I'm a fellow Gitrog player. I started building it because I like to draw cards. Didnt think there were any combos involved. But i do run that main combo, but it's hard to understand. I'm thinking about turning my Gitrog into Lord Windgrace.

Also, I dont understand how you can cast Praetor's Grasp multiple times. But my win-cons in my build with the main combo is spend all that mana on Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire

Hi there! Frog-curious here! Played a while ago before making it Titania. Just a few questions if you don't mind!

I am definitely doing a few budget cuts if I end up making this. In their place, I was thinking of a few additions, and had some questions. Let me address them.

-Would Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth work here? It doesn't mess with the strategy much, does it?

-Any particular reason why there's no Azusa, Lost but Seeking? I think maybe because you run enough dorks/have an exploration on the commander, is that about right?

-Is Lotus Cobra too slow?

-Would Splendid Reclamation be okay in a cEDH Gitrog deck?

-This deck can support Glacial Chasm right? That was one of my initial draws that I carried over to Titania! And on that note, does the deck have room for Constant Mists to prevent aggro blowout? Again less of a problem in cEDH, but still!

-And finally, what about Eternal Witness or Regrowth? Also too slow?

Thanks a bunch! Really digging this primer.

@WildFang16

Hello, glad you like the primer. My two cents currently:

-Urborg is very good and very playable, it's excluded here mainly because it gives a lot of black fixing to opposing decks with Ad Nauseam, something my meta runs a lot of.

-Lotus Cobra isn't slow, it's actually super efficient and fast. It's excluded just because I want to use the slot to test other cards.

-Azusa, however, is way too slow for its effect to be useful often enough after she has landed. After resolving her, you usually don't have more than a land to play, unless you have access to other cards like Life from the Loam.

-Splendid Reclamation is fine in a Gitrog deck, assuming you're focused on a grindy value game and are not against top tier combo decks all the time. In those cases it will be too slow and ineffecitve for its cost to be worth running, as you wanna tunnel vision into the combo or protection for it.

-Glacial Chasm and Constant Mists are fine against aggro if you play against those kinds of decks that focus you a lot. In competitive metas they are most likely not worth the slot though, as people are looking to combo off without swinging with creatures.

-Regrowth and Eternal Witness both are fine includes. I just run other cards in their place because of Kozilek and Gaea's Blessing working as in-combo forms of recursion, something that competitive decks running Regrowth/Witness usually use them as.

Awesome, thank you! I had one final question. Well, two. Thought of them later.

-One of the draws to this was the inclusion of that new beauty, Underrealm Lich. Now, I have a good buddy who plays Gitrog competitively, and he says he loves using it. First off, my inner vorthos is screaming for me to use it, but my budding cEDH side is airing on the side of caution and thinking of it in terms of utility and usefulness. I am currently going to use it, but I want to ask a professional's opinion!

-I was planning on running reanimate for tech, to grab back Skirge Familiar, cheaply reanimate Gitrog if needed, bring back the aforementioned Underrealm lich, or snag something nice from an opponent's grave. Thoughts on that?

Thanks for humoring me! I like to learn from the high-tier players so that I can join them and be worth facing at some point.

@WildFang16:

I admit that Underrealm Lich thematically looks like something that could be shoehorned into Gitrog due to its ability to chain off of draw triggers and dig deep into the deck to find Dakmor quicker. However, when optimizing the list for competitive play, you want to avoid playing too many cards at 4+ CMC unless you plan to gain an overwhelming advantage by casting it (or is something you plan to stick for way less mana, like a reanimation target in a reanimator deck).

This goes doubly so with Lich in a list like this, as it and the commander are sitting at the same mana cost of 5. So when you get to 5 mana, you always will come to the quandary of which one to cast. Most of the time you want to cast Gitrog herself to get a combo piece on the field and accrue value, while at other times you want to resolve Ad Nauseam to win on the spot. Lich, however, doesn't do enough for it to be worth the 5 mana in a combo list like this, especially when it's essential to your gameplan to do something completely different in the earliest moment you can try casting it.

Reanimation effects, while useful, are off the beaten path when it comes to the combo gameplan. I did run Necromancy for a while, but its function as part of the combo lines was the main reason it warranted an include. If you run a reanimator list that aims to win off of a card like Razaketh, the Foulblooded for example, then Reanimate becomes part of a bigger combo line and makes it way more useful to the overall strategy.

