{"ops":[{"insert":"================================================================\n MONSTER RODEO\n A Primer for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride (Commander)\n\n \"The frog always eats first. Everything else is logistics.\"\n================================================================\n\nCommander: The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride\nColors: Black-Green (Golgari, but with horses)\nVibe: A livestock-swap program where the livestock wins.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n1. WELCOME TO THE RODEO\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nSome commanders want card advantage. Some want value. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride wants a full grandstand, a half-dozen enormous monsters in the chute, and permission to eat one per lap.\n\nThis deck is a three-ring circus with one frog:\n\n RING ONE: Saddle the frog with the biggest monsters you own and crack him into people. Every time he connects, he eats a rider and pays you in cards and land drops.\n\n RING TWO: Recursion. The monsters got bucked off (read:\n devoured). We run a full wrangler crew to drag them out of the\n graveyard and put them right back in the saddle.\n\n RING THREE: The finale. Either drain the arena dry with\n Exsanguinate, trample over the fence with 20/20 stompys, or\n send a stampede of tokens over the wall while everyone's armor is indestructible.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n2. MEET YOUR FROG\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nTHE GITROG, RAVENOUS RIDE — {3}{B}{G}\nLegendary 6/5 Frog Horror Mount, Mythic\nTrample, haste. Saddle 1.\n\nThe engine, in plain English:\n\n * Saddle 1: tap any number of untapped creatures you control\n with total power 1 or greater. That's the bar. A Squirrel\n token clears it. You have no excuse.\n * Whenever Gitrog deals combat damage to a player, you may\n sacrifice a creature that saddled it this turn. If you do,\n draw X cards, then put up to X land cards from your hand\n onto the battlefield tapped — where X is the eaten\n creature's power.\n\n Your rider's power becomes card draw AND that\nmany land drops, in the same trigger, on a 6/5 with trample and\nhaste. Feed him a 12/12 and you draw twelve cards and slam twelve lands. Each of those lands triggers your entire landfall section below. This is the whole deck. Everything else is cowboy hats.\n\nRULES CORNER — know your bronco before you climb on:\n\n * Gitrog is a Mount, not a Vehicle. He is ALWAYS a creature and\n can attack or block without ever being saddled. Saddle only\n arms the sacrifice payout.\n * He has haste. Cast him, saddle him, swing. No warm-up lap.\n * Saddle taps the RIDERS, not the frog. His summoning sickness is irrelevant; the horses were never going anywhere anyway.\n * You can activate Saddle any time you have priority. Beginning\n of combat is the classic spot.\n * Riders stay tapped until your next untap step — saddle with\n creatures you weren't going to attack or block with anyway.\n * The sacrifice is OPTIONAL. If the trigger resolves and you\n would rather keep your 12/12, simply decline to feed the frog\n (he will remember this).\n * \"Up to X lands\" means up to. Deck yourself responsibly.\n * The trigger fires once per player damaged. Trample through one defender, one trigger.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n3. THE GAME PLAN\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nPHASE 1 — THE GRAZING YEARS (turns 1-3)\nRamp. Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet,\nFellwar Stone, Commander's Sphere, Cultivate, Nature's Lore,\nRampant Growth. Hit every single land drop. Your dream board\ngoing into turn 4 is four-plus lands, a fat hand, and a couple of\nbig dumb bodies loitering by the fence.\n\nPHASE 2 — RIDE TIME (turn 4+)\nCast Gitrog (Spelunking makes your many tapped lands untap-first, and its enter-the-battlefield draw finds him). Saddle him with the biggest lump on the field and swing with haste. Connect = feed the frog, draw a fistful of cards, slam that many lands. Each land\nslams MORE payoffs: Elf tokens, Moloid tokens, 3/4 Treefolk with reach, energy counters, life. Your board explodes sideways.