Welcome to the second part of this article series. If you missed it, the first article can be found here.
This time out, we’re talking about Naya, Bant, White Aggro, and Five-Color Control. Let’s get started.
NAYA
Manuel:
1 – Oblivion Ring
2 – Branching Bolt
3 – Bull Cerodon
4 – Naya Charm
5 – Resounding Thunder
6 — Knight of the Skyward Eye
7 – Drumhunter
8 – Jungle Shrine
9 – Rhox Charger
10 – Woolly Thoctar
11 – Topan Ascetic
12 – Wild Nacatl
13 – Druid of the Anima
14 – Akrasan Squire
15 – Mosstodon
16 – Magma Spray
17 – Naya Battlemage
18 – Savage Lands
19 – Seaside Citadel
20 – Naya Panorama
Olivier:
1 – Naya Charm
2 – Oblivion Ring
3 – Branching Bolt
4 – Wild Nacatl
5 – Drumhunter
6 – Bull Cerodon
7 – Rhox Charger
8 – Jungle Shrine
9 – Soul’s Fire
10 – Woolly Thoctar
11 – Resounding Thunder
12 – Knight of the Skyward Eye
13 – Akrasan Squire
14 – Magma Spray
15 – Savage Lands
16 – Seaside Citadel
17 – Topan Ascetic
18 – Naya Panorama
19 – Naya Battlemage
20 – Mosstodon
Oli: These rankings are so different this time than it’s hard to know what to start with! First, what do you think a Naya deck should be?
Manu: Well, my average Naya deck is a G/W/r semi-aggressive deck.
Oli: For me, you can have very different styles of decks. Either you play W/G super-aggro splashing Red (which is why I rank Wild Nacatl so highly), or G/w/r fatties.
Manu: The W/G super-aggro splashing Red deck is what I’d count as the exalted White archetype, which we are going to discuss later. When I draft, the G/w/r fatty archetype doesn’t happen as often as the G/W/r semi-aggressive build.
Oli: In both cases, I don’t think there is any card I want to pick over Naya Charm. The card has won me countless games, and it’s one card I regularly lose to.
Manu: Well, I think this debate is very similar to our Tower Gargoyle from the previous article… maybe I should just pick these cards higher. But I always dislike the color commitment.
Oli: We’re talking about an early game removal spell which, when you can’t (or don’t want to) play it in the early game, changes into a Fireball in the late game. You can always form a game plan when you have it, and if you have either Sigil Blessing or Soul’s Fire alongside it, you’ll win almost any 10-turn game (or greater) in one shot
Manu: Yes, but it is a very clunky early-game removal spell. Oblivion Ring and Branching Bolt are much easier to cast.
Oli: If it was only a removal spell, it would probably barely make it to the top 20.
Manu: It’s possible that I slightly underrate the three-color cards. Branching Bolt has an “I win the game” mode as well, but it is much easier to cast, and its I Win application can be used much earlier in the game.
Oli: About underrating (or is it about overrating ?)… we need to talk about Soul’s Fire. Because at least one of us is mistaking its use pretty badly
Manu: Well, Soul’s Fire is ALWAYS a blow out. But Unsummon is a common you always sideboard in when you see a Soul’s Fire, and I just don’t want to run into the one Blue mana. I mean, it usually ends up in my deck if I get it, but I don’t feel like the card is that good, as it is a little too fragile for my taste.
Oli: Seriously, how many times, facing Naya, did you think “okay, now I win if he doesn’t have Soul’s Fire and doesn’t draw it in the next two turns”…? I know the card is not good as a removal spell alone. I just like cards such as Soul’s Fire, Naya Charm, or Sigil Blessing… cards that give you a game plan. But if you have bad draws, Soul’s Fire is definitely not the card you’re counting on, agreed.
Manu: How many times, playing Naya, do you think “okay, now I win the game if he doesn’t have an Unsummon, Path to Exile, or Drag Down”…?
Oli: When you almost have the game, your opponent is usually running out of removal spells anyway, and nothing scares me as much as a good old Soul’s Fire. Except maybe for Naya Charm.
Manu: Next time I draft Naya, I’ll try to pick Soul’s Fire earlier. The first three times I played the card, it didn’t work out at all.
Oli:Thanks, by the way. That’s one important message for all the people reading this column: testing cards is not only a Constructed matter. In Limited, you must also question yourself on how high you pick the cards and why your decks work or don’t work. Discussing with other people, as we’re doing right now, can be very educational. About the Knight… even though you picked it a lot higher than I did, I totally understand your point.
