Nahiri the Harbinger Deckbuilding Challenge thread

Level 60 Nahiri

Nahiri excels at going small. White and red both have a tremendous assortment of efficient creatures and spells. With solid mana gains and exceptional abilities, she also is able to thrive in situations where another famous aggro planeswalker, Koth, might stall out.

Creature(6)
Goldnight Castigator - a beatstick at 8/16, there's some risk associated with playing her, but you are Nahiri. You don't take guff from anyone. You dish it out.
Gisela, the Broken Blade - one of the best creatures in the game. First strike, lifelink, and a huge body for 12 mana? Amazing.
Geier Reach Bandit - once you flip her, she's a 12/11 for 12. Can't argue with that, or the haste.
Lone Rider - an early game all-star, he plays well with Nahiri's first ability and Give No Ground below
Sanctifier of Souls - Cheap and strong, pairs well with Devil's Playground and has the virtue of growing.

Spells(3)
Give No Ground - instant defense against anything the enemy drops. Flips Lone rider, works great with Gisela and Castigator.
Uncaged Fury - a finisher for Nahiri. The trick is not to blow it early, and to save it for when it'll maximize damage. This plus her ultimate is a game-winner.
Inner Struggle - Sometimes, you need to clear a path. Inner Struggle redefined the removal game when it appeared as cheap red removal that hits the majority of targets it needs to.

Supports(2)
Fevered Visions - Of course, card draw helps fuel your threats. Fevered Visions only costs 6 mana, but usually winds up doing 30+ damage over the course of a game. That's tremendously efficient, and in a pinch can win you games all by itself.
Oath of Gideon - 4/4 for 5 mana, and can make more. Has the ability to boost Sanctifier. This is your seventh creature.


Spells slow you down, so you're trimming them down to the bare minimum here. You want to win, and you want to win fast, with some key removal ability woven in just in case of emergency. Nahiri IS aggression, and she needs to be played that way.

Nahiri the Harbinger

Level 1
Village Messenger
Mad Prophet
Paranoid Parish-Blade
Pious Evangel
Wicker Witch
Stern Constable
Vessel of Volatility
True-Faith Censer
Hope Against Hope
Lightning Axe

Deck playstyle
At level 1 you have no abilities and a restrictive deck composition. Nahiri starts off with 6/2/2 creatures/spells/supports. You want creatures that have good power-to-mana ratios and also aren't too expensive lest they take too many turns to summon out. Bear in mind your own colour matches for only 4/5 mana (White/Red) at this level. Fortunately Nahiri has a solid source of creatures from both Red and White.

Village Messenger and Mad Prophet having Haste help you deal damage quickly whereas True-Faith Censer will give its bonus +1/+0 for Humans to most of your creatures. Couple that with First Strike from Hope Against Hope to have a pretty sturdy defender for this level. Vessel of Volatility will help as a mana boost whereas Lightning Axe acts as your creature removal.

Notable cards/combos
Humans + True-Faith Censer + Hope Against Hope: True-Faith Censer and Hope Against Hope respectively give Humans +1/+0 and First Strike. Coupled with the basic boosts from the two cards and you can end up having a pretty strong blocker in your first slot.


Level 40
Olivia, Mobilized for War
Sanctifier of Souls
Village Messenger
Lone Rider
Silverstrike
Fevered Visions
Drownyard Temple
Devil's Playground
Inner Struggle
Uncaged Fury

Deck playstyle
At level 40 you gain access to your planeswalker abilities and increased mana gains. Nahiri's chief ability at this level is her first ability (+3/+3 to all your creatures). Accordingly, you have a bunch of mid-range creatures including Devil's Playground to be able to fill your board and make good use of the +3/+3. Lone Rider is also easily transformed thanks to the +3/+3.

Fevered Visions and Drownyard Temple work hand in hand as draw and ramp to give you access to the rest of the cards in your deck with a side bonus of damage from Fevered Visions. Silverstrike and Inner Struggle play the role of creature removal while Uncaged Fury doubles the damage from one of your creatures.

To top it all off, we have Olivia who can grant your subsequently summoned creatures Life Link, Flying, Haste and +3/+3 at the cost of discarding a card. Aside from enabling the transformation of Lone Rider, granting all your creatures Life Link gives you a very strong board which is very difficult for the opponent to overcome.

