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2.10.2009

Naya Fatties

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When I first started playing Magic and did not know very much about the game at all, I tended to just love the fatties. The bigger the critter, the better the chance for inclusion within my deck. I did not know very much about removal, acceleration, and tempo. Suffice to say, my casual games were a brutal slaughter.

Since those early days, I really stayed very much away from big stupid aggro but just recently have renewed my interest again. For the first time in a long time, I have actually read the fattie cards. What changed ? It was the new Conflux card Knotvine Mystic.
The first thing I took note of was just what a great card this was - pay 1 colourless to receive one Red, Green, AND White. That kind of sounds like a 3-for-1 sale. The next thing I noticed was the drawback of this 3-drop tri-coloured card . . . I had to be able to get this out on the board by turn 3 to take full advantage of acceleration I would need for the fatties to come latter.

To this end, I took a close look at the Lush Growth enchantment which will allow the enchanted land to produce one of the required Red-Green-White needed. A tri-land . . not bad. Of course, we would need to include Jungle Shrine and Ancient Ziggurat. In addition, Druid of the Anima also provided the necessary tri-colours in the two-drop column.

With the supporting mana now in place, I revisted Shards of Alara and Conflux to short-list the Naya Fatties with preference to tri-coloured Red-Green-White critters. Woolly Thoctar was screaming for inclusion. This 3-drop 5/4 monster was a perfect fit and had a decent chance of hitting the table on Turn 4. Realm Razer provided solid mana lockdown and could deny your opponent any opportunity to mount a defence. Meglonoth, probably the best blocker I have seen for some time would also need to be on Team Fatty.
Still on the theme on big beaters, I looked to the adjacent Shard of Jund. One of better block combinations has to be the 6/6 critter Charnelhoard Wurm and the instant Soul's Fire which would allow you to ding your opponent for 6 pain and then immediately return the instant to your hand to do it all over again. ouchee. The only issue here is being able to provide the 1 black mana for the Wurm in an otherwise Naya-centric deck. This should not prove too difficult however.
To ramp the critters appropriately, I considered the 1-drop Wild Nacatl which promises to grow to a decent 3/3 as well as Qasali Ambusher which could get dropped into play free. Short-listed to support these big-guns would be Godtoucher and Vagrant Plowbeasts for damage control. A set of versatile Naya Charms and perhaps even a Mighty Emergence to make the beaters even more beat-tastic. I will certainly be looking forward to identify any supporting cards in Alara Reborn come April.
I do not think I will be building such a deck but the seeds are already planted. Perhaps there will be a chance that Fatty McFatster will make a debut at the kitchen table or FNM.

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