The first time we went to Innistrad, there were all kinds of awesome human tribal cards, from Champion of the Parish and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to Lightning Mauler and Mayor of Avabruck. When Gatecrash was printed, it only added to the human-fueled mayhem by throwing Burning-Tree Emissary into the mix. While those cards are no longer Standard legal, they are still available in Modern, and all of these cards still play very nicely with Thalia's Lieutenant. Magical_Gatherings took this idea to a 5-0 finish in a recent Modern league.

Naya Humans ? Modern | Magical_Gatherings, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (32)
• 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
• 3 Lightning Berserker
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Champion of the Parish
• 4 Lightning Mauler
• 4 Mayor of Avabruck
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Thalia's Lieutenant

• Spells (8)
• 2 Atarka's Command
• 2 Lightning Helix
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Lands (20)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Sacred Foundry
• 2 Stomping Ground
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Arid Mesa
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Boros Charm
• 1 Choke
• 2 Grim Lavamancer
• 4 Kor Firewalker
• 2 Path to Exile
• 2 Stony Silence
• 2 Wear // Tear

Buy This Deck

Here you’ll see a sort of hybrid between the White-based human decks in this Standard season mixed with the aggressive Naya decks of Innistrad-Return to Ravnica Standard. The idea at the core of the deck is still relatively straightforward. Curve out with a hyper aggressive curve of human creatures, typically fueled by some combination of Burning-Tree Emissary and Lightning Mauler. If you can lead off with a Champion of the Parish or Kytheon, Hero of Akros, this combination of cards lets you deal positively absurd amounts of damage and potentially flip Kytheon as early as turn two.

One of the issues humans has as a tribe in Modern is the lack of Lords. Sure, you’ve got plenty of early aggression, but no real way to force through damage against some of the awesome blockers in the format like Tarmogoyf. Enter Mayor of Avabruck and Thalia's Lieutenant. These cards function as ways to grow your squad and crash in through all but the beefiest defenders. Sure, you can’t cast Thalia's Lieutenant off of a Burning-Tree Emissary, but the raw power of the card is well worth it.

Beyond the aggressive curve outs, there are a number of interesting synergies worth noting, most of which involve Lightning Berserker. The dash on this card lets you sneak in a few points of damage here and there, but what’s most important is Lightning Berserker returns to your hand. This gives you the ability to trigger Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant over and over again, even if you aren’t drawing fresh creatures off the top.

All of this raw aggression backed by the efficiency of Atarka's Command and Lightning Bolt to close out the game means this deck is ready to race all comers. The mana may be a little awkward, due to the combination of Burning-Tree Emissary and powerful, White 2-drops, but there’s enough raw power in this shell to take out just about any deck in the format before they really get started.