Jund

I'm not entirely sure how this post should be named but well it is time to write something about the past few days... Since Modern Masters release (actually since Wednesday) I had a lot of work. Sorting cards, selling cards (creating listings), trading and sending all those cards to different locations in the world. And I also had to open majority of the booster packs myself and I don't really like that. Anyway I spent days and nights doing this. I had to be fast in order to sell the cards for reasonable price and as I need money for M14 fast. When I went to sleep it was usually light outside once again.
During the day I was usually running around Prague collecting some cards and selling them. This was pretty exhausting especially with the public transport not entirely operating due to floods. But thanks to this I managed to ran into Molik a friend of mine that now lives in Brno so we hardly see each other. She came here to offer her help to those whose houses were flooded. During the night - - WORK. When I was completely exhausted and couldn't go on I went to sleep but I was soon woken up by loud noises from outside (as they are repairing gas tubes or something underground...). The works start usually before 7am. That's insane. Anyway on Saturday I signed up for Modern Masters draft. With about 6 hours of sleep in the previous 3 days I still decided to go (as I promised that already). I started drafting 5cc but red color in general and white aggro creatures were open. So I switched and started taking these. This was a good decision but made too late. I had a nice weenie deck that could deal 12 damage in the first 3 rounds but at the tournament the deck just decided to not work (I admit that the deck was highly instable because I did not have enough playable cards and had to play some random cards). After the draft, which was really nice, I had a lot of work to do yet once again.

On Sunday I wanted to have some free time and I used it to be with my family and go see the new Star Trek. If I should write something about it (I mean the movie)...I would use these three letters: l o l

During the night and most morning I was preparing orders. When I was tired of looking for certain Moderm Masters cards I decided to put together a Jund legacy deck and Deathblade. My friend decided to win a dual land for me but he needs a deck for that. He asked for Deathblade so I put that together. As for me I had no idea what to play but after WMCQ at which I played Jund I decided to go for Jund and see what the deck can do. Anyway looking for cards for the deck was even more frustrating than finding cards for the orders. Mainly because I knew that I (for example) own sets of all fetchlands but I couldn't find them (and still did not find them....darn).

On Monday I was supposed to meet about six different people with whom I would either trade or sell them cards or buy cards from them. I ran into one by accident. I bought the cards and continued on. I should have met few more people at one location but none of them showed up (One probably arrived but too late for me). After this I headed to another game store and bought some heavily played dual lands. After that a horror at local post office started. I waited in one line, then was sent to a different place where I had to once again stand in line. From that place I was sent once again to the original location where once again I had to stand in a line. It took about 30 minutes but I successfully submitted everything. After this I just wanted to eat something and rest.

But something different happened. There was odd number of players at the Legacy tournament so I was asked if I would play. I decided to play. I wanted to try the Jund deck but did not have Dark Confidants, Wastelands, 1x Grove oft he Burnwillows, Deathrite Shamans and Thoughtseizes (as those were in Deathblade except the Grove that I simply don't own). Kenji though was so kind and let me use his cards for the tournament. I still did not have a set of Thoughtseizes and I did not have the Grove. Instead of it I had Taiga in the deck which showed up to be the bane of it^^ (and Inquisition of Kozilek instead of Thoughtseize).

In round one I lost the first game fast. In the second game I had a nice hand but I forgot that the Taiga I have in my hand is not actually Grove of the Burnwillows (I had to play my proxy card as Taiga). Due to this I lost the game because I simply couldn't cast anything and I did not have the Grove. I facepalmed myself and decided to at least CONCENTRATE on the game. Not to mention the fact that I had NO IDEA what cards could help me in this match up and what cards I don't need. Logically Punishing Fire + Grove should have been all I needed (and 5 mana)

In round 2 I knew that I needed to play against someone I know and someone who would be kind otherwise I would freak out. Please note that after such sleep deprivation I wasn't in a really good state. Upon looking at the pairings I knew that everything would be ok. I played against Martin with his Junk rock. I lost one game because I couldn't deal with Lingering Souls and Dark Confidant but I won the other two games. I had no idea what to side in nor what to side out. I sided in Engineered Plague (spirit or human) and Maelstrom Pulse and decided not to side in Surgical Extraction (which I would normally side in). In the end it did not really matter as I managed to win (somehow) as always had the card advantage.

