Check out my Junk

Hi all, welcome to my very first article. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet as it will feature my Junk in many formats while going through my greatest accomplishment I’ve achieved while playing Magic the Gathering.

My name is Daniel Willing and I’m a one time Pro Tour competitor that had one hell of an experience when I finished in 60th place against all of the greatest magic players in the world while adding 3 huge notches to my belt. This was at Pro Tour Theros, held in Dublin, Ireland, which was a standard format that followed 3 rounds of Theros draft for both days of the main event.

Day one was a great start as I drafted a green/white/red deck and piloted it to victory in my first 3 rounds. First pick was a Fleecemane Lion which was soon followed by a Rage of Purphoros which was the start to adding red removal to my heavy green/white creature deck. Luck was certainly on my side that morning and it was thanks to the 3 Nessian Asps I drafted that I remained undefeated leading into the constructed part of the tournament. For those that are interested to see my exact decklist, here is a link for it – http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/pt-day-1-deck/.

Moving forward to the standard construction part of the tournament, I chose to build a Junk deck (a deck that utilises the colours of green, white and black) to tackle a whole new metagame that was yet to be evolved as this event was held only 3 weeks after annual rotation. Before I move on, here is the decklist I created to play on the big day – http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/straya-junk/

Land 24

4 Godless Shrine

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Temple Garden

4 Temple of Silence

1 Golgari Guildgate

1 Selesnya Guildgate

5 Forest

1 Plains

Creatures 20

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Voice of Resurgence

2 Boon Satyr

4 Loxodon Smiter

2 Archangel of Thune

4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Other 16

2 Thoughtseize

4 Abrupt Decay

2 Doom Blade

2 Golgari Charm

3 Selesnya Charm

3 Advent of the Wurm

Sideboard 15

1 Duress

2 Thoughtseize

1 Golgari Charm

2 Fiendslayer Paladin

2 Unflinching Courage

1 Archangel of Thune

2 Shadowborn Demon

2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

2 Mistcutter Hydra

Basically, I love the uncounterable Loxodon Smiter, the very powerful Voice of Resurgence and the resilient game changer Blood Baron of Vizkopa as I felt teaming those guys together in the same deck will give all of my opponents a hard time. This is primarily a green/white deck splashing black for removal. I am a player of deceit which is why I threw in a lot of instant speed tricks to back up all the bombs I have in play. I go for alpha strikes leaving a clear path to encourage my opponent to attack into my unsuspecting Advent of the Wurm or my knight token from Selesnya Charm which deals with those pesky Soldier of Pantheons very well. Bestowing my Archangel and Blood Barons with my Boon Satyr was always my game winning play. Golgari Charm was thrown into my list as a metagame call as it dealt with wiping out super fast Boros Swarms, Master of Wave’s armies and kept all my creatures alive with all the great board sweepers that were looming such as Supreme Verdict, Mizzium Mortars, Merciless Eviction and Elspeth. That Charm proved to be a major game saver for many of my matches at that tournament. Here is how I actually went at Pro Tour Theros with a list of my pairings and what I played against.

Match History:

Day 1 – (6-2)

01 Win Swierk, Pawel (draft)

02 Win Severson, Eric (draft)

03 Win Holm, Malte (draft)

04 Win Silva, José Francisco (Red Deck Wins)

05 Loss Calcano, Christian (Esper Control)

06 Win Wescoe, Craig (White Wheenie splash red)

07 Win Bitter, Victor (Red Deck Wins)

08 Loss Duarte, Carlos (BWR Control)

Day 2 – (4-4)

09 Win Damo da Rosa, Paulo Vitor (draft)

10 Loss Sharfman, David (draft)

11 Loss Nelson, Brad (draft)

12 Loss Finkel, Jon (Devotion to Blue)

13 Loss Jesse, Zachary (Orzhov Control)

14 Win Renaille, Gaetan (Selesnya Aggro)

15 Win Sim, Chapman (Gruul Monsters splashing black)

16 Win Costa, Matthew (Devotion to Blue)

What lessons did I learn from all of this to inspire my deck adjustments after a new metagame has been formed?

– Blue Devotion is not as good as it seemed. It was there in huge numbers piloted by the best players in the world and it produced great results as it caught everyone by surprise but I didn’t have much trouble against it with the exception of a combat trick play error on my behalf which gave a very lucky Jon Finkel his much needed win.

– Ashiok is annoying as I have a hard time dealing with Blood Barons that my opponents steal off me.

– I lost every game when an Elspeth dropped in play due to my opponent wiping my board.

– Thoughtseize off a shock land is a very bad play when the opponent reveals a fast red hand.

– Archangel of Thune and Advent of the Wurm are my MVPs of this deck.

– My mana base was spot on as I never had a problem the whole time I was playing.

– Mistcutter Hydra did not make the impact I had hoped it would.

– I wish I had more time to prepare my decklist.

