Nalia de'Arnise - Partycrasher

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 1 year ago

Nalia de'Arnise - Partycrasher

Nalia de'Arnise

Commander

Misc Instants & Sorceries

Approximate Total Cost:

General Overview

This deck is a pretty straight forward aggro deck with some decent control elements.

The payoffs overall for the Party mechanic are generally not terribly impressive on most cards, however, Nalia herself utilizes Party well if you enjoy playing aggressively. Your board quickly gets to be rather threatening once you have a full party as your creatures grow every turn. Swinging with a board full of deathtouch creatures makes blocking a little trickier for opponents even when they have larger creatures.

Nalia's ability to play creatures off of the top of your deck is a huge benefit. With how useful this is, I think you really have to be mindful of keeping the creature count fairly high in the deck to help your odds of being able to keep playing from the top of your deck.

Since Nalia is a Rogue herself, including any Rogues feels to be a bit of a waste as that lessens the odds of getting other creature types for the Party mechanic. One huge exception to this that I added was Oona's Blackguard. This card is massively scary in this deck and every time I've dropped this card it has immediately put other players on edge with the threat of killing their hands.

The theme is rather open with a ton of cards to pull from across the four classes, which is rather appealing if you enjoy endless tinkering with decks (and I do). This also encourages potentially playing some weird cards that I probably wouldn't otherwise consider since I really need to stick to these four classes. I think you can take the core concept of this deck in a number of different directions such that many Nalia de'Arnise decks are going to look rather different. One important thing to keep in mind at all times is that you need a good ratio of wizards to warriors to clerics to have good odds of getting the full party benefits from the commander. I've formatted the decklist in such a way that it is easier to see the balance of the different classes.

Cards for Future Consideration

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Adding to the taxing nature of Thorn of Amethyst and Glowrider, I really would like to try adding this at some point. The tough part is the lack of a proper class but it might be worthwhile to include anyway.
Cauldron of Souls - This seems just silly for this deck and would make the deck fairly resilient to board wipes. Assuming you have a full party, on your turn Nalia will cancel out all -1/-1 persist counters, letting you use the Cauldron once per turn cycle. This is a 5 drop that doesn't increase your aggression factor though, so I'm not 100% in on it. It is definitely something I'd consider if I was expecting lots of board wipes.
Cauldron Haze - Similar to Cauldron of Souls, as a one shot effect this is definitely not bad.
Resourceful Defense - This is in similar territory as The Ozolith, so I think it warrants trying out at some point.
Sigarda's Summons - I think this has great potential since most creatures in the deck end up with +1/+1 counters pretty quickly. It is a 6 drop though, and finding room for something like that is a bit tricky in this sort of deck.
Last edited by Ruiner 11 months ago, edited 7 times in total.

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

I was thinking to build Nalia as one of my budget starter decks. Yeah, I know it's a precon, but she looks like such a fun commander. And there are SO MANY creatures to choose from. If I build it I will definitely be referencing this list.

I guess the biggest challenge I saw was her vulnerability to board wipes. Thankfully, we are in white and black so we have access to most of the good protection and recursion effects. have you considered Cauldron Haze ? Cheaper albeit use once alternative to Cauldron of Souls . There's also Oversold Cemetery which has played well for me in the past.

Fell the Mighty seems like another decent one sided wipe in most cases.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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duducrash
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Post by duducrash » 1 year ago

How do you approach playing? Do you over extend and go for the agro kill? Do you keep a party at a time?

Im always scared of being wrathed into t1, so Selfless Glyphweaver // Deadly Vanity is a card I would totally run

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 1 year ago

RowanKeltizar wrote:
1 year ago
have you considered Cauldron Haze ? Cheaper albeit use once alternative to Cauldron of Souls . There's also Oversold Cemetery which has played well for me in the past.

Fell the Mighty seems like another decent one sided wipe in most cases.
I think I'd be making room for Cauldron of Souls first but Cauldron Haze is definitely decent if I find more of that effect would be needed.

Oversold Cemetery is definitely good but more of a card that helps you recover slowly over time rather than preserve your board state. I think Phyrexian Reclamation and Haunted Crossroads are probably better but if you need more recursion then Oversold Cemetery is definitely playable.

duducrash wrote:
1 year ago
How do you approach playing? Do you over extend and go for the agro kill? Do you keep a party at a time?

Im always scared of being wrathed into t1, so Selfless Glyphweaver // Deadly Vanity is a card I would totally run
So far I've only played 8 or so games with the deck but I've definitely leaned a bit into making a big board to try to get damage in before people can get established. Black Market Connections and Mardu Strike Leader make the board expand pretty well and then those tokens get counters on them every turn, it can get going pretty quick if you get one of those down early. I have held back a little when I had Stick Together in hand to wipe the board myself a bit though.

