An ode to Thundermaw
Do you know what I like doing? I like casting big, red, hasty dragons! In last year’s standard, Stormbreath Dragon was forever in my sleeves and ready to be slammed on the table sideways with a slight flourish and a small amount of satisfaction on my part.
More recently I decided that I really wanted to cast Stormbreath’s bigger, badder older brother, that’s right, it was time to break Thundermaw Hellkite out of the cold hell that is the outside of regular play in modern.
Once I had decided that I wanted to cast Thundermaw, I had to find the right deck to slot him in. Being a 5 drop in modern is no small consideration when choosing the right deck, you probably only want one copy of the card, so you need a deck that has the staying power to reach the mid to late game, as well as the ability to dig through the deck and find him. I considered Naya, but felt that the Collected Company versions were probably the best and adding a 5 drop probably would not help. I then considered Grixis and Jeskai control decks, however these style of decks like playing cheap cantrips and controlling effects before ending the game with creature lands or repeated lightning bolts to the dome thanks to Snapcaster Mage. So it should be no surprise, to those that know me, that I chose to the put Thundermaw Hellkite at the top of the curve and just Jund’Em!
So let’s have a look at the list that I played in a recent GPT:
2nd Place – GPT Bologna
Jund Midrange – Mathew Tonkin
Creatures: Sideboard:
3 x Dark Confidant 2 x Leyline of the Void
3 x Scavenging Ooze 1 x Jund Charm
4 x Tarmogoyf 1 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 x Kitchen Finks 1 x Duress
1 x Thundermaw Hellkite 1 x Thragtusk
1 x Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1 x Maelstrom Pulse
Spells: 1 x Slaughter Pact
4 x Lightning Bolt 2 x Damnation
3 x Thoughtseize 3 x Fulminator Mage
3 x Inquisition of Kozilek 2 x Ancient Grudge
3 x Abrupt Decay
1 x Maelstrom Pulse
3 x Terminate
Lands:
2 x Wooded Foothills
2 x Overgrown Tomb
1 x Blood Crypt
1 x Stomping Ground
3 x Raging Ravine
2 x Forest
2 x Swamp
1 x Ghost Quarter
The more eagled-eyed reader might have noticed that there are only four cards that have the maximum copies of the card, two of which are lands, and this just demonstrates the flexibility of the Jund-style of deck and the changing attitudes towards deck construction – although this may just be that I have always been willing to play 3 copies of a card to diversify the number of threats and answers in my decks.
Let’s take a quick look at the tournament itself and see how the deck played out.
Round 1: Amulet Bloom – Win
This was not the match-up that I wanted to start my tournament against, but 2 Mulligans from my opponent and some early hand disruption from me allowed me to take a 2-0 win, despite my opponent resolving Hive Mind in both games!
Out: 1 x Tasigur, the Golden Fang , 1 x Inquisition of Kozilek and 4 x Lightning Bolt
In: 3 x Fulminator Mage, 1 x Duress, 1 x Slaughter Pact and 1 x Jund Charm.
Round 2: R/G Tron – Loss
The bad match-ups kept coming in this tournament. Jund traditionally has a bad match-up against Tron. I lost a close game one, only needing a lightning bolt from the top of my deck after my opponent resolved Emrakul and swung with it. A dodgy mulligan from my opponent allowed me to take an Ancient Stirrings with my Thoughtseize on turn 1 and a concession followed a couple of turns. Game 3 saw the Tron deck do its thing and take the deciding game.
Out: 3 x Inquisition of Kozilek , 2 x Lightning Bolt and 2 x Abrupt Decay
In: 3 x Fulminator Mage, 1 x Duress, 1 x Thragtusk, 1 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar and 1 x Maelstrom Pulse
Round 3: Affinity – Win
This is very much a match-up where your removal needs to line up with their threats (and hope that they don’t unload their hand on Turn 1!). Fortunately for me, my opponent had 15 threats and I managed to answer 14 of them to take the match-up 2-1.
