I've had a homebrew Naya Superfriends deck I've been playing locally and having fun with. I'm looking for advice on how I might be able to improve it; maybe interactions I haven't realized or enhancements that could work better.
Basically, my main goal is to use the 3 Oaths, and an Animation Module to be calling out my friends and getting them to ultimate as fast as I can (or otherwise to be a thorn in my opponent's side).
Apologies if my deck list is a bit off; I'm at work and don't have the deck on hand. But this list has the core of the engine and what I've been focusing on lately.
I'm trying to run about 23-24 land, so as you can see, my main deck is a bit high. At the moment I think I'm planning on cutting 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikars and somethings else to get the main count down a bit further.
I had Arlinn in an earlier version of this deck; but I don't have the creature base to really support her. Now that I have more Nissa's and Chandra's, she was an easy cut.
Sylvan Advocates I'm finding work well because she'll also pump up Nissa's animated lands and the advocate fits a weak spot in my curve while being a beast if they come down later on. (Especially with Needle Spires and Gideon Emblems)
The Animation Modules don't trigger often (Nissa is the only +1/1 counter generator); but they proliferate PW Loyalty, helping me reach ultimate earlier. (Oath of Gideon + Animation Module means that Torch Chandra can come down on Turn 4 at 5, Uptick to 6 loyalty, proliferate to 7 on the next turn and ultimate on Turn 5 for example).
Nahiri is a bit of an odd duck here. On the one hand, she is enchantment and tapped artifact removal (hello Vehicles); but I don't really have much I can fetch with her ultimate. Combustable Gearhulk is basically what she's going for, and while I like the card, I'm sure I can find something better for that.
Mana ramp might be one thing I might go for; but with the Oaths of Nissa, I'm finding I can generally reach my curve fairly easily, or at worse be a land drop off (bad in fast matchups but usually not as much of a problem). Oath of Nissa and Collective Defiance I'm finding are good for finding my super friends and ditching ones I don't want to reset right away.
I think you should add Arlin Kord back in and add in a lot more token generation. The deck is kinda screaming to have Ishkanah, Grafwidow to keep you alive longer.
Oath of Chandra seems suboptimal. It doesn't help you play your planeswalkers or increase the loyalty counters. There's better removal out there.
Ishkanah is one I'd think of, but reaching Delirium might be hard. Evolving Wilds would be my land; a legendary Oath for the enchantment, and maybe I can PW Rule a PW into the graveyard, but I'd still be short on a card type, and don't have much spell, artifact or creatures to handle it. (The modules aren't likely to be blown up so I can't count on them. Advocates might be an early bolt target but I'm not sure if I want to rely on that). One Chandra and Nahiri have ways I can pitch (along with Collective Defiance); but all in all I'd be hesitant to rely on that for delirium. (Unless I bring in some instances or sorcery bolts like Incendiary Flow)
On the other hand, Ish's reach is really handy to have as well; may toss it into my sideboard and see how it plays out.
Oath of Chandra is a bit suboptimal, but has synergized well (except when I forget the end of turn trigger). I do tend to hold back a bit to make sure I have a bolt target for when it lands, but once its out, it's a damage source that can hit out of nowhere.
Besides all the advice given. What i would suggest to you is splashing another color and fixing up the mana base. Ive done multiple four and five color planeswalker lists before kaladesh came out and since oath of nissa either helps you mana fix early or lets you just cast whichever pw handhave in hand.
I would say you have too many pw's wuth the same name and are running too many copies of each. If you decide to splash black you get access to sorin, ob nixilis liliana of the last hope, oath of liliana shambling vent and trangress the mind main deck. Life gain is so crucial for this type of deck that i would recommend adding in linvala as well. With sorin and shambling vent you'd be able to generate enough life midgame to survive late.
Splashing blue is fun with its access to card draw. While black is probably the better option, being able to play jace, unraveler of secrets and dovin dovin for creature bounce and card draw is extremely useful. I would recommend running a counter suite if you decide to splash blue. It also gives you access to oath of jace which helps early game to find those land draws and if you can stick a four mana planeswalker, it really helps you with its scry ability to eliminate dead draws. You also should run part the waterveil here since it gives you access to extra turns to reactivate your planeswalkers and just steals games with its awaken ability. Tamiyo in this deck also helps since it offers card draw and its tap down effect stalls the board.
I hope this post helps you. Know that this deck will never be more than t2 but it is alot of fun to pilot. Good luck buddy.
I don't know much about standard environment but what about that tutor for walkers in white? don't remember the name and cost might be high, just help get them out there to interact.
Speaking a bit freely here, I don't like the Animation Module in this deck. As you say, the first ability is hardly relevant. At 3, the cost of using the second ability is quite high, meaning that until late game, you will be choosing between activating it and playing a card for the turn. I think that Oath of Gideon is already good at this while also clogging the ground and, if you are keeping planeswalkers on the board, you are already doing well.
I also think your curve is high and you have too many planeswalkers that will legend rule themselves out. I think I would start a more even distribution of all five planeswalkers and a greater variety of Nahiri targets. I could see a toolbox approach for Nahiri targets including singletons of all the Naya Gearhulks and Skysovereign. I would try to build up boards of counters and tokens with the Planeswalkers (more little Nissa) to overwhelm the opponents and to be able to crew the big boat.