Flexibility and being part of the primary gameplan is key to including a card in a combo list like this, and it is also part of the reason the deck doesn't want to use card slots to include Eternal Witness and Regrowth, as I mentioned earlier.

Hi i do not understand the necropotence/planar void “remove as a trigger” and how to combo off under that can anyone explain it to me please ? Realms uncharted piles ? Im lost there Stax options besides the opresion and contamination Thanks alot for the primer really nice And complete

Hi i do not get the doomsday piles i mean the Rain of filth/late of the dead Skirge familiar Dakmor Praetors grasp Kozilek I know you need to have a cantrip to open the pile but how to sequence a win with only those cards?

Hi! Thinking of building the deck in paper for 1v1 using mtgo banlist. First of all thansk for this primer, so well written :) I am confused as why we don't play Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre over Gaea's Blessing , as the former can be discarded through imp/constrictor to reshuffle, while the latter cannot. As second thing: Sylvan library is banned in mtgo, any suggestion on what can replace it?

Thanks a lot, again nice work!

Top can offer similar value to Library, and Gaea's Blessing can be reasonably cast, giving cantrip value, whereas Ulamog cannot.

@Leptys Currently there are very few deterministic Gitrog loops without an Eldrazi titan. I've attempted this combo time and time again, and though it works, I'm hesitant to try it in a non-goldfish environment, so please relay your thoughts. Req's: Gaea's Blessing , Dakmor Salvage , Noxious Revival , Chrome Mox + 1 spare green card / Elvish Spirit Guide , 7 other nonland cards, Lion's Eye Diamond , Lotus Petal , Necropotence , Nature's Claim , Green Sun's Zenith , Dark Ritual , Cabal Ritual , Mana Crypt , Chains of Mephistopheles , Mox Diamond , Ad Nauseam , Crop Rotation , 1 payoff spell (more on that later).

STEPS!

1: Achieve library in hand, 0 grave, 0 library via usual discard dakmor loop until you hit GB ( Gaea's Blessing ); go to step 2

2: After shuffling, resolve draws until you have 1 card left in library. Discard GB, cast NR ( Noxious Revival ) to put GB on top of your 1-card library. Dakmor these to get a shuffle trigger, hold priority; go to step 3

3a: if you gained an additional draw trigger from the last card being a land: discard nonlands from your hand equal to the number of draw triggers on the stack -2. Resolve GB shuffle and draw triggers; go to step 4

3b: if you dredged a non-land to put the shuffle trigger on the stack, discard nonlands from your hand equal to the number of draw triggers on the stack -3. Resolve GB shuffle & draw triggers; go to step 4

4: (this is where it gets hairy).

Cast Chrome Mox (or exile Elvish Spirit Guide ), exiling any excess card ( Nimble Mongoose / Colossal Dreadmaw ); Discard 3 more nonlands; Cast gaea's blessing to shuffle the discarded cards in; Cast GSZ ( Green Sun's Zenith ) for 0; NR your GB; Chain LP ( Lotus Petal ) into DR ( Dark Ritual ), into CR ( Cabal Ritual ); Discard 4 nonlands;

Play LED; Dredge dakmor for a GB shuffle - hold priority and pop LED (for green) - dredge again (you won't net draw triggers as you only have nonlands in library); resolve GB; go to step 5:

Recap! So far you've binned some cards, made some mana & drawn the same cards. You're at ground 0, with some floating G&B mana. But this is just the setup for the real combo.

5: Cast Necropotence . Discard & exile from your hand all unnecessary nonland cards (like Storm Crow or extra discard outlets etc) until you have 1 land in your hand MORE than the nonland count. Then NC ( Nature's Claim ) your necropotence; go to step 6

6: Cast GSZ for 0; discard GB; NR your GB; Play&pop LP for G; Play&pop LED for GGG - dredge dakmor; use normal dakmor loop to refill hand, empty your library & yard. You SHOULD now be floating BB,GGGG; go to step 7

7: Chain the following: LED, LP, MC ( Mana Crypt ); NC your MC; GB your NC into your library; cast CoM ( Chains of Mephistopheles ); cast GSZ; cast MD ( Mox Diamond ) & float G; hold priority over the draw trigger (from the discarded land to MD) and discard lands equal to one fewer than the number of cards in your library & yard; hold priority - NR your GB; dredge dakmor; hold priority over the GB shuffle & pop LP for G, cast DR, cast CB, resolve GB shuffle; go to step 8

RECAP: Your library should now be: GB, DR, CR, NC, MD, LP, GSZ, NR, MC and a bunch of lands.

