Doug P has been taking over the video department for the last little while, so it feels good to be back. I asked my Twitter followers what they wanted to see and they all answered Turboland. Unfortunately, Turboland is not the complete subject of this post. It is about my 8-man with Jund that includes seeing me face off against Turboland in Round 1. I split my 8-man into two parts. The second part has two really interesting decisions. I believe I might have made the wrong decision both times. Let me know if I did!
Link: Jund vs. Turboland
Link: Jund vs. UW and Vaults
Sideboard vs. UW
-4 Lightning Bolt
-2 Terminate
-4 Bituminous Blast
+3 Duress
+2 Doom Blade
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+1 Malakir Bloodwitch
With a 9-5 job, these have become a pain to make. I really hope you appreciate the effort.
Until next time,
KYT
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.
I enjoyed the videos as always. I do enjoy live play more as it shows your thought process during play, but it's probably easier for you to play and talk after. Excellent work, keep em' coming if you can!
also in game 2 I would've done exactly what you did play for play.
dont cast bloodbraid g2 without red up, fail on not tapping the spreading seas
you take the gideon from that hand, you dont really care about the day.
I would have ruin blasted the white source, especially after seeing the hand. Drawing a white source could have been tricky.
Also no good blue white player will ever play 2 baneslayers at once against jund without counterspells in hand. I wouldn't hope on that play.
I'm making notes as I watch, so here they are:
– This is a sideboarded game, so you know you are vs UW. As such, would have led with Dragonskull over Ravine.
– def would have taken Gideon over Wrath. He might very well Wrath you here, but you not being able to activate Ravine means he can play it a little slower. You are also super fine getting Wrathed here, as it's pretty irrelevant.
– I would not Pulse his Firewalker when you know his hand is Gideon BSA BSA. But I don't know how you sideboarded, so I don't know if you have Doom Blades in at this point.
– Don't really think there is any reason your opponent made the 2nd BSA. This game is CLOSE if he doesn't, I think.
His play was curious, and you had a couple judgment calls. I likely would have went for the Ruinblaster on his Refuge knowing it strands the other BSA in his hand, but then again I don't in a million years expect him to run out the 2nd one on that board either.
The main problem I have with this method of showing games is, as I mentioned previously, we don't know how you sideboard. I don't know anything about the technology, but is it possible for you to just screencap everything while playing and then edit in the commentary afterwards? That to me seems like it should work. At the very least tell us how you board. It's a lot harder to give constructive criticism when we're possibly working with the wrong information.
Thanks for the constructive feedback. From now on, I will make sure that sideboarding information is displayed. The only thing I can do now is edit my post to show how I sideboarded. Hope that helps you in your analysis, psamms.
I also hope to see you at Nationals, where you are going to train me to become a Champion. Why do people watch my videos if I play so badly?
Hahaha, I was actually thinking of you when I played the BBE with Island up. I knew it would not slip by the Jund veteran assuming you are who I think you are, Mr. Potatoes.
Does this not show you that Jund is the most forgiving deck? =D
Read the comments below, Jason. They made me change my mind.
I really liked your video, very constructive. I dont know what I would have done in this situation, it depends what was my SB
Why not watch them? People's time isn't SO important that they can't find 10 mins to watch some video. Especially if they are coming to this site to begin with, that shows they have at least some interest in the medium.
And I wouldn't even necessarily say you play "so badly", it's just that Jund has a deceptive amount of play to it (hurr durr cascade lottery) that people just don't realize if they just pick it up. Sure the deck is powerful and you can pick it up and just win with it, but the difference between someone who has played Jund a lot and someone who just picked it up is actually immense. Between yours and Doug's videos about Jund, that has actually been my favourite part, showcasing the fact that there are very real, very important decisions that you have to make in a game by game basis. It's the incremental edges you can pick up playing the deck that are entirely the difference.
because theyre bored
i have to agree, most people just dont have much to do so come check it out, and its also not that you play badly, its just that you possibly dont analyze the sitatuion very well as your not use to jund, IE leading with ad ragonskull to not get your manland spreading seas
keep it up
PSamms has never picked up a true control deck in his entire life, he is the master of the tapping out. I wouldn't listen to him, he just trys to Justify his dedicated love to Tap Out Go with the fact that these decks (Solar Pox, BW Tokens, Jund) all be it incredibly simple, are somehow in some backwards fashion "hard" to play.
No I am just Trolling, I actually agree mostly with what he is saying, but felt like the time for a trolling was a now.
So I am Replying to myself, deal with it.
