NEEDS UPDATE!!! WORK IN PROGRESS!!

The Janky Griffin

This deck is in no way intended to be a very competitive, cutthroat deck where a lot of goodstuff cards get thrown into the deck. It does not include the more expensive tutors due to budget considerations but it gets the job done. The deck can be very fun when setting up the combo though.

This deck wants to make explosive games, very fast. After a bit of a set-up, the deck should straight out kill at most a single opponent a turn. It's janky enough that it would be fun to see people's reactions when you kill them with this set-up. A turn 5/6 for the first kill is not uncommon with this deck.

A lot of the draw spells in this deck enables us to dig deep and discard cards (Careful Study, Frantic Search, etc.) so we can find our combo pieces faster along with out tutors. We don't care much about things that get thrown in the yard since we get to choose which goes into the yard and we have a few ways of getting them back (Sun Titan, Day's Undoing).

The primary way to play this deck is to play it safely while setting up the combo pieces. You don't want the commander out in the field if you have not assembled the combo yet. It should be: commander, then a turn later play the combo and just straight out scare the hell out of the table. I once got super lucky and pulled off the combo on turn 5, though that could be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. For all other games that could take longer for me to assemble the combo, I prefer to dig dig dig through my library until I get there.

However, there are times when we cannot reliably assemble our combo. During these times, we just want to play the usual Noyan game.

The Win Con

• The Land - the central piece of the combo needed to close out games

  1. Griffin Canyon

• Changeling - to give Griffin Canyon the "Griffin" creature type ;)

  1. Wings of Velis Vel
  2. Unnatural Selection
  3. Runed Stalactite

• Evasion - optional items just so our monstrous Griffin Canyon can swing at ease

  1. Herald of Secret Streams - makes all our animated lands unblockable
  2. Thassa, God of the Sea - repeatable unblockable engine that enables us to freely scry 1 on upkeep is a very good addition to the deck, props for being a hard to remove enchantment
  3. Wind Zendikon//Wings of Velis Vel - helps animate our land and gives them flying
  4. Elspeth, Knight-Errant - can make our land creatures fly, spouts out tokens, and has a backbreaking ultimate

The main wincon for this deck is to get Griffin Canyon out, animate it with Noyan's ability, give it changeling with Wings of Velis Vel and the like, make it big and swing.

Here is how the combo works:

1. Animate Griffin Canyon - it becomes a creature with haste
2. Give it changeling so it becomes a griffin as well
3. Tap it using its ability, untapping it and giving it +1/+1 in the process
4. Repeat step 3 to make a very large canyon, give it evasion then swing

What if the Griffin fails?

Plan B for now is Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker, which grows real fast during the game. Couple it with Runechanter's Pike and we got a really fast clock in the air.

Another is The Ozolith as an insurance policy. In case our lands die, we can still make a plain old Island monstrous after casting just 1 instant or sorcery spell.

"Infinite" Combos

1. Griffin Canyon + Wings of Velis Vel/Shields of Velis Vel - the primary combo that allows our manland to grow infinitely large, albeit only for a turn unless you have Unnatural Selection

Protection

Of course we have to protect our Griffin Canyon from outside threats so we can pull off some shenanigans from it.

• Counterspells - I'm picking up mostly 2-mana counterspells since the deck can go hungry with mana to dig deeper into the deck

  1. Counterspell - coz counters
  2. Disallow - best mono counterspell at the moment
  3. Swan Song - hits most of the relevant threats at , much better than Negate
  4. Muddle the Mixture - a worse Counterspell but it makes up for it by being a tutor itself
  5. Commit / Memory - an expensive counterspell that can act as removal and GY recycle at the same time

• Hexproof/Shroud/Indestructible - to protect our manlands from targeted removal and destroy effects

  1. Terra Eternal - all our lands are wrath-proof (except for exile effects)
  2. Tomik, Distinguished Advokist - gives our lands hexproof, which is really helpful

• Pillowfort - we are mostly a control deck so we should be able to stay alive in the long run

  1. Propaganda - a huge "don't attack me" sign
  2. Sphere of Safety - see Propaganda
  3. Collective Restraint - see Propaganda
  4. Crawlspace - my favorite of the bunch

Tutors

This deck is very dependent on the Griffin Canyon combo, so we need to have tutors to get our combo pieces in place.

1. Muddle the Mixture - Wings of Velis Vel/Unnatural Selection
2. Tolaria West/Expedition Map - Griffin Canyon/any land
3. Long-Term Plans - anything needed
4. Mystical Tutor - instant speed, basically what's needed for the game

Board Wipes

Since this is more of a control deck, board wipes are more than a necessity. We don't want to load up on a gazillion board wipes, so I included the top 5 that will be more advantageous to us than the opponents.

1. Cyclonic Rift - one-sided board wipe is always welcome
2. Supreme Verdict - can't be countered
3. Tragic Arrogance - my favorite board wipe, can be used politically most of the times
4. Cataclysmic Gearhulk - a worse Tragic Arrogance in that the opponent can choose which permanents remain on their board
5. Planar Outburst - a worse Planar Cleansing that only kills creatures, still spares our manlands though

Moving Forward

This is a work-in-progress deck and I am actively looking for ways to improve it. Some cards I would like to find space in the future:

1. Inkmoth Nexus - the super cute wincon for Noyan decks, would be nice to have one
2. Torrential Gearhulk - can instantly cast a spell the turn it is played (think of Dig Through Time)
3. Weathered Wayfarer - can search for any land to help us win faster
4. Dramatic Reversal - I'm on the fence for this one. It enables the Sol Ring + Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal combo for infinite counters on manland but the deck isn't quite built to support this combo yet. Tutors I will have to add to support these two are Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutor. Thoughts?

Exclusions

With all these cards above and all the jankiness there is in Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper, there are some obvious card choices that I am staying away from right now. Here are they and the reasons they are exlcluded:

1. Land Tax - while it is a very nice card, it is one very expensive card that I don't see much use for. Ramping very fast is not a necessity for this deck
2. Teferi's Response - while only Noyan Dar can make this card work, it doesn't protect our manland from boardwipes, hence its exclusion
3. Sacred Ground/Equinox - I have tried these cards before but they seem to be lackluster to me. They just sit there and don't do much. I'd rather go on the offensive rather than the defensive.

Suggestions

That's it guys. I hope I have laid out the gameplan and the choice of tools clear enough...

I welcome any comments and suggestions as I am looking towards improving the deck. There might be things that look different when look at another angle. Thanks!