\n\nPHASE 3 — THE ENCORE (recursion)\nThe monsters got bucked off. Again. And again. We drag them back:\nZombify, Victimize, Dread Return, Defossilize, plus a two-card\nperpetual-motion machine involving Mole Man and Memorial to Folly (see section 6). The graveyard is a roster, not a morgue.\n\nPHASE 4 — THE FINALE\nExsanguinate the table, trample through with land-counted\nbehemoths, or stampede with tokens under an indestructible canopy.\nDetails in section 8.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n4. THE SADDLE BRIGADE (choosing your riders)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nThe payout math is simple: bigger rider, bigger payday. A 2-powerrider draws 2 cards and drops 2 lands. Quakestrider Ceratops draws twelve. Ride the big ones.\n\n * QUAKESTRIDER CERATOPS — a 12/8 for six mana. His resume is one\n line long and it's the only line that matters.\n * GHALTA, PRIMAL HUNGER — a 12/12 trampler whose cost shrinks by the total power of your team. After one turn of this deck he costs {G}{G}. .\n * TERRIAN, WORLD TYRANT — 9/7 legendary Dinosaur Ooze. No abilities, no notes, just nine power of paid-up rodeo\nliability.\n * ALLOSAURUS RIDER — power and toughness each equal to 1 plus the number of lands you control... and you may exile two green cards from your hand instead of paying his mana cost. A free 20/20 or bigger is the finest saddle in the territory, and casting him for free means the mana went to the frog fund.\n * MOLIMO, MARO-SORCERER / ULVENWALD HYDRA / HARMONIOUS / GROVESTRIDER / CULTIVATOR COLOSSUS — all four have power and toughness equal to the number of lands you control. Your acreage is their gym membership. Late game these are 20/20s+ that make the frog's sacrifice trigger look like winning the rodeo lottery.\n * DOMESTICATED HYDRA — 3/3 base that can monstrosity itself (trample included) when you need a medium-sized rider.\n * ELFSWORN GIANT — 5/3 with reach, and he makes an Elf Warrior for every landfall while he waits in the chute.\n\nThe beautiful part: every rider is ALSO a legitimate attacker, so\nthe deck never draws a card that says \"do nothing until the frog\nis awake.\"\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n5. THE SAFETY HARNESS (dying is a formality)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nThe frog eats a rider every time he connects. Rather than grieve,\nwe've issued everyone a safety harness — four cards that all say\nsome version of \"when this creature dies, return it to the\nbattlefield\":\n\n * FAKE YOUR OWN DEATH ({1}{B}): +2/+0, rider comes back tapped, and you get a Treasure for your trouble. The most honest card name in the deck.\n * NOT DEAD AFTER ALL ({B}): rider comes back tapped wearing a Wicked Role (+1/+1, and it drains each opponent 1 when the Role leaves). Also a fine emergency save.\n * PAIN 101 ({1}{B}): deathtouch plus the return clause. The\n syllabus is one line: get eaten, come back.\n * DEMONIC GIFTS ({1}{B}): +2/+0 and returns UNTAPPED. The premium harness.\n\nThe full loop: saddle Gitrog with a harnessed rider, connect,\nsacrifice the rider to the trigger (draw X, drop X lands), and the\nharness brings the rider right back. Net cost: zero creatures. The frog keeps the calories; you keep the cowboy. These instants also double as ordinary saves — point them at whatever an opponent just killed.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n6. LANDFALL — THE HAY MACHINE\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nEvery land drop is a rodeo event with tickets sold in three\ndenominations:\n\n*SCUTE SWARM - 1/1 Insect or 1/1 Scute Swarm per landfall. Classic and scary. \n* ELFSWORN GIANT — 1/1 Elf Warrior per landfall.\n * MOLE MAN, MOLOID MASTER — 1/1 Moloid token per landfall, and (this is the broken part) you may play lands from your graveyard.\n * SAPLING NURSERY — 3/4 Treefolk token with reach per landfall. Affinity for Forests makes it nearly free late, and you can exile it to give your whole army and your Forests indestructible for a turn. That is a stampede button.\n * NISSA, WORLDSOUL SPEAKER — two energy per landfall, and she lets you pay 8 energy instead of mana for permanent spells. Twenty-four landfalls is three free Gitrogs.\n * KAZANDU NECTARPOT — 1 life per landfall. Somebody has to patch up the rodeo clown.