This past weekend, a bunch of highly competitive Standard events took place. Multiple Regional Championships as well as a Standard $10K and more all gave us a pretty good sense of what the Standard metagame looked like with Tarkir: Dragonstorm in the mix.
Izzet Prowess had a dominant weekend, while other archetypes like Orzhov Pixie and Jeskai control had strong showings, too. The reality is, there weren’t a lot of highly innovative strategies near the top tables.
That being said, there were still a couple unique decks that performed quite well. Perhaps the most intriguing of the bunch is a Naya legends deck that made top 16 of the 399-player Standard $10K. This shell has plenty of ways to take over the late game, so long as you can stay alive. Let’s take a closer look at what this deck is trying to accomplish.
Generating Tons of Value
The main goal here is to generate tons of value through your slew of legends. The majority of creatures in this deck have strong enters-the-battlefield effects, especially as you get higher up in the curve.
At four mana, a full playset of Beza, the Bounding Spring acts as an excellent stabilizing tool versus red decks. Of course, if you’re behind on cards or mana versus slower control shells, Beza can give you a boost in those areas as well.
At five mana, Roxanne, Starfall Savant gives you Meteorite tokens when it enters or attacks. These tokens do a good job keeping small creatures in check while simultaneously ramping you to your big bombs.
The primary haymaker this deck utilizes to close games is Etali, Primal Conqueror. Etali has a brutal triggered ability that will often end games on the spot. Seven mana is a lot to pay, but the effect is worth it if you can get there. Fortunately, this deck plays 26 lands, and Roxanne is capable of getting you from five mana to seven quite nicely.
One thing that all of these cards have in common is that they’re all legends. This is important, as it makes Annie Joins Up an incredible value engine. Annie Joins Up is a rather inefficient removal spell, yet it makes up for this by doubling up on all of your triggered abilities from your legends.
Getting double the tokens from Roxanne or gaining 8 life from Beza can singlehandedly swing games in your favor. Annie Joins Up isn’t limited to just doubling enters-the-battlefield triggers, either. So, even a card like Muerra, Trash Tactician becomes a fantastic source of life gain alongside Annie Joins Up and your other big plays.
To add extra redundancy in the value department, Fortune, Loyal Steed and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines make appearances, too. Following up Fortune with Beza or Roxanne and using either of them to Saddle up Fortune and get an attack in lets you blink out both creatures for a nice source of value. This deck has no shortage of ways to pull ahead. The key is making sure you don’t get run over.
Early Interaction
To ensure that you’ll be able to get to your top end spells, this deck plays a decent chunk of early removal spells. A couple copies each of Elspeth’s Smite and Lightning Helix can disrupt small creatures out of the red aggro decks on the early turns.
From there, Ride’s End can answer bigger creatures like Abhorrent Oculus on the cheap. Ride’s End is also your best option versus Screaming Nemesis. Answering Screaming Nemesis in a way that doesn’t deal it damage is super important, since you rely on your life gain elements to stabilize.
Lastly, there are a couple copies of Temporary Lockdown present. It’s a bit surprising to not see more copies of this card. All of your creatures cost three or more mana, and Temporary Lockdown is a good catchup mechanism versus mono-red aggro and Izzet Prowess alike.
Dealing with Cori-Steel Cutter and all the tokens it makes at once is essential. If Izzet Prowess continues its incredible run in Standard, perhaps it’s worth finding extra room at least in the sideboard for more copies of Temporary Lockdown.
Strengths and Weaknesses
All in all, this deck is very well set up against the various black midrange decks of the format. The black midrange decks don’t typically apply a ton of pressure early, and your incremental advantages will bury your opponent as the game goes long.
On top of that, nearly every creature in your deck has four toughness or more. As a result, opposing copies of Nowhere to Run out of self-bounce decks are pretty mediocre. Most of your threats dodge Cut Down as well.
While resolving your spells can be a bit of an issue versus Jeskai control, if you can find one of your Cavern of Souls and use it to slam Etali, you can certainly steal games. This combination of factors makes it so that the slower matchups are decent.
Your biggest concerns come against fast mono-red draws and Azorius Omnisceince combo. You do have a lot of sources of life gain for the red matchup but Screaming Nemesis and Sunspine Lynx are a thorn in your side. As for Azorius Omniscience, you just don’t apply enough pressure early to compete with most of the deck’s draws.
Despite its clear weaknesses, Naya legends looks like a blast to play. We don’t expect it to make any major strides in the current Standard environment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t spike an event here or there. If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to jam Etali, this deck has you covered.