Manu: I understand your point of Wild Nacatl as well, but I like that the Knight is an early drop supporting the five-power theme.
Oli: To me, the cards from 4th to 12th are very close, and it depends on what you already have in your deck.
Manu: I agree; the same counts for my cards numbers five through twelve.
Oli: However, Druid of the Anima… I’ve never been a huge fan of the card.
Manu: I have Wild Nacatl far lower than you do, because I often don’t have access to the Red mana on the first few turns. It ends up as an Isamaru most of the time, and this is where Druid of the Anima comes into play, giving me the Red mana when I need it.
Oli: It’s fine, but if I have to pick a fixer, I’ll always take the fetchland over it, as I can use it without a Forest and because it doesn’t die to the first pinger/Blister Beetle. I think I even like Steward of Valeron more than the Druid.
Manu: This time I am on the fragile side of the card. I don’t only like the mana fixing aspect… the tempo you gain of the card is also enormous. And a pinger can be too slow if they are on the draw, as you can play your five- mana 5/3 on your 4th turn.
Oli: True! The thing is, I rarely play many big guys, as it’s not my favorite Naya build, but it is really good in that archetype, and probably deserves a shot in the top 20 indeed.
Manu: But as pingers and Blister Beetles are usually pretty bad against Naya, I think we both didn’t rate magma spray that high.
BANT
Manuel:
1 – Oblivion Ring
2 – Akrasan Squire
3 – Rhox Charger
4 – Seaside Citadel
5 – Bant Charm
6 – Rhox War Monk
7 – Drumhunter
8 – Knight of the Skyward Eye
9 – Arcane Sanctum
10 – Jungle Shrine
11 – Bant Panorama
12 – Waveskimmer Aven
13 – Angelic Benediction
14 – Sigiled Paladin
15 – Mosstodon
16 – Excommunicate
17 – Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
18 – Court Archers
19 – Wild Nacatl
20 – Welkin Guide
Olivier:
1 – Sigiled Paladin
2 – Rhox Charger
3 – Oblivion Ring
4 – Akrasan Squire
5 – Kinght of the Skyward Eye
6 – Seaside Citadel
7 – Rhox War Monk
8 – Bant Charm
9 – Jungle Shrine
10 – Arcane Sanctum
11 – Topan Ascetic
12 – Wild Nacatl
13 – Steward of Valeron
14 – Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
15 – Sigil Blessing
16 – Bant Panorama
17 – Welkin Guide
18 – Waveskimmer Aven
19 – Angelic Benediction
20 – Excommunicate
Manu: We both have the “Charger, Ring, Squire” package very early.
Manu: You put Sigiled Paladin over everything, and I have him more in the middle. Why do you have him that high?
Oli: At first I think we need to discuss what a Bant deck should be. I don’t like drafting that archetype at all. Usually, I end up drafting it when I’m W/G Exalted and get passed stuff like Rhox War Monk and Bant Charm. In my opinion, this archetype should have a strong exalted basis, and my favorite exalted card is the Paladin. You’re talking about a Ring/Squire/Charger package, but to me it’s a Ring/Squire/Charger/Paladin package,
Manu: I agree that most of my Bant decks start the same way, but if I know that I am going Bant for sure, I don’t like the double-White casting cost at all. Even though it might be the most powerful non-rare exalted creature.
Oli: When I go Bant, I’m usually playing White as a main color. That doesn’t mean I will necessarily play it on turn 2, but I should be running something like eight White mana sources.
Manu: For my taste, eight white mana sources is a little low for a card I want to cast on turn 2. If I cast it later, I’d rather just play a Waveskimmer Aven on that turn.
Oli: I think these four cards are really close, but I wouldn’t put it higher than fourth place.
Manu: Is this another Tower Gargoyle / Jund Charm kind of card, only this time it is mono-colored?
Oli: It depends on how the deck turns out. If you are three colors, then yes, it is one of these picks. But I am going to try to gain a White basis as strong as possible by picking it high, which could end up making the deck even more stable.
Manu: I think we’re both talking about a 2.5 color deck, with Blue as a splash (the same as White in Esper).
Oli: I think of a 2.1 color deck, running only a couple of Blue cards.
Manu: I might undervalue the card a little, but I am pretty sure you are overrating it, picking it over Squire, Ring, and Charger. Anyway, next up Drumhunter. You don’t like the card at all in Bant? With your exalted guys, you should almost always have that five-power guy at the end of your turn.
