Hey guys,
So I have been testing the Naya Devotion list, with a few small tweaks - I suppose i may as well post the deck. The only changes i made were to increase the number of chained to the rocks to 4, and sneak another chandra in.
[deck]
Land (24)
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Mountain
Creatures (25 - probably 1 light, but i couldn't find space or a creature i wanted maindeck)
4 Ash Zealot
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers (5)
2 Chandra,
Pyromaster
3 Domri Rade
Desecration Demon attractors
4 Chained to the Rocks
Artifacts
2 Hammer of Purphoros
Sideboard
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Last Breath
1 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Assemble the Legion
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Wear
[/deck]
To hopefully prompt some discussion, here are my initial playtesting thoughts:-
1) This deck, when it works, runs so fucking sweet. You do not seem to run out of cards, and throw many and varied threats out onto the board. Domri ripping through the deck for creatures is fantastic, and the ability to throw down a domri and trade your reckoner for pretty much any creature is absolutely fantastic.
2) Hammer of Purphoros is fantastic. LIke has been said a few times around here, this guy just seems to pull games back from no where. It just seems to over perform much more often than it under performs. Not the most consistent of card, but seems to be good or great more than it is bad or blank
3) the nut draws are hilarious,
and in that respect it seems even more OP than the old gruul decks - because this one has haste and is killing you. I will go so far as to say the nut draws from this deck are the most powerful in the format - but that has been the case with red devotion decks for a while
That being said, it really isn't all rainbows:-
1) The manabase (generally). I want to play more games with this deck because I am unsure whether it is variance or the mana base. I seem to get a LOT of openers that are 1 land and a nykthos, making it unplayable. In my old red/white devotion, i played magma jet to specifically deal with this opener and allow me to keep it. That being said, I could just be dealing with variance - but my initial feeling is that if I am going to keep it at 24 lands, 3 nykthos seems to be the play. This deck feels so powerful sometimes that you dont even need your amazing ramp. If you are crazy about the 4th nykthos, I think adding the 25th land would be better than cutting a mountain.
2) The manabase
(turn 2 specifically). I have always found with devotion decks that you must have your 2 drop - either ash zealot or frostburn weird. You could sometimes go alright in RW devotion when you had magma jet to chain off BTE, but in this deck it is absolutely brutal when you miss your two drop. It is even more brutal when you open a hand of scry lands, and cant play a 2 drop until turn 3 - losing essentially an entire turn whether on the play or draw. That is the risk of playing 8 scry lands though, and you are trading the speed for more mid and late game grind
3) no removal main deck - You have to make this decision when playing this deck, but I have never been so scared of the power 2 mana drops - pack rat and Imposing Sovereign. Add to that banisher priest, and I dont think the WW matchup is as one sided as the comments in Jim Davis' article make it out to be. Both are cards that every other red deck laughs at, shocks, then moves on, but in this deck you are really worried. Imposing sovereign in particular
is a little fucker, this 2 mana drop that puts you a further turn behind, while they are beating your face in with Soldier of the pantheon.
If feels like at the moment with Red devotion you can only ever have two of these three:-
Explosiveness;
Creature Removal; or
Card advantage.
Look at the decks we have running around RW Devotion (explosiveness and creature removal), Rg Devotion (explosiveness and card advantage, but no good answer to desecration demon or master of waves), and Naya which gives you no removal and a suspicious mana base on which to rely.
I like the creature removal and card advantage more than I like the ramp - if nothing else this testing was great to show me the feel of the PyroRed Deck - which i went 8-0-1 in the last 2 FNMs.
I would love to hear what other people think of the naya deck and my analysis.
Standard: No thanks. A game based on who can curve out the best doesnt really appeal to me.
Modern: Jund. dabbling on the side with esper mentor and grixis delver. I miss treasure cruise
Legacy: Not even I hate myself that much
Control 
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