Feature Deck: Dark Naya

Alright as promised, here is my current Magic: The Gathering decklist, created by yours truly, for study and discussion.

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Vengevine
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Savage Lands
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Arid Mesa
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Forest
2 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Pithing Needle
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Dauntless Escort
3 Thought Hemorrhage
3 Consuming Vapors

Here are the nonland cards in my deck sorted by my own special categories.

Acceleration
4 Noble Hierarch

Creatures (offense)
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Vengevine

Removal (defense)
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse

There are two main things about my sorting that will come as odd to the average player: Noble Hierarch not being in the creature category and Blightning in the removal category. I choose to put Noble Hierarch in a special acceleration category because that's exactly what I use it for. Noble Hierarch is so weak that it is rarely used as an attacker, I use it simply to play turn 4 spells on turn 3.
Blightning in removal is also weird. I like to consider Blightning as indirect removal because while you cannot quite target specific cards, it still removes cards from your opponent's hands. In most cases blightning will render the last two threats of your opponent's hand useless, or increase your card advantage relative to the opponent's. I broke this deck into primarily offense and defense to allow for more study of these two strategic concepts as it relates to Magic.

Now for any doubters that may be out there, this is a good deck. I went 6-2 with it (minor changes each time) at the most recent Nationals Qualifier and Midwest Masters I entered and both were 200+ man tournaments. In addition I'd say both losses at both events were strongly influenced by mulligan to five hands, and not because of color issues, I for whatever reason kept drawing 1-land hands. This deck has even performed quite well against decks that use Spreading Seas to try to mess with my manabase.

The concept of this deck came from a few choices. The first one being that I strongly prefer creatures. If you dropped me into a random format several years into the future my first question would be "what are the best creatures in the format?" In this case, my mind floated to Naya, with the ability to use both Bloodbraid Elf and Ranger of Eos for superior card advantage. And because cascading into a 6/6 is just pure awesome. "Sure I was losing until my Bloodbraid Elf Cascaded into a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary and put a threat of 9 points of damage on the board, in one card." The second choice of mine is that I don't like running pure creature builds. Decks that have the ability to interact with the opponent and foil their plans can be said to be more versatile than pure creature aggro decks. So I asked myself the question "what deck has the best removal?" With Maelstrom Pulse, Blightning, Terminate, and Lightning Bolt, Jund was obviously the answer to that. So I could run Jund splashing white or Naya splashing black. In the end I chose Naya+black because Naya had more potential for both acceleration and color fixing with Noble Hierarch and Knight of the Reliquary and because of my playstyle.

If you read my previous blog entries you'd see that I tried to quantify my playstyle as a ratio of offense to defense and came up with 70:30. If you agree that creatures are the main form of offense in a deck and removal is defense, then Naya splashing black would fit my playstyle perfectly. Take note of the number of creatures:removal. Out of 35 Cards we have 22 creatures (Noble Hierarch is included for the sake of Vengevine) and 13 removal spells. 22/35 is roughly 63%, not quite 70% but for the sake of adjustments to the general format, it's close enough. Considering that one Bloodbraid Elf could very well be 2 creatures and one Ranger of Eos is effectively 3 creatures, I think that realistically it is very close to 70% in use. My removal is 37%. In my opinion 70% offense and 30% defense is enough offense to stay on an assault strategy while having just enough defense to reliably foil your opponent's plans of winning. I am simply noting that this is the playstyle I have found the most success with in every game I play and my best deck to date also follows this playstyle closely.

I broke this ratio once and it lead to much worse results. I went to PTQ Amsterdam with a list of 50% creatures and 50% removal. I ended that tournament 4-4. I am not necessarily saying this is the definite hands-down reason, but I believe it was a very strong factor concerning my drop in success. Henceforth I returned to the roughly 70:30 style and I am once again loving my success. I am doing excellent in FNMs (usually 40 man tournaments) and against a nearly every type of deck. I also added one land (it was formerly 24 land), which greatly reduced the number of unfavorable 1 and 2 land opening hands.

Aside from my own special theories on why my deck wins, here are more commonly explored reasons as to why it is doing so well.
1. This deck is full of card advantage; with 4 Bloodbraid Elf, 3 Ranger of Eos, 3 Vengevine, 4 Blightning, and 3 Maelstrom Pulse (for a total of 13 possible), the opportunities for me to gain card advantage over my opponent just throw themselves at me.
2. This deck sports some of the most efficient creatures in the format.
3. This deck also sports some of the most efficient removal in the format.

