How to Najeela

Commander / EDH* Aggro Casual Five Color

GrandZamboa

Creature (19)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Archetype of Finality
• 1x Aven Wind Guide
• 1x Blood-Chin Rager
• 1x Bramblewood Paragon
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Ezuri, Claw of Progress
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1x Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1x Iroas, God of Victory
• 1x Jazal Goldmane
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Mardu Woe-Reaper
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Zur the Enchanter

Instant (7)

• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fog
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Outnumber
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Diplomatic Immunity
• 1x Druids' Repository
• 1x Intangible Virtue
• 1x Overwhelming Instinct
• 1x Privileged Position
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Shielded by Faith
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Unquestioned Authority

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Flame Slash
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Mob Rule
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Play of the Game
• 1x Vandalblast

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gruul Signet
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

---

there are 38 other spaces left for lands, it is a 5 color deck so I left that to your own budget, I recomend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UleH4wxzONA&t=568s

Najeela is a Aggro/combo commander from battlebond, so quite new, because of her identity she can use every single card from the game, the problem here is where to make the filter. Her Trigger ability lets a player add a Warrior Token every time a warrior attacks. Her Active ability lets a player untap his/her creatures giving them lifelink, trample, haste and a second combat phase. That being said you can play a very political game because her abilities let you benefit another player, letting you to say things like "Timmy, if I give you another combat phase, can you delete Pyke?".

After some test (in 4-people table) the best result were when she entered on turn 3, and have a defenseless player to use as a punching bag. That said, it is difficult for that to happen and less is the all the table plays aggro, so our best option is to play evade, also I understand the hard way that she don't really need more non-token warrior, she can deal with a player only paying 5 colored mana, so tribal warrior is not that important, better focus on go-wide type of cards.

So the focus will be:

• Trigger Safely
• Optimize Damage
• Protect da Queen

Trigger Safely

The main card here, the broken card that domain every single combat phase, the reason of why I put here most tutors is Reconnaissance, this card is nuts, it doesn't say when you can activate it, what I mean is that you can:

• Activate it after the trigger effect of Najeela, the Blade-Blossom or another trigger of "whenever a creature attacks" is resolving so even if the oponent has blockers your creatures, including your new warriors, will be safely removed from combat
• Activate it after you deal damage with double strike or first strike, because you can use it to remove from combat at the moment your creature make the attack, then retrive them safely without damage (702.7b)

that being said I also add other cards like Blood-Chin Rager, Eldrazi Monument, Aven Wind Guide, Iroas, God of Victory, Champion of Lambholt and Archetype of Finality for evasive purposes.

Optimize Damage

Fist Statement: she doesn't really need help in getting menacingly dangerous. so if you are going to add damage we have to go serious, those things that add +1/+1 to all warriors or creatures are nothing compared to a Mirror Entity that can transform all your creatures in 6/6. Second Statement: her curve will normally go, turn 3 you summon her, turn 4 you summon a suport card and start attacking, turn 5 you use her active ability. It is hard to find a card that give a better output that her active ability, so think on card of cmc<5 or broken cards for higher cost, and by that I mean something better than another combat phase adding lifelink, haste and trample to yours creatures. So for the optimal damage I use

• the combo cards first: Druids' Repository and Cryptolith Rite because they don't need that much set up
• cmc<5: Beastmaster Ascension, Mirror Entity, Anointed Procession, Jazal Goldmane and Ezuri, Claw of Progress. Jazal and Ezuri are still on test and maybe on the cut.
• broken heavy support: Cathars' Crusade, Coat of Arms and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight all of them tend to be a play, attack and win, if sometime a dead card until late game.
• special mention to: Intangible Virtue, Bramblewood Paragon, Metallic Mimic and Armageddon, all this cards get you a short game if you play them perfectly on the curve, even so, the first 3 will be the first out for another inclusion.

Protect da Queen

I play Najeela, insert removal or counter here. Welcome to aggro, where you are the main character even if you don't have field and hand, people can have a pili pala on the field but if you are on the game the removal goes to you. Get use to it, it is not gonna change easy, the thing you can do is to play political, or PROTECT DA QUEEN. for this we have card:lightning graves, Hammer of Nazahn (actually was for "helm of the host" which let you grow factorially, which ends out for "totally unnecessary interaction"), Diplomatic Immunity, Shielded by Faith, Unquestioned Authority, Privileged Position, Golgari Charm and Heroic Intervention

other

other stuff inside are removal, tutoring, utility and mana fixing, for those I don't have the last word, I like how Aura Shards work here but maybe is useless if, for example, an enchantment is stopping me from attacking. also my table has a lot of aggro players so Play of the Game and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs get very good here.

This is not a final list, just what I have played about the no go:

• tribal was overrated
• Triumph of the Hordes needs more field than the things I use now.
• Shared Animosity is on maybe list, for consistence issues.
• Nacatl War-Pride is a "win-more" card.
• Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is meta dependant, fell free to swap it for Kalitas or Kazuul.
• cards like Honored Crop-Captain are not enought to make the cut, yet it was better than Chief of the Edge.
• Grand Warlord Radha didn't play good on the curve or in late game.
• Viashino Heretic and Samut, Voice of Dissent were good, but didn't make for the cut

Feel free to recomend cards, especially for removals, I'm looking for mass removal that won't affect da queen or the minions.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Splash colors	UB
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	62
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Aven Wind Guide 2/3 W, Experience Token, Ogre 3/3 R, Warrior 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B