Psychatog, heralded by many as the best deck for the current Standard format, is the only true control deck that could be considered a viable option for Regionals. There is relatively little variation in the construction of Psychatog decks - but the few choices that remain can create vast gaps in how one deck plays compared with another. Those who have followed popular builds of this deck have likely traced the same evolutions I have; in this article, I hope to address the important questions facing those interested in building or testing Psychatog for Regionals, offer an analysis of the common matchups, provide some sideboarding suggestions and ultimately to arrive at a solid Psychatog build which will be well-prepared for a widely varied field.
I would like to note here that I have taken Ted Knutson's suggestions for playtesting and redone all my testing just for this article. I will include the standardized procedure for each testing session below, provide the decklist I used to test with and offer specific sideboarding techniques that were utilized for all sideboarded games without variation. Stick that in your smoke and pipe it!
Ahem... Without further ado, the decklists:
For those of you who haven't traced the evolution of this deck from point A to point C, I'll try to trace it for you here. Reeves' deck was the best-placing Psychatog deck in the Chicago Masters (along with Antoine Ruel's deck, which was honestly rather eccentric) and therefore became the base from which many began testing and building the Psychatog deck.
The second decklist above was not the winner of a tournament or even a competitor in one (though builds like it have since placed well in Regionals around the world), but rather a deck posted on The Sideboard by none other than the German Juggernaut himself. This deck was designed based upon 4th and 5th place Masters finishers Antoine Ruel and Dave Humphrey's decks, and was geared toward beating the mirror match and other control decks.
The third decklist is the deck Kai took to the Stockholm Championships. He opted for a non-Wish version which maindecked Duress and had a wildly different sideboard (obviously) than his previously suggested version. This deck was also tuned to beat the mirror and other control decks rather than more aggressive decks like Red/Green and Madness. Since Regionals is traditionally a creature-heavy metagame and everyone who reads this article is not Kai Budde, then it's probably well-advised to take a deck tuned more to a creature-heavy metagame. As a result of my previous testing (which I can share with you privately if you'd like to email me about it, but will not include here due to its unstandardized nature*), I arrived at the decklist which I used for the playtesting this article presents. First, however, we'll take a look at some of the key issues facing Psychatog today.
The most important thing to consider when analyzing any group of decklists representing different builds of the same basic deck are the cards which all the decks hold in common. Here's a listing of the similarities between all three decklists above:
3x Psychatog
3x Compulsion
4x Counterspell
3x Force Spike
3x Circular Logic
3x Compulsion
3x Deep Analysis
3x Smother
3x Innocent Blood
2x Upheaval
4x Polluted Delta
3x Underground River
3x Swamp
9x Island
Commonalities between the sideboard and maindeck together include an additional:
1x Smother
4x Duress
2x Chainer's Edict
1x Compulsion
1x Circular Logic
These cards constitute the foundation of Psychatog and should not be changed until further testing is done. But it is the dissimilarities that are of most importance to those desiring to build and play Psychatog. A number of difficult questions arise from this discussion: Is Innocent Blood or Chainer's Edict a better removal spell? Do I really need Cunning Wish in the deck? Does its exclusion necessitate maindeck Duress? How much creature kill is enough? How much is too much? How many Psychatogs should be in the main deck? How many lands does this deck really need?
The most formative question for any Psychatog deck is that of Cunning Wish. Do you run the slower Wish for added versatility and the knockout punch of Mana Short in the mirror, or do you replace the often clunky Wishes with sleek, efficient spells like Duress or Ghastly Demise? Honestly, I think this question depends a lot on your metagame. With a wide-open metagame like Regionals, it's difficult to make a deck too focused because you end up sacrificing power in other matchups. In this kind of environment, Cunning Wish provides a versatility that could very well give you an edge in many matchups.
