The next flagship event in the RIW Pauper Championship Series is coming up on June 6. Ben Topping and I will be calling the action and I’m excited.
Today I’m going to talk about the Pauper metagame as well as the strategy I would play, Jund Wildfire.
Photo credit: mtgdecks.net
Mono Red Madness is a deck that must be respected as it’s the most popular archetype. Outside of Blue Terror there aren’t many top decks that line up naturally against the powerful burn strategy. Current builds of Jund can use some of the last precious sideboard slots to gain additional life. Red decks seek to end the game quickly so I need more copies of key sideboard cards because there isn’t time to dawdle with card filtering.
Elves is a strong choice, but is very weak to Mono Red Madness. In fact, most metagame matrices show it as an extremely unfavorable matchup despite dedicating so many sideboard slots in the stock list. Some Elves lists go as far as playing Lignify to remove Guttersnipe’s ability. If I were playing Elves I would more or less concede the Red Madness matchup. A mono green deck does have the difficulty of finding enough generically powerful spells to add to the sideboard.
Elves have a decent matchup against the Krark-Clan Shaman decks because they can replenish threats with Winding Way and Lead the Stampede or control the initiative with Avenging Hunter. Masked Vandal is also able to quickly end a game by exiling an indestructible bridge early. The green menace is another matchup I would like to respect more with my last few sideboard slots in Jund.
Blue Terror looks poised for a comeback as Elves is kept in check by Mono Red Madness. I like the Terror matchup from the Jund side, but a few quick serpents are strong enough to win. Faerie Macabre is a popular graveyard hate option in the sideboard, but I prefer the fourth Nihil Spellbomb as it’s very helpful against Blue Terror.
Affinity is currently the most popular way to build around Krark-Clan Shaman. It offers a way to control ground creatures while applying a faster clock thanks to Galvanic Blast. The Red Madness matchup can hinge on the number of Reckoner’s Bargains to combine with Myr Enforcer. It’s better against linear decks than Jund due to the higher speed at the expense of losing ground against midrange decks.
Utrom Monitor threatened to catapult the power of Affinity into a new tier, but it’s always kept in check by the powerful artifact removal in the format like Dust to Dust and Masked Vandal.
Jund Wildfire is a popular choice to control the battlefield thanks to the raw power of Writhing Chrysalis and Refurbished Familiar. I’m currently favoring the more aggressive build because there are so many different decks in Pauper and you can’t beat them all at once. Jund is a deck that would significantly benefit from a sideboard greater than 15 cards.
Here’s the list I would register:
Photo credit: mtggoldfish.com
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I was wrong about Gixian Infiltrator. The slow nature of the previous Jund Wildfire builds made me turn to Grixis Affinity for a faster clock. I actually just wanted Jund to be more threat dense and that’s what Gixian offers. There are many inherent synergies with Gixian that even drawing it in the late game becomes a large threat in a couple turns.
I tried swapping the fourth Infiltrator for experimental cards, but was always sad it wasn’t another copy of the 2/1. In such an open metagame I want more threats to close the game quickly. Just play four copies and don’t think too much about it.
Gixian Infiltrator makes me want to play Makeshift Munitions over Nyxborn Hydra for the sacrifice synergy. The slower version of Jund played Pulse of Murasa and Blood Fountain in the flex slots which meant a creature was preferable, but Gixians take the place of the creature recursion.
It’s reasonable to play a Terminate over a Cast Down in the maindeck to kill legendary sneak creatures and Guardian of the Guildpact, but it can play awkwardly with the two Forest and four Twisted Landscape. I want the second Mountain so Terminate isn’t stranded in hand.
I’m choosing to respect the Red Madness matchup and I may want to play Writhing Chrysalis and Weather the Storm on the same turn which requires more green mana. The Forest is more important after sideboard when Red Madness can exile bridges with Cast into the Fire.
