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Land (23)
12 Island
3 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground River
Creatures (5)
1 Wonder
4 Psychatog
Other (32)
4 Brainstorm
3 Force Spike
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Mana Leak
4 Counterspell
3 Cunning Wish
2 Intuition
3 Fact or Fiction
1 Upheaval
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Smother
Sideboard (15)
1 Mana Leak
1 Shadow Rift
1 Mana Short
1 Capsize
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Coffin Purge
4 Duress
1 Terror
1 Corpse Dance
3 Powder Keg
Extended Psychatog, or just Tog, is the purest control deck of the
format. Like any blue-based control deck, Tog seeks to deny and kill
creatures to neutralize an aggro deck's speed while building up for the
eventual win.
However, Tog differs from any blue control deck before it. The dreaded
Draw-Go deck of old finished the game with Morphling for 5 through four
turns, and the game would draw on even LONGER if decking is involved. Of
course, this kind of strategy takes a little time, and because Draw-Go
has few creatures, protecting them were a top priority. And, like any
game that draws on, there would always be a chance for the opponent to
come back.
Tog changed all that. Upheaval followed by Tog is the deadliest late
game combo of any deck in Extended. Not only can Tog finish in just one
powerful attack, but Upheaval provided an almost impossible way to
prevent the win.
The other important asset Tog has going for it is the black component.
In all respect to Draw-Go, black just has better cards to deal with
creatures. Instead of waiting turns to eliminate them with Powder Keg,
Tog can deploy Smother to wipe out weenies just as fast as they are
played. Between Intuition for Accumulated Knowledge (AK) and Fact or
Fiction, Tog rarely runs out of options.
Black isn't just for dealing with creatures. While allowing to play
Psychatog in the first place is nice, actually surprising opponents with
Corpse Dance is even better. If they tap out thinking everything is
safe, Corpse Dance can turn that misconception into an autowin. With 3
copies of maindeck Cunning Wish, Corpse Dance will turn any dead Tog
into a potential game winner. If they deal with the Tog, you have
another chance next turn if you paid buyback. The card can slowly
diminish opposing resources as you build up to the eventual win.
As in any control deck, Tog will simply try to survive the early game.
Since Tog is a reactive deck, it is automatically in a defensive stance;
not exactly the way to win games. However, the deck has ways to refill
the hand with counters and creature kill, so relax if you play Tog. If
you happen to draw Dr. Tooth, play him. The threat of an early win will
take some punch out of an offense, and there's good defense in the atog
if you have a nice, fat graveyard. As long as you are building to
Upheaval-Tog, you can never be truly out of the game.
Now on to the finer points of the deck. The common thing to do for card
advantage is Intuition for 3 AKs. Not only will this fatten up the
graveyard, you get three more cards, with the outcome six cards deeper
into the deck and more food for Dr. Tooth. If you happen to draw the
last AK, more power to you. Another way to max out Intuition is search
for Wonder and Psychatog. Remember Corpse Dance? Wonder provides a fast
way to avoid blockers, and Tog is situationally placed into the grave,
ready to win.
The common Brainstorm doesn't look like much, but it was surprising
synergy with Polluted Delta and Intuition. Digging four cards deeper and
shuffling those excess land away is a great idea if you are behind in
board position.
Lastly, Cunning Wish opens up almost your entire sideboard to the first
game. This advantage is so great because of Tog's redundancy. If you
counter a spell, you are essentially hosing a deck/color. This means
that you can afford to lose specific hate cards for a versatile board
that is basically part of your deck if you hold a Cunning Wish.
The basic uses of the cards are simple: Mana Short, Capsize, Terror, and
Cofffin Purge provide answers to control and reanimator decks. The
Standard Wish for Mana Short to Upheaval-Tog works in Extended too. This
is the common way to win against TurboLand, Oath, and the mirror.
Fact or Fiction and Mana Leak are just great cards to use if you can
burn a Wish, and the Shadow Rift provides an alternative evasion with
Tog if you can't get a Wonder into the grave. Powder Keg are for weenie
decks and Tinker, which have trouble with Tog if they can't get going
fast enough. A Keg will make sure they stay down.
Finally, the 4 Duress top the sideboard off. I feel that four is
definitely the right number. In a control on control matchup, you can't
expect to cast important spells because you would be behind in mana for
counters, along with some wasted steam (if you mainphased the spell).
This is especially important when you want to Upheaval. Mana Short is
logically the best answer, but I feel Duress is the better one.
Extremely good against Tinker, combo, and reanimator decks, Duress is a
proactive counter that also reveals the opponent's position to you. This
could mean a difference between a successful bluff for the opponent or
an easy win for you. 4 Duress is a must, IMHO.
That's all for Extended Tog. Hope you learned something about Extended's
top control deck. |