Unfortunately, Regionals is also known to be a very creature-oriented metagame and as such the Psychatog deck needs to have answers to hyper-aggressive decks as well as slower fat-crank style decks. I am convinced that the versatility Cunning Wish provides is important enough to sacrifice sideboard slots for its targets. I am also convinced of two other things that I've seen few people mention: Your sideboard should be designed with the intent of sideboarding out Cunning Wish in more aggressive matchups where it is simply too slow and you should limit your Wish targets to that which is essential. Kai chose to remove the Wishes in favor of maindeck Duresses - but this was a metagame call against control decks, which may hurt against a field as varied as Regionals. However, it is also important to note that by removing the Wishes, Kai forced either the inclusion of maindeck Duress, Mana Short, or accepted a game 1 loss in the mirror. If you determine to pull Cunning Wish, then make sure you know why you're taking it out, what you intend to replace it with, and how that will effect your matchups and testing results.
The number of card drawing spells and counterspell effects are fairly standardized within Psychatog decks these days, but the amount and type of creature kill varies considerably from deck to deck. At one end, you have those who are labeling Tog an MBC deck with blue (Reeves' deck) and at the other you have decklists focused upon playing the counter-card drawing game (Kai's Sideboard.com build is an example of this). The creature-kill spells range in number from seven to ten- a number that is affected by the metagame expected and the specific card choices.
There are four main creature-kill spells available today, each with its own limitations and advantages. There are two that target: Smother and Ghastly Demise. Smother cannot deal with larger creatures, but is both an instant and able to target black creatures. Smother is generally considered the best creature-kill spell in Standard and is normally given a full four spaces in the main deck. This seems to be the right call, since drawing multiples is almost never a bad thing and it is also an instant. Ghastly Demise can target any size of non-black creature, as long as you have enough cards in your graveyard to support it. This is the Wish target of choice for most players against aggressive non-black decks. Its inclusion in the main deck is questionable, though there have been very few times where I've been unable to cast a Demise. It might be a nice surprise against R/G, Sligh, and Beasts, but sideboard cards such as Phantom Centaur and the (very peculiar) rise in popularity of aggro-black decks such as The Graveborn Identity could prove troubling in a wide-open metagame. Another big drawback (and perhaps the greatest) is that the Demise cannot kill Wild Mongrel.
The two other creature-kill spells do not target, but allow the opponent some degree of choice. Chainer's Edict and Innocent Blood force the sacrifice of a creature. Innocent Blood would automatically get the nod over Edict if it weren't for that"each" where we all wish a"target" was. The lower casting cost of the Blood and the commonly-accepted understanding that you should not cast a Psychatog unless you have adequate fuel to keep him alive has placed Innocent Blood over Chainer's Edict in the mind of many. I personally prefer Innocent Blood due to its casting cost and have only once (in some hundred-plus games) flashed back a Chainer's Edict. Another reason for Blood to get the nod over Edict as the sacrificial spell of choice is its potential power in the mirror. It forces the other Tog player to accumulate a hand containing the following cards before attempting to"go off": Upheaval, Psychatog, Mana Short, Circular Logic or Force Spike, and some array of other counters to fight over the Mana Short. That's a four-card hand - and if they don't hold back a Logic or Spike, then the Toggy is dead. This is something that I always play around if the opponent has Innocent Blood, but would not be a threat if they were maindecking Chainer's Edict instead.
