Teaching Decks: Naya Zoo

by ToastasaurusRex on 21 April 2018

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

Alternate Deck Name: "No Wild Nacatl is NOT in my budget, you don't need to ask."

So this is a project I wanted to engage in- To make a set of 10+ super-budget 60-card decks that are simple, relatively easy to play, relatively easy to understand, and bring across the fundamentals of how Magic Works. We've since gone way past 10, with tons more in the works, and I've really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make these decks easy to play and understand, fun, and all under a $15 budget, sideboard included.

The main goal here is that you could easily build these deck for a low cost and use them as an easy introduction to how magic works, to teach a group of new players both how to play, and give them a sense of Why, a sense of what fun things they're getting into. These decks aren't gonna be particularly good, or even legal in any particular format if it stops me from including a card I think is good for the deck, but they should be fun and interesting without being too hard to get into. They should be an easily-accessible example of how fun Magic: The Gathering can be.

This should maybe be an advanced deck just because of 3-color, I don't think you should learn the very basics in 3-color, but whatever, the rest of the deck is simple enough that it's fine.

So I was trying to figure out what I should even do to make a Naya one of these decks, since I wanted to try and fill out more color combos in this set, and this was the best answer I could come up with- Naya Zoo. Kird Ape, no Wild Nacatl, it's too expensive, but Loam Lion, Flintoof Boar, a general theme of having the full Naya of lands making your creatures real buff seemed like fun. It's a big stompy deck that plants a vanilla 5/4 for 3 on probably turn 4, to give you room to get that Evolving Wilds land untapped or something.

As for budget: Maindeck cost is currently at about ~$10.50 (according to the middle blue numbers on this very site under estimated value), sideboard at about ~$4.30, sliding just in budget.

How to Play

So mostly this section is going to be notes on why I think these are good cards to learn from:

Kird Ape and Loam Lion are classics of Zoo, buffed by forests and easily able to attack as 2/3s on turn 2, joined in the 1-drop slot by Sunblade Elf, a 2/2 for 2 that can buff your board if you have the misfortune to reach 5 mana.

At 2, Flinthoof Boar and Watchwolf are 3/3s, Naya Hushblade is harder to turn on here than I expected, but a 3/2 hexproof for 2 is still real good, and Stun Sniper is a solid way to prevent their back attacks or blocks.

At 3, Khenra Charioteer is solid, and makes your attacks harder to stop, but the real star in Wooly Throctar- a 5/4 for 3, if you can manage that mana requirement. Seems deec.

For Spells- Pit Fight is great in a deck full of undercosted bodies, Searing Spear is just simply good, and Gideon's Reproach is a great way to deal with big blockers.

This manabase is different than others I've made for this series- instead of using cheap taplands that don't count as forests, plains or Mountains to buff your creatures, I instead went with Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds, so you can search up the lands you need. Thin your deck, grab your colors, slam a Throctar on 4. Sweet stuff.

As for the sideboard, this IS supposed to be a sideboard they learn how to use, to make their deck perform better in the right matchups, or just in general to customize their decks within constraints.

I'm not super stoked about Lantern Scout having the whole "Ally" mechanic tied to what it actually is in this deck- a 3/2 for 3 that gives your whole board Lifelink exactly once- the turn in enters the battlefield. If there were a card that did that without using Ally, I'd be playing it instead, but as-is, it's a sweet sideboard card against agro.

Destructive Revelry blows up Artifacts and Enchantments, Gruul Charm can be a Magmatic Chasm (No non-flying blockers), or a red wrath on fliers, or can be useful in corner-cases about mind control, which is nifty I guess.

Harm's Way and Ride Down are both sweet removal spells, but they're a little more complicated, so I like keeping them in the sideboard just to be safe. Better for a player to have played the deck a little, then go "What does this card do?" when looking at the sideboard than to draw if off the top and go "I have no idea what this card does."

And War Flare is a nifty way to close out games. It's not Glorious Anthem, but it'll do.

Deck Tags

  • teaching deck
  • Budget
  • Casual
  • Aggro
  • Zoo

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

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Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

19002323

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

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