JundJund is a shared deck experience with the midrange lover in mind. In the format primer, we got into the basics and how it plays in the Magic ecosystem.
For reference, here is the full decklist.
Today, we take a deeper dive into the notable cards that did and didn’t make the final cut, and the underlying design philosophy. No homebrew deck is complete without people asking “Hey, did you try this?”. If you choose to build and tinker with JundJund, this is a road map of where I’ve been so far, and what I saw along the way.
Where’s Liliana of the Veil?
Consider this scenario. Two friends get together to catch up. They meet at a coffee shop, or a brewery, and one brings JundJund along. Over the sound of cards hitting the table, they talk about their lives, new projects, popular shows, and what’s new. At any point, do I want either of them to say “Hmmmm, I don’t know what to do here. I guess I’ll just uptick Lilli again.”
Liliana of the Veil is the most commonly asked-about card for JundJund. The planeswalker lives in the shimmering golden memories of Jund circa 2017, but leaving her out signals an important aspect of JundJund design.
The game is meant to be Jund midrange, but not all of the old Jund favorites are guaranteed to be fun with a shared library and graveyard. JundJund has enough conditional tools to focus on making choices, instead of “when do I play the best thing in the deck?” This means passing on cards like Liliana of the Veil, Thoughtseize, and others. We keep some old favorites, but we can’t have them all.
Not having planeswalkers means that Tarmogoyf can only get as big as a 5/6 (sorry, Battles, I never remember to count you). In testing, I found this plays out more smoothly when assembling creatures to block the famous Lhurgoyf.
Notable Cards Cut for Power Level or Gameplay Experience
Gurmag Angler: This survived the first two games of JundJund before getting cut forever. Turns out that exiling five of your opponent’s best answers out of the graveyard, and leaving you with a 5/5, is too good. I love the danger that Gurmag Angler presents with Dark Confidant, but it’s not healthy for JundJund.
Grim Flayer: When Delirium is online, and players are scrounging for answers, a 4/4 Grim Flayer starts looking a lot like Jace, the Mind Sculptor. When one player is constantly arranging the top of the library to deliver dead draws to their opponent, it’s a boring experience for both sides.
Bedlam Reveler: Not too powerful, but Bedlam Reveler runs into the same combat problem Tarmogoyf has, with a toughness higher than its power. In the interest of not bouncing too many creatures off each other, it was cut so Tarmogoyf would be the only offender. I want players to feel encouraged to cast their creatures, and Bedlam Reveler had too many second guessing it due to having to discard their hands.
Sin Prodder: I had hope for this to be a fun additional Dark Confidant, but testing proved me wrong. Sin Prodder had little effect on games, and could be easily removed by most answers.
Notable Cards Not Tested Due to Power Level or Gameplay Experience
- Abrupt Decay: Made redundant because of Terminate and Assassin’s Trophy.
- Blightning: I don’t think Mind Rot + three damage adds much to the experience, compared to others that made the final cut.
- Dragon’s Rage Channeler: I’ve kept fliers away form JundJund, and the surveil triggers would likely warp the game early.
- Dreadhorde Arcanist: Likely too efficient, and stale to play.
- Eternal Witness: Unearth and Pulse of Murasa make for more interesting, conditional recursion.
- Fatal Push: Likely too efficient, especially when taking out the creature lands.
- Jund ‘Em Out: I don’t want the game devolving into casting this turn after turn.
- Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger: Escape means too much graveyard hate for my liking, and this could be game-warping.
- Pyroclasm: Too big of a boardwipe with all the X/2 creatures, without offering a way to move the game forward.
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: Too game-warping, and goes against my “no legends in JundJund” rule.
- Thoughtseize: Inquisition of Kozilek and Blackmail are more conditional, causing players to make tougher choices.
- Unholy Heat: Too efficient in this format, and thereby less exciting than other answers.
Is this decklist locked in, or is there room to make edits if I build it myself?
JundJund has undergone a ton of edits over the past several months. If you choose to build this, then testing new cards is half the fun. Over the course of this design journey, here are some things I believe should be a key part of your JundJund shell.