Your lands will need to work even when you don't draw Oath of Nissa. You have WW, RR and GG. Good luck with running 2 Hanweir Battlements. If you can make a good manabase for this deck, I want to copy it, because it seems quite challenging without using Traverse or Attune.
I want to help, so I apologize if this sounds too critical.
Thanks for the tips, and I appreciate the criticism.
The land base, even with Oath of Nissa is a challenge, so splashing for a 4th colour isn't really what I'm looking for. Generally speaking my landbase tends to be heavy GW and slightly less on the R, but still more than a splash. I'm still playing with the mix to balance the reveal lands (like Fortified Village vs the 2-basic land lands (like Cinder Glade) and the Quick lands, but for the most part I've been happy with the results so far.
As for the white PW Tutor (Call of the Gatewatch), it feels a bit too slow, and its slot is already in the Oath of Gideon territory. With Oath of Nissa, I've got another way to find my friends (not as good but cheaper and more useful as well). Deploy the Gatewatch is just way too slow and a bad card in general.
My original take on this did actually run each Gearhulk and the Sky Sovereign, but they got trimmed back for space; especially once I realized the strength of the Sylvan Advocate engine. I think the Cataclysmic got chopped because I found myself holding it and not wanting to cast it.
Hanweir Battlements is mainly there for a haste source, so when I do get a late game advocate or get the gearhulk down (or even an activated Gideon I just played), I can usually swing with them right away. An earlier version also had Hanweir Garrison in, but room was tight.
Just spitballing some ideas while at work, how does this look? Admittedly, the Johnny in me likes the Animation Modules so I probably won't be able to bring myself to fully cut them out. Similarly, Oath of Chandra has some value I've found, and I like for the flavour reasons but admittedly may be better off chopped.
Sideboard is still a work in progress as well; just listing the types of cards I'm looking at but not their proper counts.
Tokens come from Arlinn, Oath of Gideon, Gideon, Nissa and Hanweir Garrison. Plus there's a chance to merge for bigger oomph in the late game.
Land creatures from Needle Spires and from Nissa animating a land.
4 big targets for Nahri to search for, or to come down by themselves. I'm almost thinking of squeezing an Avacyn or 2 in the maindeck. Fetch her with Nahiri, she bounces back into my hand so I can flash her in for protection later.
Gideon stays as a 4 of since he's just that good. I can Ultimate him right off the bat, possibly even keeping him, then start swinging, and if he dies, I'll want to bring him back as fast as possible.
I could cut the total Nissas down to 3, but both versions feel like she has good synergy for when she comes down, so I wouldn't necessarily mind killing one for another.
Similarly, Chandras might go up to 4; I think I'll have to play a bit more and feel how the deck rolls.
*Edit* forgot to update my enchantment count; so I'm still 2-3 cards over. That may knock Oath of Chandra and/or the Modules out for good.
Making 4 colors work isn't hard. You just steal the 4-color aggro mana base, lol. Throw in some Attune with Aether and Servant of the Conduit and put Aether Hub in your land mix and you should have so much color fixing that even Oath of Nissa might be unnecessary.
I'm a huge fan of the naya colors and always like a good walker deck. The first thing I would do is up the land count. You're running cmcs of 5 and 6 without any ramp, 23 is way too few. Personally I would up it to 25 and maybe even 26. Secondly I like the tech with animation module but it doesn't do much in these colors to ultimate your planeswalkers asap. Chandra torch of defiance is the only walker with a game winning ult. The rest just generate incremental advantage, which I feel they do better while staying on the field. I would cut the modules and the oaths of chandra. Cut down on the oath of Gideons, the nissa one is the only one worth being a 4 of. In white and red you have access to a whole lot of targeted removal and I would shift to a more control oriented deck using them. I'm building a similar deck and running the brisela package as well as linvala as the big creatures that nahiri will ult for. Another issue is that nothing in your deck stops copter. I hate building hate into a deck for a single card, but instant speed removal will help you overall.
I've been playing Naya Superfriends off and on (sometimes I add other colors, lol) for a while now. It's one of the tighter superfriends color combinations out there .. most of the 'friends synergize with each other (and other cards in their colors) very well. My build has been kind of a tapout control deck. Oaths, Harnessed Lightnings, Deadlock Trap. With an energy theme too: Attune to find lands, H-Lightning to kill stuff, Trap to tap stuff, sometimes I run Servant of the Conduit for ramp/fixing (usually if I'm running 4+ colors). My gameplan is to stick some combination of the following: Needle Spires, Nissa Voice, Gideon Ally, Arlinn Kord, Chandra FC, Sylvan Advocate. Nahiri and Chandra Torch play support roles. In Naya colors, Verdurous Gearhulk might be the best Nahiri target (that is actually castable if you don't ult Nahiri). Nissa Vital clashes with Nissa Voice in my build, so she's more of a sideboard card vs. slower matchups.
Honestly, though, I'm kinda frustrated with this deck's place in the metagame right meow. It's great against random brews, but miserable against the metagame decks played by decent players. Copters in general and U/W Flash in specific are miserable to play against. Delirium decks can out-grind and out-pressure you. Aetherworks decks go WAY over the top. Even creature/aggro matchups are miserable--Radiant Flames doesn't kill vehicles, and Scrapheap Scrounger is a card, and the energy creatures can get bigger and/or hexproof in response to removal. I think the only decent matchup is Control, only because counter magic is so bad right now and they just can't keep up with all the threats.
