Bloodbraiding Legacy

Hello Everyone!

This past weekend I had a blast hanging out with all my friends from the camp staff in our annual reunion. It's always to invigorating to be surrounded by people who truly love to lead and serve as the men and women I work with at camp do, which is completely different from a lot of what I see at school where I know those who waste away for days on end without interacting with other human life playing video games and whatnot. Naturally there was a lot of magic being played, however I have been effectively banned from playing because they can't beat me, but regardless I still enjoy teaching and helping to tune their decks.

In the outside world this past weekend GP Denver happened, which was legacy. Esper Stoneblade may have won the event, but it was Jund that won my heart. Pat Cox and Josh Ravitz both made the top 4 before both eventually losing to the champion, Vidianto Wijaya on Esper Stoneblade. This is actually not the first time I have seen a Jund deck in legacy. About a month ago there was a guy with a sweet beard at an SCG tournament who top 16d, though I can't remember his name or which one it was. At the time I thought it was interesting, but not something I would ever consider playing. This weekend however Jund had a very strong showing and established itself as the answer to all the delver decks and bug decks.

I have been playing the Jund deck online a bit to practice its style of game play, and it actually surprised me with how robust the deck is! In case you have not seen this piece of work, here's the list I am using:



4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Dark Confidant
4x Bloodbraid Elf

3x Lightning Bolt
3x Abrupt Decay

4x Thoughtseize
3x Hymn to Tourach

1x Maelstrom Pulse

1x Sylvan Library
4x Liliana of the Veil


4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Wooded Foothills
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wasteland
2x Bayou
1x Taiga
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
3x Badlands

Sideboard:

3x Pyroblast
3x Engineered Plague
2x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Life from the Loam
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Duress
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Chains of Mephistopheles

This has 1 less land and 1 additional Bloodbraid Elf in the maindeck compared the Ravitz and Cox but 23 land is still incredibly high in legacy, and our deck also has Deathrite Shaman so it's been very good for me.

If you have played the Modern Jund deck before things started getting weird with Lingering Souls, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Lotus Cobra that is how this deck plays out. Basically your first turn ideally you Deathrite, but otherwise cast Thoughtseize. Then turn 2 we have a plethora of options with Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Hymn to Tourach, and Liliana. From there you have a very disruptive game plan while Tarmogoyf shrivels their life total. Turn 3-5 he gets joined by a Bloodbraid Elf which gains some value, and then the opponent quickly dies from there. I think the best way to think of it is Team America but with Lightning Bolt and Bloodbraid Elf instead of blue spells.

Spoiler Alert!

Bloodbraid --> Hymn to Tourach is insane if you have never done it before, It's quite the rush!

The sideboard feels pretty strong, and against RUG and BUG I usually find that I don't board anything at all! Usually I will cut 2 Thoughtseize for 2 Jitte, but if they didn't many if any creatures game one, the maindeck is so robust there's no need to touch it. Against combo decks obviously Duresses come in, and I have been boarding in the Chains of Mephistopheles too. If you aren't familiar with this card, check it out! Basically it says "Whenever a player draws a card besides the first for turn, they discard a card." That's not quite it, but basically the idea is that you can't draw additional cards any turn, so if they cast a ponder they would normally end with the same number of cards they started, but now they're -1 card. Brainstorm is just stupid with this card....

I don't think I will actually go out of my way and build this deck, but I do happen to have a lot of the cards for it anyways thanks to playing Zombies, RUG Delver, and Storm. The only cards I'm really missing are the Lilianas! That's one of the great things about legacy is that so many cards are playable in so many decks so that when this happens I'm already 90% there, and I just need some Bloodbraids and a standard legal planeswalker and I'm good to go!

If you're looking for a sweet fair aggressive deck that has a lot of raw power and longevity, I highly recommend trying out Jund, because we all love Bloodbraid Elf!

Quick Aside

{

When playing this deck I had a flashback to old standard when my Bloodbraid cascaded into a Lightning Bolt to kill my opponent's Stoneforge Mystic that had tutored a Batterskull, and then I used Bloodbraid to kill Jace TMS. Just like standard 3 years ago! Weird....

}

End Aside

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie

Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

@ThingsILack