Ok, I have reworked my decklist. I opted for the Leyline over Halo to keep my BBE cascading into creatures more often. Gaea's Revenge feels kinda like a wasted slot in the board. I was thinking about fitting in 2 more Gaddock Teeg, or possibly Obstinant Baloth because I know Jund is fairly popular in my area. Tell me what you guys think:
I don't understand why anyone wouldn't run a Murmuring Bosk in the KotR version of the deck. Being able to fetch for white with your green fetches is amazing.
I also feel like Behemoth Sledge is probably just better than Sword of Vengeance since they are both good against the same matchups, except Sledge can also steal games from mono red.
I realize last night after I posed that I really need to do some work on my mana base. Currently, I only have 3 lands that will allow me to utilize Noble Hierarch on turn 1. I will have to fit in a few of the lands from SoM to help balance that out. How many Raging Ravine should I use? I dont feel like I need 4, but I would not want to cut it to less than 2.
Ravager, the only reason why i'm not sharing my list is because of Kelldroth.
If people here want to withhold information then I will too. I believe in sharing tech and information...no Naya decks made top 8 at ATL. Why? Maybe because we weren't united sharing our tech with each other.
Nobody here said RG Valakut was a bad match up and it was not part of my testing gauntlet. I totally overlooked it and I got caught with my pants down in the most crucial of rounds.
I'm very happy with my deck, and since I didn't make day two. My crucial card was never revealed. It can still be a surprise at the next PTQ, I have no reason to switch yet. Maybe the new set will change things, but maybe not. And now I have a solid deck, with surprise factor and 9 rounds of GP under its belt.
Congrats on the results they aren't terrible.
This coming from the guy who had a go at Kelldroth for doing the same thing :p.
As with manabase just look at a few other deck lists and see what they are doing.
Got bored so I had a scan of the Besieged spoiler and couldn't see a whole lot of help for this deck. Here is a few I liked for the deck and may consider testing.
Mirran Crusader: Hows it going Jund.
Thrun, the last Troll: This guy is great vs control and Fae.
Phyrexian Revoker: A potential silver bullet.
As I said, that was a quick run through, anyone else spot playables for this deck?
Lead the stampede looks solid... perhaps against control. On one hand, it doesn't recurr vengevine... on the other, it draws us 3-4 cards on average for 3 mana, and prevents us from topdecking lands. I will be testing it as sb against various control decks.
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Ravager, the only reason why i'm not sharing my list is because of Kelldroth.
If people here want to withhold information then I will too. I believe in sharing tech and information...no Naya decks made top 8 at ATL. Why? Maybe because we weren't united sharing our tech with each other.
Nobody here said RG Valakut was a bad match up and it was not part of my testing gauntlet. I totally overlooked it and I got caught with my pants down in the most crucial of rounds.
I'm very happy with my deck, and since I didn't make day two. My crucial card was never revealed. It can still be a surprise at the next PTQ, I have no reason to switch yet. Maybe the new set will change things, but maybe not. And now I have a solid deck, with surprise factor and 9 rounds of GP under its belt.
I did share all my tech after the tournament... and I'm glad I waited.
I think its because rg valakut showed up in substantial numbers and we were "the deck to beat". I knew rg valakut was a bad matchup, but relied on modo stats which indicated rg valakut wasn't showing up in force. It proved to be a lesson well learned.
I've been toying around with the naya-mythic build. It certainly has surprise, and seems to be capable of significant results. Has anyone else tried it?
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As you can see, I ran less manadorks, and 0 maindeck removal. Putting me in a position to out-aggro other aggressive decks and outlast control decks until a pile of relevant topdecks/cascades.
It was very weak against ramp decks, being noninteractive preboard (except for the Harrier, who proved incredible), but I wanted to ensure my Vengevine recursion.
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Not sure if you have got what I meant. UW control, with the Finks recursion through Sun Titan, along with WoO and path+ORing is kinda hard match up for this deck, VV or not VV.. and a Fae morphed into ub control, with Sower, Nighthawk and Wurmcoil is definitely hard to deal with too.
My comment wasn't meant towards Valakut MU, but was kinda general. Elspeth, especially in aggro mirrors is kinda a key card for me.
Try harrier for locking down those titans/wurmcoils. Works like a champ. Control matchups have all been 60%+ for my build in testing and gp play.
