Archetypes » Jund Fit
- Updated
Jund Fit is a fair Green-Black-Red Nic Fit variant. The exact deck can differ a bit but usually Jund packs a heavy control plan and leans on cards like Punishing Fire. Unlike the Jund combo variants of Nic Fit like Scapewish and Sneak Fit, this deck has a fair game plan and tries to grind out wins with value cards like Huntmaster of the Fells in addition to the usual band of Nic Fit threats like Primeval Titan or Titania, Protector of Argoth.
Jund Fit overview and a starting decklist
Jund Fit starting list
June, 2021
| Creatures (16) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Collector Ouphe |
| 1 | Endurance |
| 3 | Greater Gargadon |
| 1 | Klothys, God of Destiny |
| 1 | Plague Engineer |
| 1 | Primeval Titan |
| 1 | Reclamation Sage |
| 1 | Scavenging Ooze |
| 1 | Tireless Tracker |
| 1 | Titania, Protector of Argoth |
| 4 | Veteran Explorer |
| Planeswalkers (1) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Grist, the Hunger Tide |
| Spells (19) | |
|---|---|
| 3 | Abrupt Decay |
| 4 | Cabal Therapy |
| 4 | Green Sun's Zenith |
| 3 | Once Upon a Time |
| 3 | Punishing Fire |
| 2 | Thoughtseize |
| Enchantments (2) | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Sylvan Library |
| Lands (22) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Badlands |
| 2 | Bayou |
| 1 | Field of the Dead |
| 1 | Forest |
| 3 | Grove of the Burnwillows |
| 1 | Phyrexian Tower |
| 2 | Snow-Covered Forest |
| 1 | Snow-Covered Mountain |
| 1 | Snow-Covered Swamp |
| 1 | Swamp |
| 1 | Taiga |
| 4 | Verdant Catacombs |
| 3 | Wooded Foothills |
| Sideboard (15) | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Assassin's Trophy |
| 2 | Carpet of Flowers |
| 2 | Cindervines |
| 2 | Endurance |
| 2 | Necromentia |
| 1 | Pernicious Deed |
| 1 | Plague Engineer |
| 3 | Pyroblast |
75 Cards
There’s a few different directions Jund Fit can go and this deck uses a control plan to survive until it can cast Titania, Protector of Argoth or Primeval Titan both of which end the game pretty quickly. Greater Gargadon has proven to be highly effective as an uncounterable sac outlet for Veteran Explorer, but it really shines with Titania where it threatens to put 20-30 power on the board in a single turn by sacrificing our lands.
Once Upon a Time is not a staple of most fair variants but it works well in this deck as a way to ensure you find an early Explorer or Gargadon. In the later game, it acts similarly to a cantrip and can hopefully find a mid- or late-game threat.
Jund Fit’s place in the meta
The addition of Punishing Fire to the core Nic Fit shell gives a big boost to the removal package and as a result the deck has a fantastic matchup against most aggressive decks like Death & Taxes, Maverick, Goblins, and a decent Delver matchup. While aggro decks usually aren’t the weakness of Nic Fit, red makes the matchups that much better.
One aggro deck that Jund doesn’t have as good a matchup against is Eldrazi. Eldrazi creatures come out quickly, mostly aren’t vulnerable to Punishing Fire, and outclass many of the threats in the deck. The matchup feels closer to 50-50 although having cards like Tireless Tracker or Tarmogoyf can improve that number. Sideboard cards like Assassin’s Trophy help here as well.
Jund has a decent matchup against control decks like BUG or Grixis Midrange, Miracles, and Snow Control, although it really hinges on the exact list. The addition in 2020 of Klothys, God of Destiny has improved these matchups. It turns Green Sun’s Zenith with X=3 into a must counter spell since most decks don’t have much to interact with Klothys especially with Council’s Judgment out of fashion. Most control decks struggle to race an early Klothys and Klothys disrupts their game plan of Snapcaster Mage and Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath while providing some amount of inevitability. If the Jund player is also playing Field of the Dead, the matchups feel pretty good.
Where Jund really struggles is against combo decks including Dark Depths decks, Storm, and Show and Tell. Post sideboard, Pyroblast gives the deck lots of ways to disrupt Show and Tell although the matchup is still unfavorable. Depths matchups are very tough as Jund lacks the kind of spot removal needed to kill Marit Lage that are available in different colors like Tyrant’s Scorn or Swords to Plowshares. All the additional removal, however, does help Jund against Elves and Infect and the latter is probably a favorable matchup.
The addition in 2019 of Collector Ouphe helped Jund immensely against a few different combo decks like Storm and Bomberman. Before the Ouphe, those were borderline unwinnable. They are still unfavorable pairings, but they can be won. As a result, Ouphe is very frequently a main deck card in Jund Nic Fit lists.
