The second week of Festival of the Gods is here, and it involves Nylea, God of the Hunt and building decks around big creatures. The Giant Monsters Emblem returns for this event, where you get to draw an extra card by casting creatures with converted mana cost 4 or greater. Read on for event details, tips and strategies, and decklists tailor made for this event. If you wish, you can click here to skip straight to the decklists!
Event Details
Leave your temples behind and join the hunt with the God Nylea in this week’s Festival of the Gods event. Harness the power of nature by drawing a card every time you play a creature card with cost 4 or greater, and release your giant monsters to stomp your opponent’s units into the ground!
The following card is banned:
Nylea has no temples, buildings, or holy sites in her honor save for trees surrounded by clouds of butterflies. Most of her human followrs are loners and outcasts. She has influence over the seasons, the forest, and the hunt; though hates doing so for sport.
- Duration: February 29, 2020 @ 8:00 AM – March 3, 2020 @ 8:00 AM
- Format: Giant Monsters
- Entry Fee: 2500 Gold or 500 Gems
- Ends After: You can keep playing, but rewards do not go past three wins.
- Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)
Event Rewards
To clarify, you do not have to re-enter the event and you only have to pay the entry fee once. There is no limit on the number of losses (or victories). Play as much as you want for the duration of the event.
- 1 Win: Setessan Petitioner card style
- 2 Wins: Renata, Called to the Hunt Showcase card style
- 3 Wins: Nylea, Keen-Eyed Showcase card style
Tips and Strategies
- Note that the Giant Monsters Emblem activates when you cast the spell, so it does not have to successfully resolve (similar to Edgewall Innkeeper and Hydroid Krasis). This means that playing counterspells will not be as good in this event.
- When you cast the Gods of Theros (like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling), they are counted as creatures while on the stack so you still get to draw a card.
- Remember that the Giant Monsters Emblem activates depending on the converted mana cost of the creature (not power). Creatures with X in their mana cost will change accordingly on the stack – for example, a Voracious Hydra for X=2 will have a converted mana cost of 4 when you cast it, and will draw you a card (but note its converted mana cost is 2 while in play).
- As is the nature of the event, control decks are not likely able to keep up with the card advantage provided by the Emblem. Smaller aggro decks may be able to get under some of the slower decks, but will also have trouble getting past the bigger creatures. Cards like The Akroan Warmay be very useful in these matchups.
- Mana acceleration will be extra useful here, allowing you to get to four mana as soon as possible. Make use of Arboreal Grazer, Gilded Goose, Growth Spiral and Paradise Druid where possible!
Giant Monsters Decklists
All decks below are built around the best creatures in Standard with converted mana cost 4 or greater!
Wrapping Up
Today we also have the Mythic Point Challenge being held on MTG Arena, which means the top players (even the Magic Pro League members) will be competing to get the maximum amount of points in this event. We will be covering the event as it happens and following the players sharing their decklists and streaming their run. Hopefully Wizards will also publish the top performing decklists at the end!
Also remember, you can always engage in our growing MTG Arena Zone community:
