Gitrog County Municipal Lake Dredge Appraisal [EDH]

[Oversoul]

Finally, I've updated this deck again. This time, it's a major overhaul and even a name change. The Gitrog Monster is just that big of a deal. So I'm on version 4.0 and calling this...

Gitrog County Municipal Lake Dredge Appraisal Starring Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Commander
1x Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Creatures
1x Abyssal Gatekeeper
1x Angel of Despair
1x Ashen Rider
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Emeria Shepherd
1x Eternal Witness
1x False Prophet
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Ghoultree
1x Golgari Brownscale
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
1x Golgari Thug
1x Graveblade Marauder
1x Greater Mossdog
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Karmic Guide
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Nighthowler
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Phyrexian Ghoul
1x Putrid Imp
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Reveillark
1x Reya Dawnbringer
1x Riftsweeper
1x Saffi Eriksdotter
1x Shambling Shell
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Splinterfright
1x Spore Frog
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Sun Titan
1x The Gitrog Monster
1x Triskelion
1x Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Wild Mongrel
1x Wurmcoil Engine

Enchantments
1x Survival of the Fittest

Artifacts
1x Sol Ring

Sorceries
1x Buried Alive
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Dread Return
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Spider Spawning
1x Unburial Rites

Instants
1x Darkblast
1x Entomb
1x Gnaw to the Bone
1x Krosan Reclamation
1x Pull from Eternity

Lands
1x Barren Moor
1x Bayou
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Command Tower
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Dark Depths
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Flagstones of Trokair
2x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Mana Confluence
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Mutavault
1x Orzhov Basilica
2x Plains
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Strip Mine
2x Swamp
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Vesuva
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath

Changelog...

+Emeria Shepherd: This isn't a landfall deck and it doesn't have a ton of plains cards, but Emeria Shepherd has a lot of potential anyway.
+False Prophet: I'm including more sacrifice outlets, which makes this look like a tempting board clear.
+Graveblade Marauder: Nothing too special, but as the game goes on, opponents are compelled to block this or lose massive life.
+Nissa, Vastwood Seer: The five Origins planeswalkers give me a chance to play planeswalkers in this deck that I can actually get out of my graveyard pretty easily. Trying out Nissa for now, since she has such nice utility. But I've got my eye on Liliana as well.
+Phyrexian Ghoul: A classic sacrifice outlet that I should have thrown in long ago.
+Putrid Imp: Trying to employ more discard outlets.
+Riftsweeper: In conjunction with Peel from Eternity, this can recur all of my exiled stuff as the game goes on. This weakly counteracts graveyard hate by opponents, but the real boon is grabbing my used flashback spells.
+Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Demonic Tutor on a creature that doubles as a sacrifice outlet? Yes, please.
+The Gitrog Monster: So much synergy in one package. Even if this wasn't a 6/6 deathtouch body, even if it didn't function as an Exploration, the card-drawing ability would be good enough to include the card in this deck. This turns dredging into an explosive loop and give the deck easier access to combos. Because of that, I'm reworking the whole deck to make better use of this card.
+Wild Mongrel: Discard outlet, and a very good one.

-Apprentice Necromancer: It worked well enough and might go back in, but it was a backup and I'm hoping not to need it.
-Dark Confidant: Powerful, to be sure, but I don't think that this is the deck for it.
-Siege Rhino: I'm trying to combo out, and this doesn't do much. I might be making a mistake by trimming too much defense from this deck. We'll see.
-Spirit of the Hearth: In the right environment, this might be valuable. I didn't get much use out of it.
-Sylvan Library: This was a borderline case in the old deck, since it synergized with dredgers and helped the deck be more explosive. Easily surpassed by The Gitrog Monster.
-Crucible of Worlds: I reluctantly cut some cards that were dead weight in the graveyard. Still not sure this is the right move.
-Worm Harvest: Too slow for this deck. In a Loam-based deck that didn't focus on other dredging and played more of a control game, this would make sense.
-Boneyard Wurm: I had too many blockers that didn't do anything. It was this or Ghoultree. I'm tentatively cutting this because by the time it became big enough to matter, I didn't need a vanilla blocker.
-Kessig Cagebreakers: The coolest token-generator in the deck and I'm hesitant to cut it, but my deck just doesn't have a good way to take advantage of it.

 

[Oversoul]

I got some new options with Eldritch Moon, most notably Noose Constrictor, but I've also added Splendid Reclamation. Wanting to get Liliana in the deck, I made new updates. Here's version 4.1...

Commander:
1x Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Creatures:
1x Abyssal Gatekeeper
1x Angel of Despair
1x Ashen Rider
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Blood Pet
1x Caller of the Claw
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Eternal Witness
1x False Prophet
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Ghoultree
1x Golgari Brownscale
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
1x Golgari Thug
1x Greater Mossdog
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Karmic Guide
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Liliana, Heretical Healer
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Nighthowler
1x Noose Constrictor
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Phyrexian Ghoul
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Reveillark
1x Reya Dawnbringer
1x Riftsweeper
1x Saffi Eriksdotter
1x Shambling Shell
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Spore Frog
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Sun Titan
1x The Gitrog Monster
1x Triskelion
1x Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Wild Mongrel
1x Wurmcoil Engine

Lands:
1x Barren Moor
1x Bayou
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Canopy Vista
1x Command Tower
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Dark Depths
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Flagstones of Trokair
2x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Mana Confluence
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Orzhov Basilica
2x Plains
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Strip Mine
2x Swamp
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Urborg, Tomb of YawgmothCN
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Vesuva
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath

Sorceries:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Dread Return
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Spider Spawning
1x Splendid Reclamation
1x Unburial Rites

Instants:
1x Darkblast
1x Entomb
1x Gnaw to the Bone
1x Krosan Reclamation
1x Pull from Eternity

Artifacts:
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Sol Ring

Enchantments:
1x Survival of the Fittest

Changelog...

-Graveblade Marauder: This deck isn't built for aggression.
-Nissa, Vastwood Seer: I'm only running two basic forests, and her planeswalker form is mediocre for the investment.
-Mutavault: I never found myself taking advantage of this, so it was practically a Wastes. Colored mana is more important than corner case man-land stuff.
-Emeria Shepherd: Slower than my other creature recursion tools, and this deck isn't really built to take advantage of this card's landfall ability.
-Buried Alive: A fine card and an old favorite of mine. Using this to set up a combo is telegraphing my gameplan, which isn't a dealbreaker by itself, but is concerning. More importantly, the mana cost was often making this my only play for the turn, and if it's dredged away, this is the least promising card for recursion in the deck.
-Putrid Imp: Discard outlets are key for The Gitrog Monster, but the printing of Noose Constrictor takes room and Putrid is moving over in exchange.
-Splinterfright: A very reluctant cut, which might eventually be reversed. Splinterfright is good, and certainly better in this deck than Boneyard Wurm or Lhurgoyf. But as an ordinary three-drop, if I need one, it's bad. And once my deck gets going, Splinterfright isn't very useful.

+Noose Constrictor: Even better than Wild Mongrel. While Eldritch Moon doesn't have a lot of cards that fit this deck, Noose Constrictor is an excellent inclusion.
+Splendid Reclamation: It's a one-sided Planar Birth that works on nonbasics! I've been looking into ways to get more use out of lands in my graveyard, and this new card pushes that concept to the extreme. While this can't be cast from my graveyard, it's worth it.
+Liliana, Heretical Healer: In reality, this was intended to go into the deck for the previous update, but I didn't actually own the card at the time, so I put Nissa in instead. I fully expect Liliana to be a superstar here. Transforming her is easy, both of her main abilities are useful, and she can be cast from my graveyard.
+Canopy Vista: Another card I'd planned to add, but didn't own when I wrote the previous update.
+Crucible of Worlds: It's back in! While my focus on trimming non-creature, non-land cards that don't have built-in self recursion was sensible, some exceptions can be made, and this one is worthwhile.
+Caller of the Claw: This is another attempt at the token-making shenanigans I tried with Kessig Cage Breakers. Wolves weren't working out, but maybe bears can do the trick?
+Blood Pet: Testing has shown many situations in which loops can't reach a threatening state until I have more mana. This is cheap mana, and in loops, could be infinite mana.

