Once upon a time, in a far-away land,
Lived a leprechaun - me - with a mouse in me-hand.
With de IE open and me-eyes dissolving away,
Staring at de computer, like any other day.
But that day was special because something triggered me-brain.
I declared: "I'll make a visit to DeManaDrain!"
I browsed through de forums; no response, no longer alive,
So I scrolled down the long list in the History Archive.
I tried in vain to follow Oscar's Apprentice logs,
Then I found: "You CAN Play Type 1 #90: Head-to-Head with Growing Tog".
That's when de clouds opened and the sky became clear
And de angels sang and de trumpets rang in me-ear,
And I knew from that day onward what me-life was to be,
I knew converting Growing Tog to Extended was me-destiny.

Extended old-timers may remember when madman Alan Comer unleashed Miracle Gro onto the tournament scene. Grow it did, and it lead the Extended format right up to the rotation. Gro fever then spread to Type One, eventually evolving into a monster that splashed Black for Psychatog and Yawgmoth's Will. GroATog dominated Type One up to the banning of its central card, Gush. Steve Menendian's build is a very good example of what the deck looked like.

Why was GroATog so strong? For one, it had great creatures. Between Quirion Dryad and Psychatog, GroATog (GAT) had some of the largest and most undercosted fat in the game. It also drew cards like crazy, using Gush and cantrips to cycle through and keep playing spells. Control decks had to pay mana for their card drawing and countermagic. GAT had it all for free. Force of Will, Daze, and Misdirection all cost zero - in the early game, it would win counter wars and force through a game winning threat. And, it also could "just win" by going off with Gushes, casting Yawgmoth's Will to reuse the Gushes, making a ton of mana with Fastbond, and Berserking through opposition, thus allowing the deck to come back from hopeless board positions or taking games much faster with much more back-up than a deck should. GAT was a lean, mean, fighting machine.

But with the loss of combo parts, Force of Will, dual lands, and Winter Orb, how is it to function in Extended? The integral concept behind GAT remains strong; even with the loss of a few good cards, the deck has enough manpower to reestablish and thrive.

Growing in Extended
Though certain cards are gone, we can fill the holes and replicate the roles. Extended has good countermagic and disruption. It has acceleration. It has tutors. It has the creatures. It has good draw and good removal and good mana denial. We have a great card pool to work with, and plenty of options.

The Fat
Size does matter. GroATog runs two of the biggest creatures in the game - Quirion Dryad and Psychatog. Simply, the deck is based around making these large and attacking with them. Quirion Dryads come out early on and can attack multiple times. Later on, Psychatog is much more efficient and much larger.

The Draw
Most of the top Extended decks run a fair share of library manipulation. GAT runs up to 18. The central card is Gush. It nets you two cards and sometimes two mana, gives each Dryad +1/+1 permanently, and gives Psychatog +6.5/+6.5 for one turn. It's great with Foil, Exploration, Horn of Greed, Armageddon...this is essentially a Gush deck.

Some advocate using Night's Whisper, but I don't think the deck needs it. Even ignoring its sorcery speed, its Black mana requirement, its inability to find land on turn 1, its loss of life (which is precarious in a deck with City of Brass and Vampiric Tutor), and its high casting cost of two, Night's Whisper still doesn't dig as deeply as Serum Visions. If there are slots open for Night's Whisper, I'd rather have Accumulated Knowledge.

For obvious reasons, Fire / Ice is an awesome card if you run all five colors. It's removal that doesn't take away from the draw count.

One reason GAT is so much fun is that it makes you feel like a miser. Top deck Serum Visions. Gush. Brainstorm. Psychatog! ¡Oleá! I am such a miser. But in truth, I found my 'Tog because I just burned through eight cards.

The Search
Search is vital in GroATog. More controlling builds may run a small maindeck toolbox - maybe something like 1 Pernicious Deed, 1 Shimmering Wings, 2 Armageddon. In this case, Vampiric Tutor finds your hoser. Or you could cut the toolbox and become more aggressive. In this case, Merchant Scroll is Gush numbers 5 and 6. In a pinch, or if you don't have two Islands, you can also find anything from Cunning Wish to Counterspell to Fire/Ice.