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Level 2 Judge
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
This is the deck I have been running at FNM. The deck lines up fairly well against most things it faces off against. There aren't many good answers to planeswalkers in the current standard format. The removal and sweepers help protect them, while the creature base consists of creatures that can win the game on their own if not answered. The sideboard is designed with more walkers against control where my removal spells wont do anything. Thalia and more removal against aggro. Sigarda is in because she gives you hexproof which at least prevents emrakuls mind-slaver ability, plus her activated ability of making humans proves useful in a drawn out game.
The only decks i have played that have given me huge problems are the aetherworks marvel decks. They're honestly just a huge blowout and i dont know what to do to change that. The deck has fairly good answers against most other decks, and the walkers just generate more value than a lot of decks can keep up with.
New standard season, and new fun things to try in this.
As soon as I saw Oath of Ajani and Ajani himself, I knew I'd be bringing him in.
With the rise of Saheeli-kitty, I'm also bringing in Authority of the Consuls and possibly considering Thalias (to bump up my creature count to take advantage of Ajani as well).
So this first pass didn't find room for Thalia; a Gearhulk or two might be cuttable to get her in instead. Between the bannings and the new set, Standard is up in the air. Hopefully it will fire at my LGS this Friday so I can give this (or a variant of it) a try.
*Edit* May add Natural State and/or Commencement of Festivities to the sideboard as well (well instead of stuff there). Commencement of Festivities is already in my current sideboard.
Since I cracked a 3rd Ajani, I'm seriously considering going to Salesnya Superfriends in the future; but I'll be staying with Naya for this Friday at least. I'm probably going to cut some of the sylvan advocats out to make space and mix up my Nissa loadout a bit. Going from memory, I had forgotten I had some Attune with Aether and a set of Harnessed Lightnings in my current version; the energy synergy works well to nuke some of the threats (with some Aether Hub). I might toss Servant of the Conduit too for the reasons you suggest.
My local meta tends to be random (especially for the store I'll be going to) so my sideboard choices will be almost as random. Authority of the Consuls are going to be a big part of it, since I'm sure more than a few people will try Saheeli Kitty.
I must say, just considering all the options and everything; I really want to play and see what is coming. It certainly feels like an exciting time for Standard at the moment.
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure where to take my build. Copter and Emmy going away help us a LOT. I no longer have to run artifact removal maindeck, yay! My build tends to consist of these packages which don't change a ton:
22 Lands
4 Oath of Nissa
13-16 'friends
If I run more than 3 colors, I'll run 3-4 Attunes. Sometimes I run Servant, and sometimes not. I think she's worth running now, because a 2/2 dork is much better in combat with some support than a BOP or whatever.
What I do with the other 15-20 cards depends on what additional colors I'm running (if any), and what I expect the metagame to look like. Right now, I'm leaning towards a black splash, because Fatal Push is great, and Painful Truths still draws lots of cards. Transgress the Mind can help against combo/control. Ajani seems like he'll fulfill removal and card draw roles very well, along with Nahiri and Chandra (FC or TOD) can still kill stuff and provide card advantage, and the white/red removal options are still deece. Sometimes I'm tempted to splash blue for Tamiyo, and maybe Dovin or Jace, but .... usually, that's all I'm running blue for. Negates are probably not the worst in that case, but I rarely find myself not wanting to tap out every turn. I dunno.
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Level 2 Judge
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
I also play 3-4 Attune with Aether, and 4 Oath of Nissa. Hitting land drops is rarely as much a problem as hitting too many. Especially if I'm running Servants.
Yeah, Dovin is kinda "meh". Haven't really found a great use for him. Jace isn't worth UU in the casting cost, and Saheeli is best in a deck that can do something useful with the damage/scry and the copy ability (like, control/combo or Panharmonicon).
And aggro is rough, which is why I run so much removal. I'd love to be able to run sweepers, but R-Flames doesn't exile or hit vehicles at all, and Fumigate and Descend are way too slow. But maybe the answer is just run fewer 'walkers (which I never want to do) and more removal or more creatures. Bleh.
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Level 2 Judge
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
This is what I'm taking to FNM tonight (and hoping FNM will fire). While another store has extra Oaths of Ajani, I don't have time to go pick them up before FNM.
This is somewhat of a transition deck while I gather/build up my Aether Revolt and other staples. Eventually I'll probably cut red, but for the first few FNMs I'll stick with Naya. I do intend to bring in some Heart of Kiran once I get my hands on them.
Next Friday, Standard should certainly fire, and I'm likely going to bring Selesnya Superfriends there.
I'm thinking a deck with a full playset of the 3 oaths, and 12 friends at least. The rest will be made up of removal (Stasis Snare, Decs), protection (Authority of Consuls, Heroic Interventions) and critters (Servant of the Conduit, Avacyns, Gearhulks, the other angels, etc...). Between the actual critters and the token generation from Gideon, Nissa and Gid's Oath, I figure I should have a decent creature base to warrant Ajani Oath's +1/+1 counters. I want to go with Animation Module again, but probably won't have the room.