No one has run a super heavy control deck in those games really but I found recovery from board wipes wasn't super bad between the recursion aspects and ability to just play right off the top of the deck once the commander is replayed. Selfless Spirit and Unbreakable Formation have been useful defensive cards but I definitely have considered Selfless Glyphweaver // Deadly Vanity as a third version of this effect.

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 1 year ago

I've made a few quick changes today:

Added Cards
+1 God-Eternal Oketra
+1 Tyrite Sanctum
+1 Inkmoth Nexus

Removed Cards
-1 Maskwood Nexus
-1 Plains
-1 Swamp

In my games so far I had not drawn Maskwood Nexus but this card really is at its best when you get synergies and good payoffs, like lord effects in my opinion. In this deck, the primary function would be to ensure that you have a full party as long as you have at least four creatures, but I have rarely had any struggles with getting a creature of each type. I'd rather just play a creature to stay more aggressive. I think God-Eternal Oketra would fill a similar role of creating creature tokens but more efficiently and it can swing for some decent damage plus it has the useful death/exile recursion trigger.

Tyrite Sanctum has been a useful card in most decks I've tried it out in and pretty much never has a negative impact.

Inkmoth Nexus just feels evil with how fast I've noticed the board state growing with +1/+1 counters in the games I've had. It has resilience to board wipes as a man-land, and is a good out against decks that may go wild with life gain.


I had one game with this deck this past weekend. I got to see just how much of a monster Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion is while the commander is in play, especially when comboed with Mikaeus, the Lunarch. I was getting four +1/+1 counters on every creature every turn cycle with my commander in play.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet + Damning Verdict (cast from under a Windbrisk Heights) was another rough combo, which resulted in me getting (14) 2/2 zombie tokens and keeping my board state that was growing by +4/+4 every turn cycle.

I ultimately came in 2nd place to my friend's new The Council of Four deck, which definitely leans control, but it was super close. The other decks were a really explosive The Ur-Dragon deck a friend has been fine tuning for years, and another friend's Isshin, Two Heavens as One deck that came out swinging pretty fast. We all knew the Ur-Dragon deck is a deck that can't be allowed to get going since it explodes out of nowhere, so it died first although it put a big hurting on life totals around the board. The Isshin deck decided to try to kill me off instead of the main control deck at the table forcing me to use "player removal" so I would not die, and it gave the Council of Four just enough breathing room to get a few more resources to squeeze out the victory by the time it came down to just the two of us. I got hit with a board wipe that I couldn't stop. Haunted Crossroads was in play and I nearly recovered almost completely after casting my commander on my turn but just came up a little short. One more turn and I think I would have had it, but that's how it works sometimes.

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 1 year ago

A card I've had some success with in decks that care about the top card of your library is Insidious Dreams. It works better in a deck that also cares about whats in your graveyard, which I don't think this one really does. But the fact you've got so many low to the ground creatures means you can cast this INSTANT speed just before your turn, stack your library and cast out exactly the creatures you need. It's essentially a mass Vampiric Tutor. sure, 4cmc is a bit high but it might do some work for you...

I personally would run more spot removal. Sucks to have something like Crawlspace or Ghostly Prison on the opposing side and not be able to deal with it. No Anguished Unmaking ? Super affordable now.

Despark Path to Exile Heliod's Intervention Winds of Abandon Feed the Swarm Return to Dust Oblation.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 1 year ago

So far, I've been the reason removal is needed hah. I really want to keep this deck creature heavy to maximize odds of creatures being on top of the deck, so any removal I'm looking to use should hopefully be creature based with few exceptions.

Lately people in my usual playgroup haven't been running a ton of problem enchantments and artifacts like Ghostly Prison but if they started to come back regularly I'd be adding Nova Cleric and Soltari Visionary to the deck pretty quick.

The only reason Anguished Unmaking is not in the deck is that I swore I had an extra copy sitting around and I didn't. It's a staple for pretty much every BWx deck I make. Next update will definitely have it.

Insidious Dreams is a good card in my opinion, but I'd rather use repeatable top deck manipulation or cheap one shot effects. 4 mana to "do nothing" is a bit of a cost when I'm trying to put pressure on the board, I haven't found myself with that much spare mana so far. Pitching cards is a cost I dont know that I can handle either, I think it has a place in less aggressive, maybe combo, versions of this deck but I'm going full steam ahead. Sensei's Divining Top would probably added before that.

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 11 months ago

I've made numerous changes to my deck in the past few months and updated my original post to reflect my current decklist. There were way too many changes for me to bother with the usual "Added Cards, Removed Cards" update. The 40k Imperium cards definitely gave this deck quite a few new toys to play with and I've made some other changes beyond those cards. I'm happy with the way the deck is running currently, but this is the sort of deck you can endlessly tinker with.

I also updated the formatting of the decklist to separate out creatures by their class type, since I think that is a rather useful thing to see when it comes to construction of this particular deck.

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