Speaking of Cunning Wish, don't. It's too expensive and clunky. It takes two turns of mana to get a Diabolic Edict from the sideboard. In a build using Exploration, though, it becomes much better. If you run Exploration but not Horn of Greed, then use Cunning Wish. Cunning Wish can find removal, a Gush that has been removed by Psychatog, a Naturalize for the Aluren, or an Ensnare if you just want to win. But if you do run Horn of Greed, pass Cunning Wish - you'll have too many spells that cost three and you'll ruin the mana curve.

Whatever you do, don't run Intuition in GroATog. It doesn't matter if you have eight Accumulated Knowledge. Intuition is terrible. GroATog wants to beat down, not sit back and Intuition for cards. Intuition belongs in 'Tog and Madness, not GAT.

Disruption and Utility
Force of Will is gone, and we need a replacement. Foil, Misdirection, and Daze all have their ups and downs. Foil, the most versatile, is also the most costly. Daze is great with Foil, and it fits right into the tempo-based GroATog. Misdirection is strong against Rock, Tog, and RDW, but is dead against bombs like Pernicious Deed and Tangle Wire.

There's also Counterspell, Mana Leak, Memory Lapse, and Duress. Counterspell is still the best, and Duress needs no explanation. If you run Black, you run Duress, in the sideboard at least.

GroATog has access to some of the most efficient removal ever printed. Smother, Fire/Ice, Pernicious Deed, Powder Keg, Ghastly Demise, Diabolic Edict, Oxidize, Gilded Drake, Perish - it's a buffet. The downside is that most of those are stuck in the sideboard. Running too much removal will slow GAT down and take up valuable slots for draw. The first five are the most flexible, so they are maindeck material. Unless your metagame is skewed to the max, leave the others for the sideboard.

Enough with the boring stuff. Time to introduce my tech. First, we have Armageddon. See her shapely form and her surprising features. See them tremble at her feet. See her whiteness of her skin. She'll clear away your farmer's soil. Armageddon, you are beauty.

And here, we have a very different, but equally sexy, Upheaval. Though heavier than Armageddon, she is the bustier of the two. She will reset your button and shake things up. She can be a bit Blue, but she's easy to please.

Ohhh, and let's not forget Shimmering Wings. She's so petite, so cute. She's loyal - she'll return to you in times of need. She doesn't seem like much, but she'll have you floating on a cloud.

Look, there's Exploration. Exploration, Exploration, what can we say? She speeds things up. Sure, she fills up some of your slots, but who cares. She makes your men grow faster. She makes you Gush more easily. She'll have you feeling Greed(y) and Horn( ). She'll leave you in a Daze and cause Upheaval.

The Combo
As if all that wasn't enough, we can take GroATog one step further. I wanted a way to replicate Type 1 GAT's ability to bounce back out of nowhere and win with the Yawgmoth's Will/Gush/Fastbond combo. I wanted some more oomph in the late game. It's really not that difficult. I'm already running Gush, and Exploration is already a strong card if not an auto-include. That's two-thirds of the Turboland engine. Make space for some Horn of Greed, and you've got a powerful and fast combo. And its synergy with Psychatog and Upheaval is amazing.

It's important to know when not to cast Horn of Greed. If you don't have Exploration, or don't have Gush, or can't follow the Horn of Greed with a constant stream of lands quickly, the opponent will get way ahead of you. Don't lose to your own cards.

So with all this in mind, I proxy a rough draft of GAT and pair it against a few of the core Extended decks. Here is my first version (this about the time that Scourge was printed):

CrapATog
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Psychatog

4 Brainstorm
4 Gush
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
3 Cunning Wish
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Daze
4 Foil

3 Chrome Mox
4 Yavimaya Coast
3 City of Brass
2 Forest
4 Polluted Delta
7 Island
1 Swamp

Feast your eyes upon this, this jewel of the sea, this specimen of beauty, this treasure of forgotten lore. Bow to its magnificence and be humbled in its glorified presence. Sorry, it sucks. It's clunky and slow. But that was two years ago. With the help of the mtgnews.com and starcitygames.com forum members, the hard working Team Mormons of Magic, and actually testing, I flatten the mana curve and speed up the deck. Much better.

