Modern Jund Midrange *PRIMER*

Modern BRG (Jund) Competitive Discard FNM Goodstuff Midrange

Snoddy81

Land (24)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 4x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 4x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Forest
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Nurturing Peatland
• 2x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Raging Ravine
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 2x Swamp
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Instant (11)

• 3x Assassin's Trophy
• 3x Fatal Push
• 2x Kolaghan's Command
• 3x Lightning Bolt

Sorcery (6)

• 3x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3x Thoughtseize

Creature (12)

• 4x Bloodbraid Elf
• 2x Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 2x Scavenging Ooze
• 4x Tarmogoyf

Planeswalker (7)

• 4x Liliana of the Veil
• 3x Wrenn and Six

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Sideboard

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 2x Collective Brutality
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 2x Pillage

Creature (3)

• 1x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• 2x Plague Engineer

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Choke

Instant (2)

• 2x Surgical Extraction

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Ashiok, Dream Render

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Jund is my favorite Modern deck to play. It has a straight forward game plan and plenty of resiliency against most matchups and decks in the Modern meta in addition to high consistency. This is a breakdown of the deck, its strengths, weaknesses, finishers, and strategies. Let's get into it!

RECENT CHANGES - UPDATED JULY 15TH, 2020
Cards Added: 2x Surgical Extraction to sideboard.
Cards Cut: 1x Boil and 1x Nihil Spellbomb from sideboard.

Deck Background and Game Plan

Jund is, in a nutshell, a disruptive deck that looks to tactically remove threats through discarding and a variety of removal. Discard spells such as Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, and newcomer Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger allow us to remove problematic combo pieces or threats in the current Modern meta, such as Primeval Titan, Stoneforge Mystic, and Ad Nauseam to name a few. Assassin's Trophy and Kolaghan's Command act as toolbox cards that can be used in a variety of ways based on the current game and board state, either removing threats or recurring value.

Aggressive Modern staples like Tarmogoyf, Bloodbraid Elf, and Lightning Bolt quickly lower our opponent's life total while applying pressure to their board state. Our planeswalker package featuring Wrenn and Six and Liliana of the Veil both act as tempo pieces as Liliana either removes a creature or causes your opponent to discard yet another card, and Wrenn and Six can ping smaller creatures and recur fetchlands for consistent land drops.

Sideboarding

For sideboard tech, we have a variety of answers for different decks in the current meta, so we generally always have something to deal with the problem at hand. I tend to sideboard quite aggressively, taking out staples for hate pieces to disrupt the deck my opponent is playing.

Ad Nauseam Combo (Favorable) Show

This matchup is good because of how reliant this deck is on its combo pieces. No combo, no worries! Adding some extra hand disruption as insurance seems like a good play here, in addition to taking out some removal since Ad Nauseam plays no creatures, with the exception of Thassa's Oracle variants.
- OUT: 3 Fatal Push
- IN: 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Maelstrom Pulse

Amulet Titan (Favorable) Show

Amulet Titan is a decent matchup for us. Much like Ad Nauseam, stripping them of their combo pieces with removal or by forcing our opponent to discard them makes this matchup a favorable one. Adding in some extra land hate for good measure should seal the game.
- OUT: 1 Wrenn and Six, 2 Scavenging Ooze, 1 Fatal Push
- IN: 2 Pillage, 1 Maelstrom Pulse, 1 Anger of the Gods

Azorius Control/Bant Snow Control (Unfavorable) Show

For every card we try to make them discard, they either have a response or have a card draw effect to replace it with. Getting rid of their graveyard to nullify Snapcaster Mage is a pretty good play against this archetype. You'll definitely be playing the long game in this matchup. If you're lucky enough to win game one, you'll most likely win the match as game two will probably go to time.
- OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Liliana of the Veil, 1 Wrenn and Six
- IN: 1 Boil, 2 Choke, 2 Ashiok, Dream Render, 1 Huntmaster of the Fells  

