Adios Tokens, Hello Bonfire

This last weekend didn’t go according to plan at all.

All-Stars Collectables has a Star City Games Super Invitational Qualifier on the schedule, and I was most likely scheduled to judge it. Unfortunately, due to attendance concerns, I was asked to play instead of judge, and so I took my same old tokens list to task, and finished with a disappointing 2-2 drop. During this, I won a close match with Delver and crushed a janky GR Artifact Aggro deck. I lost to Naya Aggro and the new Elfball deck that got some hype on the GP Coverage.

And so that was that. Tokens goes down with another lackluster performance. I dropped from the tournament and watched a movie with my girlfriend, thinking half the time about what deck I’d rather play. I’ve become disillusioned with Tokens as of late. It just doesn’t have the power it used to in a world where every topdeck could be a Flame Wave. Bonfire of the Damned has – along with Restoration Angel (already hard enough to deal with) put enough roadblocks in place that I’ve got to throw in the towel on that one and move to plan B.

In fairness to plan B, I love this deck and everything about it. My weapon of choice from here on out is Naya Aggro. The deck is slick and powerful, full of every great card in Standard. You love the Restoration Angels from Delver? We’ve got em. Bonfire to wipe their board? We’ve got the full package. Uncounterable because of Cavern? Been there. Thalia? Yep. Huntmaster? Blade Splicer? We’ve got your token action in spades. You want Mana Dorks? Try eight.

Mikaeus? Isn’t he unplayable? Maybe not.

Hero of Bladehold? Pinch me.

Gavony Township? I’m sold.

Let me just make this very clear. Almost every card in this deck feels like it could be the best card in the format. We get to throw them all into one big pot, stir them up, add Borderland Rangers so we don’t kill ourselves with our land base, and go to town(ship).

It’s hard to not get excited about a deck with so many raw powerful cards. It’s hard to not be giddy at the thought of so many different lines of play. The only thing missing is a toolbox element, and I don’t think I want to add in the Birthing Pods, simply because it would dilute the all-gas nature of the deck.

Every single non-land is capable of advancing your board presence or dismantling theirs. None of the cards in this deck are ‘dead air’. Even the lands do good work, fighting against Counterspells and board stalls respectively.

Here’s the list that I started working from:

This list is awesome. I’m a little leery about some of the sideboard cards, and we’re certainly going to mess with some numbers, but the core is solid.

Here’s another list, from the Dragonmaster himself – Brian Kibler, who'd been advocating for a Naya build since we were all screaming about Bans.

Kibler is obviously going with more of a toolbox feeling for his deck. He’s got plenty of one-offs and the ability to find them with Birthing Pods. This allows him to have a more eclectic sideboard, full of one-of creatures with huge board impact. With that said, I think that we can tighten up his core a bit and make this deck equally consistent without the use of Birthing Pod. He’s also dropped the Bonfires from the maindeck – which is a choice I just cannot get behind. I feel like without bonfire, you’re bound to lose the mirror match in game one, and that’s certainly a matchup I’m going to want to be prepared for.

One creature that I’m very interested in is Geist-Honored Monk. I’ve watched it in some test games, and I bounced the idea off Marshall, who likes it quite a bit as well. It serves the dual role of being a major beater in a board stall situation while also putting bodies in the air to be pumped by Mikaeus and Township. It also makes Vapor Snag look like a joke, so that’s not horrible either. Kibler seems to think that we can get away with less colored Mana sources, and with the inherent power of the deck, I’m inclined to agree with him.

Thragtusk is one of those cards that has a huge inherent power, but might just get hated out by the metagame of the moment. 5/3 is a fairly fragile body with a billion first striking golem tokens running around, as well as Delvers and Flashed in Restoration Angels. I suspect we’ll see a ton more of him after Blade Splicer rotates out. (Personally, I suspect a very grindy metagame with monumental blowouts due to Bonfire as the future of Standard, post Scars Rotation.) I think I’m going to pass on Thragtusk for now, though one might find a place in the board for extremely grindy or tempo-driven games. He’s a great roadblock, with a lot more potential.

Zealous Conscripts is a very powerful card as well, but it’s use is situational, and without Birthing Pod for some Pod + Angel nonsense, I think that I’d be better off with other options, at least mainboard. It probably has a place in the side though.

Daybreak Ranger - I’m hedge-y on her. She’s spectacular in the mirror, which is almost a reason to include her off the bat, but she’s also fragile against Delver, and takes a lot of work to make it worth it. Mana dorks give her a ton of extra action by playing her on Turn 2, but I’d still be concerned about every removal spell in the format hitting her hard. Again, passing for now. Maybe in a post-Vapor Snag world.

Sublime Archangel is a powerful creature, and obviously competes with Hero of Bladehold in Nelson’s list. I don’t have any Archangels at the moment, but I think that this is one place where the Archangel might shine over the Hero. I’m a giant fan of Hero, but with the number of creatures we have (and the ability to get into deep board stalls), having a giant flyer might be just what we need to end games. I'm going to be aggressively picking them up if I can before this weekend. Turning my ground stalled out ground offence into half a dozen exalted triggers seems like a good way to take over a game.

Wolvir Silverheart seems great in any game where the other guy isn’t playing blue. Can we start hashtagging #PostVaporSnag yet? I want to play with this card, but I can’t justify skewing away from Delver. Marshall comments that it has the ability to punch through any board stalls with unparalleled power, but he worries about it's GG mana cost and it's vulnerability to Blue 'removal'.

Absent from both lists is Thundermaw Hellkite, which I’m also very interested in, but don’t quite have access to at the moment. I haven’t opened much M13 yet, and if neither of these guys thought he was worth a nod, maybe I’ll hold off on him for a little bit.

Ultimately, I came up with the following:

I’m keeping the Kibler mana base, more or less, because I think that having Gavony Township is the most important thing you can be doing with this deck once you have some board presence. I skewed more towards the Nelson style of build – aiming for consistency without Pod. I’m not a huge fan of Birthing Pod. It’s a powerful engine when built around, but I don’t like the trend of 1-ofs that it enables. I like my decks to function regardless of what I draw. Admittedly, this makes our sideboard cards less impactful, but I think the greater chance of winning Game 1’s is worth it.

I’m keeping Bonfire because seriously that card wins games.

This list is absolutely very much still in progress. I haven't played Naya since before Avacyn Restored came out, and my biggest issue was it's lack of ability to punch through in the late game. Now, with Bonfire as a late game Plague Wind, plus the addition of Restoration Angel to literally go 'over the top', I think we might finally have the deck I've been looking for to replace Tokens in my heart.

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This weekend, I'll be attending the Star City event in DC. I'll most likely be taking this deck with me, after some intense play testing for the next two nights. I'd encourage you to bring it to your game day, and see how it plays. If you're interested in meeting up, let me know. Maybe we could grab some food or something, keep each other's spirts high, and avoid all that ugly tilt.

This Thursday,we'll have the next installment of our Deckbuilding 101 series, this time looking at making your land spots count - and as a bonus, the results from my playtesting with Naya.

Got any questions about the deck? Anything you'd like me to talk about in future articles? Want to tell me what I'm doing right? Wrong? Drop me a message or a comment - here, on reddit, or tweet me (@ajrula)

Until Thursday, may all your draws be miracles.