I need to face a problem -- no, a reality, not a problem. I love Naya () decks. I especially love them in Commander. Naya lacks Black, which is my favorite color to play, but slamming big ol' creatures and smashing face with them is a primal pleasure. We get Green, which gives us access to some of the best ramp (and fine card draw); White gives us answers to just about any problem the game can throw at us (plus some pretty great creatures of its own -- I'm looking at you, Sun Titan); and Red gives us the best Air Force in the game (ahem . . .  Dragons!), a whole suite of wild cards, plus ways to use all our mana to suddenly end the game out of nowhere.

Big mana, big creatures, big spells -- they may not be subtle, but they make big fun for Commander. Plus, for me, Naya has one of the biggest, baddest, most enjoyable spells of all time. It's a spell I love to jam into every deck which can play it, and it's a spell that should win the game no matter how the game has shaken out, if it resolves.

I know, I know. Most "good" players will look at this spell and say it's overkill, or not consistent enough, or whatever else. Infinite tokens are better than a finite number of creatures and a spell like this. Blue is better generally. Craterhoof Behemoth is easier to cast. Lifegain is stupid unless it's a strategy. There's a reason Cruel Ultimatum is the only one of those giant spells which saw any competitive play. But for those of us who get excited at the idea of a big, splashy effect or winning in a memorable way, Titanic Ultimatum is the kind of spell which makes us shake with excitement.

Naya was a thing back in Shards of Alara, but it's gotten a resurgence with Dinosaurs on Ixalan. Yeah, Dinos exist a little in other colors, but they're mostly focused in Naya. So let's take a look at what happens when we combine some Terrible Lizards with an Ultimatum.

Zacama, Primal Calamity -- Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zacama, Primal Calamity

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Atzocan Seer
• 1 Bellowing Aegisaur
• 1 Burning Sun's Avatar
• 1 Charging Tuskodon
• 1 Deathgorge Scavenger
• 1 Drumhunter
• 1 Emeria Shepherd
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 1 Gishath, Sun's Avatar
• 1 Goring Ceratops
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1 Kinjalli's Sunwing
• 1 Priest of the Wakening Sun
• 1 Raging Swordtooth
• 1 Rampaging Ferocidon
• 1 Regal Behemoth
• 1 Regisaur Alpha
• 1 Temple Altisaur
• 1 Territorial Hammerskull
• 1 Thrashing Brontodon
• 1 Thundering Spineback
• 1 Verdant Sun's Avatar
• 1 Wakening Sun's Avatar
• 1 Wayward Swordtooth
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels
• 1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Huatli, Dinosaur Knight
• 1 Huatli, Radiant Champion
• 1 Huatli, Warrior Poet

• Instants (7)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Naya Charm
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Boundless Realms
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Decimate
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Genesis Wave
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 1 Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Rout
• 1 Savage Stomp
• 1 Selvala's Stampede
• 1 Soul's Majesty
• 1 Titanic Ultimatum
• 1 Traverse the Outlands

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Warstorm Surge
• 1 Zendikar Resurgent

• Lands (40)
• 2 Mountain
• 5 Plains
• 8 Forest
• 1 Blossoming Sands
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Rugged Highlands
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Unclaimed Territory
• 1 Wind-Scarred Crag

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A problem with decks that run Green can be how it often becomes the primary color, just because of the ramp. Getting extra lands on the battlefield is usually better than artifacts or any other form of mana, so we tend to use Rampant Growth-style effects when we can. That makes sense, but then your Naya deck ends up looking like a little green heavy. I wanted this deck to feel more evenly distributed for no reason other than a challenge. This collection got closer than any deck to now in this series, though it's still a little weighted to Green.

Rishkar's Expertise, Soul's Majesty, and Momentous Fall all do the same thing, effectively: they draw cards equal to the power of a creature we control. Because often that power will be 9, that means they refill our hand plus a bit more. Rishkar's Expertise gives us a free spell, and Momentous Fall can be used in response to a kill spell or Wrath effect. Soul's Majesty is the purest but probably the least good. That plus all our land fetching should do a reasonable job of keeping us in enough cards to pull something off, though Drumhunter is also lurking around, and that guy is surprisingly good in a deck with big creatures like this.

And the Dinos. We play Dinosaurs to win this game. We've got a number of them here, mostly the big ones. We're going to want to lay a few of these down and crash in with them. Often, they're big enough we can attack without too much fear, so go for it. Dinosaurs weren't meant to block. Eventually, we'll either draw into a Genesis Wave or a Titanic Ultimatum, either of which should do a good job of closing the game fairly quickly. We do also have Warstorm Surge as a kind of secondary win condition, because that plus three or four of our creatures can be the end of a player or two.

We've also got all three versions of Huatli: Huatli, Dinosaur Knight, Huatli, Radiant Champion, and Huatli, Warrior Poet. All of them can be win conditions, especially Dinosaur Knight with the Overrun-style ultimate.

It's nice that Zacama is a walking answer to most of the problems we'll encounter. They can rear back on defense with Vigilance, block big fliers with Reach, shoot down creatures, artifacts, and enchantments with their ability, and do it all while continuing to attack for 9 every turn. That's pretty helpful in a Commander, which might partly explain the big casting cost. But we want more answers than that, so cards like Oblivion Ring and Banishing Light do catch-all work while Phyrexian Rebirth and Rout wipe the board when it gets out of hand. Decimate is excellent value though it requires a target for each part of the card. And Savage Stomp was just too cool a Fight card to omit.

Not a lot of complexity to this. Play some ramp, play some Dinosaurs, play Zacama, and eventually pull some giant spell which wins the game. This deck won't win any major Commander tournaments, but not every deck needs to. Sometimes it's nice to enjoy the game without worrying too much about how it works, and this deck lets us do just that. Perhaps the Gods add too much expense and consistency, and they might be replaced.

To change it up, though, it seemed to me the clearest path was to use the strength of the deck with the ramp and the giant creatures but recruit a Commander who could play with them differently.

• Mayael the Anima
• Archetype of Endurance
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• Meglonoth
• Pathbreaker Ibex
• Stalking Vengeance
• Stonehoof Chieftain
• Terastodon
• Worldspine Wurm
• Overwhelming Stampede

We're going to replace our Commander with Mayael, then pull 10 of our non-creature, non-ramp spells and replace them with these. We're going for a more focused deck here, though we've turned away from the Tribal aspect in favor of a "here's a bunch of big creatures and an Overrun" playstyle, without making the deck too oppressive. The goal is to ramp into Mayael's ability, then start activating it every turn, laying down big dude after big dude. After building up a few creatures, Pathbreaker Ibex, Stonehoof Chieftain, or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight all do reasonable interpretations of Overwhelming Stampede, which is itself a version of Titanic Ultimatum.

What would you do differently? More ramp? More tribal focus? More build-around stuff? Please let us know in the comments!

This is not a deck which makes you evilly grin at your opponents. This is a deck which has you beaming with every card you draw, delighting in the absurdity of massive casting costs and ridiculous abilities. The deck may not win a ton, but it will create a splash every time, and when it does win, the table will talk about it for a long time to come.

Thanks for reading.