Najeela's Will: Current iteration 8/3/2018, Nature's Will in a otherwise fairly tuned 5c cEDH highlander deck aiming to cast naus into yaw will, angels grace, nauseam draw whole deck, win with twister loops exiling opposing decks with repeated praetor's grasps. Having play-tested Najeela for some time, the deck's namesake combo seems the optimal play only when the opening hand consists of Enlightened Tutor (and no other tutors), some colorful lands and fast ramp. Conversely, if the opener has more tutors than just Enlightened, it is advisable to get mana crypt with it, and ad nauseam with the other tutor (unless it is demonic consultation. Man do I hate that card backfiring when naming Ad Nauseam).
Considering how the deck has (d?)evolved into the not atypical cEDH Ad Nauseam -optimised twister-loops in the search for the optimal Najeela deck over the course of some months (not for lack of trying), I regret to announce that Najeela is SUB-OPTIMAL. Thrasios & Tymna is simply a better commander combination for what a Najeela deck naturally evolves into.
Consider Najeela's text box. It basically says: 'Whenever a warrior attacks, put a warrior token in to play attacking'. The smart reader will notice that this token generation is exponential! In order to be able to think ahead mid-game, knowing how fast one might win with Najeela combats can be critical. Let us try to find some tricks to master the art of calculating Najeela damage real-time, without a pen and a paper (or calculator). Proof of the below formulas may be given upon request, should anyone be interested
Let's start with some Math: Let N be equal the amount of occurred 'Combat Damage Steps'. Therefore, the amount of warrior tokens after any given combat damage step is equal to:
Warrior tokens: 2 ^ N - 1.
Furthermore, the cumulative amount of damage dealt by Najeela and the tokens after the Nth combat damage step equals to.
Total cumulative damage dealt: 2 * (N + 2 ^ N - 1)
Here is a table which shows the number of tokens and cumulative damage dealt by Najeela and her tokens for each combat step:
Combat . Tokens . Damage
0 . 0 . 0
1 . 1 . 4
2 . 3 . 10
3 . 7 . 20
4 . 15 . 38 <- win a 2-player game
5 . 31 . 72 <- maybe win a 3-player game (hope for lots of opposing fetched shocklands)
6 . 63 . 138 <- win a 4-player game
7 . 127 . 268 <- win just about anything
6 combat steps with Najeela will beat 3 opposing goldfishes, while 5 combat steps might beat 2 opponents if their combined life total has gone down by 8 due to external factors.
A Najeela deck built with 99 basic lands will consistently beat 2 goldfish on turn 6, and on turn 7 Najeela will kick the crap out of 6 goldfish. If there is another deck able to win equally fast or faster with a similar composition, I'd like to see it.
Quick maths, the total amount of damage dealt after each combat is somewhat larger than twice the amount of tokens you have. For a better approximation: If you remember your 2 ^ N table, then that damage is just a bit more than 2 ^ (number of combats + 1)
2 ^ N
2 ^ 1 = 2
2 ^ 2 = 4
2 ^ 3 = 8
2 ^ 4 = 16
2 ^ 5 = 32
2 ^ 6 = 64
2 ^ 7 = 128
Najeela cEDH variant optimised for Nature's will. IMO the strongest of Najeela's large suite of one card combos (others being derevi, SoFaF, cryptolith rites, druid's repository, or various intruder alert or ascendancy combos), as it wins instantly assuming a light set of requirements; Case 1: 2 colorful lands and can connect to 3 opponents, case 2: 3 colorful lands and can connect to 2 opponents. That's it!
"Nut" hand: T1 land + mana rock/dork/enchantment, T2 land + Najeela, T3 nature's will -> inf combat.
Tutor suite's purpose is to find "insta win" in either Nature's Will or Ad Nauseam, therefore playing all the tutors is good. Demonic Consultation + Tainted Pact serve that purpose, and would suggest including Laboratory Maniac. However, for labman to be good, cantrips would need to be introduced, introducing the need for wider structural change.
Land base currently unpolished:
Tarnished Citadel: Good for comboing, since najeela grants lifelink.
Currently running all duals (Consider cutting some white sources, investigate)
Cavern of souls seems bad during combo (taps for color only for creature casts)
Forbidden orchard: Connecting in combat is necessity so on the surface chumpers seem a bad idea, however at least one player will always have blockers so connecting to them unlikely anyways, resulting in an ideal target for spirit tokens. Furthermore, orchard generates linear token production while najeela's production is exponential, winning out when comboing nonetheless
Path of Ancestry would be wonderful if it wouldn't etb tapped. Maybe, just maybe worth running regardless? Critical mass of 5c lands necessity, run the numbers
Spire of Industry: Ramp preferred land-based, resulting in low artifact count (see missing mox opal)
Individual Card contemplations
Ramp increasingly land based, where is the breaking point for dramatic scepter's applicability?
Yawgmoth's will vs Snapcaster Mage vs neither: need for investigation due to lack of storminess
investigate Top's position in this brave new world