I still feel this was the perfect deck for me to play and I will continue on to run it at FNMs and am preparing it for the upcoming Grand Prix Melbourne 2014. Biggest tip I can give you all when preparing for a major tournament like this: stick to what you know. Select a deck that you are most comfortable with using and stick to your game plan which is the key to victory. The less mistakes you make, the better chance you have to apply pressure for more wins which is why I say to play with what you are comfortable with. Once you choose your deck, work out your predicted meta and tweak your deck with your own tricks to defeat the decks that you think you are likely to be playing against. If you come up with unique tricks, they will help to catch all of your opponents by surprise.

After playtesting at home with my loyal crew and playing at my local card stores, I’ve made a few adjustments to deal with the lessons I learnt at Pro Tour and this is how my Junk deck looks for those that are interested in giving it a try as it is now a well played and tested list. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/my-junk-2/

Land 24

4 Godless Shrine

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Temple Garden

4 Temple of Silence

1 Golgari Guildgate

1 Selesnya Guildgate

5 Forest

1 Plains

Creatures 18

3 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Voice of Resurgence

2 Boon Satyr

4 Loxodon Smiter

3 Archangel of Thune

2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Other 18

4 Abrupt Decay

2 Doom Blade

2 Golgari Charm

4 Selesnya Charm

2 Read the Bones

4 Advent of the Wurm

Sideboard 15

2 Duress

3 Thoughtseize

1 Doom Blade

1 Golgari Charm

2 Fiendslayer Paladin

2 Unflinching Courage

2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa

2 Shadowborn Demon

That’s that for standard and now onto modern which is my favourite format as I’ve been playing for nearly 18 years and have had the luxury to see how everything has played out over the years. I also competed in a recent top level tournament, the Grand Pix Brisbane, this year and this is the Junk deck that I played and finished in 20th position after a record of 10 wins and 4 losses: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/modern-junk-20-11-13-1/

LAND 24

1 Gavony Township

1 Godless Shrine

2 Isolated Chapel

4 Marsh Flats

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Temple Garden

4 Stirring Wildwood

2 Twilight Mire

4 Verdant Catacombs

1 Forest

1 Plains

2 Swamp

CREATURES 16

4 Deathrite Shaman

4 Dark Confidant

4 Tarmogoyf

4 Loxodon Smiter

OTHER 20

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Path to Exile

3 Thoughtseize

2 Abrupt Decay

4 Lingering Souls

4 Liliana of the Veil

SIDEBOARD 15

3 Extirpate

1 Pithing Needle

1 Thoughtseize

1 Abrupt Decay

4 Voice of Resurgence

2 Creeping Corrosion

3 Obstinate Baloth

Added bonus: As this is an article dedicated to my Junk decks, I’m also a huge fan of playing Commander and this is my Junk Reanimator deck lead by the big dragon himself Teneb the Harvester.

Teneb

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/junk-reanimater-20-11-13-1/

LAND 38

2 Forest

3 Plains

3 Swamp

Barren Moor

Brushland

Caves of Koilos

Command Tower

Evolving Wilds

Fetid Heath

Godless Shrine

Golgari Rot Farm

Graypelt Refuge

Isolated Chapel

Llanowar Wastes

Marsh Flats

Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

Orzhov Basilica

Overgrown Tomb

Secluded Steppe

Selesnya Sanctuary

Stirring Wildwood

Sunpetal Grove

Svogthos, the Restless Tomb

Temple Garden

Terramorphic Expanse

Tranquil Thicket

Treetop Village

Twilight Mire

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Verdant Catacombs

Windswept Heath

Wooded Bastion

Woodland Cemetery

ARTIFACTS 7

Sol Ring

Golgari Signet

Orzhov Signet

Selesnya Signet

Talisman of Unity

Lightning Greaves

Elbrus, the Binding Blade

CREATURES 28

Serra Ascendant

Lotleth Troll

Sakura-Tribe Elder

Stoneforge Mystic

Loyal Retainers

Captain Sisay

Solemn Simulacrum

Bloodgift Demon

Shriekmaw

Kokusho, the Evening Star

Steel Hellkite

Sunblast Angel

Wurmcoil Engine

Angel of Despair

Angel of Serenity

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Luminate Primordial

Rune-Scarred Demon

Sheoldred, Whispering One

Sylvan Primordial

Ashen Rider

Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Avatar of Hope

Platinum Emperion

Woodfall Primus

Artisan of Kozilek

Blazing Archon

Reya Dawnbringer

ENCHANTMENTS 3

Animate Dead

Survival of the Fittest

Debtor’s Knell

PLANESWALKERS 2

Liliana Vess

Sorin Markov

INSTANTS 3

Entomb

Mortify

Putrefy

SORCERIES 18

Reanimate

Exhume

Life // Death

Demonic Tutor

Night’s Whisper

Time of Need

Buried Alive

Cultivate

Kodama’s Reach

Damnation

Day of Judgment

Harmonize

Jarad’s Orders

Vigor Mortis

Wrath of God

Rise from the Grave

Unburial Rites

Green Sun’s Zenith

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This article was penned by a contributor who no longer writes for Australian Tabletop Gaming Network. The specific details of which were lost in the great website purge of August 2018. If you're the author of this article or simply wish to know who was, please get in touch with ATGN via the 'Contact Us' page.

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