Just Froggin' Around - The Gitrog Monster Primer

Commander / EDH kiebitzen

SCORE: 69 | 58 COMMENTS | 31227 VIEWS | IN 43 FOLDERS


Why Sunscorched Desert?

April 23, 2017 9:39 p.m.

kiebitzen says... #2

Sunscorched Desert is the instant speed wincon. You loop it into and out of play infinitely using Crop Rotation. I will be adding a primer for the wincons soon that will describe how all the combos work.

April 24, 2017 1:43 p.m.

AlexoBn says... #3

Damn my brain hurts :D :D . Maybe I will proxy some of the cards just to get the interactions. Seems like Gitrog is not the way I want to win :D although it is super amazing

May 10, 2017 4:38 a.m.

kiebitzen says... #4

AlexoBn Haha, yeah. It takes some practice and a lot of thinking, but it is super satisfying when you get the hang of it, and people are pretty surprised when you kill them with a land that does 1 damage. Or exile their entire library face-down.

alitabitiliterit Sunscorched has actually be swapped back for Rath's Edge because it has slightly more utility in that it can kill some hatebears that stop the combo.

May 10, 2017 6:34 p.m.

AlexoBn says... #5

Have you considered adding Krosan Grip? You can make your combo uncounterable when using Skirge Familiar because mana abilities don't use the stack and the rest works then too. When you have infinite mana the rest should be easy

May 11, 2017 1:24 a.m.

kiebitzen says... #6

AlexoBn That is definitely an interesting interaction, and worth considering, but the things people usually answer/counter are Gitrog herself or the discard outlet. After you have those there is usually very little people can do to stop you, but this does stop most of those few things. The main thing I don't like is the manacost. You usually do not have an extra three mana to spend on a defensive spell like that. I cut Dosan and City of Solitude for the same reason. Krosan Grip definitely has other utility as well, so it may be worth it.

May 11, 2017 2:59 a.m.

ThePrawnfessor says... #7

Hey man I also play a variation of TGM and ive put a significant amount of time into the deck as i see you having done. My build is different on a few fundimental points. I opted not to run the 1 drop mana dorks and cradle but instead focus on more of an artifact ramp base to accelerate into a t2 TGM more consistantly, as far as my win cons ive tried to keep them simple. i wen with tendrils of agony because few cards really stop tendrils, and at the point where youre drawing your deck storming off is really easy to do with lotus petal cylcing through hand to graveyard to library again. im running both of the shuffle effects you are as well. i win 90% of the games i play, and this isnt for lack of a competitive meta. Against stax players my build seems far superior due to only needing 1-2 critters on the board at maximum to combo off. i really think your build is interesting but youre overcomplicating it far more than it needs to be. i also dont really understand the purpose of necromancy in this light either i think you could free up both your land base and your spell slots if you just went the artifact build with things such as basalt monilith and mesmeric orb combo to get you started. With all the space building the way i have has given me ive found that i can run significantly more disruption for the cards that try to tell me no, leading for more consistent gameplay.

May 17, 2017 7:49 p.m.

kiebitzen says... #8

ThePrawnfessor: I'm glad you found my list, and I would love to see yours. The one on your profile looks like it hasn't been updated in four months and doesn't have either of the monoliths. I am curious what changes you have made from the existing list because it seems to be slow and clunky. I'll reserve my judgement until you send me your updated list. My only reservation is that with an artifact focused ramp package the deck becomes much weaker to Null Rod and co. which seems like a bad idea when the decks main combo is inherently weak to Cursed Totem. Forcing that reliance on a single type of ramp will definitely hold you back. The goal of my list is to utilize the best ramp of all types to make sure I am not overly affected by any one hate piece. The other issue with using the more mana intensive artifacts is that Ad Nauseam becomes even harder to use effectively. I am excited to see where you have taken the list.

May 18, 2017 3:10 p.m.

ThePrawnfessor says... #9

kiebitzen yeah i havent posted an updated list in quit a while. also null rod has yet to have a splash in my competitive community so i can see the relevance of that arugment. ill try to getan update list within the next 2 days or so if you want to compare.

May 18, 2017 8:45 p.m.

so i just uploaded the new and improved list of TGM as i am currently playing it. it feels very consistant, and as i stated before wins the majority of the games i play with it. feel free to take a peek when you get the chance

May 18, 2017 9:21 p.m.

RedmundR2 says... #11

The Gitrog Monster is female? Interesting

May 19, 2017 5:07 p.m.

I mean to be fair Species of frogs can change their gender at will so who are you to assume?!

May 20, 2017 4:15 p.m.

kiebitzen says... #13

solarPULSAR: I refer to her as female because I choose to, I don't believe she has a "canon" gender. Though Prawnfessor is right, some frogs change their gender as needed to balance the population. Also, the female frog is usually larger than the male, and while we don't have any comparison, The Gitrog Monster is certainly a larger frog.

