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By: Rasparthe, R.A. Sparthe
Apr 05 2009 9:20am
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There is an old saying... Well in truth it isn't old as sayings go.  Some saying go back to ancient Sanskrit or maybe a piece of wisdom dispensed by Socrates seconds before sipping a most delectable hemlock tea.  This one, not so much.  It only goes back as far as 1940's when Quentin Reynolds wrote the immortal words: "If you can't lick them, join them".  As much as MTGO players are strictly forbidden from licking each other (look it up, its in the TOC) the saying has morphed into the more familiar modern saying that substitues 'licking' for 'beating'.  Perhaps many Naya Shard players are into licking their opponents the rest of us are strictly more comfortable with the 'beating' version.  The Naya Shard has done a lot of beating in the last two weeks.


 

It is fairly ironic that it has only taken a month for the Naya decks to return to the same place they were before Conflux was released.  Naya is so dominant now that only the control decks able to slow down the jauggernaut have a chance.  Jund Shard has completely disappeared from the scene as if they suddenly went on a trip to the Mayan Riviera with Grixis and didn't leave behind any forwarding address.  As such, it leaves the big question for any Block Constructed player.

Do I try and lick them or do I join them? 

There are those electing to try and fight but it seems the only decks showing even a spark of life are the 5-Color Control decks and the 'Don't Forget About Me' Mono-White variants.  Despite the lopsided metagame, there are still new decks taking Top 8 slots although the unknown factor probably gives them advantage.

topwolf - 6th Place - Mar 20 - Event 248682

1 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Savage Lands
5 Swamp


24 lands


3 Dreadwing
2 Ethersworn Adjudicator
4 Goblin Outlander
1 Malfegor
3 Nyxathid
3 Sedraxis Specter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Tidehollow Strix

24 creatures


 

 

Malfegor

I can almost picture the first turn of the match.  Play out a swamp and then a Dreadwing and pass the priority.  Long pause while your opponent reads and then rereads the card.  I know that's what I had to do.  Still for three mana he takes out a Woolly Thoctar and who wants to Path such a small guy?  The heavy discard theme and Sculler make for big Nyxathids with the big dragon-demon and Ethersworn Adjudicator to clean it all up.

There are other choices out there but they seem sub-optimal to the 5-Color Control decks roaming the metagame.  Unfortunately, the 5CC haven't settled down into an optimal setup and they are still as wide and varied as seen in previous weeks.  In fact, most appear to be running a five color mana base and throwing any spell that catches the slingers fancy into the list.  For instance:

vinariu - 7th Place - Mar 19 - Event 248680
 
4 Arcane Sanctum
2 Crumbling Necropolis
6 Island
6 Plains
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Swamp

26 lands


0 creatures

 
2 Agony Warp
4 Cancel
4 Courier's Capsule
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Esper Charm
4 Kiss of the Amesha
3 Martial Coup
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile
1 Scepter of Dominance
1 Scepter of Fugue

34 other spells

2 Agony Warp
4 Celestial Purge
3 Countersquall
3 Infest
3 Scepter of Fugue

15 sideboard cards

 

Kiss of the Amesha

That isn't any misprint.  Zero creatures.  Things have gone so far into the controlling territory that even a deck runing no creatures and not even a single Banefire or Cruel Ultimatum can make it into the Top 8.  It kind of makes you ask yourself why you aren't running Telemin Performance.  Despite the fact Telemin has reached its lofty goal of junk rare status it does have the possibility of the overhand windmill slam and unabashed shout of, 'I win' against this deck.  In fact a number of the 5CC decks could be easily destroyed by the double blue sorcery since they are running less than five creatures.  Of course you will have to absorb the casting cost and hope you don't hit a Countersquall but the satisfaction of the auto-win may make it worth it.

