Overview:
A land-focused value engine deck helmed by The Gitrog Monster, utilizing land sacrifice and recursion to generate card advantage while deploying threats through landfall triggers and reanimation strategies.
Primer:
This deck operates on multiple synergistic axes, with The Gitrog Monster serving as the primary card advantage engine. The strategy revolves around deliberately sacrificing and recurring lands to trigger various beneficial effects, while maintaining resource advantage through constant card draw. The deck can generate significant value through landfall triggers from cards like Avenger of Zendikar and Rampaging Baloths, while also having the ability to grind out games through land recursion with Life from the Loam and Ramunap Excavator.
The deck features several paths to victory, including creating massive token armies through landfall triggers, generating value through land sacrifice and recursion, and potentially closing games with large X-spells like Torment of Hailfire. The inclusion of cards like Dark Ritual and various tutors allows for explosive turns, while the land-based strategy provides consistent resource development throughout the game.
Weaknesses:
The deck is somewhat commander-dependent, as many of its strongest lines require The Gitrog Monster to be in play. Graveyard hate can significantly impact the deck's recursion strategy, while land destruction can disrupt the mana base needed for its bigger plays. The land count is slightly below optimal, which could lead to consistency issues in longer games.
Top 10 Most Impactful Cards:
- The Gitrog Monster
- Life from the Loam
- Ramunap Excavator
- Exploration
- Avenger of Zendikar
- Titania, Protector of Argoth
- Dark Ritual
- Vampiric Tutor
- Constant Mists
- Field of the Dead
Attribute Ratings:
- Speed: 5/10
- Resilience: 6/10
- Consistency: 6/10
- Interaction: 7/10
Rating Justification:
This deck sits firmly in the optimized casual range, showing more refinement than a typical precon but lacking the explosive speed and consistency of higher-powered builds. While it includes powerful cards and synergies, its reliance on its commander and slightly suboptimal land base prevents it from competing with more focused builds. The deck can generate significant value and maintain board presence, but typically needs several turns to establish its engine and close out games. It would struggle against decks in the 6.0+ range but would likely overpower most precons and casual builds.
Final power level rating: 5.0 - 5.5
The Gitrog Monster