Naya Shaman Toolbox Deck

August 20, 2010 | Posted by Dee

A reader contacted me and asked me to do a post on Naya Shaman. The deck is pretty popular so I thought I’d give my thoughts. Keep in mind though, I haven’t played too many matches with it. I’ve gone 4-1 in rated matches, but that was over a week ago. Even though I was winning, I felt like the deck wasn’t that powerful. Against the good players, it seemed like I had gotten lucky draws to win and plus RG Valakut had become popular. Valakut is an unfavorable matchup.

But I think I’m wrong in my analysis of the power of the deck. The deck keeps showing up as a winning deck on Magic Online’s tournament results. My friend, David, has been doing well with it. I just emailed him some questions about his list. Hopefully, he’ll reply and give us some tech.

While I haven’t played many matches with the deck, like I said, I have seen many winning lists. With this research, I’ve seen which cards keep showing up.

So in this article, I’ll go over some of the card choices to help you build a strong version for your metagame.

Core Cards

To start off with building any popular archetype, it helps to consider which cards are the best ones for the deck. In other words, which cards should not be cut because they are so much better than the other cards?

In my opinion, the following is the core of Naya Shaman:

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Vengevine

Noble Hierarch is one of the best one-drops in Standard. She fixes and accelerates your mana and improves your combat. Fauna Shaman obviously must be a 4-of. Knight of the Reliquary is one of the best three-drops in Standard. She is very versatile. She can fix and ramp up your mana, give your creatures protection from a color, and search out manlands. Plus, she can beat down well. Bloodbraid Elf + Vengevine is the best combo with Fauna Shaman.

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Creatures

After the core cards, you have a bunch of options. Figuring out the best ones for your deck will depend on your metagame.

You definitely want some more mana ramp so you get the broken draws of turn two Knight or turn three Bloodbraid/Vengevine. This means adding some combination of Birds of Paradise and/or Lotus Cobra.

Next, you can fill out the creature toolbox. The most common cards I’ve seen are the equipment package (Stoneforge Mystic and Basilisk Collar) + Cunning Sparkmage. Some decks also have Sword of Vengeance or Behemoth Sledge. You only need one Stoneforge Mystic because of Shaman. The big question is: “How many Sparkmages?”

If you have a lot of Mythic, Naya, or token decks in your meta, then you want a full set. But if those decks are not that popular, you should go down to 1-3. The correct number depends on the popularity of those decks. One card that’s starting to see some play is Inferno Titan. The red titan is also good against those decks. Plus, Inferno Titan + Basilisk Collar = good times

Realm Razer is a good card, because it’s solid against so many decks including Valakut, Time Warp decks, and UWx control.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence is kinda narrow, but if you have a lot of Cunning Sparkmages in your area, she’s turns them into 0/1 creatures that don’t do anything.

Obstinate Baloth is great against Jund and Red Deck Wins. Here’s a neat trick versus Jund. On the play, if you cast a turn two Shaman, you can respond to their Blightning by searching for Baloth.

Qasali Pridemage should probably be in your toolbox. He has so many applications right now. He can take out Howling Mine, Oblivion Ring, Pyromancer Ascension, equipment, Awakening Zone, Eldrazi Conscription, Khalni Heart Expedition, Pithing Needle, and Leyline of Punishment. Plus, even against decks without enchantments or artifacts, he’s a two mana creature that can attack for three.

If you want to make the deck more consistent, consider Sylvan Ranger. The mana base for Naya can be shaky at times so Ranger can help.

Sun Titan is another titan that can improve the deck. In a diverse metagame, I think this titan is better than Inferno Titan. Sun Titan has more applications. For example, Inferno Titan is mediocre against a deck without a lot of small creatures but Sun Titan is still good. If you do play the white titan, try to fit a Tectonic Edge in your mana base.

Baneslayer is a solid addition if you expect many decks with a lot of creatures.

There may be a couple more good toolbox cards. Please leave a comment if you think of other cards. Thanks.

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Mythic Rares

Rares

Non-Creatures

All or most of your deck should be creatures to take advantage of Fauna Shaman. But there are still some non-creatures spells that work well with the deck. I’ve already talked about equipment so I’ll talk about the non-equipment cards.

My favorite one is Ajani Vengeant. I like Ajani because he serves as removal and lifegain against creature decks so you can race. He slows down RG Valakut by tapping down their lands especially the ones that produce green mana. He also slows down Time Warp decks and he’s great against Jace decks like UWx control.

Elspeth, Oblivion Ring, Lightning Bolt, and Path to Exile are other options but I think Ajani is better. Ajani doesn’t affect your Bloodbraid cascades and he attacks the metagame from more angles than Elspeth.

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Ajani Vengeant

Lands

You want at least eight lands that allow you to play a turn one Birds or Hierarch. If you’re playing a couple Cobras, you want at least eight fetchlands not including Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds. You can have some manlands but not too many because they can slow you down.

Include at least one Sejiri Steppe. Maybe even two.

You could go with Ancient Ziggurat but most of the decks I’ve seen don’t play it. Ziggurat doesn’t play well with equipment, manlands, Shaman, and non-creature cards like Manabarbs, Elspeth, Ajani Vengeant, and Oblivion Ring. You might try one or two just to test it out if you are having mana problems.

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Sideboard

Hear are some common sideboard cards.

Cunning Sparkmage
Linvala
Obstinate Baloth
Forked Bolt
Manabarbs
Realm Razer
Kor Firewalker
Qasali Pridemage
Celestial Purge
Dauntless Escort
Naya Charm
Oblivion Ring

I’ve already talked about some of these cards. I’ll go over the other ones that may not have obvious applications.

Journey to Nowhere is probably better than Path to Exile unless you have a lot of Red Deck Wins in your meta.

Manabarbs has basically the same applications as Realm Razer. I think it’s better than the creature because it’s cheaper. That being said, you’ll want to test both since Realm Razer has the advantage of being a tutor target for Shaman.

Celestial Purge is also good against Pyromancer Ascension.

Naya Charm helps against decks that have a lot of chump blockers like Turboland with Avenger and token decks.

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Decklists

All right, let’s look at some decklists

Here are three lists that I thought looked pretty solid. The first two are traditional builds. The third one has a few funky changes including a fourth color.

tamu303 went 4-0 in a Standard Daily on August 18 with this list.

Naya Shaman

Creatures (33)