PT San Diego Deck Tech: Boss Naya Zoo (0 Baneslayers!)
February 20, 2010
In the following video, Tom Ross talks about Boss Naya Zoo, his new Standard deck that incorporates a couple Worldwake cards. He played it at Pro Tour San Diego along with Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (PV) and Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV).
You know the deck has to be very good when LSV plays it at a Pro Tour instead of a Jace, the Mind Sculptor deck. LSV likes playing blue control and Jace is the best control card since Cryptic Command. It might even be better than the Lorwyn rare.
Boss Naya Zoo bears a passing resemblance to Naya Lightsaber. However, it has 0 Baneslayer Angels. Instead, it plays a Stoneforge Mystic package of Basilisk Collar and Behemoth Sledge.
Also, it runs Knight of the Reliquary instead of Woolly Thoctar. The Knight is much better since it can fetch the new Worldwake lands: Raging Ravine, Tectonic Edge, and Sejiri Steppe.
| Boss Naya | |||||||||||
Creatures (26)
Spells (10) | Lands (24)
Sideboard (15) |
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Strategy Tips From the Video
Terramorphic Expanse can make Wild Nacatl bigger.
The removal count is low but the creatures and equipment are so good that you don’t need that much removal.
The deck has 3 different toolboxes: Ranger of Eos, Knight of Reliquary, and Stoneforge Mystic.
The Cunning Sparkmages come in with the Basilisk Collar and Stoneforge Mystic. The Sparkmage + Collar combo can take down just about any creature including Baneslayer Angel. But you don’t necessarily need the combo since both cards are good on their own.
Goblin Guide comes in for Jace decks. A common play against you is Jace bouncing a creature. You can then kill Jace by fetching a Goblin Guide with Ranger of Eos since Jace is at 2 loyalty.
Qasali Pridemage is good against Eldrazi Monument, Howling Mine, Oblivion Ring, and Honor of the Pure.
The deck is weak against Day of Judgment so board in Dauntless Escort. It’s easy to beat the Cruel Ultimatum decks but the Day of Judgment decks are tough matchups.
Behemoth Sledge is great against Jund. With Sledge out, Jund has to kill every single one of your creatures to win.
Manabarbs are there for control matchups including Jace. A lot of the control decks with Jace can’t beat a resolved Manabarbs. Remember Manabarbs can hit Jace.
The deck’s favorable matchups are creature decks, or decks that are vulnerable to the Collar + Sparkmage combo. The decks include Elves and Mono White. The deck’s tough matchups are planeswalkers and Day of Judgment. For example, White/Blue Control can be hard to beat.
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12 Responses to “PT San Diego Deck Tech: Boss Naya Zoo (0 Baneslayers!)”
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As far as I can tell that is not 3 Raging Ravine on the table in the video. The bottom card is a Stirring Wildwood (you can tell by the picture showing the reaching arm on top). And it makes sense. While Raging Ravine is good, Stirring Wildwood is a fairly good defensive beater. I also doubt there are 4 Cunning Sparkmage in the sideboard. By the way the matchups are playing I’m feeling like it’s 2-3 and there’s an extra Path and/or Oblivion Ring in the Board
After further inspection that is:
2x Stirring Wildwood
1x Raging Ravine
in the mainboard. There’s a point where they zoom in on the stoneforge mystics in the mainboard and you can compare the lettering on the raging ravine showing with the blurred card behind it. And can completely tell that it is a stirring wildwood in the middle and in the back. I guess it is 4x Cunning Sparkmage, seems odd, but good I guess.
@The E
Thanks for the comment. I think you’re right and I made the changes to the manland count.
They didn’t show the complete sideboard so I’ll just wait until the decklist is up before changing it.
Hi Dee,
I really love ur website.It inspires me in some ways but its really help me in tuning the deck.
Can tell me how to side board?
Coz i think this deck really good in the meta .
I’m not really sure how to sideboard as I haven’t played with the deck yet. But LSV published the first part of his tournament report and it includes some of his sideboard plans.
Hey Dee – been lurking on your site for a while, big fan. I have been fooling around with the deck for a while and it’s a blast to play (I had been compiling cards for the Rangers / Crabs deck, which is also really fun to play, so had the cards), and wanted to add my two cents.
Maindeck, LSV runs an Elspeth instead of a Dauntless Escort, otherwise they are the same. In the board, Tom runs 2 pridemages and a dauntless escort whereas LSV runs 2 baneslayers and an O-Ring.
Here’s a breakdown of the decks and how they differ, left is Tom “the Boss” Ross’ the right are numbers for LSV’s.
