Casting Cost:1
It removes almost any card that costs one or two, and some of the big three-drop threats (Geralf's Messenger) It is a true 1:1 most of the time, and it goes to the face with a Tamiyo ultimate, or against a control deck. (It can kill a -2'ed Jace, or try to interact with a planeswalker, so that's something Black removal tends to not do)
Unfortunately, it does not match up very well against Thragtusk, Lingering Souls, Olivia Voldaren, Beast Tokens, Restoration Angel, or really anything happening after turn three or so. It also doesn't work against cards like Falkenrath Aristocrat (he saves vs exile, etc)
It costs 1, which is huge. It fills in on any turn, and is your stopgap against aggro in a "Jund" list.
A problem however is that Red is actually your "Splash" color when the current shock lands are considered. Between Dragonskull Summit, Copperline Gorge, Blood Crypt, and a singleton Mountain perhaps, only five of those 13 sources come into play untapped on turn 1, and four of those at the cost of two life, which is a rough cost to pay when you are facing a deck you need to interact with on turn 1.
This is a very powerful card, for the match-up it is good in, and very weak against any kind of Midrange, Control, Ramp, or Combo strategy. I heard someone suggesting sideboarding this card against Aggro, and that makes a lot of sense to me. "Double Pillar your Thragtusk" is not a winning proposition for any deck.
It is a almost perfect late-game draw, but it's not good enough early game to warrant overcommitting to it (outside a reanimation strategy). It gives extra value, but not in a way that causes hate cards from your opponent to be "worth" bringing in.
Nowadays, it competes a bit with Thoughtflare (draw 4 discard 4, vs draw 4 discard 2), as a late-game draw, but Faithless Looting works well with Thoughtflare, and it is certainly not dead early (one-land-Looting is not awesome, but it can open up some early draws). It allows you to play a few other cards that are more specific, because you can cycle them into other cards.
It's not dead in aggro either, since they tend to want to stop at 4 land or so, and "draw 4" is just what they want.
This is a very solid one to two of.
The main competition for this card is Pillar of Flame. Pillar handles Undying, and goes to the (planeswalker's) face. Tragic Slip deals with bigger stuff, at instant speed, and deals with indestructable, regeneration, etc.
This is a very real trade-off, but as Zombies gets beat (back) into the ground by cards like Thragtusk and Pillar of Flame, Slip becomes better, since the cards Pillar is good against are leaving.
Also, we have up to 9 untapped Black sources turn one, compared to 5 Red (admittedly 8 with a cost of two damage), since black is a "central" color until Gatecrash.
The morbid cost is a real cost for taking down big creatures, but if you're playing creatures in your deck, you should be able to make it work.
It is a pretty good answer to sweepers and Sphynx's Revelation as well.
This also beats the heck out of cards like Unburial Rites, or Sever the Bloodline, which are traditionally strong against discard.
Unfortunately, there are a ton of cards this misses, like the entirety of an aggro deck, Lingering Souls, counterspells, removal, and so on. This sounds like a sideboard card to me, so it is directly competing with Duress for this type of effect.
Not considered: Electrickery, Dead Weight, Geistflame (as being inferior to Pillar, Slip)
Casting Cost: 2
Unfortunately, the targets in the format are somewhat lacking, with the rotation of the "artifact block"
Targets: Keyrunes (RB, GW only pretty much), Trading Post (dead), Runechanter's Pike (Delver dead), Gilded Lotus (do-nothing control)
Wierd that I'd rather have a destroy Land-Enchantment spell now, than a traditional "Disenchant". Unfortunate, because this is such a good card when it's good. (I need to remember the lack of targets for consideration in Bant)
I'd play one, but probably not more than that. (And maybe something like Manic Vandal instead)
It is almost never dead, and it interacts with perminants (planeswalkers) that "control" colors tend to have a hard time with. It gives quite a bit of value for it's casting cost, and at least the black half of the casting cost should be easy to put together.
It'll also enable quite a few two-spell turns later in the game, where the Bant equivalent (Detention Sphere) might be somewhat harder to "fit in".
