Report : Next Level Ajani - Whooot?

Hello!

So I am here to talk about a new deck I have been brewing with some friends. We call it Next Level Ajani, so the list:


// Lands
1 [10E] Treetop Village
2 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
2 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
1 [GP] Stomping Ground
1 [GP] Steam Vents
1 [WWK] Stirring Wildwood
1 [DIS] Breeding Pool
1 [ZEN] Forest (3)
1 [ZEN] Island (1)
1 [ZEN] Plains (1)
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
2 [RAV] Temple Garden
1 [DIS] Hallowed Fountain
1 [RAV] Sacred Foundry

// Creatures
3 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
2 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
4 [ALA] Rhox War Monk
2 [ALA] Ajani Vengeant
2 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [ALA] Wild Nacatl
1 [U] Birds of Paradise

// Spells
4 [CFX] Path to Exile
4 [ALA] Bant Charm
1 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
3 [MR] Chrome Mox
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 [9E] Mana Leak

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
SB: 2 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 2 [RAV] Loxodon Hierarch
SB: 1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
SB: 2 [BOK] Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 4 [M10] Negate
SB: 2 [ARB] Meddling Mage


So there is some strange stuff going on. First of all, is this a zoo, a bant or some crazy fun deck? A 3 noble-1 bird split, really?
So I will explain step by step the genesis of this deck.
With the last ptq, I saw some flaws on Mirandoran, since they were the lack of topdecks and the incapability of fightning über-agressive zoo's. So I wanted to pack some good cards to topdeck,
cards that would turn the tide against aggro and also be nice cards against control. What cards I am talking about? Ranger of eos, Ajani Vengeant and Jace 2.0. So, 2 problems come up:
1st: Ajani is red, and Mirandoran is GWub, so splash a fifth color? ARE YOU NUTS??
2nd: What would ranger pick up? Nobles? Not really, but some loam lions... hummm
Ok, so this would obvious suck. But if I splashed red, I could add up some wild nacatls. Final solution: Cut black. So I would lose confidants and thoughtseizes of relevant.
How to cover these tough losses? So card advantage would be covered by the Jaces and the rangers. And the disruption package, well that's tougher, but somewhat mana leaks and ajani would make it.
So, about the deck.
Well, this deck makes some sick stuff such as: 2nd turn Planeswalker, amazing topdecks, capability to race an active thopter with rhox + Sword of fire ice or even attack with a 3/3 nacatl at the second turn just like a Zoo deck!
Another virtue on this deck it's its draw quality, the draw's are amazing since you can draw such good spells. The downside of the lack of black it's the matchup against dredge and combo decks.
Meddling mages or even chalices of the void are not great haters by nature, but until I can find something better, they will have to do. Plus I packed a full playset of negates, but the matchup against dredge it' s the near scoop.
Well, I decided to test this deck so I ran it in a M-L trial and got 3-1. So the report:

R1 UGr Scapeshift

1st game was pretty fast, since I kept a 3 lander, 2 path, 1 ranger and 1 stoneforge mystic. Obviously this is not a hand to go against shift. But how should I know?
2nd game, I open with 2 Meddling Mages at firespout and scapeshift, and open the beats with a war monk. Later on the game he casts a echoing truth on my MM. I recast one at scapeshift and he electrolyzes it, then I recast the other and get's firespouted and the monk get's magma jetted as well. My offense is all about a treetop and he clearly doesn't have a scapeshift and an Ajani finnished the job.
3rd game, I opened with a t2 Rhox War Monk powered by a mox, and start buidling my life total. I did not played another spell for a long time since I had a mana leak and a negate in hand. At some point he tries to bounce my monk and I leak but my leak gets negated. I replay the monk and restart the beats. I am at 27 at this point. Later I see he missed his 8th land drop, so I go with Jace, and try to keep him off mana. Later I join a nacatl to help the monk. At his turn he has 3 cards in hand.He plays flooded grove. He plays firespout and kills my nacatl. Then he plays a electrolyze on me. The he gets all tapped to try to bounce my wark monk with a crypic but I negate it. GG.

