Jund Battles: Insane Value In March of The Machine Standard
Gameplay Video By LegenVD
If you've been keeping up with the hype around Magic's newest set, you'll be somewhat familiar with the new card type, battle cards. If you don't know what they are or need a refresher on how they work you can find one here. For an overview of several different ways to build around battles check out 6 Battle Card Decks to Test Sieges in Standard by my friend ChrisCee. Today, I'll be covering a deck he mentions in his article in depth.
The general idea here is to play all of the best cards in the Jund (Black, Green, Red) color combination with a spicy five-color battle card as well. What's cool about this build is that the deck puts very little focus on playing creatures to attack the battle cards. Instead, it plays cards like Render Inert
and Cemetery Desecrator
to simply remove the counters from them. Let's start with the full deck list and then we'll move on to some of the card choices.
Jund Battle
Main 60 cards (22 distinct)
Lands - 24
Main 60 cards (22 distinct)
Lands - 24
Main 60 cards (22 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (16) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.94€0.880.01 | |||
| $11.02€17.5012.04 | |||
| $0.19€0.100.03 | |||
| $0.15€0.150.01 | |||
| Creature (4) | |||
| $0.75 | |||
| Other (16) | |||
| $0.40€0.240.02 | |||
| $0.20€0.130.03 | |||
| $0.70€0.550.02 | |||
| $1.01€0.920.41 | |||
| $0.65€0.550.55 | |||
| $1.94€1.370.10 | |||
| $3.28€3.790.26 | |||
| Land (24) | |||
| $2.50€2.420.64 | |||
| $2.88€2.020.07 | |||
| $11.97 | |||
| $5.64€6.181.21 | |||
| $1.99€1.400.03 | |||
|
1
Swamp
|
$0.180.03 | ||
| $8.00 | |||
The Battle Cards
As you can see from the deck list, there are a total of 16 battle cards in the deck, which is quite a lot. The reason the deck can play so many is that its main focus is not trying to flip the battles by attacking them with creatures. Instead, the deck uses Render Inert and Cemetery Desecrator as the chief means to transform the siege cards. So, keep that in mind as we break down the battles in the deck and the roles that they fill.
Invasion of Tarkir
The Invasion of Tarkir side plays the role of a removal spell. Considering that there are no dragons in the deck, you'll never get more than two damage out of this and that's fine. One major upside to this two-damage is that it hits any target, which includes all of the other battles in the deck. Given that this has five "loyalty", you can use Render Inert to flip this as early as turn three.
On the flip side, Defiant Thundermaw is a nice evasive flyer with trample and a formidable 4/4 body. Furthermore, anytime the Thundermaw deals damage to a player it will also deal two damage to whatever you choose.
Invasion of Ixalan
Here we have another two-mana battle that can be flipped on turn three. When it enters the battlefield you dig through the top five cards of your library and put a permanent card from among them into your hand. Not only can this grab all of the other battle cards in the deck but also creatures, enchantments, and lands.
When this flips into Belligerent Regisaur you'll have a nice attacker with trample that gains indestructible until end of turn whenever you cast a spell. If you can keep the spells flowing, this card is very hard for opponents to deal with things like Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
.
Invasion of Ergamon
This battle does two very important things when it comes into play - It ramps you into your more expensive spells via a treasure token and it allows you to ditch an unneeded card for a chance at something better. Ramp + Card Advantage = Good. And this battle is very good.
Once again, this can come down on turn two and be flipped the next turn. When you do flip it, you'll have yet another decent-sized creature with trample. And when it flips you can tutor for any land or battle card in the deck, allowing you to run a toolbox-style strategy with your battle cards at times.
Invasion of Innistrad
Moving up along the curve for the battle cards (there are no three-mana battles in the deck) we have two copies of Invasion of Fiora, which serves two purposes. First, it's a removal spell. Giving a creature -13/-13, at instant speed, will take down pretty much anything you'll come up against in Standard and is a great way to get around indestructible as well.
