Naya Blitz stalls in late game
Deck Help forum
Posted on May 28, 2013, 2:25 p.m. by PolishVendetta
While generally my Naya Blitz is formidable, my roomate has been playing Junk Rites recently and its shaken my confidence. I definately can't win consistantly.
I also notice that in a long game the deck will stall while other decks will continue to pull out bigger creatures.
I am looking for more consistant wins either with more short game kills or having better responses to lategame plays.
PolishVendetta says... #3
Mana isnt really my problem, turn 5 I'll have 5 mana out but no cards in hand. Then I'm down to drawing 1 and a time and if I hit a land pocket I'm basically dead in the water. Curse of the Pierced Heart is an interesting suggestion that I will definately be considering.
May 28, 2013 3:01 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #4
The idea behind fetching lands would be to take them out of the deck so you don't draw them when you need something else. Basically if you want a consistent deck, it has to flow and filter. Green filters by fetching lands. Blue does it by drawing cards. You don't often see Tier 1 decks that don't filter. Theres exceptions to every rule of course and it depends on what cards are around.
May 28, 2013 3:19 p.m.
Naya Blitz is an inconsistent deck by nature. The advantage of playing it is it has some hands that are basically impossible to defeat, but you are accepting the fact that you're going to be top decking 1/1s or slightly flood on lands and simply loose. If you find these inconsistencies frustrating I'd recommend RG Aggro for a similar feel that's a bit slower but much more consistent.
That said, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement and I definitely think it's in keeping the deck fast.
For starters, cut down to 20 lands and play all 12 shocks in color. Having only 8 sources for your best Turn 1 play, Champion of the Parish just isn't acceptable. Blitz is almost a combo deck in a way, it needs to play its cards on turn no matter the cost. I've shocked myself over 3 times and still won games. And 20 lands hedges your percentages against flooding, and 3-4 land cards is basically almost all you ever want in play.
Next up, I would toss out the Zhur-Taa Druid . The deck doesn't need mana acceleration, and can't afford to play a non-aggressive creature. You really want Experiment One back in here. It's one of the reasons to play blitz because you get to play 3 sets of aggressive one drop creatures.
I'm just not a fan of Legion's Initiative in blitz. It doesn't favorably boost most your your creatures. It's much better in a deck that's running all red. And because of all the deck's synergy you want to be playing out all your creatures and don't really have extra mana to hold up. Searing Spear gets blockers out of the way and is also a key piece of reach combined with Ghor-Clan Rampager for pushing through the last few points of damage. Most decks will stabilize at some point and you need these cards to get lethal in.
Lastly, I'd look at what you're doing with the sideboard, a lot of them are just different cards from what you have in the main. Ash Zealot is always awkward with blitz because you can't play it off of Burning-Tree Emissary , and doesn't hate out graveyards hard enough. Hellrider isn't bad for control. Kessig Wolf Run is basically the opposite of what the deck wants to be doing, it's nice in midrange deck who want something to do with all their lands, but if you've ever played out enough lands for Kessig Wolf Run to matter you've lost that game. Pillar of Flame / Searing Spear are fine, though I like spear in the main. Thatcher Revolt if you're concerned about consistency this makes even less sense, sure it can lead to some nuts draws but only in the most ideal circumstances. If they are interacting with you at all it looks way way worse.
Sideboard to add, Boros Charm is a way better sweeper protection card than Legion's Initiative since it's 1/2 as cheap(making it easier to hold up) and it can finish people off. The rest would depend a bit on what your local meta is. If your friend is playing Junk Rites some Tormod's Crypt can go a long way without slowing you down.
May 28, 2013 3:58 p.m.
PolishVendetta says... #6
With everyones help I added a real sideboard and did some play tests which I updated Naya Blitz
I didnt pull any Tormod's Crypt
which made the results basically the same, 1 - 4.
And that leaves me with the following questions:
What are the opinions of adding 2 Firemane Avenger
or 2 Gideon, Champion of Justice
for later game damage?
Out of Tormod's Crypt
, Ground Seal
, and Rest in Peace
, which is a better response to Rites decks?
May 29, 2013 1:07 p.m.
hiddengibbons says... #7
the problem with rites is that all it does is Filter and Drop a game-winning threat. That one night I won with a Burn Deck, I actually main decked 1 Grafdigger's Cage . The problem/success of Rites is that they know that very few people maindeck graveyard hate so Game 1 is probably a Win and If they think that their opponent will sideboard in some hate, then they simply transform the deck more towards Ramping rather than Reanimating. I like Tormod's Crypt myself because it doesn't cost mana and you can crack it in response, but Rest in Peace is retroactive and often forces them to use those Abrupt Decay . It really depends on your mana. If you don't have lots of lands and you plan to spend most of your mana on creatures, you'd probably want the Crypt.
hiddengibbons says... #2
The reason Weenie/Aggro decks stall and lack consistency is because they don't usually draw cards or fetch lands. Naya Blitz has a bad matchup against control unless it gets really lucky. I once shut down Naya Blitz with a second rate version of my now polished Esper Control. The dude rage-quit. I would suggest a Naya Mid-Range. Another issue is that the format is changing. I have it on good authority that standard, because of the cards in it, is becoming a slower game than it was. While winning in the early game is good, the trend in standard appears to be moving more towards Mid and Late game wins. But that could change when M14 and the next expansion come out. The only fast deck I would consider right now would be RDW (with splashes of other colors of course) I won an FNM with a bRDW back in December and I didn't have anything that cost more than 3 mana. But there was a lot of luck too and there wasn't as much lifegain in the meta. I guess you could also try adding to your Naya Blitz Farseek to fetch lands and filter and Curse of the Pierced Heart to keep the damage going in if you stall. I don't know how well that would work and still maintain Naya Blitz's basic plan.
May 28, 2013 2:40 p.m.