It’s the third game and I accidently mulligan to six… I don’t even know what my first hand looked like.

I have 1 Treetop Village, other lands, a civic wayfinder and a rampant growth. So I keep the hand in the hope of drawing something with legs or wings on it. I draw a primal command (which he saw last game) and drop my wayfinder, getting a swamp.

My opponent untaps, draws a card, plays a land, and then casts a Hypnotic specter… (Let’s not draw attention to how much this card sucks in the current standard). The next turn I activate my Treetop Village and swing.

In an ordinary situation an early Hypnotic specter might cause real problems for this deck. But I’m staring at a hand with three land, a rampant growth and my primal command when I pass the turn. I have a 1/5 chance of being able to cast the spell which matters next turn. That’s good right? …Well, this game, it’s not good enough. But this isn’t a bad beat story. Oh no, this is much more.

So I draw nothing the next turn and swing again. He plays a Thought Hemorrhage. I smile. He misses, but grabs all the finks from my deck.

I do nothing gain apart from swing and play another land. He plays a demigod, king of clocks. I topdeck a broodmate dragon, eater of clocks. There’s some shenianigans involving a volcanic fallout and everything dies. I topdeck a chameleon colossus and drop it, with about 6 life. He plays a second Thought Hemorrhage, naming Broodmate Dragon. I reveal all the lands, he reveals a blightning. The game is over, with me just three points out of reach.

In total that game I played probably 4 cards which mattered. Treetop Village, Broodmate Dragon, Chameleon Colossus and a
Civic Wayfinder. If I’d have drawn more threats, he’d probably have been able to play the second hemorrage earlier, catch something important from my hand and done that extra three points of damage. As it was, through topdecking very few threats with superb timing I managed to win a game which looked unwinnable at one point.

So there you have it. Jund wins games because it plays no threats.

My thoughts on the deck:

All cred to Noah Rabin for inventing it. I played his list, except I removed the needles and torments from the sb in favor of more hate for the mainstream. In particular, Oversoul of Dusk was MVP as I played 5CB 3 times in the swiss.

Maindeck, Banefire was meh. Did win me one game against Jund Ramp, but I would seriously consider removing them for 2xprimal and 1xoversoul. Primal is huge against anathemancer, and dead against nothing (except maybe fae). I didn’t see much for faeries. They won the previous week so everyone was gunning for them. That’s another reason to consider removing Banefire. Fae is one match where it shines, but if they are dwindling again, then it can move to the board.

I dodged GW Overrun, but I think it is a bad matchup. Might try to fit a 4th Hallowed Burial in the board this weekend.

The deck dies to swans. Yes, I beat it, but I got really lucky. We literally had one exchange that went:
“I throw a land at my swans”
“I path it in response”
“I throw another land in response”
“I path it in response”
“I throw another land in response”
“I path it in response”
“I throw my last land in response”
“I got nothing”
“…fizzle”
“Phew!” Untap with thresher and the gang.

Anyway, I would highly recommend the deck, especially if you’ve been searching in vain for a non-token GW deck that didn’t suck, as I have been.

I told a friend to play your deck (GW Ramp) last Sunday for the Malaysian National Qualifiers. His deck differs from yours abit due to lack of cards, but it is indeed potent! My friend Top-8 in that, and almost hit Top-4 for Nationals qualification but unfortunately lost.

His sideboard is rather interesting, as he opted for WoGs, Burrenton Forge Tenders, Story Circles, and Stillmoon Cavaliers (!) to name a few. He mentioned that the stillmoon was a star player from the SB.

I am hoping you can further develop this deck (especially before the following upcoming sunday) so we can travel to the neighbouring state and maybe try to qualify yet again! More match reports and card analysis would definitely help.

Btw, in Top-8 eliminations to Top-4, he lost to BW Persist… whom he fought against and won in round 5 (out of 6). The meta was filled with 5CB, elves variant (jund, etc), white weenie variants (mono-W, BW), a couple of bant and mono-red. Fae, Doran, Elves and 5CC made a very poor showing (although a 5CC did manage top-8…).

I bet the deck is, because I just you’ve actually, you know, played the matchups, and so you’re right, I bet. But Doran is a terrrrrble matchup for this deck. Seriously. It can romp all over B/W, Faeries, whatever, but Doran just bends it over and says “My Turn.” So, if you’re gonna play this deck at a PTQ, scoop to all Doran matchups and go get lunch.

But again, I actually like the deck, in spite of its matchup against Doran. (It almost seems disingenuous to call it a “matchup” when really it’s a one-sided rape-and-pillage fest.)

Keep up the good work.

3 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Mind Stone
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Wildfield Borderpost

4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Spectral Procession
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
3 Oversoul of Dusk
3 Twilight Shepherd

4 Path to Exile
3 Martial Coup

16 Plains

Sideboard (still kind of junky)
4 Aura of Silence
4 Wispmare
3 Celestial Purge
3 Scepter of Dominance
1 Story Circle

Now as for the main deck choices, several are made because I play on a budget and can’t shell out yet for cards like Ajani/Elspeth/Windbrisk. Warhammer is the simple replacement for Sledge, and I upped it to 3. Oversoul is basically Chameleon Coloussus with extra protection and in my color. Mindstone looks a little odd along side procession and oversoul but usually turns out okay — the deck plays 24 white sources, the Mindstones are just extra on top that you can cash in again (and sometimes double up with Twilight Shepherd). Speaking of Twilight Shepeherd, I’ve liked it so far but I might find a better replacement. So far the deck is doing well — the tough matchup is BW tokens because they have ZP to trump the token plan, and I don’t have the tickets to buy wraths/burials/austere/whichever for the sideboard. Most games are won based on the mountain of card advantage that the deck churns out, and the rarity of mana problems.

Anyway, I’m no standard expert, but if GW isn’t working out then maybe take a look at mono W

@wills
More on Naya tonight-ish!

@Osyp
Cloudthresher is too awesome. This deck is like a Batman deck. More bigger stuff is the plan. I am definitely into summoning 4. As to the other point, I find Maelstrom Pulse difficult to cast. Also it is worse than every other card in my deck.

@Jeranimus Rex
I have not read this story, but I have certainly heard of it. I found RIP to be officially “okay” – significantly worse than my favorite Batman and / or Grant Morrison pieces, such as E for Extinction or the first volume of All-Star Superman.

@Slank
Like I said to Osyp, it’s difficult to cast in my version, and I think the rest of my cards are all better. One thing we were thinking of over Top 8 Magic side is cutting Shriekmaw for Maelstrom Pulse, but I am not sold on that, no, not at all.