> Deck Description

Grolnok, Glutinous Toad, tries to win quickly with a ton of defensive interaction, it uses its commander ability to outvalue your opponents, generating the best card advantage milling yourself with Grolnok on the battlefield. Remember that whatever you mill with a Croak counter on it is like drawing it.
There are cards like Hermit Druid and Intuition that will allow you to win very quickly and the deck ramps fast enough as so to cast Grolnok as early as turn 1.

> Deck Strengths

Grolnok, Glutinous Toad ability lets you generate a lot of value, exiling cards with croak counters is like drawing that card because you can play them if your commander is on the battlefield, you run some protection cards to take care of removal being the most important one Sylvan Safekeeper and also you have a lot of interaction with your blue counter spell base.
Depending in the mulligans and pod composition you should be looking to tutor and win quickly with Hermit Druid or Intuition (I’ll explain how to win with these cards in the Winning section).

> Deck Weaknesses

The worst stax pieces for the decks are Drannith Magistrate and Humility because they shut down Grolnok’s ability and the deck is completely focused on winning with his ability.
Cards like Cursed Totem and Null Rod also affects your winning capabilities because you will try to mill yourself with Hermit Druid and / or Cephalid Illusionist + Lightning Greaves.
Also any graveyard hate cards that have a replacement effect like Rest in Peace also affects your ability to use Grolnok effectively, you can still look for the win with other ways if this happens, just focus on having Thassa’s Oracle in your hand.
The deck plays blue spells so you have to rely on counter spells to be able to control the board well enough so you can score a win.
Any type of removal of Grolnok is also a weakness because you need him to be able to win, unless you already start with Thassa’s Oracle on hand and just go quickly to mill yourself with Hermit Druid or Mesmeric Orb / Basalt Monolith.
We also run some cards that let you take care of stax pieces like Oko, Thief of Crowns, Winds of Rebuke, Seal of Removal or Cyclonic Rift and a ton of ways to tutor them.

> Gameplan

> Early Game

> Quick Strategy Overview

You should be able to know if you are looking for a quick win depending on the Mulligans, turn order and pod composition. Just look for the right opportunity to go for it and be sure you have some protection in hand to be able to do so, if you are looking for an early win you shouldn’t concern yourself that much with what other players are doing on their side of the board and should be saving your answers for yourself.
If you go for the early game win, you should consider that probably you milled yourself, have Grolnok on the battlefield and you are trying to win with Thassa’s Oracle, if they counter it, it goes to your graveyard again and get’s exiled with a croak counter allowing you to recast it. If someone stifles Thoracle ability then you have in your graveyard or hand Phantasmal Image and you can cast it copying Thassa’s Oracle for the win.

> Mulligans

The best way to describe a good starting hand is only having two type of cards, a free counter spell and a fast mana / ramp card. With this you will be able to cast Grolnok as quickly as turn one and start creating value with it looking for the combo. Obviously, a better starting hand also contains some type of tutor so you can find the 1 cards combo pieces quickly, but just with ramp and protection, Grolnok’s ability shines for its value generation.
If you start with Thassa’s Oracle and tutors or Hermit Druid in hand you can try and go for the super-fast win, but usually any disruption of this combo cripples you for the rest of the game, that is why I don’t recommend starting with a hand like that. The deck is built around Grolnok and you should choose your hand accordingly.

> Turn Order

Turn order is also important, starting last can be a small advantage because cards like Concordant Crossroads let you net a quick win or start generating value with Grolnok while other players have already played their hands first.
On the other hand, starting first let you also start putting your value pieces on the battlefield quickly and have a better feeling of what you are up to in turn 2.
Knowing your pod composition and turn order should let you decide if you take an additional mulligan.

> Mid Game

If you got to the mid-game is because you started your hand with a slower bur safer hand, you should still have Grolnok on the battlefield and be generating value with its attack trigger and other advantage engine cards like Rhystic Study, Exploration and Sylvan Library or to keep milling yourself with the other cards in the deck. We run some tutors that put cards on top of your library and with Grolnok ability you should be able to exile them with Croak counters and play them in your second main phase.
Here you should focus on controlling the board while looking for the combo pieces that allows you to win.
Taka into consideration that Grolnok only exiles with Croak Counters your permanent cards, so any other non-permanent is going to your graveyard.

> Late Game

Grolnok has small chances of winning in the late game, because you should have already attempted to use Thassa’s Oracle as a win, but if that was stopped, you can still recover from it by recasting Thassa’s Oracle with a Croak counter, recasting it with Finale of Devastation from your graveyard or if its ability was stifled by copying it with Phantasmal Image.
Usually if you are in this stage of the game is because of stax pieces so an overloaded Cyclonic Rift is your best option to net a win.

> Winning

The hole deck is built into milling yourself with Croak counters and successfully resolve a Thassa’s Oracle trigger.
The 2 best cards in the deck to achieve this are Intuition and Hermit Druid, remember that whatever you look with Intuition if Grolnok is on the battlefield, you’ll be able to play it because is either in your hand or exiled with a Croak counters.

> Breaking down Intuition

> With Grolnok in play…

• Hermit Druid + Concordant Crossroads + Lightning Greaves
• Hermit Druid + Concordant Crossroads + Gaea’s Cradle
• Hermit Druid + Concordant Crossroads + Cavern od Souls
• Hermit Druid + Concordant Crossroads + Sylvan Safekeeper
• Cephalid Illusionist + Lightning Greaves + Sylvan Safekeeper
• Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith + X
  Remember that you will be able to play all of the combinations you look with intuition, and if any of this gets disrupted, you can later on look for the other combo pieces.
  When any of these combos resolve, you will have exiled with Croak counters all the mana rocks to be able to cast ThOracle.

> Without Grolnok in play…

Tutor or have ThOracle in your hand, mill your library with any combo piece and cast it with enough mana. As I have stated before, is the riskier move because any disruption kills you.

> Cephalid Illusionist + Lightning Greaves

Mill your hole deck activating the equip ability of Lightning Greaves between Grolnok and Cephalid Illusionist and go for the ThOracle win.

> Hermit Druid

Activate Hermit Druid’s ability, mill your hole deck with Croak Counters and go for the ThOracle win.

> Mermeric Orb + Basalt Monolith

Tap Basalt Monolith for 3 mana, Untap it with its anility and mill your hole deck with Mesmeric Orb, then go for the ThOracle win.

> Some more Miscellaneous Advice…

• Use Sylvan Safekeeper, Malevolent Hermit and Lightning Greaves to protect your commander at all cost.
• Use Finale of Devastation so if someone counters your ThOracle you can recast it, the same is true for Noxious Revival.
• Some combo lines like the one with Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith lets you respond in instant speed if someone cast Endurance in response of ThOracle trigger, so you can mill yourself again and still win.
• Keep your counter spells to yourself so you can go for a quick win and have protection, let other players worry about other combos on the battlefield.