16 damage Naya combo

Probably the best Naya combo that can be arranged in early game, even in the fourth turn.

Turn 1: Forest + Wild Nacatl
Turn 2: Mountain + Mogg Fanatic
Turn 3: Plains + Woolly Thoctar
Turn 4: Forest + Attack with Woolly Thoctar + Giant Growth + Soul's fire.

Building a Naya budget deck, Part I

I decided to give Naya a try and build a deck based on the shard. I won't be spending much money on it because I have other cards to trade. I had most of the cards, bought few commons and here we are.

I've just started, so I'll need to find few more fatty creatures for an unpleasant beating of the opponent. I think there are enough mana fixers, removals but the deck lacks the giant beasts. Of course, filter lands could fit too, but they're not what I call "budget deck" cards.

Here we go.

NAYA BUDGET DECKLIST

CREATURES:
3 x Mogg Fanatic
2 x Druid of the Anima
2 x Steward of Valeron
4 x Wild Nacatl
4 x Woolly Thoctar

SPELLS:
4 x Incinerate
4 x Soul's Fire
4 x Oblivion Ring
4 x Giant Growth
2 x Fertile Ground
1 x Titanic Ultimatum

PLAINSWALKERS:
3 x Ajani Vengeant

LANDS:
2 x Jungle Shrine
2 x Naya Panorama
7 x Forest
7 x Mountain
5 x Plains

That would be it. I'll make some changes as soon as possible, like kicking out the Fertile Ground and Naya Panorama for something better, like huge beasts or Naya Charm, because I have (more than) enough mana sources. And another thing, I must take back my bad words for Shards of Alara. It's a great set, far from worse. I really enjoy playing this kind of deck.

Cool Naya/Bant Combo

How to deal 5 damage on the second turn? Well, mostly it depends on your luck, but let's give it a try?

Turn 1: Plains + Akrasan Squire
Turn 2: Forest

You attack with the first Akrasan Squire and boost it with Resounding Roar. That's 3, plus 2 from the exalted.

Hopefully, you'll get the right cards and the opponent will take the damage.

Conflux aftershock

Well, Conflux is officially out. I played on the pre-release event and I still don't know what I'm gonna do about the release, because I'm a little bit low on cash. I never played worse deck on limited. For the first time, I played Bant, with a awful deck, but that was the maximum I could pull off the cards I got.

For the first time after a long period, I lost all the matches, finishing with a "bye", leaving the event with the release. The only valueble card I got was the Noble Hierarch which I'm gonna trade for Banefire or Voracious Dragon.

Bant is really cool, but it's definetly something I wouldn't play. The exalted abillity is very, very cool but it's just not for me. I like red and burn.

I got few cool Naya cards that can be used for fun Naya budget deck, I'll try to compile a deck list soon and if it turn out to be competitive I might be playing Naya (if it's too hard to find the two damn cards I need).

Rise of Esper?

I have a Esper deck, built on the intro pack Esper Artifice. This Shard is my favorite, interesting to play, but it seems that is far from competitive. It's a bit slow, with creatures which are easy to be killed and it requires a lot of counter strategy that can screw up the tournament play even more.

But, now three cards are changing my plans for investing in this kind of deck. So, I might be buying some new cards after all. Check them out below:

A life gain defender with 6 toughness plus flying? Oh my, this can be awesome.

Just imagine what could you possibly destroy with this on. And if you have enough mana, you can take two big beasts at once.My favorite. You can return anything you want, and put Sharuum The Hegemon into play, and there you are, return another artifact from your graveyard to play. Awesomeness.

Full Conflux Spoiler

Finally, all 145 cards included in Conflux are known to the public, published on MTG Salvation. I'm thinking about a Voracious Dragon / Banefire deck, but I'm afraid to think about the possible price of each card. I hope I'll get at least one on the pre-release event, because I do not intent to spend much money on this set.

To be honest, I don't think I ever saw a worse set in the last four years. This multicolor bullcrap is terrible and it's about to cool my passion for the game. I don't know about other people, but I don't like this five color mixture at all.

I'll post my ALA/CON deck ideas these days.

Nicol Bolas, Plainswalker

Here's the new Plainswalker. Actually, it's not that new, because Nicol Bolas, as a character is more than 10 years old and it was printed in Chronicles as a rare. Also, there was a re-print of the same Bolas in Time Spiral.

I'm not sure why they've decided to include an old character, but it's ok. It's one of the most popular characters that appears in Magic: The Gathering, so..

This whole Plainswalker thing scares me a lot. Does anyone thinks there are just too many Plainswalkers? It's just beats off the fun. Plainswalker decks are just too much.

Anyway, check out the brand new Nicol Bolas.

CONFLUX Visual Spoiler

Finally, the Conflux visual spoiler is out on the official Magic: The Gathering website. I was following the spoilers on MTG Salvation website from the first day they were published and I'm happy to finally see some complete cards.

Although, I already found my favorite Conflux cards, I'll try to pick few which are included in today's visual spoiler (because my cards aren't). Let's start with these five (randomly picked) cards.

Hellkite Hatchling. Attack of the Dragons, heh? I like this Devour 1 thing. Four mana. And let's say you devour a Mogg Fanatic and you already have a Hissing Iguanar. That's already two damage to target player.

Great Epser counter target spell card. Pretty good. Well, maybe if it was a common...

It would be perfect if it dealt damage equal to it's power or toughness. It's just to slow, but I think it's okay for draft. Anyway, I like the card art.

It's like a Wrath of God, but you keep your soldiers alive and kicking. I like it. It makes me wanna play a white deck.

The mana cost sounds scarry. Just like the things it does.