Played the above tonight at my FNM standard, with some changes. I removed Sram's Expertise and Collective Efforts, and ran a full set of Oaths, 2 Authorities, 4 Vital Forces and 3 Ajani (among the rest listed).
Overall, I know I need my Servants; the extra mana ramp would have helped a lot. Need to get my 4th Aether Hub as well.
Of the 4 rounds:
Round 1 was Saheeli Kitty.
Game 1 he managed to control me too much and get in with the hulks and a shock. He never played a white land so I didn't realize what he had.
I sided out my Authorities and brought in various removals.
Game 2, I had 2 lands in my opener, Oath of Nissa'ed turn 1 and kept a Nissa, Voice of Zendi instead of the forest I saw. Didn't draw a 3rd land, with Stasis Snare in hand. He played a white land, got Saheeli on Turn 3 and played the kitty Turn 4 when I was stuck on 2 lands and snare in hand.
Round 2 was a BUG removal match up, I won 2-0. He got land screwed a bit in the second game while I stabilized quickly. Game 1 I managed to land Nissa and Gids through his removal and started building up board presence.
Round 3 was another removal deck. Game 1 Heart landed and was an MVP, especially once Gids Emblem started powering things up. Game 2 he was tilting and on a land screw after mulling down to 5, even with Anticipates loading up his hands. He just didn't seem to draw the control he needed. Gids Emblem in Game 2 powering up Nissa plants really took control. Heroic Intervention would have ultimately gotten the game; he tried to destroy the plant token I had left, but I turned it indestructible. (We both missed/didn't realize the awaken would have still happened). He scooped after he played Chandra and tried to destroy the plant that way; not realizing HI lasted until end of turn, and not realizing the plant was only 2/3 (with him at 3 life).
Round 4 was against a Monowhite Humans deck. He got a lot of early hits in with Inspector Clueseau's and Thalias along with Always watching. Then I built up enough to land Ajani (with a full set of Oaths on board) and pathed away Gisela and Thalia, while Gids and Nissa built up a wall of plant blockers. If he had been more aggressive I would probably have been in more trouble. Heart of Kiran was another MVP here, coming in untapped and dodging Sorcery removal like Collective Effort. I also managed to Appetite away the Always watching eventually and finished flying in to knock him out.
Second deck I toned back my Oaths a bit and brought in the removal package. He had a slow start while I curved out well enough. I made sure to knock out Always Watching with a Fumigate right off the bat, and Dec'ed Gisela as soon as he fetched it with Thalia's watchers (well as soon as he played it after fetching it). Thalia was annoying, but I Gids emblemmed as soon as I could to make sure my plants were constantly growing, and +countered them when I could. He attacked more aggressively this time, and I couldn't find a Heart at all, but the plants and Beefcake came through in the end, with the help of Stasis Snares, Fumigates and Decs to keep the other side clear.
One of those games went on longer than it should've because I was stuck with 4 mana and a mitt full of 5cc cards (including my 2 avacyns). Avacyn and the Green Gearhulk was also key players both to protect and buff up my tokens for extra Oomph.
Going forward, I am definitely going to get the servants and my 4th Aether hub. I'll probably try to squeeze in 2 Attune with Aether for the extra energy and land fetching, while cutting Vital Force and Ajani back to 2 each and maybe trim the Oaths for room.
I am currently testing this version and it seems pretty solid, I have not yet played against the Sahelli combo, but it has no bad match against BG counters.
For flavour reasons, I'm playing an almost pure Superfriend deck, focusing on the Oaths and Superfriends. I only have 2 Hearts and 1 Avacyn maindeck. My local meta is mostly all over the map, so I'm often playing against less optimized decks, so it has been surprisingly effective.
From my sideboard and my experience in general:
* Avacyns are da-bomb. I can see my opponents Oh-Noing when she comes down; especially if there's a Gids Emblem in play to turn her into a 5/5. If you want another creature, I'd consider running a second of her. Main concern with her is that if she flips she'll often knock out your token army; but as often I'll have Gid Emblem or +1/+1 counters all around to pump them out of range.
* Hearts are also da-bomb. They'll often eat removal right away, but if they stick (and they often stick early enough to matter), they'll ruin the opponent's day.
* Authority of the Consuls is fantastic as well. Land 2 of them at once and my opponents will often be sweating; the life gain is surprisingly helpful in hosing their combat calculations.
I've been running Shocks as my removal, but if you have the energy generation, Harnessed Lightning still works well. It hits bigger targets that Shock can't.
Stasis Snares and Fumigates are good in general. Fumigate especially if you have a Heart out and a friend; clears their board while leaving you ready to swing back (and gaining life to boot).
Fragmatize and Natural Obsolesence have been my go-tos for removal. It can be a bit tough to figure out what works best and is probably best to vary with your local meta. Sometimes you want to tuck any artifact, sometimes you want to clear the cheapies out of the way.
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I'm just theory crafting at the moment but I'm hoping to play soon.
The Aether revolt discussion starts here.
My first deck is at that post and repeated here. I've spoilered the original OP so you can see it if you wish.
Thanks for any advice and tips.
