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Part I of this article can be found here.

Testing 1-2-3
I tested against the ten decks I felt would be most popular this Extended season. I record matches only, not games, because single games are pointless. The gauntlet is: Psychatog (U/B GushTog, U/B/r ScepterTog), Rock, RedDeckWins, Madness, Goblins, Affinity, Reanimator, Ghoul Dance, Aluren, and Life. To note, Team Mormons of Magic has relatively competent Magic players. On to the meat of the article!

I've broken up the matchup analysis into three parts, GroATog against Aggro, GroATog against Control, and GroATog against Combo, so I can give some general comments and organize this large chunk of text.

GroATog against Aggro
If you are a strict disciple of Magic theory (a.k.a. Mormons of Magic), you'll have come to the understanding that aggro-control loses to straight aggro. Why? Because the textbooks say that aggro-control has no real board control to stop a large mounted attack, nor does it have enough speed to race aggro. In a sense, this is true. But it's not all. A very important aspect of the aggro vs. aggro-control matchup was left out: Psychatog.

Once it enters the playing field, Psychatog will dominate. Attacks will come to a screeching halt and defenses will crumble. Psychatog will threaten lethal damage every time it attacks and force blocks. Psychatog will take down anything aggro has to offer as long as it doesn't fly. And Quirion Dryad isn't tiny either.

But against certain decks, blocking isn't enough. Psychatog can be a big furry monster for all Affinity cares. Quirion Dryad can be a 100/100 for all Madness cares. In these instances, when even the world's largest wall isn't enough - Powder Keg is. At two generic mana, Powder Keg is easy to slip into play on turns 1 and 2. And once it enters play, it requires no mana investments to use. Set at one, Keg will knock out most of RDW's army, lots of Goblins, and a third of Affinity's deck. Set at two, Keg will blow up Madness' best outlets, Isochron Scepters, opposing Kegs, Slith Firewalkers, half of Aluren's creatures, half of Life's creatures, Arcbound Ravagers, and more Goblins. Set at zero, it'll destroy Affinity's mana base.

Using the 5-color version, you also have access to four maindeck Fire / Ice, and a few Pernicious Deed.

That said, aggro is still the toughest of the three divisions.

GroATog vs. RedDeckWins
RedDeckWins attacks GAT's weakest point - the mana base. Rishadan Ports and Wasteland can keep you off Green mana for a while, and Tangle Wire can lock you up for good. However, if you resolve an early Quirion Dryad, a Psychatog, or a Powder Keg, you'll most likely win. It's all about board dominance, and your cards are more powerful than theirs.

Versions with Chrome Mox are harder for you than versions without. Turn 1 Slith Firewalker or double Jackal Pup is evil, especially if they go first. Versions with maindeck Cursed Scroll are harder than versions with maindeck Pillage. Pillage is slow at three mana, and the only artifacts you have are Powder Keg. Cursed Scroll, on the other hand, will whittle your life points away and make having a blocker not good enough.

Your disruption is very important in this match. RDW doesn't run many creatures, as it only needs to attack down to ten or twelve and then burn you out. If you can counter a creature and block another, you'll slow them down a lot. Use Daze on whatever you can, since you won't have a chance later on. Don't save the Daze for Blistering Firecat. A smart RDW player will make sure to leave one mana open for it. Duress is better than you may think. RDW has twenty non-creature spells compared to their sixteen creatures, so Duress has a lot of targets. Tangle Wire is obviously pubic-enemy-numero-uno, and you'll never go wrong on stealing a Magma Jet or a Pillage or a Cursed Scroll.

As strong has your disruption is, your creatures are better. RDW can't handle fat, and you've got fat. Protect a Quirion Dryad until it's a 4/4, and you're good to go. Even if they waste two cards to deal with your one, you've gained tempo and card advantage. You then use this to fuel another series of cantrips and another creature or a Powder Keg, which will give you more tempo and card advantage. Eventually, the Red player will be in topdeck mode, waiting for you to run over them.

I've seen some new RDW decks splash Black for Cabal Therapy and Green for Oxidize. I'm not sure how effective that is, but the ideas have been floating around in the forums.

Mox Diamond shines in this matchup. Only Pillage destroys Mox Diamond, and that's only if they run it. Even then, Pillage is slow and easy to Daze. Mox Diamond allows for turn 1 Quirion Dryad with Daze backup, and turn 2 you'll have fat on the board. Or you can have turn 1 Powder Keg. It lets you cast turn 1 Psychatog to completely shut down their attack phase. It escapes Rishadan Port and Wasteland; with a Mox on the board, they'll have a hard time color screwing you.

In games two and three, you get to bring in the removal. Ghastly Demise, Naturalize, and Powder Keg all are cheap and efficient answers - you have to have cheap answers against a deck like RDW. You side out the slow Accumulated Knowledges and some countermagic. RDW will have a combination of Cursed Scroll, Fledgling Dragon, Ensnaring Bridge, Sulfuric Vortex, and/or Pyrostatic Pillar. Pyrostatic Pillar and Cursed Scroll are the most annoying. GAT really doesn't want continuous, uncounterable damage sources. Fortunately, we've thought ahead and are ready with our Naturalizes. Fledgling Dragon is pretty much game if it resolves, but at four mana, she's easy to counter.

Sideboarding:
-3 Duress
-4 Accumulated Knowledge
-1 Volrath's Stronghold
+4 Ghastly Demise
+4 Naturailze

Number Crunching:
71 Matches tested; 41 won, 30 lost, 58%

GroATog vs. Goblins
Here come the Goblins, see them marching on,

Here come the Goblins, hear their Goblin song,

Here come the Goblins, they smell really bad,

Here come the Goblins, 'cuz they just ate your dad.

