How to play Standard Jund Treasure in Magic: The Gathering

In terms of power rankings, quite a few Magic: The Gathering decks could be seen as the best right now. It’s a fresh, new meta, with all kinds of new combos, tricks, and deck archetypes. However, none can lay down as much fury or frustration as Riveteers, or Jund Treasures. It uses perhaps the most powerful combo in Magic: The Gathering right now, Ob Nixilis, the Adversary+Esika's Chariot.

This is a Red/Green/Black deck focused around a few cards, particularly Ob Nixilis, the Adversary, and combining it with the power of Esika’s Chariot. It’s a card combo that has been discussed before, and this deck will show why.

It features a few different ways to play, whether playing aggressively, or taking time and waiting for the mid/late game, it will control the board and drop absolute mountains of damage.

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Jund Treasure is potentially the strongest deck in Standard Magic: The Gathering

Jund Treasure in Magic: The Gathering uses one of the most powerful new planeswalkers, Ob Nixilis, and puts him to work. His ultimate ability targets a player, and makes them draw seven cards, and deal 7 damage to them. With the right setup, players can use this to defeat an opponent in one blast of life loss.

It’s all thanks to the new keyword, “Casualty." Cards with this keyword can also sacrifice another creature when they come into play. This creates another copy of the original card (Ob Nixilis), which is also not Legendary. In this case, it has a starting Loyalty of X, where X is the power of the creature sacrificed.

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This, combined with Esika’s Chariot, creates more copies of Ob Nixilis, potentially much stronger one than the original. Players can use this to deal fatal damage in a decent amount of time in any Magic: The Gathering deck.

How does it get started?

Ob Nixilis, the Adversary is the engine that really makes this whole Magic: The Gathering deck go. Players can easily play him, uptick him to 7, use it, and then play another copy of him (In addition to the clone). However, there are much easier ways to get things done. But, since he’s the star of the show, here's his list of abilities.

Ob Nixilis’ planeswalker powers

+1: Each opponent loses 2 life unless they discard a card. If you control a Demon or Devil, you gain 2 life.
-2: Create a 1/1 red Devil creature token with “When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to any target.”
-7: Target player draws seven cards and loses 7 life.

The -2 is neat, but it’s not really where the power lies. So, players are likely going to rely on the +1 and -7 in most cases. Since he’s only a 3-cost planeswalker, he can easily be played on turn 3. However, the player probably won’t have a sacrificial target worthy of use by that point.

Playing Reckoner Bankbuster on turn 2 would alleviate that worry though. It’s a 4/4 artifact that has a Crew cost of 3. It has three charge counters on it, and the owner can remove a charge counter from it (and pay 2 mana) to draw a card. If there are no charge counters on it, it creates a Treasure Token, and a 1/1 Pilot Creature Token with “This creature crews vehicles as though its power were 2 greater.”

That allows it to crew the Reckoner Bankbuster on its own. However, we can, on turn 3, sacrifice the Bankbuster to have a Loyalty 3 and Loyalty 4 Ob Nixilis. Now, the opponent will have to discard two cards a turn or they will lose life.

This gets paired with a hopefully, turn 4 Esika’s Chariot. The legendary vehicle has a Crew cost of 4 but also comes with a pair of 2/2 green Cat creature tokens, so it’s easily crewed. Whenever it attacks, the owner creates a copy of a token they control. That target is almost always going to be Ob Nixilis.

As they get bigger and the Magic: The Gathering player creates more Ob Nixilis copies, they can simply win the game by forcing the player to discard unyil nothing, and continually take damage. After all, the token is not a legendary, so the player can have an infinite number of them.

The power of treasure tokens in Magic: The Gathering’s Jund Tokens

Treasure tokens in Magic: The Gathering can be tapped and sacrificed for 1 mana of any color. This is especially great, considering this deck has a 7-cost, 7/7, and a 4-cost 5/4 that can be used. They’re powerful cards, but they can also be used to sacrifice to Ob Nixilis. That’s where this writer uses Titan of Industry, a 7/7 Elemental for 7 with Reach and Trample.

When it enters play, the player can choose two abilities to trigger. They can destroy an artifact or enchantment, target player gains 5 life, create a 4/4 green Rhino Warrior creature token, or give a shield counter to a creature they control.

Once that has happened, it’s time to sacrifice that to Ob Nixilis while casting. So, the player will need treasure tokens. Prosperous Innkeeper generates one, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker also creates a Goblin Shaman that, when it attacks, creates a treasure token. Goldspan Dragon creates a treasure token when it attacks, or when it’s the target of a spell. So there are plenty of treasure tokens on tap.

The player can keep that Goblin Shaman, and when Fable of the Mirror-Breaker transforms, it can make copies of that Goblin Shaman that are sacrificed at the end of the turn, with haste. It can copy any non-legendary creature the player has.

That new card, Reflection of Kiki-Jiki can also make a copy of Titan of Industry, and that can be used as a sacrificial lamb for Ob Nixilis instead.

If the player chooses to deal damage, they can use Halana and Alena, Partners, which has First Strike and Reach. It grants a creature +X/+X, at the beginning of combat on that player’s turn, where X is the Power of Halana and Alena. They also gain Haste.

In the event Ob Nixilis isn’t happening, the player can use this to buff Halana and Alena, and then start buffing Titan of Industry and Goldspan Dragon to just rush people down.

But the real power combo is making copies of Ob Nixilis, preferably with a 7 power creature. That way, the player can make a few copies of Ob Nixilis. Keep an eye on the health of the other player, and make enough copies and just trigger that -7 and win the game. Easy peasy.

Decklist

1 Ziatora's Envoy
1 Titan of Industry
3 Halana and Alena, Partners
3 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
4 Prosperous Innkeeper
4 Goldspan Dragon
3 Reckoner Bankbuster
4 Esika's Chariot
4 Riveteers Charm
4 Voltage Surge
4 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
4 Mountain
4 Cragcrown Pathway
4 Blightstep Pathway
3 Darkbore Pathway
2 Forest
2 Haunted Ridge
2 Ziatora's Proving Ground
2 Swamp
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

Sideboard

1 Shakedown Heavy
1 Abrade
2 Strangle
2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
2 The Meathook Massacre
2 Go Blank
2 Duress
3 Courier's Briefcase

The cards in the Magic: The Gathering sideboard are all about spot removal, discard, and card draw. It’s a nice, solid sideboard filled with cards like Duress, Strangle, Go Blank, and the powerful enchantment, The Meathook Massacre.

Final thoughts

This is, without a doubt, the strongest deck in Magic: The Gathering right now. It can win via bombarding a player with plenty of damage via Ob Nixilis or swarm the other player with duplicated creature tokens.

It can stomp someone out with a powerful Titan of Industry or Goldspan Dragon and can ramp into mana via Ziatora’s Envoy. It’s certainly a great deck, with several different ways to build and play it. When it comes to power and board control, it’s hard to go wrong with this particular Magic: The Gathering deck.