 

[Terentius]

I went through the cards in more detail, and what I'm seeing are you can pretty much always have Karador out due to dredging, Gitrog lets you draw a bunch with dredging, and you've trimmed the deck to have dredge things that are useful when not dredged, good reanimation effects and targets, good cards that put things into the graveyard, and get cards back from the graveyard. Are there any highly repeatable or infinite combos? Or are you otherwise able to get many spells/permanents out in one turn? If so, what are the combo-enablers?

I would suggest Songs of the Damned, but it won't help much on its own if it gets dredged.

 

[Oversoul]

I'm a big fan of Songs of the Damned, but I've hardly ever used it in any of my decks. I do have it with Exsanguinate as the kill mechanism in my current Fluctuator deck, but that's been about it for a long, long time. I do think it's very cool and underappreciated card.

Well, this deck is about to get an update, so when it comes to combos I'll definitely have more soon. In particular, I want more sac outlets. I'll also be including Academy Rector, Boonweaver Giant, Pattern of Rebirth, Fiend Hunter, and Protean Hulk.

This deck has evolved considerably since 2014. I originally wanted to just make a dredge-focused deck, getting good value out of my graveyard and taking over the board. The deck technically always had the capacity to go infinite, but at first it was only a few specific interactions and unless the game ran long or I got very lucky, they wouldn't come up. As I tuned the deck, I didn't explicitly set out to add more infinite combos, but that did end up happening on its own. Powerful interactions include...

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion (infinite damage)
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Lord of Extinction (my graveyard quickly becomes huge, so it's realistic for Jarad to smack my opponents for 30 to 70 life loss off one Lord of Extinction)
The Gitrog Monster + Noose Constrictor (any free discard outlet lets me discard my own dredgers, allowing me to dredge them back and get more draw triggers off the lands that they hit, dumping my library chunk by chunk into my graveyard)

But things get even more interesting once I have any sac outlet that lets me repeatedly kill my own creatures for free, such as Carrion Feeder or Vish Kal. With a sac outlet, there are all sorts of combinations that create infinite loops. I'll post some examples soon...

 

[Oversoul]

Example 1
Get Protean Hulk out somehow (alongside a sac outlet), perhaps with Unburial Rites. Sac Protean Hulk and fetch Karmic Guide, then use Karmic Guide's ability to bring Protean Hulk back. Sac Protean Hulk again and fetch Fiend Hunter and Saffi Eriksdotter, then use Fiend Hunter to exile Karmic Guide. Sac Fiend Hunter, which causes Karmic Guide to come back, then use Karmic Guide's ability to bring back Protean Hulk. Activate Saffi targeting Protean Hulk. Sac Protean Hulk and fetch Mikaeus, then Saffi's ability brings Protean Hulk back. Sac Protean Hulk and fetch Triskelion. Ping everyone else to death with Triskelion.

