Since its printing in Modern Horizons 3, Psychic Frog has been a cornerstone of the Modern format. Its ability to serve as a big attacker, card draw engine, and discard outlet all in one makes it incredibly threatening in a variety of decks. Yet, no strategy is built to abuse the frog quite like a new Zoo brew that just emerged. With multiple Modern Challenge top 8s under its belt in the last two days alone, this deck could be the real deal.
Taking Frog to New Heights
The goal behind this unique archetype is to consistently get Psychic Frog into play and ride it to victory. To increase your odds of finding the impactful two-drop, this deck incorporates a small Cascade package with Shardless Agent. With Psychic Frog being the only card in the main deck with mana value of two or less, your three-mana Cascade spells will always hit your best card.
Much like Living End and other various Cascade strategies, this deck is still fully capable of interacting during the early turns despite the high mana curve. Subtlety and Force of Negation do a great job keeping the opponent off-balance while requiring no mana investment. Leyline Binding also makes an appearance in this multi-color shell, helping to clear away problematic blockers for Frog.
Once in play, Frog’s ability to grow on command makes it difficult for many decks to remove. Scion of Draco as a Hexproof enabler makes this task even harder, especially when Leyline of the Guildpact is in play. With Frog protected, pairing it with Practiced Offense helps set up blistering kills out of nowhere.
At the same time, though, Psychic Frog is versatile enough to win grindy games, and this deck supports that game plan. The combination of Frog and Quantum Riddler, for example, ensures you’ll never run out of gas. Subtlety also gets stronger as games go long as a solid four-mana play.
Soup Pile for the Win
Ultimately, while this deck clearly has a lot going on, it’s this flexibility that gives it a shot against nearly all the top Modern decks. Fast aggro decks like Boros Energy can struggle mightily to get traction in combat given how big Frog and Scion are. The potential for Leyline of the Guildpact or Practiced Offense to enable big Lifelink hits then shuts down all possibilities of getting burnt out.
On the other end of the spectrum, slower decks like Eldrazi Ramp risk getting tempo-d out before their haymakers can take over. Between zero-mana counterspell effects and Practiced Offense for mass damage, this deck is capable of setting up lopsided swings.
Still, while fighting this deck isn’t easy, cheap counterspells like Mystical Dispute and Spell Snare can go a long way towards containing Frog. Pithing Needle naming Frog can ironically be a nightmare for the archetype, shutting off your main threat.
In this sense, Frog Zoo isn’t foolproof, but there’s no doubt it has some unique and powerful tools. The unexpected success of this brew is noteworthy, and it seems like players are continuing to tinker with slightly different configurations. There’s plenty of room for innovation here, so don’t be shocked if the strategy keeps getting better.
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