Faithless Looting and Bounce Lands: Faithless Looting, while not historically a Jund card, is a longstanding favorite among midrange players. It plays well into this environment, filling up the graveyard and smoothing out hands for both players. The bounce lands play well into this, helping players fix on mana. Having some amount of tapped lands makes games go a bit slower, but that plays into the grindy essence of JundJund.
Players may be tempted to run the new Surveil Lands, but those will make Faithless Looting play worse instead of better.
No Fetch Lands: Tutoring up lands and shuffling repeatedly is antithetical to the JundJund experience. Think of them as cutting to a commercial break during a football game. I want players to be connected to the story being told on the table, and constantly fetching robs them of that. Assassin’s Trophy is the exception to this, but only because it’s a catch-all removal spell that can help your opponent fix their mana. Checks and balances.
Blackmail over Thoughtseize: When setting out to do hand disruption in a shared deck format, I thought about what might be most engaging for both sides. Blackmail makes for a hand disruption spell that gets better as the game goes on, instead of worse. With Blackmail you’ll always have a hit, instead of seeing your opponent show you two lands after firing off a Lightning Bolt in response. This adds an exciting guessing game shaped by the player being disrupted.
Inquisition of Kozilek grabs nearly everything in the deck, with two key exceptions. If you sit down to play JundJund, and feel the excitement of seeing Bloodbraid Elf or Huntmaster of the Fells in your opener, I want you to be able to cast those cards.
No Planeswalkers: The excitement of JundJund comes from riding your life total down to the single digits, through cards like Dark Confidant and pain lands like Llanowar Wastes. Greatness, at any cost. The back-and-forth of creature combat lies on the opposite end of repetitive planeswalker activations. You may feel the urge to put something like Wrenn & Six or Grist, the Hunger Tide, but JundJund doesn’t need them.
What are you currently testing out?
At time of writing, I’m looking at doing a few edits. Clogged boardstates aren’t a big problem for JundJund, but I’d like to dial up the attacking knob another notch. For this reason, I’m looking at the following edits.
Mortuary Mire for Restless Cottage: I’m reluctant to have graveyard hate in the format, for the same reasons that Gurmag Angler was cut. However, a 4/4 attacker could help encourage big swings in the late game. That’s enough of a trade-off for targeted graveyard hate and a food token. Mortuary Mire is a cute way to get a creature back if you have a second draw at your disposal, but most players tend to play it before that becomes relevant.
Mosswood Dreadknight for Ignoble Hierarch: If Mosswood Dreadknight didn’t have the death trigger, it would be a perfect JundJund card. But the death trigger becomes added rules bloat, easily forgotten when players are grinding it out with tons of cards on the table. Also, having a pair of them means that a defensive player can consistently trade up on bigger creatures when blocking, and get them back to protect even longer.
Getting the Hierarch helps fix on mana, and can break parity when attacking in with a creature. If the Turn 1 ramp becomes too good, then Painful Truths or Questing Druid are on deck.
Skull Prophet for Bonecrusher Giant: Skull Prophet is shaping up to be fairly unimpactful, whether it be the ramp or milling ability. Losing your 2-drop to a Seasoned Pyromancer token is bad, so I’m looking to add more muscle to the creature suite. Bonecrusher Giant is a heavy hitter, gets revived by Unearth, and the damage ability when targeted will help move games along.
Where To From Here?
This list details the core cards and themes I see as vital to the JundJund experience. While edits can be made, I recommend starting with the stock list and moving from there. If you do change things, make sure to leave some of the old favorites in. I like to strike a balance between nostalgic Jund and cards that smooth out a shared deck experience. If the most complex thing in hand is a Dogged Detective or Patchwork Beastie, then players will spend more time focusing on the game and less time trying to read cards they’ve never seen before.
The beauty of JundJund is that it will never be complete. New sets will bring new cards to try, and the cycle begins anew.
Travis Norman (he/him) is a writer and photographer from the wooded foothills of New York, currently living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He’ll try any Magic format, but he has a special love for Cube, Premodern, and Canadian Highlander. He has loved Magic since 1999, but champions having a healthy mental and financial relationship with the game. When not playing games, he enjoys cycling, tea, and dog parks. You can follow his exploits on Bluesky and Instagram.