Competitive Approach: Boss Naya (Part 4)

Competitively, as I mentioned earlier, the best way to start with a deck is to net-deck it. Decks with proven track records are generally much better than home-brew builds, much the same way that the Crystal Meth you bought on the corner is much better than the prescription drug cocktail you made in your basement. However, this does not mean that you can't tune the deck that you've netted.

Even when just looking at a deck list, I find it easy to question another player's choices. The first (and easiest) place to attack is the sideboard. Players often have different opinions as to which cards are good in certain match-ups, and sometimes they may be able to eliminate certain cards from the board immediately, knowing that the match-ups those cards would be brought in for are not in their meta-game.

The maindeck is a little trickier. I often try to make changes to the maindeck just by looking at the list and theorizing or by trying to make educated determinations based on gold-fishing (which is when a player plays a deck against no one just drawing and seeing what comes up). This is a mistake. Only after becoming familiar with the deck is it advisable to make changes to it. Otherwise you risk eliminating cards that may serve a subtle purpose (perhaps in a particular match up) or removing interactions that are positive within the deck before realizing what they are.

When I first started playing Boss Naya I immediately made two changes to it, swapping out the one-of Rootbound Crag for the new man-land Raging Ravine, giving me a new total of 4 man-lands and 7 come-into-play-tapped (CIPT) lands, which can dramatically slow down the deck. I also swapped out Scute Mob for the newer Dragonmaster Outcast thinking that having a board full of dragons would be better than one singularly large creature.

Having played with the deck, I've found that 7 CIPT lands can indeed create slow starts, but most of the time it is not that big an issue. The deck's best spells are four-drops anyway, so you have some time to play tapped lands without hurting your mana curve (which, sorry to say dear reader, is waaay too complicated a concept for me to go into right now if you are entirely unfamiliar with it or the game).

The Outcast, on the other hand, I didn't find to be quite as good as I initially thought. In certain match ups she was stellar, and she could destroy a stalemated board like no one's business. But if anyone ever played a Baneslayer, she was next to useless. Furthermore, she is slower than Scute Mob, both because she requires another land to become active and because the dragon token will have summoning sickness and be unable to attack the turn it comes into play. Scute Mob gets to swing for five the turn after it arrives, and equipped with Behemoth Sledge it is probably the singularly most terrifying creature ever.

So Ragging Ravine stuck, while Outcast has been ousted (for now at least). The other changes I made to the deck were after reading some articles by LSV himself. I added 2 Baneslayers to the maindeck and moved Tectonic Edge to the sideboard, replacing it with Sunpetal Grove to create better mana fixing. The deck's mana base can be fragile, and a colorless land is sometimes a setback. I took out 2 Birds of Paradise to fit in the Baneslayers, and man can I say that's improved my top-decking. I haven't tested this deck enough to be sure, but I'm fairly certain Baneslayer will be here to stay. She's just ridiculously powerful.

Anyway, the deck list I'm running now is posted below for your perusal:
Main Deck

Lands (24):
4 Arid Mesa
5 Forest
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Raging Ravine
1 Sejiri Steppe
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
2 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures (25):
2 Baneslayer Angel
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ranger of Eos
1 Scute Mob
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Wild Nacatl

Spells (11):
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Path to Exile

Sideboard (15):
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Manabarbs
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Tectonic Edge

I hope the opening of this new column has given you some insight or at least been fun to read. I'm excited to test Boss Naya's mettle at a major event, but I don't know of any upcoming. However, stay tuned here, and I'm sure there will be other reports, deck breakdowns, and the likes to come. Thanks for reading.


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