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5.27.2009

What I'm Playing 6

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This particular episode of 'What I'm Playing' (WIP #6) features a deck which has yet undergone any playtesting to date. Hopefully, this will see some play that this week's FNM. Essentially, this is one of my older Naya decks featuring Realm Razer and Meglonoth at the business end tweaked to include new card goodness from the recently released Alara Reborn set.

Let's have a quick walk through to see where this is all going . . .


The requisite one-drop for many Naya decks is of course Wild Nacatl - a decent 1/1 which balloons to a 3/3 when you get a Plains and a Mountain on the board. There really is no other purpose here than to provide a board presence in the game's first turns.

Path to Exile provides good spot removal of threats. The purpose here is to trade your opponent's threats and replace them with a basic land card which you will get to remove when Realm Razer hits the board.

Many decent Naya builds also feature Druid of the Anima which provides additional mana to you at a critical time in the game. The Druid also gets a jump start on things when Realm Razer enters play and there is a sudden
and distressing lack of mana.


Stun Sniper is a new addition and as I have mentioned has not been play tested yet. It appears that this will be a strategic inclusion in order to kill off single 1/1 tokens flying or not as well as being able to tap down any of your opponent's fatties which may hit the board.


Another new addition is Jund Hackblade. This card has been getting some fairly decent reviews from other players. The Hackblade's potential to become a hasty 3/2 on turn two provided the presence of another multi-coloured permanent on your side is enviable.


Woolly Thoctar is simply obligatory in any deck that runs the Naya colours of Red / Green / White. A 5/4 beastie for only 3 mana is just insane even considering today's power curve.


Many players consider the cascading 3/2 Bloodbraid Elf one of the best (non-rare / mythic rare) cards of the set. For only four mana, you get a hasty 3/2 AND a FREE random spell - which in this deck may be ANY of the previous cards - I'm personally hoping for the Thoctar or perhaps the Hackblade. I do agree with Evan Erwin (Mr. Magic Show), that Captured Sunlight may very well be on par with the Hackblade, but I thought that the colours were just a bit better with the Hackblade for this build.

Once more again into the unkown territory of new deck inclusions is Knight of New Alara. Although the Knight is a very tenuous and easily-removed 2/2 for a cost of 4, the proof of WIN is in this card's ability . . . "Each other multicoloured creature you control gets +1/+1 for each of its colours". When this card hits the board, Woolly Thoctar becomes an 8/7 monster and Jund Hackblade becomes a 6/5.

One cannot effect provisions for every possible late-game play but when things go into the ceramic bowl of games gone awry Wall of Reverence, may become very relevant. I needed something in this deck to deal with flyers other than Stun Sniper and this seemed most appropriate as the Wall can give the flaggin player new life . . literally. Life gain off one the afore-mentioned fatties is nothing to balk at.

Next up is Meglonoth. This vigilant / tramply (a real word?) 6/6 for six mana is a solid inclusion in this slot. An excellent threat is that whenever Meglonoth blocks, it also dings the attacking creature's controller for pain equal to it's power. If the Knight of New Alara is still out, this adds up to a total of 9 damage on the stack that your opponent is either going to have to take in the face or provide a strategy for.

Finally, we have Realm Razer. Realm Razer at 4/2 is again easily removed and you really do not want that considering that once this critter is gone, your opponent will have all those lands back in order to play all those nasty spells in their hand. Protect his creature with Meglonoth or at least ensure that it is pumped up with the Knight for a decent 7/5.

Also - I am still tweaking the mana base and need to include some artifact mana producers such as Firewild Borderpost or perhaps Obelisk of Naya so that I have an alternate deck power supply when Realm Razer hits play.

I am still working on a side board and would very much like to hear from you the reader - so please drop me a comment.

Stompy Razer - 60 Cards

Creatures - 40 Cards
4 x Wild Nacatl
4 x Path to Exile
4 x Druid of the Anima
4 x Jund Hackblade
4 x Stun Sniper
4 x Woolly Thoctar
4 x Bloodbraid Elf
3 x Knight of New Alara
3 x Wall of Reverence
3 x Meglonoth
3 x Realm Razer

Lands - 20 Cards
5 x Mountains
5 x Forests
6 x Plains
4 x Firewild Borderpost

Sideboard - ? ? ? (please assist)

5 comments:

misterorange said...

Thanks for the shoutout. I think you're running FAR too few mana sources for that deck. With all of the high-cost stuff, even hitting 4 mana consistently on Turn 4 will be difficult with only 20 sources.

Borderposts are not equal to a single land. I would suggest you count them as 1/2 a land.

I would also suggest you play with at -least- 23 lands in order to hit your big spells.

My suggestion:

-3 Wall of Reverence (this is an aggro deck)
-1 Meglonoth (one too many six drops)
-4 Firewild Borderpost
+1 Knight of New Alara
+2 Forest
+1 Mountain
+4 Naya Panorama or Jungle Shrine

This gives you the mana you need to be successful. You can't play Magic without mana, and flipping over a borderpost from Bloodbraid Elf is just the worst.

I added more Forests because with Nacatl and Druid, you want to have at -least- as many green sources as white sources, if not more green than any other.

I added Panoramas initially, but Jungle Shrines work too. Panoramas are better for your Nacatls.

Knight of New Alara is the poor man's Wilt-Leaf Liege (that I spend $12/ea buying at Regionals, ouch), and is definitely what you want to be dropping on turn 4, so I upped it to a full boat.

I hope this helped, good luck :)

Nicholas Davis said...

Beautiful! Knight of New Alara is amazing with any creatures of the new blade cycle. I've got him in my Sovereigns of Lost Alara deck for pumping up Ms. Naya Hushblade. 6/5 on T4 is nothing to laugh about. and 6/7 War Monk!!!!?? OH MY!!!

Let me know how the Stun Sniper goes. I've heard nothing but good.

CopySix said...

Thanks Evan - I do really greatly appreciate your input and intend to effect the mods. If this performs well at my casual events, I'm naming it after you (congratulations and sorry). :-)

Filip Ilu said...

You could also use more than two types of cards that empower the knight of new alara, such as bant sureblade or naya hushblade, Marisi's Twinclaws (or even messanger falcons for evasion) and one more knight of alara ofc. Also, depending on what you want to play you could add some others. If you want to play more controlish you could use the druids as a ramp to martial coup or banefire, and the stun sniper as well as cards like ajani vengeant, staff of dominance, naya charm or intimidation bolt to hold your opponent down and make him loose some tempo. Ah and btw i think you have too many 6 drops, and you need the razers, so just remove one or two meglonoths. Also multicolored for the knight to affect is the vigilance/haste bear: cerodon yearling witch i think is excelent but i don't really see much in decks.
Also you can add jungle shrines if you don't use much of the "...blade" creatures, and anyhow, for manafixing you need let's say 2 firewild borderposts and 2 wildfield borderposts.

For the sideboard think of what is the think you are hard to go against and archetypes. I'd say take in the sideboard mass removal such as volcanic fallout, things to destroy artifacts or enchantments (such as vithian renegades, naturalize or Quasali Pridemage) and also behemoth sledge is a good choice and your bloodbraid elf can find it (if you're lucky), mabe Reborn Hope?

Filip Ilu said...

ah and if you want to play more than 4 five drops (or bigger spells) you should take into consideration 23-24 lands or more (borderposts count as half a land since they need a land)