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By: Quick, Vince W
Mar 11 2013 4:41am
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That's right, two decklists for the price of one, the game just got interesting. Let's take a peek at our "caw-blade" list first.

 

Now, the first thing that should be said about this deck is that it is one of the more difficult decks that I have played in pauper. There is very little room for error, but in exchange for that, there don't seem to be very many difficult matchups. One bad matchup that comes to mind is post, but even then, you can typically out-tempo them and win before they get going.

Let's take a look at what makes this deck squawk.

Creatures

Deft Duelist

Deft Duelist may seem like a pretty bad card, and it has no synergy with bonesplitter, right? Well, the majority of the time this card comes down against aggro, they just can't do anything. "Oh, a blocker! I'll bolt it!".. Wait a minute.. Guess I'll just sit here for a few turns and try to overwhelm it.

This is perfect for us. What we want to do is have time to generate more and more card advantage with this deck, which we do exceedingly well. You nearly always have five-seven cards in your hand with this deck, and the more time we have to do this, the better we can tune our hands and improve the card quality of our grip.

Squadron Hawk

We wouldn't be a very good cawblade deck with no squadron hawks, right? This card is really great, it's hard to remove all of them, it generates card advantage with cards like lat nam's legacy and brainstorm, and it holds a bonesplitter distinctively well.

Kor Sanctifiers

Kor Sanctifiers is a really good card, even in matchups where you don't want to destroy anything (which are typically aggro matchups). Even in these faster matchups, a 2/3 for three at least demands an answer, whether it be hitting the breaks on attacking or removal. In aggro decks, removal usually can be damage to the face as well, so no matter what it's doing its job.

Trinket Mage

The stoneforge of pauper. Well... It's not quite the same, but it's pretty darn close for how limited we are in our choices. The fact that we can also get lands to smooth things out, and sideboard options if we need them (effectively making four copies of each sideboard card), just makes it even sweeter. It's never a bad thing to swing with a Trinket Mage holding a bonesplitter either!

Hussar Patrol

This card might look a little strange, but when you consider how scary a 4/4 vigilance is (Patrol with a bonesplitter), you quickly understand why it's here. And gee, flash!? That's crazy, it forces control decks to tap out on their turn, and aggro decks to run into a nasty blocker. This card is very strong.

Mulldrifter

Well, we're playing blue, aren't we? This card is often the beneficiary of a bonesplitter (Just like every other creature in the deck, it seems). Evasion is a huge boon when we're making things hit harder than they should.

Errant Ephemeron

This is a pretty good card, in my opinion. It has absurd amounts of synergy with Judge Unworthy, can be a fast clock if suspended turn two, and it's just a huge bomb late game if you happen to topdeck it. The fact that we have so many ways to manipulate our hand with this deck makes it safe to play.

Seraph of Dawn

When equipped with a bonesplitter, this card is nearly a baneslayer angel. Or at least, as close as we're going to get to baneslayer in pauper. As soon as this hits the field, most aggro players just scoop. When it's suited up with an axe? Yeah, they're gone.

Counterspells

Memory Lapse
 

Memory lapse? Why would we want to play that? That seems dumb. This should just be counterspell three and four, right?!

Well.. No. The fact that we're denying them a draw means that the card we're countering will most likely be their best play the next turn as well. If they're doing the same thing as they tried to do last turn, and we're doing different things, that seems pretty good, right?

Counterspell

Do you want it to happen? No? Counterspell! Yeahhhh! Seriously though, this is the most efficiently costed non-conditional counterspell in the game, and it's so aptly named that we should just play it for the name alone, right?

Dispel

Dispel stops a surprisingly large amount of things in nearly every matchup. When you think about what cards decks play, the majority of good ones are instants, because they are instants! It's so good we're playing the full four between main and sideboard.

Exclude
 

Exclude is so demoralizingly powerful. Every time I cast this spell I feel like I'm going to be reported to WOTC for cheating.