The final pressing question for the main deck is that of land. How much land is enough? How much is too much? Reeves ran only twenty-four - but for a deck this mana-hungry, that is probably not a wise choice. Some decks I have seen ran as many as twenty-eight lands, but through my own testing I have found twenty-five land to be about right. Wanting to minimize the effect of mana screw, I have included only two of the comes-into-play-tapped cycling lands, four of both Polluted Delta and Underground River, and two of the sometimes suboptimal but color-fixing Darkwater Catacombs. Taking the above into consideration, here is my current decklist and the one used for all the testing represented below:
Maindeck:
4x Counterspell
4x Circular Logic
4x Force Spike
4x Smother
4x Innocent Blood
3x Psychatog
3x Deep Analysis
3x Compulsion
2x Upheaval
2x Cunning Wish
2x Concentrate
9x Island
4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground River
4x Swamp
2x Lonely Sandbar
2x Darkwater Catacombs
Sideboard:
4x Duress
2x Persuasion
2x Callous Oppressor
2x Ghastly Demise
1x Persecute
1x Deep Analysis
1x Compulsion
1x Mana Short
1x Hibernation
You may note that my main deck is very similar to Kai's Sideboard.com build. This list was actually arrived at due to extensive testing and tweaking using both Reeves' and Kai's decks as a foundation, and is my own personal preferred build at the moment. The sideboard I used for testing is the one I currently have prepared for Regionals, though it is still being tweaked and tested. My Cunning Wish targets are restricted to Mana Short, Hibernation, two Ghastly Demises and Counterspells or Smothers that I remove with a Tog. This may seem somewhat anemic to those of you who favor a wide variety of targets for all potential situations, but I wanted both the versatility of the Wish and the ability to have a real sideboard. As such, I have designed my deck so the Wishes can be sided out if I see fit. Here's a breakdown of my sideboard. I'll examine other possibilities in the match-up section of this article and let you test out the different ideas for yourself.
4x Duress
This is key card in the mirror match where a well-timed Duress can spell game-over for your opponent. The inclusion of all four is a non-issue and something that I will not even consider removing from my sideboard.
2x Persuasion
A more permanent, non-black way to deal with your opponent's Phantom Centaurs, Exalted Angels and Wild Mongrels. This card is still in the testing stages, but after the test run I did for this article I've been very impressed with it and will probably use it to try and swing the R/G post-sideboarding match in my favor.
2x Callous Oppressor
A key card in the U/G Madness mirror match-up now comes to play for Tog. Kai introduced this to the world, and I'm afraid that U/G is going to suffer seriously for it unless they can remember to plan accordingly. This is a fantastic card and well worth the two sideboard slots it's been given here. Oppressor is also good against Beast decks, though lamentably poor against R/G, Sligh, and Graveborn Identity.
2x Ghastly Demise
These are my primary Wish targets and against aggressive decks; they are for all rights and purposes expensive Dark Banishings in game one and cheap Terrors in games two and three.
1x Persecute
I personally love this card and it serves as one half of my Wish-substitution plan against the Mirror, MBC, and Wake. (Strategy Tidbit: Only sideboard the Wishes out if they fought you over them in game one.)
1x Deep Analysis
A fourth copy of an essential spell for the mirror and against other control decks. Card drawing is at a premium right now and counter-resistant card drawing is even more valuable.
1x Compulsion
See Deep Analysis.
1x Mana Short
The Wish target for control decks and your silver bullet in the mirror match. A lot of times your Cunning Wishes will serve as Mana Shorts, since your opponents will fight you over them, not wanting you to fetch the real thing.
1x Hibernation
I prefer this card over many others I've seen due to its ability to pull you out of truly sticky situations against R/G, U/G Madness, Beasts, and Opposition. If Perish had been reprinted, you might see its name here instead, but Hibernation's instant speed might even place it above that almighty green-hoser due to its Wishable nature.
What? No fourth Psychatog?! - I removed the fourth Tog from my sideboard along with a number of the less relevant Cunning Wish targets (ever seen a list without Opportunity? I never Wished for it, so it got the boot) for cards that truly improved my matchups like Callous Oppressor and Persuasion. In addition to this, running 4x Innocent Blood makes the fourth Tog a risky proposition. I also play by the rule that you shouldn't needlessly expose your Psychatogs to burn or other forms of removal simply for the sake of holding back a few attackers. You're a control deck, so why let your creatures do all the work? This isn't quite Morphling, after all.
Matchup Analysis and Sideboarding Options:
I would like to state again that a standardized testing procedure has been used here. Here are the criteria for my testing:
1. My roommate Slate and I played ten games before sideboarding, followed by fifteen games post-sideboarding with the same sideboarding strategy used for all fifteen games (given below).