Out: 3 x Dark Confidant, 1 x Tasigur, the Golden Fang , 1 x Maelstrom Pulse, 3 x Thoughtseize and 1 x Liliana of the Veil
In: 1 x Slaughter Pact, 1 x Jund Charm, 2 x Damnation, 3 x Fulminator Mage and 2 x Ancient Grudge
Round 4: Merfolk – Win
The match-up against Merfolk has always seemed, to me, to at least 60% in the favour of the Jund player. However speaking to local Merfolk aficionado Matthew Mitchell, he has always felt the opposite to be true. In true definition of Junding’Em, I dispatched the fished back to the seas with a 2-0 victory thanks to timely removal spells, resilient threats and always taking the Spreading Seas out of his hand!
Out: 2 x Thoughtseize, 1 x Dark Confidant, 1 x Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
In: 2 x Damnation, 1 x Slaughter Pact and 1 x Jund Charm.
Round 5: Naya Burn – Win
I went in to this round at 3-1 and only needed a handshake to draw myself and my opponent in to the Top 8, however having looked at the standings I knew I would back in to the Top 8 with a loss and decided to play for seeding in the Top 8.
Game 1 went according to plan with the inclusion of main deck Kitchen Finks certainly helping out; a Thundermaw off the top finished the game. Game 2 saw me keep an opening hand of two lightning bolts, Inquisition of Kozilek, Kitchen Finks and Thragtusk (along with 3 lands). It turns out T3 Kitchen Finks in to a Turn 5 Thragtusk is too much for Burn to deal with.
Out: 3 x Thoughtseize and 3 x Dark Confidant.
In: 1 x Thragtusk, 1 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar, 1 x Jund Charm, 2 x Damnation and 1 x Duress.
Quarter-Finals: Merfolk – Win
Being seeded 2nd allowed me to be on the play throughout the Top 8 and certainly helped to win my first quarter final, against my earlier Merfolk opponent, thanks to some insane draws in the late game.
Out: 2 x Thoughtseize , 1 x Dark Confidant, 1 x Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
In: 2 x Damnation, 1 x Slaughter Pact and 1 x Jund Charm.
Semi-Finals: Naya Burn – Win
This was a different burn deck than my round 5 opponent, this time I lost Game 2 but was still able to pick up the result over 3 games.
Out: 3 x Thoughtseize and 3 x Dark Confidant.
In: 1 x Thragtusk, 1 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar, 1 x Jund Charm, 2 x Damnation and 1 x Duress.
Finals: Naya Burn – Concession
At this point everyone was tired and wanted to go home. Whilst I was confident that I could win, having beaten this opponent earlier in the tournament, I sportingly offered the concession to the player more likely to make the trip to Bologna.
Overall
Well, casting Thundermaw Hellkite was every bit as fun to cast as I thought it was going to be! The look on many opponents was priceless as the Hellkite charges across the battlefield and led me to victory. Thundermaw Hellkite is a solid contender to be the game closer that Jund, sometimes, feels like it needs. It’s all well and good to attrition your opponents out through your hand disruption and removal, but sometimes you just need a big ol’ dragon to really Jund’Em!
The main deck inclusion of Kitchen Finks is a concession to the local metagame that is full of creature match-ups and Naya Zoo/Burn. The card performed really well all weekend and never strained the mana; you already want as many green sources for Scavenging Ooze as possible.
The sideboard Jund Charm was another card that seemed over-performed for me in this tournament, having a Pyroclasm effect, pump-effect and graveyard exile all in one card was a powerful option to have. Jund Charm is definitely a card I’ll be looking to include more often in my sideboard.
Other sideboard options that I didn’t have for the weekend were Golgari Charm and Obstinate Baloth. Both of these are powerful sideboard cards and really reward the Jund player for correctly guessing the metagame that they are heading in to.
Being able to guess the metagame is a tool that is quite key for a Jund player to have.
Traditionally Jund is “50% against the field” but this is only true when the entire 75 cards has been tuned, and thus the deck always needs to evolve and be fluid. It’s this fluidity and deck-building reward that first made me fall in love with the deck and I’ll probably be sleeving Tarmogoyf and co. for the rest of my modern playing days!
That’s it from me this time around. What did you think of the deck? Any cards that you would recommend for the deck? As always I would love to hear about it in the comment section. As for me, well, I’ll just be Junding’Em until next time!
