I can hear the collective groans already.  Power creep and the ominous warnings associated with it are too often the stuff of common fanboy rantings.  So let me start this off by saying that the point of this article is not to compare the power/toughness and converted mana cost of past creatures to modern ones and crying foul.  At no point in this article will Serra Angel be compared to Baneslayer Angel as a representation of Wizard’s horrible failings.  Examples such as these are simply unfair to the design team when taken out of context.  I am less concerned with the obsolescence of fifteen year old cards and more concerned with the subtle but often sweeping types of power creep that will hurt the game as a whole.  Alas, there are far more powerful forces creeping into Magic the Gathering recently and instead of complaining about a +1/+1 counter and lifelink being placed on Serra Angel 20 years later, I feel as though we should turn our focus elsewhere.

But what exactly is power creep?  To make sure we’re all on the same page I’d like to provide you with a definition:

Magic the Gathering is unprecedented as a card game because of it’s uncommonly long lifespan.  In many ways, the WotC design team is sailing into uncharted waters.  Can we reprint cards from 15 years ago?  How long should we wait between similarly themed expansions?  What percentage of the user base even knows about the “The Dark” or “Arabian Nights“?  These questions have never been asked by a company in the history of CCG creation, until now.  Through it all, Magic has essentially remained the same game.  There are still only so many things you can do in a game of Magic and the end goal is still the same.  Couple that with the fact that players demand better and stronger cards and it is understandable that, over the years, the game’s individual pieces have become more powerful.  Overall, I think Wizards has done a fairly good job of keeping power creep at bay.  Cards have slowly gotten better to be sure, but the speed of this creep has been relatively sluggish (as it should be).  Here and there you’ll find a block that is out of control or underpowered but, compared to other games that have fallen to power creep in just a handful of years, Magic has done quite well for itself.

That being said, there are some disturbing trends in modern Magic that keep my hand close to the “Power Creep Alarm” buzzer.  The first being the complete saturation and expectation of two-for-one spells.  Of course, spells like Flametongue Kavu have been around forever, and two for ones, when available, have always been favored by the professional player for card advantage.  But today, it’s hard to find a tournament worthy card that isn’t a two-for-one.  Planeswalkers are the obvious culprits here when it comes to getting multiple game effects on one card.  But let’s take a closer look at today’s winningest decks.  Fae, for example was chalk full of two for ones: Mistbind Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, Pestermite, Bitterblossom and even Cryptic Command has the words “choose two” printed on it.  Think things have changed since then?  Just go through the list of tournament viable cards right now- Vampire Hexmage, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Goblin Ruinblaster etc.  Jund makes it even more clear with Bloodbraid Elf, Blightning, Sprouting Thrinax… need I go on?  Is it just a coincidence that the two decks dominating standard for the past three years are based almost completely on the “more for one” concept?  Card advantage is probably the most underrated aspect of MTG strategy.  Even the players who use Fae and Jund don’t understand that the reason their decks are winning is because they get to play two spells for one with every card they drop.  Cascade is the most glaring example of this, as it is almost unstoppable.  Are you going to counter or bounce Bloodbraid Elf?  Nope.  Doom Blade?  Maybe, if he didn’t just cascade into a Blightning.  An uncounterable 3/2 haste creature for four mana that also makes you lose three life and discard two cards when it comes into play… If that doesn’t constitute a shift in the power of an average creature, I’m not sure what does.  Designing two for one cards is one way wizard’s has tried to avoid traditional power creep.  But ultimately, you’re causing just as much harm as if you gave that creature an unpaid for +1/+1 and lifelink.