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Ehrm, this might sound a lil cocky from me maybe, but why your control mups should be so favorable?
Your list seems eschewing Sparkmage for some 1-offs not so good in the control mu. Goldmeadow Harrier isn't that good against a deck with Lightning Bolt, Volcanic Fallout, Doomblade and Path to Exile like 4cc. Even Fairies got 6 removals for your Archer. Not even mentioning that your aggresive 3 drops (Wooly and Knight) highly benefits from playing 1-drop mana dorks.. Really your list might even have performed good at GP Atlanta, but honestly I see no reason to move from the usual 6-to-8 Birds lists..
The only card that I'm really re-valuating is Ranger of Eos, whose come back in the deck is definitely related to my inclusion of a couple more spells.
My control matchups are better because I don't have a dozen useless topdecks/cascades. Manadorks aren't really necessary in Naya (IMHO). They're for decks that have potent 6-drops they need to hit like Bant or various titan decks. Naya curves out at 3 and 4. Lotus cobra is more potent as a ramp creature, good for getting some extra damage through, and can kill bloodbraids after you no longer need it.
It may also be that I know how to play against control. Being a control player, myself. I know how to avoid overextending, and when to press the advantage.
any deck bringing in fallout is met by forgetenders.
Any deck relying on day has to deal with teeg (preferably with KoTR protecting him with steppes).
By the time we're ranger of Eos upping a card like harrier, most decks have exhausted all their removal trying to kill shamans, thoctars, knights, vengevines, and bloodbraids. You'd really have to play it to see how useful it's been.
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Basically you are calling "a dozen useless topdecks/cascades" the 7 mana dorks I'm actually playing. Let me point out that Lotus Cobra isn't a lot more impressive cascade than Birds of Paradise, and I'd rather cascade into Noble Hierarch than into Cobra. Scattershot Archer seems a pretty whiffy cascade too, along with Qasali Pridemage we are both running. Scute Mob might be a worse Figure of Destiny because it needs a full turn to survive for doing actually anything, so I'd rather play FoD as a Ranger toolbox. I'm still considering Burrenton Forge-Tender necessary but just cute, given that it stops Fallout but no DoJ nor Hallowed Burial, but i'm fine with it being a cute cascade against control. Summing up, you have 9 or even 10 (still debating on Finks against 4cc/UW control) bad cascades against control, while the common Naya builds got 11/12 (7 to 8 mana dorks + Qasali + Sparkmage). To me, getting a couple less whiffles isn't enough for giving up the chance of t2 Wooly. Against Fae it's so important getting damages through before the obligatory t2 forcefield and against Jund it's so good too being ahead in the damage race with a 5 power on t2.
Really, Ranger is definitely a good card to tune this deck with. But it comes out after a sweeper, when you need to rebuild the pressure with some raw power. Not as a toolbox for answers to opponent's incoming threats. If you let your control opponent sweap the board and you aren't putting enough pressure on him, chances are that the game is slipping from your grasp.
Oh, and a note about Gaddock Teeg: he's definitely cute, but you cannot always rely on other cards to protect him. I'm more impressed by Sun Titan bringing him or other threats back than the whole impact of Gaddock Teeg in control match ups.
Any naya build not running pridemages is doing it wrong.
Figure of Destiny sucks for naya. It's a huge mana sink when you'd rather be casting threats or activating ravine. Scute mob gets far larger, far faster, with only a single mana's investment. Worst case scenario is they waste a removal spell on it. When playing against control, you need to hold back and let the vengevines do their work, using your hand to recurr them as necessary. I'd rather be using ranger into harrier to recurr + lock down his largest threat... wouldn't you? I hear icy manipulator is good.
The. Archer and forgetender are both bad cascades/topdecks when drawn/played against decks other than what they were tuned for. But, the presence of that singleton archer improves my faeries matchup by 20%, and that burrenton forgetender proved useful versus jund, mirror, rdw, and valakut.
Teeg has some impact in control as they probably used their path/o ring on my shaman, expecting their cryptics and day of judgements to hold the battlefield.... but he's in the deck to turn off scapeshift/wargate/cryptic/ultimatum/day.
