[Primer] 1v1 Psychatog PDH

Pauper EDH* Competitive Control Tempo UB (Dimir) Voltron

ZephyrScarlet

Instant (31)

• 1x Agony Warp
• 1x Cast Down
• 1x Confound
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cremate
• 1x Deprive
• 1x Diabolic Edict
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Exclude
• 1x Foil
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Ghastly Demise
• 1x Grim Harvest
• 1x Gush
• 1x Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1x Keep Safe
• 1x Logic Knot
• 1x Mental Note
• 1x Miscalculation
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Teachings
• 1x Ob Nixilis's Cruelty
• 1x Perplex
• 1x Pharika's Libation
• 1x Prohibit
• 1x Scarab Feast
• 1x Shadow Rift
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Think Twice
• 1x Thought Scour

Creature (16)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Azure Fleet Admiral
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Cloudkin Seer
• 1x Crow of Dark Tidings
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Elgaud Shieldmate
• 1x Gorging Vulture
• 1x Mnemonic Wall
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Salvager of Secrets
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Thorn of the Black Rose
• 1x Trinket Mage

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Artful Dodge
• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Chainer's Edict
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Evincar's Justice
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Notion Rain
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Treasure Cruise

Commander (1)

Land (34)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 13x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Vault of Whispers

Artifact (3)

• 1x Executioner's Capsule
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Oubliette

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Maybeboard

Instant (3)

• 1x Crypt Incursion
• 1x Grasp of Darkness
• 1x Soul Manipulation

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Eyeblight Massacre
• 1x Gitaxian Probe

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1v1 PDH Psychatog Primer

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DISCLAIMER: This is a PDH (Pauper EDH/Commander) deck, meaning the commander must be Uncommon (printed/released as an Uncommon at least once), and all cards in the 99 must be Commons (printed/released as Commons at least once). Players typically start at 30 life (instead of 40), and can defeat opponents with 16 Commander damage (rather than 21). With that out of the way, let's get started!

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Introduction

This is a Psychatog deck optimized for 1v1 Pauper Commander. The main plan will be controlling the board through a variety of answers in removal and countermagic while filling up the graveyard and accruing value. Since a lot of the cards have flashback, EtB effects or draw more cards, this won't be a difficult task to accomplish. After you've exhausted your opponent from their resources and set the tempo of the game it's time to turn the corner: drop Psychatog, protect it for a turn, and kill your opponent in a single, soul-crushing strike.

Why Psychatog?

Psychatog is one of the most powerful options available in the most powerful color combo in the format. As such, he gets to run some of the best cards not in the format, but in the whole game, like Gush, Ponder, Treasure Cruise or Counterspell, plus tutors like Mystical Teachings, Merchant Scroll and all the Transmute cards, leading to a superb amount of consistency and flexibility. If you like reactive playstyles, having an answer to everything and being able to switch gears between Control and Tempo on the fly, this is the deck for you.

As a commander, he directly competes with Nightveil Predator, Disciple of Deceit and Baleful Strix, which are probably the best options Dimir has to offer. So why pick Tog and what sets it apart from these decks? Easy: it's sheer kill speed. Once you've found a window to turn the corner and gain momentum, the opponent has one turn tops to fight through your protection and answer the Tog or win themselves, or else they will simply die.

As a control deck, sure Nightveil Predator is a lot more resilient, but his casting cost is a lot more prohibitive and has to connect 6 times to win, which leaves the opponent with 6 more draw steps to find answers. Disciple of Deceit has the fast kill in one turn, but it's not as out of nowhere as Tog, since he'll have to survive 3-4 Inspired triggers while telegraphing what he's going for before going off. And Baleful Strix, while a really strong card advantage engine, isn't exactly killing anyone through commander damage.

How to play

Generally, you'll want to play conservatively and react to everything your opponent is doing in their turns so as to set the tempo for the game. This means making sorcery speed plays is heavily discouraged unless it's to drop Rhystic Study or Whispersilk Cloak on a tapped out opponent or to search for your 4th land with Trinket Mage, Sea Gate Oracle or one of your 3 CMC draw spells. Save your Transmute cards for later in the game unless you absolutely need an answer to the board, since they're 3 CMC sorcery speed tempo-negative plays that will leave you with your shields down. Once you've made your opponent stumble for a bit, you can switch gears going into the midgame and go for more sorcery speed aggressive turns with your value flyers like Cloudkin Seer, Gorging Vulture or Mulldrifter and put your opponent on the defensive while you make land drops and prepare to take the pilot's seat going into the late game.

Turns 10-12 will be the late game stage of the deck, and it's where you start to turn the corner. At this point, you should've assembled some protection cards like Elgaud Shieldmate, Whispersilk Cloak and countermagic alongside with a stocked graveyard and a way to make Tog unblockable by making use of your multiple tutors and draw spells. The card you'll want to see the most will be Whispersilk Cloak, which is the best card in the deck: it provides unblockability and protection for Tog in one single package that can be reused should your Tog die somehow. Since it's CMC 3 it can also be tutored with Drift of Phantasms and Perplex, so you should focus on doing just that while not loosening your grip on the game. Of course, if you happen to find other pieces of protection and unblockability along the way just use those! Because the deck can easily operate in the 6-8 land range, you'll want to hold up excess lands to feed to Tog. Trade resources aggressively, as your creatures have built-in value and your spells usually draw cards or have flashback.