2. We switched decks at the end of every game.
3. Psychatog played first for the first five games of each pre-sideboard set and for the first seven games post-sideboard. The other deck played first for the last five games of the pre-sideboard set and the last eight games of the post-sideboard set.
4. I noted such statistical anomalies as mana screw, color screw, mana flooding and if they affected three or more games I will note such below.
U/G Madness:
This is an excellent matchup for Psychatog, if you play well and assuming they don't get a perfect draw. A perfect draw for the U/G deck against Psychatog involves either a turn 1 Careful Study, discarding two Basking Rootwallas, or any time they can get a Mongrel past your Force Spikes, Counterspells and Smothers, protect it with a Basking Rootwalla from your Innocent Bloods or Chainer's Edicts, and still have a Circular Logic and Arrogant Wurm along with adequate land in their hand.
Smother and Force Spike are key in the early game. This is one of the few matchups where you don't want to tap out on turn 4 to draw two or three more cards unless you're already behind and racing to catch up. The reason for this is that a Mongrel with Circular Logic backup can be a real pain to get rid of once they can start playing Arrogant Wurms at instant speed.
They will generally sideboard out a couple of Wonder and a couple of Arrogant Wurm along with any maindeck Ray of Revelation or other such"techy" cards. After sideboarding, look out for Quiet Speculations for massive card advantage, Phantom Centaur, and potentially Upheaval, Divert or Envelop. Honestly, some commonly-played sideboard cards like Envelop and Compost aren't that big a deal for you. As long as you can stay alive to Upheaval for the win, then it really doesn't matter whether they draw an extra card every time you kill a creature or not. Usually, with a low Wonder count, you can hold them off for a little while with just a Tog. If they were foolish and sideboarded all of their Wonders out, then you can hold them off nearly forever in that fashion. Callous Oppressor from the sideboard is an absolute bomb here. They won't be using the same card against you, since all you really have is one creature type, but since they lack any form of real removal the Oppressor can be even more devastating against them in this match than it is in their mirror match. Other sideboard cards to consider are Alter Reality (a card I'm not too fond of - it just doesn't do enough to satisfy me), Ghastly Demise, Chainer's Edict, Hibernation, Coffin Purge, and Megrim. Thanks to the addition of Callous Oppressor, the post-sideboard game is much better for you. If you could free up the sideboard space, I'd even consider adding a third.
Test Decklist:
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Aquamoeba
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Arrogant Wurm
4x Careful Study
4x Circular Logic
3x Wonder
3x Quiet Speculation
3x Roar of the Wurm
3x Deep Analysis
1x Ray of Revelation
3x City of Brass
11x Island
9x Forest
Sideboard:
3x Ray of Revelation
3x Callous Oppressor
3x Phantom Centaur
2x Turbulent Dreams
1x Krosan Reclamation
2x Divert
1x Upheaval
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 2x Callous Oppressor
+ 2x Ghastly Demise
- 2x Cunning Wish
- 1x Compulsion
- 1x Circular Logic
U/G Madness:
+ 3x Phantom Centaur
+ 2x Divert
+ 1x Upheaval
- 2x Arrogant Wurm
- 1x Ray of Revelation
- 1x Wonder
- 2x Careful Study
Testing results:
Pre-Sideboard: 6-4. Post-Sideboard: 11-4. No significant statistical anomalies.
R/G Beats:
Ahh... The recently-heralded"best deck in Standard," and unfortunately, a rather poor matchup for Psychatog. This is probably your most challenging matchup since the creatures hit harder and the burn capabilities are higher than those of Sligh. This deck also gets more out of Compost than any other deck in Standard, which is no mere drop in the bucket. Phantom Centaur from the sideboard can also wreck you before you know what's going on.