Manadorks drawn/cascaded after turn 3 are wasted cards. My deck has 2 bad cascades. The typical naya list has 12 (8 manadorks and 4 bolts)
Like I said. Playtest the deck. Note the results. Its a very consistent variant. If you don't like it, I'll hardly force you to play it.
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I played the Ranger tool box for a while but cut it because of the curve constraints. 8 four drops is my limit. Anything more and you may have to mulligan too much.
When I build a deck I make my final decisions based on mana curve.
I would never not play Noble Hierarch, card has always been amazing. Bad cascades do not matter if you are recurring Vengevine.
Typical naya list has no bolts, but got 3 spells, 1 Basilisk Collar and 2 Elspeth.
Bad cascades are of 2 types: those that are bad each and everytime you hit them (and Lotus Cobra is such as bad as mana dorks here) and those that are bad depending on the match ups (and here we can debate).
Well I will give a try to your version anyway, even if I'm still kinda doubthful on your testing results tbh (expecially Archer making your Faeries mu so better..)
If you can play it without running it into a counterspell, it really makes a huge difference. They usually exhaust their removal on shaman or cobra.
Both games I beat the world champion were due to archers.
Hierarch seems decent due to exalted, and I will playtest it without birds. Birds just seems unnecessary unless your curve runs a significant number of 5 and 6 drops.
Sparkmage seems too slow to me, so after extensive testing, I removed it from my deck. If I expected more midrange decks, it'd probably make my sideboard.
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I don't understand why anyone wouldn't run a Murmuring Bosk in the KotR version of the deck. Being able to fetch for white with your green fetches is amazing.
I also feel like Behemoth Sledge is probably just better than Sword of Vengeance since they are both good against the same matchups, except Sledge can also steal games from mono red.
It comes into play tapped, which is a big deal. That's the only reason.
I am sure you guys are getting a little sick of seeing my posts without me actually adding anything constructive to the thread. So here it goes:
I have gone through a bunch of deck lists, checked out results from players running Naya in the Grand Prix last weekend, and studied their weaknesses. The main problem matchup seemed to be the RG Valakut/Scapeshift/Prismatic Omen deck. Runed Halo and Leyline of Sanctity were obvious choices to answer, and I decided to go with the Leyline to help me a: save mana by possibly dropping for free, and b: avoid cascading into non creature spells when trying to recur Vengevine.
RayRokka (who seems like a fairly experienced player) said he dropped the Ranger package due to the deck already having 8 4drops and not needing the utilities he was grabbing. The only cards I would want to grab with Ranger are Scute Mob, Goldmeadow Harrier and Scattershot Archer (great anti-Fae card). The problem is that I would have to fit all 3 in, plus another 3 1drops (Noble Hierarch) and at least 2 Ranger of Eos... that is a minimum of 8 cards I have to dedicate to make that happen. Because of this, I too will also not be running Ranger of Eos. Besides, I still have Fauna Shaman to help recur Vengevine.
After making changes to the deck list, it was obvious that my land situation needed to be looked at more carefully. I did include 3x Noble Hierarch, but I didnt have enough of the proper lands to play him on turn 1 consistantly. Adding in a few lands from the SoM set fixed that problem.
This is still a work in progress, but I believe I am coming closer to my goal.
I wasnt running Woolly because he is a little too vanilla for my tastes. I like creatures with utility, and it seemed like it was not going to do a whole lot unless I can play it turn 2. I didnt really build this with the intention of dropping big threats on turn2, but more of making a bigger impact on turn 3.... although I can see why a turn 2 woolly thoctor followed by a turn 3 BBE could be pretty hard to deal with. I dont run KotR because I dont have a lot of lands going to my gy. With only 3 fetches, 3 forests and 2 plains, they just didnt seem worth it.
I dont like Fauna Shaman, plain and simple. It has a great utility built into it, but waiting a turn to use it usually leaves me with a dead shaman by the time it comes back to my turn. I suppose it is a great bait creature to draw out removal, but I dont think I would want to run more than 3.
Jund and Fae are the decks I am expecting to see taking up most of my meta. GSS is fairly strong against those match ups so I wanted to run 3 maindeck. you might be right about it not doing enough without early pressure. I will have to get some more games in before I can make that call.
