Magic: The Gathering Puzzlebox - The Junderdome Conundrum

In just under a month, my LGS is hosting its inaugural deckbuilding tournament, and I couldn't be more excited. Situated in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island, a baker's dozen contestants will be matching wits in 'The Junderdome'—but let's back up just a second. Challenges like this aren't uncommon these days, with websites like Archidekt hosting one monthly, but here, we'll be playing a multi-round tournament with our brews, earning points for player eliminations and not just hoping these lists work on paper. There's a few caveats: A randomly-assigned Commander(s) with Jund color identity, built for Bracket 2, with a $150.00 budget, and without use of any pertinent Landwalk for our colors. I've always said restrictions build creativity, however, and given I was dealt Xira Arien there's ample creativity needed to get her to the winner's podium. The list itself might change in the time between now and the tournament, but I wanted to cover the choices I made, and why they were made, as an illustration of how you can approach similar contests! If somehow you'll be in attendance, avert your eyes; you'll see this on November 21st.

This is part of a new shortform series for Goonhammer where I’m covering rapid-fire concepts for Commanders I couldn’t cover in a full Commander Focus, so if you like what you see, certainly let us know!

Daring Today, Aren't We

Xira herself is a 3 mana Commander with an overpriced activated ability, so with that in mind, I needed to be comfortable with my 99 bearing most of my strategy's weight. If you've read any content of mine with Red in the color identity, you likely see where this is going: Scramble. Both Reality Scramble & Chaotic Transformation aren't explicitly tutors, but with a limited selection of targets to spin into, they can cheat on both mana and consistency in Bracket 2. That being said, this isn't Polymorph, and we're aiming to spin into an Enchantment, without having one in the Command Zone. Scramble is usually fantastic for challenges like this because it provides a linear gameplan with clear power spikes, allowing you to transition to the endgame if you make certain deckbuilding concessions. Our target for today is Vicious Shadows, which is both expensive enough to warrant Scrambling into, and has mild synergy with Xira herself.

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

That being said, we can run this single Enchantment, and no others, in our deck if we aim to Scramble consistently. That's our output, so where's the consistent input for Scramble? Debuting in Wilds of Eldraine, our answer arrives in the form of Role tokens. These are Auras with a smattering of effects, but critically come from non-Enchantment sources, meaning we can stock up on targets for Reality Scramble while keeping Shadows as the only 'real' target in the list. As a bonus, these cards are dirt-cheap, so we can spend more of our budget on workhorse staples. A usual win looks like Scrambling into Shadows, and lining up either a cheap board wipe (such as Last One Standing) or a means to turn our board into a new hand (like Pitiless Carnage). On top of the fact that Jund decks are likely Creature-dense and have sacrifice synergies, we can use the dreaded Korvold player's card advantage against them, bouncing damage around after a wipe.

Known Quantity

While it's been stated that Forest/Mountain/Swampwalk is verboten for this challenge, that's only taking into account the use of our strange color circumstances for aggro play. A gap has been left in which to employ color hate aplenty, given we know the rough colors at play for all three of our opponents. Cards like Oakhame Adversary are almost always online, and I expect Pygmy Kavu to be at least as good as a Harmonize on legs, if not better. Stonecoil Serpent can block any of the Commanders (at least, the ones that aren't Monocolor Partners), and Reap may as well be 'draw a new hand'. Most damning, however, is the access to a pair of cheap board wipes from ages past. That's a style of card we already want, and both Perish & Nature's Ruin are cards I expect to excel. We can even bolster their reach with cards like Scuttlemutt! This is a nod to another skill in approaching these challenges: Know thy enemy. If your opponents face similar restrictions to you, think of what you'd hate to see, and go from there.

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Trickle Up

You'll have noticed that the price tags on cards mentioning Role tokens or hyperspecific color hate tend not to be at the top of the best sellers list. This meant that, after piecing together the core of this strategy with ~15 or so remaining nonland flex slots we have a decent chunk of change to work with. In foregoing staples of midrange archetypes, more can be spent on a higher caliber of removal & advantage. Want to splurge on a Flare of Malice or Soul Shatter? Go right ahead, have both. Grab all the MDFCs you'd ever want, they're going to be better than basics in as slow a format as this. Even after tuning-up our non-engine with some remaining cash, the list is left at $128.91, so even if prices creep up in the meantime we have a great buffer. Even so, I might find myself reaching for a Professional Face-Breaker if the monetary constraints remain loose. If you can built your list as bare-bones as possible, riding on the back of penny cards with a specific mechanic (here, Roles especially), there's more money to go around for card quality elsewhere.

Example Decklist: Of Course It's Scramble

Given we're all restricted to Jund, exiling removal isn't something I'm especially worried about, especially at Instant-speed. Yes, some players may cotton on to the fact that everyone's likely doing silly things with the yard, but the price of high-quality gravehate is usually a bit above what I expect players to pay. Meanwhile, I'm packing a Collector Ouphe for the Treasures I know will be infesting my rounds. All this to say, our tutor slots are spent largely on things that bin to the yard as opposed to strictly tutor; Chaotic Transformation has Retrace, so we can just as easily cast it from there as our hand, and the price & power of Entomb-style cards is a better spend than to-hand tutors in our colors. Final Parting, Vile Entomber, and Lively Dirge make up this package, though swapping to better options might be in the cards with money to spare.

Decklists are kept updated, and may change with set releases.

Should you build this exact list for yourself in paper? Likely not, given how focused it is on bullying the Jund colors, but if you swapped those for some more goodstuff you'd be sitting on something interesting I wager! Filling hands, scrambling via tokens, and even Shadows itself are all cool things to do in the colors, and while Xira might not be optimal, there's games she'd go uncasted anyway. If you're in three colors, and have at least Red, you can make Role token Scramble work nicely; given it's less consistent than normal Scramble, this may also suit a playgroup that's new to combo at the table!

It's a Junderful Life

I've never been asked whether I get tired of Scramble (and by extension, Polymorph) strategies, and I think that's for good reason. No matter the circumstances, so long as you've got Red in your identity and joy in your heart, it's possible to bend the rules of Commander and shortcut your way to some silly non-Legendary permanent far ahead of schedule. The associated opportunity cost and workarounds are fun, and flashy, but better still are rarely noticed while playing at the table. No one necessarily knows you're on Scramble until they see the Moxfield link with a single Enchantment/Planeswalker/etc. It's exciting, surprising, and results in the game immediately turning on its head—all while being actually competent and not just a groanworthy Chaos piece. I'm thrilled to take on the Junderdome, and do my very best to burn people out with cards not seen since the turn of the decade.

With that being said, what mechanic or Commander should I cover next on The Puzzlebox? This is a series built on rapid prototyping underutilized mechanics for Commander, and while I have a few ideas kicking around, especially once the Junderdome concludes next month, I'd love to hear more ideas from my readers!

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