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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
"FATT-e: Craig's Wall/Fatty deck"
May 10, 2011
 

It's taken me far too long to get to this one, mostly because I had to put a lot of thought into it to match the effort that Craig clearly put into his deck and his E-mail. The good news is that at least one set has been released since Craig sent me the E-mail, so I can give him an analysis that takes the new information into account. I just hope Craig hasn't given up on the deck in the interim.
 
-----------------------

Bmoor,

Love the Deck Garage. I check in multiple times per week to see if there are any updates.

I have a deck that I've been playing with since around the release of SoM. I find it fun, different (at least I have yet to come across someone else playing a Standard Pauper version of it), and actually somewhat consistent.

Here's the list (in order of CMC):

Creatures (28)
Walls (at least defenders)
4x Overgrown Battlement
4x Wall of Tanglecord
3x Battle Rampart
4x Vent Sentinel

Fatties
4x Wildheart Invoker
3x Stomper Cub
3x Yavimaya Wurm
3x Ulamog's Crusher

Instants (10)
4x Vines of Vastwood
3x Harrow
3x Assault Strobe**

Lands (22)
13 Forest
6  Mountain
3  Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard
4 Fog
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Naturalize
3 Wall of Vines

CARD CHOICES
Stomper Cub, Yavimaya Wurm, Ulamog's Crusher, and (to a lesser extent) Wildheart Invoker are the win conditions. I think that is pretty self explanatory (5+ power tends to do that, especially when it tramples or annihilates). The Invoker can Overrun one guy repeatedly when mana is available (usually around T5).

Harrow and Overgrown Battlement are the ramp to get to my fatties. Also, Harrow helps thin out the land so I can play something each turn instead of drawing more land.

Battle Rampart allows for "surprise attacks" because of the semi-free haste (I only lose a somewhat marginal blocker). But having multiple is no good since by turn four or five, you're in top-deck mode and there's probably only one creature to haste.

Wall of Tanglecord helps control the flying critters.

Vines of Vastwood is..well...good. Keeps folk alive and punches through extra damage with the tramplers.

As for the sideboard, I've never played too many tournies, so I'm pretty low on experience for this. I know i've been a turn away from a retalitory attack ftw (Fog), annoyed by a simple artifact or enchantment (Naturalize) and pecked to death by flyers (Wall of Vines). But, I'm not sure how/when to sideboard either...unless it's obvious.

IDEAL DRAW (at least one of them)
Terra Exp, Ovrgrn Bttlmnt, Ovrgrn Bttlmnt, Bttl Rmprt, Ulmg Crshr, For, For
T1 Terra (finding Mntn)
T2 For, play Ovr Bttl
T3 For, play Ovr Bttl, Bttl Rmprt (5 mana - three lands, and two from 1st OB)
T4 whatever land, Ula Crshr, tap Rmprt to haste Crshr, atk (10 mana - 4 from lands, 3 from 1st OB, 3 from 2nd OB)
T5 cast something else and clean up if opp hasn't conceded

** I think the deck is mostly solid, but I've been having trouble filling the Assault Strobe slot. I've tried Lightning Bolt, Giant Growth, and Might of the Masses, but nothing feels like the answer. Lightning Bolt doesn't help enough with the fast flyers decks that I usually have trouble with if the draw is shaky, and Giant Growth may kill an infect creature, but my guys will die to the next one (since their power will be zero or less at EOT). I've also thought about Ancient Stirrings for when I need a blocker (Tanglecord) or finisher (Crusher) but could always resort to a land. Also I thought of Beast Hunt to refill my hand, but I don't have those yet and I don't have any credits sitting in a bot to try out.

Since it's Standard Pauper, I'm up against Infect , WB Flyers (thus the Wall of Vines in the SB), 4 or 5-Color Allies, and Boros-style Landfall. In two attempts I'm 0-6 in matches.