Cawwd Draw

Brainstorm

Play squadron hawk, find three, brainstorm, put two back, play squadron hawk, find two. I just won the game by burying my opponent in card advantage. This isn't the only application, though. Brainstorm plays exceedingly well with judge unworthy, and you could always just brainstorm with an evolving wilds in play to shuffle away irrelevant cards.

Lat-Nam's Legacy

Lat-Nam's Legacy is kinda weird. Drawing cards the turn after you play it is useful for getting around the discard phase, but a lot of times you just want to draw now! But, it just bleeds synergy. Brainstorm away cards, and then Lat-Nam's Legacy? Boom, Legacy just shuffled for you, so you're drawing new cards. Squadron hawk, then Lat-Nam's Legacy? You've just gotten rid of the clause that says you need to shuffle a card away, it just reads "Shuffle your library, draw two cards at earliest convenience". Everything this card does is absurdly strong in our deck.

Removal

Journey to Nowhere

Who would have guessed that killing ANYTHING (Except guardian of the guildpact) for two mana was good. Well.. I guess a lot of people have thought that. Even so, getting rid of creatures we can't deal with normally is very strong. There could be some argument made that one or two of these could be oblivion rings, but it's probably better to just keep them as its cheaper cousin, Journey to Nowhere.

Judge Unworthy

Judge Unworthy looks stupid. Until you realise that it will fix your draws, kill creatures, and shuffle away squadron hawks. All at the same time.. For two mana.. These are very powerful things to do for two mana, and I'd settle for even two of them. But no, it does all three.

Holy Light

Initially this was for the storm matchup. This is no longer a thing. But.. There is now a elf deck floating around for no good reason, and this card is hugely powerful against that. Also, it's pretty good against goblins and delver decks still. Just please remember to take this out against mono-white.

Creature Buffs

Bonesplitter

We wouldn't be a very good cawblade deck without a tutorable equipment to put on our pigeons, right? But we can put it on everything but deft duelist, so what value!

Empyrial Armor

The panic button. Do we need to kill them very quickly? Let's dig for this. Do we want to just end the game now? Let's dig for this. With the amount of card advantage we have, this card will always give +4/4 to +7/7, sometimes even more! A very powerful effect for a very reasonable cost. Why not run more of them!? Well, because it's kinda clunky to draw multiples. They often just sit in your hand doing nothing, so it's better to just have a card to dig for, instead of one we want to bury in exchange for something else.

Mana Base

Azorius Guildgate

If you've read my articles before, you know by now that I love guildgates. But there's a change here, I'm actually running a reasonable amount!

Ancient DenSeat of the Synod

Being able to tutor up mana we need from trinket mage is very, very convenient. There is very little downside to running these.

IslandPlains
Of course we're running islands and plains. The reason we're running so many more islands than plains is because we have double blue spells, and only one double white spell (Kor sanctifier).

Evolving Wilds
I've been considering pushing this to four, because of its obvious synergy with brainstorm. But, we have enough ways to shuffle between Lat-Nam's Legacy, Trinket Mage, Judge Unworthy (sorta), and Squadron Hawk.

Sideboard

Seraph of Dawn

Are they trying to attack us very quickly? Let's throw this guy in front of them!

Kor Sanctifiers

This deck had a sorta rough affinity matchup, but additional Kor Sanctifiers can go a long way to fix that.

Holy Light

This is basically for the elf matchup, but any matchup where they're running a lot of tiny idiots it is usually pretty great against.

Journey to Nowhere

In certain matchups, like post, affinity, and goblins, they're running creatures that holy light alone won't kill. Cards like Myr enforcer, ulamogs crusher, mogg flunkies. Journey does a great job at fixing this.

Reprisal

See above. This is also great against people who are still for some reason playing infect.

Exclude

Get that creature out of here! And give me a card! This is for slower matchups like cloudpost that only cast mulldrifter and ulamogs crusher. Also decent against mono-white.

Curse of the Bloody Tome

A very easy to establish clock against post that they won't always have an answer for. (Pretty much singularly pyroblast)

Dispel

Sometimes they just run nearly only instants. Matchups like UR Kiln fiend are good examples of where this card shines.

Curfew

Curfew is really amazing, actually. It completely destroys the aura deck, and is still decent against regular aggro to slow them down. It also lets us rebuy squadron hawks to shuffle them away again and find again.

Viridian Longbow

Viridian longbow really shines against stompy. It can basically stop them from profitably equipping bonesplitter or from using rancor. It's also insanely good against delver.

Relic of Progenitus

Why not have graveyard hate? It's still relevant, after all, and one slot isn't going to break the bank.

Caw Blade Conclusion

This has to be one of the most challenging decks I've ever played in pauper. If you like this style of deck, I would definitely recommend it. I have to give props to "GoldenLoveNinja" on modo for making the initial version of this deck, which really seemed heavily metagamed against the current king storm. Original deck list here: Deck List

 

Now, on to jund!

 

 

Jund in Standard, Jund in Modern, Jund in Legacy.

Jund in.. Pauper? 

That's right! This has to be one of the most fun conversions I've played yet! If you like aggro-control, you're going to love this!
 

Let's just dig right in, shall we?

Creatures

Keldon Marauders

This card is very aggressive, typically dealing five damage for two mana. Not a bad unearth target, and it's actually a very good card to ninjitsu out with okiba-gang shinobi.

Putrid Leech

If you played jund back in ala standard, you know how powerful this card can be. If it goes unanswered, it can often deal the full 20 by itself. You should be pretty aggressive when pumping it, as it's not always a bad thing to play into removal when we have such high value creatures in our deck.

Werebear

I've got a terrible, torrid love affair with werebear. But it's just so powerful for such little cost. Threshold is very easy to attain, and a 4/4 for two is just wonderful.

Crocanura

Really? Crocanura? Well, yeah. Just as a 1/3 without evolving, it stops a lot of things, but this card can grow up to a 5/6 in this deck. That's pretty absurd. I can't wait til people start realising how powerful this card can be.

Blastoderm

Ah, big daddy blastoderm. You'll get to swing three times with this man. He is great for evolving an already-evolved crocanura,  he's great as a wall, he's great as an attacker. You shouldn't ignore the obvious synergy with Okiba-Gang Shinobi to reset his vanishing counters, either.

Okiba-Gang Shinobi

Originally this was a third blightning, but it's so night to be able to reuse our keldon marauders or keep our blastoderms around. This is a very powerful effect when it connects, and often the game will end right when it happens. (Even if your opponent doesn't know it yet). The ninjitsu effect is also a very beneficial effect when we're wanting to keep playing creatures to make our croconuras better.

Zhur-Taa Swine

Sometimes he wins the game by being discarded, sometimes he wins by being cast! I think any more than one would be wrong though, as it's a card you want in the late game, or when you're trying to end the game. Not necessarily in your opening hand.

Borderland Ranger

We're a three color deck in a one or two color format. Borderland ranger helps us ignore this, though. He also evolves crocanura, and attacks pretty well.

Removal

Wow. We've got a lot of removal. Seriously. This is pretty excessive.

Flame Slash

A concession to golems and enforcers. Sometimes lightning bolt just isn't enough and we're willing to sacrifice instant speed to get rid of them.

Burst Lightning

Remember what we said about flame slash? Well, just ignore it! This card is fine as a shock, can kill the same things flame slash can, but is likely better as it can just deal 4 to their face! But, sometimes we need to get rid of a big threat early, and thats why flame slash is in the deck instead of just four Burst Lightnings.

Lightning Bolt


We're playing red, so we're playing lightning bolt! Seriously, if you're playing red and you're not a combo deck, you should be playing lightning bolt. This card kills the majority of things people will cast, and your opponent as well.

