So my friend built this deck and we went to the Super Invitational Qualifier and it went 1-3, it's been upgraded since then but we wanted to know if we could make it even better. ALL opinions are encouraged and welcomed, thanks!
Yeah, from what Lugger said.. this deck is so close to being G/R monsters, you might as well just play G/R monsters. If you're going to play Naya, you should probably be playing Naya 'Walkers.
That said, if you want this to work.. I'd actually suggest cutting Elvish Mystic. As appealing as a second turn Rabblemaster is, that's your only big play. Otherwise the only spell you're really looking to cast ahead of curve is Stormbreath Dragon, which curves out fine with just caryatid. Everything else in the deck is either already placed on curve to take advantage of Sylvan Caryatid as well, or doesn't ramp out effectively with Mystic (Brimaz, fleecemane). If you want the 4x mystic, 4x caryatid plan, you should be using 4x polukranos, 4x stormbreath dragon, Xx wingmate roc, Xx arbor colossus, Xx crater's claws. Otherwise, why ramp? Your manabase is actually pretty tedious.. because you need your cheap red removal online early, and green has to come early/often for ramp/courser, and white has to come early to cast fleecemane/brimaz on curve. You're going to have to hurt yourself a lot to pull it all off on curve- which has been the case for Naya since last season. You may want to offset the lifeloss with some life gain.. Wingmate Roc being the first thing that comes to mind, but there are probably better options I'm forgetting.
Speaking personally, I'd just make this G with a splash W/R and use a base of:
I arranged it by casting cost to show you one approach to curving out efficiently. This is a fairly low to the ground, aggressive base and it's set up to cast fast beats with the ability to begin casting multiple spells long, long before mid-range does.. while having the backup plan of bestow/monstrous to upgrade our early threats, supplemented with the abzan-crushing stormbreath dragon. Regardless, the point is to have a well oiled machine, then you can start tweaking the numbers and adding/removing spells to suit your play style- particularly payoff spells like the Gods and planeswalkers. In this list, our manabase is much less stressed, mostly due to the lack of brimaz. This allows us to know that we only need Green mana fast, and our white/red sources are more like a splash. We can use taplands for W/R because we don't need it on turn one and often not on turn two either.. and we can use painlands for W/R because our splash cards only have 1 colored mana in their CC, so we'll only be taking 1 or 2 over the course of a game.
edit: ha, just realized the title of the thread is mid-range. the deck you posted isn't really mid-rangy, and mine is definitively not mid-rangy. If you want mid-range style, definitely play naya walkers.
My Naya centered on Purphoros. As a former Valakut player the flavor of Purphoros was too appealing to stay away from. Cant play a 'real' deck with 3 or 4 Purphoros in it, doesnt do too much without support, devotion is disrupted too easily. So I decided to use chord of the calling to give me more virtual copies of the card along with other as cards green sun zenith used to, a card I recall VERY well.
Not sure about sideboard yet. Probably some combination of Magma Spray, Anger of the Gods, enchantment removal, life gain, and maybe something like Glare of Heresy?
Anyway, this deck also has a tokens subtheme. If my little dorks can't quite break through, then Purphoros can Trumpet Blast them through. Yeah, there are kind of a lot of random 1-ofs in the deck, which I think should be fine since Ajani can dig so effectively. I would love to add a third, but I'm not sure I want to cut anything else at the top end. Maybe cut a Stormbreath? I'm also pondering cutting a Mr. Pukey for a third Xenagos. Though a big 5/5 hunka fat that can randomly kill some dorks isn't the worst. I really like the broken board states that Xenagos can fuel though, especially in tandem with Ajani and Elspeth.
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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!
Not sure about sideboard yet. Probably some combination of Magma Spray, Anger of the Gods, enchantment removal, life gain, and maybe something like Glare of Heresy?
Anyway, this deck also has a tokens subtheme. If my little dorks can't quite break through, then Purphoros can Trumpet Blast them through. Yeah, there are kind of a lot of random 1-ofs in the deck, which I think should be fine since Ajani can dig so effectively. I would love to add a third, but I'm not sure I want to cut anything else at the top end. Maybe cut a Stormbreath? I'm also pondering cutting a Mr. Pukey for a third Xenagos. Though a big 5/5 hunka fat that can randomly kill some dorks isn't the worst. I really like the broken board states that Xenagos can fuel though, especially in tandem with Ajani and Elspeth.
Yeah .. I'm thinking about cutting it. I'm already probably going up to four Foothillses, and I do have four Coursers. But yeah. Crater's Claws is definitely going in, too. Much better spicy one-of than Rocks, and a great mana sink for Xenagos/Elspeth. I've also decided to cut the Mystics. They enable some great explosive starts, but it doesn't happen enough, and it makes my mana really weird. It's now looking more like this:
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!
3x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2x Courser of Kruphix
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Stormbreath Dragon
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Banishing Light
Planeswalker (2)
2x Xenagos, the Reveler
Instant (8)
4x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet
Land (23)
4x Battlefield Forge
6x Forest
2x Mana Confluence
3x Mountain
4x Temple of Abandon
1x Temple of Plenty
1x Temple of Triumph
2x Wooded Foothills
Easiest fix? Don't play Brimaz. -3 Brimaz, +2 Courser of Kruphix. +1 Polukranos, World Eater.
Fleecemane Lion is also hard to cast off of 8 white sources. Consider something like Heir of the Wilds.