Round 3 was interesting. I once again played against someone I know and I also encountered his deck. I had plan - all out attack! and Abrupt Decay as the only combo breaker (Helm of Awakening + Sensei's Divining Top -> Grapeshot). I tried to deal as much damage as I could and was waiting with Lightning Bolt in my hand. Punishing Fire followed. All this was nice I still needed to deal two more damage somehow. When my opponent resolved both the Helm and Top I knew I was screwed unless..... my opponent played Gitaxian Probe and payed with his life. I was like 'I can actually win...but I have yet to see if I won't lose'. Fortunately for me he couldn't counter any of the spells and his back up plan with Intuition did not work either as he was one mana short and one card in library short^_^ (I did not know this). In game two I sided in Slaughter Games, more directed discard, Surgical Extraction and Pyroblasts/REB. My REB hit Counterbalance and I discarded a second one. A turn later I removed Grapeshots from the game and then tried to beat my opponent with some creatures. He seemed to stabilize though at one point (when he played Vendilion Clique) but my top decks were good (Dark Confidant and Punishing Fire among that) and I won.

In the last round I played against enchantress. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. I knew that Krosan Grip, Maelstrom Pulse and discard will be my only chances. I won game one easily as I managed to discard everything that I did not want to see on the table and what ended up on the table just got Abrupt Decay'ed. In game two I sided in Slaughter Games, more discard, Maelstrom Pulse, Krosan Grip. Not entirely sure what was right but well I did not really need burn spells and I needed to get rid of Enchantments. Hopefully Dark Confidant showed that 'Greatness at any cost' is an overkill. My opponent started with Leyline of Sanctity in play which rendered my hand useless (Duress, Thoughtseize and Liliana). I was drawing lands for a while but then soon had 3 Bloodbraid Elves, Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf. I played Confidant that hit me for 3 each time - Liliana of the Veil, Liliana of the Veil, Maelstrom Pulse. Pulse got rid of Helm of Obedience fortunately. At this point I started playing Bloodbraid Elves that hit Tarmogoyf, Duress and Abrupt Decay. I was facing Elephant Grass though and once I decided not to attack and rather play BBE. That was probably a mistake as with a bit of luck I would have won a turn earlier. But still...Sterling Grove was in play and it coud probably find another Grass or something else that would annul my attack. Anyway I won...my opponent's deck did not produce a way how to stop my goyfs and elves.

After this tournament I have a slight idea what this deck can do and I would make at least one change in the decklist. Ofcourse getting rid of Taiga and replacing it with Grove of the Burnwillows is the first thing to do. But I should play more Sylvan Libraries. 2 would be great. The card is 'pure awesome' in this deck o_O. I did not think that it would have such an impact but it simply wins the games. I need to cut something though... not entirely sure what. Ooze, Bolt or Hymn?

Main Deck:
3 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze

3 Abrupt Decay
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
1 Sylvan Library
4 Thoughtseize

3 Badlands
3 Bayou
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Taiga

Sideboard:
2 Duress
1 Engineered Plague
2 Krosan Grip
1 Life from the Loam
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Slaughter Games
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction

My friend with Deathblade won the tournament. So in the end we managed to get heavily played Badlands as our prize. *happy*

One more interesting thing I wanted to write about...Yesterday I checked out our mail box. There was an envelope from Japan. That could only mean one thing. I ordered a Japanese version of Jace, the Mind Scultor on June 3rd and yeasterday it arrived. I was amazed and the Jace is awesome! Here are both the cards together.

I'm not entirely sure if this post makes sense....but I'm really exhausted. I need to get some sleep. There were so many things I needed to keep in my memory during the last few days that it was really difficult to concentrate or to even think about something. But forcing myself to think during the tournament was a good thing. Unfortunately it showed. In the last game I could hardly remember to trigger Dark Confidant's ability. ^_^