Which leads me to the next power creep pitfall: the influx of gold cards and an easily generated multicolored manabase.  There was once a time when the multicolored formulas held true.  A card was allowed to cost less if it required multiple colors of mana.  It was considered harder to play because generating two or three different types of mana was meant to be more difficult than producing just one.  That is not the case today.  How often does Jund struggle to find the correct types of mana?  Sure, they can get mana screwed just like anyone else but how often do they really want for that single black mana?  Almost never in my experience.  It is possible to build your mana base with exclusively dual and tri-colored lands with what is available in standard at the moment (and Worldwake is adding at least five more).  Right now, there is no difference between playing mono-red and playing Esper colors in terms of the difficulty of mana generation.  This throws off those multicolored formulas that have held true for so long.  Woolly Thoctar isn’t any more difficult to play than any other three CMC, mono-colored creature out there, so effectively, the cost of a 5/4 creature as of right now is: three.  Instead of playing a 3CMC sorcery such as Mind Rot, you might as well play Blightning since it is just as easy to play in this multicolor-friendly environment.  Multicolored cards work well in a mana controlled environment but when mana bases are so incredibly simple to build, you might as well print a 5/4 creature for three colorless mana.

If it were just these two factors affecting the game of Magic, we might be okay. But couple these with the expected, traditional power creep and several other cumulative effects begin to emerge.  There’s the issue of uneven power creep.  When you add unprecedented, powerful effects to creatures across the board- artifacts, enchantments and sorcerys are effectively replaced by said creatures, leaving entire swaths of gameplay for naught.  If one aspect of the game starts to creep, everything else must creep with it, including each of the colors.   Power creep also makes the game that much faster than it already is.  Unless Wizard’s is planning on changing our starting life totals, the game is still based around the number twenty.  If 5/4 creatures that now cost three mana someday drop to two mana, then twenty damage will be reached that much sooner.  The game is already quite fast (see The Rule of Five) and shaving a turn or two off of a standard match would be one or two turns too many.

The game must move forward, I understand this.  And if printing a Lightning Bolt +1 made myself and my coworkers a million dollars and saved the game from oblivion for another year, I can’t say I wouldn’t print it.  I also understand the need to satiate those of us who have “seen it all” and long for something new and better in Magic the Gathering every rotation.  I have to admit, I would probably buy a few less booster packs if I felt the cards in that set weren’t any better or more exciting than the cards I already own.  But there are good ways to address this, and there are bad.  Some good ways?  Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a great example of sustainable power creep.  Adding an extra ability to a planeswalker does make the card more appealing, but it doesn’t touch any of the established mathematical formulas, speed up the game in any way or force the next Jace to be some bonkers incarnation.  Mulldrifter is a two-for-one at a fair price.  And Baneslayer Angel, while powerful,  doesn’t tip any scales that haven’t already been tipped and it’s evolution is a fine example of Wizard’s restraint over the years.   Many of the cards themselves are correctly printed, as is.  The current pitfalls are more ominous than a few overpowered creatures.  The speeding up of the game, the benching of entire aspects of that game and unintended power creep through multicolored spells/two-for-ones is what we should really pay attention to.  One day we might wake up to our standard games requiring only two turns, a two-for-one creature and a Fireball +1 to complete.

There are safeguards built in to the design process that Mark Rosewater has alluded to in the past.  There are a certain number of “Power Points” awarded to each expansion to be “spent” on various cards with varying power levels.  Once they are spent, they must go back and rearrange the set’s structure such that the power points add up to the original number specified.  This works well, in theory, but in practice it fails to take in to account some of these cumulative power creep variables.  This does nothing to stop something like Cascade from being  undervalued in their power point system.  How many points do you award a card that lets you play two, three or even four spells of your choosing?   Sometimes you need to take a step back from the raw numbers and really look at what is happening to the game as a whole.

You and I can’t do anything about power creep.  What you can do is be aware of the changes that are being made to Magic.  You can use this knowledge and understanding of the game to your advantage in deck building and in your every day games.  A sustainable power creep is expected, unavoidable and ultimately necessary.  And if the game continues to creep towards more powerful spells at the rate it is going now, I think we will be okay for a number of years to come.  However, if these other, cumulative factors are not taken into consideration, a stealthy and fundamentally more lethal form of power creep will disfigure Magic just as assuredly.  A Tipping Point is approaching.