Once you've opened a window for yourself, take advantage of it and deploy Psychatog as soon as you can. DO NOT DO IT UNTIL THE COAST IS CLEAR. I can't stress this enough. This is probably the most critical moment of the game, and if you aren't careful, you will be punished. Having your Tog countered or killed will cost you a lot of the precious Tempo you've worked so hard to accrue. Because of this, having Unwind, Foil, Counterspell or even Muddle the Mixture up is highly recommended. Use your judgment here: if you have Shieldmate or Cloak and are going against an opponent with no hand, or if you're playing against a nonblue deck you're less pressured to have a counterspell in your hand. Once you've deployed it, protect your Tog for a turn, then make it unblockable and go for the kill.

The art of tutoring

Due to the turbo-xerox nature of the deck and having access to all common Transmute cards, the deck is extremely consistent at finding the tools it needs at any given moment. It also has access to Mystical Teachings and Merchant Scroll, which broaden our selection range to pretty much all of our deck through careful tutor chaining. This is not without disadvantages, however, as tutor chaining is very mana intensive and can lead to very clunky turns since most of the tutoring happens at Sorcery speed. Because of this you will need to plan ahead of time what you need to tutor and advancing through it one step a turn so as not to constrain your mana and lose tempo.

For example, let's say you're already in the midgame, and you've grinded most of your opponent's resources with your proactive spells. You will need to turn the corner and slam the door soon, so while you chip away your opponent's remaining resources you need to work on getting a finisher for Tog to work. To this end, you have 8 mana and a Shred Memory in hand. You transmute it for a Merchant Scroll, leaving 5 mana up to react to anything your opponent might do. Next turn, you cast Merchant Scroll, getting yourself Perplex and leaving up 6 mana. At this point, if the coast is clear, you can transmute Perplex to find Whispersilk Cloak and hold up 3 mana for whatever might happen, then play Tog, Cloak and equip next turn. Now your opponent will need to find an answer in their next draw step or die to a Tog attack.

Some more "everyday" tutor chains you might find useful through most of your games:

- You have Dimir House Guard and need a way to make Psychatog unblockable: Transmute Dimir House Guard into Mystical Teachings, then Teachings for Shadow Rift. If Rift is somehow unavailable, then Teachings for Dizzy Spell and Transmute it into Artful Dodge.
- You have Dimir House Guard and need graveyard hate: As before, Transmute Guard into Teachings, then Teachings for Crypt Incursion. If it's unavailable or you need to exile noncreatures, Teachings for Dizzy Spell, then Transmute it for Nihil Spellbomb. If this line is also unavailable, Teachings for Perplex, then Transmute it for Trinket Mage, which can get Nihil Spellbomb.
- You have Shred Memory, Dimir Infiltrator or Muddle the Mixture and need a way to make Tog unblockable: Transmute any of them into Merchant Scroll and get Shadow Rift. If Rift is unavailable, get Dizzy Spell and Transmute it into Artful Dodge.
- You have Shred Memory, Dimir Infiltrator or Muddle the Mixture and need graveyard hate: Transmute any of them into Merchant Scroll and get Mystical Teachings, then Teachings for Crypt Incursion. If it's unavailable or you need to exile noncreatures, Scroll for Dizzy Spell instead and Transmute it into Nihil Spellbomb. If that line is also unavailable, Scroll for Perplex and Transmute it into Trinket Mage, which should get you Nihil Spellbomb
- 3 CMC transmuters are pretty straightforward as they will always get you removal, counterspells, graveyard hate (either directly Transmuting into Crypt Incursion or through Trinket Mage fetching), and can also get you Whispersilk Cloak directly. However, since they can't get Merchant Scroll or Mystical Teachings, their ability to chain tutor is practically nonexistent.
- Merchant Scroll and Mystical Teachings can chain tutor into anything 2 and 3 CMC by grabbing a Transmuter of the respective cost.

As I already said, Whispersilk Cloak is the best card in the deck as it enables a Tog kill by itself, so if you have nothing more urgent to tutor for, you should always be navigating a way to it through your tutor chains. Here's how to do it:

- Dizzy Spell: Can't do it, but can get both Artful Dodge and Shadow Rift instead.
- Merchant Scroll: Tutor Perplex, then Transmute it into Cloak.
- Shred Memory, Dimir Infiltrator or Muddle the Mixture: Transmute any of them into Merchant Scroll, then follow the steps from above.
- Perplex, Drift of Phantasms: Transmute into it directly.
- Mystical Teachings: Teachings for Perplex, then Transmute it into the Cloak.
- Dimir House Guard: Transmute for Mystical Teachings, then follow the steps from above.

As you can see, Perplex is the easiest card to fetch Whispersilk Cloak with since it can be tutor chained from 2 and 4 CMC transmuters via Merchant Scroll and Mystical Teachings respectively, so should Perplex become unavailable somehow, you should shift your focus to geting Artful Dodge or Shadow Rift and Elgaud Shieldmate or some counterspell backup. If that isn't possible, getting Perplex back with Archaeomancer, Mnemonic Wall or Salvager of Secrets is also an option. Unfortunately, Archaeomancer is the only Transmute target from the bunch, so you'll have to rely on card draw spells.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Pauper EDH legal.
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.62
Tokens	The Monarch
Folders	pdh