What Not To Play - Vengevine Jund

Welcome everyone and hope that you are doing quite alright today. As it seems to be the theme for this week, I want to walk you through another deck that you shouldn't play. Yesterday was the RW Burn, today, it's JundRade. What is JundRade, specifically? It's pretty much a Jund deck, but with Domri Rade. Take a look.

Vengevine Jund

Creatures - 29
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Vengevine
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Olivia Voldaren
1 Eternal Witness

Spells - 6
1 Batterskull
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Terminate

Lands - 25
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Marsh Flats
2 Twilight Mire
2 Raging Ravine
3 Copperline Gorge
3 Blood Crypt
3 Stomping Ground
4 Verdant Catacombs

Like last time, the sideboard is mostly irrelevant. So... where did this go wrong? I'll be honest, this was actually a random collection of Jund-ish cards that sort of work well together. The deck in itself, wasn't even terrible. The strikes against this was that I couldn't get my hands on Overgrown Tombs for the tournament I played in. I literally built this 30 minutes before hitting the rounds and they were all a friend's cards. We just saw what we had and smashed the cards together to create this Frankenstein of a monster. Honestly? This deck has potential. A few tweaks here and there and we might have an actual beast... not the burdening kind like yesterday's RW Burn deck.

Vengevine Jund is one that could easily benefit from a few additions like Wurmcoil Engine instead of the Batterskull (Fauna Shaman fetches a Wurmcoil, but not a Batterskull). We can also remove one of each removal spell and the Eternal Witness for a Domri Rade. Out of all the cards this deck could've played, he was by far the one I missed the most. Domri Rade is a bad mamma-jamma that can break creature stalls by getting your big monsters into fights that (hopefully) they will win. Additionally, sometimes you topdeck a creature and need a second one to bring out the vengeful Vengevines (say that three times fast--vengeful Vengevines, vengeful Vengevines, vengeful Vengevines!), Domri Rade can give you that creature.


Another change that should be made is the mana base. As-is, the mana base is somewhat atrocious. If we are going to add Domri Rade, I'd suggest, at the very least, cutting a land and adding another Birds of Paradise. Putting Birds does not only make Domri Rade better, rather it will lower our curve, therefore giving us consistency when we are trying to "buyback" our Veggies. Furthermore, the deck really, really needs Overgrown Tomb, even if it is just a 2-of. Being able to fetch a Forest with Marsh Flats is invaluable and will save you in plenty of games. I might test this deck in preparation for Grand Prix Richmond in March, so I hope I can tweak the mana base to perfection.

What else can I do to make this deck slightly better? Fauna Shamans can go down to three, Scavenging Ooze can go to two, and we can cut a Kitchen Finks for four Tarmogoyfs. Let's face it. It is the best Green two-drop ever printed and in Vengevine Jund it's not just a Goyf, it's also recurring Vengevines, it fights the good fight with Domri Rade, it's a threat all by itself, and so much more. The deck has a decent match up against Aggro decks in general as you pack Goyfs that outclass most of their creatures, you have Oozes that gain you life and also become huge, Kitchen Finks that trades with their monsters and nets you +4 life including whatever damage it prevented in the process, Huntmaster of the Fells that creates blockers and gains you even more life, and then Wurmcoil Engine topping out on the curve. That's without mentioning that Vengevine can trade with most creatures and come back for a second helping of Vines-y justice.

Afterwards they play an EOT Deceiver Exarch, untap and enchant it with Splinter Twin and you're dead. How about Pod into Melira and Murderous Redcap with a Viscera Seer in play? Affinity? Don't sweat it... as long as they don't Cranial Plating an Ornithopter or Inkmoth Nexus and you die. Best way around scenarios is having a good Sideboard, but we could probably do better than than. This is where another important rule (and this one should be universal) in deck choice comes in: Do not dwell on a theme.

You have to be willing to make sacrifices if you want to build a deck that can win and if it means that we have to give up the theme, then so be it. What does this mean for Vengevine Jund? We can forgo the Fauna Shamans entirely. They are still the #1 target for most removal anyway. Rarely do we get to activate her, might as well eliminate her from our list and replace her with a creature that can be of more use to us. Either that, or we can further diversify our threats and transform Vengevine Jund into a toolbox deck. If we head down this road, it will be a matter of time until we start shoving in Birthing Pods... No. Reaching this point only forces me to recall another deck building rule (good thing I'm no deck builder): Don't play a worse version of a deck when you can just play the one that wins.

These are not sacred commandments,thus I habitually break them, yet that doesn't mean that they should go unheeded. Sometimes following some of these rules just makes it easier to jump from deck to deck without having to slog through hours of testing that will surely end with you discarding them altogether. For this reason, putting Pod in the deck should beg the question: "Why not play Melira Pod instead?" Surely that's a better idea, since Pod usually Top 8's its tournaments and in itself is quite flexible when the time comes to Metagame. Alas, that may not be true anymore considering the results from last weekend's Modern Grand Prix at Prague. The Pod decks that Top 16'd were the old UWGr versions that decided to combo with Kiki-Jiki instead.

