Hello my fellow MtG players!
Today I am going to write about one of my favourite decks in the format, Jund Food! After the arena bans in Standard, it has been some time that the format is quite healthy and also has so many viable deck choices.
Below I showcase the most important cards, the bread and butter if you like, of the deck :
Gilded Goose
Trail of Crumbs
Mayhem Devil
Cauldron Familiar
Witch’s Oven
Always play four of those cards!!
Furthermore, we have Korvold who gives a soft combo essence on the deck. Let me elaborate, when you have assembled the food – vengers (see images above) then one attack is all you need, even if you don’t actually win that turn, the massive card advantage from all the triggers should do the trick for you.
From that point we have to choose the rest of our main deck according to the meta game we expect or by having cards that contribute to our core engine.
Let’s see some of them and then I will show you my personal list :
Murderous Rider
A removal spell that is trail-able? Sign me in!
Wicked Wolf
Another removal that has also great synergy with Korvold and Mayhem.
Polukranos Unchained
A recursive removal is more than welcome. As a bonus he is probably the best defense against Hakeem Trawler (something for basket ball fans out there).
Massacre Girl
If you are worried about Anax look no further!
Bonecrusher Giant
That’s a card I have never tried in any of my lists. It is a solid choice though if you expect a lot of Red and Innkeepers.
Vraska, Golgari Queen
She does a little bit of everything, removal spell, card advantage, win condition. Should definitely be on my list!
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Clean answer to Dream Trawler, also an alternative win condition.
Midnight Reaper
It has similarities with Trail and Korvold because it acts as a source of card advantage.
Thrashing Brontodon
Two of the decks toughest match ups are enchantment centric, Temur Reclamation and Fires of Invention. Game one against the Red deck many times is decided by Embercleave. Lastly, the rise of Temur adventures with the highly impactful artifact Lucky clover, justifies the inclusion of the dinosaur in our main deck.
Wolfwillow Heaven
In the Food lists of old there was always an accelerator. For some time before Theros, beyond death it was extinct. But now we have an accelerator that is removal-proof and also has a minor synergy with our sacrifice theme.
Agonizing Remorse
One of the few spells that are not Trail-able. It has its merits though, as it slows down opposing strategies giving us time to build our synergies. Especially useful against control and combo.
Casualties of War
Nowadays its not that common to see it, due to the fact that the mirror is not that common. I can see it playing a role in the side board though.
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
A titan in the service of the “Titan”? What else could I ask for?
Jokes aside most of the time that is not a card for our main deck but – spoiler alert – we are here to be bold, so I have given Kroxa the honor to be in the starting lineup!
Now let us see the final list :
Maindeck
4 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
4 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Blood Crypt
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Stomping Ground
4 Fabled Passage
1 Castle Locthwain
4 Cauldron Familiar
4 Gilded Goose
4 Mayhem Devil
1 Murderous Rider
4 Agonizing Remorse
4 Trail of Crumbs
4 Witch’s Oven
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
1 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Massacre Girl
1 Temple of Malice
Sideboard
2 Redcap Melee
1 Embereth Shieldbreaker
1 Massacre Girl
2 Scorching Dragonfire
1 Angrath’s Rampage
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Duress
2 Noxious Grasp
2 Casualties of War
Some tips and tricks for the deck :
– If Kroxa doesn’t escape, sacrifice’s itself. So we let the come into play ability resolve and then we can use Oven to produce two foods. Also don’t forget the trigger for either Mayhem or Korvold.
– With Vraska if we use the plus ability to sacrifice a food, we resolve the ability from her and then we can use Trail of crumbs. A useful lesson that you can learn easily on magic Arena.
– With on cat in graveyard, a mayhem devil/Korvold and more than one food, we can stack the ability from the cat to make additional triggers.
– Mayhem devil triggers regardless of the player making a sacrifice effect. Beware of that and you will be rewarded against unaware opponents.
– Gilded Goose works fantastically with Trail. If you take mana with it you can use that to make a trigger from Trail of crumbs.
– Lastly, paying attention on sequencing will be rewarded. Imagine the following scenario :
We have one untapped fabled passage, one untapped oven, one cat in graveyard, a food, a trail and we just cast Korvold. With his come into play ability on the stack we sacrifice our food in order to bring the cat into play. That puts a trigger from Korvold on the stack again and a trail trigger. We draw a card from Korvold and then we sacrifice our fabled passage to draw a card from Korvold first and we can determine the basic land we will fetch based on our two cards that we drew.
Then we can trail up and finally resolve the first ability from Korvold. On purpose we don’t used the oven as it might be useful as a counter to opposing removal spell and in general it is good having it untapped during your opponents turn.
Sideboard Guide
VS Red aggro
– 4 Agonizing Remorse
– 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
– 1 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
+ 2 Redcap Melee
+ 2 Scorching Dragonfire
+ 1 Massacre Girl
+ 1 Thrashing Brontodon
VS UW Control
– 1 Massacre Girl
– 1 Thrashing Brontodon
– 1 Murderous Rider
– 1 Cauldron Familiar
+ 1 Midnight Reaper
+ 1 Angrath’s Rampage
+ 2 Duress
VS Temur Clover
– 1 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
– 1 Massacre Girl
– 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
– 1 Murderous Rider
– 1 Cauldron Familiar
+ 1 Angrath’s Rampage
+ 2 Noxious Grasp
+ 1 Embereth Shieldbreaker
+ 1 Thrashing Brontodon
VS Jeskai Fires
– 4 Mayhem Devil
– 1 Massacre Girl
– 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
– 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
+ 2 Duress
+ 1 Midnight Reaper
+ 2 Casualties of War
+ 1 Thrashing Brontodon
+ 1 Angrath’s Rampage
VS Temur Reclamation
– 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
– 1 Massacre Girl
– 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
– 1 Murderous Rider
+ 2 Duress
+ 1 Thrashing Brontodon
+ 1 Midnight Reaper
VS Jund Food
– 4 Agonizing Remorse
– 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
– 1 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
– 1 Massacre Girl
+ 1 Midnight Reaper
+ 2 Casualties of War
+ 2 Redcap Melee
+ 1 Thrashing Brontodon
+ 1 Noxious Grasp
VS BR Sacrifice
– 4 Agonizing Remorse
– 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
– 1 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
– 1 Massacre Girl
+ 2 Redcap Melee
+ 2 Scorching Dragonfire
+ 1 Embereth Shieldbreaker
+ 1 Midnight Reaper
+ 1 Thrashing Brontodon
VS Nissa decks
– 1 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
– 1 Thrashing Brontodon
– 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
– 1 Massacre Girl
– 1 Cauldron Familiar
– 1 Trail of Crumbs
+ 2 Duress
+ 2 Noxious Grasp
+ 1 Angrath’s Rampage
+ 1 Midnight Reaper
The deck requires a lot of practice both live and online. In real life it takes time to familiarize yourself with the vast amount of triggers and chess-like board positions. Magic Arena has that problem solved due to the fact that these things are automotive but still it requires a lot more time to climb the ladder than other deck choices which makes players to drift away from it.
On the other hand, this type of deck is heck of an experience!
A bit of a puzzle, entertaining and tricky because many times you have to turn the tables from situations that are losing to vastly favorable. That is the beauty of such a deck.
Maybe it is not for everyone’s taste and maybe many of you are worried that you will make many mistakes. But isn’t that the whole point? Learning from them is what makes this deck great. That is the reason it is one of the fewest decks that can learn you so many different aspects of the game!
You can see more of Petros “Titan” Tziotis: Twitter