On the whole, Jund Fit thrives in a combo-light environment and has very good matchups against aggro and decent matchups against most control decks but the combo matchups can be worse than other Nic Fit variants.
Sideboarding
Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are among the best sideboard cards in the format. They’re good in a large variety of combo and fair matchups. By themselves, they drastically changes the percentages in the Show and Tell matchup which is normally almost unwinnable for fair Nic Fit decks while also helping against combo decks like Painter, Storm, and Doomsday. On the fair side, it’s great against Miracles, Snow Control, and even Delver. Overall this should be a staple of any fair Jund deck’s sideboard and playing any less than 2 doesn’t seem right.
Slaughter Games used to be a regular sideboard card of both combo and fair Jund Nic Fit decks. Against both Storm and Miracles, it was possible to remove most of their win conditions with a single cast and casting it a second time off Eternal Witness was usually game ending. The printing of Veil of Summer has changed that and significantly weakened Slaughter Games. It’s no longer the uncounterable spell it once was. With many Storm decks running Veil in the main deck and Snow Control running it out of the sideboard, Slaughter Games simply isn’t as good anymore. It’s still decent but no longer the automatic sideboard card it was in past years.
Instead of Slaughter Games, Cindervines has provided an an alternate angle of attack against the Snow Control, Miracles, and Storm decks by “taxing” them for one damage per spell. Enchantments are pretty hard to deal with for those decks and the single damage from Cindervines really adds up in both matchups. Against Storm, it usually turns off Ad Nauseam lines and against Snow or Miracles it combined with Klothys, God of Destiny can end the game while being very hard for those decks to deal with. It’s also a serviceable sideboard card against artifact or equipment heavy decks. Necromentia is similar to Slaughter Games but can also take key lands like Dark Depths or Thespian’s Stage and so it’s worth considering.
Having access to Punishing Fire on top of the usual Nic Fit removal like Abrupt Decay makes the deck pretty good against creature-based strategies. However, unlike both BUG Fit and Junk Fit, the deck frequently doesn’t have as many ways to deal with Dark Depths strategies. Depending on how common Depths is in your meta, you might consider sideboard cards like Assassin’s Trophy, Sudden Edict, or even Run Afoul as answers.
Like most decks that don’t have a lot of counter magic, Jund Fit is soft to fast combo decks like Reanimator, Turbo Depths, Storm, and Show & Tell. It is no surprise that most of the Jund Fit sideboard is dedicated to these matchups. Jund Fit usually packs 4-6 grave hate cards with Leyline of the Void, Surgical Extraction, or the new Endurance being most common, 4 or so anti-combo cards (Veil of Summer or Cindervines) with anti-blue cards rounding out the rest.
Variations
Applejacks
Applejacks uses Orcish Lumberjack to power out big threats in the very early game. The ideal threat is Titania, Protector of Argoth who can usually put 10-15 power on the board as early as turn two. Applejacks isn’t strictly a Nic Fit variant because it does not always rely on Veteran Explorer and Cabal Therapy. However, this primer on Jund Fit would be incomplete without at least a mention of Applejacks.
Applejacks by Cephenemyia
MTGO Legacy League 5-0 - July, 2020
| Spells (11) | |
|---|---|
| 4 | Abrupt Decay |
| 3 | Green Sun's Zenith |
| 1 | Kolaghan's Command |
| 3 | Punishing Fire |
| Artifacts (2) | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Mazemind Tome |
| Enchantments (1) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sylvan Library |
| Lands (23) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Badlands |
| 2 | Bayou |
| 1 | Ghost Quarter |
| 3 | Grove of the Burnwillows |
| 1 | Karakas |
| 2 | Snow-Covered Forest |
| 1 | Snow-Covered Mountain |
| 1 | Snow-Covered Swamp |
| 3 | Taiga |
| 4 | Verdant Catacombs |
| 4 | Wooded Foothills |
| Sideboard (15) | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Blazing Volley |
| 1 | Force of Vigor |
| 2 | Mindbreak Trap |
| 2 | Pithing Needle |
| 2 | Pyroblast |
| 1 | Red Elemental Blast |
| 3 | Surgical Extraction |
| 2 | Veil of Summer |
76 Cards
Sneak Fit
Sneak Fit is a combo variant of Jund Fit that uses Sneak Attack to power out game ending creatures like Emrakul. This is a pretty popular Nic Fit archetype and there’s a separate primer on it.
Scapewish
Scapewish is another combo variant of Jund Fit that uses the ramp from Veteran Explorer to get to seven or more lands to win with the combo of Scapeshift into Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. There’s also a separate primer for this deck.
Conclusion
Jund Fit was in a bit of a tough spot during the Oko meta but it’s a fine call in a meta of aggressive decks.
Julian Knab playing a fair Jund Nic Fit deck through a Legacy league in Fall 2019.