Hello everyone and welcome to yet another adventure in Precon Recon. Every week I take a look at a Preconstructed Deck, and Reconstruct it to make it play better. This week, I was feeling a little out of standard, so I decided I would take a look back at one of my favorite blocks, with one of my favorite Shards, and build a really awesome Block deck instead of a standard deck. I hope everyone enjoys! The original deck list can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1683

So normally I don’t mess around with mana ratios in preconstructed decks. The extra mana in the right places seems to balance regardless of what we do to the deck. However, today will be a different story, since I am changing lots of cards, which will affect the overall balance of the deck. The deck lists 7 mountains, we will simply remove 2, and instead add 2 more Savage Lands. While they come into play tapped, the balance these cards add to the mana ratio is undeniable.

Now let’s get on to the real adjustments. This deck could perform very well, once given a few face lifts. I myself have a very potent block legal Jund deck. This deck will be close, but with a few working differences. For starters, if we are making it “Block Legal” some cards need pulling simply because they aren’t from the Shards Block. These cards are the Goblin Pikers and Shocks. The Carrion Thrashes just cost too much for what they do. There are much better options, so they should be removed. Another thing that just simply doesn’t hold up as well are the Goblin Deathraiders. While potent enough for one potential hit, I’d rather ensure I can hit for several turns. Another easy subtraction is the one Rip-Clan Crasher. So there is your body fat, the things that just aren’t holding their own and not performing where the deck should. Nine cards are removed.

So what do we put in their place? What can bring this deck to it’s high point, making your opponent quiver. Well, some options IF you can get would be Kresh, the Bloodbraided; Rakka Mar; Deathbringer Thoctar; and Violent Ultimatum. But since all of those are rares or mythic rares, you may not be able to get them. So I will look at what you can do for little cost.

For starters, I increased the number of Thunder-Thrash Elders to 3. These guys are crazy good when you have enough stuff to devour. Even if it is just devouring the two goblins off of the Dragon Fodder. Those tokens alone could potentially land you a 7/7 on turn three. Another instant addition for me was the Viashino Slaughtermaster. I added 3 of them to this deck. The ability of double strike and being able to pump it so soon in a game is just such a great asset, especially so early on. Now there are 5 spells added, that leaves room for only 4. The decision is truly hard to make, and all depends on how you would like the deck to play out and off of which strengths. Some options could be using Dark Temper, which with one Sprouting Thrinax out simply destroys a creature. Another option is Soul’s Fire, dealing damage equal to your strongest creatures strength to another creature or player. And yet another great option is Jund Charm. Possibly pumping the Viashino Slaughtermasters, or any other creature, or dealing two damage to all creatures for some board control, or exiling target players graveyard. However, I have a fondness for one specific card that fits very well into the core of the deck. That card is Colossal Might. This simple instant gives a creature +4/+2 and trample, all for one red and one green mana. I use this card heavily with the aforementioned Viashino Slaughtermasters. This is because on turn 3 you could swing for 10 trampling damage. That’s right, half life on turn 3. Attack, they opt not to block, spring this instant, half life, right there. They’ll be sure to think twice about NOT blocking this little lizard again. And late game, this card on Mycoloth could also deal just as much damage, if not more. You can mix and match any of these spells, or any others for that matter, but I elected to go with the Colossal Mights for this deck.

As I have always said, deck building and tweaking becomes about the player’s strengths, and how that player prefers to play. This is just my interpretation of taking a preconstructed deck in need of help and making it much more playable. I have always enjoyed the Jund style, and just wanted to show a fun and cheap way of playing under that particular shards play-style, while keeping the deck block style.

Next week, I think I will go back to Scars of Mirrodin to look at one of their preconstructed decks, and give it a more in depth look for those standard players out there.

If any of you have a deck you would like to see get reconstructed, be sure to hit us up here at pojo.com, or e-mail me personally. Just let me know which deck, and the format you’d like to see it reconstructed to.

Thank all of you for your support, and until next time, keep safe, and keep gaming!