Black Blue
Cookie Monster
By Ryan
Blightcutter
Ever since Odyssey came out, people where seeking out new R/G decks that
would replace the unstoppable Fires deck. Many decks appeared as the form of Fat
Crank, Rocket Shoes, Red Green Madness, and the latest Frog in a Blender. But
that was not all that appeared on the scene. Though Fires was the deck to beat
last year and was considered a very versatile deck, people wanted to make decks
that could be as similar to Fires. Or so then it was Fat Crank and Red Green
Beat You, Rocket Shoes and other names. But that was then. And this is now. Not
only did certain things were overlooked in the set, but now the powerful
Psychatog made a huge scene. People started seeing how this creature could win
in a single combat phase. And how difficult it was to defeat it. As time went
on, people started making decks to add to the Tog deck. Cards such as Zombie
Infestation, and even the broken Upheaval made it much more efficient. Ever
since Ryan Fuller won the Masters with his Tog deck, it was incredible to see
how many Tog decks followed after that. All over Tog decks were created. And
even today as we see even in the Worlds that Tog made one last scene. Tog proved
to broken and was indeed the deck to beat. It also changed into the form of RUB
Psychatog, using Judgement cards such as Cunning Wish and Burning Wish to access
to quick threats. Today Tog is known to everyone as "annoying" and less of a
challenge. But though the popularity of Tog is dying out, no one will ever
forget how Psychatog was hard to defeat. To classic B/U Tog decks, to RUB
Psychatog decks, it will still be remembered on how Tog changed the way people
played Magic today. Invasion is about to be rolled out of type two soon, and
before it does, I would like to dedicate this to the king of Type Two, the
cookie monster himself, Psychatog.
B/U Cookie Monster
3 Nightscape
Familiar
4
Psychatog
3
Compulsion
3 Duress
4 Fact or
Fiction
4 Memory
Lapse
4 Obsessive
Search
2 Probe
3 Recoil
3 Repulse
2 Cephalid
Coliseum
9 Islands
4 Salt
Marsh
4 Swamp
4 Underground
River
Sideboard
3 Coffin
Purge
3 Engineered
Plague
4 Ghastly
Demise
3
Hibernation
2 Lobotomy
The deck is
a pure control deck and it is designed to win with Psychatog. The way it does
that is to first the deck has to have ways to fill your graveyard since it helps
at the end you will feed your graveyard to enable the Psychatog to become a
monstrosity. And second, we must be able to maintain board control since the
deck only runs less than ten creatures. The Nightscape helps the blue spells be
played at a much lower cost and helps on the defensive side since it has the
ability to regenerate. The four Psychatog makes such you will be able to draw
him and win the game. Compulsion is one of the best ways to utilize cards in
your hand. It helps get rid of useless cards and replacing them with much needed
cards. Also it helps speed up the graveyard. The Counterspells makes sure you
have board control and Duress lets you disrupt your opponents plans. Fact or
Fiction, which is extremely broken, will help you get the cards you need in no
time. It does not make any difference what pile you choose because of course you
will have the option to pick the very best one. Memory Lapse is a tempo card so
your opponent will have to wait to play that really important card. Obsessive
Search helps you draw and if you use it with the Compulsion, you net a two one
card advantage. Probe also helps you draw and also let you force your opponent
to throw away two other cards as well. The board must make sure that the
Psychatog has room to attack without being blocked so the only way to do that is
with the bounce spells Repulse and Recoil. The Repulse nets you a card when you
return a creature, while you return any permanent on the board with Recoil.
The sideboard is designed to go against decks that would cause Psychatog
to lose. Against U/G, it is important to make sure that your opponent does not
play many threats to drop your life total lower than you can imagine. Today, U/G
decks in type two uses the quick Roar tokens and the lightning fast creatures to
overwhelm their opponents. With the new mechanic, Wonder, it is difficult to
handle all the flying creatures if Wonder is in the graveyard. The way to deal
with U/G is to take out the Duress unless you want to Duress their Roar of the
Wurm, and the Recoils since it can be replaced with something more efficient to
deal with all the green creatures. Those cards are then replaced with 3 Coffin
Purge, and 3 Hibernation. It will give the deck more fit to deal with threats
such as the fast green creatures and the Wonder.Also you can sideboard out the
Probes for Lobotomy to ensure Wurms won't be able to show.
Against U/W Speculation, it is also difficult to go against too many
flying 1/1's pecking at your head. So in this case, again take out the 3 Duress,
2 Probe, and replace them with 3 Engineered Plague and Lobotomy. The Engineered
Plague gets rid of all the flying 1/1's and also Lobotomy makes sure that those
Battle Screeches remains absent.
In a mirror match though, the game can go on for quite a while since both
decks are designed to win at the end. In this situation, the Duresses and your
countermagic will take you to victory. Even though Probe provides you to draw
and your opponent to discard, we will sideboard that out and replace them with a
pair of Lobotomy. It will help ruin your opponents plans and also taking out
their Psychatogs or any threat of some sort. The counters in the deck must be
used wisely since of course there will be occasions when you will have a battle
of counters back and forth.
Against MBC (Monoblack Control), the deck has a very hard time with. MBC
is able to spoil your plans before you will be able to gain board control. In
this case, your Duresses are your MVP as well as your counter magic. Be ready
when they try to ripe your hand with Mind Sludge, or maybe even stripping away
your graveyard with Haunting Echoes. With the cheap kill that MBC has, it will
be hard to stop every one. It is common that a MBC deck would carry a set of
Innocent Bloods and Chainer's Edict for cheap creature removal. And the Tog deck
uses only few creatures so it is easy for them to get rid of your creatures
fast. Just be prepared to counter any threat and make sure when the Duress is
played, make sure you Duress him or her for good.
One of the popular deck types running around type two today is Squirrel
Opposition. Of course their plan is to lock you down with a horde of squirrels
and tapping you down for good. Good thing that Squirrel Nest only produces 1/1's
and not 2/2's. So since they are 1/1's, we are able to stop the production of
the squirrel horde by taking out 3 Repulse and sticking in 3 Engineered Plague.
But of course, we would not be able to remove the Recoils since Recoil lets you
return that Opposition or Static Orb back to your opponents hand if it slips
through your countermagic. Probe can also be taken out here and replaced by two
Hibernations to make sure you don't get pummeled that
fast!
Many new decks are now popping out everywhere. From the Solitary
Confinement decks, to even newer designs of Mono Red Sligh. So which ever it is,
make sure you are prepared and ready. You will more likely win if you are
prepared and more focused on how you play. Make the correct play decisions and
nothing can go wrong. The sideboard was meant to defeat certain decks that would
give the deck problems. All the sideboards differ on how the metagame is. It can
always be customized to see better fit. Adding some Upheavals or even Haunting
Echoes will be more efficient against other decks. The deck is designed to be
slow since it is a pure control deck and not an aggressive deck. More likely you
will find problems when you go against decks that are aggressive and fast. It is
common now that people find the deck, quite a nuisance since of course it is a
control deck. Fact or Fiction, one of the most broken and indeed the best card
in Invasion, is restricted in extended so the deck will lack fast card drawing.
But rest assure that even though it is restricted, today in type two the deck
made the world know that in the year of 2002, it was Psychatog who came out on
top. So ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed reading my article on the
cookie monster himself...Psychatog.
Thanks again for your time and consideration. If there are any comments,
any ideas or anything you feel to say, please don't hesitate to stop by and tell
me. I thank you again.
The one and only,
-Ryan Blightcutter
Phyrexian_316@yahoo.com