My Tentacle Romance (Nahiri Tax Deck)

[Gheizen64]

As soon as this babe got spoiled:

http://cdn1.mtggoldfish.com/images/gf/Nahiri%252C%2Bthe%2BHarbinger%2B%255BSOI%255D.jpg

I tried and tested her in various shells. The power of the card was immediately apparent to me, but there were some problems in finding a good deck for her.

At first i tried her in robot decks as a companion to Daretti, but that had some problems. The mana, in particular, was pretty terrible. Having the need of generating tons of colorless mana AND double colored mana of different colors meant that whenever you weren't screwed by your deck, your opponent screwed you with a single wasteland.

Protecting a walker when all your board is mana stones isn't the easiest thing either.

After like 12 iterations i decided to try a lower mana curve deck. First it was land tax, and it was still terrible, then finally, this, an hybrid of painter and D&T:


Fuck you format, fuck you:
3 Blood Moon
4 Chalice of the Void

Creatures and equips:
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Hangarback Walker
2 Imperial Recruiter
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Nahiri and her BF:
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Mana:
2 Boros Signet
1 Windswept Heath
7 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
2 Plateau
4 Arid Mesa
2 Cavern of Souls

The list is pretty self-explanatory.

One thing to remember is that moon is sort of a problem for us too. Unless we draw one of the 9 natural white sources which work under moons, or we fetch a plain before moon, we're busted. It doesn't happen too often, but it happen. I'm still trying to understand if the problem is solvable or just bad design. Right now the deck has 13 red sources (15 for creatures with cavern), and 16 (18 with caverns) White sources (of which 9 works under moon).

The deck biggest problem is running out of gas constantly. I always get mana flood all the time, like i don't understand if i'm having the worst luck because i've never played a deck that draw so many lands. Luck aside, 23 lands should be about good with this curve (and 2 signets).

Imperial recruiter was there to provide virtual card advantage and ability to tutor for magus of the moon or sfm. I've noticed, however, that tutoring for magus of the moon tend to be not relevant because of the timings and the fact that you telegraph it. Imperial painter can EoT vial it in, but this can't. So maybe something else could go in its place, not sure what. Another possibility could be hangarback walker. The critter is playable off T1 tomb, can grow to become big and the flying minions it leave behind whenever he isn't sworded are good to fight other walkers. I already play 1 but it could go up, especially as right now is probably the least amounts of sword of terminus i've ever played against in a while. It's sad cause recruiter open the possibility of playing things like Devout Witness as a singleton in the SB for grindy MUs with lots of artifacts and enchantments, but just running wear//tear is also a possibility.

To make it short: the deck is basically painter but with chalice of the void, and running Nahiri as its combo kill as a single card (plus 1 emmy that can always be reshuffled).

My SB for now is
2 Declaration in Stone
4 Rest in Peace
4 Pithing Needle
1 Manriki-Gusari
3 Pyrokinesis
1 Devout Witness
But as always sideboards are the most variable part of any deck in construction.

[Admiral_Arzar]

I'm interested in anything that plays 4 Chalice, and have been ruminating on some R/W ideas for a long time. Mine were much more Stax-like than this, but that is neither here nor there. My biggest initial concern with this list is that Thalia is anti-synergistic with a lot of stuff. Nahiri is expensive under Thalia, and so is Blood Moon. Heck even Boros Signet costs 3 with her in play. So while she is very good, I feel like you might have difficulty casting your expensive stuff with her in play, especially against anything with Wasteland. Trinisphere, while it doesn't attack, might be a more synergistic choice. On your white mana problem, you may want to take a page out of R/W Painter/Shortcake's book and turn some or all of your Simian Spirit Guides into Lotus Petals. This again is bad with Thalia in play but increases your white source count significantly and makes it much more likely you'll be able to play SFM or Thalia on the first turn (or postboard RIP on turn one, which is essential vs. Reanimator).

EDIT: I also much prefer Phyrexian Revoker to Pithing Needle in decks like this. You have lots of equipment for him to carry and there is no issue with Chalice. He is fetchable with Imperial Recruiter to boot.

[Richard Cheese]

I agree that you don't really need Thalia if you're going the Moon/Chalice route. I'm also wondering if Nahiri is a better wincon in a Moon stompy deck than good ol' Koth? Her +2 just seems kinda mediocre when you're not using the yard for anything.

[ironclad8690]

Speaking of using the graveyard for things, why not run 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob? You can tutor for it and it makes Nahiri +2 read draw a card.

[Gheizen64]

I agree that you don't really need Thalia if you're going the Moon/Chalice route. I'm also wondering if Nahiri is a better wincon in a Moon stompy deck than good ol' Koth? Her +2 just seems kinda mediocre when you're not using the yard for anything.

Koth is an house, but it doesn't win the game by itself , don't remove threats, and is more suited to aggressive lists more than taxing ones imho. My point is that i believe Nahiri is a really good PW that need an home, maybe this isn't it, but still.

By the way, i added 1 petal, removed 1 traitors (so i still have 11 cards that give me 2 mana T1), removed 2 signets for 1 plain 1 fetch (24 total lands, 4 SSG, 1 petal). I feel like the mana is just a bit smoother, maybe now it's ok. Needle over Revoker was strictly a land decision. That, or i play something else to deal with marit lage, but it need to be instant. Maybe i'll just play path as a 1 mana cmc answer.

Oh well.

[Esper3k]

Any reason why Nahiri, the Harbinger is particularly better than Ajani Vengeant in this deck? Hell, Ajani even taps down their non-mountain sources (presuming you want to cut then from other colors) of mana under Blood Moon.

[Delvis]

Any reason why Nahiri, the Harbinger is particularly better than Ajani Vengeant in this deck? Hell, Ajani even taps down their non-mountain sources (presuming you want to cut then from other colors) of mana under Blood Moon.

Nahiri fetches Emrakul.

Like, quickly. Two turn delay if undisturbed.

EDIT: by the way, as much as I like this name for the Eldrazi deck, it's basically a perfect fit here. Between her rockstar look and the theme of "romancing" out an Emrakul, I'm a fan. Hope it sticks.

[Admiral_Arzar]

Koth is an house, but it doesn't win the game by itself , don't remove threats, and is more suited to aggressive lists more than taxing ones imho. My point is that i believe Nahiri is a really good PW that need an home, maybe this isn't it, but still.

By the way, i added 1 petal, removed 1 traitors (so i still have 11 cards that give me 2 mana T1), removed 2 signets for 1 plain 1 fetch (24 total lands, 4 SSG, 1 petal). I feel like the mana is just a bit smoother, maybe now it's ok. Needle over Revoker was strictly a land decision. That, or i play something else to deal with marit lage, but it need to be instant. Maybe i'll just play path as a 1 mana cmc answer.

Oh well.

If you're worried about Lands, just go -1 Magus, +1 Blood Moon. Chalices + Moons give you solid game in that matchup and you have 4 Rest in Peace in your sideboard.

[iatee]

If it's a Chalice/Moon deck than the question is 'is this the best build of a Chalice/Moon deck?' I think the best build of a turn 1 Chalice/Moon deck probably has mono-colored win conditions.

This deck has lots of good cards in it and the potential for powerful starts, so I am sure it could win lots of games the same way Eldrazi/Painter/any Stompy deck can. It's just a question of whether Nahiri is necessary or a win-more (since t1 Chalice/Blood Moon are the true win cons) that you sometimes have trouble casting.