Dies to Removal

I've realized that traditional Naya Midrange is not my style and so I'm going with the lower curve and IMO better zoo list. I still need some minor tweaking so suggestions are greatly appreciated. The sideboard needs work in particular.

[deck]Naya Zoo[/deck]

I was originally going to include Hellrider, but I realized it needed small creatures like Burning-Tree Emissary to be of good value. Ground Seal is not useless maindeck because it cantrips at worst.

Don't think you need 24 land for that?

I'm curious about Blasphemous Act in there. Is that for its synergy with Reckoner? You're only running 3 Reckoners and with 29 total creatures you're likely to get the short end of that interaction in many matchups. If you really want that interaction against aggro decks or other midrange decks, you can put it in the sideboard. I'd suggest bringing in Garruk Primal Hunter in mainboard in its place.

Ground Seal also seems like an odd mainboard card. True, many Rites decks will board away from graveyard and into lifegain against aggro decks, but how prevalent is Rites in your meta? It could easily become Purify the Grave #3 in your board actually.

Rites and control is very prevalent in the meta here, so it isn't a dead card in most of my matches. I ended up running 4 Reckoners main and Blasphemous Act did win me games earlier.

After the previous games I fought earlier though, I know what cards to change here and there. Gyre Sage was already replaced with Thalia, though she didn't do much earlier since most of my matchups were aggro.

Here was the list I ran at my WMCQ:

[deck]Creatures
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Flinthoof Boar
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells
2 Rancor
1 Ground Seal
3 Domri Rade
3 Mizzium Mortars
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Blasphemous Act

Lands
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Garden
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Forest

nSideboard
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Centaur Healer
1 Blasphemous Act
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Boros Charm
1 Triumph of Ferocity
1 Zealous Conscripts
2 Purify the Grave
[/deck]

I might cut the Reckoners and BA for something else. Silverblade Paladin is one card I'm considering. The more I think of it, the more I'm getting to the old GW lists.

Here's a decklist that I'm currently brewing. It's a naya "fuck your stuff" list. Ghost Quarter, flickering Acidic Slime, Ruric Thar, and punching it home with big dudes and Wolf Run. Domri to help clear the board with fights and Bonfire for aggro.

Let me know if you think this idea has any merit at all, and what changes you may make. I also need to develop a sideboard for it.

[deck]
Creatures - 29
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Zhur-Taa Druid
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Boros Reckoner
4x Restoration Angel
4x Acidic Slime
3x Thundermaw Hellkite
2x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Sorceries - 4
4x Bonfire of the Damned

Planeswalkers - 3
3x Domri Rade

Land - 24
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Stomping Ground
3x Sunpetal Grove
4x Temple Garden
[/deck]

I don't understand how the OP deck is different from Midrange given that most of its creatures are 3cc or greater and to be anything faster than midrange, you must mulligan to Pilgrim. Pls explain.

I don't understand how the OP deck is different from Midrange given that most of its creatures are 3cc or greater and to be anything faster than midrange, you must mulligan to Pilgrim. Pls explain.

I think he meant different than the traditional Naya Midrange lists that pack 4x Farseek, 4x Thragtusk, 4x Restoration Angel, 4x Huntmaster and build from there.

I don't understand how the OP deck is different from Midrange given that most of its creatures are 3cc or greater and to be anything faster than midrange, you must mulligan to Pilgrim. Pls explain.

Literacy is something not all of us possess. The key phrase was "Traditional" Naya midrange which Christensen's deck isn't. His build is more agro midrange, with some throwbacks to EFro's PT deck. While most midrange decks want to completely control the boardstate, this deck cares about the board, but is mostly focused on running down your throat while still being able to play a passable midgame if necessary. His deck IS faster then midrange in that he has more hasty guys and boros reckoner will effectively
timewalk opposing aggressive decks buying you usually something equivalent to half a turn in tempo.

I will say at first glance though, that the maindeck ground seal should almost definitely just be another land. Boros reckoner is hard to cast on only 20 mana producing lands and smiter is only slightly easier.

I don't understand how the OP deck is different from Midrange given that most of its creatures are 3cc or greater and to be anything faster than midrange, you must mulligan to Pilgrim. Pls explain.

Traditional Naya lists do these:
- Turn 1 dork, turn 2 3-drop, or more dorks
- Turn 1 pass, turn 2 farseek

The aim of the original list was to have early board presence instead of plainly ramping. Whenever I play an aggro deck against a midrange player, the most wins I had were when they were not able to drop a threat on turn 2-3 and were ramping instead. Knowing that the metagame at the time was littered with Blitz and Jund Aggro, I knew the traditional lists are too slow for the meta. I cut down the huntmasters and thrags for faster drops because
they synergize better with the rest of the cards. The list I ultimately ran at the past WMCQ is admittedly not optimized yet, though I found that it played better than I expected.

If I were to redo the list it would be slightly different and would have better direction for what the list wanted to do.