Grand Prix: Okayama featured two Goblin decks in the Top 8, and one of them won the whole thing. Giving fast beats a combination close has always been a successful formula, and now the little Red men have clawed their way into Extended. The Goblin deck is good at what it does. It lays down lots of animals, keeps you at bay with Cabal Therapy, tutors for answers with Burning Wish, draws cards with Goblin Matron and Goblin Ringleader, and springs back from impossible situations with Patriarch's Bidding.

Aside: The Patriarch's Bidding vs. Living Death debate is pretty much closed thanks to Affinity. If you cast Living Death, and Affinity player can just sacrifice all of his creatures to his now gargantuan Arcbound Ravager, deal a ton of damage with Disciple of the Vault, and get all the stuff he sacrificed right back to do again. By then, you're probably too dead to attack with your hasted Goblins. Patriarch's Bidding partially relieves you of this situation.

Luckily for you, Patriarch's Bidding is easy to counter. Early on, you try to keep up with their assault the same you would against any other aggro deck. Slow them down and run them out with Powder Kegs and fat and countermagic. They are fast, and they run a lot of creatures, but they pack little disruption and few ways to remove your creatures.

Goblin Warchief, Goblin Piledriver (if you don't have a Quirion Dryad in play), and Siege-Gang Commander give you the most headaches. They speed the kill and make blocking tricky. Goblin Ringleader is also worth a counter because the card advantage may overwhelm you. Cabal Therapy may steal a counter or two and make life hard, but you'll still be able to deal with Bidding. It's the first wave that gives you the trouble.

In games two and three, you bring in the usual anti-aggro package of Ghastly Demise and Powder Keg. If Red decks are big where you live, use Chill, and lots of them. Chill is insane against Goblins, as well as against RedDeckWins. Sure, people will whine and nag that they can be played around, but by then, you'll probably have stabilized with a creature, a Keg, card advantage, or another Chill. Watch out for Flametongue Kavu and Gempalm Incinerator from the side. A light combination of Perish, Pyrostatic Pillar, and Terminate may also come in, but don't expect much because most of the Goblin sideboard is dedicated to Wish targets. Some Goblin decks also have Duress in the sideboard (or Cabal Therapy if it wasn't in the maindeck) to fight combo.

Sideboarding:
-1 Counterspell
-1 Opt
-3 Duress
-1 Volrath's Stronghold

+4 Ghastly Demise
+1 Powder Keg

Number Crunching:
61 matches tested; 32 matches won, 29 matches lost; 53%

GroATog vs. U/G Madness
Faster than RDW, but with less disruption, this is another fairly equal match. I now consider Madness to be Affinity, except slower and easier to stop. You can halt Madness' fastest attacks as long as their creatures stay on the ground. Get creatures into play, block, and use Daze to good effect. If Daze counters a Madness outlet, you are in great position. Once you grow a blocker to at least a 4/4, you can stabilize the ground.

However, once Wonder becomes part of the game, you'll have to race them with your bigger creatures (Psychatogs are good at racing) and stall for time with Powder Keg. Don't ever let Intuition resolve. They will make you pay by putting Wonders, Wurms, and Deep Analysis into the graveyard to abuse. The card advantage of Intuition is too much, as are flying 6/6 wurms.

It's important to know how to play around Daze. You don't want to send your best spells into it, but you can't afford to lose tempo either. Use weaker cards to bait out countermagic so your "real" threats will survive. Duress lets you see if the coast is clear. Circular Logic is impossible to play around, but it's easier to detect when they are holding on to one. Cards that you don't want to see include Waterfront Bouncer, Wonder, and Intuition. Spend your efforts dealing with those (though Wonder is pretty hard to deal with).

Gigapede is annoying in the late game, because it'll keep coming back at you. Genesis is also annoying, albeit incredibly slow. In a metagame with so much combo and aggro, most Madness decks will relegate Gigapede and Genesis to the sideboard.

In games two and three, the Ghastly Demise and Powder Keg come in. You should also find room for Gilded Drakes; trading a Gilded Drake for their only Madness outlet, their Waterfront Bouncer, or some opposing fat will win games. Madness decks almost always have bizarre sideboards that can include anything from Legacy's Allure to Call of the Herd to Submerge to Blurred Mongoose. Any bounce is bad against GAT because they'll reset all of Quirion Dryads' +1/+1 counters that GAT worked so hard on. Games two and three are tougher than game 1.

Sideboarding:
-4 Accumulated Knowledge
-1 Foil
-1 Duress
-1 Volrath's Stronghold

+4 Ghastly Demise
+1 Powder Keg
+2 Gilded Drake

Number Crunching:
70 matches tested; 32 matches won and 38 matches lost; 46%

GroATog vs. Affinity
Affinity, Affinity, please kindly go to hell,
Please send your bags a 'packing because all is not well,
You've ruined many formats, does Skullclamp ring a bell?
Too clunky is spot removal, too slow is Counterspell.
Go join a first grade classroom, be the star of Show-And-Tell,
Take up a new hobby, work at Taco Bell.
Jump of a cliff or get hit by a car, 'cuz that'd be really swell,
Affinity, Affinity, please kindly go to hell.

Affinity is scary. It has too many threats, all of which get better for each threat preceding it. Take a look at its "must-counters": Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, Atog, Cranial Plating, Tangle Wire, Sphere of Resistance, and Goblin Welder. Its weaker cards include free 2/2s and 3cc 4/4s.

Game one against Affinity will be decided quickly. You want to get a big creature down and make it stick. You actually have a fighting chance because you can keep up with their free stuff with your own free stuff. Dazing an early Frogmite will slow them down a lot. It messes up their match and may cost them a whole turn. Generally, Sphere of Resistance (if you see it) is your first target when using Duress. Next is Tangle Wire, then Cranial Plating, followed by Cabal Therapy/Shrapnel Blast and lastly their card draw. Powder Kegs are insane. Use Powder Kegs ASAP to wipe away their lands or their creatures. Powder Keg is almost always blown at zero, one, or two, depending on the situation.

