Warrior Queen (Najeela, the Blade-Blossom) (EDH / Commander)

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/jT8Y9X4tlUmeNZ2AjkD1Vg

Najeela’s combos are all relatively straightforward, ultimately boiling down to being able to repeatedly generate WUBRG during the combat step.

That said, there are a few important details to consider: the minimum requirements for each win-con piece, being able to identify which win-con piece to prioritize given the infinite variability of possible board states and, finally, the mechanics and steps of MTG's combat phase.

We will start by examining the minimum requirements of each of the deck’s main combo pieces in the hopes that this also provides some insight into recognizing how to navigate potentially complex board states and knowing which win-con to prioritize in different situations. Bear in mind that these all obviously require Najeela in play and able to activate her ability. Also, you should pay special attention to how the math may change if opponents have creatures they can block with. Finally, note that land enchantments such as Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl can change the math a fair bit as well.

Nature's Will

Basic

1 creature able to deal combat damage to an opponent and 5 lands able to generate WUBRG.

Advanced

2 creatures able to deal combat damage to 2 different opponents and 3 lands able to generate WUBRG (one rainbow land and 2 duals with max 1 overlapping land type needed)

3 creatures able to deal combat damage to 3 different opponents and 2 lands able to generate WUBRG (one rainbow land and any dual needed)

The reason these more advanced lines work is due to how Nature’s Will is worded: it creates a separate trigger for each opponent dealt damage rather than for each creature that deals damage. All you need to do is float mana in between each trigger resolving in order to pay the full cost of activating Najeela's ability. Additionally, Nature’s Will has some small additional utility in tapping opponents’ lands to protect you over successive combat phases. Thus, Nature’s Will is the deck’s main avenue to getting the turn 2 win through Najeela; unsurprisingly, all thanks to the format’s busted fast mana.

Grim Hireling

Basic

3 attackers able to repeatedly deal combat damage to 3 different opponents, generating 6 treasures each time.

Advanced

At least one attacking warrior and X additional mana available to generate WUBRG.

Like with Druid's Repository, it is possible to use mana not generated by Grim Hireling's ability to take manual/limited extra combats. Through iteration, you can often eventually net enough attackers (via Najeela's trigger) to eventually be able to reliably connect with all 3 opponents and go infinite.

To illustrate, imagine being able to connect reliably with 2 opponents and net extra warrior tokens in the process. This will trigger Grim Hireling twice and make 4 treasures. You can then tap a mana dork, mana rock or a land and sacrifice these treasures to generate WUBRG and take an extra combat step. In this extra combat step, you can either attack the same 2 opponents and repeat the previous step or, if you have enough attackers to reliably connect, you can start attacking all 3 opponents in this iteration.

Do some math ahead of time as you can even sacrifice non-warrior attackers swinging at the third opponent one time, netting six treasures, and then swing at only two opponents on a subsequent attack (netting 4 treasures) to average out to the 5 (i.e. (6+4)/2 = 5) treasures needed to continue taking combat steps--all while growing the warrior army.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Basic

5 attackers able to deal combat damage to any player(s).

Advanced

Unlike with Druid’s Repository, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician can take advantage of Najeela’s newly-created warriors. Additionally, she can take advantage of permanents able to generate multiple mana and, like with Druid’s Repository, she can leverage extra untapped mana sources to help reach the 5 combat damage triggers through multiplying warriors over multiple combat steps. Thus, it is frequently possible to win starting with the worst-case scenario of 1 warrior able to deal combat damage. The first attack will generate 2 untap triggers and require 3 extra mana to activate Najeela. The subsequent attack will generate 4 triggers and only require 1 extra mana (for a total of 4 mana). Further attacks will suffice to go infinite and even generate additional tap/untap triggers. This math naturally changes if you happen to control any permanents able to generate multiple mana of different colors.

Given Derevi Empyrial Tactician’s ETB trigger means that she often ends up only costing 2 mana, that she can be used to tap down opposing blockers, that she’s a creature herself, that she can even be used proactively to break parity on many stax pieces and the fact that she can untap any available mana source, it is my and many others’ opinion that she is Najeela’s strongest win-con piece. Nature’s Will may be just as good or better in some situations (i.e. very early wins). One last thing to keep in mind is that while all of Derevi's combat damage triggers go on the stack simultaneously (and thus, you need to pick targets for them right away), they don't all resolve simultaneously. Thus, you can stack as many triggers on a single permanent as you like (say, a Command Tower) and activate abilities of that permanent in between triggers in order to float enough mana to activate Najeela.

For the combo

So it turns out that Magic's combat system is a little bit more complicated than many people are aware. The Combat Phase is actually broken down, itself, into 5 steps and Najeela can technically be activated during any of these. Complicating matters further is the fact that mana pools empty between phases and steps.

In general, you'll usually want to activate Najeela after declaring attackers and letting her trigger resolve. This will allow you to untap and grant haste to all the new warriors Najeela produces--thus permitting them to attack again in the subsequent combat phase. You can do this at the end of the declare attackers step, after resolving Najeela's trigger, during the declare blockers phase (after your opponents declare any blocks they may want to make), during the combat damage step or even in the end of combat step. It can be tricky to know when to activate Najeela since circumstances can warrant using one step or another. You should know these points:

• Derevi, Empyrial Tactician will require you to activate Najeela during the combat damage step if you happen to be stacking multiple triggers on a single permanent in order to float . If you are simply untapping enough permanents to generate that mana, you can disregard this and activate Najeela in the end of combat step. This can be especially relevant if you are using extra triggers to tap down opponents' permanents such that they won't have access to any mana they float in response to your tap triggers.

• Nature's Will has the upside of tapping opponents' lands as part of its trigger. As such, if you aren't abusing the multiple opponents/multiple triggers ability of the card in order to float enough mana to activate Najeela, you'll usually want to wait until the end of combat step so that your opponents' mana pools empty before you activate her.