The key to winning this match is tempo. You need to match their undercosted critters with undercosted removal spells and counters. Force Spike shines in the early turns of this match; this is where Cunning Wish is at its worst, since you'd really rather have those Ghastly Demises in the main deck. Fortunately, it's not a predetermined outcome like R/G vs. Astral Slide might be. If you can keep speed with the deck and answer their threats in the early game, you have a good chance of pulling ahead with card-drawing and setting up a lethal Psychatog. These difficulties should not be underestimated, however: Red/Green has lately been one of the most popular archetypes and is taken out solidly only by Beasts and Astral Slide. Thus, Psychatog becomes more of a metagame choice than it previously has been.
If the most-played deck is R/G, then you have a much harder road ahead, but if its natural foils (Beasts and Slide) come out to play then you could easily Upheaval your way right into the Top 8. Sideboard options against R/G include Ghastly Demise, Alter Reality, Chainer's Edict, and Persuasion. Callous Oppressor is too easily killed and therefore inferior to Persuasion, Edict, or Demise in this matchup. If you can Persuasion a Phantom Centaur, then you're well on your way to winning one of your most unfavorable matchups.
Test Decklist:
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Skirk Marauder
4x Call of the Herd
4x Elephant Guide
4x Firebolt
4x Volcanic Hammer
2x Violent Eruption
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Barbarian Ring
2x Mossfire Valley
5x Forest
5x Mountain
Sideboard:
4x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Compost
3x Phantom Centaur
2x Violent Eruption
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 2x Persuasion
+ 2x Ghastly Demise
+ 1x Hibernation
- 3x Compulsion
- 2x Cunning Wish
R/G Beats:
+ 4x Compost
+ 3x Phantom Centaur
- 4x Elephant Guide
- 2x Violent Eruption
- 1x Skirk Marauder
Testing results:
Pre-sideboard: 3-7. Post-sideboard: 8-7. Statistical anomalies: Psychatog suffered color screw once (post-sideboard) and mana flood once (pre-sideboard). R/G Beats suffered mana screw once (post-sideboard) and color screw once (post-sideboard).
Astral Slide:
This is perhaps your easiest matchup. Let's be honest, it's not exactly a walk in the park.
Oh wait... Yes it is. They have no disruption and only eight real threats (four Exalted Angels and four Lightning Rifts). Save your counter for real threats (especially the Angels if you let them resolve an Astral Slide). If they resolve an Angel or Morph creature, then try to counter Astral Slide until you draw into creature kill. They can cycle half their deck away, but don't really have anything significant or dangerous to find with it. Your card drawing and counterspells should keep them at bay until you can either play a lethal Tog or Upheaval for the win. Potential sideboard cards are Duress, Persecute, Ghastly Demise and fourth copies of Psychatog, Compulsion and Deep Analysis. Minimal sideboarding is needed here, but it's never a bad thing to shore up your deck, even against great matchups.
Test decklist:
4x Astral Slide
4x Lightning Rift
4x Exalted Angel
4x Renewed Faith
4x Slice and Dice
4x Lay Waste
3x Starstorm
3x Wrath of God
3x Teroh's Faithful
4x Forgotten Cave
4x Secluded Steppe
7x Plains
6x Mountain
2x Windswept Heath
2x Wooded Foothills
1x Brushland
1x Karplusan Forest
Sideboard:
4x Ray of Revelation
3x Auramancer
3x Compost
2x Dwarven Blastminer
1x Teroh's Faithful
1x Forest
1x Wrath of God
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 3x Duress
+ 2x Ghastly Demise
+ 1x Compulsion
- 4x Smother
- 2x Innocent Blood
Astral Slide:
+ 3x Compost
+ 3x Auramancer
+ 2x Dwarven Blastminer
+ 1x Teroh's Faithful
+ 1x Forest
- 3x Wrath of God
- 3x Starstorm
- 4x Slice and Dice
Testing Results:
Pre-sideboard: 8-2. Post-sideboard: 13-2. No significant statistical anomalies.
