Here is an update of the deck that I’ve been playing during the Birthing Pod days of Standard. Naya Pod was very powerful at that time and the archetype still has potential even with the loss of the creature-fetching artifact.

Just last Friday after FNM, teammate Oliver introduced me a list of a Naya Midrange made by Kyle Boggemes (probably found in the Starcitygames site). Here is the list:

Naya Midrange
Maindeck
Lands
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Clifftop Retreat
3 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Temple Garden
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Selesnya Guildgate
2 Cavern of Souls

Creatures
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
2 Angel of Serenity
1 Armada Wurm
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

Spells
4 Farseek
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Bonfire of the Damned

Sideboard
3 Centaur Healer
2 Crushing Vines
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Rest in Peace
3 Terminus
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Zealous Conscripts

The deck plays the powerful creatures of the current Standard (with Thragtusks obviously), also the same with spells like Bonfire and planeswalkers Garruk, Primal Hunter and Garruk Relentless. Oblivion Ring generally acts as a generic removal, mostly stopping aggro decks in the early turns. It also has Farseek which means that you won’t be depending on mana critters (which are vulnerable to cheap removals) to ramp up. Setting up for Cavern of Souls is at times situational versus control and Blue White Flash, though you need to get your threats early on.

The sideboard plan is somewhat basic. I got kind of confused though on the right in-and-outs on certain matchups.

Here are what I think are the deck’s pros and cons based on playing it on last Saturday’s Iloilo Champs Trials. I went 3-0-1 in the tournament.

Pros
1. Can hold off aggressive decks like G/W Aggro, Mono Red and Zombies.
2. Has a powerful late game plan.
3. Can play around and beat American Aggro.
4. Cavern of Souls and planeswalkers gets it advantage over U/W Flash.

Cons
1. Has slow start sometimes, though it does not miss land drops.
2. Depends on Cavern to win against counter-heavy decks.
3. Can have a high chance to mana flood due to a 26-land count.

If most of the decks in your metagame are on aggro plan, this deck is a powerhouse and I’d definitely suggest it. As for the sideboard changes, I’d go with adding a third Cavern of Souls replacing a Terminus.

Until next time.