Commander 2013 Nature of the Beast

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps, 

We have for you today part two of five separate articles we are doing on the new Commander 2013 decks just recently released by WotC to a very welcoming Magic: the Gathering fan base.  Each of these new Commander pre-constructed decks provides a ready to play stack of 100 cards including a choice of three legendary creatures to act as your general which may be also represented by an oversized foil card.  The card list is a solid foundation which you can easily adjust to taste - we'll likely throw a few of our nostalgic favourites we've picked up from MTG Mint Card into the original mix. 

The is the overview / review for Commander 2013's 'Evasive Maneuvers' deck and we've prepared a video with our good friend Jon from 'Command Tower' on Tumblr.  

See the rest of the videos in this series:
• Evasive Maneuvers
• Eternal Bargain
• Mind Seize
• Power Hungry
• Nature of the Beast
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Here is the new Commander 2013 Nature of the Beast (Naya - Red / Green / White) with the available Generals of Marath, Will of the Wild, Gahiji, Honored One, and Mayael the Anima).  Let's have a looky-loo . . .
Marath, Will of the Wild
Costing only a 'Naya' (red / green / white), you get a legendary beast whose power / toughness are equal to its casting cost - and with the commander tax of an additional two each time you re-cast this, it can get big.  The second ability allows you to pay 'X' to remove that many +1/+1 counters from Marath to have one of three effects.  Either transfer those counters onto a target critter, ping for that much damage to target creature / player, or generate an equally sized creature token - very lovely.

Gahiji, Honored One
Here's you next new Commander - a 4/4 Beast costing five (two colorless and one 'naya').  This is a nice enticement for your opponents to attack each other as well as a boost to your creatures when they attack. This looks fine in an aggro list and would likely benefit with similar strategy cards like Gisela.

Mayael the Anima
This reprint from Shards of Alara is a shoe-in for this sort of deck.  Costing one 'Naya', your 2/3 Elf Shaman has the ability to dig the top five cards in your library for a fatty with power five or greater and drop that right onto the battlefield.  The cost to cheat a potentially expensive creature right into play costs just six mana (three and a  'naya').  Since we cannot realistically have an entire tall stack choked full 'o' fatties, we suggest you float them to the top to take full advantage of Mayael with the likes of Congregation at Dawn.

This deck is good, but in our opinion not great.  Both Marath and Gahiji are decent but we found ourselves simply wanting to deck them in to choose Mayael for the command zone.  If you are thinking of getting into Commander and love the Naya colours, then pick this one up but for us, we would rather scrap a good portion of the list and have a much more dedicated list to work with Mayael.
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Naya Collar

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Happy Friday MTG fans,

As this is Friday, and many of you are heading out to your local gamery store latter this evening to partake in Friday Night Magic (location / details HERE on the Wizards site), this may be a good time to take the tarp off what I think I will be running tonight - friends at my store please do not look lest you start side-boarding before we even sit down to do battle.

Righty - here is the casual Magic deck we have to date and will likely be modifying after some playingtesting at FNM tonight - please have a look at what we'll call Naya Collar for now . . .


Apocalypse Hydra
Prodigal Pyromancer
Woolly Thoctar
Cunning Sparkmage
Stoneforge Mystic
Druid of the Anima
Birds of Paradise
Wild Nactl
Whispersilk Cloak
Quietus Spike
Gorgan Flail
Basilisk Collar
Jungle Shrine
Forest
Mountain
Plains

One of our fav new cards will have to be Stoneforge Mystic, followed by Basilisk Collar . . . do you see where this is going ? - yep - straight to Timmy-Land. Prodigal Pyromancer and Cunning Sparkmage are both perfect for this - being able to sling a point of deathtouch over the battlefield at a board threat without committing to a combat stage is rather nice. As these two cards also can poke your opponent for one as well, we had decided to include Quietus Spike to knock down their life a large chunk at a time (about 50% + 1 point by our estimates). :-)

Another (perhaps odd) inclusion is Apocalypse Hydra. We thought somewhat apropos as this provides late game options - either a fatty or to give your arsenal an extra timmy ability. Again, we will have to wait to see how well this may work against the local meta-game.

Woolly Thoctar is big, furry and cute and a perfect three drop threat - no opponent is really evar excited to see a 5/4 beasty on turn two or three. Turn two you ask - why yes - with our mana accelerating Birds of Paradise (and Druid of the Anima), we hope to set ourselves up ahead of the game and ready ourselves for some whopping. We will report back on the MTG / FNM twitter hash-taggy.


Anywhoos - please provide your suggestions as what to keep and drop - we REALLY DO value your opinion and read through all your eMails and comments and take them under serious advisement.

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Next Up - total randomness again . . .

Recall our saying that Mr. Woolly Thoctar is big, furry and cute ? Today at work was show and tell. A fellow Officer popped into our office with a Fisher which had been found unfortunately expired beside a road. As this is the first time we've seen one, we took an interest . . .

From the Wiki - The fisher (Martes pennanti), also referred to as fisher cat, is a medium-sized mammal native to North America. Fishers are widespread throughout the temperate regions of North America.

Recent studies, as well as anecdotal evidence, suggest that the highly adaptable fishers have begun making inroads into suburban backyards, farmland, and even semi-urban areas.

Anywhoos - yet another request Wizards - can we see another badger like critter in the next set ? We love 'em Badgers, Badgers, Badgers.
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Naya Aggro Math

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Something I hope to try next Friday Night Magic -

I just overhauled a deck I had recently discussed in the last 'What I'm Playing'. Why ? Some of the most aggressive decks in standard today have something rather similar in common - a healthy smattering of Naya cards (red / green / white). I wanted to try and construct / pilot a deck that would incorporate the best synergies of the big 'roid Naya beaters to deliver a severe kick to the face on almost every turn.