Sligh:
I expected this to be a very difficult matchup, since previous versions of Psychatog have fared rather poorly against Slight. Fortunately, a number of factors have come together to make this matchup far more winnable. The fourth Force Spike, 25th (and possibly 26th) land, and at least eight creature kill spells are needed to gain an advantage in this matchup. You cannot miss land drops in the early game and you cannot allow any of their creatures to live for too long. Their biggest threats are Blistering Firecat, Goblin Piledriver, and Grim Lavamancer. Against Sligh, you really want to have multiple copies of both Ghastly Demise and Engineered Plague.
Sligh does rather poorly against three of the other top decks - R/G Beats, U/G Madness and Astral Slide - but people will still play it at Regionals either because of their obsession with little red men or because they traded their soul for 4x Blistering Firecat.
Ideally, you would cast a removal spell every turn until they have no hand, then reload with a Concentrate and take over completely. This rarely happens, however; Force Spike can be golden and you want to hold your Smothers for morphs, Piledrivers, and Lavamancers unless you're life total is so low that you have to start killing off Goblin Sledders. If you can kill off the important creatures, until you can support a dangerous Psychatog and drop a Compulsion into play, then you should win. You need to keep your life total around seven to be safely out of burn range - and if you are any lower than that and they are running any form of instant-speed burn, then you should always leave counter mana open even while activating Compulsion at end of turn. After sideboarding, Ghastly Demise is an all-star, and since they will likely sideboard out burn spells for heftier creatures, Persuasion can potentially be a gamebreaker. If nothing else, it can often serve as a two-for-one when you steal a creature and block with it.
Test decklist:
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Goblin Taskmaster
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Goblin Piledriver
4x Sparksmith
4x Skirk Marauder
4x Blistering Firecat
4x Firebolt
4x Volcanic Hammer
2x Violent Eruption
3x Barbarian Ring
3x Bloodstained Mire
3x Wooded Foothills
13x Mountain
Sideboard:
4x Threaten
4x Fledgling Dragon
4x Gempalm Incinerator
2x Flash of Defiance
1x Rorix Bladewing
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 2x Ghastly Demise
+ 2x Persuasion
- 2x Cunning Wish
- 2x Upheaval
Sligh:
+ 4x Fledgling Dragon
+ 3xGempalm Incinerator
+ 1x Rorix Bladewing
+ 2x Threaten
- 4x Firebolt
- 4x Volcanic Hammer
- 2x Violent Eruption
Testing results:
Pre-sideboard: 5-5. Post-sideboard: 9-6. No significant testing anomalies.
Beasts:
I have to admit, my testing results have been contrary to what most people seem to be finding regarding Beast and U/W Madness decks. I have been able to play around Glory a good 75% of the time, and only Phantom Centaur has been a considerable problem. According to my testing, this matchup is considerably in your favor. Tog can counter most decent-sized threats and kill the rest. It takes Psychatog eight to twelve turns to set up the Upheaval-Tog win, and at its fastest Beasts can start pumping out threats by turn 3. Beasts and U/W Madness are both mid-game creature decks, and you really should roll over such decks without much problem. Innocent Blood is theoretically poor due to the presence of Elves and Birds, but I've rarely had much trouble Smothering the low-cost threats and countering the fatter creatures like Phantom Centaur and Ravenous Baloth.
Luckily, your creature-control repertoire substantially improves after sideboarding, while they actually get very little. Potential sideboard cards include Callous Oppressor, Persuasion, Ghastly Demise, Chainer's Edict, Hibernation, and Coffin Purge (for Glory and Roar of the Wurm in the madness version). I highly recommend Callous Oppressor, since you can force them to activate Glory during their own turn, leaving them with three less mana and a lessened protection against true creature removal spells.
