Jund sac effects.
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on April 29, 2016, 2:38 a.m. by Deckologist
Long story short my playgroup is nothing but 
decks (partially my fault after running undefeated for about 2 years with my momir deck) and I decided to break away from that color combination to play something in jund. It's completely new territory for me and I have been battling back and forth between Prossh Kresh Adun Xira and Sek'kuar. The theme is pretty much sac for value but I'm having trouble thinking of good jund creatures to sac. I have value sac outlets but I'd also like the creatures I'm saccing to give value as well. Example:
Saccing a Kokusho to Greater good not only draws cards but also drains health and gives me a decent chunk of health.
What are some creatures you believe to be the best value for sacrificing?
Bonus questions: which general should be used for such a deck?
TheRedMage says... #3
If you want a "sacrifice matter" commander for Jund, why not Shattergang Brothers? They obviously aren't as powerful as something like Prossh, but they are a decent sac outlet that helps controlling the board.
Maybe I am just bored by seeing all the Prossh decks out there, haha.
Yavimaya Elder is pretty gas.
You could try having a "lands matter" subtheme with Omnath, Locus of Rage/Titania, Protector of Argoth/The Gitrog Monster and just get bolts out of sacrificing elementals.
You can get "free" sacrifices out of things like Reassembling Skeleton, Gravecrawler, Bloodsoaked Champion, Bloodghast, Tenacious D or Sanitarium Skeleton. These come in various degree of setup cost and mana cost. Hammer of Purphoros makes Enchantment Artifact Creature tokens, which are great to sac to Shattergang Borthers if you go that route.
Similar to the previous ones, there are a bunch of creatures that sac twice. Tukatongue Thallid, Blisterpod, Thragtusk, Brindle Shoat, Carrier Thrall, Flesh Carver and Sultai Emissary are all examples of creatures that conveniently replace themselves upon death. The same is true for the Penumbra creatures from Time Spiral block and the Symbiotic creatures from Onslaught block. And then you can sac a Driver of the Dead and bring one back to get two sacrifices more!
Corpse Augur is pretty great in the midgame. Early game it does nothing and late game it kills you, but if you are sacrificing stuff left and right the thing can draw you like 5 cards.
Homura, Human Ascendant is, make no mistake, pretty bad. It is also pretty hilarious.
As per ways of extracting value from all this sacrificing, you have the usual Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos/Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat/Pawn of Ulamog.
April 29, 2016 4:07 a.m. Edited.
You know what, I'm gonna second Shattergang Brothers. If I didn't love Prossh so much I'd make a Shatterbros deck in a heartbeat.
April 29, 2016 10:04 a.m.
Deckologist says... #5
I considered shattergang but the mana cost of their abilities just seems too high. I would choose prossh over them simply because its a sac outlet that provides value, although minimal, at no additional cost.
April 29, 2016 11:26 a.m.
UpsetYoMama says... #6
The most competitive deck that you're going to build with this theme and in these colors is Prossh.
If your group does combos, the requisite card is Food Chain.
You can build a very competitive Prossh without combo, though.
My deck focuses on a lot of doubling with things like Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, etc. Control the board with the likes of Grave Pact.
Purphoros, God of the Forge is a win con.
One underrated card I've found is Xenagos, the Reveler to generate insane amounts of mana.
April 29, 2016 11:34 a.m.
TheRedMage says... #7
Yeah, no doubt here that Prossh is the strongest out of these option. EDH is the one format in which "building the strongest deck" can take a backseat to "building the deck I want", though.
Prossh is one of the most powerful commanders out there, definitely the most powerful, and probably the most popular, in Jund. To me, that makes him boring because when I start building an EDH deck I am mostly looking to brew. That doesn't have to be a factor, but I am going to present other options if I can.
There is also another thing. Prossh is one of those commanders. I basically do not play my Narset, Enlightened Master deck outside of my playgroup because, while it's a medium-powered planeswalker build instead of the absurd infinite-attack-steps list (and my friends know that), I know that most people will just freak out when I show them Narset and everybody at the table will try to kill me. Prossh, like Narset commands the same type of fear amongst players. I know that if I am playing against Prossh, I will devote a lot of my interaction towards shutting it down or killing the person playing the deck as quickly as possible.