Oli: I would have agreed in AAA, but there are far fewer exalted guys in Conflux, making it very important to pick them in the first two packs. If I already have several big /exalted guys and I receive a Drumhunter, then I’ll pick it over the top 10 to 20 cards in my list.
Manu: You have Topan Ascetic in a similar spot, while I don’t have the card in my Top 20 at all. I made the point that the size of your creature doesn’t matter that much if it is larger than five, which makes me like Drumhunter more… you gain an advantage from it. I have to admit that the Ascetic is excellent at blocking.
Oli: The thing is, in an exalted deck, you have all your guys except for one untapped all the time. Therefore, except if you have a couple of Soul’s Fire, this card couldn’t be better than in this archetype.
Manu: Yeah, he is very big, but does the difference between eight or nine power give you such a huge advantage over a five- or six-power guy and a card a turn?
Oli: Well, if you get the perfect deck for it, Drumhunter is worth first place in our standings. But this usually won’t happen when playing Bant. To me, the card is fine, and I’ll always play it, but compared to a card like Topan Ascetic (which is really good no matter how the draft goes), it’s just worse.
Manu: But Drumhunter might pull out a victory for a bad deck, when Topan Ascetic is just another dude.
Oli: True, but I expect that to happen in a Naya deck, not in Bant.
Manu: Then again, Mosstodon is in my Top 20, while you don’t have the card in the list. That makes Drumhunter a touch better in my ratings than in yours.
Oli: I think this is about how we see the archetype. The more aggro you play, the worse these two are. But if you play aggro/control, they become very good. But usually I go as aggressive as possible. If you decide to go Bant on purpose, I totally agree with how high you value these two cards. However, in my opinion, Bant is the worst archetype there is, and shouldn’t be drafted. I consider Bant as a failure in trying to draft something else!
Manu: That makes sense, alongside your ratings of Sigil Blessing and Wild “Isamaru” Nacatl.
WHITE AGGRO
Manuel:
1 – Akrasan Squire
2 – Sigiled Paladin
3 – Rhox Charger
4 – Oblivion Ring
5 – Knight of the Skyward Eye
6 – Wild Nacatl
7 – Welkin Guide
8 – Sigil Blessing
9 – Angelic Benediction
10 – Steward of Valeron
11 – Excommunicate
12 – Sight-Caste Sorcerer
13 – Court Archers
14 – Mosstodon
15 – Topan Ascetic
16 – Cylian Elf
17 – Naya Charm
18 – Resounding Roar
19 – Drumhunter
20 – Branching Bolt
Olivier:
1 – Sigiled Paladin
2 – Akrasan Squire
3 – Rhox Charger
4 – Oblivion Ring
5 – Knight of the Skyward Eye
6 – Wild Nacatl
7 – Naya Charm
8 – Sigil Blessing
9 – Court Archers
10 – Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
11 – Steward of Valeron
12 – Welkin Guide
13 – Angelic Benediction
14 – Excommunicate
15 – Guardians of Askara
16 – Algae Gharial
17 – Topan Ascetic
18 – Mosstodon
19 – Jungle Shrine
20 – Seaside Citadel
Manu: You have Naya Charm very high. Assuming you are only two colors, would you pick it over a card like Sigil Blessing?
Oli: Usually, you want a card you splash to be either a bomb or a removal spell. In this archetype, it is so important to have regular draws that the splashing options are even more restricted. You want the card to be a bomb or a top class removal spell (I didn’t mention Branching Bolt, but it was very close), and I think that’s what Naya Charm is in this archetype: a card that will make you win most of the time when you draw it. Also, if you play Wild Nacatl, having one or two Red cards will make playing Mountain more acceptable.
Manu: I have to admit that I have Naya Charm a bit too low, as I wanted to make clear that you rarely splash a third color in this archetype. I should have put it right under the second class of cards, which ends after Court Archers. You did put it after the top class cards, which ends up after Wild Nacatl. But we both agree on the first two classes. The first class is: Akrasan Squire, Sigiled Paladin, Rhox Charger, Oblivion Ring, Knight of the Skyward Eye, and Wild Nacatl. They should all be picked very highly. For the second class, it really depends on your curve how highly you pick the cards, and the pick order changes a lot. This class includes Welkin Guide, Sigil Blessing, Angelic Benediction, Steward of Valeron, Excommunicate, Sighted-Caste Sorcerer, and Court Archers. After that, there are several Class 3 cards, and we both mentioned different ones.