Example 2
Get Academy Rector out somehow (could pretty easily just hardcast it) alongside a sac outlet and some at least one other creature. Sac Rector, then use Rector's ability to fetch Pattern of Rebirth and attach it to another creature. Sac the creature enchanted by Pattern of Rebirth, then use Pattern of Rebirth to fetch Boonweaver Giant, which pulls Pattern of Rebirth out of the graveyard and onto itself. Sac Boonweaver Giant, then use Pattern of Rebirth to fetch Karmic Guide, which brings back Boonweaver Giant and then Pattern of Rebirth comes along for the ride again. Sac Boonweaver Giant and have Pattern of Rebirth fetch Saffi Eriksdotter. Activate Saffi's ability targeting Karmic Guide. Sac Karmic Guide, then Saffi's ability brings back Karmic Guide, which brings back Boonweaver Giant, which brings back Pattern of Rebirth. Sac Boonweaver Giant and have Pattern of Rebirth fetch Reveillark. Sac Karmic Guide, then sac Reveillark and have Reveillark bring back Saffi Eriksdotter and Karmic Guide, with Karmic Guide's ability bringing back Boonweaver Giant, which brings back Pattern of Rebirth. Sac Boonweaver Giant and have Pattern of Rebirth fetch Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter. From now on, use Vish Kal as the sac outlet so that it keeps gaining +1/+1 counters. Activate Saffi targeting Karmic Guide. Sac Karmic Guide, then Saffi's ability brings back Karmic Guide, and Karmic Guide's ability brings back Reveillark. Sac Karmic Guide. Sac Reveillark, bringing back Saffi and Karmic Guide, then use Karmic Guide to bring back Reveillark. Activate Saffi targeting Reveillark. Sac Karmic Guide. Sac Reveillark, which bring back Saffi and Karmic Guide, then Saffi's ability brings back Reveillark and Karmic Guide's ability brings back Boonweaver Giant, which brings back Pattern of Rebirth. Sac Boonweaver Giant and use Pattern of Rebirth to fetch Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Activate Saffi targeting Reveillark. Sac Karmic Guide. Sac Reveillark, which brings back Saffi and Karmic Guide, then Saffi's ability brings back Reveillark and Karmic Guide's ability brings back Boonweaver Giant, which brings back Pattern of Rebirth. Sac the Giant and have Pattern fetch Blood Pet. Sac Blood Pet for a black mana. Activate Saffi targeting Reveillark. Sac Karmic Guide. Sac Reveillark, which brings back Saffi and Karmic Guide, then Saffi's ability brings back Reveillark and Karmic Guide's ability brings back Blood Pet. Sac Blood Pet for a second black mana. Activate Saffi targeting Reveillark. Sac Karmic Guide. Sac Reveillark, which brings back Saffi and Karmic Guide, then Saffi's ability brings back Reveillark and Karmic Guide's ability brings back Boonweaver Giant, which brings back Pattern of Rebirth. Sac Giant and have Pattern fetch Wall of Roots. Activate Wall of Roots for a green mana. Activate Saffi targeting Karmic Guide, then sac Karmic Guide and bring back Saffi, with Saffi's ability bringing back Karmic Guide. Loop activating Saffi to bring back Karmic Guide, sacrificing Karmic Guide to Vish Kal, and having Karmic Guide bring back Saffi over and over again, to put an arbitrarily large number of +1/+1 counters on Vish Kal. Use the mana from Blood Pet and Wall of Roots to activate Jarad's ability, sacrificing Vish Kal to make all my opponents lose eleventy billion life or whatever.

Example 3
I have Karador, a sac outlet, and a big graveyard, but can't see a way to win this turn because a key combo component is stuck in my hand. I use Karador to play Body Snatcher from my graveyard, getting that pesky combo component out of my hand. Uh, let's go with Sun Titan. It was Sun Titan. Well, if my opponents don't do anything to stop me, then at the end of my last opponent's turn, I sac Body Snatcher and use its ability to bring back Sun Titan, then have Sun Titan's ability bring back Saffi Eriksdotter. I activate Saffi targeting Sun Titan, then sacrifice Sun Titan, which comes back and then brings Saffi back too. I loop them eleventy billion times and then switch to using Sun Titan's ability to bring back Caller of the Claw, which makes an incomprehensibly large army of bears. Then my turn happens and I use the bears to kill my opponents.

 

[Shabbaman]

I'm currently impressed by the work Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is pulling off in my (outside the colors otherwise incomparable Glissa deck. If you have something like Pawn of Ulamog it's a nice alternative to go wide (with a lot of tokens) and pump them with Mazirek. Alternatively, exploit Persist creatures like the aforementioned Puppeteer Clique.

 

[Oversoul]

Yeah, I'm definitely rethinking Persist guys more, now that I'm focusing so much on sacrifice loops. Mazirek is certainly the sort of card that could have strong interactions in any black/green deck that sacrifices its own stuff. My deck was envisioned as a "start dredging right away and have a deck full of cards that can quickly and powerfully be used from my graveyard" and now is definitely leaning on creature-sacrificing loops. Mazirek (or Pawn of Ulamog) are powerful considerations depending on how I want the balance to tip, and right now I'm not sure...

 

[Terentius]

You must make a lot of friends with that second combo chain .