It combos with Pillar of Flame to answer most anything early or late, which is a good place to be. Neither are amazing against Thragtusks or Restoration Angels-blocks, which is the biggest problem with approaching things from a "1:1 Removal" standpoint. Creatures, and planeswalkers, especially expensive ones, have already done something when they come into play, especially at the 3+cc level. Dreadbore is a fine card, but you'd better be ready to go over the top with the time/mana it gives you.
I don't know that I can advocate this, except in some sort of crazy aggro strategy.
This feels like a 2-of, where Dreadbore feels like a 4-of, but I think I want to be Dreadboring a Angel of Serenity, and Abrupt Decaying a Detention Sphere on my
It's unfortunate that this fills a slot like Acidic Slime's, but doesn't deal with even all the things Slime does. (Utility lands for the most part)
Enchantments are more important than artifacts in this format, and this happens to kill one of the artifacts (Rakdos Keyrune) anyway!
It also "counters" Supreme Verdict, and does good things in creature mirrors, that even keep your tokens alive.
I like this, as a 2-3 of.
It is really terrible for GB that they have two GB instants that are very versitile...
Being an instant is cool, but I can't see playing more than a couple of these, and only if my Dreadbores are already maxed.
It's good against Restoration Angel, in that it turns it into only sortof a blowout, instead of a full blowout. That's not what I want out of a removal spell =/
He's not terribly aggressive for this deck, despite his trample and 2/1 for 2. We don't really want to discard our Thragtusks or Olivias to make him bigger, but he might work well in a reanimation strategy (Green-Black-White, whose mana is terrible).
He's good against Supreme Verdict, bad (horrible) vs Terminus. He's a reason Tragic Slip is a considerable card.
It does not deal with planeswalkers without a board presence, so that's important to realize if we intend to use this rather than a card like Bonfire.
Not considered: Izzet Charm (blue), Desperate Ravings (blue) Flinthoof Boar (not enough forests?), Reverberate (uncastable), Tibalt (uncastable, not good), Knight of Infamy (sideboard)
Jund has some very efficient removal available to it. The spells are quite strong, but spells that are relatively hard to cast (no cavern to help if that's our utility land, either with color or uncounterability). I feel like removal is the strength of the Jund colors, so hopefully we don't drop off too fast from here on up the curve...
Casting Cost: 3
Red is also our "splash" color in this deck ("only" 13 sources), so you're paying a whole lot for +1 damage and instant speed over Pillar of Flame. It does hit Thragtusk, Dreg Mangler, Beast Tokens, and do one more damage to planeswalkers or players, so that's something.
This is a rough pill to swallow, if this is our solution. Centaur Healer feels a whole lot better in the 3-slot.
There are a few differences here though. +1 mana cost is huge. You can't slow down their mana-guy draws as well, or do another thing the same turn.
There were alot more 1-toughness and 2-toughness creatures at the time, and planeswalkers that didn't come into play with 4-5 loyalty.
I love me some card advantage, but this is a hard sell over Searing Spear....
It doesn't really deal that well with Thragtusk or Restoration Angel (preventing flips), but it is trivial to cast, and performs in a sort of Geist of Saint Traft role for the Jund colors.
I don't know that this is the way to go, but it's a passable defensive creature option for Red.
I really like this card, but it has no synergy with anything but Huntmaster. It doesn't block much well on it's normal side, but 3-power double (first) strike is pretty powerful.
It's also hard to cast, so it likely isn't raiding any villages in Standard.
Unfortunately, it doesn't stand up too well against Restoration Angel, but at least it's not embarrassingly bad.
Stupid Restoration Angel.
It is good against big single threats, it gains some life, it is good with blockers, so as long as we have some creatures for 3 or less mana, this won't be a terrible play.
If our defense for Liliana is Thragtusk, we're probably better off without her.
Liliana is a defense against Geist of Saint Traft, but so is Dreg Mangler, Centaur Healer, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel, Huntmaster....
There is quite a bit of competition for this slot, so we might want a representative from this category, but certainly we wouldn't want to overload on it.
The land is a real cost to this, but I could see playing 1-3 of these out of the sideboard, as just another thing to give an advantage in super-long games, in the mirror, or against control.
It doesn't block the mid-level creatures that well, but it dominates the low-level creatures in multiple ways. It can just block and kill them, or it can prevent them from attacking, or it can just race them, and those are the kind of options we should be looking for in a creature.