(Head over to the spoiler pages for two new Worldwake Spoilers and some interesting Rise of the Eldrazi rumors that have been revealed since last time we spoke.)

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Just moments ago Wizards revealed a ton of new information on the new year’s agenda!  From the Vault: Relics will be the next installment in that series.  Head over to it’s page for all the latest details!  They also let slip a number of specifics for 2010; some old some new:

… and no, I didn’t make that last one up.  ~Reinhart out

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The King of Standard - Take a look at the top 10 deck lists from the first few major tournaments since Zendikar’s release and you’ll find that Jund-aggro is holding half or more of those slots, finishing in first place in every one.  Before you abandon all hope and join the masses running Jund, let’s take some time to examine why this deck is so dominant and just what it will take to topple the current king of the standard format.

The Mold – Presented here is Jack Wang’s SCG $5k Philadelphia championship winning deck from the first major tournament since Zendikar’s release.  I will be referring to this build throughout due to most top 10 finishers being variants on this specific build.

Jund Post-Zendikar - At first glance Jund-aggro seems to have lost some staples due to set rotation, and has not gained anything outside of Goblin Ruinblaster in the sideboard.  Jund-aggro has shifted its approach to victory rather subtly.  This build contains less haste, with Boggart Ram-Gang and Tattermunge Maniac gone.  Gone are the days of win early or not at all.  Jund-aggro has developed a much stronger middle-late game. With Garruk Wildspeaker making three Broodmate Dragons feasible, as well as a cycled Resounding Thunder within reach due to Garruk’s “Untap two target lands” ability, add to that Sprouting Thrinax’s tokens blocking until you get the lands needed, Jund-aggro is still a viable force after the initial rush.

What Jund lost and gained is not what matters most to why it is dominating the tournament scene post-Zendikar, but rather what control decks have lost post-rotation.  Cryptic Command’s exit is the most obvious blow to control builds, however the loss of Broken Ambitions is just as detrimental.  Control has no reliable option for disrupting Jund’s early assault with counterspells.  There are options, yet none as reliable or flat out good as this pair of “no” spells.

The Aggro Competition - On paper Naya-aggro looks to have better creatures with Baneslayer Angel, Woolly Thoctar, Bloodbraid Elf, Ranger of Eos, Wild Nacatl, etc.  It’s simply not as aggressive and lacks the key component to Jund-aggro’s dominance over the current field.  That component is Blightning.  Forcing an aggro build to top-deck before you or discard removal spells is an enormous advantage.

Why Jund-Aggro is Dominating – Now to delve a little bit deeper into just what makes Jund-aggro so darned good.  Card advantage, board presence, direct damage, removal:  This deck has it all.  Every single main decked card outside of Lightning Bolt and Terminate is a two-for-one.  Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast being the most gratuitous by granting a free spell.  Broodmate Dragon and Sprouting Thrinax giving free creatures.  Blightning dealing 3 damage and forcing an opponent to discard 2 cards.  Maelstrom Pulse destroying multiple creatures, enchantments, and artifacts as well as handling Planeswalkers.  The cheap mana costing Putrid Leech pumping to a 4/4 for two life points.  Garruk Wildspeaker being a creature generator, mana ramper and possible overrun game-ender.  Add to these Goblin Ruinblaster destroying lands, the best counter-control cards in Duress and Thought Hemorrhage, as well as Jund Charm’s versatility out of the sideboard and anyone can see why this is a frightening deck to play against.

Help! – So what can be done to take down this monster of speed, aggression and now mid-late game viability?  The answers are slim as of right now with standard having a very small card pool to choose from until Worldwake and the subsequent expansion are released but there are answers out there.  Let’s examine just what cards pose the biggest threats to Jund-aggro.

