The overall goal of the deck is to provide hand disruption and removal early on while amassing an overwhelming board and increasing stability in the long run. I came up with this while trying to come up with a Jund deck that doesn't run Tarmogoyf for budget reasons. I feel like you may as well cut Green at the cost of this all-star beater and just add WHite's top tier removal and 'stabilizers' instead.
Terminate and Lightning Bolt are versatile and effective removal. Bolt can even hit the player. This is nothing revolutionary.
Path to Exile is a premium removal spell that white provides access to. It can not only deal with the opponent's most serious threat but also, in worst case scenarios, fix our mana and get rid of a Dark Confidant that is getting dangerous. Lightning Helix is another key card that white gives access to. The stability that is provides will feed Dark Confidant and keep your opponent in an uphill battle while you maintain a comfortable life total.
Inquisition of Kozilek does what it always does: Gets rid of most opponent's biggest threat before it can even hit the board. Liliana of the Veil also disrupts the opponents hand while occupying their resources while it is on the board. The +1 ability should never feel like a downside when you can happily pitch a land or an IoK late game. Discarding a Lingering Souls isn't too bad either. Playing her and doing nothing because you have plenty of cards and your opponent is hellbent is certainly not a bad choice.
Kolaghan's Command does everything you would like a card to do for this deck. Any 2 nodes are extremely useful at just about any point in the game (except for the artifact removal which is actually pretty situational).
Lingering Souls is a key player as it creates much needed flying defense/threats and it has some interaction with the graveyard. In deck that may find itself discarding, flashback never hurts. It's just more value, and that's really the theme of the deck after all.
The creatures of the deck are easy to play and should provide value through the entire lifespan of the game. There is a heavy emphasis on the deck's noncreature spells in Monastery Swiftspear, Monastery Mentor, and Young Pyromancer. There should also be quite a lot of tokens being generated. These cards turn many noncreature spells that are already 2-for-1's into ultra value plays. Dark Confidant is not an offensive threat but he will draw plenty of cards and his life loss is mitigated by the decks mild curve.
The lands are fairly standard except for a couple. Cavern of Souls inspired the decision to keep the creatures as humans to allow for more early game consistency and protection from counterspells. Vault of the Archangel will, at worst, help mitigated incoming combat damage and will, at best, allow you to create brutal combats for your opponent when you attack with an army that gains you life and does not allow for any favorable blocks.
SOME THOUGHTS:The deck should win by putting you ahead on card advantage early while simultaneously building a modest board. The real weakness to me is the loss of an insanely efficient creature that gets big and shuts down games but hopefully the trade off is enough. Another key interaction at exists in Jund that's missing here is Scavenging Ooze's ability to extract value from your discard spells by giving you life and becoming a serious threat.
This deck is powerful without doubt. It turned out not to be particularly budget friendly (Cut the Lili's and Caverns of Soul I guess. Can't do without too much else). But I feel it does lack the depth and sheer levels of interaction that Jund has achieved.
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At this time the sideboard is not perfect. It's mostly ideas right now rather than the correct amounts of any particular card. It's generally some fairly standard picks in response to common matchups.
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The "Maybe Board" includes some interesting synergies that have potential but probably negatively impact the consistency of the deck. Bitterblossom is probably the most reasonable choice but the life loss may provide too significant when paired with Confidant. The flying is very significant though.
Depending in how effectively the deck makes tokens, the deck can adapt to revolve around that strategy with Soul Warden (another human that can drop turn 1) and Impact Tremors. Add Kitchen Finks and Murderous Deathcap and you have a lot going on. Intangible Virtue could also be relevant if this strategy were to take off.
If the deck can gain excessive amounts of life, Blood Baron of Vizkopa could be a decent choice but overall he seems to conditional. I, personally, would prefer a card that had less harsh parameters with a slightly diminished payoff.
I can't believe I'm saying this but Myth Realized could sort of be this deck's Tarmogoyf. With the power of the spells that are being played, it shouldn't feel bad to focus on fueling this thing--especially with plenty of other triggers going off when you cast them. it could grow fairly well and it gives you something to sink your extra mana into. It wouldn't take much for this to be the largest threat in the deck and to me, it fits right in with the things the rest of the deck does. Enchantment removal isn't too terribly common so this silly thing may just be anti-meta enough to work.
Pack Rat is here because Pack Rat just wins games. I think it is incredible in Jund and should be considered for its mainboard more often. It's a discard enabler and it just gets big. And wide. And fuzzy. Ok, I need to stop now-- I'm starting to get worked up.