The thing to remember with this is that if your opponent has a beast token and a 1/1, you can race them with just your 2/3 lifelink, and you should unless you are very behind.
It trades with Restoration Angel, Angel of Serenity. It threatens Planeswalkers.
It doesn't "race" a Thragtusk in an overall sense, but it does trade 2-for-3 damage if you attack, which is more than most cards can claim, especially at the three-cost level. There are quite a few 3/3's these days, and VNH does race those, but it doesn't block them well at all, so as far as options go, the meta these days does give you fewer than you'd normally have. Searing Spear is also a commonly played removal spell out of aggro decks, which hurts this card, compared to, say, Seraph of Dawn (which is "strictly worse")
Not considered: Brimstone Volley, Crossway Vampire, Fervent Cathar, Mark of Mutiny, Rolling Tremblor, Traitorous Blood, Cower in Fear, Forbidden Alchemy, Lingering Souls, Murder.
Casting Cost: 4
This is one of the best reasons to be playing Jund in a metagame of Thragtusks clogging up boards. Stealing your opponent's Thragtusk is probably one of the best ways you can "answer" it, and Olivia is no slouch at wiping your opponent's board, or flying over the top to kill them.
She really gives you a lot to do with your mana, once you "run out of gas" and it rewards you for having some cheap removal to back it up, because you will have your hands full (just like Olivia, in the picture =P) stealing things.
The creatures do go away when Olivia does, which is not all that unlikely, between Charms, Dreadbore, Detention Sphere, and the like, but if she is unanswered, the game should be over in short order.
This is the card that makes me excited about Jund. The possibilities here are truly marvelous.
It's good, but it competes with Olivia, so for a more controlling build, Olivia seems like the clear choice for at least your first 2-3 4-casing-cost vampires.
He does gain you some life, and do some damage, but the problem with Huntmaster these days is the preponderance of "2"'s on his abilities, when stacked up against the preponderance of "3"'s that this meta contains.
He's still good as gold against aggro, and probably better than Olivia on 4 (Olivia being better on 6+, or if it survives) The 2/2's just don't stack up to Thragtusks, and Centaur Healer does a pretty good Huntmaster impression, for a mana less.
I could see playing one or two of this out of the sideboard, but I wouldn't do anything crazy with it. It is uncounterable, but if too many of your spells look like this, you may just be dead to a Tamiyo, Garruk, or just a beast token, before you can leverage the super-long game where this can show it's colors.
This guy is hard to keep under control if you can stay alive for a few turns, but he can't be your only line of defense, or them sacrificing a Thragtusk after you cast this may lead to you taking lethal.
If you have any sort of board position when you cast this guy, he's going to be bringing the damage. He's only really bad against a token-based strategy
He even flies, which is good against the Thragtusk-clogged ground.
We just have to make sure that when we use him, what we're getting (in cards and life) is worth more than what we are giving up (board presence). If we're just using this guy to use him, we aren't going to be getting anywhere, even if drawing cards and gaining life is fun.
I would not play more than one of this guy, but as a one-of, he seems fine.
More land is good, but we probably want Liliana in more of a 18 swamp + 8 shockland manabase, than in our all-dual manabase.
It's pretty splashable, for such a powerful spell (compared to Angel of Serenity, or Liliana for example).
It is a Sorcery, a 4 mana spell, and it has double effectiveness, so we'd probably want on the order of two, to compliment Dreadbore, which has more targets and is cheaper.
Not Considered: Chandra the Firebrand (bad, low impact) Essense Backlash (blue), Hellrider, Krenko, Mob Boss, Rakdos, Lord of Riots (uncastable), Bloodhunter Bat, Eviol Twin, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Mutilate (Swamps), Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (White)
Casting Cost: 5
He is an interesting counterpoint to Thragtusk, in that he makes them lose 5 life, right now, and comes back for more later.
I like him, but he does compete with the 'Tusk, and our planeswalkers.
They do all the work, get marginal advantages from +1's, and you blow them out with an ultimate.
This guy seems like one of the best answers to Thragtusk in an aggressive deck, so we need to be aware of it when we get our Garruks, or Tamiyos, or whatnot up in level.
This guy is pretty trivial to cast, and might hit harder than Thundermaw, at least in the short term, especially if you have board position.
The pure insanity/swinginess on this guy is pretty hard to deal with. I would side at least one of these against any sort of planeswalker strategy.