Burn/Red Deck Wins (Fairly Unfavorable) Show

Hurting ourselves with our own fetch lands, shock lands, and Thoughtseize feels awful in this matchup since we're essentially just adding to their Lightning Bolt count. By applying pressure to their hand and causing some early game discard, there's a chance that our opponent will be top-decking for the remainder of the game and will run out of gas. In a really niche move, destroying Sunbaked Canyon with Assassin's Trophy is a decent way to ensure that their card draw train never takes off. Also Tarmogoyf dodges Lightning Bolt. If we can outlast their early game barrage, we'll most likely take the match.
- OUT: 2 Wrenn and Six, 2 Thoughtseize
- IN: 1 Huntmaster of the Fells  , 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Maelstrom Pulse

Dredge (Fairly Favorable) Show

Jund goes punch for punch with Dredge, and packing mainboard grave hate with Scavenging Ooze is a huge bonus. The only true downside is our random discard spells that enable the Dredge player to put what they want into the bin to bring it back later. Siding those discard spells out and packing some extra grave hate is usually enough to finish the job.
- OUT: 2 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, 1 Thoughtseize
- IN: 1 Anger of the Gods, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, 1 Maelstrom Pulse, 2 Ashiok, Dream Render

Eldrazi Tron (Very Unfavorable) Show

While mainboard removal for Tron lands (Assassin's Trophy) is good, big Eldrazi are better. Inquisition of Kozilek whiffs on removing most of their creatures and most of our removal spells whiff at hitting their creatures. Chalice of the Void on 1 is almost an immediate GG unless we happen to have Kolaghan's Command in hand. Even being on the play and casting Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize turn one probably isn't enough. We will be backpedaling for most of this matchup.
- OUT: 2 Bloodbraid Elf, 3 Wrenn and Six
- IN: 2 Pillage, 1 Maelstrom Pulse, 2 Plague Engineer

Grixis Death's Shadow (???) Show

Grixis Death's Shadow is probably the most similar deck to Jund in Modern (not counting the mirror match obviously). It's a toolbox deck that features hand disruption and then gets out big beaters to swing in for the win. The winner of this matchup is largely based off of who resolves a Thoughtseize first, e.g. whoever is on the play. While a big advantage to Jund is the Death's Shadow player hurting themselves off of their own fetches, shocks, Thoughtseizes, and Street Wraiths, often times a hand disruption spell and a Stubborn Denial is just enough to squeeze out a win. Adding grave hate for Gurmag Angler and Collective Brutality as added hate against Temur Battle Rage should make for an interesting matchup.
- OUT: 3 Wrenn and Six, 2 Kolaghan's Command
- IN: 2 Ashiok, Dream Render, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Collective Brutality

Gruul Utopia/Gruul Midrange (Very Favorable) Show

This is a very interesting matchup that we have the upper hand in. Gruul Utopia/Midrange is like if Jund and Red Deck Wins had a baby. Ultimately I believe that Fatal Push, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, and Liliana of the Veil put Jund in the better position. Also hitting a land that has Utopia Sprawl enchanted on it with Assassin's Trophy feels really good. Siding out Wrenn and Six is a good option since every creature in their deck has a toughness of 2, with the exception of Arbor Elf and Glorybringer. Swap in Collective Brutality for some extra insurance against Magus of the Moon and we should be good to go.
- OUT: 3 Wrenn and Six, 1 Thoughtseize
- IN: 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Anger of the Gods, 1 Maelstrom Pulse

Humans (Favorable) Show

Hand disruption. On a creature ETB effect. Uh-oh. Although targeting an aggressive card like Mantis Rider off of a T1 Thoughtseize is tempting, hitting their own hand disruption spells (Meddling Mage, Kitesail Freebooter, and sometimes Sin Collector) is the correct choice to keep our hand intact. If we take game one, siding in Plague Engineer in game two should seal the deal.
- OUT: 1 Wrenn and Six, 1 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Bloodbraid Elf
- IN: 2 Plague Engineer, 1 Anger of the Gods, 1 Huntmaster of the Fells  