That said, if you want this to work.. I'd actually suggest cutting Elvish Mystic. As appealing as a second turn Rabblemaster is, that's your only big play. Otherwise the only spell you're really looking to cast ahead of curve is Stormbreath Dragon, which curves out fine with just caryatid. Everything else in the deck is either already placed on curve to take advantage of Sylvan Caryatid as well, or doesn't ramp out effectively with Mystic (Brimaz, fleecemane). If you want the 4x mystic, 4x caryatid plan, you should be using 4x polukranos, 4x stormbreath dragon, Xx wingmate roc, Xx arbor colossus, Xx crater's claws. Otherwise, why ramp? Your manabase is actually pretty tedious.. because you need your cheap red removal online early, and green has to come early/often for ramp/courser, and white has to come early to cast fleecemane/brimaz on curve. You're going to have to hurt yourself a lot to pull it all off on curve- which has been the case for Naya since last season. You may want to offset the lifeloss with some life gain.. Wingmate Roc being the first thing that comes to mind, but there are probably better options I'm forgetting.
Speaking personally, I'd just make this G with a splash W/R and use a base of:
4x elvish mystic
4x lightning strike
4x heir of the wilds
4x fleecemane lion
4x goblin rabblemaster
4x boon satyr
4x banishing light
4x polukranos
4x stormbreath dragon
I arranged it by casting cost to show you one approach to curving out efficiently. This is a fairly low to the ground, aggressive base and it's set up to cast fast beats with the ability to begin casting multiple spells long, long before mid-range does.. while having the backup plan of bestow/monstrous to upgrade our early threats, supplemented with the abzan-crushing stormbreath dragon. Regardless, the point is to have a well oiled machine, then you can start tweaking the numbers and adding/removing spells to suit your play style- particularly payoff spells like the Gods and planeswalkers. In this list, our manabase is much less stressed, mostly due to the lack of brimaz. This allows us to know that we only need Green mana fast, and our white/red sources are more like a splash. We can use taplands for W/R because we don't need it on turn one and often not on turn two either.. and we can use painlands for W/R because our splash cards only have 1 colored mana in their CC, so we'll only be taking 1 or 2 over the course of a game.
edit: ha, just realized the title of the thread is mid-range. the deck you posted isn't really mid-rangy, and mine is definitively not mid-rangy. If you want mid-range style, definitely play naya walkers.
1 elvish mystic
4 sylvan caryatid
3 courser of Kruphix
3 hornet nest
1 reclamation sage
2 ashcloud phoenix
1 stormbreath Dragon
1 Purphoros, god of the forge
2 hornet queen
spells - 18
4 hordeling outburst
2 xenagos, the reveler
2 chandra, pyromaster
2 anger of the gods
2 Setessian tactics
2 elspeth, sun's champion
4 chord of the calling
4 temple of abandon
2 temple of plenty
3 wooded foothills
3 windswept heath
4 forest
3 mountain
3 plains
1 mana confluence
1 battlefield forge
3 banishing light - vaults, Ashiok, Ugin....
2 stormbreath dragon - in deck where they are good, Mardu?
2 reclamation sage - heroic & constellation
1 anger of the Gods - tokens.....
1 courser of Kruphix - aggro, life gain
1 sarkhan, dragonspeaker - control, other stormbreaths
1 heliod, god of the sun - control
1 ashcloud phoenix - control, aggro
1 Purphoros, god of the forge - against decks that can get rid of the first
1 haunted plate mail - control, gets around sweepers and Ugin (budget for Nissa)
1 hammer of purphoros - control, maybe heroic, colorless creature
Havent ran this too much, just gave up on Temur.
Props to DarkNightCavalier 4 da banner and SGT_Chubbz 4 avvie, here
Standard
GRAggro
GRWNaya Purphoros
GWAggro Retired 9/19/2014
RGPrimeval Titan RIP
1/5/2010 - 9/30/2011
Top 4 Channelfireball Winter series 5k Feb. 2011
3rd at California National Qualifiers 2011
40th at GP SLC 2012
Find me on MTGO @ Ruslvmusl91
2x Battlefield Forge
3x Forest
2x Mana Confluence
2x Mountain
2x Plains
3x Temple of Abandon
3x Temple of Plenty
2x Temple of Triumph
2x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Courser of Kruphix
2x Elvish Mystic
3x Fleecemane Lion
2x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
2x Stormbreath Dragon
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Xenagos, the Reveler
Enchantment (4)
3x Banishing Light
1x Chained to the Rocks
Instant (4)
4x Lightning Strike
Not sure about sideboard yet. Probably some combination of Magma Spray, Anger of the Gods, enchantment removal, life gain, and maybe something like Glare of Heresy?
Anyway, this deck also has a tokens subtheme. If my little dorks can't quite break through, then Purphoros can Trumpet Blast them through. Yeah, there are kind of a lot of random 1-ofs in the deck, which I think should be fine since Ajani can dig so effectively. I would love to add a third, but I'm not sure I want to cut anything else at the top end. Maybe cut a Stormbreath? I'm also pondering cutting a Mr. Pukey for a third Xenagos. Though a big 5/5 hunka fat that can randomly kill some dorks isn't the worst. I really like the broken board states that Xenagos can fuel though, especially in tandem with Ajani and Elspeth.
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 don't care if you only have one Chained to the Rocks -- you only have 5 possible mountains. That's going to have to be something like Crater's Claws or Magma Jet.
2x Battlefield Forge
3x Forest
2x Mana Confluence
2x Mountain
2x Plains
3x Temple of Abandon
4x Temple of Plenty
1x Temple of Triumph
2x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Crater's Claws
Creature (16)
1x Ashcloud Phoenix
4x Courser of Kruphix
3x Fleecemane Lion
2x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
1x Stormbreath Dragon
4x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Banishing Light
1x Suspension Field
Instant (4)
4x Lightning Strike
Planeswalker (10)
2x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
3x Xenagos, the Reveler
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!