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
3 Sylvan Advocate
2 Archangel Avacyn
Planeswalkers (12)
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Ajani Unyielding
Enchantments (14)
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Oath of Gideon
2 Oath of Ajani
2 Authority of the Consuls
1 Stasis Snare
2 Harnessed Lightning
Lands (25)
2 Plains
2 Mountain
2 Forest
3 Game Trail
3 Cinder Glade
3 Fortified Village
3 Canopy Vista
3 Inspiring Vantage
4 Needle Spires
2 Fumigate
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Fragmentize
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Incendiary Flow
2 Collective Effort
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Stasis Snare
I've had a homebrew Naya Superfriends deck I've been playing locally and having fun with. I'm looking for advice on how I might be able to improve it; maybe interactions I haven't realized or enhancements that could work better.
Basically, my main goal is to use the 3 Oaths, and an Animation Module to be calling out my friends and getting them to ultimate as fast as I can (or otherwise to be a thorn in my opponent's side).
Apologies if my deck list is a bit off; I'm at work and don't have the deck on hand. But this list has the core of the engine and what I've been focusing on lately.
I'm trying to run about 23-24 land, so as you can see, my main deck is a bit high. At the moment I think I'm planning on cutting 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikars and somethings else to get the main count down a bit further.
2 Combustible Gearhulk
4 Sylvan Advocate
Planeswalkers (16)
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Enchantments (12)
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Oath of Chandra
4 Oath of Gideon
4 Animation Module
Instants & Sorceries (2)
2 Collective Defiance
Lands (23)
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Needle Spires
2 Hanweir Battlements
2 Plains
2 Forest
2 Mountain
I had Arlinn in an earlier version of this deck; but I don't have the creature base to really support her. Now that I have more Nissa's and Chandra's, she was an easy cut.
Sylvan Advocates I'm finding work well because she'll also pump up Nissa's animated lands and the advocate fits a weak spot in my curve while being a beast if they come down later on. (Especially with Needle Spires and Gideon Emblems)
The Animation Modules don't trigger often (Nissa is the only +1/1 counter generator); but they proliferate PW Loyalty, helping me reach ultimate earlier. (Oath of Gideon + Animation Module means that Torch Chandra can come down on Turn 4 at 5, Uptick to 6 loyalty, proliferate to 7 on the next turn and ultimate on Turn 5 for example).
Nahiri is a bit of an odd duck here. On the one hand, she is enchantment and tapped artifact removal (hello Vehicles); but I don't really have much I can fetch with her ultimate. Combustable Gearhulk is basically what she's going for, and while I like the card, I'm sure I can find something better for that.
Mana ramp might be one thing I might go for; but with the Oaths of Nissa, I'm finding I can generally reach my curve fairly easily, or at worse be a land drop off (bad in fast matchups but usually not as much of a problem). Oath of Nissa and Collective Defiance I'm finding are good for finding my super friends and ditching ones I don't want to reset right away.
I'm also open to Sideboard strategies. At the moment, it's loaded with Fumigates, Stasis Snares, Declaration in Stone, Archangel Avacyns, some burns and artifact hate and similar.
Oath of Chandra seems suboptimal. It doesn't help you play your planeswalkers or increase the loyalty counters. There's better removal out there.
On the other hand, Ish's reach is really handy to have as well; may toss it into my sideboard and see how it plays out.
Oath of Chandra is a bit suboptimal, but has synergized well (except when I forget the end of turn trigger). I do tend to hold back a bit to make sure I have a bolt target for when it lands, but once its out, it's a damage source that can hit out of nowhere.
Thanks for the food for thought.
I would say you have too many pw's wuth the same name and are running too many copies of each. If you decide to splash black you get access to sorin, ob nixilis liliana of the last hope, oath of liliana shambling vent and trangress the mind main deck. Life gain is so crucial for this type of deck that i would recommend adding in linvala as well. With sorin and shambling vent you'd be able to generate enough life midgame to survive late.
Splashing blue is fun with its access to card draw. While black is probably the better option, being able to play jace, unraveler of secrets and dovin dovin for creature bounce and card draw is extremely useful. I would recommend running a counter suite if you decide to splash blue. It also gives you access to oath of jace which helps early game to find those land draws and if you can stick a four mana planeswalker, it really helps you with its scry ability to eliminate dead draws. You also should run part the waterveil here since it gives you access to extra turns to reactivate your planeswalkers and just steals games with its awaken ability. Tamiyo in this deck also helps since it offers card draw and its tap down effect stalls the board.
I hope this post helps you. Know that this deck will never be more than t2 but it is alot of fun to pilot. Good luck buddy.
I also think your curve is high and you have too many planeswalkers that will legend rule themselves out. I think I would start a more even distribution of all five planeswalkers and a greater variety of Nahiri targets. I could see a toolbox approach for Nahiri targets including singletons of all the Naya Gearhulks and Skysovereign. I would try to build up boards of counters and tokens with the Planeswalkers (more little Nissa) to overwhelm the opponents and to be able to crew the big boat.
Your lands will need to work even when you don't draw Oath of Nissa. You have WW, RR and GG. Good luck with running 2 Hanweir Battlements. If you can make a good manabase for this deck, I want to copy it, because it seems quite challenging without using Traverse or Attune.
