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The Gitrog Monster: All Glory to the Hypnotoad

Commander / EDH

alfindeol

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Land (39)

Artifact (4)

Sorcery (21)

Instant (12)

Commander (1)

Commander: The Gitrog Monster

Creature (18)

Enchantment (5)

PART COMBO, PART VALUE, ALL GLORY!

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The is my take on the instantly popular value frog! What makes the deck remarkable is it's tenacity and resilience. Besides true graveyard hate (Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void) the deck just doesn't really care what your opponents doing. The ability to almost ignore commander tax (as long as you hit your extra land drop) make your commander-centric combos way better.

So what does the deck actually do? Well that's simple! It draws cards and puts lands in the graveyard. Somewhere along the way you win. Here's some of the most common ways how...

Dakmor Salvage + The Gitrog Monster + Wild Mongrel - The mongrel can be subbed for ANY discard outlet. This simply puts your library into your graveyard. Along the way, you'll draw an extra card for each time your dredge hits a land and you'll make your Mongrel huge. Same deal if you're working with Noose Constrictor. If your discard outlet is Skirge Familiar you'll make a ton of black mana in this process.

Alright, so your WHOLE library is in the yard (or in hand for easy discarding), so how do you win? Well, there's a few ways. Generally, it'll revolve around flashing back Dread Return or casting Victimize to put some very specific cards into play. Yawgmoth's Will is also pretty handy for simply casting anything you need out of the yard.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - If your combo involved making a huge Wild Mongrel you can simply sacrifice it to Jarad to win the game. If not, it's pretty easy to put both Jarad and Lord of Extinction into play for the instant win.

Exsanguinate - Especially if your loop used Skirge Familiar, it's quite easy to simply drain the table using that mana. Need a little extra boost? That's what Songs of the Damned is for!

Necrotic Ooze - Has the ability to be both your discard outlet AND your Jarad in that combo. It simply gets the job done.

In very unique situations, your best plan is going to be simply Strip Mine or Wasteland everyone into submission. With Crucible of Worlds and any of our play an extra land effects, it is more than reasonable to be able to destroy 4 lands a turn and draw a card for each one with Gitrog in play.

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Updates Add

Hour of Devastation Update & Review! — June 30, 2017
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The full spoiler is up, so let's talk about what we've gained. As an aside, the deck is currently in a very... combo-y form. Next time I crack it out, I'm going to slide it back the other direction. The combo is powerful, but there's so much goodness that can be played here if we slow down and have a little more fun. The deck should still run all the combo pieces, but we can cut a little of the redundancy and play some sweet cards instead. And by sweet, I probably mean more stax cards... because I'm a bad person.

Bontu's Last Reckoning - This got overlooked a bit during spoiler season. It's not as good as Toxic Deluge, but depending on your deck composition and meta, it might be better than Damnation. I love cards like this. It will have be a powerhouse in some deck and be almost unplayable in others. It's not currently on my list, but I'll snap up a foil copy when I have the chance.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded - So... this is a card. There's a chance that playing Razaketh is going to be something you have only a short window to do. I haven't seen it hit play yet, but it's drawing some comparisons to Griselbrand which is obviously banned. Repeatable Demonic Tutors are going to be very, very strong as long as you have some kind of way to feed it. We don't currently, but have a shell that it could fit in with slight alterations. We're not strapped for power and tutors though, so I'm going to pass on it and maybe regret it.

Razaketh's Rite - Don't play 5 mana tutors. Unless they're Dark Petition. Or, if you're playing less competitively this will be fine. All things considered, this is probably what a "healthy" tutor for EDH looks like, but we're not the rules committee.

Torment of Hailfire - If you can generate enough mana, basically infinite, this wins the game. We generate just enough mana to win the game, so this basically does nothing for us. "Punisher" cards like this are frequently bad and in our deck, this is going to be bad.

Uncage the Menagerie - This is a lot of mana to tutor to hand with limitations. Your deck needs to naturally want to tutor multiple 2 or 3 drops to hand or you need to build around it. Current build doesn't want it and even with tweaking I think it's too much mana. Too bad it isn't an instant...

Hour of Promise - Jeez. Two lands (not basic) from your deck to the battlefield. That's a powerful effect. Five is a lot of mana, but this gets all sorts of nonsense. There's no home for this card in the tuned, combo version of the deck, but it's great otherwise. I'm probably going to play it.

Ramunap Excavator - BWHAHAHA! Auto-include. Literally the best card they could print for us at this moment. The entire deck's focus can now shift to putting this into play as early as possible alongside the frog and just grinding people out.

Quarry Beetle - The effect is good, but expensive. We don't have a way to blink it or use it more than once so it's likely better as Restore.

Hope Tender - OK. There is something here. Untapping a Gaea's Cradle or, even better, a Cradle and a Deserted Temple can make a LOT of mana. I don't normally get behind mana dorks that cost two, but there's some explosive potential here. The biggest knock on it is that it doesn't do anything unless you have a land that produces more than one mana. I think you still would rather be playing Voyaging Satyr.

Mirage Mirror - This does... cute things. Again, it's quite broken with a card like Gaea's Cradle. Sure, you have to bin one of them with the legend rule, but we don't mind that too much. It's also the perfect 75% card. It's only as good as your deck and the stuff your opponents play. I also don't hate making a second Oracle of Mul Daya when it would be good...

Hashep Oasis & Ifnir Deadlands - Lands that can bin themselves for an effect are decent. I don't think the green one will be playable, but the black one may have a home. It can pick off some troublesome creatures.

Desert of the Glorified & Desert of the Indomitable - Cycling lands are great in our deck. We'll play all of them. GET IN THERE.

Dunes of the Dead - That's cute. Sac it, make a 2/2, bring it back and make some more. i think it's a bit slow, but lower power Gitrog sees this and smiles.

That about sums it up! Did I miss something? What are you most excited for?

Amonkhet Update! — May 28, 2017
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Aether Revolt Update! — Jan. 25, 2017
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Kaladesh & Conspiracy Updates! — Oct. 11, 2016
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Eldritch Moon Update! — July 19, 2016
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