Modern Jund Sideboard Guide 2020
Here is my current Jund 75 as of July 24th, 2020. Please keep in mind that this is for educational purposes only. You should cater your Jund list based on the decks that you think you are most likely to play against. This list is focused towards a post Astrolabe modern with not much time since the ban and only online play. Online modern is not the same as “real” modern specifically in terms of the meta-game. With infinite liquidity and low barriers to entry players deck choices are dramatically affected.
Brief Jund Resume Examples
This is meant to showcase the vast differences Jund can take depending on what you build your deck to beat.
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Dredge
IN — 2 Ashiok, Dream Render, 2 Plague Engineer, 1 Thoughtseize, 2 Liliana The Last Hope
OUT — 4 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Kolaghan’s Command, 1 Fatal Push
Dredge has slowed down quite a lot. All of your three drop threats post-board are excellent interaction. Be careful about when you time your discard or Kroxas as it is often correct to not do anything when you find yourself in a stalemate. Post-board I would suggest to mulligan all 7 card hands that don’t have a Klothys or Ashiok but many hands can end up being acceptable. Don’t be afraid to mulligan. Wrenn followed up by meaningful interaction is how you win the game. If you expect a lot of Dredge for an event I suggestion the third Ashiok or 2 Ashiok 2 Spellbomb.
Goblins
IN — 2 Plague Engineer, 2 Liliana the Last Hope, 1 Cast Down
OUT — 2 Thoughtseize, 3 Lilliana of the Veil
This match-up is much worse than humans. Goblins is exactly why you see Plague Engineers in addition to Liliana the Last Hopes. In most circumstances you only play one or the other. Focus on being the control deck as every turn that goes by with the least amount in play favors you. Take things slow. Their deck does not need many resources to win the game.
Humans
IN — 2 Plague Engineer, 2 Liliana the Last Hope, 1 Cast Down
OUT — 2 Thoughtseize, 3 Liliana of the Veil
Not too much has changed here. We both have gotten some extremely powerful cards and are still extremely favored. However, don’t let that fool you — it’s still quite easy to lose this match-up. Humans vs Jund will very often come down to skill and sequencing — a well versed player is very ahead. Once again, focus on interacting early. Don’t keep hands without a turn one removal spell or hands that are weak to Thalia. Wrenn and Six into a Liliana, Plague Engineer or Klothys is quite the stronghold.
Jund
IN — 2 Liliana the Last Hope, 2 Tectonic Edge, 0/1 Cast Down, 1/2 Plague Engineer
OUT — 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Thoughtseize
If your opponent has a lot of Dark Confidants or Seasoned Pyromancers than Plague Engineers gain equity. If they are incredibly reliant on the graveyard you can also sideboard Ashioks. But in far most circumstances you don’t want to do that. No matter what times we are in you want to cut your discard spells for the highest impact cards in your sideboard. Whatever that means given the context of the format.
U/R Prowess
IN — 1 Cast Down, 2 Plague Engineer
OUT — 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Bloodbraid Elf, 0–2 Kroxa
This is a great match-up. Burn has essentially morphed into a pseudo infect deck and is much more reliant on threats in a trade off to be more explosive. This just means you have to be ready in the early turns and never stumble. If you can make it to the late game Revler is the only card that you care about. If you are on the draw or fear blood moon you can also cut 1–2 Kroxa. Kroxa can be good since your game-plan revolves around Liliana but on the draw it is often slow.
Sharkblade
IN — 2 Tectonic Edge, 2 Liliana the Last Hope, 1 Boil, 1 Thoughtseize, 2 Ashiok, Dream Render
OUT — 4 Lightning Bolt, 2 Fatal Push, 1 Blackcleave Cliffs, 1 Abrupt Decay
Also for consideration are 4 Tarmogoyf, 4 Pillage, and 2 Plague Engineer
Please note — there are my different variants or U/W/X control. You may play against U/W or Esper or Bant. You may play against a deck that has Uro or Stoneforge or Coatl. You might not. The point is, these decks are extremely flexible and have lots of card choices. Pay close attention to the numbers of cards you see in the first game. You may want to board in Plague Engineers, sideboard less cards or adopt a different strategy with Pillages if they are overly reliant on additional top end. Long story short — be flexible.