Still, even with the rise of the 5CC decks over the last few weeks they cannot compare to the RWG jauggernaut.  It appears many people are just taking the 'join 'em' attitude.  It is understandable though.  The Naya Shard is deep and powerful.  There is a wide gulf between many of the decks and just being inside the same Shard doesn't necessarily mean they are similar.  Some even splash into a fourth color to take advantage of a particularly powerful card.  Previously it was Broodmate Dragon - although that version has fallen out of favor - but the new all-star seems to be Rafiq of the Many.

Just deciding to sling some Naya Shard is only half the battle.  The builds within Naya are just as varied as within the 5 Color camp and finding which one may simply come down to which you personally like.

Planeswalker Naya

FFfreak - 1st Place - Mar 17 - Event 238447

8 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
3 Mountain
4 Naya Panorama
4 Plains


23 land

4 Druid of the Anima
1 Feral Hydra
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Woolly Thoctar

21 creatures


 

Ajani Vengeant

The Planeswalker builds are usually fairly similar to this one.  Lots of early acceleration and cheap creatures for the early game.  As the game winds on the Planeswalkers show up to either bring home the win or stabilize the game in order to set up a Banefire for the remaining life total.  It can be very fast.  Turn 3 Planeswalkers can be hard to deal with, especially if your deck happens to be sputtering slightly.

Naya Aggro

twistedspine209 - 8th Place - Mar 25 - Event 248694

6 Forest
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Mountain
3 Naya Panorama
6 Plains


23 land

3 Battlegrace Angel
3 Cliffrunner Behemoth
4 Druid of the Anima
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Steward of Valeron
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Woolly Thoctar

25 creatures


4 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile
4 Sarkhan Vol


12 other spells

3 Caldera Hellion
4 Celestial Purge
2 Filigree Fracture
2 Naya Charm
4 Volcanic Fallout

15 sideboard


Cliffrunner Behemoth

This is probably as aggressive as a true Naya deck can be.  Twenty-five creatures is approximately five more than a normal build runs and this one ignores all the Planeswalkers except for, arguably, the most aggressive one in Sarkhan Vol.  A few choice removal spells to keep up the tempo for the serious green beef and her excellency the Battlegrace.

With seventy-two decks making Top 8 slots it shouldn't be hard to find a build you can get behind.  If you are into that sort of netdecking fun.  Here at Block o' Shard though we aren't.  We take our Block Constructed seriously.  With so many decklists it should be possible to build the exactly perfect list.  We will turn to math, crunch some numbers and deliver for your viewing pleasure the deck known as Statiscally Perfect Naya.  To the numbers.

Noble Hierarch
Woolly Thoctar
Oblivion Ring
Wild Nacatl
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Path to Exile
Battlegrace Angel
Ajani Vegeant
Ranger of Eos
Knight of the Reliquary
Druid of Anima
Sarkhan Vol
Banefire
Martial Coup
Thornling
Realm Razer
Steward of Valeron
Cliffrunner Behemoth
Rafiq of the Many
Magma Spray
Cylian Sunsinger
Feral Hydra
Soul's Fire
Soul's Majesty
Naya Charm
Knight of White Orchid
Manaplasm
Sigil of Distinction
Knotvine Mystic
Flameblast Dragon
Celestial Purge
Titanic Ultimatum
271
259
246
237
234
201
190
179
172
129
111
104
86
53
29
28
27
23
14
13
12
6
6
6
6
4
4
3
3
2
1
1

It was certainly slightly surprising to see that the card most often played was not Woolly Thoctar as I would have guessed if someone had posed the question but instead Noble Hierarch, technically more useful in a Bant deck.  Over the twenty-two events in the last two weeks 271 of the Hierarchs were called into action.  The rest of the list shows how many of each card was played.

Now we could just take playsets of all the top cards and throw together a deck.  Other articles might be satisfied with such a creation but as I already stated we take our Block Constructed serious here.  We need some number manipulation.