1 Scute Mob 1
2 Birds of Paradise 2
4 Wild Nacatl 4
4 Noble Hierarch 4
2 Stoneforge Mystic 2
4 Knight of the Reliquary 4
1 Dauntless Escort
4 Bloodbraid Elf 4
4 Ranger of Eos 4
3 Lightning Bolt 3
1 Path to Exile 1
1 Basilisk Collar 1
2 Oblivion Ring 2
1 Behemoth Sledge 1
2 Ajani Vengeant 2
Elspeth, Knight Errant 1
3 Misty Rainforest 3
4 Arid Mesa 4
2 Stirring Wildwood 2
1 Raging Ravine 1
2 Terramorphic Expanse 2
1 Tectonic Edge 1
1 Rootbound Crag 1
5 Forest 5
1 Sejiri Steppe 1
2 Plains 2
2 Mountain 2
SB
1 Goblin Guide 1
4 Cunning Sparkmage 4
1 Basilisk Collar 1
1 Behemoth Sledge 1
1 Stoneforge Mystic 1
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Dauntless Escort 2
2 Manabarbs 2
Baneslayer Angel 2
Oblivion Ring 1
In my own deck, instead of a maindeck Elspeth or Dauntless Escort, i’ve been running a Dragonmaster Outcast to fit in with the Range of Eos toolkit. Thus far, i’ve only been able to get him generating tokens twice (and had the board Judged immediately) and have not been able to use the dragons to attack, but I have found that (a) I am generally using the Outcast as spending one red mana to draw out a removal spell and (b) virtual card advantage created by him (much like Elspeth’s token creating) has the potential to be top notch, especially when fetched at the right time.
An additional sideboard card that I have been considering include Scattershot Archer (added to Ranger toolkit, used much like Sparkmage except hits all flyers…goodbye, Nocturnus and friends!). I have found that because of my play style (I tend to over-commit the board), Dauntless Escort is essential against decks playing a wrath effect, and am considering them as a 3 or 4 of in the board.
Err, I meant to say “…card that I have been considering INCLUDING IS…”
Beau, excellent comment. This differences between LSV and Tom Ross’ deck is interesting. And good stuff to consider with Dragonmaster Outcast and Scattershot Archer.
Dauntless Escort should be a full set in the 75 imo since Day of Judgment is really good against you.
I’ve played in a number of FNM’s (really WNM’s here, ’cause standard is on Wednesdays) and friendly matches with this deck, and running the list I mention above out of 16 recorded matches (if I had kept better track of playtesting and friendly matches, this would be much, much higher) my total record with the deck is 11 wins and 5 losses.
My losses have come to Jund x2, Ranger Crabs x1, a turbofog deck, and an odd creatureless wrath/board clear spell naya color pyromancer’s acension rogue deck that I didn’t know how to play against. Jund just has so many card advantageous spells that sometimes it’s hard to keep up, or just when you’re on the brink of winning they come back out of nowhere. Mill decks in particular I seem to have trouble against, so am looking for sideboard cards to specifically fight them…ranger crabs seems particularly tough.
I have found Dragonmaster’s Outcast to be extremely, extremely underwhelming. I am hardly ever able to get him online,and though technically I suppose I am using him to draw out a burn or creature killing spell that I don’t want targetting anything else, I think i’d rather have a second Scute Mob or will try the Elspeth. Lessons learned for me are definitely not to overplay the board when playing decks with wrath effects and not forgetting to fetch Sejiri Steppe – Knight of the Reliquary is just as much a toolkit as Stoneforge Mystic and Ranger of Eos! I have never reallly once remembered to fetch a tectonic edge either, and every time it came out I wished it were another basic or a fetch, so might drop it in favor of another land.
Not sure on sideboard cards versus crabs. Against traditional mill decks, Qasali Pridemage is pretty good to destroy Howling Mine and Font of Mythos.
In place of Outcast, you might want to try Baneslayer if you own any copies. The metagame is pretty wide open and Baneslayer shines in these situations. FFfreaK went 9-0 in a recent MTGO Standard Premier and he played 2 Baneslayers main.
I don’t know about dropping Edge. It’s pretty good versus manlands and many decks have them. Mythic plays 7 and Jund decks are starting to pack 5 or more.
call me a noob and shoot me in the leg, but why dont u have any woolly thoctars?
The other cards currently in the deck seem better than Woolly Thoctar. Knight of the Reliquary is a better 3-drop because it can fetch manlands, Edge, and Steppe. Plus, late in the game, she’s often bigger than Thoctar.