Fracturing Gust is for more than Tempered Steel (eg: in response to Scapeshift), but that is the main reason I put it in. It might not be necessary though with maindeck path and pridemage. Maybe I will kick the GSS to the board in this slot and stick in 3x Woolly Thoctor.
Thanks for the advice. It gave me something constructive to think about.
It comes into play tapped, which is a big deal. That's the only reason.
I'm not saying there isn't a drawback, but being able to make your verdant catacombs search for something else than a Forest can be the difference in playing your spells or not. If you have a turn 1 play then go search out a Forest instead, but the benefits definitely outweigh the drawback like the other CIPT lands in the deck.
Try harrier for locking down those titans/wurmcoils. Works like a champ. Control matchups have all been 60%+ for my build in testing and gp play.
What kind of control decks aren't running removal to deal with a Goldmeadow Harrier? You need to race them before they lock you out, not try and outcontrol them with a 1/1.
What kind of control decks aren't running removal to deal with a Goldmeadow Harrier? You need to race them before they lock you out, not try and outcontrol them with a 1/1.
Take a look at the list I posted. The harrier exists as a tutorable answer to wurmcoils and sun titans. And as such an answer, it performs beautifully, preventing a control player from being able to lock me out of the game. It's also decent for tapping down faeries wall of tanglecord. In this capacity, the harrier allows me to race just a little bit longer and more effectively.
Such a control player has typically already exhausted their removal by that stage of the game. Same reason Frost titan is good in standard, except I'm trading a more resilient body and automatic triggering for vengevine recursion.
I'm not saying Harrier is an unbeatable beast... I'm just saying that within a Ranger of Eos package, it gives the deck another option which has proven valuable. If I just brought two vengevines out of the yard postday, and they're concerned with the harrier, it's doing it's job. If they're not, it'll do it's other job.
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aside: Daberma, please refrain from posting if you have nothing of value to say and merely trolling. you already have on infraction, and can bet money on more as you continue to troll unphased.
on topic: I will say that scute mob is not a valid inclusion in this format and forge tender is a terrible maindeck card (yet an excellent sb option). Ranger of Eos is powerful, but only as powerful as the cards it can fetch. you also need the cards it fetches to be somewhat on par with your other tools to be worthy of inclusion. If ranger of eos is causing you to make poor maindeck inclsuions, then you might as well not include it at all.
Spitebellows was really good for me. It kills Baneslayers and Sun Titans. No Complaints. I may even play more than one copy next time.
4x Vengevine
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Qasali Pridemage
3x Great Sable Stag
3x Noble Hierarch
2x Fauna Shaman
2x Baneslayer Angel
2x Sun Titan
1x Gaddock Teeg
4x Path to Exile
2x Lightning Bolt
Land: 25
4x Wooded Bastion
4x Raging Ravine
3x Tectonic Edge
3x Arid Mesa
2x Rugged Prairie
2x Fire-Lit Thicket
3x Forest
2x Plains
2x Mountain
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Volcanic Fallout
3x Fracturing Gust
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Gaea's Revenge
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Great Sable Stag
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3 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Woolly Thoctar
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Vengevine
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Sun Titan
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Raging Ravine
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Forest
2 Plains
2 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dauntless Escort
3 Arc Trail
2 Path to Exile
1 Sword of Vengeance
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Qasali Pridemage
I also feel like Behemoth Sledge is probably just better than Sword of Vengeance since they are both good against the same matchups, except Sledge can also steal games from mono red.
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If people here want to withhold information then I will too. I believe in sharing tech and information...no Naya decks made top 8 at ATL. Why? Maybe because we weren't united sharing our tech with each other.
Nobody here said RG Valakut was a bad match up and it was not part of my testing gauntlet. I totally overlooked it and I got caught with my pants down in the most crucial of rounds.
I'm very happy with my deck, and since I didn't make day two. My crucial card was never revealed. It can still be a surprise at the next PTQ, I have no reason to switch yet. Maybe the new set will change things, but maybe not. And now I have a solid deck, with surprise factor and 9 rounds of GP under its belt.
Lead the stampede looks solid... perhaps against control. On one hand, it doesn't recurr vengevine... on the other, it draws us 3-4 cards on average for 3 mana, and prevents us from topdecking lands. I will be testing it as sb against various control decks.
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I did share all my tech after the tournament... and I'm glad I waited.
