129,140,163 (EDH / Commander)

The goal of this deck is to do degenerate and slightly janky simic things.

First thing to note is that there are only permanents in this deck (with one major exception, stay tuned). This is in part for the challenge of building a permanent-only deck, and in larger part to get the most value out of our frogboi Grolnok. This frog is the engine that drives the deck and all the janky things it tries to accomplish, so protect him at all costs. He'll allow you to dig for your wincon of choice, post haste.

Let's start with the ramp. The faster Grolnok is out the better, and he's likely to get a lot of hate for the beefy psuedo-hand he'll generate for you with his croak counters, so you want enough mana to cast him a few times. Token generation is a big part of this deck (which we'll get to later) which is why ramp cards like Awakening Zone, Azusa, Lost but Seeking (for landfall triggers), Growing Rites of Itlimoc, Cryptolith Rite, and Prosperous Innkeeper synergize well. Azuza is also nice to help you take advantage of all your croak lands. I've considered throwing in other multi-land drop per turn cards as well and will likely make some cuts in favor of that soon.

Since this is permanents-only, we have to get creative with our counterspells and other protection. Dolmen Gate lets you swing for croak cards without consequence. Quickling bounces Grolnok to save you from paying a high commander tax. Daring Apprentice, Frilled Mystic, Glen Elendra Archmage, Mystic Snake and Stronghold Machinist prevent board wipes, whereas Siren Stormtamer is here to protect Grolnok. Declaration of Naught is around for any commander deserving of a lot of hate.

Most of the frogs/shapeshifters are just here for the meme and to help with Grolnok mill. Notable guests include Spore Frog if you need to save yourself from lethal combat damage, Bloodline Pretender to have something big and scary, and Frogemoth for some graveyard hate.

The lame, last resort wincon is to simply mill yourself with the help of Grolnok + Maskwood Nexus/Arcane Adaption, or Mesmeric Orb if you really want to piss the table off. Not as fun, but still gives you an out if someone ruins the main wincon discussed below.

As for tokens, they're the path to the most satisfying wincon, which has a couple variations. Each variation utilizes the most important card in this deck, and the only exception to our permanents-only rule: the flip side of Augmenter Pugilist. The goal is to fill your board with 1/1s and turn them all into your Fatty of choice to swing out for the win. Each Fatty will wipe your opponents' boards on swing, either through annihilator or fight. There are some token-per-upkeep cards to help accomplish this, with Tendershoot Dryad and Verdant Embrace; ETBs from Avenger of Zendikar and Hornet Queen that can be abused with Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, and landfall triggers with Scute Swarm. In the miscellaneous category is Desecrated Tomb, which pair lovely with any mill effect while Grolnok is in play. And all of those are further abused with Parallel Lives.

As far as assembling this wincon, we've got Cryptolith Rite to get you all the mana you need to simply hard cast a Fatty after buillding up your tokens, and of course Grolnok to give you a massive croak-countered hand to play combo pieces from. The not-so-secret wincon in this deck, and it's namesake, is to target Academy Manufactor with Echoing Equation instead of a Fatty, then generate a single treasure/clue/food token with one of the various outlets to do so. This wincon was inspired by the author of the Academy Manufactor rulings, who presented what I deemed a challenge. Having multiple Manufactors out creates a bit of an exponential effect. With two, if you generate one of the applicable tokens, the first Manufactor will see it and create one of each. The second will see each of those, and create one of each, for each, leaving you with 3 of each or 9 total. As the rules text states, with 18 Manufactors, you're left with 129,140,163 food, treasure and clue tokens after generating just one. Equation is pretty simple, provided below. Basically, with 6 or more Manufactors you'll have enough treasure to sac all the clues you need to draw your whole deck and pick whichever wincon you'd like to employ. Make sure to hold onto Eternal Witness or Tamiyo, Collector of Tales so you can cast Echoing Equation again after the Manufactor interaction resolves!

Equation:
X = # of applicable tokens initially entering battlefield to begin Academy Manufactor replacement effects
Y = # of Academy Manufactor on board
Z = # of EACH token (food, treasure, and clue) generated by end of interaction

Z = X * (3 ^ (Y - 1))

Please leave a comment if you see an opportunity to make this jankier, or if there's just an obvious swap to make I haven't seen! Appreciate any and all input.