He is very aggressive, I like him!
The one downside is that he gives no value vs removal, but alot of removal doesn't hit him, so that's something.
It is like a "Free" Gavony Township activation as to what it does for you in the mirror, which is quite good. Unfortunately, it is not free, whereas a Gavony Township is more actually free. (and pretty much the same cost)
I don't mind this card, but it's probably a sideboard plan against tokens/Souls, rather than a more generally good card.
The reason Vraska works so well for the games where it works, is that the people playing against Vraska don't actually have any creatures.
The "defender" gets their Tamiyo destroyed, then two turns later, gets their Jace destroyed. Then three turns later, gets some other perminant destroyed.
If you are not in a equal board position, or only slightly superior, this gal's snakes don't do much hissing. So, don't put yourself in a position where you're behind, and she's not too much trouble.
Not Considered: Thoughtflare (blue), Homicidal Seclusion (impact), Unburial Rites (white)
Casting Cost: 6
This guy works pretty well with Resto Angel =P
Not Considered: Harvester of Souls, Niv Mizzet, Dracogenius (Blue)
Casting Cost: 7+
It also doesn't count tokens, so that's another limiting factor.
This is probably not as good as I want it to be, but it certainly has potential.
Farseek fetches all the black sources, as does Ranger's Path. There are 17 black sources in the deck, so this guy is castable on color. I wouldn't go over a 1-of on a 8-drop, but if you're going to have an 8-drop, it's hard to go over the top of this guy. He kills everything short of a bonded Silverheart in combat, is impossible to race, and gives value against removal.
Love him!
Not considered: Blasphemous Act (other x-spells), Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (blue)
Casting Cost: X
It puts a major kink in your opponent's plans, and can be an out to burn your opponent to a crisp late game.
It may not be as bad as it seems against aggro, since it can get their top end out of their hand, as long as you can keep up with their bottom end. You don't want too much of this sort of thing against Stromkirk Noble or Dryad Militant though...
It can't go to the face, or clear out Restoration Angels or Lingering Souls, but it's probably worth considering as one of your options for Red sweepers.
It is important to remember that it is at it's best in a deck that has a board presence itself, because it does not wipe your own creatures. It's fine to kill all their guys, but you want to swing in for 10 after they're dead, which adds to the life-pressure of Bonfire to the head.
If you can't back it up, it won't be much better than a delaying tactic against an aggro deck. (And the Tusks come back, etc)
Not considered: Street Spasm (too expensive, doesn't hit fliers, a worse Bonfire), Devil's Play (hard to flash back, too expensive early), Diabolic Revelation (would rather Grisel)
Conclusion:
There is a fair amount of cheap spells in RB, but very few good cheap creatures. Pillar, Dreadbore, Mortars, Bonfire, and Sever are top-shelf removal spells. As far as the creatures go, Olivia Voldaren is a standout, but there aren't a lot of options before her to get the party started.We have the good removal spells, but despite having cards like Dreadbore, we'll be forced to use that sort of card to keep from being overwhelmed by planeswalkers, since we don't have the board presence to keep 'walkers in check without them.
Jund has a ton of cheap spells, so as long as they can stay alive through those early turns, they'll be able to use their spells before they die. The problem is that 1:1 removal is at a all-time low in how good it is, with Restoration Angel, Geist of Saint Traft, Thragtusk, and Lingering Souls it is hard for any "Doom Blade", even souped-up Doom Blades like Dreadbore and Sever to keep up. You have to draw the right card at the right time, unless you have the creatures to back them up.
There is also the possibility of going four-color to try and splash some of these spells into a Bant list, but it is unfortunate that the best spells are difficult to splash in this way, because they require both Red and Black (Olivia, Dreadbore), or are double or triple color. Zealous Conscripts, Sever the Bloodline, Golgari Charm/Abrupt Decay, and Bonfire of the Damned have the highest potential for this type of usage.
For the time being, I have an unreasonable like of casting Olivia, Gristlebrand, and the Jund "spells", but I feel like GW has a more solid base of creatures and utility spells, for killing your opponent.
I'm not super-sold on the Blue, I'd probably rather have Red or Black once Gatecrash comes out, but for the time being, I'd aim for Bant over Jund.
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