Over the past weekend, TCGPlayer.com held a 5k tournament in Hartford. 13 year old Noah Walker managed to go undefeated in the 9-rounded Swiss portion of the tourney. Not only that, he managed to finish in 2nd place, losing to a Brilliant Ultimatum deck in the finals. I got in touch with the wunderkind to get his thoughts on the deck that he played, a list he affectionately calls Next Level Naya.
1. First of all, congratulations on your amazing finish. According to the coverage on the event, you designed your deck by mashing up GerryT’s Naya list with the Conscription combo? Is this true? Did you get to do a lot of testing with it?
Noah: I had already been playing a Naya deck similar to GerryT’s, but I had Sovereigns in the sideboard with one island. The week before, at the PTQ, I came in ninth place with the sideboarded Sovereigns and I was thinking, after the event, that it would be better in the main deck. I tested it in the main deck against all of the top decks and it made some of my bad matchups such as UW and UWr Planeswalker Control better.
2. Again, according to the coverage, you were undefeated until the loss in the finals. Could you tell us about more about how the deck performed for you during the course of the tournament?
Noah: The deck was preforming very well in all of my matches. Throughout the day, not including the top 8, I played against 1 UW control, 1 Dredgevine, 1 Mono Red, 1 Turboland, 1 Mythic Conscription, and 2 Junds. I intentionally drew my other 2 rounds versus Mythic Conscription and UWr control, so that I would automatically be in the top8. My 3 game losses were to Turboland, Dredgevine and Jund. In the top 8, I lost one game to Jund and 2 games to the Brilliant Ultimatum deck.
3. What are the deck’s good matchups?
Noah: The deck’s good matchups are Turboland, Jund, Bant Control, Mythic Conscription, Dredgevine, and basically anything with Forests.
4. What are the deck’s bad matchups?
Noah: The bad matchups, even though they are not that unfavorable, include Mono Red with Earthquakes in the main and UW or UWr Planeswalker Control.
5. Is there any changes you would have made to the deck? Personally, I am curious about how you good you thought your mana base was. 24 lands and 4 colors seem extremely dangerous.
Noah: I might want to change the board a little bit to help with the unfavorable matchups, but I am still undecided about that. I would not change the mana base at all because it was fantastic at getting all of my colors when I needed them. Playing 1 Island, 4 Misty Rainforests, 4 Lotus Cobras, 4 Noble Hiearches, 2 Birds of Paradise, 4 Knights of the Reliquary and 1 Evolving Wilds provided more than enough blue sources.
6. GerryT himself played a Naya deck with the Conscription combo in the sideboard in another tournament this past weekend. Would you consider doing something similar or would you keep it in the main?
Noah: As I said before, I had been leaving it in the board for a little while. I decided to experiment playing it in the main deck and after a lot of testing, I think that I would most definitely keep it there.
Next Level Naya
Noah Walker
2010
TCGplayer.com $5k Series – Hartford
Type II
Main Deck:
2 Baneslayer
Angel
2 Birds
of Paradise
3 Bloodbraid
Elf
3 Cunning
Sparkmage
1 Elspeth,
Knight-Errant
1 Gideon
Jura
4 Knight
of the Reliquary
4 Lotus
Cobra
4 Noble
Hierarch
3 Sovereigns
of Lost Alara
4 Vengevine
1 Basilisk
Collar
2 Eldrazi
Conscription
2 Lightning
Bolt
4 Arid
Mesa
1 Evolving
Wilds
5 Forest
1
Island
4
Misty
Rainforest
2 Mountain
2
Plains
2
Raging
Ravine
1 Sejiri
Steppe
2 Stirring
Wildwood
Sideboard:
1 Baneslayer
Angel
1 Basilisk
Collar
1 Behemoth
Sledge
1 Cunning
Sparkmage
3 Dauntless
Escort
1 Emerge
Unscathed
1 Gideon
Jura
1 Linvala,
Keeper of Silence
2 Oblivion
Ring
2 Path
to Exile
1 Stoneforge
Mystic
Until next time,
KYT
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.