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All Glory to the Hypnotoad

Modern BUG (Sultai) Casual Control Discard Loam Tribal

skoobysnackz

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Land (25)

Card Advantage (10)

Removal (7)

Hand Disruption (5)

Control/Recycle (11)

The Horror (9)

Sideboard

Other (15)

Maybeboard

Other (3)

The overall goal of this deck is to get The Gitrog Monster and Life from the Loam out. This combo both ensures a healthy amount of card draw, as well as a consistent land base, and most importantly, a Big Ass 6/6 Deathtouching Beater. The other cards in the deck were chosen to compliment this combo (Thought Scour, Raven's Crime, Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge ) or to controll the board untill the combo can be played (Thing in the Ice  , Eternal Witness, Serum Visions, Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse etc.)

The way I like to use the Life from the Loam + The Gitrog Monster combo is to sac a land (preferably a colorless land or one we have multiples of) and dredge Life from the Loam (if there are two in the yard, i generally only dredge one to avoid milling myself or putting too many valuable cards in the yard unless the card draw is necessary). This allows us to draw three cards almost every turn (including Life from the Loam) as long as a land is dredged. Then we can cast the dredged Life from the Loam play two lands, and use the third for Raven's Crime which draws us another card. Interesting how one of the best card drawing creatures is also an oversized beater and isn't blue! Next is a card by card explanation for each of the categories in the decklist.

Since two of our three finishing creatures ( The Gitrog Monster and Thragtusk ) are 5 drops and Thing in the Ice   takes time to flip, we need effective ways to get rid of early threats, Inquisition of Kozilek does this very well by removing them before they can even be played.

Raven's Crime, early on, is maybe less effective than inquisition of kozilec, but it shines when Life from the Loam + The Gitrog Monster are out, drawing us cards while emptying the opponents hand.

Eternal Witness is less powerful than Snapcaster Mage, but it has more versatility and is much less expensive. Furthermore, it is quite embarassing to dredge past The Gitrog Monster or Thragtusk and Eternal Witness allows us to get them back.

Remand is one of my (and many others') favorite counters because it can effectively waste your opponent's turn while replacing itself in your hand, making it one of the most effective tempo spells in Modern.

Opt, previously Serum Visions, I think the instant speed and the possibility of avoiding a dead draw right away gives this card the advatage.

Thought Scour is another very effective cantrip for , and it is even better when The Gitrog Monster is out because we can possibly draw 2 cards if a land is put in the yard. I generally put cards from the opponents library into their graveyard if Gitrog isn't out.

As previously mentioned, Eternal Witness is very usefull to get important cards from our graveyard.

I think Life from the Loam is better in this deck than Crucible of Worlds because it can't be destroyed with artifact hate, countering is generally useless and its dredge ability is also very useful.

Previously, I was running 2x Mana Leak, 2x Remand and 1x Cryptic Command, however, I felt that Mana Leak was lacking in the late game, and Cryptic Command was generally to difficult to cast because this deck relies on drawing and playing many spells each turn (to flip Thing in the Ice  ) and casting a monster was usually not as usefull as it is in other decks. For this reason I replaced 2x Mana Leak, 1x Remand, and 1x Cryptic Command for 4x Rune Snag. It is just as effective as Mana Leak in the early game, and it gets better in the late game. I chose it for this deck because it is also good with Thought Scour and dredge making the ones in my hand more useful.

Abrupt Decay plays a similar role to Inquisition of Kozilek by removing early threats.

Go for the Throat I find is the least restricted creature removal for . After having experimented with lots of removal spells (Ultimate Price, Doom Blade, Dismember, etc.) I have chosen Go for the Throat for this deck.

Because Go for the Throat leaves us vulnerable to artifacts, Maelstrom Pulse can help to make that matchup less difficult. It is also very usefull against tokens, enchantments, and any other non-land permanents that need to be taken care of.

At this point it should be obvious why The Gitrog Monster is the centerpiece of the deck. Its body and it's effect are both mindboggleing for a cmc of 5.

Thing in the Ice   is the other highly anticipated horror from SOI for good reson, its a sturdy 0/4 defender for that turns into a board wipe and a 7/8 beater after 4 spells (easily done in this kind of control deck).

Thragtusk can produce much needed lifegain against aggro decks, and it has great synergy with Thing in the Ice  .

Thanks for looking at my deck, I hope you enjoy it and find my explanation of the cards satisfactory. Don't hesitate to leave a question, comment, or advice and if you like the deck please leave a +1 and be sure to check out the competitive version: Competitive Hypnotoad!

Thanks to Trtl for The Gitrog Monsteralter icon.

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Updates Add

OG version. — April 25, 2016
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I have been convinced to build a competitive version of this deck, so this one will be labeled as the budget/OG version (I know $600 is not really budget, but compared to $2000...)

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Revision 21 See all

(7 years ago)

+3 Opt main
-3 Serum Visions main