I think its because rg valakut showed up in substantial numbers and we were "the deck to beat". I knew rg valakut was a bad matchup, but relied on modo stats which indicated rg valakut wasn't showing up in force. It proved to be a lesson well learned.
I've been toying around with the naya-mythic build. It certainly has surprise, and seems to be capable of significant results. Has anyone else tried it?
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I ran paths to deal with titans, though I think I should have gone with Spitebellows.
Tectonic Edge seems very solid. I want to rework my manabase to include a few.
How does Elspeth help us against Valakut? In what matchups have you found her more valuable than a 4-drop creature threat?
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4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Arid Mesa
3 Forest
2 Jungle Shrine
1 Mountain
3 Plains
3 Raging Ravine
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Sunpetal Grove
3 Verdant Catacombs
Creatures:35
1 Baneslayer Angel
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Vengevine
4 Woolly Thoctar
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Scute Mob
1 Scattershot Archer
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Forked Bolt
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4 Path to Exile
1 Qasali Pridemage
As you can see, I ran less manadorks, and 0 maindeck removal. Putting me in a position to out-aggro other aggressive decks and outlast control decks until a pile of relevant topdecks/cascades.
It was very weak against ramp decks, being noninteractive preboard (except for the Harrier, who proved incredible), but I wanted to ensure my Vengevine recursion.
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Try harrier for locking down those titans/wurmcoils. Works like a champ. Control matchups have all been 60%+ for my build in testing and gp play.
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My control matchups are better because I don't have a dozen useless topdecks/cascades. Manadorks aren't really necessary in Naya (IMHO). They're for decks that have potent 6-drops they need to hit like Bant or various titan decks. Naya curves out at 3 and 4. Lotus cobra is more potent as a ramp creature, good for getting some extra damage through, and can kill bloodbraids after you no longer need it.
It may also be that I know how to play against control. Being a control player, myself. I know how to avoid overextending, and when to press the advantage.
any deck bringing in fallout is met by forgetenders.
Any deck relying on day has to deal with teeg (preferably with KoTR protecting him with steppes).
By the time we're ranger of Eos upping a card like harrier, most decks have exhausted all their removal trying to kill shamans, thoctars, knights, vengevines, and bloodbraids. You'd really have to play it to see how useful it's been.
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Trolling infraction.
Any naya build not running pridemages is doing it wrong.
Figure of Destiny sucks for naya. It's a huge mana sink when you'd rather be casting threats or activating ravine. Scute mob gets far larger, far faster, with only a single mana's investment. Worst case scenario is they waste a removal spell on it. When playing against control, you need to hold back and let the vengevines do their work, using your hand to recurr them as necessary. I'd rather be using ranger into harrier to recurr + lock down his largest threat... wouldn't you? I hear icy manipulator is good.
The. Archer and forgetender are both bad cascades/topdecks when drawn/played against decks other than what they were tuned for. But, the presence of that singleton archer improves my faeries matchup by 20%, and that burrenton forgetender proved useful versus jund, mirror, rdw, and valakut.
Teeg has some impact in control as they probably used their path/o ring on my shaman, expecting their cryptics and day of judgements to hold the battlefield.... but he's in the deck to turn off scapeshift/wargate/cryptic/ultimatum/day.
Manadorks drawn/cascaded after turn 3 are wasted cards. My deck has 2 bad cascades. The typical naya list has 12 (8 manadorks and 4 bolts)
Like I said. Playtest the deck. Note the results. Its a very consistent variant. If you don't like it, I'll hardly force you to play it.
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When I build a deck I make my final decisions based on mana curve.
I would never not play Noble Hierarch, card has always been amazing. Bad cascades do not matter if you are recurring Vengevine.
If you can play it without running it into a counterspell, it really makes a huge difference. They usually exhaust their removal on shaman or cobra.
Both games I beat the world champion were due to archers.
Hierarch seems decent due to exalted, and I will playtest it without birds. Birds just seems unnecessary unless your curve runs a significant number of 5 and 6 drops.
Sparkmage seems too slow to me, so after extensive testing, I removed it from my deck. If I expected more midrange decks, it'd probably make my sideboard.
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It comes into play tapped, which is a big deal. That's the only reason.