 

[Oversoul]

So I'd hoped by now to have completed my next update of this deck, but I'm holding off a bit longer. At first, this was just a matter of buying a few cards I didn't actually own or own copies of that I wanted to use for this deck (at least two cards under consideration for addition were ones that I owned, but only in Event decks, which I'd rather not break up). But the weeks dragged on. I made a little progress, and then Ramunap Excavator was spoiled, and it's kind of a big deal for this deck. In the past, I've waffled on Crucible of Worlds, because playing lands from my graveyard is powerful in a deck that can dump its own graveyard, but non-creature artifacts are also weak slots in this deck because they get dredged away and sit in my graveyard doing nothing. So I won't finalize my next round of changes until I can get my hands on a copy of Ramunap Excavator.

 

[Terentius]

Any good Eternalize cards from Hour of Devastation coming up?

EDIT: This question is predicated on my understanding that your deck can use cards with Eternalize that get dredged away. This could be inaccurate.

 

[Oversoul]

At long last, the deck has a new update. I present Version 5.0: an overhaul of Hulking proportions...

Commander
1x Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Creatures
1x Abyssal Gatekeeper
1x Academy Rector
1x Apprentice Necromancer
1x Ashen Rider
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Blood Pet
1x Body Snatcher
1x Boonweaver Giant
1x Caller of the Claw
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Eternal Witness
1x False Prophet
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Golgari Brownscale
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
1x Golgari Thug
1x Greater Mossdog
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Karmic Guide
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Mindslicer
1x Nantuko Husk
1x Noose Constrictor
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Phyrexian Ghoul
1x Protean Hulk
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Ramunap Excavator
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Reveillark
1x Reya Dawnbringer
1x Riftsweeper
1x Saffi Eriksdotter
1x Shambling Shell
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Sun Titan
1x The Gitrog Monster
1x Tidehollow Sculler
1x Triskelion
1x Viscera Seer
1x Wall of Roots
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Wild Mongrel

Lands
1x Barren Moor
1x Bayou
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Canopy Vista
1x Command Tower
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Flagstones of Trokair
2x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Mana Confluence
1x Marsh Flats
1x Orzhov Basilica
2x Plains
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Strip Mine
2x Swamp
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath

Sorceries
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Dread Return
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Unburial Rites

Instants
1x Darkblast
1x Krosan Reclamation
1x Pull from Eternity

Enchantments
1x Pattern of Rebirth
1x Survival of the Fittest

Artifacts
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Sol Ring

 

[Oversoul]

Oh, and here's the changelog...

-Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter: I do not actually need most of those abilities and can go with a cheaper sac outlet.
-Angel of Despair: Back out again. I sometimes used this to destroy my own creatures, but now I have more sac outlets. Could potentially go back in.
-Liliana, Heretical Healer: Too slow.
-Entomb: Wasn't getting much out of this.
-Nighthowler: Killing someone with Commander combat damage was a fun idea, but it's time to trim this.
-Ghoultree: Removing midrange grindy stuff in favor of broken combo stuff.
-Spider Spawning: This card is excellent on defense, but if I am filling my graveyard up so much, I should try to just win.
-Gnaw to the Bone: Lifegain schmifegain.
-Splendid Reclamation: Never really got this working and it seems too slow. Fun idea, but the deck moved a different direction.
-Spore Frog: Defense is for people who don't just murder everyone.
-Miren, the Moaning Well: Very infrequently used for its ability. Replaced for now. Considering this one.
-Maze of Ith: Again, Bothering with defense is for some other deck.
-Thespian's Stage: Really needed Bazaar of Baghdad or Dark Depths to work. Not worth it.
-Vesuva: Even less worth it than Thespian's Stage.
-Dark Depths: a 20/20 that can be chump-blocked by any flyer is just not what this deck is going for.
-Wurmcoil Engine: While the power is obvious, this is still midrange stuff, which I'm now eschewing.

