Brad Nelson, master of Standard, went 8-0 in his specialty format during the SCG Invitational with a deck he called “Naya Control.” Following the dominance of Team SCG’s Mono-Black Devotion deck at GP Louisville, he felt that it was the best weekend to be playing Assemble the Legion.

Brad said that Naya Control is a “one weekend only” deck, but I’m not going to so easily dismiss such an awesome creation. I, too, am looking to crush Mono-Black. In fact, I’m looking to Polis crush it.

[deck title=Big Naya]
[Creatures]
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Polis Crusher
3 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]
4 Chained to the Rocks
3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Selesnya Charm
4 Anger of the Gods
2 Selesnya Keyrune
2 Assemble the Legion
[/Spells]

[Lands]
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Abandon
3 Temple of Triumph
1 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Plains
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
1 Pithing Needle
2 Wear // Tear
2 Last Breath
2 Sunhome Guildmage
2 Assemble the Legion
2 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
4 Mistcutter Hydra
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Adding four Polis Crusher to the deck (cutting two Advent of the Wurm, one Xenagos, and one Mizzium Mortars) gives it another hard-hitting threat that doesn’t die to your own Anger of the Gods. And because it can’t be Ultimate Price’d or Detention Sphere’d, it puts even more strain on the cards that can kill it—namely, Hero’s Downfall and Supreme Verdict. Polis Crusher also does an excellent job pressuring Jaces and Elspeths, while threatening to destroy Underworld Connections and Detention Spheres once it becomes monstrous.

Decks like Mono-Red, Mono-Blue, and GW Aggro are handled with a powerful suite of removal. Although there are only four maindeck spells that can target Master of Waves, elemental tokens can still be wiped out with Anger of the Gods or overloaded Mizzium Mortars. Selesnya Charm is great at removing Desecration Demons and the normally hard-to-answer gods like Thassa, God of the Sea, and Erebos, God of the Dead.

The strangest card in the list might be Sunhome Guildmage, but it allows all the 1/1 tokens to power through Jace, Architect of Thought’s +1 ability. Having played with Skarrg Guildmage out of Brad’s GR Pro Tour list, I’ve been really impressed with the Guildmages in general. They all dodge Ultimate Price, and the ones that make creatures are real late-game threats with built-in protection from Devour Flesh.

White Devotion is another deck I’ve been working on since Gerry Thompson posted a list in one of his articles. Here’s my take on it:

[deck title=UWR Devotion]
[Creatures]
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Precinct Captain
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Heliod, God of the Sun
2 Archangel of Thune
1 Angel of Serenity
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]
4 Chained to the Rocks
2 Prophetic Prism
4 Detention Sphere
2 Spear of Heliod
1 Assemble the Legion
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
[/Spells]

[Lands]
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Steam Vents
4 Azorius Guildgate
1 Izzet Guildgate
4 Plains
2 Mountain
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
1 Pithing Needle
1 Wear // Tear
2 Blind Obedience
2 Celestial Flare
2 Banisher Priest
3 Fiendslayer Paladin
1 Archangel of Thune
2 Assemble the Legion
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Sphinx’s Revelation and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, is a powerful combination. This is not a control deck; it is a tap-out deck that looks to build massive board position and Revelation for a large amount.

Most of the Devotion decks are good matchups, thanks to Chained to the Rocks, Detention Sphere, and Banisher Priest taking permanents off the board. One large Sphinx’s Revelation is usually game over for them. Archangel of Thune takes over any game where the opponent can’t kill it; it shines against Mono-Red, Mono-Blue, and GW Aggro.

Esper is difficult to beat when you are unable to put a fast clock on them. Things get tougher if they have Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Thankfully, Heliod, God of the Sun and Assemble the Legion are must-answer permanents. Those cards are even better against Mono-Black where they can’t get Detention Sphere’d.

I can’t really call the mana a masterpiece, but it’s the best you can do with the cards available. One of my favorite questions is, “Why are there Steam Vents in your Mono-White deck?” It’s a Blue source that can cast Boros Reckoner, and it’s also a Mountain for Chained to the Rocks. The manabase is fragile, and Nykthos often helps out, acting as a filter land to make WW or UU. I’ve recently added Prophetic Prism to help in that regard. Once we have access to the other half of the scry lands, replacing the Guildgates with Temples will be a huge help.

If you’re a red mage looking to splash white so you can chain things to your rocks, you might be more interested in a list like Larry Swasey’s:

[deck title=BWR Midrange by krazykirby4]
[Creatures]
4 Chandra’s Phoenix
3 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
4 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]
4 Chained to the Rocks
2 Shock
1 Blind Obedience
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Read the Bones
3 Warleader’s Helix
2 Assemble the Legion
2 Rakdos’s Return
[/Spells]

[Lands]
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Blood Crypt
3 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Temple of Silence
5 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Mutavault
[/Lands]

[Sideboard]
2 Pithing Needle
2 Wear // Tear
1 Mizzium Mortars
4 Anger of the Gods
3 Boros Reckoner
2 Slaughter Games
1 Assemble the Legion
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck is packing more ways to recur Chandra’s Phoenix than any I’ve seen yet. In a format full of synergistic decks, this red-based list ignores any kind of devotion strategy and looks to jam a ton of removal spells backed up by a few ways of gaining card advantage. Read the Bones, Rakdos’s Return, and Slaughter Games out of the sideboard are all doing unique things for a red deck. Red-white-black also gets access to the full eight scry lands. I haven’t been impressed by Chandra, but there aren’t any other options for red planeswalkers, and she can be useful in upgrading all of your burn spells by a point.

I predict that I’ll be getting a lot of use out of my Chained to the Rocks this Standard format. Let’s just hope that the number of Peak Eruptions stays low…

Alex Bianchi
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