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There's a very old saying about Magic creatures: bigger is better! Who can argue with that? The bigger your creatures, the better they pound your opponent into mush. High toughness makes them hard to kill with damage and makes them tough to block effectively, because often it takes more than one blocker to destroy them. High power means they deal massive amounts of damage to your opponents, giving them precious little time to find a way to get rid of the fatties before they lose.

Gigantic creatures are what the "Ground Pounder" deck is all about. It contains some of the biggest, baddest creatures ever to stalk the planes of Dominia. The deck is designed to get you to the stage of the game where you can drop these creatures onto the table and toll them right into your poor opponent.

Here's the deck's basic strategy: Play a big, hurkin' creature and beat your opponent down with it until it gets destroyed. Then play another big, hurkin' creature. Repeat as necessary. The cards in the deck that aren't big creatures will help you make this strategy work.

In the first few turns, play all the fast mana you can get your hands on-Llanowar Elves and Wild Growth to start, then Quirion Elves or Rampant Growth. Any of these will let you play some of your huge creatures before you normally could, and hopefully before your opponents have the resources to deal with them. If you drop opponents have the resources to deal with them. If you drop Balduvian Horde on your third turn, for instance, your opponents will have only a few turns to get rid of it as their life totals drop. And while they look for a way to kill the Horde, you'll be playing more huge monsters.

Your midgame strategy depends on whether you got some of those fast-mana cards into play. If you did, your job is to keep the threats coming and overwhelm your opponent's defenses. If the fast mana didn't work you, you'll have to rely on some of the direct-damage spells in "Ground Pounder" to cover you until you can start playing your muscle.

Ideally, your creatures' size will force opponents into two-for-one creature trades. They'll have to double-block your attackers to keep them from coming back for more. That means card advantage for you. (Mmm?card advantage.)

If your opponents manage to play creatures as big as yours, though, "Ground Pounder" has plenty of "utility spells" to get them out of the way. Use cards such as Lightening Bolt and Sonic Burst to blast them into oblivion. Or wait until your creatures have given them a beating, then use the direct damage to finish them off. If you draw Giant Growth, wait to play it until you can destroy a blocker and save your attacker at the same time.

Late in the game, start playing the XXL beasties: Shivan Dragon, Force of Nature, Crash of Rhinos, and their friends. Your utility cards take on a different purpose now. Start ignoring enemy creatures if possible and turn the torch on your opponents. A well timed Fireball or Lava Axe can dash their hopes.

When you're playing against the "Aerodoom" deck, keep these things in mind: (1) "Aerodoom" doesn't have that many countering spells. Don't let your opponent scare you into hesitating. Stick to your game plan and press the attack. (2) Be careful how you spend your direct-damage spells. "Aerodoom" can destroy any of your creatures with its creature-kill spells, but your heat can destroy only creatures with the right toughness. Don't waste Fireball or sonic Blast to destroy small creatures that won't deal much damage to you anyway. Save them for the really big flying creatures you can't block. In the end, your creatures are bigger than your opponent's, and flying won't help that much if you're already exchanging blows.