Don't let an Arcbound Ravager and a Disciple of the Vault stay in play at the same time. One by itself is okay, but in conjunction with the other, they become nearly unstoppable. Psychatog is still bigger than Arcbound Ravager, and its ability requires no sacrifice of board position. Quirion Dryad will beat up Myr Enforcers and the smaller critters. Affinity doesn't run much removal, so you can expect whatever you play to stick, as long as the game isn't over yet.

After sideboarding, it gets a lot easier. Again, you have Ghastly Demise and Naturalize and Powder Keg. You also get Energy Flux. Between 3 Naturalize, 4 Powder Keg, 3 Energy Flux, and 4 Ghastly Demise, you should win Games 2 and 3 more than 75% of the time. Affinity will most likely have some light countermagic and maybe Duress. Affinity plays at a more aggro-control pace in post-sideboarding because of its countermagic. It won't run into too many mass removal traps, though Energy Flux is still hard to escape.

I pulled off a turn 2 kill against Affinity a few times. It went something like: turn 1 Mox Diamond, Island, Powder Keg. I sacked Powder Keg to destroy an artifact land. Then on turn two, I played a second land and cast Energy Flux. GG. Turn 2 kill? Easy.

You'll more often than not lose game one, and then come back to win the next two. Affinity is really weak in games two and three, not so much because of the amount of hate directed at it, but because of the effectiveness of the hate.

Sideboarding:
-4 Quirion Dryad
-1 Volrath's Stronghold
-2 Counterspell
-4 Accumulated Knowledge

+1 Powder Keg
+4 Ghastly Demise
+3 Energy Flux
+3 Naturalize

Number Crunching:
150 Matches tested; 79 matches won, 71 matches lost; 53%

GroATog against Combo
Here's where GroATog really shines. Its disruption is cheap and designed for combo's window of attack - the early game. Going first, it can easily disrupt turn 1 kills (if there are any). Duress and Daze both activate on turn 1, and Foil is useable even without a land drop. Daze is the most menacing. If the opponent knows Daze is in the deck, they won't go for extremely fast goldfish wins. They'll play it slow and disrupt you first - or risk losing outright. But it's a Catch-22. If they go all out, they'll most likely fall flat in front of a piece of timely disruption. But if they take their time and play it safe, they risk you drawing into more countermagic and running them out of steam.

While Psychatog is the big guy against aggro, Quirion Dryad is superior against combo. The one mana difference really matters, especially when you run on eighteen land. Quirion Dryad can slip down on turn 1, and will grow as a side effect of your disruption and draw. Sooner than you think, you'll have a 6/6 beater.

GroATog vs. Reanimator
I can't believe some people still consider Reanimator to be a rogue, third Tier deck. Reanimator may be Tier 1. It took two of the Top 8 slots in Okayama. Reanimator is fast. It gets turn 2 or turn 3 Akroma without blinking an eye. It'll maul your hand away, lay down a fat, protect it with more hand disruption, and win in short order. It's a simple, clean, and ruthlessly single-minded deck.

Nevertheless, GAT has its ways to fight. Daze is particularly effective. Even Dazing a Duress or a Cabal Therapy can win games. And if you Daze a combo piece, point your finger at them and laugh. Reanimator runs on very little mana, and won't have much leftover mana to spare for Daze. Duress is also great against combo decks like Reanimator. Reanimator is essentially a three piece combo deck - the discard, the reanimation, and the fatty. Knock one of the pieces out of their hand and you'll have broken the puzzle. They'll have to waste time searching for the missing link, giving you time to burn through your deck and draw more resources.

Even if they do get a creature out, don't fret. Phantom Nishoba can be taken down easily. It's only a 7/7, and compared to GAT's creatures, a 7/7 isn't that big. Quirion Dryad can easily grow to a 7/7 or bigger and block Phantom Nishoba until it whittles away. The life gain isn't important, because even if you're at sixty life, a 10/10 Dryad will finish you off in six attacks, and a big Tog later take thirty points off of your life total in one attack. Akroma is more troublesome because she flies and has protection from Black. Tog becomes useless against an Akroma. Quirion Dryad can race Akroma, but the haste makes it tough.

I was playing against a Reanimator deck the other day, and it was game 2. Reanimator had just done the turn 1 Careful Study, turn 2 Duress and Reanimate, and I was staring down an angry Angel with only one land in play. I draw my card, and slowly cast a topdecked Gilded Drake. He sighs. His turn. He untaps, draws, and casts his own Gilded Drake, which he later told me he topdecked. (Come to think of it, Gilded Drake in Reanimator is cool tech.) He attacks, and I'm down to eight. I draw my card, cast Brainstorm, play a land, and cast Gilded Drake off of Brainstorm. I attack and kill him.

As you can see, Gilded Drake is good. They spend all that efforts to summon the ultimate-beast-of-death-and-doom, and give it to you. Though there are only two, you'll often find them with your card draw. The sideboard I gave doesn't have too much against Reanimator - only a pair of Gilded Drakes, Ghastly Demise to deal with Nishobas, and a Duress. They, meanwhile, could bring in Defense Grid and Powder Keg.

Sideboarding:
-2 Psychatog
-3 Powder Keg

+1 Duress
+2 Gilded Drake
+2 Ghastly Demise

Number Crunching:
65 matches tested; 37 won, 28 lost; 57%

GroATog vs. Ghoul Dance
Ghoul Dance is a relatively new deck based on the old Angry Hermit concept, without Angry Hermit. Instead, it uses Buried Alive to find 2 Krosan Colossi and a Sutured Ghoul and Corpse Dance to revive a very large, hasted Ghoul. Once attack should finish things off, and this attack could come as early as turn 2.