+Viscera Seer: Good one-drop sac outlet.
+Apprentice Necromancer: Should probably have left this in the whole time. Oops.
+Wall of Roots: Solid card. Possible infinite mana in sac loops.
+Massacre Wurm: Gets rid of pesky creatures.
+Nantuko Husk: Phyrexian Ghoul #2.
+Body Snatcher: Used to grab a combo component for a sac loop out of my hand. Might prove unnecessary. We'll see.
+Mindslicer: Anti-hate card.
+Tidehollow Sculler: Targeted anti-hate card.
+Reclamation Sage: How was not already using this?
+Diabolic Intent: This is better than Entomb in my deck and arguably better than Demonic Tutor.
+Ramunap Excavator: A Crucible that I can cast from my graveyard with Karador? Yes please.
+Fiend Hunter: In some cases, it could be used on an oppnent's card. Mostly used in sac loops.
+Academy Rector: Fetches Pattern of Rebirth for sac loops.
+Pattern of Rebirth: Used with Boonweaver Giant sac loops.
+Boonweaver Giant: This thing is bonkers.
+Protean Hulk: Unbanned in the the "official" official rules. This is huge.

 

[Oversoul]

Any good Eternalize cards from Hour of Devastation coming up?

EDIT: This question is predicated on my understanding that your deck can use cards with Eternalize that get dredged away. This could be inaccurate.

I missed this earlier! Oops. To belatedly answer the question...

Nope, all of the Eternalize cards are bad.

OK, OK, to be less cheeky...

In principle, either the Embalm mechanic from Amonkhet or the Eternalize mechanic from Hour of Devastation could be used with cards dumped into my graveyard from my library. The problem is that none of those cards offer abilities that this deck can make good use of, and the mana costs on the abilities tend to be prohibitive. Now that I'm using both Protean Hulk and Boonweaver Giant, I'm practically going all-in on sacrifice loop infinite combo kills.

 

[Oversoul]

Version 6.0: The Monster is back!

Um, more to follow. When I feel like it. Looking at this list, you might think, "But Oversoul, that's a completely different deck." And yes, I kinda is. But also, this is the best deck name ever and I'm not letting it go. Long live Gitrog County Municipal Lake Dredge Appraisal!

Commander
The Gitrog Monster

Lands
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Barren Moor
1x Bayou
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Blooming Marsh
1x Cavern of Souls
1x City of Brass
1x City of Traitors
1x Command Beacon
1x Command Tower
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Gemstone Caverns
1x Lake of the Dead
1x Llanowar Wastes
1x Mana Confluence
1x Marsh Flats
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Petrified Field
1x Polluted Delta
1x Rath's Edge
1x Snow-Covered Forest
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Strip Mine
1x Swamp
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Twilight Mire
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Woodland Cemetery

Creatures
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Dark Confidant
1x Deathrite Shaman
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Elvish Spirit Guide
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
1x Hermit Druid
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Lotus Cobra
1x Noose Constrictor
1x Putrid Imp
1x Ramunap Excavator
1x Riftsweeper
1x Skirge Familiar
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Wall of Roots
1x Wild Mongrel

Sorceries
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Doomsday
1x Duress
1x Gaea's Blessing
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Life from the Loam
1x Praetor's Grasp
1x Sylvan Scrying
1x Toxic Deluge

Artifacts
1x Chrome Mox
1x Grim Monolith
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring

Instants
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Assassin's Trophy
1x Autumn's Veil
1x Beast Within
1x Cabal Ritual
1x Crop Rotation
1x Culling the Weak
1x Dark Ritual
1x Darkblast
1x Entomb
1x Harrow
1x Nature's Claim
1x Rain of Filth
1x Realms Uncharted
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantments
1x Burgeoning
1x Carpet of Flowers
1x Chains of Mephistopheles
1x Exploration
1x Necromancy
1x Necropotence
1x Oblivion Crown
1x Squandered Resources
1x Sylvan Library

 

[Oversoul]

"But Oversoul," you inquire, "how is that stupid pile of cards supposed to actually win games? Is it some obnoxious combo?"

Well, I'm glad you asked, because yes, it's the most obnoxious combo. I realized explosive potential of The Gitrog Monster + Dakmor Salvage (particularly with a discard outlet) right away and used it in this deck once Shadows Over Innistrad was released. But my "payload" for the loop was always to cheat stuff out from my graveyard, generally by flashing back Dread Return. This deck doesn't bother with that stuff. It's much more bizarre. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to discover these interactions on my own. Nope: definitely can't claim credit for the core concepts here. Many people were way ahead of me on that. In fact, Version 6.0 here is just just assembled from bits of about a dozen different Gitrog EDH decks I found online, nearly all of which share the same core combo...