ThePrawnfessor: I took a look at your deck and playtested it a bunch. It seems pretty dependent on getting the early fastmana. Games where I had t1 Mana Crypt or Vault or Exploration tended to goldfish at a good speed, but often I found myself with a bunch of slow cards stuck in my hand, ramping to the win around t5/6. While this is obviously not a bad deck, and always was able to get there pretty quickly, it definitely felt slower to not have all the other ramp sources. I am curious to see how it would perform in the cockatrice meta, I think it might have issues with the t3/4 4c combo lists as it has little interaction and can only race that about half the time. It may just be the particular way I like to play frog, but I think the strongest approach, since we lack blue and stax is to be as fast as possible. I'll leave a comment on your list later with some comments on my experience with specific cards when goldfishing (to be taken with a grain of salt).

May 20, 2017 6:11 p.m.

for sure man i appreciate the constructive criticism as well. im very unfamiliar with the meta on cockatrice.

May 25, 2017 10:01 p.m.

TheBeans says... #15

If you wouldn't mind, I've also built a competitive combo Gitrog Deck, but instead have focused all of my resources into guranteeing an Exsanguinate/Faith of the Devoted win. Give it a quick look! I'd love to see what you think of it, since you clearly have explored every nuance of The Gitrog Monster in you extensive playtime. Thanks and Upvoted!

July 9, 2017 11:20 p.m.

ancientskull says... #16

This Gitrog deck seems awesome! I'd love to give it a try some time! +1

July 11, 2017 9:58 p.m.

kiebitzen says... #17

TheBeans: I took a look at your list and left a comment. Thanks for the upvote and I am glad you like the deck!

ancientskull: It is by far my favorite deck, I am glad you like it! :) Thanks for the upvote.

July 11, 2017 10:14 p.m.

Pygmyrhino990 says... #18

Not exactly going for budget here are we, but I love the deck and for the sake of your wallet I hope you haven't built this IRL

July 22, 2017 11 p.m.

AlexoBn says... #19

Pygmyrhino990 the deck is for cEDH so budget was probably not an option but pure power was. The cEDH community is also pretty open minded regarding the use of proxies (because all that matters is your skill and your deckbuilding - although there are primers for budget decks too)

July 23, 2017 6:09 a.m.

AlexoBn says... #20

Plus you can get to lower price by just replacing the editions (beta and alpha duals are of course expensive af but revised will reduce the price a lot... same for city of brass.. still noch cheap though)

July 23, 2017 6:10 a.m.

Pygmyrhino990 says... #21

Have you calculated what the cost would be with the cheapest versions of the cards. I'm somewhat interested in making this deck if it can become cheaper

July 23, 2017 8:02 a.m.

kiebitzen says... #22

Pygmyrhino990: I have built this irl, only missing a few cards, though I do have FBB cards instead of the beta versions. As AlexoBn said, this is designed to be an optimized competitive deck, so card price is not factored into deckbuilding decisions. I threw together a version of the deck with the same list but with the cheapest version of each card which cut the deck price in half: Frog but with ugly printings to save money. I also have a version of the list I made with the restriction of no cards that cost over 15$ if that interests you as well: He's Just a Frog on a Budget. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

July 23, 2017 6:49 p.m.

DudelRok says... #23

Have you considered Drownyard Temple at all? I run it with the land outlets, Helldozer is a funny one by the way, and Bitter Ordeal to exile decks or with Retreat to Hagra for infinite life drain/kill. I also am currently running Last Laugh for the same thing.

I mean, even if they counter Laugh/hagra/etc, I can just redraw them unless they have been exiled and that just requires a single green to resolve with Riftsweeper.

August 6, 2017 3:39 a.m.

DudelRok says... #24

And no Realms Uncharted!?

August 6, 2017 3:50 a.m.

kiebitzen says... #25

DudelRok: Thanks for taking time to look at my deck, I am always open to new suggestions. I'll talk a bit about each of the cards you recommended for the list.

Drownyard Temple is useful but there is no need for it in the deck. It can give you value in grindy games, but this is a fast combo deck so a colorless land that doesn't ramp you and isn't part of the combo is not worth it.

Helldozer is about as casual a card as they come. Anything over 3 cmc has to be game winning or a combo piece to be worth including in the deck. Definitely not worth it.

Bitter Ordeal is a decent wincon for the deck. Due to the nature of the combo though, we only need a single sorcery speed wincon and I think Praetor's Grasp is the best card for the slot. It has the most utility outside of the combo and can randomly mise games against certain focused combo decks (like other Gitrog decks). You could definitely run Bitter Ordeal instead, but you probably don't want both.

Retreat to Hagra is a terrible card and not a strong wincon. This style of card does nothing to help the combo and is completely unnecessary to win once the combo is going. Because the combo draws your entire deck, you don't need much wincon redundancy and there is no need to run wincons that are not good on their own.

Last Laugh see Retreat to Hagra

Realms Uncharted is a card that has seen play in the deck before. It is a decent tutor for Dakmor Salvage but it costs 3 mana. It is nice that it is an instant, but I have found that there is no need to be running any of the 3 drop tutors (except Praetor's Grasp which is a wincon). In the more midrange version of the deck this card is a powerhouse. It is by no means a bad card, I may even put it in the maybeboard so people know it is worth considering.

August 7, 2017 3:58 a.m.

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