8: cast ad naus' to put these cards in hand; go to step 9

9: discard GB, NR your GB, discard all lands in hand; cast entomb - hold priority; NC your CoM - hold priority; cast DR, CR; proceed to step 10 10: Cast a payoff spell (like Assassin's Trophy , Beast Within , Ebony Charm . Hell, for all I care - cast a Death of a Thousand Stings at this point); proceed to step 11

11: cast Crop Rotation - hold priority over the draw trigger, pop LED for GGG. Mill 1 from crop rotation draw (with CoM in play) - milling GB. Resolve shuffle, tutor up Twilight Mire from Crop Rotation - filter B into GG; resolve NC on CoM; resolve entomb to put GB in the yard, shuffle; resolve all draw triggers - emptying your library; go to step 7 to continue looping.

This section is shortcut-able in tournament play - as you now have a definitive card count during EACH iteration of this loop & you can ensure that you always end up with the same card count in library, hand, graveyard.

SynergyBuild thanks for the clarification! So I assume that until I keep Gaea's Blessing it doesn't matter if the other card is Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth as we aren't going to cast it but only use the shuffle effect, is it right?

Also unfortunately Sensei's Divining Top is not legal, I have to find something else for that spot, but thanks again :)

I mean... Mirri's Guile ?

Ops I totally forgot about it, I feel silly now XD

lovely,thanks again :)

Nakors09, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has lower CMC than Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre . It matters when you use Ad Nauseam or Dark Confidant . Otherwise they are the same.

Hey just wondering is Rath supposed to be in the deck still?

@Legion564

Nope, it's out as you can also win at instant-speed by looping Beast Within or Assassin's Trophy to destroy opponents' permanents, then swinging for lethal next turn with infinite beast tokens or infinitely pumped discard outlet creatures.

While I aim to update the core primer on the most critical changes, the "Latest Changes" tab explains all the discrepancies between the primer and the most up-to-date list, so be sure to check that out.

@n0bunga:

Haven't tested Whisperer, nor Underrealm Lich . Both could hold their own as extra ways to go off and are more than worthy of testing.

Some of the Gitrog brews on our Discord channel have utilized both as reanimation targets along with Razaketh, the Foulblooded , but I haven't delved into that kind of list as of yet.

Instead of Ad Nauseum, run this gem, great in grave decks with slightly higher curves.

Necrologia it also has double value because you draw more after you pitch

Also, after listening to your video, necropotence exiles anything you discard, which hoses your deck

rpshea14 the thing that you need to remember with Necropotence is that you don't discard to exile. Instead whenever you discard a card it creates a trigger to exile that card - a trigger of which you can respond to.

As somebody who plays Gitrog a lot - ad nauseam is stronger, despite the life loss as you can play it through Angel of Jubilation effects, you can cast it before your turn, it beats Spirit of the Labyrinth effects... but Necrologia a neat budget option!

CyborgAeon I have never read Necro like that however that is hilariously amazing. My thought was that you can pay 35 life, draw 35 cards, then pitch the like 15-20 lands you just got to draw a lot more.

Also - I play karador as my main, but i run a gitrog wincon in the deck, so my knowledge of him comes from the 99 not the command zone. I was looking around for commanders that play similar to karador and see what people were playing.

If Karador is your main - try a 4c flash hulk deck (tymna&thrasios is good). You can easily include a boonweaver package in there, if you want. This deck in particular is very... unique. Not best for blending, but fun.

n0bunga Hey Savage Summoning makes it a 7/7*

Give it some credit, it can eat a Nicol Bolas xD

I don't see Grim Tutor anywhere. Has it been considered? It seems like a solid tutor, just costing 1 more than Demonic. The life loss isn't a huge issue either, being a 40 life format.