But aside from their speed, they also run 4 Duress, 4 Burning Wish, a few Overmasters, 4 Brainstorms, lots of tutors, and Defense Grids in the sideboard.

But GroATog has its own share of brokenness, and can match Ghoul Dance's speed with its redundancy and its disruption. It's the usual - Daze the turn 2 attempts at going off, Duress the combo pieces to mess them up, counter what you can, ride a big creature to victory, blah blah blah. You are the control deck. Don't cast a turn 2 Quirion Dryad unless you have a Daze or are sure they won't do anything devastating; save the mana for countermagic. But if a turn 1 Dryad is offered to you, take it and don't look back. Turn 1 Dryads, if left alone, will end the game within five turns all by itself. A little disruption here and there will keep the Ghoul mage off balance for that period of time. When they finally manage to assemble the pieces, they'll either be facing tons of countermagic or be dead. If you don't have an early Quirion Dryad, then pretend you are a normal 'Tog deck - counter everything and draw cards.

Since you already have a great game against Ghoul Dance, don't devote to much sideboard space to beating it. I only add a single Duress and a few Naturalizes to fight the Defense Grids that'll be coming in. In exchange, I take out 3 Psychatogs. Ghoul Dance will bring in four Defense Grids and some Overmasters. That's about it though, as the rest of the sideboard is dedicated to Burning Wish.

Sideboarding:
-3 Psychatog

+2 Naturalize
+1 Duress

Number Crunching:
48 matches tested; 32 matches won and 16 matches lost; 66%

GroATog vs. Aluren Combo
Aluren is the most popular Extended combo deck right now. Though it can draw God hands and win on turn 3, that's not why it's so potent. What pushes it over the top into Tier 1 territory is its search. Aluren runs the most search of any combo deck. With Brainstorms, Vampiric Tutors, Living Wishes, Intuitions, and Raven Familiars, it's easy for Aluren to find what it needs. Even without an Aluren, the deck can outdraw control with the Cavern Harpy + Wirewood Savage engine, or Caver Harpy + Raven Familiar. The newest builds utilize Eternal Witness and make Aluren even more resilient to disruption but slow it down a bit.

GroATog is the control deck in this match. You want to hold back creatures and leave mana untapped for countermagic. GroATog wants to dig for more control cards like Powder Keg and Counterspell and survive the first assault. If you are reasonably sure Cabal Therapy will name Counterspell, then Counterspell it so they don't see your hand. Brainstorm in response to discard to hide the good stuff. Don't let Intuition through if you think it'll grab Cabal Therapies. An Intuition of three Therapies will rip your hand apart and leave you bawling in the sand. The other spell to watch out for is, of course, Aluren.

Know your timing. The combo loop is at its weakest when Cavern Harpy is coming into play. Let's say it is game three. Your opponent just resolved an Aluren and has begun going off with a Wirewood Savage and a Cavern Harpy. You're holding onto a Ghastly Demise. What do you do? If you simply target the Wirewood Savage with your Ghastly Demise, with nothing on stack, they can cast Cavern Harpy in response, return Cavern Harpy, recast Cavern Harpy, and repeat at instant speed. If you try to Ghastly Demise the Cavern Harpy any time it's in play, they can just return it and recast it over and over again in response. Either way, when the stack clears, your Ghastly Demise sits on the bottom and resolves last. Thus, you lose. However, if you wait until Cavern Harpy is coming into play and Ghastly Demise the Wirewood Savage in response, the stack clears with your Ghastly Demise on top of the Harpy. By the time the Harpy resolves, the Wirewood Savage will be gone, and thus ole' Harpy has nothing to feed off of. You can also Naturalize the Aluren when the Cavern Harpy is coming into play, or in response to Cavern Harpy being cast.

After you survive the first wave of threats, cast a creature. If their first attempt at going off is neutered, it'll be a while before they try again. With a fast enough clock, they won't have time to recover and reorganize. And if they do, you'll have found more disruption to stop it again.

After sideboarding, you can bring in pretty much your whole sideboard if you want to. Ghastly Demise, Naturalize, Duress, Powder Keg, and Gilded Drake are all good against Aluren. I usually leave the Gilded Drakes, and the extra Powder Keg in the sideboard. They won't have too much to bring in against you because Aluren uses Living Wish. Watch out for Xantid Swarm, though.

Overall, GroATog should beat Aluren. GroATog is good against combo in general - fast beats backed with cheap disruption make life hard for the Aluren player.

Sideboarding:
-2 Opt
-4 Psychatog
-1 Gush
-2 Daze
-1 Volrath's Stronghold

+4 Ghastly Demise
+3 Naturalize
+1 Duress
+2 Gilded Drake

Number Crunching:
65 matches tested; 46 matches won and 19 matches lost; 71%

GroATog vs. Life
Another new combo deck, Life was made known in Okayama. Life is strong because it has so many versatile combo parts. The deck is basically divided into 4 parts - the Encore clerics, the Big Butt clerics, the life gainers, and the search/toolbox. It's hard for GroATog to take care of all of this.

GroATog's goal in this matchup is to prevent Encore clerics and Big Butt clerics to be in play at the same time. If the two categories ever share a time in which they are both in play, Starlit Sanctum will appear and the game will be over. The problem is, keeping Encore and Big Butts off the table is very hard. You have Powder Kegs, countermagic, and constant attacking to force blocks, but it's still not enough. Sometimes, you'll just become overwhelmed by the number of combo parts and search cards in the deck. There's not much you can do about it.

