To the experienced player, Altar is a bizarre choice to reprint: either it does nothing or enables some degenerate combo. The card acts as a free sacrifice outlet while rapidly growing into a massive threat if left unchecked. Snapcaster Mage decks like Azorius Control tend to favor Surgical Extraction because they can get multiple uses out of the same copy, which buys a lot of time. To the untrained eye, Altar of Dementia is a strange but seemingly harmless card that marries the two greatest loves of many casual players: large creatures and mill. Tormod’s Crypt is less powerful because it often sits in play and your opponent can play around it. But as the spotlight shone on the deck, its flaws became clear. When decks this powerful come around, a lot of players shout into the void for a ban. Given that the Hogaak deck doesn’t interact much at all, the small creature combo gets to largely do as it pleases and aim for maximum speed. While Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis wasn’t necessarily the most hyped card during Modern Horizons spoiler season, it almost immediately took over the format. His favorite card is Thoughtseize has a soft spot for Tarmogoyf. before it was good), I couldn’t pass up the chance to be part of history. Not having a real clock makes finding your hate early in the game quite important, so be prepared to take disciplined mulligans in order to do so. Bridgevine is a fringe playable deck we’ve seen in the past. In this matchup, Arclight Phoenix gives you the explosive speed that the deck needs to actually cross the finish line in time. On the other hand, if your opponent tries to interact with it, you’ll still get the whole graveyard at that time. Jund is a deck that for a long time has played copies of Scavenging Ooze and Nihil Spellbomb in the main deck. See cards from the most recent sets and discover what players just like you are saying about them. During its preview, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis was one of the least hyped cards from Modern Horizons. Beating Bridgevine meant facing down overwhelming board presence as early as the second turn—one that could go tall with Greater Gargadon and Vengevine, or wide with a bevy of cheap attackers. Unless the opponent is playing White, it is almost impossible to deal with Hogaak once it hits the battlefield. Hogaak attacks on a few different axes. However, Hogaak instead shocked everyone by scoring multiple 5-0’s on Magic Online very quickly. If you want to play a deck that stacks graveyard hate, I recommend a proactive midrange deck that can play main deck hate with little cost to its game plan. In my semifinals match against my new teammate Harlan Firer, I got to cast turn two Hogaak on the play through Tormod’s Crypt, and that didn’t feel unlikely or special. Not to mention it combos with Altar of Dementia to let you mill yourself (or your opponent) for massive amounts of cards. If I played the deck again, I would strongly consider sideboarding Serum Powder as a way to tilt those odds in my favor. I think Jund has the tools to make the Hogaak matchup much better than people think. Most modern sideboards don’t leave home without graveyard hate these days (thanks Izzet Phoenix), so most are prepared for a deck like this.