Test decklist:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Anurid Brushhopper
4x Ravenous Baloth
4x Call of the Herd
4x Living Wish
3x Exalted Angel
3x Glory
3x Beast Attack
4x Brushland
4x Wooded Foothills
3x City of Brass
6x Forest
3x Plains
2x Contested Cliffs
1x Mountain
Sideboard:
3x Ray of Revelation
3x Phantom Centaur
1x Anger
1x Glory
1x Silklash Spider
1x Nantuko Vigilante
1x Goblin Sharpshooter
1x Contested Cliffs
1x Intrepid Hero
1x Genesis
1x Caller of the Claw
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 2x Callous Oppressor
+ 2x Ghastly Demise
- 2x Cunning Wish
- 1x Compulsion
- 1x Force Spike
Beasts:
+ 3x Phantom Centaur
+ 1x Genesis
- 4x Living Wish
Testing results:
Pre-sideboard: 8-2. Post-sideboard: 10-5. No significant statistical anomalies.
Mirari's Wake:
Ahh, one of my favorite decks. This has been heralded as an excellent matchup for Psychatog - and while it's true that the matchup is in your favor, the down side is that Wake simply has more raw power than you do (Upheaval excluded). You must resolve Compulsion in this game. It's not an autoloss if you don't, but it makes the game a heck of a lot harder. Wake can easily get ahead on land due to the presence of Krosan Verge, and their counters are just as valid as yours are for protecting key spells like Mirari and Mirari's Wake. If either of these permanents resolve, then you must likely either Upheaval or concede. The raw power of a Mirari'd Cunning Wish is just too much for Tog to deal with most of the time.
The reason this deck is a good matchup is in your sideboard: That reason is Duress. Wake has few if any real sideboarding options, though they'll likely cut Wrath of God for a copy of Seedtime, Circular Logic, and maybe an additional copy of key spells like Mirari's Wake and Compulsion. You, on the other hand, have everything you sideboard for the mirror. If you play Duress intelligently and play around Seedtime when going for the game-ending Mana Short, then you should rarely lose.
Test decklist:
4x Counterspell
4x Deep Analysis
4x Moment's Peace
4x Renewed Faith
4x Wrath of God
3x Cunning Wish
3x Circular Logic
3x Compulsion
2x Mirari
2x Mirari's Wake
3x Brushland
4x Krosan Verge
3x Flooded Strand
4x Plains
3x Forest
2x Skycloud Expanse
2x Lonely Sandbar
6x Island
Sideboard:
2x Chastise
2x Teroh's Faithful
2x Seedtime
1x Circular Logic
1x Opportunity
1x Elephant Ambush
1x Krosan Reclamation
1x Ray of Revelation
1x Ray of Distortion
1x Compulsion
1x Flash of Insight
1x Mirari's Wake
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 4x Duress
+ 1x Persecute
+ 1x Compulsion
+ 1x Deep Analysis
- 4x Innocent Blood
- 3x Smother
Mirari's Wake:
+ 1x Seedtime
+ 1x Compulsion
+ 1x Mirari's Wake
- 3x Wrath of God
Testing results:
Pre-sideboard: 6-4. Post-sideboard: 11-4. No significant statistical anomalies.
MBC:
Another fine matchup. There are only two things you fear from this deck: Duress, followed by either Persecute or Mind Sludge, and Haunting Echoes. Unless they can strip your hand or remove your Psychatogs from the game, then you have a significant edge. Compulsion is golden in this match, allowing you to cycle away useless creature removal and fill your hand with counters. They will only have six to eight true threats - and anything that won't kill you, make you discard your hand, or put them above thirty life is not truly a threat. Upheaval is a deathblow, and leaving Deep Analysis in the graveyard is usually a good call unless you're missing land drops. After sideboarding, you can take out half of their threats with Duress and counter the others, so despite the changes made to their deck, yours are significantly better. This is really the pattern you'll see with all the non-traditional control decks (read: anything but draw-go).
The usual suspects to combat control come in here, and despite it being a control-on-control match-up you shouldn't run over time since you're heavily favored to win both the first two games. Cabal Coffers may be the worst thing for you, nullifying 66.67% of your counterspells unless you have an active Compulsion.
