Overview:

This Thalia and The Gitrog Monster deck leverages land synergies, stax elements, and sacrifice/reanimation loops to control the board while generating overwhelming value. It combines landfall token generation with powerful stax pieces and efficient creature-based combos, using the commander's land acceleration and attack-triggered card draw to fuel its engine.

Primer:

Core Strategy: The deck aims to flood the board with landfall tokens (Scute Swarm, Field of the Dead) while deploying stax effects (Drannith Magistrate, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite) to slow opponents. Key win conditions include:

1. Land Destruction Lock: Armageddon + Crucible of Worlds/Conduit of Worlds to rebuild faster than opponents
2. Hulk Combos: Protean Hulk death triggers enabled by Karmic Guide/Saffi Eriksdotter recursion
3. Stax Overwhelm: Smothering Tithe/Doubling Season amplified tokens paired with Elesh Norn's anthem
4. Commander Voltron: Blackblade Reforged turns Thalia into a lethal threat with land count

Key Lines:

• T2 Exploration enables 3+ lands by T3
• T3 Oracle of Mul Daya sets up land drops from library top
• T4 Defense of the Heart fetching Protean Hulk + Grand Abolisher
• Post-Armageddon recovery via Walk-In Closet/Crucible of Worlds activations

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands (including 1 fetch/dual)
• Prioritize T1-2 ramp (Birds of Paradise, Deathrite Shaman)
• Reject hands without land acceleration or stax pieces in fast metas

Critical Interactions:

• Saffi Eriksdotter protects Karmic Guide, enabling infinite ETB loops
• Chatterfang, Squirrel General doubles token output from landfall
• Finale of Devastation X=10 gives lethal haste swings post-board wipe

Weaknesses:

Critical:

• Foldsto graveyard exile (Rest in Peace cripples 23% of deck)
• Reliant on commander for card advantage (dies to 3+ removals)

Moderate:

• Slow vs flying/evasive threats
• Limited counterspell protection

Minor:

• Mana base vulnerable to Blood Moon-effects (6 basics in 3 colors)

Most Important Cards:

• Crucible of Worlds
• Field of the Dead
• Protean Hulk
• Armageddon
• Smothering Tithe
• Sylvan Library
• Doubling Season
• Opposition Agent
• Defense of the Heart
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 7/10

• T5-6 land destruction locks
• T4 Defense of the Heart into T5 combo
• T3 Sylvan Library sets up explosive draws

Resilience: 6/10

• 8 recursion effects mitigate removal
• Weak to graveyard hate/commander focus fire
• 5 protection spells (Heroic Intervention, Silence)

Consistency: 7/10

• 7 tutors + 3 land-searchers
• Sylvan Library/The One Ring provide sustained draw
• Multiple redundant land engines

Interaction: 8/10

• 10 targeted removal (S-tier Assassin's Trophy)
• 4 board wipes including Farewell
• Opposition Agent/Drannith Magistrate as proactive stax

Rating Justification:

This deck operates at cEDH-adjacent speed (T5-6 effective wins) with premium interaction/stax, but lacks free counterspells and compact 2-card wincons seen in Tier 1.5 cEDH. Outperforms most optimized casual decks through land destruction locks and tutor density, but folds to dedicated grave hate. Matches "Focused Competitive (7.0)" in stax deployment speed but lacks T4 deterministic wins.

Power level: 6.5 - 7.0