R2 Tribal Zoo

I open up with a noble, and he goes godless shrine into loam lion. Tribal zoo, oops. Next, I put a monk who gets tribal flamed. Next I bring a goyf into play and he matches with a loam lion, an ape and a lynx of his own. I mean, really?? I attack with goyf and he goes down to 8. Next he lays a fetch and attack with 4 2/3, my nobles chumps the ape, and i got a path for his lynx, but by some reason I decide not to use and got down to 8 as well and he just plays a qasali. Next turn, my goyf eats his qasali and I replay another goyf and pass. Next turn he attacks with all his fellows, my goyf blocks the ape and I path the lynx, going to 4. He does not have a tribal flames and passes. Next turn I attack ftw.
Game 2 he opens strong with a lynx dealing 4 then he follows up with a nacatl and a loam lion. I try to match with a rhox war monk, but this was clearly a misplay since I had a threads, and it would have been a safer play, however I did not had a mountain at the time, so if I stole a nacatl, I would have been just a 2/2. I lost this game fairly quickly afterwards since he had and answer for a jitte I played.
Game 3 is fairly interesting, I open up with a wild nacatl for his loam lion, but decide to leave it to block and just play a jitte. Next turn he plays a nacatl of his own and passes. I decide not to equip since he has a sacred foundry untapped and just play a RWM, which not surprisingly get's pathed eot. In his turn, he just helixes my nacatl and attacks for 5 leaving me at 10 and passes back. I play an ajani vengeant and kill his nacatl. He kills ajani with his lion and plays an ape.
I just play 2 goyfs and equip jitte. He plays a jitte of his own, killing mine and pumping my goyfs to 5/6 and shifts the turn back. I drew blank and pass to a finks of his own. Life totals are at 12 -21. Then I go to 16 with a fresh Loxodon Hierarch.
Then I just do draw-go for a few turn while he plays a goyf and a lynx. Suddenly with only 1 card in hand he attacks with his goyf, and I block with my 2, and I didn't really know what card he was bluffing, maybe an helix or a bolt, but still it would be one goyf trading with one of his own and a removal card. Turns out that his card was another goyf, and the first just hits the bin in vain. Later on I am able to threads his goyf, and start to attack him with that one, and that makes him to make trades and I am able to take control of the game with my 6/7 beasts.

R3 UB Dark Depths

So he starts with a swamp and I put him correctly on DDT, I lead with a bird and he follows with a sword. I add a Rhox to the table and he instantly assembles the combo with one mana up. I attack with the monk and he makes a token to chump, and I dismantle the foundry with a bant charm. He then leads with a dark depths and shifts the turn back. I keep attacking with monk and go with stoneforge mystic and fetch a sword. He repeals my bird for the cantrip. On his turn he wants to please the thirst but I leak it. On my turn I equip the monk with the sword providing a 12 life swing a turn and in 2 turns the game is over.
Game 2, he leads with a thoughtseize and I reveal:
Stirring Wildwood, Plains, Breeding Pool, Chrome Mox, Monk, Goyf and Pridemage, which hits the bin.
I draw nacatl and play it to start the early beats. He follows with a Dark confidant and I topdeck a threads. So I play plains, Chrome the rhox and off we go! Dark confidant switched to the light side and nacatl went for 2 damage. He replayed another confidant, mine revealed a temple garden and I swung for 4 damage which connected. Played a goyf and passed. He revealed a repeal and went to 11, played a DD and passed back. I revealed a nacatl and fell to 17. Swung with my 3 creatures, bob's traded and goyf got repealed. After combat he was at 9, with no board and I played goyf and nacatl. Passed back, he thirsted for nothing and conceded.

R4 Dark Scapeshift

This game, was basically me going for the throat and I was able to gain 8 counters with jitte. He missed his 8th land drop and his only solution was to scapeshift. He did for 7 lands. And one hit my stoneforge mystic, and the other 6 went for my 4/5 goyf which had the jitte with those 8 counters, but then when I replayed a goyf he conceded.
The other games, were not close since I tried to stick a mage but he got damnation, pulse and deathmark for removal and could not kill him before he assembled 8 lands.
Shame.

Still, the deck overperformed since I was able to win against the regular shift combo and tottally dismantled that dark depths and was able to beat such an agressive zoo.
Here is the Trial decks link for reference:

http://magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=59567&view=decks

Any doubts or questions feel free to reach me.
Cya


P.S. The 3 noble - 1 bird split, was because in testing sometimes I lost to dark depths due to not have a blocker. The singleton bird is there so sometimes you can fetch it of a ranger and provide you one more turn needed to draw an answer or sometimes just go to ultimate attack phase.