Fast forward about a year, right after the Extended bannings of Pro Tour: Tinker New Orleans. I find two [interesting, Extended, Czech, Pro Tour, GAT] decklists. Peter Brozek had gone all out with five colors, using City of Brass and Grand Coliseum. He had added Fire / Ice and Armageddon to his arsenal. You can see the deck sat http://www.cmus.cz/co/reporty1/brozek1911.shtml and http://www.cmus.cz/rs/view.php?cisloclanku=2004011501. By the way, can someone translate Czech?

This discovery intrigues me, as running five colors opens many new windows. Team Mormons of Magic and I test hundreds of matches and bring it to many Friday Night Magic tournaments, post strong numbers against the field, and make GroATog well known in the area:

5-Color GroATog
4 Quirion Dryad
3 Psychatog

4 Brainstorm
2 Serum Visions
2 Gush
3 Fire / Ice
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Vampiric Tutor
3 Duress
4 Daze
3 Counterspell
1 Foil
2 Armageddon
1 Isochron Scepter

3 Mox Diamond
1 Volrath's Stronghold
4 City of Brass
2 Grand Coliseum
3 Polluted Delta
8 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard
2 Duress
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Shimmering Wings
3 Naturalize
4 Smother
2 Gilded Drake
1 Energy Flux

Then Skullclamp is printed. Affinity and other Clamp-based aggressive decks pour into the metagame like a Mongolian Horde. Back to the drawing board.

This is about the time when I discover Turboland's synergy with GAT. I had started a thread in the StarCityGames Extended forums, and one of the repliers casually mentioned Zvi Mowshowitz's pet hamster deck. Light bulb. Up until then, GAT lacked one thing: a late game boom. Miracle Gro prevented the late game with Winter Orb and Type 1 had Yawgmoth's Will to swing games. I had no such thing - yet.

Quickly, I put together a rough GroATog build, add the Turboland engine of Gush/Exploration/Horn of Greed, and test a few games. The results are impressing. Exploration powers out faster creatures and easier Gushing. Horn of Greed fits naturally, and when timed right, it resembles the one-sided insanity of Yawgmoth' Will. Team Mormons of Magic and I continue to test our new version of GAT. Thing is, with the Horn of Greed/ Exploration engine, I found Quirion Dryad to be unnecessary. With my card drawing coming from playing lands, not spells, Dryad hardly grew. So, yes, I committed a horrible crime. I took Quirion Dryad out of her own deck. Going in this direction takes the "Gro" out of GroATog. The land count goes back up to 23 or 24, the expensive spells go back in, and it's no longer the same deck. Maybe another article?

So now, I take GAT back to its roots. Why is the deck good in the first place?

1) Its low land count allows it to run more spells.
2) Its spells all cost one or two mana, so it can keep churning through the deck and making its creatures bigger.
3) It uses efficient disruption to keep the opponent off balance.
4) Its mana base doesn't kill itself.

Our GroATog deck needs to stay on track and make sure it retains these traits. So, I go back to the original three-color design and start from scratch. Except not really from scratch, because I had gained a lot of experience and understanding along the way (don't I sound old?). Here's my final, tuned deck:

U/B/G GroATog
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Psychatog

3 Powder Keg
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
2 Opt
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Gush
3 Duress
4 Daze
2 Counterspell
2 Foil

3 Mox Diamond
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Yavimaya Coast
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Forest
4 Polluted Delta
6 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Naturalize
4 Ghastly Demise
2 Gilded Drake
1 Duress
1 Powder Keg
3 Energy Flux
1 Volrath's Stronghold

This deck is based around the theory that though each of its spells aren't as powerful individually, GAT can play more of them, and faster. Notice the mana curve:

0-1cc: 25
2cc: 14
3cc: 4
4cc+: 0

GroATog, a partial control deck, has a flatter mana curve than Affinity and RedDeckWins.

