New and looking for Psychatog deck advice.

[Esibnitsud]

Hey guys, im new to the drain. I started playing MTG in OD block and have been playing on and off ever since. I have also been playing online (ML) for most of its existence. Anyways, i wanted to say wassup and see if i could get some help with my tog build. I love classic tog, and tog is my favorite card ever (first card i won a tourney with) Before i sold my collection, i had about 400 togs, 40 of which were foil .

Anyways, onto the list.



// Lands
    4  Polluted Delta
    3  Underground Sea
    2  Swamp
    6  Island
    4  Flooded Strand
    1  Underground Sea

// Creatures
    4  Psychatog

// Spells
    1  Mind Twist
    3  Intuition
    4  Accumulated Knowledge
    1  Mox Jet
    4  Gush
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Demonic Tutor
    4  Mana Drain
    4  Force of Will
    1  Upheaval
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    3  Cunning Wish
    3  Merchant Scroll

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Daze
SB: 1  Mana Short
SB: 1  Diabolic Edict
SB: 1  Misdirection
SB: 1  Extirpate
SB: 1  Fact or Fiction
SB: 1  Stifle
SB: 1  Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1  Stroke of Genius
SB: 1  Chain of Vapor
SB: 4  Duress
SB: 1  Stream of Consciousness

Im looking for advice to help with the STAX matchup. Thanks. Also, does this mana base look ok?

Welcome to TMD. Make sure to make your topics less ambiguous. "New and looking for deck advice" doesn't shed much light on the contents, so I simply added "Tog" in the front to better catagorize it.

Also, all improvement/advice seeking threads go to the Vintage Improvement forum.

-Zherbus

[Dan_in_a_Can]

For starters, maindeck 4 brainstorms. Also, being that your win will be off the tog, play atleast 3 daze maindeck.

Play all 5 moxen

1x Strip mine

I would also run the duress main

Toss some smother in the SB, it helps when you're up against GAT.

You need to run Leyline's SB also IMO, either of the Void or Singularity (Whichever your preference is.) Up against Stax, Void is better, but i've found that Singularity has its perks as well.

[zeus-online]

Don't play with daze, that's just a bad way to make sure you never intu/AK or gush...But brainstorm is a must though

4 Psychatog's is too much, 2-3 should be sufficient, you're a control deck, not a combo deck.
Upheaval is waaay too expensive, go cunning wish/berserk if you want a splashy finisher.
Mind twist has recently been unrestricted, so i'd suggest cutting the 1 copy, or adding 1-2 more...I'm more of a fan of not playing it at all - Duress is usually superior.
You should play more acceleration, 7 solomoxen, 1 mana crypt would be a good place to start.
Also, i'd run 1 mystical tutor maindeck, and 1 vampiric SB to wish for.
2 Swamps is too much, you rarely want it, so 1 is really enough, oh and 8 fetches is a bit much, i usually go for 4-6 fetches.

/Zeus

[Grand Inquisitor]

    2  Swamp
    6  Island

You don't really need that many basics.  Cut all of the swamps, and at least two islands.  As Zeus mentioned, this deck performs much better with lots of acceleration.

    4  Psychatog

With four gush available the deck can be played much more aggressively.  However, if this is the direction you want to go (instead of more controlling), you should build the rest of the list around that idea.  You may want maindeck berserk in this case.

    3  Intuition
    4  Accumulated Knowledge
    4  Gush

That's a lot of draw.  Maybe too much.  The metagame is fast enough so that you may want to run more disruption.  Four duress seems necessary.

    1  Upheaval

This really isn't necessary.

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Daze
SB: 1  Mana Short
SB: 1  Diabolic Edict
SB: 1  Misdirection
SB: 1  Extirpate
SB: 1  Fact or Fiction
SB: 1  Stifle
SB: 1  Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1  Stroke of Genius
SB: 1  Chain of Vapor
SB: 4  Duress
SB: 1  Stream of Consciousness

You should start over here.  Especially if you're going to add green for berserk.  I played a rather unconventional list here: http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=22447.  But if I were going to run something more straightforward, it would look something like:

(5)
    4  Psychatog
    1  Berserk
(13)
    4  Brainstorm
    4  Gush
    4  Merchant Scroll
    1  Fact or Fiction
(8)
    1  Fastbond
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk   
    1  Mystical Tutor
    1  Regrowth
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
(15)
    4  Force of Will
    4  Duress
    3  Mana Drain
    2  Misdirection
    1  Cunning Wish
    1  Echoing Truth
(19)
    3  Underground Sea
    3  Island
    2  Tropical Island
    3  Flooded Strand
    3  Polluted Delta
    3  Mox Sapphire, Jet, Emerald
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Library of Alexandria