It does quite well in the Casual room against other Standard Pauper decks, and even holds it's own against Extended, it does struggle against well built Classic Pauper decks though. But once the main cards rotate out of each restriction, I'll probably modify it since I think it's a blast to play.

Oh, and I call it FATT-e. (you know, like WALL-e, only the walls help with...and then there's fa...ok, I'm done)

Any tips you have will be greatly appreciated. (Hope the email wasn't too long.)

Actually...(this just popped into my head) what about Thunder Strike? +2/0 with first strike, and at instant speed...hmmm...

Thanks!

-Craig

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, Pauper was never really my format of choice, even though I do enjoy not having to shell out for rares. I was under the impression that Pauper allowed a maximum of five uncommons, but since Craig's deck contains no uncommons, I'm not adding any in just to be on the safe side.

The problem is that in Standard, "fatties" just don't come at common-- at least not in any amount worth playing. Even allowing for differences in the format between Pauper Standard and... well, standard Standard, Ulamog's Crusher is the only fatty in this deck I'd ever bother with outside of Limited.

The good news, while we're on the subject of Limited, is that I've learned from experience that Rise of the Eldrazi made Defenders a very real deck plan. Vent Sentinel can easily "attack" for three or four each turn, and getting two of them out can really heap on the damage. That's damage your opponent can't block. That's why I'd recommend pulling all your fatties save Ulamog's Crusher, and bringing the Wall of Vines in from the sideboard, plus a full playset of Ogre Sentry. This will allow you to gum up the ground completely, and give you some maindeck strength against those flying decks that have been giving you trouble, and it will help up the number of defenders you've got, to power up Vent Sentinel and Overgrown Battlement. If you need further defenders, Reinforced Bulwark is just about your last choice left, but I don't advise it. Just because you're building with a theme is no reason to use on-theme yet sub-par cards. Wildheart Invoker has no place here now that we're down to a mere four creatures that can benefit from trample, and Battle Rampart can drop down to two copies-- dropping Ulamog's Crusher and granting it haste is a pretty sick play, but like you said yourself, Craig-- Battle Rampart is a sub-par blocker and multiples don't do much for you.

This also means Assault Strobe is out, for the same reason as Wildheart Invoker. In its place, I suggest one of the two common Green Umbras. But which one?

Spider Umbra grants +1/+1 and reach, which gives you more answers to those flyers that have been bothering you and works well on any creature you could put it on. Snake Umbra, meanwhile, only really works if you put it on either Ulamog's Crusher or Vent Sentinel. But those are your main win conditions, so if you don't draw a few of those, you're in trouble anyway, and the totem armor will help keep them alive against the slings and arrows of kill spells. Wizards does like to make sure there's good removal at common, to keep Limited formats balanced, so you can expect your opponents to have some in Pauper. Snake Umbra also provides card draw, which means after you've used that Overgrown Battlement mana to drop your hand, you can start refilling it as you ping your opponent to death with Vent Sentinel, thus making it progressively harder for them to pull out.

Additionally, since Overgrown Battlement can generate such abundant mana, I would like to recommend an X spell. Unfortunately, the only common one in Standard is Heat Ray. But Craig did say that Lightning Bolt wasn't sufficient to take out most of the creatures he was struggling with, didn't he? Heat Ray might work for that. Unfortunately, "mana sinks" aren't something you can easily search for on most Internet card databases, so I can't really think of any good ones. Equipment is usually a good choice for that, but if you're not attacking with your creatures, the only one you could really use is Warmonger's Chariot, which would be perfect but is uncommon. Does Pauper actually allow five uncommons or not? If it does, at least three of them should be the Chariot.

That's just about all I can think of to shore up this deck. I do so enjoy it when people demonstrate that they've already put their own thought into their deck, and I love it even more when they write a good chunk of my article for me. Keep your decks and E-mails coming, and never stop experimenting!

Good luck!

~BMoor

 

 

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