I want to help, so I apologize if this sounds too critical.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
The land base, even with Oath of Nissa is a challenge, so splashing for a 4th colour isn't really what I'm looking for. Generally speaking my landbase tends to be heavy GW and slightly less on the R, but still more than a splash. I'm still playing with the mix to balance the reveal lands (like Fortified Village vs the 2-basic land lands (like Cinder Glade) and the Quick lands, but for the most part I've been happy with the results so far.
As for the white PW Tutor (Call of the Gatewatch), it feels a bit too slow, and its slot is already in the Oath of Gideon territory. With Oath of Nissa, I've got another way to find my friends (not as good but cheaper and more useful as well). Deploy the Gatewatch is just way too slow and a bad card in general.
My original take on this did actually run each Gearhulk and the Sky Sovereign, but they got trimmed back for space; especially once I realized the strength of the Sylvan Advocate engine. I think the Cataclysmic got chopped because I found myself holding it and not wanting to cast it.
Hanweir Battlements is mainly there for a haste source, so when I do get a late game advocate or get the gearhulk down (or even an activated Gideon I just played), I can usually swing with them right away. An earlier version also had Hanweir Garrison in, but room was tight.
Just spitballing some ideas while at work, how does this look? Admittedly, the Johnny in me likes the Animation Modules so I probably won't be able to bring myself to fully cut them out. Similarly, Oath of Chandra has some value I've found, and I like for the flavour reasons but admittedly may be better off chopped.
1 Combustible Gearhulk
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
4 Sylvan Advocate
2 Hanweir Garrison
Planeswalkers (15)
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Arlinn Kord
Enchantments (10)
4 Oath of Nissa
2 Oath of Chandra
4 Oath of Gideon
2 Animation Module
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
Instants & Sorceries (2)
2 Collective Defiance
Lands (23-24) (padded out with Quick, Reveal and 2-Basic-land lands)
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Needle Spires
2 Hanweir Battlements
2 Plains
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Fumigate
1 Stasis Snare
1 Incendiary Flow
1 Fragmentize
1 Collective Effort
1 Declaration in Stone
Sideboard is still a work in progress as well; just listing the types of cards I'm looking at but not their proper counts.
Tokens come from Arlinn, Oath of Gideon, Gideon, Nissa and Hanweir Garrison. Plus there's a chance to merge for bigger oomph in the late game.
Land creatures from Needle Spires and from Nissa animating a land.
4 big targets for Nahri to search for, or to come down by themselves. I'm almost thinking of squeezing an Avacyn or 2 in the maindeck. Fetch her with Nahiri, she bounces back into my hand so I can flash her in for protection later.
Gideon stays as a 4 of since he's just that good. I can Ultimate him right off the bat, possibly even keeping him, then start swinging, and if he dies, I'll want to bring him back as fast as possible.
I could cut the total Nissas down to 3, but both versions feel like she has good synergy for when she comes down, so I wouldn't necessarily mind killing one for another.
Similarly, Chandras might go up to 4; I think I'll have to play a bit more and feel how the deck rolls.
*Edit* forgot to update my enchantment count; so I'm still 2-3 cards over. That may knock Oath of Chandra and/or the Modules out for good.
Going up in colors gives you access to converge cards. Radiant Flames and Painful Truths.
Honestly, though, I'm kinda frustrated with this deck's place in the metagame right meow. It's great against random brews, but miserable against the metagame decks played by decent players. Copters in general and U/W Flash in specific are miserable to play against. Delirium decks can out-grind and out-pressure you. Aetherworks decks go WAY over the top. Even creature/aggro matchups are miserable--Radiant Flames doesn't kill vehicles, and Scrapheap Scrounger is a card, and the energy creatures can get bigger and/or hexproof in response to removal. I think the only decent matchup is Control, only because counter magic is so bad right now and they just can't keep up with all the threats.
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
2 Sylvan Advocate
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
Planeswalkers (7)
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
Artifacts (2)
2 Cultivator's Caravan
Spells (12)
3 Galvanic Bombardment
3 Harnessed Lightning
2 Radiant Flames
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Skywhaler's Shot
1 Immolating Glare
1 Fumigate
3 Oath of Nissa
2 Stasis Snare
Lands (25)
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Plains
3 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Needle Spires
3 Canopy Vista
3 Cinder Glade
1 Fortified Village
1 Game Trail
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Declaration in Stone
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Nahiri, The Harbinger
1 Stasis Snare
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Quarantine Field
This is the deck I have been running at FNM. The deck lines up fairly well against most things it faces off against. There aren't many good answers to planeswalkers in the current standard format. The removal and sweepers help protect them, while the creature base consists of creatures that can win the game on their own if not answered. The sideboard is designed with more walkers against control where my removal spells wont do anything. Thalia and more removal against aggro. Sigarda is in because she gives you hexproof which at least prevents emrakuls mind-slaver ability, plus her activated ability of making humans proves useful in a drawn out game.
The only decks i have played that have given me huge problems are the aetherworks marvel decks. They're honestly just a huge blowout and i dont know what to do to change that. The deck has fairly good answers against most other decks, and the walkers just generate more value than a lot of decks can keep up with.
As soon as I saw Oath of Ajani and Ajani himself, I knew I'd be bringing him in.