The backside of the siege gives you a total of four power and toughness worth of zombies tokens and a mana sink that's capable of creating more while removing cards from the graveyard.
Invasion of Shandalar
Invasion of Shandalar has the biggest ETB effect yet. When it enters the battlefield, you get to return up to four permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand. So, any battles that flipped and then got removed can be recurred and cast a second time. Given how much value these battle cards generate, having a way to cast even the cheap ones again is huge. Again, don't forget that this can get back any land, enchantments, and creatures you discarded should you need them later.
Once you've managed to flip this, you'll have the option to put something from your hand directly into play once per turn during your upkeep. So, if you recur a couple of cheaper things you can go ahead and recast them and put any of the more expensive things you brought to your hand into play for free.
Invasion of Fiora
At the top of the curve for the battle cards we have Invasion of Fiora, which is a versatile wrath effect. When you cast it you'll choose one or both of the two options - You can destroy all legendary creatures, all nonlegendary creatures, or both. Most of the creatures in the deck are nonlegendary so if your opponent is playing cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
, Skrelv, Defector Mite
, or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
it can be rather one-sided. However, you can always just choose both options and wipe the board of everything.
Then, the backside, Marchesa, Resolute Monarch is yet another way to remove counters from other battles. And if you can avoid damage for a turn she can be a source of valuable card draw. She is also great on both offense and defense. The combination of menace and deathtouch means that opponents wanting to block are going to lose two creatures in the process. While the deathtouch and the high defense make her a great blocker if you're looking to avoid taking damage to draw a card.
Invasion of Alara
Invasion of Alara is a spicy one-of in this build. Whenever you manage to cast it, you'll essentially get to cascade twice. When it enters, you'll exile cards from the top of your deck until you hit two permanents with a mana value of four or lower and put one into play and the other into your hand. This means you'll be able to get almost any permanent in the deck should you happen to hit it.
The flip side does pretty much... everything - You can put an artifact from your hand into play (there are none in the deck), create a token copy of a permanent you control, distribute three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three creatures, and destroy an opposing permanent. While removing all seven defense counters is something you'll have to work to get to, if you do this effect is pretty backbreaking.
As far as casting Invasion of Alara // Awaken the Maelstrom goes, you'll be relying on treasures if you want hard cast it. Aside from that, a transformed Invasion of Shandalar // Leyline Surge can let you cheat it into play.
Non-Battle Cards
Cemetery Desecrator
Cemetery Desecrator is the final way for the deck to remove counters from battle cards. The idea is pretty simple, by the time this comes into play there should be some decent things in the graveyard to exile. In my experience, you'll usually end up exiling something in the three CMC range when this enters. Whatever mana value card you end up exiling, you can remove that many counters from something or neg a creature by that much. Most of the time you'll be pointing this at your battles but sometimes the removal helps in a pinch as well.
Ramp, Removal, And Utility
I mentioned using treasures to cast Invasion of Alara // Awaken the Maelstrom and have so far only mentioned Invasion of Ergamon as a way to produce them. However, there is also Big Score that helps to get ahead of the curve and cast Alara or getCemetery Desecrator a bit earlier. Lastly, the deck plays four copies of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki to ramp further, filter through cards, and add to threat density. It can also be grabbed with Invasion of Shandalar // Leyline Surge and Invasion of Ixalan // Belligerent Regisaur for further value.
With so many treasure producers in the deck, the final spell to make it into the mix is Voltage Surge. With a surplus of treasure tokens to sacrifice to this, you have a very efficient removal spell. The only downside here is that it can't deal damage to your battles.
Conclusion
If you're looking for some cool ways to utilize the new battle cards in Standard, this would certainly be a list to check out. Not only do you get to play with a ton of different battle cards but cheat on the cost to flip them as well. Check out the game pay video above if you want an idea of how it plays before trying it out yourself.
