Here is a Gitrog 75% deck that takes a lot of cues from other decks as well as runs some of what I consider to be cool and fun cards/comboes. Not much stax involved and leans more towards using Gitrog as a ramp and draw engine to use and recur lands as well as get big creatures into play. Landfall is a somewhat minor theme mainly because there is so much to abuse with it. There is no infinites involved in this deck, at least not intentionally. I divided the deck up into sections and provide a brief description under each section as to some of the card choices.
Commander
The Gitrog Monster
Normal Lands
Ancient Tomb
Barren Moor
Blasted Landscape
Blighted Woodland
Bojuka Bog
Command Tower
Cabal Coffers
Dakmor Salvage
Dark Depths
Drownyard Temple
Evolving Wilds
9x Forest
Ghost Quarter
Glacial Chasm
Golgari Rot Farm
Overgrown Tomb
Llanowar Wastes
Polluted Mire
8x Swamp
Tainted Wood
Terramorphic Expanse
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Thespian's Stage
Slippery Karst
Tranquil Thicket
Woodland Cemetery
Basic land suite with all the cycles as well as a few comboes. We run some land tutoring so it can't hurt to add Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
for huge mana as well as Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage
for huge Cthulhu shenanigans. There is a reason why we run so many basics as will be explained in some of the other sections.
Single Target Removal
Beast Within
Krosan Grip
Maelstrom Pulse
Putrefy
World Breaker
Terastodon
A few normal EDH removal staples with World Breaker as a catch all that has synergy with Gitrog and has pseudo self recursion.
Board Wipes
Pernicious Deed
Toxic Deluge
This area could use a bit more work but these are both good board wipe cards for these colors. Would not mind getting suggestions as to what to take out and add in this category.
Beaters
Avenger of Zendikar
Centaur Vinecrasher
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Lord of Extinction
Worldspine Wurm
Ulvenwald Hydra
Avenger is broken in most decks but slightly more so with Gitrog. I run a bunch of huge monsters that have synergies with Brawn and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Worldspine can be shuffled and recast if dredged or killed. Ob Nixilis can get out of hand really quickly as well. I am debating on adding Sepulchral Primordial for some fun shenanigans but unsure of what to take out.
Other Wincons
Brawn
Exsanguinate
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Rampaging Baloths
Worm Harvest
Titania, Protector of Argoth
With all of the ramp and slight cheating of mana with Dakmor Salvage + Skirge Familiar
with Gitrog out, Exsanguinate can end games. Baloths and Titania are there to benefit off of extra landfalls as shown in the next section. With retrace, Worm Harvest is a no brainer and can get out of hand quickly.
Landfall Trigger Enablers
Explore
Sakura-Tribe Scout
Skyshroud Ranger
I don't run the normal landfall trigger enablers such as Oracle of Mul Daya and
Azusa, Lost but Seeking
because these cards are cheaper and lower my mana curve. Even with all of the cycling lands cantripping, Explore is still a modest boon to the deck in the early game. In order to facilitate more consistent extra land plays I run...
Ramp
Sol Ring
Birds of Paradise
Crop Rotation
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Solemn Simulacrum
Harrow
Far Wanderings
Using both Kodama's Reach and Cultivate I can ramp and hit my extra land drops by getting lands to my hand. The land tutoring with Crop Rotation and Harrow is very good to get some of my land comboes going, as well as getting a few lands into the graveyard, which Gitrog and Splendid Reclamation both like.
Pseudo Draw/Dig
Tireless Tracker
Grisly Salvage
Satyr Wayfinder
Horn of Greed
These cards help to load the graveyard and draw/find cards. Tireless Tracker is a champ in this deck, and it's just too much fun to have a ridiculous amount of clue tokens out. Horn of Greed is good when it works, and makes you a slightly smaller target because group hug reasons not quite sure about the Horn as of right now though considering that Gitrog and
Explore
are the only two cards that allow me to draw cards through this.
Dredge
Golgari Grave-Troll
Life from the Loam
Stinkweed Imp
Dredge is very useful in this deck and Life from the Loam is an engine in itself with Gitrog out. I don't feel that I need to run the other dredgers as they are subpar standalone cards. Stinkweed Imp can deter early attacks and Golgari Grave-Troll + Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
is a thing. Also Dakmor Salvage is already included in the land list and I didn't want to relist cards, although there are many cards in this deck that serve multiple purposes.
Discard
Skirge Familiar
Raven's Crime
As said before, retrace is an amazing mechanic for this deck and Dakmor Salvage + Skirge Familiar
into Exsanguinate with Gitrog out can close out a game. This deck does not have any shuffle graveyard into library effects so it cannot go infinite but big mana can be very useful in other ways. I find I Raven's Crime myself decently often as I have taken out some of the normally run discard engines as I feel that they are either too broken or do not provide much standalone effects without Gitrog out.
75 percent Tutors
Beseech the Queen
Expedition Map
Traverse the Ulvenwald
Realms Uncharted
I feel that these are all fairly transparent and somewhat situational tutors for this deck, which I feel makes them a bit fairer.
Battle Tricks
Constant Mists
Oblivion Crown
Playing Constant Mists constantly can make you a target but it is just so good in this deck. The politics you can play with this card is also very nice. Oblivion Crown is another discard engine that can make your unblocked creatures huge for amazing attacks or getting sacrificed with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Note that without flash this card would not be nearly as good. As I have taken out many of the other discard engines for big creatures and better standalone cards, I am unsure if I should keep this or replace it.
Recursion Package/Graveyard to Hand
Dread Return
Corpse Dance
Entomb
Greenwarden of Murasa
Groundskeeper
Splendid Reclamation
Grim Discovery
Eternal Witness
Tilling Treefolk
There is a good bit of recursion needed for a deck that uses dredge, but I think this might be a bit much. I run a small somewhat abnormal recursion package. Corpse Dance is probably my favorite of the put a creature into play from the yard cards. Groundskeeper has his shenanigans throughout the game to combo off with many cards. Splendid Reclamation can be huge, especially with my landfall cards. I am on the fence about Greenwarden and Tilling Treefolk but they can do their thing if the situation is right.
Other Purpose
Courser of Kruphix
Sylvan Safekeeper
Warping Wail
These can probably fit into other sections but I am not quite sure. Courser is good for some extra land plays, but might not be as good in this deck because I am running Sakura-Tribe Scout and
Skyshroud Ranger
which put lands into play from my hand. Sylvan Safekeeper is there as a land sac outlet which I do not run many of, but can do many things in the right situation. I feel that with nine colorless mana producers I can run Warping Wail and cast it consistently enough. No one expects the Green Black player to have a counterspell for their boardwipe. Also in a pinch it can be used for pseudo ramp. Really fun card overall.
Conclusion
I hope you like my somewhat 75% Gitrog deck. I find that I have much more fun playing this now than when it was pure combo/stax. Also it is nice to not have to think nearly as hard to find the correct and obscure lines of play as this deck is not nearly as narrow as other Gitrog Combo decks. Any suggestions for fun cards would be greatly appreciated, but note that I am not looking to turn this back into a pure combo deck. Have a good one and always respect the toad.