And it gets worse after sideboarding. You get spot removal and Gilded Drake, but they get Xantid Swarm. Unlike against Aluren, Duress doesn't do much since their combo pieces are creatures and lands. Unlike Aluren, there isn't a central target to save your countermagic for.

But Life has a huge downfall. Aluren is a Tier 1 deck right now, and many people are talking about playing it in Pro Tour: Columbus and the PTQs afterward. Life autoloses to Aluren. When I say autoloses, I mean that Life won't win a single match. Nada. Ningun. 0%. Hopeless. Infinite damage beats infinite life, and Aluren can just take its time and combo out at its leisure. Even if Life manages to find its Rule of Law, Aluren will find its Stern Proctor. So because of that, I feel Life will stay Tier 2.

But if Life begins to make strong showings, Engineered Plague will be added to GroATog's sideboard. That would improve the matchup drastically and also make the GroATog vs. Aluren match a near 100% win. Engineered Plague is already effective against Aluren, Goblins, and Red Deck Wins, all three of which are high tier decks. The only reason it's not sideboarded right now is because all three of those matchups are in favor of GroATog. But again, if Life becomes big, Engineered Plague will have to go in.

Sideboarding:
-2 Psychatog
-4 Accumulated Knowledge
-3 Duress

+4 Ghastly Demise
+1 Powder Keg
+2 Naturalize
+2 Gilded Drake

Number Crunching:
66 matches tested, 20 matches won, 49 matches lost; 30%

GroATog against Control
The control that is present in the Extended metagame can be divided into two subgroups: Blue-based control and board control.

Blue control relies primarily on countermagic to defend itself and Blue card drawers like Fact or Fiction and Brainstorm to keep its cards flowing in. Psychatog is the prime representative of this Blue-based control. Scepter-Control, NetherGo, and Dump Truck are less prevalent examples.

On the flip side, we have pure board control. Board control decks have little or no blue, and rely on removal and stall tactics to smother the opponent. The Rock, for example, runs up to 8 maindeck spot removal spells alongside 4 Pernicious Deed, walls, regenerators, and recursion. It's tough for creatures to get past that.

GroATog is generally strong against blue based control and weak against board control. Against a deck like 'Tog, all it has to do is sneak a Quirion Dryad under the counterwall. With an empty board, the Quirion Dryad will end the game in short order. But against a board control deck, it'll have to contend with early spot removal, late game mass removal, and blocker after blocker along the way. The board will be littered with permanents to tunnel through.

GroATog vs. Psychatog
Good news. GAT is too fast for 'Tog. Your disruption is cheaper than their disruption, and your draw is faster than theirs. Quirion Dryad is faster than Isochron Scepter. Also, you have maindeck Duress.

Tog trades one-to-one and doesn't have mass removal, so you can safely play as many creatures as possible. Quirion Dryad shines here. A turn 2 Quirion Dryad that lives to turn 3 usually means game. They have little to stop it. U/B builds run Smother and maybe Powder Keg, along with Cunning Wish. Scepter builds only have Fire/Ice and Cunning Wish. You can easily deal with those. Your 'Togs are bigger than their 'Togs early one because you play more spells, so you can counter an opposing Tog with your own.

Later on, Volrath's Stronghold will kick in. It seems like the chance of drawing your one copy is slim, but with that much library manipulation, you'll get to it soon enough. Control really doesn't want to see any kind of recursion, and when the item being recurred is a Psychatog, they'll start packing it in. Still, the longer the game becomes, the better their chances become. You don't want them to set up the Intuition/Accumulated Knowledge engine. You don't want to see multiple Fact or Fictions, and you really don't want Isochron Scepters.

The 'Tog deck's biggest weapon is Isochron Scepter, especially if a Fire/Ice is stapled to it. Duress them away, foil them, Keg them... whatever it takes. Don't let their card drawing go nuts with a Scepter.

Like all 'Tog-on-'Tog (ugh) matches, it's important to know how to the handle AK war. You'll both be casting Accumulated Knowledge, and often for six or seven cards. Try to hold back on them and use your cantrips and Gushes instead. Besides, your main goal isn't to draw cards, but to beat down. Let them Intuition for their Accumulated Knowledges if they want to, since you'll be the one using them. And use your Psychatogs' second ability to remove AKs from your graveyard if you need to. If you let the game go on, you'll be at a slight disadvantage in the AK war, because you need your card drawing more than they do. The solution? Kill them before all of this matters.

U/B 'Tog is easier. They get more removal and have Upheaval, but they lose Isochron Scepter. With Affinity being a major factor in metagame considerations, Isochron Scepter is feeling the splash damage of artifact hate. Many 'Tog players are turning away from the "superior" ScepterTog builds and going straight blue-black. Others are using Horn of Greed and Exploration and Pernicious Deed in conjunction with 'Tog and Upheaval and kicking Affinity's butt... Anyway, with Scepter becoming less and less popular, this matchup is becoming more and more lopsided. I'd claim an 85% win-to-loss ration, but then I'd sound like a fraud. So I'll stick to 80%.

After sideboard, you get the fourth Duress and a second Volrath's Stronghold. Side out your Powder Kegs and two Accumulated Knowledges. I think two is the right number because if they keep theirs in, you won't be stuck holding on to them early on, but will be able to capitalize once they cast Intuition. The 'Tog player will bring in some combination of Powder Keg, spot removal, Duress, or Perish, but it won't be in great amounts. Most of their sideboard is devoted to Wish targets, which won't help them much in game 1 and will weaken their sideboard hate in games 2 and 3. The card to watch out for is Powder Keg. Be more cautious of playing too many Quirion Dryads at once if you can't defend them well. But remember, Powder Keg can only hit permanents of a single converted mana cost, so having a Quirion Dryad and a Psychatog out is fine.

