versus Vamps. I had bad draws and he had good ones including Mind Sludge to wreck me. A lot can happen in 5 matches even if in the long run, Jund has a great matchup vs Vamps.
I’ve tried this deck, but ive been undecided on when to mainboard stag or not… its great against wall of denial and sphyx but i wouldnt know what to take out… and are there any better alternatives to to garruk?
ive been thinking about putting hemmorhage in… but again, im undecided on what to take it out. i play against a lot of ally decks, BGR aggro, control (great against it).
any suggestions?
Um yeah….When I hear Jund, I think of one word: DEVOUR. Why do you think cards like Thorinax exist? To make other creatures bigger!! Maybe you didn’t use any devour because it’s an aggro deck, but still, come on…Jund!!
@Jamz
What’s your current list? That will help me give you good suggestions. Thanks!
Dee,
its almost identical as yours,
minus garruk, plus 1 blightning and 2 terminate.., though i DO have the garruks.
but ive been thinking about putting in thought hem. (2 or so)
so what would be my sideboarding options to play an aggro deck or control?
what would be the ideal decklist?
Jamz,
I’ve answered your questions in a new blog post. You can check it out at http://magicgameplan.com/blog/jund-deck-wwk/
better if the garruk 2, and the bitominous is 4…
it has casscade… then terminate must be 4 became the destroyer, you need the rootbound crag only 2 pieces, and make the basic forest land became 5, and mountain became 4, because you still have savages lands…
that´s my opinion…
hahaha
one more thing sir, i have not found an up to date naya bushwhacker deck, it seems like a lot of fun, pls post a link thanks!
I haven’t found a winning naya bushwhacker deck but here are two boros bushwhacker lists that did well in the nationals qualifiers: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/deckshow.php?feedin=33&deck_name=Boros+Bushwhacker
You have no idea how helpful this article has been for me, I have long planned on building a Jund deck for use in FNM.
@ Brandon
Thanks! By the way, check out my new post, which has a successful Jund decklist with M11 cards.
Here’s the link:
http://magicgameplan.com/blog/deck-price-tag-jund-m11/