In Commander, one of the bigger weaknesses of mono-green decks has historically been their lack of card draw. While ramping to big plays can be powerful, running out of gas can be a major problem. Interestingly, though, Nakia, Wakandan Operative completely turns this notion on its head. By providing a steady stream of card advantage, this Hero has quickly made a competitive splash in Duel Commander.
Riding Nakia to Victory
With a plethora of mana dorks ranging from Elvish Mystic to Boreal Druid, you can consistently jam your Nakia, Wakandan Operative on turn two. Many decks simply won’t have a board built out yet to contest the Monarch right away, so you should get some mileage out of it early. Holding onto Monarch with all your cheap blockers should allow you to maintain your advantage.
To further help the cause, this deck features a handful of powerful Fog effects. The strongest of the bunch by far is Constant Mists, which is trivial to buyback over and over. Glacial Chasm plays a similarly pivotal role, and is tutorable by Crop Rotation and Expedition Map. Mix in some disruptive elements like Winter Moon to keep the opposition off-balance, and you’re golden.
Eventually, you’ll just need one of your many ways to turn the corner. Landing Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse and pumping out a stream of tokens should do the trick. Alternatively, combining Titania with Sylvan Safekeeper lets you flood the board with 5/3s to close the game with.
A Powerful Versatile Position
As a whole, while this deck’s gameplan is simple, it’s quite effective against a wide range of decks in the format. Nakia itself shines brightest against slower decks like Tasigur, the Golden Fang that don’t pressure you well, especially if you can sneak the Hero under countermagic. At the same time, though, creature decks without access to burn spells like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd risk getting locked out by Fog effects.
Notably, Nakia decks are also versatile enough to play the beatdown role against combo decks. The presence of a multitude of creature tutors that can grab Ouroboroid as well as pump spells like Invigorate helps you reliably put the opponent on the backfoot.
Where Nakia shells can run into problems is against interactive decks that can also take the Monarch. Aragorn, King of Gondor decks, for example, threaten to use Fury and Pyrokinesis to decimate your board. Then, by slamming their Commander, they take the Monarch without ever entering combat.
On a different axis, the lack of removal options in mono-green may leave you vulnerable to the explosiveness of Winota, Joiner of Forces. Hate cards such as Spirit of the Labyrinth and Drannith Magistrate are also frustrating to face down if you don’t have one of your few answers at the ready.
In this sense, Nakia is far from a perfect Duel Commander option. Nonetheless, the upside of abusing the Monarch almost immediately is incredibly high, so don’t be shocked if the Commander continues to pop up here and there.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!