Notable cards/combos
Olivia, Mobilized for War: Olivia is a massively strong creature because of her ability to grant your creatures Life Link, Flying, Haste and +3/+3 at the cost of discarding a card. With your creatures having Life Link, the opponent needs to deal twice the damage to you in order to be on par on damage. Her abilities also work on tokens which makes your token summoners that much stronger if you have the card draw to support it.
Lone Rider: This creature has a lot of potential because it's 4 mana for a creature with Life Link and First Strike. While it starts off as a 1/1, it Transforms into a 4/4 which also gains Trample on top of the above attributes. This makes it a very solid deal for 4 mana. Further copies summoned to the board will also get transformed by the attacks of the first copy. Also, the initial form is Human meaning it benefits from the bonus from True-Faith Censer which would help it transform when it attacks.


Level 60
Olivia, Mobilized for War
Decimator of the Provinces
Ulrich of the Krallenhorde
Silverstrike
Tamiyo's Journal
Fevered Visions
Drownyard Temple
Deploy the Gatewatch
Devil's Playground
Inner Struggle

Deck playstyle
At level 60, you gain access to your planeswalker's full potential. With your selection of creatures being big hitters (Olivia, Decimator and Ulrich), Nahiri's third ability becomes the more pertinent one. All three buff your creatures on the board in one way or another whereas Ulrich has an additional ability for creature control.

Deploy the Gatewatch serves as a knockout punch with the ability to summon out three of your heavyweight creatures. Tamiyo's Journal and Fevered Visions serve as draw to keep up with the discards from Olivia especially when Deploy the Gatewatch or Devil's Playground drain several cards from your hand in one cast.

Silverstrike and Inner Struggle work as creature removal whereas Drownyard Temple is ramp to be able to cast cards more quickly.

Notable cards/combos
Olivia, Mobilized for War: Olivia is a massively strong creature because of her ability to grant your creatures Life Link, Flying, Haste and +3/+3 at the cost of discarding a card. With your creatures having Life Link, the opponent needs to deal twice the damage to you in order to be on par on damage. Her abilities also work on tokens which makes your token summoners that much stronger if you have the card draw to support it.
Ulrich of the Krallenhorde: This Werewolf play two roles well thanks to the respective abilities of his Human and Werewolf form. The Human form gives a +4/+4 when entering the board or transforming to this form which helps you dish out more damage to the opponent. The Werewolf form deals damage to the opponent's first creature equal to this creature's power which usually assures the demise of said creature. If it doesn't, it at least sets up for Inner Struggle to finish off the creature. Very strong addition to a deck.
Deploy the Gatewatch: This spell is amazingly strong for several reasons. This one card fetches three creatures and puts them into play for free. This is card fetch + mana gain all in one card and can potentially reap benefits of 30 - 50 mana gained if your deck is built right.

VAEVICTUS' 123 Win Streak
Level 60 Nahiri

Deploy The Gatewatch
(of course)

Gisela, The Broken Blade
Ulrich Of The Krellenhorde
Decimator Of The Provinces
(been playing with it since I pulled Deploy...)

Corrupted Grafstone
(Mana is always good...)

Here's where mine goes a little different...

Mirrorpool
Shreds Of Sanity
Uncaged Fury
Harness The Storm
Nahiri's Wrath


I loved Mirrorpool back when I only had a few Mythic creatures, and it pulled me along for a long time.

But here, with the spells in the deck, it becomes astounding.

I've cast Uncaged Fury on my opponent's creatures, just for the 30 Mana bump into Deploy The Gatewatch.

After your choice 3 Mythics hit the board, for just 9 mana more and actively discarding any other spells in hand, Mirrorpool followed by Shreds Of Sanity puts another 3 Mythic creatures on the board.

...If you don't get all the cards in the combo, you're playing to cast single Mythic creatures, each one a game-changer in their own right.

Harness The Storm here isn't set up to do a spell loop... the spells in the deck are all selectively useful in the larger combo and it gives you enough of a mana bump in the late game to boost either selective creatures or the combo, yet again!

I included Nahiri's Wrath because Inner Struggle, from a signature theme point of view, doesn't have the appropriate *fit* that Nahiri's Wrath does...

Signature plainswalker deck?
Signature plainswalker SPELL!

I think players would appreciate seeing the consideration there of the theme.