Ramp is the bane of Jund decks.* You go up in mana shortly after which blast them off the board with a giant, very highly effective menace that they cannot counter and might’t reply successfully. Since they lose should you get to forged the massive menace, their solely choices are 1) kill you first, 2) cease you from ramping and three) discard your payoff. Unfortunately for them, none of those work effectively. They should not an aggro deck to allow them to’t kill you shortly. Land destruction sometimes prices 3 mana or extra, and discard can’t cease what’s on prime of the deck.

Jund is excellent at navigating to a state the place each gamers are empty-handed and topdecking, however on this state of affairs, ramp is favored just because the threats they will topdeck are higher than the threats Jund can topdeck, and each certainly one of their threats is value a number of of Jund’s playing cards.

To illustrate the idea we are able to have a look at two of Jund’s worst matchups in Modern.

Urzatron

Imagine the Tron participant goes first, they usually play Urza’s Mine & Chromatic Star.

On their flip, the Jund participant goes Thoughtseize. (If they do not have Thoughtseize they’re in much more hassle as a result of they can not cease the incoming Urzatron – and therefore 7 mana – on flip 3.) They see a hand of Ancient Stirrings, Urza’s Tower, and Sylvan Scrying.

Note that no matter what they take, they’re backed in opposition to a wall. If they take Ancient Stirrings, then the Tron participant will play Sylvan Scrying subsequent flip utilizing the Chromatic Star, get an Urza’s Power Plant, and Tron can be lively on flip 3. In different phrases, any topdecked payoff (Ancient Stirrings is sort of a payoff as effectively) is deadly. There is not any great way for Jund to reply a resolved Wurmcoil Engine or Karn Liberated except they have already got an awesome board place. On the opposite hand, in the event that they take Sylvan Scrying, then Ancient Stirrings nonetheless provides the Tron participant 5 appears for Urza’s Power Plant (or Expedition Map which can flip into Urza’s Power Plant).

Note {that a} key a part of the equation is that Urzatron performs threats that catch them up in the event that they’re behind on the board, win the sport if unanswered, and should not simply handled by Jund’s set of solutions. Karn Liberated & Ugin the Spirit Dragon for instance simply win the sport if forged (Jund can’t counter them). If Jund has threats on the board then they are going to be eaten, and Jund has no option to kill them instantly from an empty board. Wurmcoil Engine is comparable: it stabilizes the board and is simply too giant to kill with Fatal Push or Lightning Bolt. Terminate, Kolaghan’s Command, Liliana of the Veil’s -2, and many others. can reply it, however that also leaves two extra items.

Amulet Titan

Imagine the Amulet participant goes first, they usually play land into Amulet of Vigor.

Now the Jund participant is as soon as once more in hassle. Next flip, the Amulet participant can simply go bounceland (e.g. Simic Growth Chamber), Azusa, Lost however Seeking or [Dryad of the Illysian Grove], replay bounceland, [Sakura-Tribe Elder]. On flip 3, the Jund participant can be up in opposition to the likes of 6+ mana, making any Primeval Titan deadly. (For anybody unfamiliar with the Amulet Titan combo kill, the Titan searches up Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion and Slayer’s Stronghold. The lands give the Titan haste, it will get to assault and search up much more lands, and the opponent dies instantly or at most one flip after.) The Jund participant’s solely probability is to discard the Titan, however even when they discard any Titans in hand, they cannot cease their opponent from topdecking one other – and opponent has at the least 10 copies of Titan of their deck (counting Summoner’s Pact and Tolaria West transmuting for Summoner’s Pact).

Even if the Jund participant stops the Titans, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle permits a unique kill that, as a result of it comes from a land, Jund has hassle interacting with.

These ramp matchups are why Jund decks often have land hate like Fulminator Mage and Alpine Moon within the sideboard. However, one can solely dedicate a lot house to preventing ramp, which means Jund may by no means draw the sideboard card. Furthermore, these land hate items do not win the sport in the event that they resolve, they solely stall the ramp deck. Finally, the great land hate spells are costly. Fulminator Mage hurts the ramp deck fairly badly, but it surely prices 3 mana, too late if the opponent is on the play. Even if they’re on the draw, utilizing your flip 3 to forged a land destruction spell means you are not including stress to the board. Alpine Moon is even narrower, and even fixes the opponent’s mana.

I personally discovered this text to be a hilarious illustration of why Jund is disfavored in opposition to ramp. It took a 2020 Standard Bant ramp deck and pitted it in opposition to a contemporary Jund deck. Bant ramp received simply, regardless of drawing from a a lot smaller card pool. Heh.

*Note ramp is not the identical as management. Ramp decks concentrate on dishonest extra mana into play after which resolving a game-winning spell. Control decks take issues slower and purpose to reply the opponent’s threats one-by-one. Jund is much better in opposition to management decks than ramp decks.