Noble Hierarch
Woolly Thoctar
Oblivion Ring
Wild Nacatl
Elspeth
Path to Exile
Battlegrace Angel
Ajani Vegeant
Ranger of Eos
Knight of the Reliquary
Druid of Anima
Sarkhan Vol
Banefire
Martial Coup
Thornling
Realm Razer
Steward of Valeron
Cliffrunner Behemoth
Rafiq of the Many
Magma Spray
Cylian Sunsinger
Feral Hydra
Soul's Fire
Soul's Majesty
Naya Charm
Knight of White Orchid
Manaplasm
Sigil of Distinction
Knotvine Mystic
Flameblast Dragon
Celestial Purge
Titanic Ultimatum
271
259
246
237
234
201
190
179
172
129
111
104
86
53
29
28
27
23
14
13
12
6
6
6
6
4
4
3
3
2
1
1
3.76
3.60
3.42
3.29
3.25
2.79
2.64
2.49
2.39
1.79
1.54
1.44
1.19
0.74
0.40
0.39
0.38
0.32
0.19
0.18
0.17
0.08
0.08
0.08
0.08
0.06
0.06
0.04
0.04
0.03
0.01
0.01
3.92
3.78
3.39
3.49
3.28
2.85
2.49
2.66
2.57
1.72
1.72
1.57
1.20
0.76
0.30
0.50
0.38
0.24
0.20
0.21
0.23
0.11
0.08
0.11
0.08
0.07
0.03
0.07
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.01

Doesn't that clear it right up?  The first column should be obvious and the second you've already seen above.  Its the straight number of the creature being played.  The next column shows the statiscally perfect number of copies that SPN should be running.  To take it one further the next column shows how many of each card we should be playing but weighted in such a way that the a Noble Hierarch played in a 1st or 2nd place deck receives higher weight than one played in an eighth place deck.

It is of course impossible to play 3.92 copies of Noble Hierarch unless I can some how digitally rip the top 8% off of the 4th copy.  Generally frowned upon anyway.  Using the above information though we can decide which will get a full playset and which don't.  For instance look at Wild Nacatl.  It has a pure value of 3.29 and a weighted one of 3.49.  What is this telling us?  The pure value, when rounded, is saying that I should probably be running three copies.  The weighted value would disagree.  It shows that top decks are running more copies and those not making it as far.  So armed with that information I will put a full playset in my deck.  The opposite is true of Oblivion Ring.

And so I present:

Statiscally Perfect Naya (SPN)


4 Jungle Shrine
4 Naya Panorama
3 Mountain
Forest
6 Plains

23 lands

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Wild Nacatl
2 Battlegrace Angel
3 Ranger of Eos
1 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Druid of the Anima
 

19 creatures

 


3 Oblivion Ring
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Path to Exile
3 Ajani Vengeant
1 Sarkhan Vol
2 Banefire
1 Martial Coup

17 other spells

 

 

Banefire

Of course I need a sideboard, the mana needs adjustment, there is no consideration for curve or synergy but it is a solid deck, statiscally speaking that is.  We will see if statistics can win a few QPs although I would settle for some boosters.

'Til next week.

 

12 Comments

nice article but by Anonymous (not verified) at Sun, 04/05/2009 - 12:47
Anonymous's picture

i just thought id point out the one deck by vinariu isnt actually 5cc, its esper control. i played against him in that tourney rd4 when we were both 3-0 and of course i ended up donking out and missing t8 due to a crucial gameplay error in rd5.

61 card deck? by Rerepete at Sun, 04/05/2009 - 13:53
Rerepete's picture

You have 20 creatures rather than 19...

23+20+17 = 60 its not 61 card by Anonymous (not verified) at Sun, 04/05/2009 - 16:54
Anonymous's picture

23+20+17 = 60 its not 61 card deck :)

24 lands by ZJ (not verified) at Sun, 04/05/2009 - 16:38
ZJ's picture

there's also 24 lands instead of the counted 23. I just played Mid Range Naya at a paper block tournament myself and managed to take second with it.

