Psychatog Madness! Mike Krzywicki Tuesday, January 22, 2002 How do you stop this monster? If you have been playing Standard since Odyssey was released, or plan to at some point in the near future (Regionals are only a few months away), there is no more telling insight into the current Standard metagame than the results of the San Diego Masters Series. Thirty-two of the best players in the world made their best attempts to break the format in the hopes of taking home a huge check and one of Magic's most prestigious titles. And a whopping half of those players chose to play some form of blue-black Psychatog control deck. There were a few differences here and there... some played Shadowmage Infiltrators, some played Upheaval, and a few others were running Probes, presumably for the mirror match... but they all had Psychatogs, they all had Counterspells, and they all had Fact or Fiction. The deck is for real, too, with Psychatogs in three of the top four decks, including that of the champion, Ryan Fuller. Now the Psychatog decks probably aren't dominant enough to warrant getting a card banned, but, with such a widespread endorsement by the pro Magic community, you will certainly be seeing a whole lot more of them in the coming months, so you should probably arm yourself with knowledge of the different types of Psychatog decks, what's in them, and how to beat them. Ryan Fuller San Diego Masters, Champion Main Deck Sideboard 4 Cephalid Coliseum 4 Underground River 4 Salt Marsh 9 Island 2 Swamp 4 Psychatog 4 Counterspell 4 Memory Lapse 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Peek 4 Predict 4 AEther Burst 3 Undermine 3 Repulse 2 Force Spike 1 Gainsay 4 Slay 3 Hibernation 3 Disrupt 2 Lobotomy 1 Force Spike 1 Gainsay 1 Divert David Humphreys San Diego Masters, Finalist Main Deck Sideboard 4 Underground River 4 Salt Marsh 3 Sulfur Vent 2 Ancient Spring 2 Darkwater Catacombs 8 Island 2 Swamp 4 Psychatog 4 Shadowmage Infiltrator 4 Nighstcape Familiar 4 Counterspell 4 Syncopate 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Repulse 3 Lobotomy 3 Upheaval 1 Recoil 4 Duress 4 Gainsay 3 Slay 2 Vodalian Zombie 1 Execute 1 Dark Banishing How can you argue with a creature that can turn Fact or Fiction, already an amazingly powerful card, into a minimum +6/+6 creature boost? Now, before we look at the different types of Psychatog decks, first we should know why they all (except Brian Hegstad and his Mystic Enforcers) chose Psychatog as their win condition. It's simple, really... a black creature with a free activated ability to enhance its power and toughness can't be banished (Dark Banishing, Malice, etc.) and will likely require multiple burn spells to take out. Also, it can generate a one-turn win in the mid-game, and, perhaps most importantly, it's very cheap at 1 ManaBlue ManaBlack Mana to do it. That's why the pros passed on the he larger control creatures like Rakavolver, Spiritmonger, and Mahamoti Djinn. How can you argue with a creature that can turn Fact or Fiction, already an amazingly powerful card, into a minimum +6/+6 creature boost? The two decks contain a lot of the same cards, with the distinguishing difference being whether or not to play creatures other than Psychatog. Fuller's version runs a lot of countermagic (fourteen counters if you count the main deck Gainsay), but is actually sporting less than a full boat of Undermines, a card that has a lot of synergy with the Psychatog game plan. Because he has few creatures of his own, though, Fuller's countermagic selection is dictated by the fact that he can't let his opponent get too far ahead of him in the first few turns, and so cheaper, situational permission spells like Force Spike and Memory Lapse get the nod over a fourth Undermine. The deck's seven bounce spells also help to compensate for lost tempo in the early game. Seven bounce spells, four of which don't replace themselves, is a lot of deck space for a control deck, but the uniqueness of this control deck more than justifies it. Normally, those slots would need to be used for more countermagic or permanent removal, since bouncing a threatening permanent only temporarily handles the problem, but with Fuller's deck, they're just to make sure that he can clear a path as soon as his Psychatog can be fed a lethal amount of cards, with the accumulating nature of Aether Burst serving this purpose perfectly. Also, bounce is coincidentally good in an environment where token creatures like Call of the Herd and Beast Attack are popular. Fuller's choice of card drawing was also fairly unique among the Masters competitors. Of course, almost everyone was running Fact or Fiction, but only a handful decided to run Predict to supplement the Invasion uncommon. In combination with Memory Lapse, which is a necessary component of this deck in its own right, it draws two cards and turns the normally tempo-oriented Lapse into a hard counter. Even without the knowledge of what is on top of the deck, it still fills the graveyard for some additional Atog damage, and it at least replaces itself. It's not exactly fair to classify Peek as card drawing, since card drawing spells in control decks are typically there to yield card advantage, but the ability to know whether or not to go for broke with Psychatog when your opponent has a fistful of cards makes Peek a perfect fit for this deck. Cephalid Coliseum might seem questionable, considering the fact that it is card disadvantage, but this is another area where the fact that Psychatog is the win condition justifies the deck's build. With all the cantrips and the 'Tog itself, the threshold requirement should be very easy meet, and, once active, the opponent has to look at each untapped Coliseum as another two damage with a Psychatog in play. They also help to dig for those third and fourth Aether Bursts, or a counter in a pinch, and, with the unusual potential for aggression in this particular control deck, the point of damage for tapping it for mana in the early game is a lot less of a hassle. Where Fuller's deck surrounds the Psychatog with a lot of permission, card drawing, and bounce, Humphreys has more of a combo approach, using Upheaval to guarantee that the Psychatog will be the only permanent on the board when he's ready to win. If you have a sharp memory, you may have noticed that the core of David Humphreys' deck looks very familiar to a b-u Upheaval/Zombie Infestation deck that did rather well at this past year's State Championships, with Humphreys' deck essentially just swapping out the Infestations for the 'Togs. The reason for the swap is that, when