UWGr Birthing Pod
Pilot: Pierre Dagen
13th Place - Grand Prix Prague

Creatures - 31
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Deceiver Exarch
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Phantasmal Image
3 Restortion Angel
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Spellskite
2 Voice of Resurgence
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Noble Heirarch
1 Wall of Roots

Spells - 6
4 Birthing Pod
2 Domri Rade

Lands - 23
3 Arid Mesa
1 Breeding Pool
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stram Vents

Sideboard -
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fiery Justice
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Kataki, Wa's Wage
2 Negate
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Obstinate Baloth
3 Path to Exile

These Pod decks are not a new breed. In fact, during last year's Modern PTQ season, this was the Pod deck of choice and it's not hard to see why. Having Blue and a different combo gives this deck a variety of creatures and spells that the Melira versions can't afford to abuse--creatures like Phantasmal Image, Deceiver Exarchs, and Restoration Angels. They not only give this deck explosive draws, a couple of them are also quite decent at attacking (kind of depends on what the Image is copying as well). I'll give you an example:

Back then, I was playing the Ad Nauseam/Angel's Grace combo. I tuned it very well to deal with whatever came my way and was hitting PTQs with it. Even though, I can't recall perfectly if this was during a PTQ, I had to battle the UWGr Pod deck and was facing a board of Birthing Pod, Wall of Roots, around two or three lands, and Birds of Paradise. Despite a slight struggle to assemble all the pieces to go off, I was nearly ready to combo and I figured I had another turn. Little did I know that... I didn't.

I passed the turn, my opponent untapped. Proceeded to generate mana with the Wall of Roots, sacked it to Birthing Pod, got Deceiver Exarch, untapped the Pod, added mana with Birds to sacrifice it, searched for a Phantasmal Image that copied the Exarch untapping the Pod, he untapped again, sacrificed the Phantasmal Image for Restoration Angel (because it's copying Exarch, it also has a cost of three, so you can search for a 4-drop), which blinked out the Exarch to have it come back, untapped the Pod once more and sacrificed the Restoration Angel for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, who then made enough copies of Exarch as needed to finish me off.

Melira Pod can't do that. Ever.

It wishes it could, but it can't. Regardless, Melira Pod makes up for that by having a pretty intense suite of disruption spells like Thoughtseize plus having access to much of the same hate cards as the UGWr counterpart. I actually wrote that at the end of the day, it is all about preference, however, a lot of the decks can hate on Melira Pod very well, like the UWR Tempo deck that won Grand Prix Prague.

UWR Tempo
Pilot: Vjeran Horvat
1st Place - Grand Prix Prague

Creatures - 13
4 Geist of Saint Thraft
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Restoration Angel

Spells - 22
3 Cryptic Command
3 Remand
3 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix

Lands - 25
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Seam Vents
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Tectonic Edge
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sacred Foundry

Sideboard -
1 Batterskull
1 Celestial Purge
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Wear/Tear
1 Path to Exile
1 Counterflux
1 Damping Matrix
1 Sowing Salt
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Stony Silence
2 Aven Mindcensor

Against Melira, this deck's plan is to stick a threat like a Geist, and back it up with well-placed burn spells and Paths on their Melira and Persist creatures (Murderous Redcap and Kitchen Finks). Complementing the kill spells, Vendilion Clique can clear their hand off any threats (mainly combo pieces) that can potentially get you. The evasion on Cliques and Geists will make sure you can get through as much damage as possible in little time. Snapcasters can either give you additional creature removal, or provide burn to close out the game. Post-Board the Tempo game continues with Aven Mindcensor flashing in response to Birthing Pod activations or flash it in on turn 3 just for the 2/1 body with Flying. The extra Path to Exile for insurance, While I'm not 100% sure on the Sidebaording, I don't think the Celestial Purges or the Wear/Tears come in. The inclination to play them is there, however there is such a thing as overboarding. Overboarding can lead to a diluted deck and I imagine that most of the deck remains intact. I'm not going to venture a guess--only that Aven Mindcensor is still a powerful threat for Pod.

This giant digression from the original topic (which was to not play Vengevine Jund), illustrates perfectly well what happens when you don't follow the second rule. You shove Birthing Pod into the deck knowing that there are already better options. You consider the immediate cousin which would be Melira Pod, move on to the brother UWGr Pod, and then end up with decks that beat either of them. If we had kept pulling on this thread, we would now be looking at the Jund, Junk, and GB Rock variants that are peppering the field right now and sort of brings us full circle with our very own Vengevine Jund. In other words,

Don't play Vengevine Jund... Especially if you are going to Pro Tour Valencia.

Pro Tour Valencia's (or a.k.a Pro Tour Born of the Gods) format will be Modern. From my understanding, a testing gauntlet should probably include UWR Tempo (the 1st Place list I posted should help), both versions of Birthing Pod, Jund and its variants, Splinter Twin decks, and Affinity. Incidentally, this is just to get the ball rolling. You need to get a feel for the format first, and see what possible angles are not being exploited. Those angles will probably be the same ones competitors at the Pro Tour might discover and they'll use it to gun down the established decks. So, either you come prepared for what they will bring or you find out whatever they are playing to get ahead of the Metagame. Unless one of the decks is just so good that might as well learn everything you can about the deck. Play it until your deck feels as if it was part of your soul, because when the time comes, you'll know what to do.

We are still ways to go for the Pro Tour. Give yourself a chance. Test. And think beyond the Metagame. 'Til then, let's enjoy the Born of the Gods spoilers!

Always affectionately,
Chris