This is my first try of building a Naya commander deck. It's also part of my "art of war" project. Project in witch I try to get out uncommon Magic mechanic with a 3 colors commander into optimized casual "control" deck. For those who are curious, here is my other deck from my art of war series: Jeskai's Art Of War , a "polymorph" control deck.
As you might know, Naya is the powerhouse of big fat creature that trample you to the victory. That's put us far from a control-ish type of deck and I dont even came to the fack that Naya deny us access to blue. Here come Marisi, Breaker of the Coil and the goad mechanic. We might not be able to control the stack efficiently, but our control over the battlefield will be terrific.
Note that our metagame discourage the use of tutor and infinite combo and emphasis on steady draw and synergy instead.
Speaking of synergy, building an attack based goad deck is'nt a simple task. This need a little bit more setup than more simple mechanic, such as abuse of ETB effect or landfall. To be successfull this deck need to connect with all opponents each turn. Here came the first problem. To achieve that, we need a fair amount of creatures and a way to connect steadily. Keeping in mind that we also need ramp, draw and interaction. Adding many evasion pieces in form of spell, land or artifact became a challenge sooner than later. This is why I have settled on creatures with evasion printed into it. Here come the Soltari tribes at the rescue. They are'nt unblockable, but they have shadow, witch is almost unblockable since very few creature with shadow exist and almost nobody include them just in case. Also, since we are relying on our opponents creatures to distribute damage, we dont have to find a way to put big fat Naya's creatures into play. We can deep down into cheapest creature that give us more control and allow us to cut cards that cheat big creature into play. It's also release some of the steam from the need of ramping. All of those considerations are giving this deck a really smooth mana curve and ease the driving.
For the draw and ramp, I have priorised card that give bonus from attacking. I know that they are not as reliable as instant or sorcery, but I have build this deck with the goal of introducing a friend into Magic. Keeping that in mind I have choice ramp/drawing cards that benefit from attack trigger to keep the driving of this deck as simple and smooth as possible.
The first step of this newborn deck was'nt pretty. As expected, the ramp and draw was'nt very efficient, but I somehow find how to fix this issue over time. But the biggest problem to face was the fact that even if goad was a very funny mechanic it's became pretty useless in end game when they only left one opponent. The good thing was the fact that even if I have not figured out at first how to finish the game, be one of the 2 last player alive was a relativly easy achievment. It's occur that the solution of this problem was in fact more a matter of how piloting this deck than having a secret wincon. Giving the fact that you don't have to kill any creatures until they are only one opponent left, you can stack and keep most of the interaction cards until the last stage. Other consideration is that your opponent creatures will be tapped most of the time so you can distribute commander damage until you can forecast who will be your last opponent and manage to get him at 1 commander shot of the death. Then throwing all you have in hand in a final epic blow. Even if you can't finish the game with commander damage, more often than other your opponent life will be very low and the "unblockable" creatures can be in position to give the final blow or simply just grinding to the victory.
It's turn after 2 years of polishing this "created for newby deck" have come from being my worst deck to one of my best. Netherless how surprisinly powerfull this deck was, what I really enjoy is that is also one of my funniest deck to drive.
I'm open for comments or suggestions :)
PS: I'm mostly searching replacement for cards with 2 pips of the same color in their mana cost, I have way to much of them.
Feel free to visit and comment my others commander's decks
Main deck:
Unleash the fury Atraxa Voltron 1vs1
Walk in the Vastwood Mono Green Land
Mr Burns's excellent deck Mono Red Burn
We Brake For Nobody Mono Black ETB pigner
May the pool on the roof have a leak Mono Blue Blink Spellslinger
Dude where's my cards? Rackdos Storm-ish Burn
Who you gonna call? Azorius Spirits Combat Tricks
Elemental mon cher Watson! Gruul Landfall
Art of War's series:
The X Factor Sultai X Spells
Jeskai's Art Of War Jeskai Polymorph
Jank Series:
Burning jank Boros Tokens Burn
Approach of the second breakfest Selesnya Hobbits chump's blockers eating foods until the Approach of the Second Sun
Jankyard Gruul Artifacts Value Engine
JankHouse of the Dragon Simic Cheap's Dragons Cheater
Death by one thousand jank cut Dimir Burn-ish Value Engine
K'rrik, Jank of Yawgmoth Mono Black Lifesteal
jank swarmyard Golgari Insects Tribal
You call that a jank knife? Boros Voltron Artifacts
Captain Jank Rackdos "Mill"
Thrun for your life Mono Green Voltron
Rock SuperJank Rackdos Landfall & Artifact Value Engine
