22, Jun, 24

New MTG Frog Powerhouse is a Scary Multi-Format All-Star!

Over the past couple of weeks, it’s become abundantly clear that Modern Horizons 3 is having an immense impact on Constructed formats across the board. In Modern, Nadu, Winged Wisdom has given rise to a premier combo archetype. In Legacy, elite synergies between Planar Nexus and either Urza’s Tower or Cloudpost have helped a unique big mana strategy flourish. There are tons of new cards that are contributing to competitive metagame shifts.

One card in particular, however, stands out as an all-star in nearly every major format it’s legal in. This MTG card is none other than Psychic Frog. Since Psychic Frog was released on Magic Online, the card has put up dominant results in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. On MTG Arena, the card is a powerhouse in Timeless. According to 17lands.com which tracks all sorts of MTG Arena user draft data, Psychic Frog has the fifth highest win rate of any MH3 card when in a player’s opening hand. Psychic Frog is simply incredible.

Today, we’re going to highlight a variety of different archetypes that are built to maximize Psychic Frog. The card is resilient, flexible, and easily abusable in some shells. Let’s start by analyzing the card in its simplest role: as a card advantage machine.

A One-Frog Wrecking Crew

Psychic Frog

Even with no major synergies involved, Psychic Frog is an extremely scary MTG card to play against when it comes down early. If your opponent can’t kill it right away, Psychic Frog threatens to draw you a bunch of cards. Because you can always discard cards to Psychic Frog to grow it at will, blocking it in a profitable manner is easier said than done. Similarly, Psychic Frog easily evades damage-based removal like Lightning Bolt and Orcish Bowmasters.

With all of this in mind, in the context of Vintage, Psychic Frog is an absolute monster. First of all, generic creature removal isn’t overly abundant in the format. Many top-tier decks like Jewel Shops and Doomsday combo don’t have relevant targets. As a result, Psychic Frog is quite likely to stick and be able to start attacking.

The typical Dimir decks that utilize Psychic Frog, like the deck shown above, also make great use of the extra cards drawn. Excess cards can easily be pitched to Force of Will or Force of Negation, which not only keep opposing combo decks in check but can protect your Psychic Frog in a pinch.

Having the ability to use your disruption in a proactive manner to keep Frog swinging turn after turn is a big deal. This is especially important in Legacy, where clean answers like Swords to Plowshares are quite popular. Once you’re ahead on resources, you can always buff Psychic Frog and give it evasion to help close the game quicker.

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Using Psychic Frog as a Discard Outlet

Vengevine

In most decks, Psychic Frog gets its power from its card-drawing ability. The option to discard cards, while nice to pump Psychic Frog and help keep it alive, isn’t too helpful in attrition battles. Where this ability gets super interesting, though, is in decks that can abuse it.

Take a deck like Crab Vine in Modern, for example. Psychic Frog is a perfect addition. The main goal of the archetype is to use cards like Hedron Crab to mill yourself and fill your graveyard with recursive threats. Vengevine and Prized Amalgam are easy to bring back from your graveyard naturally, allowing you to build out a big board in short order.

One issue the deck has had in the past involves players getting stuck with copies of Vengevine or Prized Amalgam in hand. Psychic Frog completely solves this problem. You can use Psychic Frog to discard any cards you want, which not only helps your overall gameplan but makes Psychic Frog that much more threatening as an attacker. These Vengevine decks can put a lot of pressure on the opponent early, and Psychic Frog can quickly shut the door.

Another strategy that can make solid use of Psychic Frog as a discard outlet is Dimir Reanimator in Legacy. While Reanimator decks don’t play as many enormous haymakers as they used to, they still utilize cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier to Entomb for. Psychic Frog ensures that if you draw one of your bombs, you can still get it into your graveyard for reanimation purposes.

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Dealing Tons of Damage at Once

Timetwister

For a small subset of strategies, Psychic Frog can even serve as a unique combo finisher that can one-shot the opponent out of nowhere. This approach most typically comes up in Vintage Cube but can occasionally be useful for Storm decks in Legacy. The idea here is that alongside a multitude of “Wheel” effects, you can discard a bunch of cards to grow Psychic Frog, refuel your hand, and eventually attack the opponent in the air for a boatload of damage.

In Cube, cards like Timetwister and Echo of Eons can help you live the dream. In Legacy, some Storm decks that make use of Echo of Eons play Psychic Frog as a win condition out of the sideboard. Players typically board out a bunch of removal spells against Storm, so Psychic Frog has the potential to completely catch the opponent off-guard.

Psychic Frog truly is an amazing card. It provides immense upside in such an efficient body. If you’re looking to play Modern, Legacy, or even Vintage in the near future, make sure you’ve come prepared with answers. Otherwise, you’ll be in a world of trouble.

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