Also, notice the land count: 17. (No, Mox Diamond isn't a land).

The number of Islands: 10 (Polluted Delta counts).
Green sources: 8.
Black sources: 10.
Blue sources: 14.

Who in their right mind would rely on that? But the mana base is actually very stable (definitely more stable than Affinities...). The ten one-mana cantrips dig for land, and if they don't find land, they'll find more cantrips. In 100 recorded games, I find that it takes me 2.5 turns to find a Green source and 2.1 turns to find a Black source. I get my second Island by turn 3.9. This means that if I draw a Dryad, I'll have it in play by turn 2 most of the time, and by turn 3 almost always. I'll be able to Gush by turn 4 or 5 consistently. A turn 2 Quirion Dryad is a 4/4 by turn 3 almost 50% of the time. A Psychatog could be lethal by turn 6 60% of the time. My deck is half-way gone by the end of the game 75% of the time, and two-thirds gone 33% of the time. On average I see 3.8 new cards a turn and play 2.2 spells a turn. All this with counter backup.

Just as sudden as the arrival of Skullclamp into the Extended format was its departure. All that planning around it, that preemptive tuning to adapt GAT for what looked to be a metagame dominated by aggro and combo, is longer needed. Out goes the insanity. Out goes Mirrodin-Block Extended. Out go the card disadvantage of mass removal and the inefficiency of Counterspell. Out goes Skullclamp, and out with it go Skull Rock, Skulluren, Clamp Junction, Clamp Works, GobboGlamp, AffinityClamp, MadClamp, ElfClamp, and every other Swiss-cheese inventions that used the little-engine-that-shouldn't-have to fill its cavities and stuff its mouth. Out, out, out, and stay out!

Close, but no Cigarette
Cards almost made it but got pushed out include:

Night's Whisper and Fact or Fiction were replaced with cheaper draw. As GroATog became more tuned, the mana curve got lower - cheaper, faster spells replaced more powerful late game spells. Night's Whisper is great in Type 1 GAT, but in Extended, the mana base and Vampiric Tutor (and the opponent) provide enough pain.

Wonder is great, but has no discard targets. You have 3-4 Psychatogs and 2 Foils to discard Wonder. If your metagame is very skewed toward Rock and aggro (especially Rock), then consider maindeck Shimmering Wings. GroATog isn't very good at mass board control, and it doesn't matter how big Psychatog is if it gets chumped by Birds of Paradise...over and over again.

Static Orb may seem like the best replacement for Winter Orb, but a few test games will show that it's way too slow. Extended decks run the bulk of their spells along the two and three mana points of their curve. Static Orb, allowing two untapped lands plus a newly played land, doesn't give enough "bang for the buck". Of course, Winter Orb was the second most important part of the old Miracle Gro decks, and a replacement of some kind is needed. For the 5-color GAT builds, we have Armageddon. Otherwise, there's Rising Waters (meh), Sunder (double-meh), Upheaval (big, booming meh), Tangle Wire (hmmm...), and Powder Keg.

Powder Keg? In the right metagame, Powder Keg is a pseudo-Winter Orb. Winter Orbs' job was to seal the lead by slowing down everything but the attack phase and draw phase, allowing Miracle Gro's bigger creatures to go in for the kill. Powder Keg operates differently, but in the end, it's the same result. Let's say you're up against Affinity. You tap two for Keg, and blow up their lands. See? Keg = Orb. Let's say you're up against RDW. You untap, put a fuse counter on Keg, and blow it for one to kill all of the Jackal Pups and Grim Lavamancers and whatnot. By doing so, you shut down the effectiveness of their Rishadan Ports and Wastelands because RDW no longer has any clock to back up the disruption. See? Keg = Orb. Let's say you're up against Rock. You untap, put a fuse counter on Powder Keg, and kill a Bird. See? Keg = ...Stone Rain.

