The Gitrog Monster - Discussion and Advice

[Littledude33]

Hello!

I love The Gitrog Monster. But I'm fairly inexperienced when it comes to Magic. So I would love to here your advice for Gitrog in a deck. I'm leaning towards standard, but Modern would be just as fine.

Just some stuff to think about. During the prerelease I found Gitrog works great with Groundskeeper and other cards with land return. Delirium also seemed to work well in the deck. I ran Soul Swallower and had no trouble getting delirium using cards such as Vessel of Nascency and Autumnal Gloom.

Thanks!

[Drunk Cynic]

If you aim for Modern, Crucible of Worlds.

[WWolfe]

Life from the Loam in EDH or Modern.

[Littledude33]

Life from the Loam should work great with land recovery and dredge.

[Drunk Cynic]

So, mix up:
The Gitrog Monster
Crucible of Worlds
Groundskeeper
Bloodghast
Cheap landfall.

Turn that negative into a positive.

[WWolfe]

Lotus Cobra would be good if you go with landfall, so would Khalni Heart Expedition & Undergrowth Champion.

[Jace27]

You might want to run a Jaddi Offshoot if you go with the landfall idea for your mana curve

[WWolfe]

Tireless Tracker would go well in this type of deck as well.

[G. Moto]

   Last night I also just pulled the gitrog monster from a booster pack. This is how I planned on running it:
1) rabid bite (so it can deal its deathtouch damage without attacking),
2) groundskeeper (because it's the obvious choice),
3) stoic builder (because it also gives back a land),
4) crawling sensation (so you get a creature for your land sacrifice),
5) traverse the ulvenwald and fork in the road (for land tutoring),
6) ulvenwald hydra (if you get one, it's great for what it does),
7) wild-field scarecrow (so you can get more lands faster and maintain a board state),
and epitaph golem (to put those lands back into your deck as you need to.

     These are just some of the ways you can run with this card. What I plan on doing is running a sac engine with my Gitrog monster. I'm going to combo it with rottenheart ghoul, maybe sanitarium skeleton, morkrut necropod, crawling sensation, inexorable blob and ghoulcaller's accomplice. This way as I'm sacrificing lands and creatures I'm getting something back for it.

[Philippe Saner]

This might be insultingly obvious, but...fetchlands and/or Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds synergize very nicely with The Gitrog Monster.

Might also be worth looking into the Blighted lands from Battle for Zendikar. If you're playing a bunch of fetches, you can get away with some colourless-producing lands.

If you end up going the Delirium route, there's some nice synergy with Mindwrack Demon. Milling lands lets you draw with The Gitrog Monster, after all.

[Drunk Cynic]

They do work well together, but only with the benefit end of the Gitrog. The detriment effect needs to be addressed first.

[G. Moto]

 Agreed, that mindwrack will lose you more games if you don't keep it sated or have some sort of life gain outlet in the deck. Adding some Alms of the vein and grotesque mutation would be a good way to stay above the enemy as far as health goes.

[Drunk Cynic]

Specifically, those lands only interact with the draw effect on Gitrog. You still have to sacrifice a land to him on each of your upkeeps. Then if Paradox Haze is legal in the format, you're doubling dead.

[Jace27]

The Gitrog Monster would be a great commander if it is used right.

[CherylK888]

Gitrog came out for me last night along with Morkrut Necropod and Soul Swallower from the Black/Green delirium deck I put together.  At the end...Soul Swallower was up to 18/18 (in a 3-player match).  By the time Gitrog came out, I had plenty of land to feed him.  I did have some lifelink cards in the deck like Jungle Hollow and Indulgent Aristocrat that allowed me to pump up my life early in each game.  I also had some of the other land return cards suggested like Groundskeeper and Stoic Builder in the deck.