Since the banning of Amalia Benavides Aguirre and Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, the Pioneer metagame has seen some massive shifts. Early on, assertive decks including Boros Convoke and Gruul aggro began to showcase their potential. With the life gain combo deck out of the picture, it makes sense why fast creature-centric strategies would be poised for a comeback.
Since then, we’ve seen some additional adaptations. As more players began to flock towards these archetypes with blazing speed, other people decided to register decks designed to beat aggro. At the top of that list, we have Jund sacrifice.
Rakdos sacrifice has historically been a pain for aggro decks to deal with. Unfortunately, that came with the weakness of being slow to actually close the game when necessary. Well, by adding in an infinite combo centered around Ygra, Eater of All, sacrifice strategies have improved their position dramatically. Jund sacrifice has put up multiple elite performances recently, and the release of Bloomburrow definitely helped the cause. Before we look at the new tools, though, it’s important to go over the sacrifice mainstays and what makes them so strong.
Traditional Sacrifice Elements
- Mana Value: 1
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Set: Throne of Eldraine
- Card Text: Tap, Sacrifice a creature: Create a Food token. If the sacrificed creature’s toughness was 4 or greater, create two Food tokens instead. (They’re artifacts with “2, Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
At the very forefront of Rakdos and Jund sacrifice builds, we have the synergy between Witch’s Oven and Cauldron Familiar. This combination of cards is what gives these styles of decks so much staying power. Whenever you sacrifice Cauldron Familiar to Witch’s Oven, you get a Food token. That Food token can then be sacrificed to bring back Cauldron Familiar from the graveyard.
With this in mind, it’s very common to use Cauldron Familiar as a blocker, then sacrifice it to Witch’s Oven before damage. This makes it very difficult for creature decks to reliably get damage across without an evasive or Trampling threat at the ready. Plus, the consistent life draining every single turn makes it tough to race.
Once you add Mayhem Devil into the equation, it becomes nearly impossible for the opponent to stick a creature in the first place. Each time you sacrifice Cauldron Familiar to Witch’s Oven or sacrifice a Food to bring Cauldron Familiar back to play, you’ll get to ping any target you want. Notably, this includes the opponent themselves.
Beyond just the Cat+Oven combo, Mayhem Devil works perfectly in conjunction with Deadly Dispute and Bloodtithe Harvester. They’re solid cards on their own, but they both leave behind tokens that can be sacrificed on future turns once you stick Mayhem Devil.
Even the Goblin Shaman from Fable of the Mirror-Breaker can generate Treasures to sacrifice at will. Of course, it goes without saying how strong Fable is at this point and how powerful it is to start copying your Mayhem Devils and Bloodtithe Harvesters.
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Ygra Combo
- Mana Value: 3BG
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/6
- MTG Set: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Ward- Sacrifice a Food. Other creatures are Food artifacts in addition to their other types and have “2, Tap, Sacrifice this permanent: You gain 3 life.” Whenever a Goof is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put two +1/+1 counters on Ygra, Eater of All.
As you might expect, this deck has no problem winning long, grindy games. We already described how poorly creature decks fare in the matchup, but archetypes with lots of spot removal don’t line up particularly well against Jund sacrifice, either. Between Deadly Dispute, Fable, and Cat+Oven, Jund sacrifice can generate a lot of value over the course of the game.
One major issue the deck has had in the past, though, is closing the game. Decks like Lotus Field combo and mono-green Devotion are fully capable of largely ignoring your incremental advantage and simply going over the top of your game actions. Luckily, this is where Ygra, Eater of All comes into play.
On its own, Ygra is a big body that can be rather difficult to get off the field. With its ability to turn all of your other creatures into Foods in the equation, Cauldron Familiar becomes a very scary threat. If you control Ygra and have copies of Cauldron Familiar both in play and in your graveyard, you can actually execute an infinite combo and win on the spot.
This is because the Cauldron Familiar in your graveyard allows you to sacrifice any Food to bring it back to play. Thanks to Ygra’s ability, you can sacrifice the Cauldron Familiar in play to resurrect the one in your graveyard. You can do this over and over, looping both Cauldron Familiars and infinitely draining the opponent of all their life! This adds a whole new dynamic to an already strong shell.
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Another Amazing Addition
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Set: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: (Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.) Whenever one or more creatures youn control die, create a Food token. This ability triggers only once each turn. Level 2: 1B: Whenever you sacrifice a permanent, target player mills two cards. Level 3: 2B: At the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice three other nonland permanents. If you do, return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it.
Lastly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention another elite Bloomburrow inclusion: Scavenger’s Talent. Scavenger’s Talent is a bit unassuming, but it helps with all facets of the deck. At the low cost of one mana, you get a Food generating machine, especially when you have Cat+Oven going.
Once you tack on two more mana, you gain the ability to force a player to mill two cards whenever you sacrifice a permanent. Typically, you’ll want to start by milling yourself. This is because filling your graveyard enables level 3 perfectly. Level 3 lets you convert your excess Food, Blood, Treasures, and other resources into battlefield presence.
The reason this is so impactful is that, after milling yourself for a bunch, you’re bound to have something juicy to return to play. If you’re lucky, you’ll mill over two copies of Cauldron Familiar and an Ygra to enable the combo all at once. All you need to do is use Scavenger’s Talent’s final ability to bring back Ygra for free.
Then, as long as you have another Food in play, you can sacrifice it to return one of your Cauldron Familiar to the battlefield and execute the loop we talked about in the last section. All in all, Scavenger’s Talent is an elite addition that should be taken seriously at all times.
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How to Beat It
- Mana Value: 1RR
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Set: The Brother’s War
- Card Text: Choose one- Brotherhood’s End deals 3 damage to each creature and each planeswalker. Destroy all artifacts with mana value 3 or less.
Despite Jund sacrifice’s potent new toys, beating the archetype is far from impossible. Assuming you’re not playing a fast combo deck, your best bet is likely to utilize cards that can disrupt Jund sacrifice’s value generation. Take Brotherhood’s End, for example. Getting to blow up all copies of Witch’s Oven as well as all artifact tokens at once is big game. Other times, using Brotherhood’s End as a sweeper for creatures can be useful.
Similarly, Temporary Lockdown can be a real pain, wiping away your progress with Scavenger’s Talent and beyond. If an Azorius control player can ever resolve a copy of Farewell against you, it will likely spell doom for you.
Fortunately, Jund sacrifice has tools to help fight through hate. Haywire Mite out of the sideboard can cleanly answer Temporary Lockdown, while Thoughtseize can strip the opponent of hate pieces. Ultimately, Jund sacrifice is a very strong metagame choice right now, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure they have the tools to fight it moving forward.
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