Since the release of The Hobbit, Jund Sacrifice has cemented itself as one of Standard’s best archetypes. Converting tokens into huge amounts of damage, this deck is capable of presenting a kill surprisingly quickly. Now, it seems that this deck’s core is so strong that it’s even making a splash in Pioneer, maximizing a handful of potent upgrades.
Taking Sacrifice Synergies a Step Further
Like the Standard version of the deck, Pioneer Jund Sacrifice looks to spend the early turns building out a critical mass of sacrifice fodder. Greedy Freebooter joins Voldaren Epicure as one-drops that both leave artifact tokens behind. From there, The Sackville-Bagginses
The Sackville-BagginsesWhen The Sackville-Bagginses enter, you may sacrifice another creature or artifact. If you do, draw a card and create a Treasure token.
Whenever you sacrifice a token, target opponent loses 1 life. converts these weak 1/1 bodies into card advantage, while also leaving behind a Treasure.
While these tokens aren’t hugely impactful by themselves, they make The Sackville-Bagginses’ and Biotech Specialist‘s triggered abilities extremely threatening. With the help of Rottenmouth Viper letting you sacrifice a bunch of artifacts at once, it’s easy to send a wave of unexpected damage the opponent’s way. Should that not be enough to end the game, a single Viper attack should do the trick.
Interestingly, as explosive as this deck is, a big part of this deck’s success actually comes from its Pioneer upgrades that improve resiliency. At the top of the list is Oni-Cult Anvil, which provides a steady stream of blockers to help keep you alive longer. All the while, this uncommon serves as a life-draining sacrifice outlet, synergizing perfectly with your other sacrifice payoffs.
By buying yourself more time, Oni-Cult Anvil gives you a better chance of maximizing Deadly Dispute and Experimental Synthesizer without falling too far behind. These card draw elements then help dig for Shrapnel Blast, which gives the deck plenty of extra reach in the event your two-drop payoffs die on sight.
Speed and Grinding Potential
Ultimately, being able to win via fast kills or a slow, painful grind is a huge boon considering Pioneer’s diverse metagame. When playing against combo decks like Greasefang, combining Biotech Specialist and Shrapnel Blast enables you to race even the opponent’s fastest draws. Things only get easier when you add sideboard disruption like Soul-Guide Lantern into the mix.
At the same time, though, when facing decks like Mono-Red Aggro and Izzet Prowess, you have the potential to take on the control role. By using Shrapnel Blast and sideboard copies of Fatal Push
Fatal PushDestroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn. to keep Sunspine Lynx
Sunspine LynxPlayers can't gain life.
Damage can't be prevented.
When this creature enters, it deals damage to each player equal to the number of nonbasic lands that player controls. and other problematic threats in check, you enable Oni-Cult Anvil to crush the long game. Rottenmouth Viper also makes damage-based removal look silly, so you can often ride the beefy threat alone to victory.
Where this deck does run into problems, however, is when facing down board wipes that hit your creatures and artifacts simultaneously. Both Temporary Lockdown out of Azorius Control and Culling Ritual out of Golgari Midrange are nightmares to play against. While Rottenmouth Viper can theoretically sidestep these tools, a simple Get Lost or Professor Dellian Fel messes this gameplan up.
Given the popularity of these mass removal options, Jund Sacrifice is far from broken in Pioneer. Nonetheless, the deck is consistent and extremely powerful when unimpeded. As such, expect to see this deck around quite a bit in Pioneer moving forward.
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