Magma Spray

Magma spray is really great against mono-white and stompy, with their doomed travelers, loyal cathars, and young wolves. It's a shame that it doesn't hit players too, as pillar of flame does. But it's worth to be able to cast this at instant speed to stop their rancors from happening.

Terminate

Two mana, kill anything. That sounds like a pretty worthwhile card to play. This even hits guardian of the guildpact!

Diabolic Edict

So many decks nowadays are playing hexproof creatures or ways to give their creatures hexproof. Well, they're in for a rude awakening, as we're playing the full four diabolic edict!

Other Spells

Faithless Looting
 

This does it all, it digs for lands, spells, or creatures. It contributes heavily to threshold. It's very cheaply costed, and flashing it back late game is never a bad thing.

Edge of Autumn

I've always liked this card, and it enables three colors very handily. Turning on threshold at instant speed while tapped out is a neat trick, too.

Unearth

The majority of our creatures can be hit by unearth. Keldon Marauders turns this into a shock, if nothing else, it brings back a 4/4 werebear, a 2/2(4/4)putrid leech, and it can even grab us a land in a pinch by bringing back a borderland ranger. This is just really, really great utility, and it helps us grind out games that we don't win outright.

Blightning
 

It's a real shame that bloodbraid elf is not common, but I suppose that it would be a little too powerful. But, we still get the better half of bloodbraid elf back in ALA standard, blightning! What a cool effect, lightning bolt and mind rot. We do both of these effects on two other cards, so why not just combine them!? This is a "must-counter" spell, and if they can't, you're probably too far ahead for them to win. It really is great how efficiently costed this is, as it'd probably be unplayable at a higher cost or a more demanding color cost.

Manabase

Gruul GuildgateRakdos GuildgateGolgari Guildgate

Ah, gates. We're playing them in order of important, three, two, one. The more I play with this deck, the more I consider cutting a swamp for another golgari guildgate, though. So perhaps if you play this deck, you can play around with the numbers until you find what's right for you.

SwampForestMountain

It'd be pretty silly to play evolving wilds, borderland ranger, and edge of autumn with no basics to fetch, right?

Evolving Wilds

The ultimate mana fixer. It's free, but it's a little slow. This is a risk I'm willing to take to attain true jund power!

Sideboard

Ancient Grudge

Should I destroy the red or the black artifact land? Hm..

Duress

I've gone over the merits of duress before, and how it does everything control doesn't want you to do. I still feel this is pretty accurate. No control player is ever going to want to let a duress resolve.
 

Evincar's Justice

Damnation. Well, close enough. The majority of our creatures can survive this, so it's not a bad option when we flood the board with 4/4's and force them to overextend into this.

Nature's Claim

Sometimes ancient grudge isn't enough. Nature's claim has the added benefit of being able to destroy enchantments as well. No one wants to play against ethereal armor and armadilo cloak, anyway!

Pyroblast

If you're playing red, you should be playing pyroblast. There are so many powerful blue decks in the format, a one mana counterspell/removal spell is amazing.

Raze

A lot of times when you try to destroy cloudposts, or lands with a lot of enchantments on it, they're going to have countermagic. Raze lets us destroy them before they're even relevant. Destroying our own land isn't really that bad, since they're less valuable than a land that taps for 2-6 mana, and it contributes to threshold as well.

Devour Flesh

If you're facing against the hexproof deck, a lot of your removal is going to be turned off. With the full 6 non-targeted removal spells after sideboarding, they'll be hardpressed to do anything but pass the turn against you.

Jund Conclusion

I've had a lot of fun making this deck, and even more fun playing it. If I had to say anything bad about the deck, it's that sometimes the manabase is shakey if you keep a hand without green mana. If you're willing to take this risk to play a powerful and fun deck, then it's definitely worth it. If you're wanting something more consistent and less powerful, then there are a wide selection of mono-colored decks waiting for you to get your hands on them. You can't say you play jund in all formats then, though.

 As always, here are sample hands of both decks, generated by modo:

1 Comments

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