I re-watched the UW Game where PSamms had said to lead with Summit…. I must say I no longer agree with ANYTHING this man says.
The lands in hand are as followed
Mountain, Mountain, Summit, Ravine, Ravine… on turn 1….
Why would you lead your only black source? Just wondering…
I'm very interested in Turboland so it was nice to see the first video and the more I see Jund, the more I appreciate it.
The turboland deck you were playing against had some very weird card choices. It seemed like he was playing a version closer to Ali Aintrazi's deck from Philly: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=33201
I do not like the Eldrazi take on the deck.
I personally think LSV's version is more focused and a lot stronger. I played against Jund today with LSV's Turboland and crushed it 4 games in a row (all pre-board).
Overgrown Battlement is the wrong choice for the deck. It didn't look like the player in the video had Lotus Cobra (a must have to power the deck).
For Turboland, the sideboard is the Achilles' Heel of the archetype. Anything you add or subtract takes away from the overall combo. Roil Elemental seems to work out okay against creature heavy, mid-range decks. Since the deck is so new people don't know how to work the sideboard yet while still holding up the integrity of the combo.
I think you would have more trouble with the more fine-tuned LSV deck.
Great vid! I like the pause and play button. The other way feels rushed sometimes. So, that's my vote!
Doug, you lead with the Summit because even if you miss on black sources for a few turns, Ravine is still way more important to your plan. You have no real need for the black mana right away. The way (that game especially) will play out, there is not a pressing need for black mana. Getting it Seas`d and then bricking off a couple turns is FINE. Especially if it means you get to bring with Ravine.
Also, I grew up on hard control decks, as you put it. I would have no problems playing those decks if given the chance, lord knows I love an Island. I guess I just love decks where you gain incremental advantage more.
Hey KYT. Just so you know I switched up my Turboland boarding against Jund. I now bringh in Mold Shambler and Rampaging Baloths and Narcolepsies, cutting Cobras and 1 Jace. My Jund MU postboard is now about 60-65%. Just thought you should now. regarding Baneslayer+pulse play in game 2, i think going for double baneslayer off pulse is far too greedy. by stoneraining him and pulsing, you reduce the chances of him being able to recover.
But with DOUBLE ravine, you don't mind losing 1 since you aren't planning on hitting mana for both anyways.
I also like taking DoJ since it makes it so he has no play next turn and with double pulse you don't care that much about Gideon OR baneslayer. Plus if he doesn't draw relevant action next turn you can swing with ravine and grow it to size larger than Baneslayer can handle assuming he draws green to activate it.
Not taking wrath allows him to wrath and stabilize with baneslayers. Yes I see what you are saying about he'll have 2 threats that you have 2 answers for, but you'll lose all your aggression (remember, no green source to activate the ravine).
You have to ruinblaster tectonic since it'll take out your only green source at that point anyways.
Thats just it though, the weird part about this draw is the fact that for a significant part of the game that 1 Seas is shutting off BOTH Ravines. The Wrath is extremely low impact if he has 2 Ravines. Its not the fact that you plan on activating both, its that youre relying on one to activate the other! Also, the way this matchup generally plays out, you should expect the games to go long.
Also, if you are so worried about losing your 1 black source to him having turn 2 Seas, then you should have just led Mountain anyways. You have plenty of time to develop your mana in that matchup, and it costs you almost nothing to play around turn 2 Seas, especially with that hand.
I really think this game should have been much tougher for KYT to win, but his opponent just decided to walk into every single spell he had.
Theres no way you play dragonskull turn 1. Either Ravine or Mountain, since you either play around spreading seas with mountain or don't with ravine, since dragonskull will come into play untapped with a mountain. Also you want black for the blightning in hand. And since you can go mountain into ravine into dragonskull, blightning, then play bloodbraid with the 2nd mountain, that seems right to me. Also, any reasonable player will not play the 2nd baneslayer until the first one is dead, and so killing the white source is correct.
That's fair, and maybe the real first land to play is mountain. I do think risking your dragonskull is a mistake vs UW when it's you're only black. I mean one of the main ways Jund is attacked is through attacking it's manabase.
Plus (I'd have to rewatch the video to double check) there is no way to get turn 2 leech off the hand I believe, since he didn't have leech in opener nor did he have the second CITU land for turn 2.
I agree that it would have been much easier had the opponent played better. I still think wrath was fine since Gideon was basically guaranteed to die anyways. Protecting ravines by leading with mountain changes a lot though (he might have held onto seas not wanting to waste it too) so it's difficult to say how much of a difference that would make.