What are people's thoughts on naya in this format? The advantages of the colour combo are excellent defensive and offensive creatures, access two good charms, good planeswalker options (though gideon seems horrible against azorius charm) and good artifact/enchantment hate. I've seen two versions of a naya deck around, one more agressive from Butakov which placed highly in a premier event early in the format, but hasn't done too much since. Alternatively, there's xMiMx's domri deck which tries to go a more midrange route.
Unfortuantely, after playing it a fair bit, I think the aggro version is fundamentally unviable due to mana inconcistency which punishes a deck attempting to be aggro. I think the midrange version has more promise, but I just can't see how it beats sphinx's revelation. without a nevermore in the block, there's just nothing you can do to protect yourself and you can't reliable close the game down fast enough to stop the revelation from happening. Frontline medic backed by boros charm might be a reasonable plan I guess, but I don't know that it's going to be enough.
I would go big with Naya. 27 Lands, Gyre Sage, Smiter, Reckoner, Trostani or Spark Trooper, Armada Wurm, Aurelia the Warleader, Aurelia's Fury, Selesnya Charm, Mizzium Mortars, and Domri Rade. Mugging, Electrickery, and Wasteland Viper in the SB for mono-red, along with some number of Angel of Serenity, Blind Obedience, Assemble the Legion, Boros Charm, and Clan Defiance.
Thanks for the tip royal, that deck sounds awesome. would it have any chance vs UW/bant though? I guess aurelia can catch them off-guard if they don't counter/charm it, but idk what advantages a 'big creature' deck like that would bring over bant w/revelation...
Naya offers virtually nothing over Bant, except that it is better against mono-red. Reckoner is better than Supreme Verdict vs. them, and nothing is better than Mortars and Spark Trooper main with Electrickery and Mugging in the SB. Naya's toughest match-ups are Revelation decks, and about the best you can do versus them is try not to just lose to their Verdict. A Naya midrange that would stand a better shot vs UWx would look something like:
i'm not sure how much thought you put into that list, but i've messed around with it a little and it's hella fun :). Haven't run it against a dedicated sphinx's revelation deck yet, but it pwns other decks trying to do midrange. I do like that your 2 drop basically becomes a "must verdict" threat late in the game, along with your actual big drops. I feel it could use a sundering growth in the side though, because det sphere is gonna wreck face. idk what your thoughts on keyrunes are, but it does feel like a deck which could use one seeing how much it wants to get to its 6 drop and just generally use up its mana. It's a shame gyre sage doesn't ramp to 6 very well, unless you build a deck around getting 2 counters on it on turn 3.
i'm not sure how much thought you put into that list, but i've messed around with it a little and it's hella fun :). Haven't run it against a dedicated sphinx's revelation deck yet, but it pwns other decks trying to do midrange. I do like that your 2 drop basically becomes a "must verdict" threat late in the game, along with your actual big drops. I feel it could use a sundering growth in the side though, because det sphere is gonna wreck face. idk what your thoughts on keyrunes are, but it does feel like a deck which could use one seeing how much it wants to get to its 6 drop and just generally use up its mana. It's a shame gyre sage doesn't ramp to 6 very well, unless you build a deck around getting 2 counters on it on turn 3.
I like Keyrune a lot, but it doesn't fit well with Domri, and Reckoner+Smiter are already competing with it at the 3 slot. Keyrunes are very good versus UWx though, and you can certainly tune the deck to have even more game versus control by swapping Reckoner, Trooper, and Domri for 6 Keyrunes, Angel of Serenity, Aurelia's Fury, Assemble the Legion, and lands.
Gyre Sage is an amazing card, but it's very weak to Verdict decks.
I took something very similar to this into a daily tonight. 0-2 drop, but a lot of that came down to pilot error. The deck's testing pretty well overall, I still think it has legs, but I made some bad, although fairly tough imo, decisions tonight. Check out these two board states:
I played the mountain and reckoner, to leave first strike mana up. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't stabilise two turns later with armada wurm because I only had a guildgate in hand. If I play the guildgate there, I stabilise and have a good chance of winning.
I ticked domri up, mugged the troll and played out smiter. Unfortunately I forgot corpsejack doubles counters, which meant he was able to pump the troll out of mugging range, and he drew a second creature the next turn to swing for exactly lethal. I think it's possible that if I play smiter and fight the corpsejack first he doesn't counter up his troll as he doesn't know I have mugging (although maybe he still does), but if he doesn't then it dies and I have a good chance of stabilising with worm, again, the next turn
So lessons learned, but it's certainly a fun deck.
Though you may be correct that Naya is too slow for this format, I would much rather be playing the deck with Mugging, Boros Reckoner, and Spark Trooper against mono-red than the deck with Azorius Charm, Lyev Skynight, and Supreme Verdict.
The deck isn't perfect, but I wouldn't call mono red one of it's problem matchups. It's like 60-40% or so, better if on the play, worse if on the draw. Everything missmua says about the mana base is correct, but the deck has a lot of play against mono red particularly post board.
Unfortuantely, after playing it a fair bit, I think the aggro version is fundamentally unviable due to mana inconcistency which punishes a deck attempting to be aggro. I think the midrange version has more promise, but I just can't see how it beats sphinx's revelation. without a nevermore in the block, there's just nothing you can do to protect yourself and you can't reliable close the game down fast enough to stop the revelation from happening. Frontline medic backed by boros charm might be a reasonable plan I guess, but I don't know that it's going to be enough.
4 Gatecreeper Vine
4 Skarrg Guildmage
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Spark Trooper
3 Armada Wurm
1 Angel of Serenity
3 Selesnya Charm
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Domri Rade
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
1 Boros Guildgate
4 Gruul Guildgate
2 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Grove of the Guardian
SB:
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Electrickery
4 Mugging
2 Blind Obedience
1 Selesnya Charm
4 Skullcrack
I like Keyrune a lot, but it doesn't fit well with Domri, and Reckoner+Smiter are already competing with it at the 3 slot. Keyrunes are very good versus UWx though, and you can certainly tune the deck to have even more game versus control by swapping Reckoner, Trooper, and Domri for 6 Keyrunes, Angel of Serenity, Aurelia's Fury, Assemble the Legion, and lands.
Gyre Sage is an amazing card, but it's very weak to Verdict decks.
So lessons learned, but it's certainly a fun deck.