Newb to legacy, and don't understand Psychatog
Legacy forum
Posted on Sept. 18, 2013, 6:51 p.m. by KingSorin
Why is/was Psychatog so good? I just don't really know, as I've never played it, but it doesn't seem too powerful to me. Same as that discard to make it any colour and get +1/+1 2/2 for 1G
Don't worry, no one plays Psychatog in the competitive realm.
September 18, 2013 7:10 p.m.
This the best explaination and it's from Aquillion at the Gatherer's page:
- "@TheWrathofShane: The issue is that people would run it with Upheaval , so your removal (unless it only costs one mana) won't do you any good. All they have to do is trade off one-for-one counters or removal until they have eight lands out (filling their graveyard in the process), then tap all lands, Upheaval , play one land again, and play their Psychatog . The next turn, unless you have a one-mana answer, they discard eight cards, exile their entire graveyard, and attack you for game. It doesn't matter that the boost only lasts one turn when it can get twenty power in an empty field.It's both ridiculously effective and unbelievably boring to play against.Even without that combo, this card is very good simply for the ability to discard at will -- all sorts of decks can benefit from that, especially if you're using Madness or reanimate."
September 18, 2013 7:16 p.m.
Ah, okay. I see why people used it. On its own they just seemed to me quite underwhelming, but I can see why with madness etc. and a deck around them that even only +1/+1 until eot is still really strong.
September 18, 2013 7:48 p.m.
I used to play this deck back in extended years ago. It had the ability to dump the entire library into the graveyard, whittle the opponent down with Ichorid and Putrid Imp , then finish with a very large Psychatog .
Psychatog just isn't very good anymore due to Tarmogoyf being so much more consistent and the go-to card for blue-based control decks.
September 18, 2013 7:58 p.m.
Psychatog is more of a cube card. It's amazing for reanimator decks for throwing reanimation targets to the bin
September 18, 2013 9:44 p.m.
Tangl_Anglr says... #8
Very late answer, but:
Actually, Psychatog, like many very good cards, is good because if you stick it in a deck with one or more already good things, they become better.
Psychatog:
turns fetchlands into pump.
turns draw engines into pump.
turns cards you don't need into pump.
turns dredge into pump.
turns some flashback cards into pump.
turns Intuition and Fact or Fiction into pump.
turns its own pump into (more) pump.
Forces your enemy to consider your untapped 'tog as if it were as big as you could make it, allowing you to avoid actually exiling/discarding unless you really need to.
Forces your enemy to block your attacking 'tog as if it were as big as you could make it, allowing you to pump your tog only to the level it needs to survive until you're capable of ending the match.
Summary: You shouldn't compare Toggy to Tarmy--he's really more like a Shade whose ability doesn't cost mana. Also, his power is fueled if you do things that control, combo, and aggro-control decks already want to do a lot of anyway (draw, dredge, fetchlands, broken Blue card filtering). That's why he's powerful.
Jay says... #2
Mostly, because of Madness. These are cards that you can play for little or no mana when they're discarded, giving you double the profit. (See: Basking Rootwalla , Circular Logic )
Not to mention the fact that they both have pumps that are totally independent of mana, which can be turned around as another bonus for you.
Very versatile abilities on cheap bodies are valuable.
September 18, 2013 6:57 p.m.