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