I'll go over some of the tricks this deck is meant to employ, but like I said, I think it might be the most obnoxious combo. It's very convoluted. So let's start with a simple (relatively), clean, sorcery-speed version of a way that this deck might win...

1. Have a discard outlet. Any discard outlet will do. Wild Mongrel is the one I've drawn the most so far, so we'll go with that. Wild Mongrel is on the battlefield. Boom. Easy. Done with that part.
2. Get The Gitrog Monster onto the battlefield. Should be easy to do, seeing as it's my commander and this deck runs lots of mana acceleration. Alright, the Frog is on the board.
3. Find Dakmor Salvage somehow. There's only one copy in the deck, so this could take some doing. I probably have to tutor for it. If necessary, I can Crop Rotation into it, then sacrifice it to The Gitrog Monster during my upkeep. But ideally, I want it in my hand, not on the battlefield. So let's just say I Demonic Tutor for it or something. There we go. Mission accomplished.
4. Repeatedly discard Dakmor Salvage to Wild Mongrel and replace drawing a card with dredging Dakmor Salvage back into our hand. Each cycle, we're milling ourselves for 2 with this. And on some of those dredgings, we are milling away lands, which trigger The Gitrog Monster. I don't replace those draws. I take them as they come! Random cards from my library going into my hand. Useful? Not yet, it isn't.
5. At some point, my dredging hits either Gaea's Blessing or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I shuffle my graveyard back into my library! Wow, but that's OK. I can just start discarding Dakmor Salvage and dredging it back over and over, drawing more cards as I go. If I draw Kozilek, I can hold onto it and then discard it whenever I feel like reshuffling. Also, when I get Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, or Lion's Eye Diamond into my hand, I can use them to make mana. They go back into my graveyard again, then eventually get drawn again and cast again. Does this sound like an infinite mana loop? Because it is.
6. With so much mana, whenever I draw Praetor's Grasp, I can cast it. So I do. Over and over. I steal my opponents' libraries. Now they probably lose.

 

[Oversoul]

Got some more gameplay with this abomination at my LGS. It's a tricky deck to play and I plan on keeping it around for a long, long time. I made some blunders at key junctures in a couple of games and had horrendous luck in others, so I didn't win very much. Still, I think my current list is pretty strong. Once I get a better feel for the deck, I'll adjust the composition over time.

My most recent game dragged on forever as I sat there, one card draw away from winning but perpetually drawing into only cards that produced mana (when I already had plenty). My opponents foolishly let me live for almost the entire duration of this epic, drawn-out game, and through incredibly unfortunate topdecks, they got away with it. So that was frustrating.

But I got to actually do stuff in other games. Had a fun one where I used Burgeoning and Gemstone Caverns to dump the contents of my hand onto the board right away and got a second-turn The Gitrog Monster, but the guy across from me went right into a second turn Lazav, the Multifarious with Phyrexian Dreadnought in his graveyard. He was able to knock me out with Commander damage, but then the rest of the table shut him down.

Best of all, I got to use Chains of Mephistopheles to win a game. I forgot how it worked myself and had to puzzle it out mid-game, so I'll explain the process here. If I have The Gitrog Monster and Chains of Mephistopheles on the battlefield, at least two lands on the battlefield with one of them being available to tap for black mana, at least one land in my hand, and Dakmor Salvage in my graveyard, here's what happens...