Sideboarding:
-2 Powder Keg
-2 Accumulated Knowledge

+1 Duress
+1 Volrath's Stronghold
+2 Naturalize

Number Crunching:
78 matches tested; 48 matches won and 24 lost; 62%

GroATog versus Rock
It's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock.
Look at The Rock go round and round,
Look at The Rock tumble to the ground'
Volrath's Stronghold dominates the skies,
Witnesses are Eternal, Elders are wise,
Trolls leap over Treetops, on Blossoms do humming Birds feed,
Baloths are Vampiric, Therapy is Diabolic indeed.
It's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock, it's The Rock!

There many variations of Rock right now. Some people use four Troll Ascetics. Some use none. Most decks have evolved to incorporate four Eternal Witnesses. Some prefer other creatures. Some use Llanowar Elves for speed against combo and control. Some opt for Wall of Blossoms' big butt. Some decks have one copy of Cranial Extraction to tutor for. Some prefer Haunting Echoes, or Living Death, or Buried Alive, or more spot removal. The key to understanding how to beat Rock is to know its core. Almost every Rock deck runs:

4 Birds of Paradise
3-4 Ravenous Baloth
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Cabal Therapy
3-4 Duress
2-4 Vampiric Tutor
23-24 land

After that, it can branch off into every direction possible. Living Wish or no? Yavimaya Elder or no? Genesis? Smother? Diabolic Edict? How do you test against a deck that has so many forms? Easy. Use the one I think GAT would hate to see the most. My Rock build has lots of spot removal and four Eternal Witnesses. It has maindeck Volrath's Stronghold, no Genesis, and no Living Wish.

You want to be as aggressive as possible against Rock. Play Quirion Dryads as soon as possible, and grow them with your nineteen cantrips. Try to get in for some damage, make them hurry, mess up their development, and keep them on their toes. If Rock settles in with its board control and its mana, GAT is in trouble. Usually, Quirion Dryad won't be able to finish things off. They have too much removal and too many blockers. But it doesn't need to. All it has to do is make you chump block it and waste your removal on it. By then, with all the cheap library manipulation you have, you'll have found a Psychatog to finish things off. If you manage to get recursion going as well, you'll win easily.

But that's a big if. See Rock's arsenal of Smother, Diabolic Edict, Ravenous Baloth, Pernicious Deed, Eternal Witness, Duress/Cabal Therapy? It's a bumpy road with lots of obstacles. They have up to ten creature removal spells, up to eight targeted discard spells to mess up your countermagic, and blocker after recurring blocker to wear you out. Eternal Witness should be banned and set on fire. Like Rock wasn't good enough. Turning Duress into targeted Hymn to Tourach, Smother into two Smothers, and Ravenous Baloth into four life and two 4/4 beaters is just wrong. If you counter Pernicious Deed, you can be almost certain it'll be coming back. A toast to you if you can counter the Deed again. That'll show 'em.

Rock does have a weakness, though. It's slow. Dead slow. It's good spells cost three mana, and it needs a lot of time to set up. As good as Treetop Village is, it's slow. As good as Pernicious Deed is, its slow. They need early defense in order to build properly. You, on the other hand, are fast. You can play tons of cantrips and make huge creatures with multiple disruption spells ready by turn 3. Powder Keg can also pick away their Birds and Trees and be generally annoying.

In the end, game one goes to the Rock player, but you put up a tough fight. After sideboarding, you get Gilded Drake. You get Naturalize to deal with Pernicious Deed. I wouldn't bring in all three because it's narrow. You also get Duress, which proactively protects you and lets you have knowledge superiority. Gilded Drake can steal Baloths and Spiritmongers. Shimmering Wings, if you use it, lets you escape their blocking. Your last bomb is the second Volrath's Stronghold, which you can use either as a strip mine or as a method of extreme board advantage.

They'll bring in more spot removal, maybe a Duress, maybe Spiritmonger, Grim Reminders, Living Deaths, Genesis, Cranial Extractions, Haunting Echoes... that kind of stuff. Though cards like Haunting Echoes will ruin you upon resolution, they are expensive. Oh, a reminder about Haunting Echoes. Don't kill yourself for when you die to a Haunting Echoes, when you had a Psychatog in play. Just remove your graveyard in response and have a really big blocker for a turn. If Rock (and/or Madness) is big in your area, consider Perish, Submerge, and Insight.

Games two and three are a little better.

Sideboarding:
-3 Powder Keg
-1 Opt
-4 Daze

+2 Gilded Drake
+3 Ghastly Demise
+1 Duress
+1 Volrath's Stronghold

Number Crunching
80 matches tested; 34 won, 46 lost, 43%

There, I've done my homework.

I believe - actually I know - that GroATog can compete, and compete successfully, with the Extended field. It posts strong results against most of the Tier 1, and breaks even with a lot of the Tier 2 decks. It doesn't roll over and die to any deck, and is very flexible in that it can adapt to any environment. It can be designed to specifically beat control, or specifically beat aggro, and it'll always beat combo.

Though it's been a long time since a major Extended tournament and the metagame is relatively undefined, the general tiers have been established:

Tier 1: RedDeckWins, Affinity, Aluren, The Rock
Tier 2: Reanimator, 'Tog, Goblins, Ghoul Dance, Life, U/G Madness

Bold: GroATog's decisively good matchups
Normal: GroATog's 50/50 matchups
Italics: GroATog's weak matchups

You can see above that GroATog is a good metagame choice this season. It decisively beats or breaks even with 75% of the Tier 1 decks, has decisively bad matchups against only Rock and Life, and will beat Tier 3 decks like Mind's Desire, Pattern Rector, Elves!, Enchantress, and rogue.

