Pioneer and Explorer have been at the forefront of many players mind’s in the last few weeks. With Pioneer being the new Pro Tour format, and Explorer releasing on Magic Arena last week, the formats have had a lot more eyes on them. With Explorer, Streets of New Capenna also released to Arena and paper and a card from the set is revamping the top deck in both formats, Naya Winota.
Spin the Wheel
The deck in question here is Naya Winota.
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Whenever a non-Human creature you control attacks, look at the top six cards of your library. You may put a Human creature card from among them onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. It gains indestructible until end of turn. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.
has proven itself to be an incredibly powerful card in many a format. It’s the top deck in the Pioneer format, and it’s proving itself in Explorer too. Let’s look at a deck list for each of the formats.
Here’s our Pioneer list. It’s goal is to put out a few cheap non-human creatures that have some ramp potential to help stick a Winota on turn 3 or 4 to end the game in 1 attack. The first Explorer lists are near carbon copies of this list.
We obviously don’t have some of the same cards in Explorer lie
Elvish Mystic
Elvish Mystic
{T}: Add {G}.
and
Voice of Resurgence
Voice of Resurgence
Whenever an opponent casts a spell during your turn and when this creature dies, create a green and white Elemental creature token with "This token's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control."
, but we have solid replacements for those cards. But there’s a new card in New Capenna that actually fits quite well in this deck and there’s a few version of this deck with that card included.
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The Attendant
The card we’re looking at is
Mage’s Attendant
Mage’s Attendant
When this creature enters, create a 1/1 blue Wizard creature token with "{1}, Sacrifice this token: Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {1}."
. It’s a 3 mana 3/2 Cat Rogue and it creates a 1/1 blue Wizard creature token that we can pay 1, sacrifice it, and
Force Spike
Force Spike
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}.
an opponent’s non-creature spell. This gives us 2 easy non-human creatures to trigger Wintoa, and a little protection against pesky removal spells.
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Reinventing the Wheel
With this in creature in mind, we can take a couple different approaches to building Naya Winota with it. The first is a more direct translation of the above decks, with this added in.
Here, we dropped a
Blade Historian
Blade Historian
Attacking creatures you control have double strike.
,
Kenrith, the Returned King
Kenrith, the Returned King
{R}: All creatures gain trample and haste until end of turn.
{1}{G}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
{2}{W}: Target player gains 5 life.
{3}{U}: Target player draws a card.
{4}{B}: Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under its owner's control.
and
Avabruck Caretaker
Avabruck Caretaker
Hexproof
At the beginning of combat on your turn, put two +1/+1 counters on another target creature you control.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
for 3 Mage’s Attendants, giving us more reliable ways to trigger Wintoa at the expense of diversity of humans we can hit.
The other version that we have is a bit of spicier version, being a 4 color version. It trades out the beefy top end for some incredibly powerful effects. We also get a nice way to cheat Winota into play. This deck comes to us from Nick Peternell and Fireshoes.
This version is a
Neoform
Neoform
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
Search your library for a creature card with mana value equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's mana value, put that card onto the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it, then shuffle.
style deck.
We have a few 3 drops in our deck that create tokens. Obviously Mage’s Attendant, but we also have
Hanged Executioner
Hanged Executioner
Flying
When this creature enters, create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.
{3}{W}, Exile this creature: Exile target creature.
. These 2 creatures are our primary sacrifices for Neoform to get out Winota from our library. We can execute this plan as early as turn 3. Then as for our Human hits, we have
Tovolar’s Huntmaster
Tovolar’s Huntmaster
When this creature enters, create two 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
, but also an old favorite,
Agent of Treachery
Agent of Treachery
When this creature enters, gain control of target permanent.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control three or more permanents you don't own, draw three cards.
.
Agent of Treachery was a menace in Standard and Historic Wintoa decks, such that it had to be banned! But it’s fair game in Pioneer and Explorer, and it shows. Being able to steal an opponent’s blockers or better yet, their lands, really set us up in a power position. Often times, your opponents will concede at the sight of this card.
Mage’s Attendant is critical for this strategy as we can stop counter magic for our Neoform. It also allows us to stop a forced sweeper, since we apply so much pressure to our opponent.
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If you want to win quick and win big, then Winota is definitely the way to go, and Mage’s Attendant is a very nice addition to the deck.