[Deck] Grow-A-Tog

[Silthyn]

Grow-A-Tog, or GAT, is an aggro-control deck that plays almost like the well-known Threshold lists. Control the board, counter everything that could be a threat to you, drop some fatties and win the game. The list is most known from Vintage, where you can abuse Psychatog with Gush and Yawgmoth Wills, but I believe the Legacy version can be really competitive if played right (maybe not as good as Threshold, but much more fun) :)

Here's my current version:
//Lands:
4 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Swamp

//Creatures:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Psychatog

//Counters:
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
3 Daze

//Other:
4 Duress
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
3 Sleight of Hand
3 Ghastly Demise
3 Pernicious Deed

I'll explain some of my card choices:
Dark Confidant - Do I really need to explain him? If he survives, you're on the road to victory.

Quirion Dryad - Your primary wincondition. The Dryad gets really big with all the cantrips you run. Turn 2 - Quirion Dryad. Turn 3 - Serum Visions, Brainstorm, Duress and you attack with a 4/4 into your opponents face.

Psychatog - Your secondary wincondition. I don't think I need to explain this one. When you play him, you'll always be able to pump him, and that ability will only become better in lategame (and with Confidant). He's an amazing blocker in early game and a bomb in lategame.

Ghastly Demise - You have a big graveyard. This card replaces StP, and, while not being as good, destroys almost all creatures you want destroy (well, except Dark Confidants and Shades, which you should be able to counter).

Pernicious Deed - The format's best mass removal. This baby is good againstmany decks, and autowins against Affinity. At worst, it pumps your Dryad, or can kill your Confidants if they're causing too much pain :D

All Cantrips - Makes the Dryad and Tog go big. And that is the goal of this deck, if you didn't understand that :D


I like the list alot, it's really fun to play. Anyone know any good card that should be included? Fathom Seer is an interesting idea, but I don't know if it's good enough... Tarmogoyf is probably a good card that could replace Quirion Dryad with some minor tweaks.

[Jaynel]

I don't really like the look of Pernicious Deed in this deck. I'd go for some more targetted removal instead. Vendetta, maybe, or Swords to Plowshares if you can modify your manabase at all.

[Nantuko88]

I just played my own Grow-a-tog deck this friday at a Small Legacy tournament (10 people) going 3-0-1 and spliting for first. Here is my slightly unconventional deck:

Creatures:
3 Quirion Dryad
3 Tog
1 Tarmogoyf

Counters:
4 Force
4 CounterSpell
2 Circular Logice

Draw:
1 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
4 AK
2 Intuition
3 FOF

Utility:
4 Deed (MVP)
2 Shackles
2 Cunning Wish
1 Time Warp

Land:
4 Sea
4 Trop
4 F. Strand
4 Delta
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Engineered Plague
3 Duress
1 MisD
1 Berserk
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Reap the Grave
1 Krosan Grip

Pernicious Deed was MVP in every game, blowing up the board in the mid game is very important in Legacy, with the heavy draw, Tog will quickly take advantage of this "reset". Shackles also proved very helpful, taking control of would be attackers and chumping their critters with their critters was good "removal".

Admittedly my meta is not seasoned or Tier 1, so its possible (and very likely) that my success can be attributed to the that fact. But playing Time Warp is always great, being able to jump out of my seat and take a jump to the left and step to the right is always appreciated.

[Hanni]

Looks good. My personal fixes would be to drop 1 Tropical Island and 1 Underground Sea for 1 Sleight of Hand and 1 Ghastly Demise. However, I'd seriously consider replacing the Dryads for Tarmogoyfs.

[Silthyn]

Looks good. My personal fixes would be to drop 1 Tropical Island and 1 Underground Sea for 1 Sleight of Hand and 1 Ghastly Demise. However, I'd seriously consider replacing the Dryads for Tarmogoyfs.

I can see what you mean. Tarmogoyf is probably better than Quirion Dryad, but if you don't want to pay 20$ for one Tarmogoyf, the Dryad is a great replacement that's almost as good.

The Pernicious Deed is the bomb. Seriously, it wins games all alone. Sure, you might blow up your Dryad and Bobs (Psychatog often survives), but then, at least you wont lose the game. And you have to play smart, not playing your creatures if you're planning to Deed etc.

