Najeela and the war bound

Commander / EDH Joe_Ken_

SCORE: 3 | 18 COMMENTS | 882 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS


Update #2 —May 25, 2019

Changed out a lot of lands for whatever dual color lands I could easily get access to without having to spend too much.

Added in counterspells to help keep my board alive if the game gets dragged out too much.

Put in a few new tutors to help get to some of the key cards in the deck.

Patryn says... #1

Your mana base is rough, I'd aim to get all ten shocks and fetches if you can to better be able to play all your cards and activate Najeela.

If you're considering Asceticism I'd recommend Steely Resolve instead. Much lower cmc and pretty much does the same thing.

I highly recommend adding Reconnaissance . Gives your team super vigilance (untap them in the end of combat step) and prevents you from losing any attackers. I also run Dolmen Gate to get a similar effect and Eldrazi Monument to give the team indestructible and evasion.

You might like Tainted Pact to dig for a combo piece and you should also consider Mystic Remora to draw a ton of cards (depending on your meta). If everyone is just dropping creatures and beating face you should avoid it but usually you can get 2-3 cards or more per round.

One other consideration but it would be a major deck building change would be to add as many counterspells as you can. In my experience if you can land a turn 2 or 3 Najeela and then counter any removal you will run people over with your army. I see you have some in your sideboard so you might want to try it out and see how you like it. It's also nice to protect your combo pieces when you play them.

April 19, 2019 9:25 p.m.

Patryn says... #2

A couple more thoughts in addition to my thoughts above.

Cathars' Crusade is a math nightmare but it's way better than Door of Destinies. I don't play this but if you like pumping the team up it is one of the best ways to do it.

Fire Covenant is a selective wrath to clear the way for your attacks and you can easily regain the life by activating Najeela.

Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist combined with a source of Menace makes your team unblockable.

Other lands that will help you and wont break the bank: City of Brass , Mana Confluence , Reflecting Pool . I'd cut anything that comes into play tapped. Play pain lands, check lands, battle lands or anything else.

April 19, 2019 9:57 p.m.

Joe_Ken_ says... #3

Patryn Thanks for all the suggestions, I know I have a few of my battlebond lands around, or at least that I have another Sea of Clouds I could swap into the deck and I can probably move a few shock lands into the deck from some of my other decks that I don’t play as much.

I liked the idea for Fire Covenant to clear the way for creatures and Steely Resolve for protection.

I probably won’t get Mana Confluence or Reflecting Pool since they are a little a little pricy. Do you think the Dominaria checklands like Hinterland Harbor would work better in the deck if I used some of them? I also have an Unclaimed Territory which could go in just for casting my creatures.

I can see going down that counterspell route a little since I really don’t need that many warriors on the field for Najeela to do her work. Hope to get Dovin's Veto once that comes out.

I guess the main thing to ask is what cards do you think I should remove if I were to make those changes.

April 20, 2019 12:52 a.m.

Joe_Ken_ says... #4

Probably won’t do Cathars' Crusade because despite having it I know that would be such a pain in the rear and take forever to do the numbers.

April 20, 2019 1 a.m.

Patryn says... #5

Mana Base: In an ideal world you'd have 10 duals, 10 fetches, the good rainbow lands, X shocks (built around your card colors), Gaea's Cradle, and a basic or two. Most people won't have this but you can replicate it with 10 shocks, 5 battle lands, as many fetches as you have, up to 10 check lands, and up to 10 basics (5 regular, 5 snow so they work with Tainted Pact.) Depending on your average CMC I think you can cut one land (I run 34).

Ramp: Ideally all of your ramp would be 1 CMC or less so you can use it in your opening hand to get a turn 2 Najeela. You could add more dorks like Deathrite Shaman , Avacyn's Pilgrim , and Elves of Deep Shadow . I personally don't like dorks since they die to wraths but most of the best Najeela decks run them. You could also add Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl (depending on forest count).

I'd cut Commander's Sphere, Darksteel Ingot, Pillar of Origins (can't tap to activate Najeel'a ability), Fellwar Stone, Kodama's Reach, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Rattleclaw Mystic, and Farseek. Normally I'd say cut Chromatic Lantern but it helps fix your mana base so depending on how your revised mana base performs you can decide whether or not you still need the lantern. Also Harvest Season is cool but depends on how many basics you end up with and its slow.

Combo vs. Pump: You currently run approximately 5 cards that go infinite. When you go infinite it doesn't matter if you're attacking with infinite 1/1s or infinite 6/6s. This is a personal taste call but if you like the combo finish I would cut almost anything that pumps your team and replace it with tutors / counterspells. I'm personally not a fan of Cryptolith Rite because of needing vigilance / a ton of warriors but it helps fix your mana base so up to you. I'd also replace Bear Umbra with Sword of Feast and Famine if you have it.

I'd cut Beastmaster Ascension, Anointed Procession, Door of Destinies, Oketra's Monument, and Lovissa Coldeyes. The only pumps I do like are Bramblewood Paragon and Metallic Mimic because they come down turn two which lets you start the pain train turn 3.

Other: In my opinion you want to keep your CMC as low as possible because if you have 5 mana you could be activating Najeela or keeping up mana for counterspells/protection spells.

Here are some other random cut suggestions: Brighthearth Banneret, Grand Warlord Radha, Hearald of Dromoka, Mardu Strike Leader, Ogre Battledriver, Thrasher Brute, Behind the Scenes, Bow of Nylea, (replace Bow and Behind the Scenes with Reconnaissance and Dolmen Gate for sure) Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and Driven/Despair.

TLDR: Reduce CMC and focus on combo instead of pump. I want to say that I see why you put every card in the deck and I'm sure the deck works fine as is so feel free to take any of my advice or none of it. I play Najeela a lot in a semi-competitive environment and here is my deck if you want more ideas Najeela, the Blade-Blossom. I keep a ton of stuff in the Maybeboard of things I used to run or think might be cool.

April 20, 2019 8:54 a.m.

Omnisurge says... #6

Card draw is low and your vulnerability to board wipes is insane. I'd run at least a few counterspells to help protect your board as well as the basic protection you already have, they also have flexibility to stop your opponent from a game winning play. Mindblade Render and Tymna the Weaver are great card draw engines that work well with the deck style. Also Shared Animosity is a great finisher that is on a low cmc.

April 20, 2019 11:07 a.m.

Joe_Ken_ says... #7

Patryn I do have Bloodstained Mire , but I gave it to my brother for his Rakdos demon deck so I probably won’t get that back, but I do have Flooded Strand except I put it into my Angel tribal deck, which I guess it may not be needed in there, not too sure. Aurelia's Angelic crusade.

I also managed to get a Karplusan Forest from my local store. I’ll probably update the deck once some more cards come in.

April 20, 2019 5:58 p.m.

Joe_Ken_ says... #8

Patryn I just got a Mana Drain today in a pack of Iconic masters as well as picking up the Sword of Feast and Famine from a local shop so the deck is coming along nicely. I was just curious of your thoughts of Mana drain since it only gives colorless mana.

April 23, 2019 1:24 a.m.

Patryn says... #9

I run it. At worst it's just a counterspell but you almost always have something to spend the colorless mana on. Some people don't like the cost but in my experience you can usually cast it.

April 23, 2019 12:49 p.m.

Joe_Ken_ says... #10

Sorry for the wait on updating this deck, I’m currently waiting on cards in the mail since I want to have it all put together in paper before changing it. I did actually manage to pull a God-Eternal Oketra and was curious about the thoughts for the deck as well as swapping the mana rocks out for just signets instead.

April 28, 2019 1:26 a.m.