MTG: Top Five EDH – Jund ‘BRG’ Commanders
Gruul might be the caveman colors, but Jund is the horrifying, savage monsters that live in the nearby volcanoes that EAT the cavemen.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering, where you use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is a great source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Jund is the third Alaran shard and definitely one of my favorites. These Commanders are deadly, eating your creatures and your opponent’s life total indiscriminately. These are the savage monsters of fire and death, dragons of extraordinary power that demand sacrifice for safety. If Esper is the secret police, Jund is the cap-wearing Brooklyn fellows with crowbars.
Korv0ld, Fae-Cursed King
The undisputed king of Jund sacrifice, Korvold is an absolute monster on the tabletop. Sure he makes you blow up your own permenants, but every time you do you get a card and he gets bigger. It should be noted this happens any time you sacrifice something, not just with his trigger. You can make Korvold massive in no time, and with all the sacrifice and recursion mechanics in these colors, you’ll be doing it practically for free.
Henzie “Toolbox” Torre
Face Commander of the New Capenna Riveteers deck, Henzie provides a way to catapult your biggest creatures at your opponent AND get a sacrifice trigger. If you can somehow bounce them back to your hand, you can even keep them, but why would you want to skip those sweet sacrifice abilities? Even better, the more times you bring out Henzie, the cheaper they get. Summon him enough, and you can throw out a Craterhoof for the price of a Wood Elves.
Lord Windgrace
It isn’t just creatures that Jund loves to devour; lands are viable targets as well. Lord Windgrace doesn’t want you sacrificing the lands, though, but rather discarding them. He can then pull them back out of the yard with his second ability. That said, if you DO sacrifice them, Windgrace can quickly get them back, giving you a lovely cycle of death and rebirth.
Ziatora, the Incinerator
My favorite Jund Commander, and one of my Top 3 favorite decks, Ziatora is the queen of the Riveteers, and for good reason. She’s a sacrifice engine, she can dish out significant damage, and she’s a treasure engine. The bigger the creature you throw, the scarier Ziatora gets. Combo her with anything with devour or a growing creature like Korvold or Kresh, and you’ll be sweeping the table in no time.
Yurlok of Scorch Trash
A slightly different approach to Jund, Yurlok brings back the good old days of mana burn. He loads up everyone’s pool with mana and then burns them for anything they don’t immediately spend. This is interesting, but requires a little extra finesse. Either way, he’s a fun leader piece, and is usually at the head of a non-combat kill deck.
