Jund is so broken...

If you get passed the kind of nonsense I got passed during my last foray into Shards/Conflux/Reborn drafting. Howdy folks, new contributor Al Capone (formerly mentioned in posts as "Frank," which should have properly been "Frank Sinatra") here with a draft report for a very solid 3-0 Jund deck. Here's the list:

1 Rip-Clan Crasher
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Jund Hackblade
3 Terminate (!)
1 Macta Rioters
1 Jund Sojourners
1 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Branching Bolt (!)
1 Drag Down
1 Dark Temper
1 Wild Leoatu
1 Sewn-Eye Drake
1 Rhox Charger
1 Beacon Behemoth
1 Gorger Wurm
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Sylvan Bounty
1 Igneous Pouncer
1 Cavern Thoctar
1 Absorb Vis

17 basic land

Sideboard: 1 Magma Spray (I just didn't need more removal)

The deck has a couple shortcomings, namely its lack of borderposts for fixing and activating the hackblade and hushblade that I decided against maindecking (in favor of the easier-to-cast and quasi-fixing Elvish Visionary), its lack of tri or fetch lands (which is why I maindecked Absorb Vis, Sylvan Bounty and Igneous Pouncer) and its lack of a true late game "bomb" (it is worth noting that my 4 and 5 drops are all capable of finishing the game and that the jerk next to me who was in Naya/Jund-splash took a Predator Dragon, a Channelhord Wurm and a Lavalanche; I paid him back by wupping his ass in the finals). Other than those few issues, this is the best deck I've drafted in some time. The triple-terminates just make life easy. An example: the afore-mentioned jerk and I are stalemated in game 1 of the finals, with the exception of my Sewn-Eye Drake swinging overhead as a 5 turn clock. He drops Channelhord Wurm to try and break the stalemate, very evidently pleased with himself. I nod, ask if he's done and Terminate it at eot. No big deal. I'm holding another Terminate and a Drag Down. You see how this deck might be kinda good?

Round 1: Was never close. My opponent is a newb of some variety, good-natured but very much out of his league. He plays a janky Esper deck. I play early creatures and kill literally everything he plays for the first 6 turns of games 1 and 2 as his life total goes from 20 to 0 very, very quickly.

Round 2: The only other player (besides Jerk) whose deck scared me. This was, after all, an insane pool of cards we opened at this table. His Bant deck packing lots of Crystalizations, Celestial Purges and 2 Oblivion Rings seems a force to be reckoned with. I am wrong. My removal is slightly better and my creatures are better and more numerous. He does not have enough creatures for my removal and I take games 1 and 2 quickly. He asks for a 3rd game, which I win handily. He asks for a 4th, to see if his deck can possibly beat mine (it can't). It doesn't. Please note, though, that he had a deck fully capable of going 3-0 and he was capable of playing it there...in a different pod.

Round 3: Jerk to my right. Game 1 stalemates until my Sewn-Eye Drake starts beating overhead. I build a defensive, he hunts for answers until, as he sits at 2 life and I sit at 13 with a tapped 3 power flyer, he topdecks Predator Dragon, sacrifices all 6 of his creatures and swings at me for 16 in the air. I look at my tapped flyer, my Drag Down (-3/-3), his 16 power and my 13 life. Well, I had to lose a game some time...

Game 2: Turn 1 Mtn, Turn 2 Forest, Rip-Clan Crasher swing 2 (18), Turn 3 Jund Hackblade, swing 4 (14) Turn 4 Wild Leoatu swing 4 (10) Turn 5 Bituminous Blast his only blocker, cascade into Sewn-Eye Drake, swing 11, game 3?

Game 3: Basically the same start. T2 Crasher, T3 Hackblade, T4 Sewn-Eye, T5 Beacon Behemoth, then Terminate, Terminate, Terminate to win the draft. His deck was good. Mine was better. And he was to my right. Those Terminates (except the 1st, which I opened) and that Bit Blast came past him (he was busy taking Lavalanches and other bullshit). Such is life.

Anyways, that's the draft and the deck, hope it was educational. Moral of the story: Draft triple Terminate. Real moral: Jund is probably the strongest deck to draft in Shards block. Take removal, back it with big bodies, and (the deck's other shortcoming) take Putrid Leech. That guy is the best 2 drop in the set, draft or constructed.

I plan to be back in the future, with cards to show you. Until then,

--Al Capone