Oli: It is very important to point out that the value of the card is dependent on what you have already picked. Our 7 to 20 choices may look pretty different, but I can’t see anything that shocks me. You need a very low curve with a few cards of four and higher. So, if all of your spells after 18-20 picks cost from 1 to 3, I’ll definitely place Welkin Guide in 7th place. Also, Cylian Elf is better than many cards I’ve put in my rating if you’re low on early drops.
Manu: You have put the lands in your Top 20, while they are missing from my list completely. I would pick almost any Class 3 card over the lands. This is pretty much the only point on which we seem to disagree. We have Excommunicate and Resounding Roar (even though you can’t cycle it) very high in the list. This is because you are so aggressive that your opponent has to block, and Resounding Roar becomes a removal spell, while Excommunicate is similar to Time Walk.
Oli: Actually, I don’t like the lands so much in this archetype, but I felt like I couldn’t avoid putting them in. You want to play two colors, but you are not always able to do this, as you either lack playables or have a card you really want to splash. When that happens, I’ll put the tri-land between picks 10 and 15, while they are not worth a Top 20 slot if you can stick to the original plan. By the way, I was watching my brother Antoine draft the other day, and he was playing some strange-looking WU aggro deck that looked like our WG archetype, except for it had flyers when we have more exalted dudes and pump spells. Even though the deck didn’t look very sexy to me at first, Antoine told me it was one of the archetypes with which he’s had the best results. He did win that draft, and we decided to invite him into our conversation so he can tell us a little about it, starting with his own Top 20 of the White Aggro archetype:
Antoine:
1 – Akrasan Squire
2 – Oblivion Ring
3 – Sigiled Paladin
4 – Deft Duelist
5 – Sanctum Gargoyle
6 – Excommunicate
7 – Welkin Guide
8 – Fatestitcher
9 – Kathari Screecher
10 – Knight of the Skyward Eye
11 – Tower Gargoyle
12 – Bant Charm
13 — Courier’s Capsule
14 – Metallurgies
15 – Rhox War Monk
16 – Sight Caste Sorcerer
17 – Guardians of Askara
18 – Angelic Benediction
19 – Cancel
20 – Kiss of the Amesha (but Angelsong is almost as good, maybe even better!)
Oli: So, Antoine, there are several interesting things in there. It’s hard to keep from asking why Angelsong would be in the Top 20 when you’re considering 4 different colors, but can you first introduce us to the archetype ?
Antoine: It’s an exalted deck combined with artifacts. It offers card advantage and evasion, especially with Conflux. Basically, it is the most aggressive deck of the format. With good draws, it only loses to a few uncommons like Infest, Jund Charm, Branching Bolt, or Volcanic Fallout.
Oli: What surprises me here is there’s a combination of very aggressive cards (exalted dudes, flyers) and some control stuff (Metallurgies, Capsule). Is it the kind of deck we would draft in the 90s? Control the board and finish with evasion?
Antoine: Yep! Try not to die, and kill them as fast as possible: your cards’ casting cost is half that of your opponents. There are two important things you should know about the archetype:
A) You sometimes pick cards that are strictly worse (like hating an Infest), knowing that you will wheel back an Excommunicate or a Deft Duelist.
B) The deck was playable in AAA, but it became really good with Conflux (Court Homunculus, Faerie Mechanist, Lapse of Certainty, Aven Squire). You need to get fast and regular draws; if you start casting two-drops when your opponent is already casting a five-drop, you will lose. The combination of Excommunicates/Lapse of Certainty should make you win if you get a quick draw.
Oli: Thanks for your time! We will talk more about it next week.
FIVE-COLOR CONTROL
Manuel:
1 – Jund Charm
2 – Infest
3 – Skeletonize
4 – Resounding Thunder
5 – Branching Bolt
6 – Oblivion Ring
7 – Tower Gargoyle
8 – Bull Cerodon
9 – Resounding Silence
10 – Executioner’s Capsule
11 – Agony Warp
12 – Tri Land
13 – Kiss of the Amesha
14 – Magma Spray
15 – Courier’s Capsule
16 – Sanctum Gargoyle
17 – Esper Battlemage
18 – Fatestitcher
19 – Panorama
20 – Obelisk
21 – Bant Charm
22 – Grixis Charm
23 – Necrogenesis
24 – Naya Charm
25 – Rhox War Monk
26 – Vithian Stinger
27 – Sprouting Thrinax
28 – Bloodpyre Elemental
29 – Algae Gharial
30 – Resounding Wave
Olivier:
1 – Jund Charm
2 – Infest
3 – Skeletonize
4 – Resounding Silence
5 – Resounding Thunder
6 – Executioner’s Capsule
7 – Branching Bolt
8 – Oblivion Ring
9 – Tower Gargoyle
10 – Agony Warp
11 – Tri Land
12 – Bull Cerodon
13 – Necrogenesis
14 – Sanctum Gargoyle
15 – Grixis Charm
16 – Bant Charm
17 – Kiss of the Amesha
18 – Courier’s Capsule
19 – Magma Spray
20 – Naya Charm
21 – Panorama
22 – Obelisk
23 – Bloodpyre Element
24 – Esper Battlemage
25 – Sprouting Thrinax
26 – Fleshbag Marauder
27 – Fatestitcher
28 – Viscera Dragger
29 – Algae Gharial
30 – Rhox War Monk
Manu: We decided to talk about the Top 30 cards for this archetype, because there are so many good cards. The similarity in our lists is stunning!