I have gone through a bunch of deck lists, checked out results from players running Naya in the Grand Prix last weekend, and studied their weaknesses. The main problem matchup seemed to be the RG Valakut/Scapeshift/Prismatic Omen deck. Runed Halo and Leyline of Sanctity were obvious choices to answer, and I decided to go with the Leyline to help me a: save mana by possibly dropping for free, and b: avoid cascading into non creature spells when trying to recur Vengevine.
RayRokka (who seems like a fairly experienced player) said he dropped the Ranger package due to the deck already having 8 4drops and not needing the utilities he was grabbing. The only cards I would want to grab with Ranger are Scute Mob, Goldmeadow Harrier and Scattershot Archer (great anti-Fae card). The problem is that I would have to fit all 3 in, plus another 3 1drops (Noble Hierarch) and at least 2 Ranger of Eos... that is a minimum of 8 cards I have to dedicate to make that happen. Because of this, I too will also not be running Ranger of Eos. Besides, I still have Fauna Shaman to help recur Vengevine.
After making changes to the deck list, it was obvious that my land situation needed to be looked at more carefully. I did include 3x Noble Hierarch, but I didnt have enough of the proper lands to play him on turn 1 consistantly. Adding in a few lands from the SoM set fixed that problem.
This is still a work in progress, but I believe I am coming closer to my goal.
4x Vengevine
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Qasali Pridemage
3x Great Sable Stag
3x Noble Hierarch
2x Fauna Shaman
2x Baneslayer Angel
2x Sun Titan
1x Gaddock Teeg
Other Spells: 6
4x Path to Exile
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Wooded Bastion
2x Raging Ravine
3x Tectonic Edge
3x Arid Mesa
3x Copperline Gorge
3x Razorverge Thicket
1x Rugged Prairie
1x Fire-Lit Thicket
3x Forest
2x Plains
2x Mountain
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Volcanic Fallout
3x Fracturing Gust
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Gaddock Teeg/Obstinate Baloth (not sure which to go with)
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Great Sable Stag
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I dont like Fauna Shaman, plain and simple. It has a great utility built into it, but waiting a turn to use it usually leaves me with a dead shaman by the time it comes back to my turn. I suppose it is a great bait creature to draw out removal, but I dont think I would want to run more than 3.
Jund and Fae are the decks I am expecting to see taking up most of my meta. GSS is fairly strong against those match ups so I wanted to run 3 maindeck. you might be right about it not doing enough without early pressure. I will have to get some more games in before I can make that call.
Fracturing Gust is for more than Tempered Steel (eg: in response to Scapeshift), but that is the main reason I put it in. It might not be necessary though with maindeck path and pridemage. Maybe I will kick the GSS to the board in this slot and stick in 3x Woolly Thoctor.
Thanks for the advice. It gave me something constructive to think about.
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I'm not saying there isn't a drawback, but being able to make your verdant catacombs search for something else than a Forest can be the difference in playing your spells or not. If you have a turn 1 play then go search out a Forest instead, but the benefits definitely outweigh the drawback like the other CIPT lands in the deck.
What kind of control decks aren't running removal to deal with a Goldmeadow Harrier? You need to race them before they lock you out, not try and outcontrol them with a 1/1.
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Take a look at the list I posted. The harrier exists as a tutorable answer to wurmcoils and sun titans. And as such an answer, it performs beautifully, preventing a control player from being able to lock me out of the game. It's also decent for tapping down faeries wall of tanglecord. In this capacity, the harrier allows me to race just a little bit longer and more effectively.
Such a control player has typically already exhausted their removal by that stage of the game. Same reason Frost titan is good in standard, except I'm trading a more resilient body and automatic triggering for vengevine recursion.
I'm not saying Harrier is an unbeatable beast... I'm just saying that within a Ranger of Eos package, it gives the deck another option which has proven valuable. If I just brought two vengevines out of the yard postday, and they're concerned with the harrier, it's doing it's job. If they're not, it'll do it's other job.
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on topic: I will say that scute mob is not a valid inclusion in this format and forge tender is a terrible maindeck card (yet an excellent sb option). Ranger of Eos is powerful, but only as powerful as the cards it can fetch. you also need the cards it fetches to be somewhat on par with your other tools to be worthy of inclusion. If ranger of eos is causing you to make poor maindeck inclsuions, then you might as well not include it at all.
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