Well, lots of problems and I by Rasparthe at Sun, 04/05/2009 - 20:39
Rasparthe's picture

Well, lots of problems and I realize now that when I said to myself 'It shouldn't matter that I don't have my laptop with all the notes on it' I was being delusional. In explanation the final deck changed slightly in the final draft and apparently I cannot count. The 5cc deck is actually labeled Esper Control in my notes but doesn't make much difference when I didn't have them

Thanks for the help

Very informative as by Mudjai (not verified) at Mon, 04/06/2009 - 02:25
Mudjai's picture
4

Very informative as always.
Im attending a block tournament before Reborn release and still don't really know what to pick.
5c control seems good in a non-defined metagame but Naya/Agressiv decks can be really fast with planeswalkers to deal with.

What it's really like by Bobby (not verified) at Mon, 04/06/2009 - 09:07
Bobby's picture

Finally someone has posted something worth reading(I love to read all of the other things but this one hit's home to me). I've been playing nothing but the ALA block for a few months online. It seems that every other week the deck's are changing. I've been playing atleast 10 tourney games a day (yeah, i'm addicted!) It seems that once someone gets beat by a deck, they go out to buy that deck. CounterSquall should jump up in price only because of the frequancey it's used. I can't remember the last game i was in and that card wasn't played.

As for the Naya, I have the ability to join the rest, But this is what i've learned in the waves of the past few months, Find a deck that everyone is using(Watch alot of tourney practice games), Find it's killer. As for Naya...Jund with a pinch of Blue has proven to be the best run for your money. Nothing like a Violent Ultimatum to a creature and two walkers to just make the other player cry!

Love the talk on ALA BLOCK, keep them coming!

XixSPidERxiX

Bobby : sure, but how do you by Mudjai (not verified) at Mon, 04/06/2009 - 10:13
Mudjai's picture

Bobby : sure, but how do you manage against other decks? You have to be sure to beat Naya and be atleast decent against control decks, or random ones.

Mudjai - Thats why i said by Bobby (not verified) at Mon, 04/06/2009 - 11:01
Bobby's picture

Mudjai - Thats why i said splash of blue. With the splash that gives me the ability to put in for other decks. For example, If i'm playing that fun 5cc deck ill put in my countersqualls and cancels. Every deck can be beat, it's really up to the shuffler on who wins id say 85% of the time.

JUND VS XXXX

XXXX = NAYA
Grixis Charm and Jund Charms

XXXX = ESPER
Countersqualls, cancels and Jund Charms

XXXX = WHITE EXAULTED
Jund Charms, Vocanic Fallout

XXXX = 5CC
Countersqualls and cancels and banefire

Sideboards are huge when playing in the block, you never know what your going to be up against, always side for what your not putting in for your main. I'm not the best ala block player out there but i do spend 99% of my time getting ready for that next deck to break apart.

But as you can guess and as i stated above, Every deck can be beat. It's really up to the shuffler and it's up to your playing skills, Knowing when to play a card and when to hold it. My deck is ready for just about everything but it has it's holes just like every other deck out there. I'm just really surprised that Jund did not make it frequancey chaarts, other than well...other.

Jund by Rasparthe at Mon, 04/06/2009 - 13:47
Rasparthe's picture

As was I..There wasn't a Jund deck in all those results, at least not pure Jund. There were a couple of 4 color decks which used a lot Jund cards like you were talking about above but definitely not the versions I was used to seeing pre-Conflux

Jund by TuSaisPas (not verified) at Tue, 04/07/2009 - 06:08
TuSaisPas's picture

There will be a jund deck now, a guy managed to somehow beat me in the last round to make it yesterday. he told me he just loaded the deck because he had it, i don't think he changed anything for conflux.. Was playing 5cc, won the 2 PE before including the Big one on sunday, so you'll prolly get my awful list this week ;)

I will be sure to look for by Rasparthe at Tue, 04/07/2009 - 07:23
Rasparthe's picture

I will be sure to look for it! Thanks for the update and congrats