Matchup Guide

Welcome to my second matchup guide, this time focusing on tips for taking down Nissa with everyones favorite ghost assassin, Kaya.

Decklist

For this guide I will be using this Kaya list that I currently play at top 20 Mythic.

This list by Talaria is extremely linear and proactive, opting to include no direct removal spell outside of Cut Down. There are only 6 cards that have a play cost greater than two, and two of them are miracle cards that create an effect without even being cast. This makes the deck very consistent in the early turns, but less powerful over the course of an extended game.

For the opposing decklist, because there are so many variations in Nissa decklists, I will instead assume we are playing blind and will have to recognize the type of deck we are playing against based on specific card choices as the game progresses.

Here are some sample Nissa lists highlighting various strategies you might encounter.

Gameplay Patterns

As the game progresses, completing Kaya missions becomes increasingly more difficult and not just because the amount of damage required increases each time you complete a mission. It’s also because your opponent will have more mana gems, allowing their more powerful but less efficient cards to begin to clog the board. The Nissa deck wants to play a 1, 2, 3 curve to setup jumping ahead of the curve on turns 5 and 6. This means very rarely will multiple cards come down in a single turn. Instead, the Nissa plan is to overpower the opponents early multispell turns with individual powerful plays ahead of curve.

The difference in Nissa playstyles will most likely not be apparent until the end game, but there are certain card choices that will expose the makeup of their deck. The Nissa deck is limited to six off-color cards per deck and usually 2 of these spots are always taken by Gatstaf Agitators. That means you should be keeping track mentally of the four splash cards. If you see the opponent play a card like Vinesnare Hunter, this almost always is occumpanied by Strahd and Hasten as win conditions which limits the amount of board sweepers they can safely play.

The Kaya gameplan is to overwhelm the opponent in the early game through mana efficient plays. Hellmouth Cave creates massive amounts of offensive pressure very early into the game. Kaya then hopes to use cards like Cut Down and Scathign Glare to throw the opponent off-balance just long enough to steal the game away.

Cards to Know

Nissa will be relying on cheap roadblocks to force trades early in order to mitigate the amount of damage you can do to their life total before their powerful engine has time to come online.

As previously mentioned, your goal as Kaya is to do your best to prevent these trades from occuring while maxizing mana efficiency. Your most important cards for denying these trades are in Invoke the Dawn and Scathing Glare.

Lava Wave and Day of Judgement are the most popular choices of board sweepers in Nissa, so do not expect to have to play around Pyroclasm or Infest.

Grudge Match is a card you should assume your opponent is going to keep in mulligans, since it is very effective at picking of evasive threats and the Nissa player will want to stem the bleeding as soon as possible to maximize the amount of life they get to carry into the late game.

Building a Gameplan

The Nissa player will also likely be mulliganing to Elvish Archers and other cheap one and two drops. The magic power and toughness number for getting through these cards is 4/4, so Deadonator is naturally your best on curve two drop against Nissa. It can attack and defend without fear of trading down, and is largely impossible for the Nissa player to grudge match profitably. If you are on the draw and your opponent lead with a 3/3 Channeler, playing Deadonator is preferable to playing one drops like elite Vanguard and Fledgling Gryff because of how exposed they are to grudge match, and how difficult it will be to hit your missions if they are taken out. Daggerclaw Imp is a high risk high reward play. While the damage it can deal over the course of 4 or 5 turns is sizable, it is easy to shut the card down with Grudge Match or Elvish Archers.

Because Kaya generates so many cheap cards, you are often fine to extend into potential board sweepers and rely on fully repopulating the board afterwards. Evasive threats function best in the mid-to-late game. Once you’ve dealt as much damage as you can on the ground, you can transition into filling the board with evasion. Rather than just playing for the fastest way to complete a mission, you will fair better if you can plan a way to complete multiple missions over the course of two turns. Saving your stun spirits to force bad blocks will be better than using it to complete a mission if you have no way to threaten to complete your mission again the following turn.

Mulligans

Kaya is different than many other spellslingers, in that her deck construction and gameplan are very consistent, and that a strong curve is more important than any one card in this matchup. Mulligan priority should be on getting a nice sequence of plays that will matchup well against an ideal start from Nissa. Here are some things to think about when deciding which cards to toss back in mulligans.

Dead-onator - Your best stated minion. With two attacks he can complete two missions, generating extra utility or forcing Nissa into chump blocks and requires no support from other cards to be effective.

Kaya’s Enforcer - The best of both worlds, mixing evasion from Daggerclaw Imp with the survivability of Dead-onator. While buffing power on Kaya’s Enforcer has diminishing returns once it loses the ability to guarantee mission completions. It does give you stability on the ground, forcing chump blocks which limits the effectiveness of late game cards like Lava Wave and Craterhoof Behemoth.

Cranial Consultant - A good turn one play, but keep in mind that most Nissa builds are fairly spell light. If you have additional support in Invoke the dawn or Devoted Steed, you can already begin completing missions. If your plan is to buff Cranial Consultant to 3/3 consider how your hand will address 3/3 into Grudge Match.

Elite Vanguard - My preference for best one drop to play when Nissa is on the draw. Leaves a 3/3 at one toughness after grudge match, exposing it to cut down.

Cut Down - As good as it feels to knock out a Gatstaf Agitator before it can flip, this card is too reactive to keep in an opening hand against Nissa. When drawn, Cut Down can be useful at revenge killing a 3/3 creature that had challenged one of your minions to a Grudge Match.

Fledgling Gryff, Daggerclaw Imp - Pairs best with Scathing Glare, as their power has the potential to go completely uncontested.

Thalia - No need to keep Thalia in mulligans, as Nissa does not play many spells.

Hopefully this article helped with decision making against Nissa. Come back again for more strategy guides, decklists and gameplay highlights!