Infect (Very Favorable) Show

This is a great matchup for Jund. Sure, a turn 1 Glistener Elf is scary, but it's nothing that a Fatal Push or Lightning Bolt can't fix. If we're on the play, a Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek will give us all the info we need to finish the rest of the game. Adding Pillage to help support Assassin's Trophy in dealing with Inkmoth Nexus is a good insurance play here. Tossing in Collective Brutality to help deal with pump spells like Scale Up should be plenty to give us the win.
- OUT: 1 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Bloodbraid Elf, 2 Kolaghan's Command
- IN: 2 Pillage, 1 Anger of the Gods, 2 Collective Brutality

Mono-Green Tron (Favorable) Show

As opposed to it's Eldrazi counterpart, the OG version of Tron doesn't match up well against Jund. Assassin's Trophy and Kolaghan's Command are the MVP's of this matchup, as having mainboard removal for Tron lands, planeswalkers, and Oblivion Stone is fantastic. Unfortunately, even with the Revolt trigger, Fatal Push whiffs on hitting all of their creatures, so replacing those with Pillage to more consistently hit Tron's artifacts and lands is a good play.
- OUT: 3 Fatal Push
- IN: 2 Pillage, 1 Maelstrom Pulse

Temur Uroza (Fairly Unfavorable) Show

This Affinity/Control/Dredge hybrid thing-a-mabob is very difficult to play against in game one. They cast a bunch of zero-drop artifacts such as Mishra's Bauble, Mox Amber, Engineered Explosives and even Tormod's Crypt to create an early aggressive board state. This deck relies heavily on its graveyard to loop Mishra's Bauble with Emry, Lurker of the Loch and to re-cast Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. By playing to the play style of this deck with an aggressive early game and (ideally) forcing them to discard some of their artifact pieces before they have mana up for Cryptic Command, we we have the chance to establish a favorable board state. Adding our favorite anti-blue cards Choke and Boil and some grave hate should make this matchup a little more even and hopefully give us the edge.
- OUT: 3 Wrenn and Six, 4 Bloodbraid Elf, 1 Liliana of the Veil
- IN: 2 Choke, 2 Ashiok, Dream Render, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Pillage, 1 Boil

TitanShift (Fairly Favorable) Show

This deck is simply more aggressive Amulet Titan. Playing against this version of Titan requires some more careful decision making, specifically with what we want to make them discard with Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize. Newcomer Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is particularly problematic. In addition to dodging Lightning Bolt and letting our opponent play additional lands, since he gives all lands all land types, every land in the deck will trigger Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle upon entering the battlefield. Dealing with this threat and Primeval Titan should be the top priority when playing against this deck. Our mainboard is honestly pretty solid against TitanShift, so just siding in Pillage as added protection for Valakut should give us the edge in this matchup.
- OUT: 2 Wrenn and Six
- IN: 2 Pillage

Parting Thoughts

Jund is a very versatile deck that can adapt to nearly any meta, LGS, or even a Grand Prix or MagicFest. Jund has many answers to different decks, which always gives it even a fighting chance against bad matchups. Since the deck is adaptive, the sideboard and even the mainboard are constantly changing.

Some current edits that I'm playtesting:
- Making Wrenn and Six a 2-of and playing Maelstrom Pulse mainboard.
- Adding Grafdigger's Cage to the sideboard.

Wrenn and Six is a very versatile card that can be used in a variety of ways, but so is Maelstrom Pulse. Switching our third copy of Wrenn and Six to the sideboard and playing Maelstrom Pulse mainboard may not be a bad idea because of how prevalent playsets of staples are in today's meta.

Grafdigger's Cage, in addition to shutting down Dredge, shuts down Underworld Breach which has been popping up in the Modern meta from time to time. Will be playtesting this soon!

Updates to come! As always thoughts, opinions, and suggestions are appreciated!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	WU
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 2 Mythic Rares 31 - 7 Rares 11 - 4 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.06
Tokens	Emblem Wrenn and Six, Wolf 2/2 G