Recently, Sean McKeown wrote about a variety of decks utilizing cards in Alara Reborn. I was most interested in his uses of Bloodbraid Elf in different archtypes. After looking at his Gruul version, a friend of mine and I tweaked around and came up with a more Jund version. Behold!

First things first; why no Figure of Destiny?

Figure of Destiny is an interesting card that evokes a lot of different opinions. Most people agree that he is good, but I feel he isn’t a staple but a role-player; in fast, burn ‘em out type decks I’ve never liked seeing one in my opening hand. I think he is perfect for more midrange aggressive strategies, otherwise his mana investment needs are a drain on early resources better spent elsewhere. With the modifications to this deck, it relies on its turn one drops less. I wanted another “burn” spell or hasty creature to fill this slot, and Hellspark Elemental felt just perfect for the spot keeping a mid-to-late game presence in the deck.

figersaprkpost

The Borderposts are an experiment in lowering land count with borderposts. They are also multicolor, so they work well with Jund Hackblade. They serve a dual role being a 1 drop multicolor replacement for Figure of Destiny and being a mana source/fixer. I feel its worth trying at minimal loss to the decks strategy.

lashfireblightning

Lash Out was another card I felt needed to be swaped. Bloodbraid Elf into Lash Out to eliminate an opposing blocker is excellent. Winning the clash is greater still, but cascading into Lash Out with no good targets doesn’t feel right. At first, we played with Soul’s Fire, figuring on a cascade we will always have Bloodbraid Elf to do three damage to a creature or the opponent, but we swapped for a more pressure oriented card, Blightning.

We’ll be testing this deck out and I will report here with the results.