Efficient spells offer more flexibility. Any time I play 2 spells in one turn cycle and my opponent plays only one spell, I have gained one unit of initiative. Example: On an empty board I play a Knight of the Reliquary and pass my turn. My opponent plays a Putrid Leech and passes his turn, at which point I play Path to Exile. Because I played two spells to his one I have just put him behind one full turn in terms of on-the-board development. In the situation that my opponent went first I would have eliminated his initiative advantage and equalized on the board.

Here are my thoughts about some of my common matchups:

Jund
I really like this matchup. We are basically the same concept except Jund is a bit slower and has slightly more powerful late-game spells like Siege-Gang Commander and Broodmate Dragon. While I do get unlucky sometimes I usually win this one by having more card advantage than my opponent. My opponent's Blightning can be offset by the addition of 2 creatures to my hand with Ranger of Eos. In contrast my Blightnings hurt a lot, as my Jund opponent has no such compensation. Sprouting Thrinax usually gets Path to Exile'd and my Vengevine just keeps coming back. I rarely have to sideboard against Jund unless they play some unusual tech, at which point I just put in Thought Hemorrhage.

UW Tapout
I usually lose the first game to Day of Judgment and Martial Coup, though with the addition of Vengevine I have been getting many 2-0 victories against them lately. Game two I side in Dauntless Escort, Pithing Needle for planeswalkers and Celestial Collonades, and maybe Qasali Pridemage if they seem heavy on enchantments or artifacts like Oblivion Ring, Spreading Seas, Everflowing Chalice, and Fieldmist Borderpost (the pridemage may seem overboard but it at least gives me more insurance against Spreading Seas, while hitting lots of other stuff too). Thought Hemorrhage also works against any annoyance or tech the other cards can't deal with.

Polymorph
I had trouble with this deck until recently. Game one I just have to try my best to either kill all of their tokens or race them to defeat. Post sideboard is Thought Hemorrhage naming Polymorph for the win, in addition to the previous tactics if I don't draw one. Consuming Vapors is also surprisingly good here not only can it devour tokens needed to cast Polymorph, it can also devour Emrakul, The Aeons Torn if it manages to hit the field.

Vampires
The first game seems strongly in my favor unless I get Mind Sludge'd, and I can even recover from that well because of Bloodbraid Elf, Ranger of Eos, and Vengevine. Post sideboard I have my Consuming Vapors in and they get wrecked. Rule of thumb: If your opponent plays a nontoken creature-based deck, Consuming Vapors wrecks them.

Naya
Their Vengevine gets Path to Exile'd and their Knight of the Reliquary gets Maelstrom Pulse'd. Post board Consuming Vapors wrecks them.

Planeswalker Control
Maelstrom Pulse helps me a lot in this matchup, as does Vengevine. This matchup is similar for me to UW Control variants; game one is about 40:60 in their favor but post board Pithing Needle and Thought Hemorrhage come in and foil all their plans.

Next-Level Bant
I honestly have not played this deck yet, though as I look at the lists this matchup looks like I have the upper hand in both game one and two. The concept of Next-Level Bant is somewhat similar to mine; good creatures and decent defensive control combined into one deck, but I have way more card advantage. Consuming Vapors may not be as good because of their creature:noncreature ratio not being so creature-heavy. But as usual Thought Hemorrhage hits a lot of things...

Time Sieve/Open The Vaults
Qasali Pridemage and Pithing Needle. I have never lost to this type of deck post sideboard.

Mono Red
Blightning, Lightning Bolt, and Path to Exile are a house against this deck. Post board throw in Consuming Vapors if some of their creature choices stay on the field. If it it just Goblin guide, Hellspark Elemental, Hell's Thunder, Ball Lightning, and a bunch of burn spells, then stick with blightning, bolt, and path. Thought Hemorrhage is a bad idea here since it is so slow.

Last notes:
Thought Hemorrhage was suggested to me recently by my local judge. Formerly in its place was Oblivion Ring. I thought that in order to remove all copies of the named card it had to be present in the opponent's hand. But this card is really like BR's Meddling Mage. The card does not have to be in the opponents hand, simply name a card you don't want to see and watch as your opponent's deck gets crippled. If the card is in the opponent's hand you get to deal damage as an extra bonus. It it not subject to removal spells like Meddling Mage, so once it resolves, its effect sticks. You seriously can't go wrong with Thought Hemorrhage in your sideboard if you have the colors to play it.

Spreading Seas alone does not destroy me but 4 Spreading Seas and 2+ Convincing Mirage does. If decks that use more Convincing Mirage become common, I can use the intuitive Prophetic Prism tech to counteract them.

Please feel free to comment, congratulate, or criticize. Any of the above leads to learning, which is what this blog is all about.