I believe the Duels list will be available on Wednesday.

Usually Wednesday, we got them on a Monday during AER for some reason.

soon

how ominous

So I started experimenting with Naya Humans in preparation for the new set. It turns out it was already a highly playable deck. I think we all missed something pretty good this season (or at least didn't hype it as much as we should have). With the new tools, I'm pretty sure it will be high tier next season.

Does your Naya version run devoted crop mate? I think the cards good but not sure it's powerful enough in a 3 colour version

I'm not even using new cards (I don't mess with them until we know what we're getting, too many disappointments otherwise), I missed a solid Naya Humans deck before the new set even drops.

If we get it, maybe though. There are tons of great 2 drop Humans in Naya colors, so I could see the relevance.

Interesting. I messed around a little with a Naya Zoo deck during the KLD season but never really tried to push the Human tribal theme with it and nothing much ever came of it. It was something I was planning on revisiting based on of the tools we could be getting with this set though.

Nice to hear that the deck seem to have legs before we get all the new goodies that will potentially make it even better.

I feel like everyone was sort of iffy on trying to push aggressive 3 color decks before Mardu Vehicles came along and made everyone go "hey, it may actually be worth the potential for some mana issues".

Well imo going Mardu with vehicles was actually a mistake. My Rakdos vehicles deck seemed to be much more aggressive, and despite that fact, also much more resilient.

BUT Naya Humans definitely has some legs. It's more midrange so it doesn't mind the slower start, and it has a lot of powerful options at both 2 and 3. With the new set, some of those 'powerful' options will get borderline strict upgrades, while the deck still sports excellent relevant removal. We won't get to make zoo, because we don't have pain lands, but a midrange build should be both viable, and competitive.

I also still think that Abzan Humans looks very promising. Slotting in quality removal with black (and a couple solid black Humans), makes the deck resilient to most opponents (especially if we get Never to Return). That deck will have a lot going for it imo, and have some pretty fast mana, allowing us to get ahead quickly - mostly 2 drops, not going for big threats imo. So maybe it will be closer to a zoo style than Naya (with Naya favoring midrange).

You can count me as one of the people that is still not 100% sold on going Mardu with Vehicles, I also think that Rakdos is more resilient (although Mardu gets a few more toolbox options).

Should have known that Naya Humans would work out, what with stuff like Brawlers and Trackers around.

I agree about the idea of Naya Humans with the new set though. Samut, Voice of Surprise Alpha Strike is just stupid good, and I am honestly not sure if I want us to get it or not lol.

I may still try and mess around with a less human oriented build, just to screw around with some other ideas I had. The 3/3 for 3 that gives all your stuff Trample looks juicy alongside stuff like Advocate and Tracker in the late game.

That 3/3 giving trample is Zoo's wet dream btw. Just need to get that fast mana somehow, or accept some measure of inconsistency (or just exclusively run RG, which should be great anyway). I played Jund Zoo for a while this season, it was one of the best decks I tried (but only when it worked) in terms of raw power, but the mana was a serious problem.

If we can figure out Jund mana, that 3/3 is in counters.jund.deck, and it's exactly what the doctor ordered.

Aye, Gruul is (and has been) in a pretty good position to begin with, and it only stands to get better. It will probably still be better than Jund/Naya just for the sake of consistency, but we will see.

The blowouts that will happen if we get Samut already make me cringe a little. Why yes, I will EoT Samut and then play 2 Brawlers or something and alpha strike for a ton completely out of nowhere.

If Simic Ramp works out as well as it looks like it will and we get Samut I may even try a Temur Ramp list. The idea of dropping Samut EoT and then dropping a fat bomb with haste is appealing to me.

I get a feeling disappointments will show it's ugly face come Wednesday...

Just give me some new toys in red and I'll be a happy camper.

That's why I don't mess with trying to build before we know the list. I got burned so bad a few seasons ago when they didn't give us a couple red cards I expected to get, that I'm totally over it now. No point building Zombies, for instance, because they might not give us the 1 mana instant, or the 3 mana lord, in which case WB zombies will basically be 100% garbage - or maybe tier 3 decent/fun, but irrelevant.

If they give us the naga and nissa, I'll be happy. The new mana dork with -1/-1 or the other naga would be icing.

Mardu Cars doesn't make that much sense with just 2 Toolcrafts and no Inspectors (Thraben, of course) ...Motorist and Depala (and maybe Thalia) alone aren't enough reason to go 3 color, if you want to go fast...

If you want to go midrange, it can be argued that things like Gideon or Avy or even Sorin are enough justification

Ok, back to EgypAmonkhet

Nah, I don't think so though. Gideon + Avacyn are fairly large W mana requirements. The Rakdos deck is way more streamlined, IMO. Very few awkward plays, unless you really feel like you have to run P&K, and even then, it's not bad or anything, just a slight adjustment to the mana base. And you get all the main benefits of vehicles - most importantly U Disintegration, fatal push, the BR pumper, etc...

So even in the midrange deck, I'm against the addition of an extra color. Want Mardu midrange? play midrange instead, and stop trying to be aggro - in Duels obviously... the Standard decks are not the same idea.

I really think our vehicle lovers didn't bring the right mix to the tourneys, or they may have done better - e.g.: won.

I'm going to throw my crazy hope out there for one last set release, that the "need" to go tri colour dies a death for the most common archetypes.

I don't know man... Maybe. You need to be paired with R or B right now IMO. Which means that it's not at all certain, even after the expansion, that a WU deck can be viable without at least a splash of something else. When I say viable, I don't mean win a couple of games on the ladder, I mean truly viable - as in not get demolished when it encounters serious resistance.

Also, at least right now, and deck containing U just feels underpowered to me. It's a damn shame, btw, but I think it's true.

If white gets the new flash enchant a lot of these problems get fixed - even though it's expensive, it's a universal answer - which is fine, IMO.

Cast Out will be the big card to fix it. I'm not finding aggro to be the issue, but resolved Tutelage or PWs. U/B getting Never//Return could be the better deck though.