Oli: That means we are just right. Anything you feel like adding?
Manu: As we agree on how a five-color control deck should look like, it seems like a good time to share our thoughts on the pick orders.
Oli: Let’s talk about the similarities that could surprise the readers. Some of you may be surprised to see Infest and Jund Charm so high, and great creatures such as Rhox War Monk and Woolly Thoctar are so low. Even though we agreed that the Pyroclasm-like were often either great or mediocre/bad in the matchups, we couldn’t agree on if the time they were broken justified the moments they are useless. Here are two reasons why they are in the first two places:
A)You should be favorite against any slow deck, as your deck is very good when game goes long.
B)When you play almost no guys that die to the Pyroclasms, they are never ever bad, as they always end up killing at least one guy.
Manu: Rhox War Monk is a great creature for the deck, but the casting cost of cards like Rhox War Monk and Woolly Thoctar is very hard to support. The deck usually has an Esper or Grixis base, and those cards are going to be a double splash. Again, we prefer keeping our decks as constant as possible, so we pick worse cards over them just because they are easier to support.
Oli: Yes, exactly! The fact that Rhox War Monk is cheap is irrelevant here, as you usually won’t have WUG until you have 5 or 6 mana.
Manu: Also, you don’t always pick Panoramas over Obelisks. If you already have some Panoramas and no Obelisks, you should start considering them higher. The shard of the Obelisk or Panorama matters as well, as you don’t want four mana-fixers of the same shard and none of the others.
Oli: That’s true. Also, you usually don’t want more than two or three Obelisks, while you can play as many fetch lands as you want. The artifacts can be late picks, while the lands can’t. I haven’t put Stinger here, as I hate giving my opponent’s targets for Blister Beetle or pingers when I’m running this archetype. Also, you seem to like Esper Battlemage more than I do here.
Manu: I appreciate the pingers a lot in the deck, and Blood Cultist just missed the Top 30. They are great in the matchups which are problematic (the decks that open with Akrasan Squire). I don’t mind them being almost dead cards against other decks, as you usually are good against them.
Oli: All true. Also, you usually have so much removal spells that Blood Cultist can get fat pretty fast, even when you’re not facing one-toughness guys, and having a few Vithian Stingers, Fatestitchers, or Viscera Draggers makes Bone Splinters a very good card.
Manu: Anything else you would like to share?
Oli: Just one last thing: there are clear thresholds here, and the limits are the fixers. It shows that what you want in five-color is:
A) Top removal spells and creatures
B) Triple lands
C) Good removal spells and card advantage
D) Panoramas and Obelisks
E) Mediocre removal spells and good creatures.
And if you want to draft five-color well, it is important to respect this hierarchy.
Manu: With Alara Reborn, you might even want to mix between the Group C and D, as you only get Borderposts as the new in-color mana fixers.
Next, we talk about Esper, Grixis, Jund, and Naya in Conflux. See you then!
Manu and Oli
Bonus Section
Last week, I mentioned that I would be playing in a Shards Block Constructed Tournament, where the winning player picked up a Black Lotus. I ended up winning the tournament, but as Alara Reborn was not in the format, I’ll just share my decklist and avoid pointless commentary.
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Naya Panorama
4 Exotic Orchard
4 Plains
4 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Druid of the Anima
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Caldera Hellion
4 Battlegrace Angel
2 Armillary Sphere
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Martial Coup
Sideboard
2 Celestial Purge
4 Ignite Disorder
3 Goblin Assault
3 Sarkhan Vol
1 Banefire
2 Ranger of Eos
This is it for this week. Thanks for reading!
Manuel B