Naya Tokens (WIP)

[poppa_f]

I've been playing RW tokens recently and really enjoying the deck. Pre-rotation I was playing Pat Cox's White Weenie deck, which then morphed in to Brave Naya. This set me thinking to whether switching to Naya could improve the RW tokens deck.

The most obvious card to add is Xenagos, the Reveler. Playing T3 Hordeling outburst in to T4 Xenagos, +1 Xenagos play another Hordeling outburst or a Rabblemaster is a really nice tempo play.

The other obvious card to add is Elvish Mystic, let's you play T2 Rabblemaster or T3 Xenagos.

Would be nice to have another good 3 drop to ramp in to, ideally something that is G cost, so leads to adding this guy: Boon satyr

The manabase is a bit clunky to play GG, RR and WW, so we need to cut Wingmate Roc and Brimaz. I'm wondering what to replace Roc with, the obvious candidates are these guys:
Stormbreath Dragon, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

but then I remembered another card that is also has raid (we like raid as our tokens mean we can trigger it fairly reliably):
Howl of the Horde

Why would we want to play Howl of the Horde? Well the best card to Triple cast is this guy:
Stoke the Flames

This actually works quite well, as we will have plenty of dudes to convoke with, so should be able to cast it T4/T5 for 12 Damage to the face (although does leave you open to a blow-out if they kill a dork in response)

If you get to 6 mana (not inconceivable if you have Xenagos in play), then you can always triple cast Hordeling Outburst and get 9 goblins. Even getting 6 soldiers or a 9 damage lightning strike feels like an OK deal.

This was the decklist I knocked together:
[deck]Naya Tokens[/deck]

It could turn out to be a clunky mess, but I'm interested to try it out

[sirzevo]

Nice work. This looks like a lot of fun!

I'm going to throw it together and test it out today on Cockatrice. Might even make some videos of the testing.

I immediately think of Eidolon of Countless Battles being in here somewhere, but that would probably mean double red or double green needs to be dropped. I don't know, it might still be able to work. What do you think?

[poppa_f]

yeah Eidolon is in the RW list

That was one thing I realised after I posted the list, there's no anthem effects in the 75. Eidolon and Spear are both WWx, so no good. Off the top of my head, either Ajani Steadfast or Trumpet Blast could be options.

Ajani could be worth trying, as the lifelink could come in handy against Jeskai/burn type decks (and even the first strike lets you attack in to hornet tokens). Not sure what to cut though.

[poppa_f]

OK so I played a daily with it, finished 2nd. In the end I chopped Howl of the Horde and played 2 Ajani instead:

deck

---

[deck]Creatures:12
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Boon Satyr
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Spells:24
4 Chained to the Rocks
2 Lightning Strike
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Hordeling Outburst
2 Ajani Steadfast
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Xenagos, the Reveler

Lands:24
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Forest
4 Mana Confluence
4 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:15
2 Erase
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Banishing Light
2 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Hushwing Gryff
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker[/deck]

Beat Abzan Midrange and Mardu Midrange, lost to Esper control in the final. Ajani was very good, in one of the games against Abzan I had Xenagos, Ajani and the hammer all going at once and opponent had no chance, despite resolving 3 siege rhinos.

I'm not 100% sure about Boon Satyr, he was good in one game when I managed to bestow on to a Gryff, but the GG casting cost was a bit awkward in some of the other games.

[sirzevo]

Very nice.

Boon Satyr was a little awkward for me as well.

Another problem I had was the massive amounts of life-loss just from the lands. Maybe it was just variance, but I had trouble hitting what I needed to, and when I did, I was always paying life for it. Maybe we can work on that and make it a little smoother. Perhaps Ajani would make the life-loss a little easier. Seeker could be better than the Satyr. With all of the noncreature spells in this deck, he could probably do pretty well.

Random thoughts:

The mana ramp from Elvish Mystic might not be needed if we consider not needing to get Rabblemaster out on turn two or Boon Satyr bestowed on something earlier. Nothing (except Sarkhan in the side) is above 4 CMC, so I'm not sure the ramp is really needed. If we need color fixing, we could consider Sylvan Caryatid. If cutting back on the green a little is a consideration, then I don't think Eidolon, Brimaz, or Spear is out of line. Even Eidolon's bestow is cheaper than Boon's (although Boon does have Flash, which is nice). As a replacement for Elvish Mystic, we could consider Soldier of the Pantheon or even Herald of Anafenza. Pretty solid 1-drops. Herald would go better with the theme of the deck and if we're ever flooded, he'd be a decent mana-sink.

Other cards I think we can consider: Hornet Nest and Launch the Fleet.

[sirzevo]

I threw this list together and will test it out here soon. It's Craig Wescoe's list from TCGPlayer with Xenagos and a single Purphoros added, replacing his four Prophetic Flamespeakers. The land base has been working well in my solitaire games, but it still may need to be tweaked.

[deck]Naya Tokens[/deck]