When I happened upon the list above, from Tomoharu Saito, I immediately fell in love. The entire 75 just felt so clean, sleek, and brutally efficient.
Ever since Burning-Tree Emissary was spoiled, I’ve been in the lab trying to break the card. I’d be sitting on the subway during my daily commute, and suddenly get the urge to try the card out in a new combination. I’d break out my phone, boot up the Decked Builder app, and get to brewing.
I asked myself, “What do I want to do the most on the second turn if I open a hand with BTE and the lands to cast her?”
There were a few candidates. Lightning Mauler lets them both get in immediately for four damage, but is otherwise unimpressive. Signal the Clans lets me roll the dice and tutor for some gas, but it felt too durdly. Strangleroot Geist and Ash Zealot, as much as I wanted to play with the cards, could not be cast off of the GR provided by the Emissary. Finally, Wandering Wolf felt like too much of a build-around card, and was even more susceptible to bounce effects than any of the others.
I needed a sizeable dude for the mana that wouldn’t be totally dead were I to draw it later in the game. Flinthoof Boar fit the bill. Being able to get a combined five power on the board on turn two is pretty nice, and one could do much worse than getting a hasty 3/3 for three later in the game.
Saito thought one step further and tried to squeeze in the most value possible by including one-drops. And where better to look than the old iterations of Red Deck Wins? One of the drawbacks of the old RDW curve was that it sometimes conflicted with its game plan. What I mean by that is that the ultimate goal of RDW is to get a bunch of little guys and build toward a massive turn four off of a Hellrider. However, since Ash Zealot outclassed all of the deck’s one-drops by such a large margin, playing the Zealot on T2 was almost always preferable to playing double one-drop. But in doing so, the “Hellrider lackey” count is reduced by one, which could have implications down the line.
In Saito’s shell, there is less of a consideration. You often get to have your cake and eat it, too. There are many variations: the aforementioned BTE into Boar; BTE into removal; or, my personal favorite, BTE into one-drop plus Rancor on the guy you played T1.
The other problem RDW had was that its 3CMC slot was a bit wanting. Pyreheart Wolf is fine, but he’s only just fine. Yes, it gave the team evasion, and yes, it survived Wraths, but the size of its body was never impressive. Boros Reckoner, on the other hand, is a complete house. I don’t really need to sing the praises of the card, as many people have already jumped on the Reckoner bandwagon. And honestly, it’s a good bandwagon to be on right now. A Spitemare for three mana with the ability to activate first strike is pretty nuts. Nothing can block it profitably—quite literally—because blocking it with a bigger creature will only result in the death of its smaller comrades. In the case of Thragtusk, the bane of red’s existence, it either gets eaten by Reckoner, or trades with it and probably loses the five life it gained for its controller. That is big game.
I shared the list with Matt. The man doesn’t need to be told twice to play green and red cards. There was a bit of a problem (as pointed out by Josh Fetto) in that the deck felt soft to Wrath effects, as most all-in aggro strategies are. So naturally, it’s Boros Charm to the rescue. And thus, Project Naya was born.
Deck: Project Naya Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard Creatures:28 4 Rakdos Cackler 4 Stromkirk Noble 4 Ash Zealot 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Flinthoof Boar 4 Boros Reckoner 4 Hellrider Spells:12 4 Rancor 4 Boros Charm 4 Searing Spear Lands:20 8 Mountain 4 Rootbound Crag 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Stomping Ground Sideboard:15 4 Pillar of Flame 4 Thunderbolt 4 Volcanic Strength 3 Traitorous Blood
I put the Pillars in the sideboard as I’m not too thrilled with the card. Two damage just doesn’t get it done most of the time, and that one mana could be better spent developing your board instead of aiming it at the opponent. That said, removal is removal, and Pillar does still get rid of certain creatures that other removal can’t, i.e. Strangleroot Geist, Gravecrawler, and Geralf’s Messenger (that said, how relevant those creatures will be in the new meta remains to be seen). As such, the Pillars get room in the sideboard. Mugging might also be a card. It doesn’t kill anything Pillar can’t kill, but it does get the bigger guys out of the way for a turn.
I cut the Reckless Waifs because they are pretty terrible all around. You only board them in on the play against control to try and get a free flip, and oftentimes you undo your own progress by playing two guys on T2 via BTE and flipping the Waif back.
The final note is that I’m not entirely sure about the manabase quite yet, but the reason I refrained from plugging in Clifftop Retreats is because I want to minimize the amount of taplands in the deck. Now, it may become an inevitability down the line as four white sources is probably not enough to support the Boros Charms, as you won’t typically draw those sources. More testing will be needed.
For now, I think this is a solid build to take to an FNM while the meta is still being fleshed out.