you don't draw Upheaval with the Infestation version, you will find yourself hard-pressed to make enough 2/2 zombies to overwhelm your opponent. Unless you can lessen the activation cost by at least one card, as is the case in the successful Extended Infestation decks with Squee, Krovikan Horror, and Ashen Ghoul, the Infestation will often just sit there unless a desperation chump blocker needs to be cranked out. Psychatog can easily do the job on its own, it can do it in one turn, and combos with Upheaval as well as, if not better than the Infestation. In order to support this more mana-intensive combo strategy, Humphreys has two more land than Fuller, five of which are the blue and black Invasion sacrifice-lands. These lands, in combination with Nightscape Familiar, can help this version of the deck to pull off an Upheaval a few turns faster against red-green beatdown, and can give a late game mana boost against a control deck in order to back up an Upheaval with the deck's eight permission spells. Three main deck Lobotomies can really force the issue versus a heavy permission deck, either drawing a counterspell or ensuring that your business spells get to enter and exit the stack safely. The ever-popular Shadowmage Infiltrator similarly affects a control opponent, as an unanswered Infiltrator can single-handedly beat them while supplying you with all the goods to keep him on the board. Nothing really needs to be said about Fact or Fiction other than the fact that pretty much everybody at the Masters had four of them, and I would advise you do the same if you have islands in your deck. Both ran Repulse, but Humphreys opted for the all-purpose Recoil over the tempo-saving Aether Burst. Humphreys will take a bit more combat damage in the early game with his slightly more expensive bounce, but Fuller runs the risk of not being able to deal with non-creature permanents once they hit the board. Both versions of the deck are very viable, as their respective results indicate, using an almost entirely different set of cards to support the one card combo that is Psychatog Other than the three cards that would seem to be automatic to include in the deck, Psychatog, Fact or Fiction, and Counterspell, the two decks share only three Repulses and some land in common. Fuller's deck is very reactive, while Humphreys includes a slew of cards that force him to tap significant amounts of mana on his turn. Fuller's seems to be the better suited to the mirror match of the two, with more card drawing, more counters, and Peek to know how to play around the opponent's hand, so that might be the version to run if this deck becomes as popular as it was at the Masters. The answer? But for those of you who want to beat the deck without playing it, there is hope. Several cards can realistically deal with the 'Tog, and there are a few that are downright devastating if they get into play. First and foremost, red-green, Standard's premiere beatdown deck, has lots of play versus both versions of the deck. Full of tons of cheap, efficient, early game creatures and efficient burn, plus the best of both worlds in Flametongue Kavu, the deck can have b-u control backpedaling very quickly. Humphreys other creatures are easy marks for cheap burn like Firebolt and Volcanic Hammer, and against Fuller's deck, those burn spells can often be directed at the player after an early game rush. Psychatog is a great blocker, but, by constantly running creatures and burn into it, you will often exhaust their hand and graveyard to the point where they can't even come close to winning with it. If red-green isn't your style, there are a few other options. Both Terminate and Wrath of God get rid of the 'Tog for good, but a Repulse on their end can totally negate either card. As mentioned earlier, Fuller's deck has a problem with non-creature permanents with the absence of Recoil and a few really nasty ones come to mind. First, Circles of Protection: Blue and Black totally shut down his deck as it was at San Diego, before and after sideboarding. However, don't count on this in the future, since a change as small as swapping a single Repulse for a single Recoil or Upheaval in the main deck or sideboard means the CoP becomes a non-issue again, assuming the deck can immediately address the rest of the permanents on the board. Then, there's a rarely played blue rare from Seventh Edition, Equilibrium. For the low price of 1 ManaBlue ManaBlue Mana, you get to turn each of your creatures into a Man-o'-War for an additional generic mana. This might not sound too enticing, considering both decks are packing at least eight counters to make sure that your homemade Man-o'-War don't get to do their thing, but this is actually not the case at all. Equilibrium reads "Whenever you play a creature spell, you may pay 1 Mana. If you do, return target creature to its owner's hand." The enchantment triggers when you play the creature, not when it comes into play, so they can counter the creature after you tack the additional mana on for the bounce effect and it still sends the Psychatog back to their hand. You could find a place for Equilibrium in several decks, such as an offshoot of the u-g-r deck that Brian Kibler and Tony Tsai used to win their respective State Championships last year, or a creature based w-u-b deck with Meddling Mages, Spectral Lynxes, and Shadowmage Infiltrators. The great thing about Equilibrium is how much synergy it has with other popular Standard cards, putting it a step above more narrow answers like the CoPs mentioned above. Imagine how much fun it would be to cast a Flametongue Kavu, destroy an opponent's creature, return another comes-into-play effect generating creature like Mystic Snake or another Flametongue, only to cast the creature you bounced to destroy something else and return your other "Nekrataal" to your hand! Or to topdeck a Birds of Paradise in the middle of a game and use it to destroy a Call of the Herd or Beast Attack token, or get their last blocker out of the way to attack for the win. Despite what the figures from San Diego indicate, Standard is a wide open format. Psychatog decks will probably be the most popular choice at least until Torment becomes Constructed tournament legal on March 1st, but red-green, w-u-g with Mystic Enforcers, the Balancing Act deck, and green-blue threshold can all give the deck a run for its money. How will the "black" set affect things? Watch out for a few vicious red rares, like Grim Lavamancer, and a whole bunch of great black cards, led by Mutilate, the black Wrath of God, to shuffle up the metagame.