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Insider Video: Zwischenzug Plays Living End and a VMA Booster Pack Contest

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The contest for a VMA booster is pretty simple. After you've watched the videos, leave a comment, and I'll pick one I like to win the pack.

Last weeks winner is Villy B. Please get in touch with me so I can give you your prize. Paul Nemeth on the QS Forums, paulanemeth@gmail.com, or Zwischenzug on Magic Online.

The Deck, and How To Play It


Round 1


Round 2


Round 3


Round 4


7 thoughts on “Insider Video: Zwischenzug Plays Living End and a VMA Booster Pack Contest

    1. Cute interaction, good find! However, Living End would make you sacrifice those zombies so while Waste Not could be annoying it’s very beatable.

  1. I know most decks run only 3 living end, and I wonder why that 4th living end is so much worse. It seems like it gives you one more shot against counter-magic which was the only way any decks seemed to beat you. I realize it greatly increases your chance to draw into a living end with all of the cycling, but is that the main reason why most people eschew a 4th copy? I mean you would still have 3 copies in your deck.

    Additionally the mirror match made me curious, would there be a card worth changing for Slaughter Games in the sideboard? It seems like it greatly improves your matchup vs. combo like twin, and it seemed like Sin Collector’s interaction with living end is great value, but kind of win-more if you get to resolve living end anyway.

    Anyway great videos, it’s great hearing all the considerations you make with each decision.

    1. Good points. The main argument against the 4th Living End is like you said, you can draw it when you’d much rather draw any other card in your deck. It would probably replace a creature cycler. Having a 4th Living End to cascade in to would win some games, but not having that extra cycler to dig 1 card deeper and have 1 extra dude post Living End will certainly cost you some games as well.

      I agree that Sin Collecter’s synergies with the deck are perhaps more cute than relevant. If I were to play it again I’d probably go back to Ricochet Trap. I really value Ricochet Trap’s ability to overwork the opponent’s mana when they might have enough counters to beat a series of Sin Collecters and cascade spells on consecutive turns.

      With almost every other deck I’ve played I wouldn’t even bring in Slaughter Games against Twin if I already had it in my board. Because of the way the matchup plays out with LE being so vulnerable to the combo, this matchup may be the exception to that general rule. I think the Jund Charm in the sideboard could be cut to experiment with Slaughter Games.

      1. That’s an interesting point, I had seen Ricochet Trap in a lot of lists and I didn’t think too hard about it, but of course it’s there to win counter wars, or at least make you a contender. I assume you would simply change the target to Ricochet Trap and let the counterspell fizzle? That seems very brutal against Remand.

        Did you have the Jund Charm in the SB mostly as a 5th Leyline, or as some sort of sweeper against decks like Pod with a large number of X-1’s that they rely on early?

        1. Your understanding of ricochet trap is correct.

          Jund Charm is more about graveyard hate than a sweeper because your 8 cascade spells already function as sweepers. The combat trick mode is also relevant. I lost a match to Michael Hetrick in a recent video where he used Jund Charm as a combat trick. I was playing Angel Pod.

          One thing that I think I mentioned in the videos but that is worth repeating is that Cryptic Command can select “bounce target permanent” as the second mode to protect itself against Ricochet Trap since the trap can only target spells with a single target.

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