\n * CULTIVATOR COLOSSUS — the chain: when he enters, keep putting a land from your hand onto the battlefield and drawing a card,repeating while the lands hold out. With a full hand this is\npotenitally multiple landfalls on one body — and he's a land-sized trampler besides.\n * SPELUNKING — ALL your lands enter untapped. This deck runs a fair of enters-tapped lands and all the lands from Gitrog enter tapped; this enchantment removes the downside so they are working for you now. Plus it draws a card and drops a land from your hand on arrival.\n\nTECH CORNER — Mole Man plus Memorial to Folly: sacrifice Memorial to return a creature from your graveyard to your hand, then replay Memorial from your graveyard with Mole Man. Lather, rinse, repeat. A slow, undignified, entirely legal perpetual-motion machine.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n7. THE RECURSION RODEO (bring 'em back, saddle 'em again)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\n * ZOMBIFY ({3}{B}) — creature from grave to battlefield. Classic.\n * DEFOSILLIZE ({4}{B}) — returns a creature, which then explores TWICE. Your returnee gets bigger or digs you lands on the way out of the yard.\n * DREAD RETURN ({2}{B}{B}) — reanimate now, and its flashback (sacrifice three creatures) is a second reanimate later. Feed\nit Elf tokens; the Elves have nowhere to be.\n * VICTIMIZE ({2}{B}) — sacrifice a token, return TWO monster\n cards to the battlefield tapped. The best trade this side of\n the Mississippi.\n * ELVISH REGROWER — enters: any permanent card from your graveyard to your hand. Lands, walkers, the frog's old\nequipment, anything.\n * EVOLUTION WITNESS — adapt it, then every time it gets +1/+1 counters, any permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.\n * MEMORIAL TO FOLLY — a land that moonlights as a one-mammal ambulance (see Tech Corner above).\n * BOJUKA BOG — while we're in everyone's graveyards, delete the opponent's before their Zombify becomes your problem.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n8. MAKING THE FROG CONNECT (evasion)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nA payout trigger that doesn't trigger is just a large frog wearing\na hat. So a full third of the deck is devoted to the phrase\n\"can't be blocked\":\n\n * WHISPERSILK CLOAK — can't be blocked AND shroud. Equip it FIRST and remember shroud means you can't re-target your own frog with future equips — dress him in boots first, cloak last.\n * BROTHERHOOD REGALIA — can't be blocked plus ward {2}, and it makes him an Assassin for style points. Equip legendary\n creatures for just {1}.\n * ROGUE'S PASSAGE — unblockable on a land, {4} to activate.\n Sitting right there in your mana base.\n * CHAMPION OF LAMBHOLT — creatures with less power than her can't block ANY of your attackers, and she grows every time another creature enters (that's every landfall token). By\n mid-game, half the opposing army is legally barred from blocking.\n * GARRUK'S UPRISING — trample for the whole team, plus a card whenever a power-4-or-greater creature enters. Your riders qualify. So does the frog. So does everything.\n * BLANCHWOOD ARMOR — +1/+1 per Forest you control. On the frog with twelve Forests out, that's 6/5 becoming 18/17 with trample. Trample handles the rest; the fence is decorative.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n9. KEEPING THE RIDE ALIVE (protection)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\n * SWIFTFOOT BOOTS — hexproof and haste. The classic frog\n footwear.\n * The four harness instants (section 5) each save a creature\n from removal AND feed the loop. Never a dead card.\n * BLESSED RESPITE — full combat-damage fog plus it shuffles your graveyard back into your library (anti-mill, anti-grave-hate,\n anti-sadness).\n * TANGLE — prevent all combat damage this turn AND every\n attacking creature doesn't untap next turn. A one-turn time\n walk that leaves the enemy army napping while you swing free.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n10. CROWD CONTROL (hog-tying the opposition)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\n * ASSASSIN'S TROPHY — destroys any permanent. Yes, they get a basic land, but the deck runs 45 lands so fair is fair.\n * HERO'S DOWNFALL — creature or planeswalker, instant speed.\n * GO FOR THE THROAT — cheap and reliable, unless they brought an artifact creature to the rodeo.