And if you haven't read enough about this deck, you can go visit the GroATog thread in the Extended forums.

Off to the Tourney We Go
I took this to a Friday Night Magic Tournament a few weeks ago and got second. I'll report this one because it was really big (I think 50 people showed up!) and because I didn't face many rogue decks.

Round 1: I'm playing against Dan with ScepterTog.
Game one, I own him with the double Quirion Dryad opening off of Mox Diamond. I believe I countered every card he cast except for a Brainstorm and a Cunning Wish. Not much to say here, except it felt great to start so well.

Game two. I knew that Dan had Engineered Plagues in his sideboard, and that would kill me, so I brought in 3 Naturalizes, a Duress, and a Volrath's Stronghold. I wasn't sure if he took out his Accumulated Knowledges or not. I decided to take out two of them, two Powder Kegs, and a Tog. He went first, and played turn 1 Isochron Scepter imprinting Fire / Ice. Not good. Not much happens for the next few turns, except he's drawing cards like crazy, and I'm playing land. Eventually, I find a Quirion Dryad, and I play it. He doesn't really need to counter it, since the Isochron Scepter can just tap it down forever, but apparently he's holding about five counters in his hand.

I Daze his Mana Leak. He's tapped out. I cast Duress and see: Counterspell, Counterspell, Force Spike, Intuition, Land, Land, Mana Leak. Wow. I strip away a Counterspell. I don't really care about the Intuition, because at this point, he doesn't need to draw more cards, and his Accumulated Knowledges could turn against him. Then I cast a Serum Visions followed by an Island and a Gush. My Dryad is now a 4/4 that can't do anything. I pass the turn, and he passes back, and we play draw go for a while. I was lucky enough to hit a string of Gushes to keep up with his card draw. Eventually, I Duress his hand, take away a Counterspell, and play down a Psychatog. We have a huge counterwar, and I lose - purposely. I then cast Volrath's Stronghold and he concedes.

Dan asks to see my deck after the game and says he's going to try it out.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2: I think the guys name was Richie, and he reminded me of Mel Gibson for some reason. Anyway, he's playing U/G Madness with Chrome Moxes.

Game one - He casts 3 creatures, and I Powder Keg two of them away. I win the counterwar over an Aquamoeba, and Duress away his Intuition. He's left with no Madness outlets to discard his Wonder to. He plays some big creatures, but my Psychatog holds them off.

Game two - Richie brings in like ten cards against me, and I'm scared. I side in spot removal and the Powder Keg, and Gilded Drakes. I take out the Accumlated Knowledges, the Volrath's Stronghold, and Duress. I have to mulligan because I draw a five-land hand with no cantrips. Again, he has a really fast start. This time, he goes first and casts Careful Study into two Basking Rootwallas. I draw a few cards and counter a few things and stall with a 'Tog, but he finds Wonder and I lose.

Game three - I get turn 2 Quirion Dryad, turn 3 Psychatog, turn 4 Psychatog and overpower him. He doesn't get a fast enough start and loses even after finding Wonder.

2-0, 4-1

Round 3: I'm playing Jhosan, who's piloting Red Deck Wins.

Game one, I die because he Wastelands my Llanowar Waste and Pillages my Islands. Not much you can do there.

Game two. In come the removal, and out go Accumulated Knowledges. I cast turn 2 Psychatog, and that stops his Jackal Pups and Slith Firewalkers. He eats at my life total with a Grim Lavamancer for a while, but I find Ghastly Demise and kill it. I counter a Blistering Firecat or three, but I'm still brought down to four by burn. I topdeck Powder Keg, wipe away what's left of his board, counter a Flashbacked Firebolt, and attack with my Tog. He has to block with his Slith Firewalker. He doesn't find another creature or a burn spell, and concedes.

Game three was annihilation. Triple Psychatog, double Powder Keg, and three Ghastly Demises.

3-0, 6-2

Round 4: I beat a Rock deck in 2 games, which I am surprised. I don't remember what this person's name was. It's odd going to a FNM tournament and not knowing half the people there. We had to play on the countertop because tables and chairs had run out. There were tables and chairs packed with people inside the store and outside.

His build runs 4 Eternal Witnesses, 3 Elders, 0 Living Wish and 2 Tutors, and 0 Troll Ascetics. He also runs 4 Smother and 4 Diabolic Edict, I think. Game one I was able to protect the living hell out of my Quirion Dryad and win. I almost never do that against Rock. He draws a hand heavy on spot removal and low on blockers, and I hit a bunch of cantrips. Each Counterspell in my hand became six or seven damage to the head as it gave my Dryad another turn to beat.

In game two, I was able to hold off his Treetop Villages with Powder Keg. He was a bit mana light, and so was I, but I didn't have anything that cost over two mana anyway (I rarely do). I decided to Keg away his Birds of Paradise to keep him down on mana. I took some damage from the Treetops, but then he stops attacking because he doesn't want to lose those lands as well. I eventually cast a Psychatog which he kills, and another Psychatog, which he kills again. I go on a Gushing spree, and hit Accumulated Knowledge number four, which draws me into Volrath's Stronghold. I use my Stronghold to "strip mine" his Stronghold, and beat Rock at its own game of recursion.

4-0, 8-2

Round 5: Raffinity: Yay, Affinity, nice to see you again.

I die twice in game one. He goes all out game 1 with three Disciple of the Vault, Arcbound Ravager, and casts Cabal Therapy naming Pernicious Deed. I don't have it, but I do have Powder Keg. He then uses the flashback, and takes that away. He then proceeds to attack for twelve, sacrifice his whole board and deals about forty damage to me. I try to concede, but I can't in time. Affinity is such a fast deck.