I cut the third Lembas for the seventh basic as twenty-one lands ensure I can keep more hands. Jund is rarely short on things to do with mana. The extra basic provides more utility with Cleansing Wildfire and Twisted Landscape in the late game. I found with more mana that I was able to flash back Eviscerator’s Insight more often, too.
The Lembas and Wellsprings are combined with a whopping six draw two effects with four Fanatical Offering and two Eviscerator’s Insight. These card draw spells help keep the pressure on from Gixian and Chrysalis. I’m very happy with six draw spells.
I expect about sixty people to be playing Pauper at RIW’s flagship event this weekend across twenty archetypes. Be ready for the popular decks, but some of the circuit’s grinders will be playing their favorites regardless of metagame positioning. Have a plan for Ruby Storm, Pizza Combo, TurboFog, and Cycle Storm.
In order to prepare for coverage I have been watching all of the action on RIW’s weekly Wednesday Pauper tournaments. You can find the replays on twitch.tv/riwhobbies.
The cards in the maindeck I’m most likely to cut are:
After these spells I’m cutting into the card draw which is possible, but not ideal.
Weather the Storm is needed to compete with numerous copies of Red Madness in a tournament. It’s possible to face more Rally Red as it can pressure Red Madness and I would like Weather the Storm against them, too. In general, Jund is not favored against Red Madness. The Madness pilot is aware you board in Weather the Storm making the card advantage spells helpful in building up the storm count without the help of their burn spells.
I would play four Weather the Storm on Magic Online, but in the more varied paper metagame I would rather have some more general options to gain life.
Two Toxin Analysis gains life against red decks, but can sweep large creatures against Elves, Bogles, White Heroic, and Black Sac. MTGO Challenges have a very condensed metagame, but I want Toxin Analysis against many of the lesser played strategies.
Breath Weapon is the main answer against White Weenie as Jund is not set up to handle Battle Screech in the first game. Elves is another close matchup that requires a sweeper, but Krark is also good in the matchup. I can’t rely solely on Cast Down/Terminate against Elves and White Weenie because they play so much card advantage.
Duress plays many roles in Jund. White decks will typically play Dust to Dust so I even want Duress against White Weenie. There are also creature decks that try to protect a key threat and Duress can break up their game-winning effect. Generic discard is also strong when I want to reduce the amount of creature removal in the maindeck. It also helps build the storm count for Weather the Storm against Madness.
The twenty-first land helps against white decks post board as I want extra mana sources against Dust to Dust.
Pyroblast is on the decline in Jund Wildfire sideboards, but I want to play a couple copies. Paper Pauper tournaments typically feature more blue piles piloted by the stronger players. There are plenty of two-drops in Jund Wildfire so it’s nice when a key sideboard card costs just one mana.
I prefer Nihil Spellbomb to Faerie Macabre because it’s strong against Blue Terror decks. While I do expect to face Four-Land Spy, I generally feel advantaged in the matchup because of Krark-Clan Shaman. The downside of Spellbomb against Four-Land Spy is it’s weak to Masked Vandal.
Terminate is my fifth spot removal spell that kills Guardian of the Guildpact, Leonardo, Big Brother, and Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising. It can also come in against Terror decks, but beware it gets countered by Hydroblast. This slot used to be Go for the Throat, but the Selesnya Gate decks play four Guardian of the Guildpact. Remember Chrysalis and Eldrazi Spawn tokens also block Guardian.
Troublemaker Ouphe and Return to Nature helps against fringe decks like Bogles and White Heroic which can be tricky matchups thanks to their creatures being hard to target. I could play an Ancient Grudge over the Return to Nature if my main goal with the space is to fight Affinity, but I like the matchup already. Selesnya Gates also plays four Armadillo Cloaks to beef up Guardian of the Guildpact.
The RIW Pauper Championship Series is going to conclude the first half with the flagship event on Saturday. While it’s fun to compete, I also like to commentate so I plan on having a ton of fun.
I hope to see you there and feel free to say hi. You can also tune in to the coverage on twitch.tv/riwhobbies.