SB
    4  Leyline of the Void
    3  Energy Flux
    2  Pithing Needle
    1  Berserk
    1  Naturalize
    1  Trickbind
    1  Oxidize
    1  Smother
    1  Blue Elemental Blast

[Esibnitsud]

Ok thanks for the ideas guys im taking them all into consideration. Im playing basic lands to give a bit of an edge over recuriing wastelands. Im actually thinking about cutting an underground sea for another island. I dont really thing brainstorm fits the deck as well as the other card draw options availble. I have no desire to put cards back into my libary from hand, and would MUCH rather have them in the GY.  I seem to be winning most of my games just because i am able to generate so much card advantage. I am thinking about turning the merchant scrolls back into duress, but i need to test them more to make sure. Let me go through some of my thikning on certain cards here, since i dint do that before.

So i know there are alot fo ways to build a tog deck but i wanted to stay true to its classic form. This deck wins off 2 things. Smart plays and card advantage. This deck is not an easy deck to pilot to victory by anymeans, but it IS capable of winnng alot of games when played right. Try not to waste any mana and focus on setting up your hand + GY.




// Lands
    4  Polluted Delta
Everytime u sac a delta its tog food and whatever mana i need.

    4  Underground Sea (this one is a given)

    2  Swamp (might cut to one and add a mana accel. im thinking mana crypt so i can first turn wish and intuition.)

    6  Island   (again one thing i wanted in this deck was a high basic land count. through testing it has been usefull. this deck is very mana hungry and likes to make use of all its land everyturn.)

    4  Flooded Strand (tog food + colored mana)


// Creatures
    4  Psychatog (the win. we need for because often i need to intution for them if they arnt showing up. Also, 4 is just good. Increases my chance of opening with it, which is always nice.

// Spells
    1  Mind Twist (tutor target and random massive card advantage. i never really want this in my opening hand because it becomes most usefull turn 4-5 or in the late game)


    3  Intuition (the engine behind AK and a great tutor and its +3 for mr. toothy)

    4  Accumulated Knowledge (more card draw, instant speed, and good synergy with discarding if needed)

    1  Mox Jet

    4  Gush (+7+7 and UU mana, also can saveu when you are tapped and under pressure by an unexpected 2 cards. when played same turn as an upheval, its not uncommon to have 30+ cards in hand.)

    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Ancestral Recall

    1  Time Walk

    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Demonic Tutor

    4  Mana Drain (oh how i love you. makes for great turns. adding 5 to my mana pool off your force almost guarntess ill have 7 cards in hand when i pass)

    4  Force of Will (can i play 5?)


    1  Upheaval (upheaval +tog = pwned) also can randomly upheval u out of crazy situations and reset the game.)

    1  Yawgmoth's Will ( a must play for any black deck looking for card advantage.)

    3  Cunning Wish (my answer card. fetches whatever i need but often times just goes for a FoF, or a recall rFG by tog in resp.

    3  Merchant Scroll (this deck has 3 open slots the way i see it, and these fall into that. before was duress but i cant decide)

[Necrologia]

Brainstorm + Fetchland is one of the strongest synergies a blue control deck can have. It ups your chance to see lands and forces early, and keeps you from getting mana flooded later. It may not be card advantage, but the card selection Brainstorm can provide for a single U is amazing. I'd never cut Brainstorm from a blue control deck unless you have a very good reason. Phid decks ran Impulse over Brainstorm to let them drop Chalice @ 1 with impunity, but that's the only example I can think of off the top of my head.

[Esibnitsud]

Ok so i took in to account some of your advice.




// Lands
    4  Polluted Delta
    3  Underground Sea
    1  Swamp
    6  Island
    4  Flooded Strand

// Creatures
    4  Psychatog

// Spells
    1  Mind Twist
    3  Intuition
    4  Accumulated Knowledge
    1  Mox Jet
    4  Gush
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Demonic Tutor
    4  Mana Drain
    4  Force of Will
    1  Upheaval
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    3  Cunning Wish
    1  Mox Emerald
    4  Brainstorm

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Naturalize
SB: 1  Misdirection
SB: 1  Extirpate
SB: 1  Fact or Fiction
SB: 1  Stifle
SB: 1  Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1  Chain of Vapor
SB: 3  Duress
SB: 4  Leyline of the Void
SB: 1  Smother


I cut a swamp and an underground sea for a mox emerald and added in 4 brainstorm taking out 3 merchant scroll. Gonna run this list through some games.