Test decklist: Gabriel Gaulet's winning Nationals Qualifier decklist:
My sideboarding strategy:
Psychatog:
+ 4x Duress
+ 1x Persecute
+ 1x Compulsion
+ 1x Deep Analysis
- 4x Innocent Blood
- 2x Cunning Wish
- 1x Smother
MBC:
+ 3x Cabal Therapy
+ 3x Millstone
+ 1x Caustic Tar
+ 1x Haunting Echoes
- 4x Mutilate
- 4x Chainer's Edict
Testing results:
Pre-sideboard: 7-3. Post-sideboard: 9-6. Statistical anomalies: Psychatog suffered mana screw twice (both times after sideboard) and MBC suffered mana flood once (before sideboard). Mirror:
Hmm... The mirror match. The least prepared for, least tested match for most any player. Not only is the Psychatog mirror boring and long, but who proxies up two copies of the same deck?!
Well, I do. What on earth am I going to do with 117 Tahngarth's Glares, anyway? Apparently, I'm going to make lots and lots of proxies! *Ahem*
Since this should theoretically end up at a 50% win percentage for both decks, I'm going to forgo statistics and focus on how to outplay, outsmart, and outsideboard your opponent. You already have the decklist and the sideboard I used, but how did I sideboard? If there is any one thing that Knutson's rules for playtesting falter on, it's re-sideboarding for game 3. Generally, these are not major changes, but too often you may have sideboarded in a reactive fashion only to discover that your opponent made a non-standard sideboarding choice and left you with weak or even useless cards (like a R/G deck that sides in Blistering Firecats instead of Phantom Centaurs, or another Psychatog deck that brings in a full array of Shadowmage Infiltrators, Voidmage Prodigies and Hollow Specters - which is not that great unless your opponent sides out all or most of his creature kill).
It is generally accepted that Duress is the card that defines the mirror match, and that any Psychatog player worth their salt will have access to four copies of this key card between main deck and sideboard. While this is not actually the immutable rule many have made it out to be, it is very close. Duress takes a card, be it a threat like Cunning Wish or Upheaval, or a disruptive card like Duress or Counterspell, gives you a peek at the opponent's hand, and gives you a foot up in the information war. In addition to Duress, I really like the inclusion of Persecute, since you can truly punish a turn 4 Concentrate or a Counterspelled Duress.
Deep Analysis and Compulsion are the card-drawing weapons of choice against other control decks, since the former is counter-resistant and the latter can dig you deeper into your deck and help you continue to make your land drops. Carlos Romao won the World Championships by saving his counters for threats... But those were the days of Fact or Fiction, when countering your opponent's card drawing meant tapping out during your turn. These are the days of sorcery-speed card drawing, which means that countering that fourth-turn Concentrate or Deep Analysis may not be such a terrible idea. I am particularly in favor of burning Force Spikes on opponent's card drawing spells, forcing them, if nothing else, to tap out completely. The Cunning Wish version of Tog will have the advantage in the mirror against a non-Wish version, assuming your opponent does not Duress you at the wrong time and either take your Wish or force through a threat you can't deal with after stripping you of counters.
Your sideboard is the great equalizer, however, and you now have access to Duress, Persecute and Mana Short. You're golden. Here's my sideboarding strategy against the mirror:
+ 4x Duress
+ 1x Persecute
+ 1x Compulsion
+ 1x Deep Analysis
- 4x Innocent Blood
- 2x Smother
- 1x Force Spike
As you can see, I prefer leaving the Cunning Wishes in so I effectively have 2x Mana Short. This avoids the catastrophe of getting your hand all set up only, to have your opponent strip you of your Upheaval or Mana Short. You could take the Wishes out if you wanted to hold on to another one or two of your Smothers (side out a second Force Spike if you want to keep all four), though normally the mere threat of Smother or Innocent Blood (as well as Force Spike and Counterspell) keep players from casting early Psychatogs in the mirror. This does not mean that you should take all your creature-kill out, though, and I prefer the surprise factor of Smothering a Tog end of turn over tapping out on my turn to fight a counter war over Innocent Blood.
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