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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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