With the recent introduction of the set Alchemy: Thunder Junction the whole Alchemy metagame has completely changed. Grixis Heist is now the most popular deck by far and represents around the 40% of the metagame when it comes to best of three and around the 30% of the metagame of the best of one queue (Data collected from untapped). Since heist mirrors are not an experience I would recommend to anyone I believe Naya Convoke to be an amazing alternative to the heist decks. When we talk about events we also need to take into account that we don't want to waste any resources and playing lots of mirror in a best of one environment will lead us to lower our potential winrate inevitably and thus our resources. On top of that if we look at more data we can notice how, at least so far, Naya Convoke has been the only bad matchup for Grixis Heist. In fact the matchup seems to be really good for Naya convoke (at least in best of one) with a 58% winrate against Grixis Heist.
Convoke archetype has been so popular in many formats recently: Standard, Alchemy, Explorer, Pioneer and also Historic all have a version of it. If we look at the power level of the archetype with references to various formats, we notice that the deck is not always among the best options. The two most recent formats (Standard and Alchemy), having an overall lower pool of cards available to be played than the others grant less counterplays to such an explosive strategy as the convoke one. Alchemy in particular has the smallest pool of cards among the formats available on MTG Arena and I'm pretty sure this highly influenced the power level of the deck in the format. Now let's dive deep into the deck.
Card Choices
The Convoke Spells
Standard, Explorer, Pioneer and Historic convoke decks all have one major thing in common: they are played in boros colours. Then why is Alchemy the only exception? I can easily say Emmara, Voice of the Conclave is the most important reason as it perfectly fits the power level of the format. Since the deck is full of one drop creatures it's really easy to cast her (for free) on turn two with three creatures already on the battlefield. I don't think I have to explain how strong it is to have access to four creatures by turn two, right? On top of that her spellbook includes some incredibly strong cards: Ancient Imperiosaur, Conclave Tribunal, March of the Multitudes and Knight-Errant of Eos. Loxodon Restorer and Overwhelm are two other situational options available from her spellbook. The first one can be very handy against burn decks such as monored or gruul inscription and the second one can be used either in the mirror or against control decks sometimes.
Among the spells available in her spellbook we have Knight-Errant of Eos, a card that is already included in the deck and I would say for a good reason. One of the weaknesses of the deck is, of course, mass removal spells. Knight-Errant of Eos is a good answer to them since it almost guarantees to hit some creatures, giving us the chance to start building again some board even after losing all our creatures. Basically we almost never run out of gas even after over-extending on the board.
To sum it up Emmara, Voice of the Conclave and have Knight-Errant of Eos can be casted for free while also generating other useful resources.
The 1 mana creatures:
Talking about one mana creatures it is really important to keep a good balance among white and green creatures in order to have access to Emmara, Voice of the Conclave on turn two as described earlier. Regarding Evolving Adaptive there isn't much to say: a one mana creature that can turn into a 4/4 by turn three is just an auto include for this deck.
Novice Inspector and Warden of the Inner Sky have proven to synergize very well with each other. The clue token is the main reason to play Novice Inspector in our deck: it helps to activate Warden of the Inner Sky and whenever we ran out of spells we can just sacrifice it to draw a card. Warden of the Inner Sky shines whenever the board situation is stalled as it fixes our draws with her scry effect and can become evasive in a few turns while also getting vigilance.
In Alchemy there aren't many good lands for aggressive three colour decks and for this reason Cenote Scout becomes very relevant. We need to get access to both white and green mana by turn two and Cenote Scout does a decent job in that regard.
A-Haywire Mite is a quick answer to good artifacts and enchantments in the format. Insidious Roots and Fiery Inscription have been the best targets for A-Haywire Mite in the past but now there is new enemy in town: Triumphant Getaway. Overall A-Haywire Mite is still an useful card: amazing against Roots and Inscription and decent against grixis heist and in the mirror.
One last mention:
Since the release of Alchemy: Thunder Junction I've thought about adding Ruby Collector to the deck but it's not easy to cut any other one mana creatures. If enchantment and artifacts were not that popular I would probably cut the Mite in order to make some space for Ruby Collector in the deck. I truly believe this card would fit the deck really well and i will probably try it in the future. If you want to include Ruby Collector in your deck I would probably recommend to cut a mix of the other one mana creature. Remember that there need to be a balance among white and green one mana drop so I wouldn't recommend cutting more than 1 green creature. If you want to include two copies I would probably cut one Mite and one Inspector. I feel like going beyond two copies might become a little risky and most likely not needed: remember that you only need one copy of the card into the battlefield to activate its effect.
The two mana spells:
Convoke decks lack removal spells as their plan to develop a huge amount of creatures has nothing to do with controlling the board. Case of the Gateway Express here has two functions: remove enemy threats while also having the upside of increasing the power of our creatures. As you can imagine flipping the case is really easy for this deck as well as removing creatures with big bodies since we deploy many creatures on the battlefield. Although decks like convoke don't really need to control the board, with Case of the Gateway Express we get to remove creatures for a cheap cost while still pursuing our plan.
Since we play eighteen one mana creatures there is no need to include many two mana ones but Resolute Reinforcements is a good exception. Two bodies for two mana is pretty good in our archetype as we don't really care about the quality of the bodies in this case. Thanks to the flash ability Resolute Reinforcements can play around turn two mana counterspells such as No More Lies or Reprieve and mass removal spells. Overall that's a solid two mana creature in this shell.
One last mention:
Recently I've been asked by many people about this card as an option for the deck but i truly believe Resolute Reinforcements is just a much better option. First of all I want to keep red as a splash colour since Imodane's Recruiter is just too good in the deck. The manabase is not the greatest in this format hence I prefer to have the least possible amount of red cards in the deck. Secondly we are talking about a sorcery spell against a flash one. If I was playing boros convoke i would for sure consider Rally at the Hornburg an option but right now I don't think Naya Convoke needs it.
The mana base
As mentioned earlier the mana base is one of the problems of the deck. We play all the fast lands available in the format but this is not enough to get access to white and green mana consistently by turn two. Unfortunately we need to run some copies of A-Thran Portal as we need to fix the mana as soon as possible. Personally I don't really like this land but I recognize it's needed as Captivating Crossroads is not good for aggro deck like Naya Convoke: the downside of entering the battlefield tapped is too huge to be afforded.
Carvern of Souls is really good against counterspells and almost everytime the chosen creature type will be Human since we have nineteen Human creatures. Stern Scolding and No More Lies are two scary cards for us and Cavern of Souls is a decente answer to them at the price of a slightly worse mana base.
Last Considerations
If you don't like to play Heist mirrors or if you don't like Heist at all (I don't) this deck is the best option you have to farm some packs in Alchemy best of one events in a quick and efficient way.
There is one last thing to take into account: the upcoming rotation of the format. If you don't have many resources I wouldn't recommend you to craft this deck as most of the cards will rotate out of alchemy at the end of july.
If you want to see the deck in action you can find some videos in the links below.
