Everything Naya

Aug 14, 2010

Welcome to your one stop shop for all things Naya. We’re nearing the end of a three colored era it seems, and we must let go of certain cards that will be missed. But we aren’t here to sulk, we’re here to enjoy to the max one of the best decks in standard – Naya. Naya was always really good and then it got Fauna Shaman, I can safely say it is now great. In fact it’s better than great. I’ll get into discussion of why in the following paragraphs.

Let me begin by saying that Naya is a meta-call deck because it does not have any bad matchups that are truly a huge uphill battle. Baneslayer Angel is probably it’s toughest competition, but let me let you in on a little secret, how many Baneslayer’s are maindecked in standard right now? The answer is darn near 0. Sun Titan has taken her place for good reason in control decks. But that’s great for us! Now we don’t even need removal, which allows us to agro out even harder. We don’t have to have a bunch of cards taking up card slots because we are worried about one card.

I’ve been playing Naya enough against all the Tier 1 and 2 decks now that I feel I’m fully capable of breaking down its matchups. And that’s what I am going to do. But first let me explain a few more things as to why Naya is the best deck in Standard currently. The answer is largely Fauna Shaman. If she goes untouched after a turn 2 or 3 drop you can set up a streamline of Vengevines that no deck can handle. And all this can happen easily by turn 5, and by turn 6 if your opponent isn’t already dead they will be soon. Setting up two or three Vengevines in the graveyard against slower decks like UW control is just too much for them to handle because they have to wait a turn to Day of Judgment. And at that point it’s too late. Worst case you still have cards in your hand and guess what? They are all creatures because Naya runs maybe four non-creature spells. So chances are if you don’t have a Bloodbraid Elf, you’ll be able to get one with Fauna Shaman. Or maybe you were smart and saved some mana dorks you didn’t need to recur Vengevine. See my point about Fauna Shaman?

Naya not only has Fauna Shaman though, it has a ton of other early drops that put pressure quickly. Knight of the Reliquary gets big fast, and with some evasive tech in the deck he can swing through freely or play the control game. All your mana dorks early can create a turn three Vengevine, or turn three Bloodbraid Elf. And I don’t even want to get into the nut cascade draws Bloodbraid can have.

The deck attacks from so many different ways, and has so many toolbox answers in the form of equipment and creatures that there isn’t a dagger to beat Naya except getting some early removal on the one and two drop creatures. And even then it’s still very winnable.

Here are the matchups in order of the hardest to the least hardest. These are all decks I feel are worth considering as competition.

Valakut Ramp Decks:

This matchup is by far the worst for multiple reasons. The deck is so consistent due to its ramping into fatties, and eventually burning you out with Valakut. The struggle here is that they have lightning bolts early which will drastically slow you down. And if you are going slow against a fast deck, you are going to lose. You have to be careful not to overextend mana dorks because I’ve seen a lot of pyroclasm effects and that right there will just lose you the game. Valakut can either destroy creatures with ease (assuming they got out two or three valakuts, which isn’t hard with Primeval) but it can also destroy you… in one shot. And that’s the problem I’ve been running into. For instance your opponent can drop a Siege-Gang Commander for defense on turn four or five. Granted you can swing into it but you most likely aren’t doing damage at this point, then the preceding turn out comes the Primeval. And even if Primeval gets removed (which it won’t because you are playing Naya) you are probably going to take at least 18 next turn. How 18? Well let’s assume they had one Valakut in play and played a Primeval, now they have three. So at this point all they need is a Harrow, Khalni Heart Expedition, or maybe even a Terramorphic Expanse with an Oracle of Mul Daya in play. Ouch. Nothing you can do about it either. The best solution I’ve come up with is Leyline of Sanctity (Thanks to MrScottyMac for that one) and Manabarbs (thanks to my twitter followers on this) but the problem there is your creatures are just going to get board swept easily. So then what? I’m considering sideboarding Whispersilk cloak. Seems terrible, but they are probably down a little life by the time they get going, so at this point Whispersilk can finish them off on a Vengevine or Knight of the Reliquary.

Point of this matchup is beat them as fast as you can or lose.

UW Control:

I put this as the decks second hardest matchup and I’m not fully sure that is true. This matchup is fairly easy given the right hand. A Fauna Shaman Turn two is great because they need to Path to Exile it which allows a turn three Vengevine without a mana dork. So the variations of good hands you can get against UW are really good. Far less mulligans here. However don’t get caught with a hand where you aren’t doing anything until turn three, or even worse turn four. That is a losing battle. The idea here is also beat them down before they can stabilize. Word of advice. DON’T ATTACK PLANESWALKERS! With one exception and that is a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but only if they are still above 15 life. You can’t let them keep drawing for three or four turns. If they are on a noticeable two turn clock, ignore Jace. Gideon is possibly the biggest problem, but you are going to have to attack him anyways. Oblivion ring out the sideboard is our best option for him.

UW control doesn’t have the early removal that doesn’t benefit you. So a decent starting hand is usually a win here.

Pyromancers Ascension:

Pyromancers Ascension can be a really tough matchup too. If you don’t start fast here it’s unwinnable. Which is the main reason it’s a tough matchup, because to win you need a good hand and you find yourself mulliganing a lot more hands vs this matchup. Similar to Jund early Lightning Bolts are devastating, you really only have a two turn window to stick a Noble or Fauna Shaman, and if you don’t I bet you win about 10% of those games at best. Qasali Pridemage is a champion because he releases that window to win wide open. You can save yourself at least two turns with the presence of Qasali Pridemage. So even if Fauna Shaman can fetch up your solo Qasali, three post sideboard is way smarter. Oblivion Ring is decent and worth siding in at least one of. But can be a dead card. The best tech for this matchup is Bojuka Bog, and it’s so good you only need one to make this matchup much easier. Knight of the Reliquary should ideally hit the board at four life and post sideboard that is usually a win.

Jund:

Jund can either be really easy, or difficult depending on what version your opponent is running. If it’s a removal heavy Jund they stand a very good chance. Early terminate and bolt is devastating. Granted you can create just as many two for ones against Jund, they just seem to have more powerful standalone spells mid game. And please don’t worry about sideboarding Obstinate Baloth. For one Jund isn’t very popular right now, and two, you already are sporting Vengevine which you’d love to discard for free. Not much to say here. Sometimes you can’t agro them out due to Thrinax, so you end up playing a control game. See my list for some good cards vs Jund (Trailblazer Booths).



RDW:

This is also a really touch matchup because of all the removal. But in all honesty your early mana dorks don’t matter quite as much here. A 4/4 Reliquary can save a lot of damage. Basilisk collar and Stoneforge Mystics are by far your best bet. Just work as hard as you can sticking a Fauna to fetch up a Stoneforge. Honestly this should be your goal from the get go. Collar on a Vengevine is your game. I haven’t seen much RDW lately so my sideboard isn’t considering RDW too much. Leyline of Sanctity would be my choice. Dragonsclaw’s aren’t good enough with Leyline of Punishment. And odds are they’ll side them in after a Basilisk Collar (it’s that good).

There are a few remaining decks but I think at this point you should have a good grasp on not only this deck and its matchups. But you should have a good grasp on the meta and the ways each deck is trying to win.

The following will be a video compilation of Naya matchups and some voice-over to give you some of my insights. I will try to add videos to this within the next week to keep the Naya build fresh. The deck will be updated every few days most likely, so keep checking back.

Please leave comments as to any Naya knowledge you have!

Updated list 08/17/10

Write up to come:

I’ll show my sideboarding options in a write up later. But this deck is now fully geared towards the UW, mirror, Valakut, Ascension, and RDW matchups. Which is most of the Tier 1/2 meta.

Update 08/21/10

Twitter follower @dcampa93 had a great idea the other night on MTGO when we were chatting. He was brainstorming and mentioned Silence. It took me but a second to realize that was the answer to the unfavorable Valakut matchup. It really helps our chances games two and three. Here is my updated decklist.