@Makkimakki234

It loses to Rest in Peace effects including Leyline of the Void, creature theft like Gilded Drake, and extraction effects on Dakmor Salvage (especially Praetor's Grasp because that way you can't take it back via Riftsweeper). Cursed Totem/Linvala, Keeper of Silence will also slow down Gitrog considerably, especially Linvala because it's so hard to remove with our particular removal suite.

Those are the "special tech" against the combo itself, but really the most glaring weakness of the deck is removing Gitrog when it hits the table or countering it. The main goal for Gitrog is to have a discard outlet and the general on the field at the same time, so it's important to make sure that never happens. Gitrog also is a very powerful value engine, which is why it should be removed as soon as it lands, as getting extra draws and dredges can quickly win the game for her. In short, run more cheap creature removal and cheap board wipes.

Instant-speed grave hate works as well, but it's harder to pull off and you will need more than one instance of it. Scavenging Ooze helps here, as you can repeatedly try removing Dakmor or Kozilek in response to the shuffles depending on the situation. Mainly your target should be Kozilek, but if you're sure the Gitrog pilot can't put any lands to the graveyard in response to your exiling activations, then go ahead and target Dakmor instead. Just remember that the pilot will have more and more resources to nullify any exiling effects targeting Dakmor the more lands they draw, so be sure to target Dakmor immediately when they start going off if that is your goal.

@LeptysI see, thanks for the insight. I recently put this build together and played a friend of mine and he instantly hated it and told me he doesn't wanna play against it for a good while. Maybe this insight will give him a good idea on how to stop this deck/have a good chance agaiinst it.

@n0bunga

Lotus Vale is something that many Gitrog players may have considered at one point or the other, but unfortunately for ramping it is very awkward with her gameplan that requires you to have many land drops on the field for later sacrificing (unless you're already going off). Vale also doesn't draw us more than 1 card, which is a huge hurdle compared to something like Lake of the Dead that can sacrifice your lands via separate triggers and activations throughout the game, so you can continuously draw into new lands that you can then immediately play for more mana and lands to sacrifice.

@n0bunga

If I was forced to pick between the two, I agree that Lotus Vale would be the primary pick just because we are running so few cards with colorless mana costs to make Scorched Ruins super useful.

I don't know whether or not you'd already considered it, but since you only have two of each basic, you could replace one each with a snow-covered variant and safely run Tainted Pact. This would make it so that you could never brick with it.

@MasterVash

Tainted Pact is a card that first seems like an obvious pick for a deck that wants to rush into its "one-card" combo (Gitrog + Dakmor Salvage) as soon as possible, but unfortunately it really isn't that great here as the combo has so many moving parts in it. The deck also relies heavily on these moving parts, which is why exiling combo pieces can be a real pain if not a complete blowout.

Flipping a Kozilek is the main deal breaker as you never want to exile him, and to add he's more or less a completely dead draw. Furthermore, assuming we hit Dakmor it's another must-keep, even though it has at least some use outside of the combo. And finally, if we have any part of the combo in exile (which almost certainly will happen when we dig more than a dozen cards with Pact), we never ever want to exile our one-of Riftsweeper as then we lose access to the pieces permanently.

I will admit that I haven't counted the numbers on the odds of flipping these pieces, but seeing as there are potentially several cards that you will almost never want to flip off of Pact, it really has some bad blood with this sort of deck to be a viable tutor candidate (unlike in a deck that dives to their combo piece head-first or has several one-card wincons like Food Chain Prossh or Doomsday/Shimmer Myr Zur respectively).

Thanks for the recommendation though, it's not something that has been asked before so it's a good card to be discussed about.

Yeah, I figured you'd already considered it, but I didn't see it in the exclusions tab and didn't see any discussion with a ctrl-f, so I thought I'd bring it up just in case. Gitrog has a deceptively large amount of parts to it, and what you said definitely makes sense.

Leptys I'm pretty sure I'm getting the hang of how this deck works beside the Koziland state. I'm not sure if I'm just missing something or what; but how do you get your deck to the point of Kozilek and a land if it shuffles the rest of your yard in with them ?

Hello Leptys, beautiful list and amazing altered Gitrog.

I would like to know if this commander could be stronger than Nath as a Staxy Lands.deck variant, what is your opinion?

If you could take a loot at my tempo/control Zur list and see if you have any suggestions I would also be grateful, thank you o/

@VelvetVendetta

Hello, and thank you for the kind words!

Nath's pros lie in that his ability can be used as a combo piece with discard (especially Sadistic Hypnotist and Possessed Portal) which supports his staxy game plan, but Gitrog has potential as a staxy deck with Strip Mine recursion and Death Cloud effects paired with land recursion, followed by pure Gitrog beats or something like Helm of Obedience as the wincon. A brew with some combo routes was made a couple months back if you're interested: Frog Stax.

