"The Gitrog Monster: You don't want to kiss it but you want it."

"The Gitrog Monster: You don't want to kiss it but you want it."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

When you think of Frogs , you think of Kermit and his squawaky voice. You also get the impression that frogs when kissed become handsome princes thanks to a lot of disney brainwashing. Now as magic players we all know that we should not kiss frogs. Not because they could give you warts but for the simple reason that you could turn up like this guy. The Gitrog Monster sure is hungry and one of its favorites snack is real estate. Land. Aside from eating humans and anything smaller than it , it also loves to eat your lands. Just the price you get for having a 6/6 Deathtouch Frog Horror on your side of the board.

Of course The Gitrog Monster does provide for its own meal because you could play an additional land on each of your own turns. It also pulls its own weight because you could draw a new card each time that you a land goes to your graveyard. And the cycle continues. Of course some players think that feeding a land to this Horror is not worth and I understand them , the point after all is to build a solid mana base for all those awesome things that you want to do in the future.

So what if there was a solution to this Land Eating Tax that our Frog Horror demands. It is a land card that comes out in Shadows Over Innistrad as well. The Drownyard Temple.Thanks for the idea Raven Knives. Think about it. If the Drownyard Temple is already in your graveyard you could pay the 3 mana of any color that it requires on the end of your opponents turn and feed it to the Gitrog Monster to satisfy its froggy hunger. You still get to play 2 lands and with more lands it makes it easier to play the 3 mana cost to return the Drownyard temple again and again. For dedicated Golgari EDH decks it is always helpful to have another card drawer. 

Think of the possibilities where you draw cards from Evolving Wilds , Terramorphic Expanse or Fetchlands after you have used them to fetch things. You also get the benefit by having land discarded from your hand or even if it is milled from your library. It seems like a whole lot of card drawing are in store for Golgari players once this is out. You may not want to kiss this particular frog but if it gives you that piece you need to win you might just reconsider it.