1. Sphinx of Jwar Isle: 5/5, flying, shroud, look at the top card of your library whenever you like.  When a jund player says he’d rather face Baneslayer Angel than this creature you know it’s special.  Jund’s mid-late game has improved significantly but still relies heavily on stacked removal and burn spells to kill an opponent’s bombs and clear the way for a Broodmate Dragon or its mate to deal the game winning blow.  Jund currently has very few options to deal with this card.  Double blocking with dragons or plucking them from the deck with Thought Hemorrhage are jund’s only options for survival against the mighty sphinx.  Don’t discount the “you may look at the top card of your library whenever you like” ability either.  Deciding what cards to discard when hit with a Blightning, or whether to use that Celestial Purge or not can be a lot easier when you know what you’re drawing next.  The high cost makes surviving long enough to play this card a tough obstacle to overcome.  In a deck stacked with removal and counter spells playing very few creatures this jund killer is playable and could be a key component in ending jund’s reign of terror.

2. Wall of Denial: 0/8, Defender, Flying Shroud.  For three measly mana a jund creature of your choice is nullified for the entire game.  Jund has no answer to this card outside of swinging with more creatures because surely your deck will contain larger threats that would be targeted by a possible Thought Hemorrhage.  The fact Wall of Denial is flying helps against Broodmate Dragon immensely.  Just hope that the jund build you’re facing hasn’t main decked or sideboarded Great Sable Stag which will happen if this card and the aforementioned Sphinx of Jwar Isle see more play.

3. Double Negative: Counter up to two target spells.  Bloodbraid Elf is arguably the best card in standard.  This card nullifies it as well as Bituminous Blast.  Stopping the flow of jund dead in it’s tracks is phenomenal.  If blue and red reside in your deck consider this as an option for disrupting jund’s aggression.

4. Celestial Purge: Exile target black or red permanent.  Any deck relying on Path to Exile as its primary source of removal needs to run this card in the sideboard for jund matchups.  Giving jund-aggro a free land early is not a good idea.  It’s fast enough as it is without your helping matters.  Late game Path to Exile isn’t so bad but good luck getting there without Celestial Purge.  Sprouting Thrinax being unable to birth tokens if removed by Celestial Purge is a great bonus.  Sprouting Thrinax tokens and Beast tokens generated by Garruk being immune to this card show just how versatile jund has become.

5. Goblin Ruinblaster: 2/1 Haste.  Kicker: Destroy target non-basic land.  Jund gives up a secret to defeating it in it’s own sideboard.  These are in the sideboard for the mirror match and for good reason.  More than half of the deck’s lands are non-basic.  If a player can get this out with kicker on turn four or earlier they could possibly cripple their jund playing opponent by denying him the third mana color required to run the deck effectively.  At worst destroying a land slows things up a bit giving you time to draw that key removal spell or gain significant creature advantage.

6.Baneslayer Angel: 5/5, Flying, First-Strike, Lifelink, Protection from Demons and Dragons.  Protection from jund’s Broodmate Dragons, First-Strike means it can’t be blocked and bolted.  Lifelink kills an opponent while giving you life.  Sounds great.  So why so low on the list?  Every jund deck holds onto that maelstrom pulse or terminate in anticipation of this bomb.  I’ve seen Baneslayer Angels pitched to the graveyard to early Blightnings in favor of removal for the coming rush.  Malakir Bloodwitch is another option for the jund player, though she hasn’t reared her head yet due to there being no need as of right now.  Whenever a Baneslayer Angel does win the game against Jund more often than not it’s due to a misplay or bad draws rather than superior strategy.  Every jund player knows she’s coming and holds onto that removal spell especially for her.  With most white decks not finding room for Brave the Elements the threat is not that large.

7. Rhox War Monk: 3/4 Lifelink.  Just out of Lightning Bolt’s kill range and the Lifelink ability make this a great creature against jund.  At worst he eats a Maelstrom Pulse that would have otherwise hit a Rafiq of the Many or Baneslayer Angel.  At best he does some damage and you gain some life.  The life gain is not to be marginalized.  Jund has shored up its late game effectiveness quite a bit but it is still not without faults.  Some extra life points could be a deciding factor.

