The face of Standard is changing ever so quickly! With PTQs, Regionals and of course, the StarCityGames Open it's ever so important (and difficult) to keep up with Standard. I've read article after article reviewing, analyzing and summarizing the environment and I STILL have no idea if standard is any different.

Let's look at last weekend's Star City Games 5k Standard Open. The top 16 had 5 Jund decks, this number is actually LOWER than previous big events in standard, where fields were 50%+ Jund Juggernaut. You also see a deuce showing of Red Deck Wins, this was a deck type that was supposed to be new and improved and really is just the same as it was prior to Rise. It's fast, it does lots of damage and STILL beats Jund as much as it did before. Now, the big surprise to many is the UWR Planeswalker deck that was piloted by Lewis Laskin and Ben Stark. Here's the list

[cardlist]4 Wall of Omens

3 Oblivion Ring

4 Spreading Seas

4 Path to Exile

3 Ajani Vengeant

3 Elspeth, Knight-errant

3 Gideon Jura

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Day of Judgment

3 Divination

2 Martial Coup

4 Island

1 Mountain

5 Plains

3 Arid Mesa

4 Celstial Colonnade

4 Glacial Fortress

3 Scalding Tarn

2 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard

1 Kor Firewalker

2 Meddling Mage

3 Wall of Denial

1 Celestial Purge

3 Flashfreeze

4 Negate

1 Day of Judgment[/cardlist]

Many times, when new decks come into a format, they win because most people don't know how to play against them. In my humble opinion, this deck is one of those decks. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good deck! It's got most of the things Jund hates the most...

Starting with:

Spreading Seas - If played right, turning a Mountain (or any one available land type) into an island can lead to certain doom for the Jund player. It buys the Spreader of seas the time it takes to create a strong foundation or defense to what leads to inevitability for the Jund player.

Planeswalkers - Jund has little to worry about when it comes to creature decks. Normally, the package looks like 4x Bolts, 3x Maelstrom Pulse and a random Terminate. With 12 varying Planeswalkers, what will the Jund player do? Attack the Planeswalker at hand or it's controller? I just want to mention how powerful Gideon Jura is. He kills creatures, he makes your opponent tap his creatures by attacking the mighty planeswalker and he beats down opponents with his 6/6 body. He seems well worth the $35+ you're going to pay to get him ;)

Wall of Omens - Who would have thought a measly little 0/4 Wall might just single-handedly stop the Jund beast? There's maybe 2 creatures in Jund with a 4 power, Putrid Leech and Broodmate Dragon. On top of the blocking body, you get a card with it too!!!

These are just a few of the ways the deck slowly overcomes the deck that was once at the top of the standard heap. What can the Jund deck do to beat it? I thought you'd never ask :)

Putrid Leech - As with many of the recent matchups for Jund, one MUST mulligan aggressively. A turn 2 Putrid Leech requires careful play for both the Jund or Planeswalker mages. If unchecked, the Leech can quickly turn a game into a rout within 5 turns, he can also run over the deck's savior Wall of Omens.

Maelstrom Pulse - gets rid of virtually all threats the deck has. Martial Coup tokens fear the Pulse, Oblvion Ring rendered useless by the Pulse, even the mighty Gideon Jura fears the targetting of the Pulse. Save them!

Blightning - I don't have to tell you how this card single-handedly determines the outcome of the game. Discard 2 cards and kill a planeswalker with 3 damage! That is the Jund player's dream.

Now, the sideboard for this deck seems a bit shaky to me. It really doesn't have a lot of drawing ability, and with the one ofs it really makes getting a much needed sideboard card difficult.

One of the thing's I've noticed with Jund lately is that it's very dependent on Master of the Wild Hunt or Siege-Gang Commander. This was a very good strategy when it came to creature based decks. However, might be quite useless vs the new oppressors. Instant speek removal might become more the necessity to lead the Jund mage to victory.

The other surprise of the tourney, for many, is the Mythic Conscription build. The "Mythic" deck was already an up and coming concoction in the "old" standard. With Eldrazi Conscription, this might be what pushes the deck over the top and into the winner's circle. It's hard enough for Jund to beat Baneslayers, Knights and (once again) Planeswalkers. The early and midgame parts of the deck can be the time when the deck is at it's weakest. Kill the mana producers and manipulators and you'll buy the time you need to get at the driver of this vehicle. What Jund lacks here is instant speed removal. The deck depends on it's wide array of amazing creatures with little to no real removal or defense. Cards like Doomblade, Terminate or even Nemesis Trap could be HUGE here. Consuming Vapors is a card that my test group has been discussing for Jund. An amazing 2 card removal spell WITH the ability to gain life.

Jund is still a very good option for your upcoming events. Clearly, it has it's competitors, yet it still claimed a pretty big chunk of the top 16. I saw a couple of Vengevine in one of the T16 builds but I didn't see much else as far as innovation. Vampire Hexmage is obviously HUGE vs the Planeswalker deck. He could be useful vs the RDW build as well, providing early defense or even some late game blocking. I saw a sideboarded Emrakul, The Aeons Torn which this guy is a house VS Turbo Fog or something. With decks like Conscription or Mythics basically putting out permanent over permanent vs Jund, why not play with 1 or 2 All is Dust? Imagine playing vs Planeswalkers and your board has been cleared. You have a Thrinax trapped inside an Oblivion Ring and your opponent has Jace and Ajani setting up shop on you. A successful Dust, turns the game around and hopefully puts your opponent on tilt. Conscription will certainly have 2 to 4 permanents in play while your guys are enjoying things flying over them or perhaps being helped by the Eldrazi. All is Dust could certainly be the key.

The tournament had a couple of Polymorph decks and, to my surprise, I saw no Summoning Trap in the field of 16. I was equally shocked that very few piloted Vampires for this tourney. Who knows, I'm sure lots of folks were hesitant to field some of their tech in an unknown format. When are we going to see more deck flinging Eldrazi lords from it's top? Ulamog is my favorite and in my opinion the best of the Eldrazi guys. You'll be seeing him more very, very, soon I'm sure. Make sure you stop by and get the cards you need from CoolstuffInc.com, they've got everything you need! Until next time, I hope to see you at this weekends PTQ for Amsterdam. Perhaps even see you arrive late ;)