With the rise of Saheeli-kitty, I'm also bringing in Authority of the Consuls and possibly considering Thalias (to bump up my creature count to take advantage of Ajani as well).
For now, I'll stick with Naya so I have Needle Spires to synergize with Sylvan Advocate.
At work and just brewing, so I'm open for suggestions and/or other ideas that might work well.
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
3 Sylvan Advocate
2 Archangel Avacyn
Planeswalkers (12)
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Ajani Unyielding
Enchantments (14)
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Oath of Gideon
2 Oath of Ajani
2 Authority of the Consuls
1 Stasis Snare
2 Harnessed Lightning
Lands (25)
2 Plains
2 Mountain
2 Forest
3 Game Trail
3 Cinder Glade
3 Fortified Village
3 Canopy Vista
3 Inspiring Vantage
4 Needle Spires
2 Fumigate
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Fragmentize
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Incendiary Flow
2 Collective Effort
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Stasis Snare
So this first pass didn't find room for Thalia; a Gearhulk or two might be cuttable to get her in instead. Between the bannings and the new set, Standard is up in the air. Hopefully it will fire at my LGS this Friday so I can give this (or a variant of it) a try.
*Edit* May add Natural State and/or Commencement of Festivities to the sideboard as well (well instead of stuff there). Commencement of Festivities is already in my current sideboard.
My local meta tends to be random (especially for the store I'll be going to) so my sideboard choices will be almost as random. Authority of the Consuls are going to be a big part of it, since I'm sure more than a few people will try Saheeli Kitty.
I must say, just considering all the options and everything; I really want to play and see what is coming. It certainly feels like an exciting time for Standard at the moment.
22 Lands
4 Oath of Nissa
13-16 'friends
If I run more than 3 colors, I'll run 3-4 Attunes. Sometimes I run Servant, and sometimes not. I think she's worth running now, because a 2/2 dork is much better in combat with some support than a BOP or whatever.
What I do with the other 15-20 cards depends on what additional colors I'm running (if any), and what I expect the metagame to look like. Right now, I'm leaning towards a black splash, because Fatal Push is great, and Painful Truths still draws lots of cards. Transgress the Mind can help against combo/control. Ajani seems like he'll fulfill removal and card draw roles very well, along with Nahiri and Chandra (FC or TOD) can still kill stuff and provide card advantage, and the white/red removal options are still deece. Sometimes I'm tempted to splash blue for Tamiyo, and maybe Dovin or Jace, but .... usually, that's all I'm running blue for. Negates are probably not the worst in that case, but I rarely find myself not wanting to tap out every turn. I dunno.
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
Yeah, Dovin is kinda "meh". Haven't really found a great use for him. Jace isn't worth UU in the casting cost, and Saheeli is best in a deck that can do something useful with the damage/scry and the copy ability (like, control/combo or Panharmonicon).
And aggro is rough, which is why I run so much removal. I'd love to be able to run sweepers, but R-Flames doesn't exile or hit vehicles at all, and Fumigate and Descend are way too slow. But maybe the answer is just run fewer 'walkers (which I never want to do) and more removal or more creatures. Bleh.
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
2 Combustible Gearhulk
2 Sylvan Advocate
2 Archangel Avacyn
1 Servant of the Conduit (only one I have; need to get more)
Planeswalkers (14)
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Ajani Unyielding
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Enchantments (9)
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Oath of Gideon
1 Oath of Ajani
1 Authority of the Consuls
2 Harnessed Lightning
2 Attune with Aether
1 Heroic Intervention
Lands (24)
2 Plains
2 Mountain
2 Forest
2 Game Trail
2 Cinder Glade
2 Fortified Village
3 Canopy Vista
4 Inspiring Vantage
3 Needle Spires
2 Aether Hub
3 Stasis Snare
2 Appetite for the Unnatural
2 Declaration in stone
2 Fumigate
2 Shock
2 Fragmentize
2 Authority of the Consols
This is somewhat of a transition deck while I gather/build up my Aether Revolt and other staples. Eventually I'll probably cut red, but for the first few FNMs I'll stick with Naya. I do intend to bring in some Heart of Kiran once I get my hands on them.
Next Friday, Standard should certainly fire, and I'm likely going to bring Selesnya Superfriends there.
I'm thinking a deck with a full playset of the 3 oaths, and 12 friends at least. The rest will be made up of removal (Stasis Snare, Decs), protection (Authority of Consuls, Heroic Interventions) and critters (Servant of the Conduit, Avacyns, Gearhulks, the other angels, etc...). Between the actual critters and the token generation from Gideon, Nissa and Gid's Oath, I figure I should have a decent creature base to warrant Ajani Oath's +1/+1 counters. I want to go with Animation Module again, but probably won't have the room.
Once I start rebuilding, I'll post a list up.
3 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Ajani Unyielding
Vehicles (2)
2 Heart of Kiran
Creatures: (5)
1 Servant of the Conduit
2 Archangel Avacyn
2 Verdurous Gearhulk
Enchantments (12)
1 Authority of the Consuls
3 Oath of Ajani
4 Oath of Gideon
4 Oath of Nissa
2 Appetite for the Unnatural
Sorcery (4)
2 Collective Effort
2 Sram's Expertise
Land (24)
4 Canopy Vista
4 Fortified Village
2 Aether Hub
7 Plains
7 Forest
3 Stasis Snare
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Fumigate
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Fragmentize
2 Authority of the Consuls
2 Heroic Intervention
I couldn't play FNM last week and I have no idea what my local meta will be like.