\n * WITHERING TORMENT — creature or enchantment for {2}{B} and 2 life. Enchantment removal in Golgari is a public service.\n * RECLAMATION SAGE — artifact or enchantment, on a 2/1 body that can help pay the Saddle 1 toll in a pinch.\n * CULLING RITUAL — destroys every nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less and ADDS {B} or {G} for each one destroyed. Late game that's a board wipe that pays YOU. \nTwo warnings:\n (1) it hits your cheap stuff too — swing first, cull after;\n (2) the mana it adds is the setup for Exsanguinate. Store it.\n * BLASPHEMOUS EDICT — EACH player sacrifices THIRTEEN creatures. You have a token factory and a recursion engine; they have a mullet and a dream. If thirteen-plus creatures are on the\nbattlefield you may pay only {B}. Choose the turn their board\nis full of cheap creatures and yours is full of receipts.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n11. HOW TO WIN (three ways to clear the arena)\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nFINISHER ONE — THE VAMPIRE (Exsanguinate)\nDeck runs 45 lands plus powerful ramp like Dark Ritual. Combined with a board full of insects and lands, Culling Ritual can pump an obscene amount of mana into Exsanguinate. It is easier than one would think to make X = 20+. More often than not your are wiping out multiple if not all your opponents. If for some reason, you do not get them all, the massive life game will all but guarantee the eventual victory. \n\nFINISHER TWO — THE STOMP\nAllosaurus Rider (free cast, power = 1 + your lands), Molimo,\nUlvenwald Hydra, Harmonious Grovestrider, and Cultivator Colossus all scale with land count. Ghalta discounts off your monstrous team. Terrian and Quakestrider arrive pre-swollen. Add Blanchwood Armor on the frog and Garruk's Uprising trample everywhere, and \"through defenses\" stops being a metaphor.\n\nFINISHER THREE — THE STAMPEDE\nElfsworn Giant, Mole Man, and Sapling Nursery each spit out a\ntoken for EVERY landfall — a big Gitrog turn can mint thirty\ntokens in one go. Then exile Sapling Nursery: your entire army\n(and your Forests) gain indestructible for the turn. Send\neveryone in. Champion of Lambholt makes sure nobody small can block, Garruk's Uprising makes the ones who can regret it.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n12. MULLIGANS\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nKEEP: 3-4 lands plus two ramp pieces; or 4-plus lands and any\nlandfall payoff (Scute Swarm, Elfsworn Giant, Nissa, Sapling Nursery); or a\nhand with Cultivate-chain mana into a turn-4 frog.\n\nFOLD: Gitrog with no ramp (a frog without a pond), ramp with no and drops (a pond without a frog), and any hand that doesn't hit\nits first four land drops. The frog is the headliner; he always\nshows up. The opening act is acreage.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n13. GOTCHAS, TRAPS & HONEST WEAKNESSES\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\n * The whole engine leans on the frog CONNECTING. Whiff turns hurt. Buy the evasion early (Rogue's Passage, boots, cloak).\n * Riders tapped for Saddle can't block that turn. Saddle\n attackers only, or accept the risk with your hand hovering\n over the fog spells.\n * Culling Ritual is symmetrical in all the wrong ways. Count\n your own permanents with mana value 2 or less before you\n light the fuse.\n * Board wipes set you back a turn, not a game — recursion and\n token factories rebuild. But exile-based removal on the frog\n means paying commander tax; shrug, pay it, he's worth it.\n * Graveyard hate (Bojuka Bog, Rest in Peace) turns off the\n Encore. That's what Blessed Respite and your own Bojuka Bog\n are for.\n * Flying armies fly over the ground rodeo. Elfsworn Giant\n reaches; the rest is vibes and removal spells.\n * Reliquary Tower and Spellbook exist because the frog's payout turns draw twelve cards and the rules committee has opinions about maximum hand size. Hold both.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n14. FINAL WORDS\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nRide safe. Sacrifice responsibly. Tip your rodeo clowns. And when\nsomeone at the table asks why you're feeding a legendary\namphibian a perfectly good 12/12 dinosaur, smile, draw twelve\ncards, slam twelve lands, and tell them:\n\n\"The frog always eats first.\"\n\n\n"}]}