To this end, I turned to Knight of New Alara, and Colossal Might which couples rather nicely with most every tri-coloured Naya creature. To keep the pain sustained and maximize the synergies in play, Gloryscale Viashino got drafted as well onto the team.

Beaters . . .
Meglonoth (6/6)
Gloryscale Viashino (3/3)
Woolly Thoctar (5/4)
Jund Hackblade (2/1 -> 3/2 haste)

With Knight of New Alara in play . . .

Bigger Beaters . . .
Meglonoth (9/9)
Woolly Thoctar (8/7)
Gloryscale Viashino (6/6)
Jund Hackblade (6/5)

With Colossal Might (+4/+2 and trample)

Stupid Huge Beaters . . .
Meglonoth (13/11)
Gloryscale Viashino (13/11)
Woolly Thoctar (12/9)
Jund Hackblade (9/7)

Gloryscale Viashino (3/3) while Knight of New Alara is in play is an enviable 6/6. When you play the multicolour spell Colossal Might, Gloryscale gets pumped by +3/+3 making it now a frightening 9/9. Your evil mind knows that this is the time to target Gloryscale with Colossal Might which now makes it an insane 13/11 with trample . . . just crazy!

I am also rather pleased that Bloodbraid Elf cascades more than half the spells currently within the deck. As it sits currently, Bloodbraid could hit (in order of preference) Woolly Thoctar, Jund Hackblade, Colossal Might, Stun Sniper, and some other critters which I will not let you in on (in case someone from the club is reading).


My suggestions for FNM dinner - invite a couple of large beaters, and let them party with Knight of New Alara and Colossal Might. I hope to report back to you with details as to how this Naya build performed against the various other decks.

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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)

Deranged Deck Design #1

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For some odd reason that could only be understood by a fevered and unwell mind, I decided to explore the theoretical probabilities of a game win with Mayael's Aria - you know - that new geeky Alara Reborn card that no-one is really paying any attention to. Well, if you don't know, this enchantment provides +1/+1 counters to each creature you control provided that you already have a creature with a power of 5 or better. Additionally, it also pumps your life by 10 if you control a creature with a power of 10 or better. This card's bomb text resides within the last sentence . . . "you win the game if you control a creature with power 20 or greater".

Now that we have a clearly defined objective (making fatties), let's take a look a the game plan. If one were to have a sinfully gluttonous mana pool readily available to transform a creature from fatty to stupid-huge fatty, this may just work. With Apocalypse Hydra and Sigil of Distinction, a player would be able to dump a potentially unlimited volume of mana to produce said fatty with power 20 or greater to meet the game win condition.

Mana now is our focus. With Noble Hierarch, Druid of the Anima and particularly Knotvine Mystic, one may be able to culture an enviable pool of available mana which may be then dumped into the Sigil of Distinction or Apocalypse Hydra.

Having a quick jump start into the red zone or having available defenders is also sage advice. To this end, Bant Sureblade and Esper Stormblade are available. These two provide a solid first strike and flying creature which is certain to give your opponent pause especially if they are both pumped up to a highly desirable 6/5 by Knight of New Alara.

The blades become 6/5 critter.
Woolly Thoctar becomes a 8/7 beater
Whoa, Wha ?

As for the sideboard, we have to make allowances for Wrath of God and Timmy effects which may be accomplished with the likes of Mark of Asylum and Dauntless Escort.

Land
5 x Mountain
5 x Forest
5 x Plains
4 x Jungle Shrine

Creatures
4 x Noble Hierarch
3 x Bant Sureblade
3 x Esper Stormblade
4 x Druid of the Anima
4 x Oblivion Ring
4 x Mayael's Aria
3 x Knotvine Mystic
4 x Woolly Thoctar
4 x Knight of New Alara
4 x Sigil of Distinction
4 x Apocalypse Hydra

Sideboard
4 x Mark of Asylum
3 x Cancel
4 x Seaside Citadel
4 x Dauntless Escort

Please feel free to leave a comment as to your opinion if this is likely to go to the top during a Friday Night Magic or other casual MTG event.

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Naya Aggro Help

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Hey all,

I hope to be heading into a BLOCK-CONSTRUCTED tournament this weekend and would be greatly appreciative of any constructive assistance you may be able to provide in helping me out in tweaking my Naya build.

The deck as it sits is overweight and needs to loose quite a bit.


In my sideboard (which may very well make it into the main deck) are some Ember Weavers (first strike reach), Naya Charms, Realm Razers and Battlegrace Angels.

Here is a shot of the Mana I can pull in or fix.


And here is the list . . . please help me fix it - - your suggestions please - post a comment.

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46 Creatures
4 x Noble Hierarch (G)
4 x Path to Exile (W)
4 x Wild Nacatl (G)
4 x Druid of the Anima 1(G)
3 x Steward of Valeron (G)(W)
4 x Knotvine Mystic (R)(G)(W)
4 x Woolly Thoctar (R)(G)(W)
4 x Oblivion Ring 2(W)
2 x Elspeth, Knight-Errant 2(W)(W)
3 x Cliffrunner Behemoth 3(G)
2 x Ajani Vengeant 2(R)(W)
4 x Megnlonoth 3(R)(W)(G)
3 x Titanic Ultimatum (R)(R)(G)(G)(G)(W)(W)
1 x Apocalypse Hydra X(R)(G)

22 Lands
4 x Ancient Ziggurat
8 x Forest
5 x Plains
5 x Mountain