I only have 1 Servant of the Conduit; I'm looking for more but they are sparse as hen's teeth in my city. I'll probably pick up 2 more Aether Hub before Friday to finish things off.
I only have the two Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as well (and 2 Heart of Kiran
The Sram's Expertise is partly to give me some blockers/tokens early on, and to be +1/+1 targets for Oath of Ajani, and to sneak in something else.
Ultimately, my goal is to play Superfriends and to be off-kilter enough to make things awkward to sideboard against.
With all the counters I'm playing with, I'm still trying to decide how to get an Animation Module in, but it probably won't work out ultimately.
Overall, I know I need my Servants; the extra mana ramp would have helped a lot. Need to get my 4th Aether Hub as well.
Of the 4 rounds:
Round 1 was Saheeli Kitty.
Game 1 he managed to control me too much and get in with the hulks and a shock. He never played a white land so I didn't realize what he had.
I sided out my Authorities and brought in various removals.
Game 2, I had 2 lands in my opener, Oath of Nissa'ed turn 1 and kept a Nissa, Voice of Zendi instead of the forest I saw. Didn't draw a 3rd land, with Stasis Snare in hand. He played a white land, got Saheeli on Turn 3 and played the kitty Turn 4 when I was stuck on 2 lands and snare in hand.
Round 2 was a BUG removal match up, I won 2-0. He got land screwed a bit in the second game while I stabilized quickly. Game 1 I managed to land Nissa and Gids through his removal and started building up board presence.
Round 3 was another removal deck. Game 1 Heart landed and was an MVP, especially once Gids Emblem started powering things up. Game 2 he was tilting and on a land screw after mulling down to 5, even with Anticipates loading up his hands. He just didn't seem to draw the control he needed. Gids Emblem in Game 2 powering up Nissa plants really took control. Heroic Intervention would have ultimately gotten the game; he tried to destroy the plant token I had left, but I turned it indestructible. (We both missed/didn't realize the awaken would have still happened). He scooped after he played Chandra and tried to destroy the plant that way; not realizing HI lasted until end of turn, and not realizing the plant was only 2/3 (with him at 3 life).
Round 4 was against a Monowhite Humans deck. He got a lot of early hits in with Inspector Clueseau's and Thalias along with Always watching. Then I built up enough to land Ajani (with a full set of Oaths on board) and pathed away Gisela and Thalia, while Gids and Nissa built up a wall of plant blockers. If he had been more aggressive I would probably have been in more trouble. Heart of Kiran was another MVP here, coming in untapped and dodging Sorcery removal like Collective Effort. I also managed to Appetite away the Always watching eventually and finished flying in to knock him out.
Second deck I toned back my Oaths a bit and brought in the removal package. He had a slow start while I curved out well enough. I made sure to knock out Always Watching with a Fumigate right off the bat, and Dec'ed Gisela as soon as he fetched it with Thalia's watchers (well as soon as he played it after fetching it). Thalia was annoying, but I Gids emblemmed as soon as I could to make sure my plants were constantly growing, and +countered them when I could. He attacked more aggressively this time, and I couldn't find a Heart at all, but the plants and Beefcake came through in the end, with the help of Stasis Snares, Fumigates and Decs to keep the other side clear.
One of those games went on longer than it should've because I was stuck with 4 mana and a mitt full of 5cc cards (including my 2 avacyns). Avacyn and the Green Gearhulk was also key players both to protect and buff up my tokens for extra Oomph.
Going forward, I am definitely going to get the servants and my 4th Aether hub. I'll probably try to squeeze in 2 Attune with Aether for the extra energy and land fetching, while cutting Vital Force and Ajani back to 2 each and maybe trim the Oaths for room.
Beastly Deck
RB Trample Minotaur Deck RB
BW Daxos the Returned Enchant EDH Deck WB
From my sideboard and my experience in general:
* Avacyns are da-bomb. I can see my opponents Oh-Noing when she comes down; especially if there's a Gids Emblem in play to turn her into a 5/5. If you want another creature, I'd consider running a second of her. Main concern with her is that if she flips she'll often knock out your token army; but as often I'll have Gid Emblem or +1/+1 counters all around to pump them out of range.
* Hearts are also da-bomb. They'll often eat removal right away, but if they stick (and they often stick early enough to matter), they'll ruin the opponent's day.
* Authority of the Consuls is fantastic as well. Land 2 of them at once and my opponents will often be sweating; the life gain is surprisingly helpful in hosing their combat calculations.
I've been running Shocks as my removal, but if you have the energy generation, Harnessed Lightning still works well. It hits bigger targets that Shock can't.
Stasis Snares and Fumigates are good in general. Fumigate especially if you have a Heart out and a friend; clears their board while leaving you ready to swing back (and gaining life to boot).
Fragmatize and Natural Obsolesence have been my go-tos for removal. It can be a bit tough to figure out what works best and is probably best to vary with your local meta. Sometimes you want to tuck any artifact, sometimes you want to clear the cheapies out of the way.