Deckologist, it sounds like you kind of acquired the fame of "person to beat" in your playgroup anyway so maybe this effect is something that would happen regardless, just be aware that that might be an issue though.
To answer your previous question, yes, the abilities on Shattergang Brothers are a bit on the expensive side. Still, they give you a lot of options as far as controlling the board, and the flexibility might make it worth it. This might be another reason to run a "lands matter" subtheme too, so you can hit land drops and rapidly progress into being able to activate them 2-3 times per turn.
Also you can run Black Market and even Braid of Fire to help offset that problem.
April 29, 2016 12:56 p.m.
UpsetYoMama says... #8
How much countermagic is in your meta? You said most everyone plays ? That could also inform your choice and many of the cards that you choose to play.
April 30, 2016 1:09 a.m.
Deckologist says... #9
Unfortunately we have at least 5 players that run 0 win con counter.dec. Today messing around I was able to blow people out of the water using jund goodstuff with Adun Oakenshield at the helm (still undefeated) and changed some people's minds. Unfortunately 2 went straight for meren and another went for Nath and was asking about stax. This is unfortunately the type of playgroup I play in. If someone wins everyone jumps on those colors or that general or that archetype and play it until someone else wins.
April 30, 2016 5:25 p.m.
rockleemyhero says... #10
Deckologist Sorry this is a little late to the party, but just wanted to throw my two cents in as I've attempted to play this archtype for a couple years.
I've bounced around using most of the possible on theme jund generals at the helm and here are my personal biases with each one:
-Kresh the Bloodbraided is ok, a little bit too timmy for my tastes and requires more of a build around and feels awkward and clunky to waste a turn casting him in a deck like this.
-shattergang bros- he seems and feels like he fits the bill perfectly for a deck like this, as some have already suggested. However, in my experience he is way too slow to do any damage; the first time you cast him + want to do something is 7 mana and most people don't like you untapping with him. Good in theory, so-so in reality.
-prossh- obviously the best, he is a tier 1 general. My issue with him however has always been political and he is a bit "too strong" for the deck. What I mean is he hurts the synergy because he ends up just being tweaked to a food chain combo deck before you know it. He also paints a HUGE target on your head, which isn't really something you need in this deck, especially when everyone else is playing UG...
and last but not least, Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper. I've honestly spent the most time with this fella: he flies under the radar perfectly, gives a nice bonus to sacs, and is just an awesome dude overall. However, his problem is that he has always been extremely lack luster for me....whenever he is at the helm I rarely end up casting him, and when I do, I usually fall behind. He is a cool gen and I want to love him, but the reality is he is a bit overcosted for his effect. Now, that being said, at more casual tables ive had an absolute blast when ive landed him and im allowed to do all my sacking shenanigans with bloodghast and friends.
TheRedMage hey dude I really like some of those ideas and that sounds like a blast! I had a jund sac deck + land shennanagins and synergies last year with sek kuar- it was pretty cool but ended up turning into more of a stax deck instead of value/engine stuff with the lands, so I stopped playing it (it's so hard NOT to run Destructive Flow!!) But you guys might have resparked the jund love in me...
Anyways, here was my last iteration of the jund-sac-value engine deck. a BLAST to play! (its missing 3 cards- 2 lands and im not sure on the last one). My deck:
Jund: Stax 'em and Sack 'em
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 4 | 7 COMMENTS | 2271 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
May 12, 2016 2:50 p.m.
Given what you've said about your meta I'd build two decks that function on very different axes or build the same commander in two completely different ways. Punish them for their constant hopping onto bandwagons by doing the EDH equivalent of a transformative sideboard.
As for Jund commanders, and since you want to avoid the "obvious" and therefore somewhat boring if the goal is to make it yours, why not try Kresh the Bloodbraided? Set him up with ETB and LTB triggers and some sac outlets and threaten a regular creature assault or sudden shift to voltron? It should give you a lot of room to personalize your deck.
xcn says... #2
I like Prossh, personally, as both a sac outlet and a source of fodder at the same time.
Anger, Solemn Simulacrum, and Greenwarden of Murasa come to mind as creatures you'd want to kill off.
April 29, 2016 3:16 a.m.