Video: Naya Green Devotion In Standard!
#SCGBALT isn’t all about Modern! There’s a $5,000 Standard Premier IQ waiting in the wings as well! See Sam Black tweak on a strong archetype to give it what it needs to surpass the competition!
I’ve been really impressed with Mastery of the Unseen, so I’ve been trying to figure out the best home for the card. Partially inspired by David Moline’s Naya deck using Mastery of the Unseen from Los Angeles, I’ve decided to take it a step further and minimize the white and red splashes to get Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx into the deck, so that I can play it as a Green Devotion deck that can go very big with Mastery of the Unseen.
Round 1
This first game was a really great showing for the interaction between Whisperwood Elemental and Mastery of the Unseen. Game 2 obviously wasn’t a game.
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Round 2
That second game was one of the most epic I’ve played in a long time. I got very lucky at several points, but it also felt like my deck just had all the right threats to make things really hard for my opponent.
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Round 3
Game 1 showed how great Goblin Rabblemaster is against me. My draw was basically perfect; I used all my mana every turn, but I was pretty far from turning that game around. Hornet Nest impressed me in the next two games by being absolutely good enough while likely performing at the bottom of its range. I think the second game showed why Outpost Siege isn’t really a great direction for Mono Red to go–the extra cards they draw are just so weak that I can ignore the fact that they get two a turn at that point in the game. It’s likely better to just play more cards that complement plan A.
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Round 4
Game 1, everything went exactly according to plan. I probably should have mulliganed my hand in game 2, but I generally like keeping a hand with Elvish Mystic and a reasonable number of lands, since I have so many good draws. Still, a hand that creature light just isn’t going to work out well against a deck with that much removal. It was 100% wrong to keep that hand. For game 3, my opponent’s draw was just basically unbeatable for my deck, though I’m not sure my sequencing was perfect.
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Overall, I feel really good about this deck. I spent a day playing it before recording this set of videos, and it’s been doing really well. I feel like Mastery of the Unseen adds a lot to the deck in general and that it specifically works well to shore up a lot the vulnerabilities it would have otherwise, either through massive lifegain against aggressive decks, or another kind of permanent and durable source of pressure against controlling decks.