Gitrog Monster Commander Deck Guide – Combos, Best Cards, How To Play

Gitrog Monster is one of the most popular Golgari (black/green) commanders Magic: The Gathering. Commander is very strong and allows you to play a game built around playing multiple lands in a turn with multiple combos to either win the game or keep you in it for as long as possible.

The Gitrog Monster pack can do a lot of things, all with relative ease. If you're a fan of more combo-centric decks, The Gitrog Monster is a great commander choice. If you're looking to dive into competitive Commander (more commonly known as cEDH), The Gitrog Monster is also a great introduction to this area of ​​magic.

Decklist

Decklist includes one planeswalker, 31 creatures, ten enchantments, 11 instants, eight artifacts, five enchantments, and 34 countries. The deck primarily consists of cards that give extra land drops or benefit from extra land drops.

Key cards

Gitrog monster

Gitrog monster it acts as your biggest combo enabler as well as your primary source of card advantage. The the maintenance cost of sacrificing land is mandatorybut you get a card after you sacrifice it. This works especially well with cards that allow you to play lands from the graveyard so they aren't permanently lost.

The maintenance cost of The Gitrog Monster is mandatory, but if you really need your lands, you can choose to sacrifice The Gitrog Monster instead of a land.

The being able to draw a card when a land is placed in the graveyard is vitaland the primary way you will run combos in the deck. Even without combos, lands that go to the graveyard naturally as fetchlands will get you card draw while keeping your lands maxed out. When you put them back, you get even more cards in your hand when you use them again.

Dakmore rescue

Dakmore rescue is the most important country in the deck. It is thanks to its dredging ability that allows you to mill two cards and return them to your hand while they are in your graveyard. You in fact i never want it on the battlefield instead, you'll repeat it with The Gitrog Monster and mill and draw the entire deck.

The combo works like this:

Have any permanent on the battlefield that can discard a card, The Gitrog Monster on the battlefield, and Dakmor Salvage in hand.

Ice abyss

Since The Gitrog Monster is primarily a combo deck, you are a prime target from the start of the game. Ice abyss is a way to keep you in the game by preventing your opponents from dealing you damage. It never mind that you can't attack because you won't be attacking too much in the beginning.

You will be never have to pay cumulative maintenance, if you have a a permanent that allows you to play cards from the graveyard and permanent which allows you to play two lands per turn. You sacrifice Glacial Chasm for cumulative upkeep (or The Gitrog Monster).

Then play the land you're going to sacrifice from the graveyard or yard, then play Glacial Chasm from the graveyard and sacrifice the land you just played. This blocks your opponents from harming you.

How to play the board

The monster Gitrog is primarily a combo deck, with a secondary landfall theme as a backup. You don't want to go all-in on a hand, as can sometimes be cut off if Dakmor Salvage ever gets exiled.

Permanents that create creatures when land enters help as a “plan B” as well as creating a presence at the plate so you are not playing a defenseless game. Cards like Scute Swarm, Zendikar's Roil, and Titania, Springheart Nantuko all help with this.

It is best to gift Springheart Nantuko to a creature that allows you to play additional lands on the turn. This is because you can create a copy of the enchanted creature when the land enters and the effect stacks. So if a card is copied that allows you to play another land, you can now play two more lands.

Dakmore rescue is by far the most important card in the deck. As such, you want to get your hands on it as quickly as possible. There are several lecturers in the package, such as Sylvan Scrying, expedition map, and Archdruid spell. Tutoring right on the battlefield isn't a bad choice either, as you can sacrifice it to The Gitrog Monster to get your loops going.

The the primary win condition is winning through a combination. Once you have the whole package in hand, you can use it land, Gaea's Blessing, Dakmor Salvage, and Lotus Petal to generate infinite mana. Just loop the permanent's discard effects and discard two lands to get Gaea's Blessing in the graveyard, shuffle everything in the library, and redraw them.

The land you discard is a trigger while Dakmor Salvage is dredged up to grind Gaea's Blessing into the graveyard and bring Dakmor Salvage back into your hand while Lotus Petal returns to your library.

After you generate infinite mana, you can win destroy all permanents with Assassin's Trophy, which you can repeat like with Lotus Petal, or according to casting Finale of Devastation for infinite X to give +X/+X static support and haste to all your creatures. Alternatively the deck can also win combat by creating a ton of creature tokens.

The the deck's biggest drawback is his heavy reliance on combos. As long as there is a backup plan, you want to go through endless combos instead. If you lose Dakmor Salvage, a lot of the other cards in your deck become much worse to borderline useless.