8. Day of Judgment: Surprised to not see the board sweep higher up in the list?  You shouldn’t be.  Sprouting Thrinax generates tokens and maintains board presence but this is not the key reason for Day of Judgment’s relatively low placing.  Experienced players know that nearly any deck running white will have this in it and play accordingly.  “Slow rolling” is a phrase I use to describe the strategy when jund faces a deck containing this card.  The strategy involves not overextending your creatures.  Play just enough to consistently deal damage or stand against their threats while holding onto a key Broodmate Dragon or other creatures for after the sweep.  It’s not always possible, however it is fairly effective when you consider how much removal and burn most jund decks contain to maintain creature advantage and force the sweep.

9.Pithing Needle: Activated abilities of sources within a chosen card cannot be activated.  An oldie but goodie.  Pithing Needle has bounced in and out of top deck sideboards over the years but nobody ever trades their last two and for good reason.  Costing only one mana, Pithing Needle early keeps that Putrid Leech a puny 2/2.  Drawing a Pithing Needle in the middle to late game stops the creature generation and “Untap two target lands” ability of Garruk.  The “Untap two target lands” ability nullified could mean not seeing a Broodmate Dragon on turn five or a cycled Resounding Thunder on turn 6.

10. Various Protection from Black Creatures: White Knight, Great Sable Stag, Devout Lightcaster, Valeron Outlander.  With most of its creatures and nearly all of its removal having a black mana symbol in its casting cost protection from black seems like it would be a great ability to have on your creature.  It is for the most part but jund has cards available to adapt to this rather easily.  You can see this in some tournament winning builds already.  Including less terminates and more burn spells such as Burst Lightning seems like the most accepted method to dealing with the pro-black beasties.  Great Sable Stag, Beast tokens and Sprouting Thrinax tokens are another reason this isn’t a sure-fire strategy to defeating jund.  It is still very plausible though as the meta-game evolves because there are still builds that over stack Terminate and Maelstrom Pulse while skimping on the required burn to deal with protection from black.

Other Options for Dismantling Jund: Mind Sludge, Dauntless Escort, Sphinx of Lost Truths, Woolly Thoctar, Volcanic Fallout, Harm’s Way,Ajani Vengeant, Elspeth Knight-Errant, Vampire Hexmage, Enlisted Wurm, Rampaging Baloths, Oblivion Ring

I hope this article stirs the creative juices of those who read it, and inspires players to try out some of these cards in your own build, in hopes of slaying the dragon that is Jund-aggro.  While some are obvious choices and others are a bit less apparent, all of these cards are a problem for the Jund player and there is no doubt in my mind some will be included in the first non-red,-black-green deck to win a major tournament post-Zendikar.  While the standard card pool is rather small at the moment there is still room for improving all deck types and I believe Jund will be equaled or dethroned well before Worldwake’s release.

Outside of Jack Wang’s championship winning deck list I gathered all information for this article by running a similar Jund-aggro deck since Zendikar’s release.  I’ve been playing Jund variants since 1995 when I splashed green with Karplusan Forest to fit Ernham Djinn’s into my black and red aggro deck.  I truly love the flavor and feel of running Jund but feel there are too many Jund decks being run presently and it’s making standard format somewhat un-enjoyable.  I want to face decks that are equal or better outside of a mirror match and look forward to doing so.  So far the best candidates I’ve faced are Boros Landfall which if functioning on all cylinders is faster than Jund and odd control decks that contain a few creatures, but these decks aren’t nearly as versatile or well-equipped to face other deck types as Jund currently is.

Update!: The same day I wrote this article a Blue-White-Red control deck was guided to victory at a major tournament (Pro-Tour Austin LCQ).  The following day a Blue-White control build won another.  Perhaps The king was crowned a bit early?

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