Jund at Eternal Festival

By Shuhei Nakamura

Shuhei Nakamura is a member of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame, former Player of the Year, and is one of just six players with more than 400 lifetime pro points.

When we get to a tournament this size, we can't always say that the deck at the top of the standing after Swiss was the best deck in the tournament. Why? Because the players at the top of the standings will likely have drawn in the last two rounds in order to lock their Top 8 positions, and the deck that ends up at the top of the standings was one that couldn't draw because of tiebreakers and so had to fight its way in.

At this month's Eternal Festival, there was a player with a 7–2 score and the best tiebreakers in the tournament, meaning he was actually the No. 1 seed. What did Hiroyuki Kageyama use to achieve this result? Jund. If yesterday's deck was WBG Good Stuff, then this one would be BRG Good Stuff.

However, we can see a slight shift toward hand destruction in this version. These cards can end up being dead draws in the latter half of the game, which this deck attempts to overcome with the Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows combo.

And here again we see Goblin Rabblemaster. Not content with simply having a huge impact on Standard, it's now starting to crop up in Legacy as well.

Hiroyuki Kageyama's Jund—6th Place, Eternal Festival

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (4)

4 Liliana of the Veil

Creature (15)

4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Dark Confidant 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Goblin Rabblemaster

Sorcery (7)

4 Thoughtseize 3 Hymn to Tourach

Instant (10)

4 Abrupt Decay 3 Lightning Bolt 3 Punishing Fire

Enchantment (1)

1 Sylvan Library

Land (23)

1 Swamp 1 Forest 3 Badlands 3 Bayou 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 3 Wasteland 3 Polluted Delta 4 Verdant Catacombs 1 Wooded Foothills

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Golgari Charm 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Duress 2 Engineered Plague 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Krosan Grip 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Life from the Loam 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Pithing Needle