As far as you Zur list is concerned, I honestly have nothing too big to add. Mox Diamond and Mana Vault are both rocks that you should definitely run for their massive tempo gain in the early turns though. Lotus Petal is great too, but not too compulsory in a deck like this. Sensei's Divining Top of course is also a super good add, but I can see if you prefer not running it. For some extra enchantment toolbox synergy, Flash + Academy Rector for Omniscience is always pretty damn good, and Rector is fine in that you can use it to find other chants as well if you feel like it and it can also be reanimated with all the reanimation spells. Speaking of reanimating Rector, I also recommend bounce spells like Cyclonic Rift or Winds of Rebuke to do tons of things whenever you need to (such as bouncing an Animate Dead off of Rector).

why not run Homeward Path to deal with creature theft being one of the decks weaknesses

@mrfab13

Because so few people run creature theft enough to warrant a deck slot, simple as that. If my meta was constantly swarmed by Gilded Drakes with additional theft on top, then I'd probably run it. In a competitive metagame though, it's not really that common to run so much theft even in general.

Really sweet deck man +1. The amount of time and effort you've put into your primer is outstanding. Gitrog is one of those decks I just have to appreciate because of the high skill ceiling required to play him well. I'm debating playing Gitrog and this list is an excellent resource.

Hi! Long time frogger in a competitive paper meta.Fortunately, my meta hasn't requires me to drop below the 40 land mark yet, but I'm teetering towards it...

At any rate. With GP London up and coming I wanted to pub stomp some nerds, only to find out that a whole heap of cards are banned in the deck! Now THAT disappointed me, as I don't believe mtgo's banlist is the greatest. It lends heavily towards stax decks not having to worry about combo decks getting the explosive start by giving them all the time they need.

Opinions aside, I come asking help from all froggers! I've got some time to buy and playtest but the sooner the better.

Within the confines of legal in mtgo edh, what are your recommendations? I'm losing out on using my bazaar of baghdad (best Christmas present can't even be used xD), so I'm in serious need.

How do people feel about ad naus in a 30 life game?

Have to say, I absolutely love the deck. A L L H A I L T H E H Y P N O T O A D.

however, I don't quite understand how we can kill someone with Sunscorched Desert

If I did want to use doomsday what would I replace and how would I use it thank you for a wonderful deck

So I've been playing Gitrog a long time in a fairly competitive meta. I have had a good look at this list a thousand times.

I don't run many discard effects, but I'm looking at putting in raven's crime. A 1 mana rummage and hurt your opponent's hand? I can't understand why this isn't here.Collective brutality is really cool, I'd love to test it.I don't know what decks you were against in the reddit tournament, but replacing deluge has done me really well. Creatures in this meta are few and far between save for dorks. I find seeds of innocence and null rod are much stronger.

Lastly, I know its no bazaar, but geier reach sanitarium finds a home in my deck. Even if it's only a colourless land, it sits as a warning and forces hermit druid decks to get an extra land, or dig for a stifle. If you can slip it past their attention you can kill them for the low price of looting and drawing a combo piece.

Thoughts?

Leptys- I have two questions about budget options. Do you think I could cut all basics in my Gitfrog deck to add Hermit Druid and Gnaw to the Bone (among other HD combos)? Is there any difference in running Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Gaea's Blessing?

DragonBlitz31 for Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Gaea's Blessing the blessing only diffrence is that gaea's gives you the shuffle trigger if you mill it meanwhile kozilek shuffles if it goes to graveyard from anywhere.

both are normlly run as if an opponent tries to exile one of them from the graveyard you can just mill the other in responce. its more of a meta choice I think though, if nobody is running GY hate its just annoying to have extra shuffles going on for somthing like Life from the Loam

Soo Kozilek is strictly better, but both fill the slot in the combo fine?And by extra shuffles you mean either one?

Hey Leptys ,

Just wondering a few things.

First, why are we using multiple castings of Collective Brutality as a finisher instead of something like Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate?

Second, can you please explain how you can use Rath's Edge as a wincon?

@Ender666666

Collective Brutality is very useful outside the combo by offering extra protection on your combo turn as well as expanding the deck's removal suite further. The idea is to minimize the amount of cards that are included only as combo outlets, and to maximize the outlet cards' use outside of the combo.

The lines using Rath's Edge have been added to the primer in the Combo accordion very recently, check them out for more information on how to win with it.

I have built this in paper up to (but not including your adding of Grim Flayer).

A few changes I am making for my meta are as follow, I ovver them in case they help anyone else.

Cut: 1x Collective Brutality, 2x Swamp, 1x Forest

Added: 1x Torment of Hailfire, 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, 1x Glacial Chasm, and 1x Bojuka Bog

I prefer the directness of Torment as a closer, and being able to Crop Rotation into both Bog and Chasm to disrupt other players going off and winning is a bonus against Flash Hulk decks.

@Ender666666

Torment is actually probably the best outlet card that you could run outside of the loopable cards. Kinda gives you a way to win without Dakmor too with the Skirge Familiar + Life from the Loam combo (something that would take 2 hours with a Brutality).

Bojuka Bog is a card that deals with a combo player's graveyard, but Flash Hulk usually just gets Grand Abolisher which makes you unable to Crop Rotation for it. Planning to try out Scavenger Grounds soon in this list, as often enough our graveyard doesn't include any essential combo cards unless we're already going off, and it gets through Abolisher while drawing you a card with Gitrog in the field. Just something to keep in mind when testing Bog out, cheers.

I like Scavenger Grounds, nice choice