Game 2 gets better. I move my sideboard into my deck and proceed to own him. I hold his speed assault by Naturalizing a Myr Enforcer and Dazing an Arcbound Ravager. Powder Kegs finished his board off, and my Quirion Dryads came in for a quick n' easy cleanup job.

Game three was tense. Once again, he came out with guns blazing. But so do I. We both played in aggro-combo mode. I was drawing cards and pumping my Togs and Dryads. He was clamping Arcbound workers and tossing +1/+1 counters like mad. I Brainstorm in reponse to a Cabal Therapy and hide my Energy Flux. Next turn, I cast Energy Flux, Foil his Mana Leak, take twelve from a desperate Disciple of the Vault, block a huge Arcbound Ravager at bay, and win the game at two life.

5-0, 10-3

Round 6: I'm up against a Solitary Confinement deck. I've seen lists before, and it seems like a tough matchup. I didn't know how the deck worked, except a vague impression of using Squee recursion and Solitary Confinement to lock down the board. I decide to just play my game, and win game one easily with a Quirion Dryad.

Game two. I'm dead tired by now, and I make a stupid mistake of letting a Fact or Fiction go through. Split the five cards with Solitary Confinement and Plains in one, and Mana Leak, Brainstorm, Plains in the other. He takes the second pile, and then casts Compulsion. But he doesn't have an answer for the 5/5 and 3/3 Quirion Dryads, and I kill him in two turns.

6-0, 12-3

Round 7: I lose to RDW, which is usually a good matchup. All three games, he gets down turn 1 Seal of Fire. Tangle Wire resolved in game three, but I still but up a fight. In the end, he just kept topdecking bomb after bomb. I think his topdecks went like this: Tangle Wire, Tangle Wire, Firecat, Lavamancer, Firecat, Scroll, Wasteland, Ensnaring Bridge. That's too much!

6-1, 13-5

Round 8: My friend Sean decides to draw with me, and we both get into the Top 4.

Semifinals: The guy makes a no show, and I'm off to the finals.

Finals: I was hoping to play Sean in the finals, but apparently he lost a close game three. He seemed upset - but Sean's never upset. Anyway, I'm playing against Mike Flores - no, not that one - and he was playing Aluren. Mike was really jittery and bit his nails a lot. But he's a good Magic player.

Game one: Mike wins the coin flip and goes first. He casts Llanowar Wastes and Birds of Paradise, and I now know he's playing Rock. I play an Island and "imprint" a Llanowar Wastes to my Mox Diamond. I cast Quirion Dryad. On his turn, he plays a land, and casts Cabal Therapy, taking away my Counterspell. He then casts Living Wish for Cavern Harpy. Well, that changes things. I actually take a sigh of relief, because Aluren is an easy match for GroATog. I change gears. I hold back on my Psychatog, and instead cast Brainstorm, which finds Polluted Delta. I shuffle away the excess cards, and Duress him. I see: Intuition, Cavern Harpy, Raven Familiar, Eternal Witness, Land. I take Intuition, and he groans.

Game two: I side in 4 Ghastly Demise, 3 Naturalize, 2 Gilded Drake, and 1 Duress. To make room, out go 2 Opt, 4 Psychatogs, 1 Gush, 2 Daze and the Volrath's Stronghold. He casts Cabal Therapy on turn one, and takes out my Duress. Interesting, since I had a Counterspell as well. I don't draw any creatures, so I can't play aggro-control. I decide to pretend I'm a Psychatog deck, and we pass turns to each other. He then casts Intuition, which I counter. I knew Intuition was bait, but I couldn't let it resolve. Intuitioning for three Cabal Therapy isn't great for me. I play another land and pass. He plays Birds of Paradise and passes. I Gush at end of turn and draw into nothing of use.

Right now, I'm completely defenseless, and Mike knows it. He sacrifices his Birds of Paradise to Cabal Therapy me and realizes I have no defense, and casts Aluren, and Eternal Witness to return Intuition. But he can't combo off until next turn. I draw my card, and play a third land. I Opt and find a Ghastly Demise. He untaps and passes the turn. I draw a second Accumulated Knowledge, but I make sure not to cast it yet. I play a land and a Mox Diamond imprinting another land. (I think I was mana flooded...) He Intuitions for three Wirewood Savages, and keeps one. He then casts a Wirewood Savage and a Cavern Harpy. I try to Ghastly Demise the Wirewood Savage with Cavern Harpy on stack, but he has a second one. Now, I use the Accumulated Knowledge, draw two, find a Brainstorm, draw three cards and find a second Ghastly Demise. I cast Ghastly Demise targeting Wirewood Savage, and luckily, he doesn't have a third Cavern Harpy. Stack resolves with my Ghastly Demise 2.0 on top, so he doesn't get to draw cards.

I held off his first wave, but I'm as out of steam as Mike is. Fortunately, I topdeck Serum Visions, find a Gush, which finds a Naturalize. I'm able to hold him off for a long time. Eventually, I find a Psychatog, Accumulated Knowledge number three, and a pair of Foils and run him out of steam. Phew!

It turns out that the tourney had mostly competitive decks and a touch of janky stuff. There was one Domain deck, a Rector combo deck, an Elf Alarm deck and a few Gobbo Sligh decks, one Welder Prison deck based around infinite Pentavus tokens, and a bizarre squirrel-token deck with Reweave.

So?
So why should you play GroATog this season? Because it's good. It has huge threats, cheap disruption, and draws like a madman. It posts good numbers, is consistent, and is fun. Just watch your opponent's face when your "weird rogue creation" has a turn 3 5/5 followed by recurring Togs and forty damage to the dome as a finishing touch. If you don't try it now, you'll miss the fun forever once Extended rotates. So open your Magic Workstations, try it out, have a blast, kick some butt, and grow some Togs. It's your last chance.