1. The upkeep trigger on The Gitrog Monster causes me to sacrifice a land. So I do that. I still have at least one land that can tap for black mana.
2. The draw trigger from The Gitrog Monster would make me draw a card.
3. Chains of Mephistopheles makes me discard a card before I'm allowed to draw one.
4. I discard a land from my hand. Chains of Mephistopheles lets me draw a card now, The Gitrog Monster generates a second draw trigger.
5. I replace the card draw that Chains of Mephistopheles would allow me to take with dredging up Dakmor Salvage.
6. I still have a draw trigger to resolve, and Chains of Mephistopheles makes me discard a card. I choose Dakmor Salvage. Now Chains will let me draw a card.
7. Because I discarded Dakmor Salvage, The Gitrog Monster creates another draw trigger.
8. I replace drawing a card with dredging up Dakmor Salvage.
9. Steps 6, 7, and 8 loop infinitely.
10. Each time Dakmor Salvage puts one or more lands into my graveyard from my library, I get an extra draw trigger on top of the infinite loop.
11. I can trade some of these extra draw triggers for dredging up Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, and Life from the Loam.
12. Gaea's Blessing and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth both shuffle my graveyard back into my library, so I can keep this loop going without ever decking myself.
13. I make eleventy billion draw triggers.
14. I can discard dredgers (Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, Life from the Loam) to blindly take draws from a freshly reshuffled library. This means my hand size isn't permanently locked down by Chains of Mephistopheles.
15. If I draw cards that I don't want (the usual outcome), I discard them to Chains of Mephistopheles and replace them with more blind draws, always making sure to discard Kozilek to Chains or to hit it with a dredger before I'd be in danger of decking myself.
16. Each time I blindly draw Dark Ritual, I cast it (this with the other loop means infinite black mana for me).
17. Each time I draw Elvish Spirit Guide, I exile it for green mana.
18. Each time I draw Necromancy, I save it in my hand.
19. Each time I get Riftsweeper into my graveyard by discarding it or milling it away with a dredger, I cast Necromancy on it (using my huge reservoir of black mana).
20. I use Riftsweeper's ability to return Elvish Spirit Guide to my graveyard.
21. I use Culling the Weak or two instances of Darkblast to kill my own Riftsweeper, getting it and Necromancy back into my graveyard.
22. I eventually draw Elvish Spirit Guide again and exile it again (infinitely filtering BBBBB into G with Necromancy on Riftsweeper and two casts of Darkblast to retrieve ESG from exile).
23. With infinite black and green mana available, I throw Harrow into the loop, trading lands on the battlefield for basic lands in my library. This allows me to turn one land into two basic lands.
24. I throw Crop Rotation into the loop. This allows me to trade basic lands on my battlefield for nonbasic lands in my library. Because I'm also using Harrow, I'll never run out of lands. Harrow away a non-basic for two basics, then Crop Rotation both basics for two non-basics. Both instants are being looped endlessly between my graveyard, hand, and library through the loop, so I can always turn fewer lands into more lands, at instant speed.
25. I throw Rath's Edge into the loop, using it to ping my opponents to death.
26. During my upkeep, all of my opponents die to lethal damage from Rath's Edge pings.

 

[Oversoul]

Changelog:

-1 Barren Moor
-1 Lotus Cobra
-1 Rath's Edge
-1 Realms Uncharted
-1 Tranquil Thicket
+1 Crystal Vein
+1 Emergence Zone
+1 Homeward Path
+1 Imperial Seal
+1 Summoner's Pact

After stewing in the Maybeboard for months, Crystal Vein and Imperial Seal are coming in. I also wanted Summoner's Pact and Homeward Path for (hopefully) obvious reasons. The big change is the inclusion of Emergence Zone, an easy way to make the sorcery-speed lines into instant-speed ones instead. Three of the cuts struck me as straightforward after having piloted the deck for a while. I'm taking cues from more established Gitrog pilots and cutting Barren Moor and Tranquil Thicket, but I have misgivings. Those two are useful in setting up Doomsday. Time will tell whether they weren't worth it or whether they should come back in. For now, I value Homeward Path because Gilded Drake to steal The Gitrog Monster has been a popular approach to slowing me down.

 

[Oversoul]

Version 6.2: Overdue 2019 Overhaul

Some new cards that are perfect for this deck came out in 2019, and I'm finally making room for them. Unfortunately, I've decided to cut Doomsday. I really like the card, but it has been a dead draw in too many games.

-1 Burgeoning
-1 Doomsday
-1 Skirge Familiar
-1 Blooming Marsh
-1 Command Beacon
-1 Llanowar Wastes
-1 Strip Mine
-1 Woodland Cemetery
+1 Force of Vigor
+1 Veil of Summer
+1 Finale of Devastation
+1 Collector Ouphe
+1 Nurturing Peatland
+1 Prismatic Vista
+1 Forest
+1 Swamp