Sometimes it makes sense to board out Tarmogoyf especially if you see a combination of many Rest in Peace, Spell Snare and Aether Gust. Often, especially on the draw I like to take this approach as you don’t usually beat these decks by playing creatures. You want to play discard spells into Planeswalkers and Bloodbraid Elves. We really want to do what we can to keep these decks off of four lands so I always want the Tectonic Edge. I would only bring in Pillages in games where I am on the play and it’s usually not my first intention. Ashiok, Boil, both Lilianas and Thoughtseize are my favorite cards in the broad scheme of things against this bucket of decks.
Amulet Titan
IN — 4 Pillage, 2 Tectonic Edge, 2 Ashiok Dream Render, 1 Thoughtseize, 1 Cast Down
OUT — 2 Fatal Push, 4 Lightning Bolt, 2 Klothys, 2 Abrupt Decay
We need to be as aggressive as possible in this match-up. Ashiok is our best card. Keep in mind how many Tireless Trackers, Baloths or Aether Gusts you see. These decks have wiggle room to play a little bit of whatever the pilot wants and you should adjust your deck accordingly. Plague Engineer name insect can be good although most decks have evolved far beyond needing to play cards like Hornet Queen. If you are scared of explosive starts or Tireless Trackers feel free to keep in Abrupt Decays. However, it’s important for your Bloodbraids to hit and it’s likely that a Bloodbraid into Decay loses you the match on the spot if there is no target.
Gruul
IN — 1 Cast Down, 1 Thoughtseize, 2 Tectonic Edge, 2 Liliana The Last Hope, 4 Pillage, 0-2 Plague Engineer
OUT — 4 Lightning Bolt, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 0-1 Blackcleave Cliffs, 1 Wrenn and Six, 0–2 Kroxa
We want to beef up a bit in this match-up. Once again we want to do everything possible to be aggressive and keep our opponent off a lot of mana. On the draw I suggest leaving in some Lightning Bolts. These decks typically have a decent amount of X-1s between pyro tokens, Kitchen Finks and Arbor Elf. Kroxa is very powerful but can be hard to cast and slow on the draw. Kroxa means you want to get swamp swamp early and a lot of times you don’t wanna do that because of Wrenn and Six and/or Blood Moon. Depending on the exact configuration you may or may not want to trim the Cliffs from the deck. 24 and 25 lands can both be okay.
Eldrazi Tron
IN — 4 Pillage, 2 Tectonic Edge, 2 Plague Engineer, 1 Thoughtseize, 0-2 Liliana The Last Hope, 1 Cast Down
OUT — 2 Abrupt Decay, 4 Inquisition Of Kozilek, 4 Lightning Bolt, 1–2 Wrenn and Six, 0-1 Blackcleave Cliffs
This is our worst match-up and an absolute nightmare to play against. On the draw it can be good to leave in some Lightning Bolts for Karn. Wrenn is quite weak but as all match-ups a lot of my post-board strategy includes the idea to mulligan hands that don’t interact right. Wrenn can catch you up on cards and in combination with Tectonic Edge will reek havoc. Kroxa is great and lines up incredible against their threat base. An early Tarmogoyf followed by land destruction is your best shot at victory. It is critical to take a stance during each game given the context of what you opponent does and stick to it. These games can play out many different ways. Some games are about planeswalkers and some are about killing all their creatures. These games swing quick and it’s important to cut out some of the less impactful cards from our deck when we move to games 2 and 3.
It would be impossible for me to cover every single deck in modern given how deep the format is. I hope this deep dive has provided you value and contextual information of how to tackle Jund Sideboarding in 2020.