Fling is the new Berserk, right? Except Berserk could double Psychatog's damage for one mana. Fling needs two, one of which must be Red, and no blockers. Fling is no Berserk. Ensnare is better than Fling, and the number one Cunning Wish target. Too bad we don't run Cunning Wish.

Sickening Dreams didn't make it because Sickening Dreams = Pyroclasm whereas Powder Keg = Stone Rain, and Stone Rain > Pyroclasm. Got that? No? Nevermind. And we have Smother/Ghastly Demise using up the slots in the sideboard.

Werebear is a 4/4 for 1G...way too small for this deck. Actually, Werebear is a great card, and would fit nicely into the land-light U/B/G build. Less experienced GAT players will have trouble winning with only eight threats, and will want Werebears. But as you get better, you'll be able to defend your eight threats better, and you'll start wishing those Werebears were cantrips to enlarge the Quirion Dryads you have in play. The other reason that Werebear is missing is because it makes Powder Keg worse.

Pernicious Deed is the most (generally) influential and powerful spell in Extended. GroATog runs a color base perfect for Pernicious Deed. So why are there are only two copies among the two good lists, and why are two those relegated to bench warming? Because Powder Keg is better. Pernicious Deed requires too much setting up and strains my mana too much. Prior to Gushing, you need to make sure you hit three land (not a certainty with this deck), and have one Green source and a different Black source. Then you have to wait another turn to activate it anyway.

So how do you run this thing?
The main rule is to choose the correct path of action. Plan A is Dryad beats. Lay down a fast Dryad, make it large, and win with it. Even if this doesn't work out, you'll have disrupted their board position tremendously. You'll also have a backup plan. When Plan A fails, GAT switches over to Plan B - Psychatog. There is nothing more depressing for an opposing control player than the feeling they get after they stop your flow of cards, push through your countermagic, survive your hand disruption, and, panting with sweat and exhaustion, kill your Quirion Dryad just in time - only to pass the turn and see you slowly lay down a lethal Psychatog. For the really late game, you can start recurring Psychatog with Volrath's Stronghold. An ancient Roman saying comes to mind: "Psychatogs tire you out. Multiple Psychatogs that don't stay dead make you scream." - Aristotle, 850 A.D.

Mulligan aggressively. Most people don't mulligan enough. They keep hands with one Island and no one-mana cantrip and hope to draw into a second land sometime in the near future. If you have a heavyweight topdecking belt, keep that hand and more power to you. Otherwise, send it back. And if you're not sure, generally send it back. GroATog makes up for lost cards easily, but it can't make up for stupid mana screw. Things too look for in judging your opening hands:

• Do I have good mana and/or good digging effects?
• Do I have Daze to protect my Dryad the turn it comes out?
• Do I have Duress to see if my Dryad should come out?
• Am I clogged with expensive spells? (By expensive, I mean 2cc and 3cc.)
• Even if I were to find that second land, would my hand still be only so-so?
• Am I going to go with Plan A or Plan B?
• Do I have Powder Keg?

Of course you won't answer yes to all of these, but they nevertheless are questions worth considering.

It's important to know when you are the beatdown and when you are the control. When do you attack with a Quirion Dryad, while leaving mana open, and make them wonder whether or not to block? When do you play your spells during your turn to make Quirion Dryad deal more damage and when do you hold back for countermagic? When do you ignore the possibility of mass removal and when do you play cautiously? The answers come from experience (and Duress). For example, my friend lost a match because of lack of experience. He was paired against Rock, and he played like a control deck. But it's hard to control Rock when it gets its recursion game going. In that situation, my friend should have continued casting his creatures to draw out the Rock player's removal and slow down the Treetop Village attacks, and hopefully get a Psychatog to stick. Instead, he lost to recurring Ravenous Baloths. Mike Flores' "Who's the Beatdown" - an article every Magic player should read once a year - emphasizes the importance of knowing your role.

So in general, know your position and play to the best of it. GroATog is a solid deck. It's got what it takes to win, as long as the player knows what he or she is doing.

Tomorrow, I will run you through the matchup guide and probably include a tournament report that illustrates exactly how good GroATog can be in the current Extended environment.