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As with previous iterations of Najeela her strengths are self apparent in her five color identity and 1-card win-cons. Najeela is able to reliably threaten a turn 4 win and often can push for a turn 3 win with a strong opening hand. An early Najeela also often can snowball on her own putting early pressure on life totals and even close out games through manual activations of her ability. Further, her combo pieces are also able to provide value even if Najeela is currently unavailable.

In this particular list we aim to recognize the growing speed of the format and build upon Najeela’s strength in playing through most stax pieces. As the format has continued to speed up and combo lines have become more explosive a common issue Najeela faces is needing to tap out T2 in order to cast Najeela herself. By including key stax pieces we afford ourselves more flexibility in the early turns to pivot as needed to a slightly slower Najeela win but with the upside of severely hamstringing or completely shutting down our opponents. In addition, at later points in the game a correct stax piece can provide further protection to our winning lines or catch us up to other midrange decks by effectively rendering their cards dead in hand.

Main: Cursed Totem/Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Both shut off Najeela lines. Nature’s Claim is our answer for Cursed Totem and removal/bounce is the answer for Linvala. If one is not readily available it will most likely be best to pivot to a Thassa’s Oracle Line.

Stax “Nonbos” and Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon: Fortunately, with Najeela being in all 5 colors we are able to pick the best of the best stax pieces and avoid most cases of nonboing our own cards or being unable to break parity on the stax piece.

With the deck running 30 lands, and plethora of non artifact ramp cards, Collector Ouphe/Null Rod often will hurt our opponents much more than ourselves. The rare exception to this is when we are under the effects of Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon.

Thankfully Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon have fallen out of favor with the rise of Dockside and Underworld breach. If you do happen to run into a player that may be on these cards though it is imperative that you are careful on how and when you play your Collector Ouphe/Null Rod as your artifacts and mana dorks may be your only way to cast spells. Overall both Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are high priority cards for us to counter or remove. If regularly running into these effects running Force of Vigor may also be recommended.


Najeela Focused


Najeela’s combos are all ultimately boiling down to being able to repeatedly generate during the combat step. That said, there are a few important details to consider: the minimum requirements for each win-con piece, being able to identify which win-con piece to prioritize given the infinite variability of possible board states and, finally, the mechanics and steps of MTG's combat phase.


Derevi, Empyrial Tactician



Basic

5 attackers able to deal combat damage to any player(s).

Advanced

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician can take advantage of Najeela’s newly-created warriors. Additionally, she can take advantage of permanents able to generate multiple mana and she can leverage extra untapped mana sources to help reach the 5 combat damage triggers through multiplying warriors over multiple combat steps. Thus, it is frequently possible to win starting with the worst-case scenario of 1 warrior able to deal combat damage. The first attack will generate 2 untap triggers and require 3 extra mana to activate Najeela. The subsequent attack will generate 4 triggers and only require 1 extra mana (for a total of 4 mana). Further attacks will suffice to go infinite and even generate additional tap/untap triggers. This math naturally changes if you happen to control any permanents able to generate multiple mana of different colors.

Given Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ’s ETB trigger means that she often ends up only costing 2 mana, that she can be used to tap down opposing blockers, that she’s a creature herself, that she can even be used proactively to break parity on many stax pieces and the fact that she can untap any available mana source, it is my and many others’ opinion that she is Najeela’s strongest win-con piece. Nature's Will may be just as good or better in some situations (i.e. very early wins). One last thing to keep in mind is that while all of Derevi's combat damage triggers go on the stack simultaneously (and thus, you need to pick targets for them right away), they don't all resolve simultaneously. Thus, you can stack as many triggers on a single permanent as you like (say, a Command Tower ) and activate abilities of that permanent in between triggers in order to float enough mana to activate Najeela.




Basic

1 creature able to deal combat damage to an opponent and 5 lands able to generate .

Advanced

2 creatures able to deal combat damage to 2 different opponents and 3 lands able to generate (one rainbow land and 2 duals with max 1 overlapping land type needed)

3 creatures able to deal combat damage to 3 different opponents and 2 lands able to generate (one rainbow land and any dual needed)

With Nature's Will creating a separate trigger for each opponent dealt damage rather than for each creature that deals damage. All you need to do is float mana in between each trigger resolving in order to pay the full cost of activating Najeela's ability. Additionally, Nature's Will has some small additional utility in tapping opponents’ lands to protect you over successive combat phases. Thus, Nature's Will is the deck’s main avenue to getting the miracle turn 2 win; as usual, thanks to the format’s busted fast mana.

If you are familiar with the current cEDH metagame this wincon is fairly straight forward. Cast Thassa’s Oracle, resolve Oracle, Oracle ETB on the stack and hold priority, cast Consultation or Tainted Pact to exile your entire library.

Beware any instant speed draw effects that opponents may have. The two most common ones you’ll most likely face are Cephalid Coliseum and Kentrith, the Returned King.

This wincon also layers very well with the current wincons of Derevi or Nature’s Will. It is not uncommon to Forbidden Tutor for either of them and win without Oracle. Further, you can also Neoform a 1 cmc creature, Eldritch Evolution a warrior token, or cast Finale of Devastation for X=2 in order to get Thassa’s Oracle and then cast one of the forbidden tutors from hand.

Mulligans:
A big shout out to the Najeela Discord and Pongo’s original Najeela Primer.

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Casual

91% Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

13 - 0 Mythic Rares

61 - 0 Rares

11 - 0 Uncommons

15 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.59
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Treasure, Warrior 1/1 W
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