[thefreakaccident]

ya know, I was a really big fan of GAT in vintage, and see no problem with porting it to legacy... I think the tog should be a 3 of, and drop dryad for goyf... in vintage dryad may be better, but in this format it is not.

I am not sure if daze is a good choice of cards for a midgame aggro-control, seeing as it is only affective in the first couple of turns for the most part.

I really like the second list that was posted except for the 1 ofs and such...

I would say for list # 2 go like:

-1 time warp
-2 shackles
+3 ghastly demise

-1 ancestral vision
+1 cunning wish

-2 circular logic
-3 dryad
+3 tarmogoyf
+1 psychatog
+1 intuition


those are the changes I would make.

as far as a wishboard may be concerned I may go like:
1 diabolic edict/ghastly demise (perhapes both)
1 krosan grip
1 trickbind
1 sudden death (maybe putrify)
1 wipe away
1 worldly tutor (tutor for wincons)

then actual sideboard cards...


besides my changes listed you will want a way to recurr your threats... perhapes running volrath's stronghold or a lone genesis... just some ideas.

[Silthyn]

I am not sure if daze is a good choice of cards for a midgame aggro-control, seeing as it is only affective in the first couple of turns for the most part.

Daze is awesome. In early game, it counters threats like Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. In late game, it pitches to FoW, or maybe counter something if the opponent is manascrewed.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

Daze is awesome. In early game, it counters threats like Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. In late game, it pitches to FoW, or maybe counter something if the opponent is manascrewed.

What I learned from TarmoTog (this is part of an update that I haven't made yet; I'm re-writing the primer first) is that Daze can be problematic. In the early game, it seduces you into bad plays, which result in significant tempo loss. I'm now running Mana Leak instead, simply because it's all-around stronger. When you're running Deed, countering stuff really early on matters a lot less; what's more important is keeping unmanageable threats off the table.

Now, I'm not saying that Daze is bad; merely that I think that Mana Leak does more in the Legacy Tog framework. I could obviously be wrong »(and I expect to be trashed), but in my extensive testing, I'm much happier with Mana Leak. Not to mention that if your late-game plan is to pitch Daze to FoW, you're essentially relying on just four counterspells.

The one thing you need to be careful of, with Mana Leak, is your combo matchups.

EDIT: FYI, you can see the work that I did on TarmoTog here (http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?p=154396#post154396). The deck isn't quite the same, but it may give you some ideas. I'm horribly biased, but I prefer it due to its increased aggressivity and strong recursion. But yeah, I'm VERY biased. :tongue:

[Citrus-God]

So... has everyone, like, forgotten about Force Spike?

[thefreakaccident]

No, we haven't forgotten about force spike... it's just too bad of a card to consider... daze is the same except it can be 'free' manawise.

I know it doesn't have the tempo loss that daze nay have, but it is dead after turn 5 just like daze is.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

No, we haven't forgotten about force spike... it's just too bad of a card to consider... daze is the same except it can be 'free' manawise.

I know it doesn't have the tempo loss that daze nay have, but it is dead after turn 5 just like daze is.

Agreed. Whereas Mana Leak is like Counterspell, only it's easier to play because it doesn't require two coloured mana. :smile:

[Hatthehat]

Smother would be good.

[Ebinsugewa]

Bardo and I had a discussion of the deck going for a bit before the last Mana Leak, and he was having some success with the deck during his offtime from Threshold, but I couldn't get the magic to happen at the big event. The deck always seems underpowered; efficient, but you have to play really tight and get a little lucky it seems to come out on top. Mind you, this was before Tarmogoyf, which seems like the direction to take the deck in nowadays, as Dryad is just subpar in Legacy.

[from Cairo]

So... has everyone, like, forgotten about Force Spike?

I would tend to agree, unless that was sarcasm, I suppose it very well could be. But I mean this deck doesn't really have T1/T2 sorcery speed things that its dropping, it could drop Tarmogoyf T2 I guess(NVM looking at the first list it plays alot of T1 Sorceries for Duress/cantrips, the second list didn't have many), but for the most part it plays control and wants to cast instants and keep its land drops, Force Spike seems better than Daze in this deck.

Admittedly it sucks in the late game, both of them do, but Spike doesn't kill you're tempo, and owns T1/2 plays just the same, which there are a ton of solid ones in this format.