Magic: The Gathering – The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride Commander Deck Guide

This terrifying frog can be a dangerous threat when accompanied by the correct cards. Find out how to build the best deck for the Gitrog in MTG.

Commander remains the most popular way to play Magic: The Gathering, and countless players have a favorite commander, a ride-or-die companion they can always turn to for a good time. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is not that commander. The Gitrog only cares about its next meal, and in Thunder Junction, outlaws have made the mistake of trying to saddle it. But the Gitrog has a simple message: ride and die.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride will go the distance for you, but only as long as you keep feeding it your other creatures. So get the buffet ready, it's time to ride!

The Commander

The Gitrog Monster is an enormous Frog Horror originating from Innistrad, where a cult developed around it. After allowing Thalia to ride it during the Phyrexian invasion and finding an Omenpath to Thunder Junction, the Gitrog found itself the target of wranglers trying to break it like a wild stallion. Butthe Gitrog cannot be tamed!

This card is a legendary Frog Horror Mount, with trample and haste to make sure it can come out swinging and overrun any chump blockers thrown into its path. That evasion and haste are important because, at five mana (three generic, one green, and one black), The Gitrog needs to be able to attack as soon as it hits the ground in order to trigger its unique ability.

Whenever The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride deals combat damage to a player, you can sacrifice one creature that saddled it that turn. If you do, you draw cards equal to the power of whatever creature saddled it and then play up to that many lands.

While you might usually want to treat Mounts like vehicles and be really conservative with what you tap to saddle them, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride incentivizes you to saddle with the strongest creatures you can in order to maximize your results.

Unlike many other land ramp effects, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride allows you to put nonbasic lands into play.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is a full-package commander that provides damage, card draw, and land ramp all at once. Sacrificing your big creatures every turn can feel bad, but with access to both green and black spells, you'll be able to cast and grow big creatures, reanimate them, and punish your opponents when you send them to the graveyard.

Drawing cards and playing lands after dealing combat damage means that The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride can't effectively lead a landfall deck that relies on multiple land drops to pump creatures prior to combat, but the potential to play multiple lands each turn means that more permanent landfall effects, such as creating tokens and placing counters, are extremely useful.

You can use whatever creatures you want to saddle The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, but for maximum efficiency, you should try to use creatures with high power, low cost, and a useful effect when they die. Checking all three boxes is a tall order, but there are several creatures that can hit two of them, especially if you look for creatures with drawbacks to offset the low mana costs.

Many of these drawbacks aren't an issue if the creature is going to be sacrificed almost immediately.

Building The Deck

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is a decent source of damage, and can be an incredible source of land ramp and draw effects. But it has two big downsides: a mana value of five, which is a little slow, and a lack of built-in protection like ward or hexproof to keep it in play. Fortunately, green provides ample ramp effects to get the Gitrog into play early, and both colors have several options to protect it.

The aforementioned protection is important because the Gitrog, Ravenous Ride presents a legitimate threat of snowballing, as each attack will increase the size of your mana base and fill your hand with more options. So, while you should plan on making it your primary attacker and include ways to protect it, you should also include a few backup options in case your opponents target it.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride can be built to either go wide or go tall, depending on your playstyle. As a commander that needs to deal combat damage to be effective, it only needs to deal 21 combat damage to an opponent for them to lose, so treating it like a Voltron commander can be effective.

Alternatively, there are a lot of landfall effects it can trigger to make an enormous pile of tokens to overwhelm your opponents.

Ramp

As a Golgari (black/green) commander, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride has access to the standard green ramp package, which you should include to ensure that you can get your commander into play early.

Once The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is on the battlefield, land fetch spells like Cultivate and Three Visits can continue to see play, putting additional lands into play to trigger landfall effects. Meanwhile, cheap mana dorks like Llanowar Elves can tap for mana the turn after they come into play, and later can saddle The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride in a pinch.

If you're using a deckbuilding site like Moxfield , look for an option to make packages that you can add all at once instead of searching for the green staples each time you build with Forests. Include Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Three Wishes, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Birds of Paradise, and Sakura Tribe Elder, as a start.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride also incentivizes you to include creatures that will find extra lands for you. Topiary Stomper meets your sacrificial creature criteria of being cheap (just three mana, two green, and one generic) and having decent power (four), offset by the downside of requiring seven lands before it can attack or block.

That's fine, though, because it fetches a basic land when it comes into play, and then you can feed it to the Gitrog. Hopefully it likes salad!

Solemn Simulacrum used to be a commander staple, and the sad robot can cheer up a bit after finding a new home here. With two power, it isn't the ideal creature to feed your commander, but it does fetch an extra land when it comes into play and draws an extra card when it dies, potentially giving you access to more land and definitely giving you more options.

Finally, Lotus Cobra provides situational mana ramp, but it can be explosive once The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is in play, providing a big burst of mana at the same time as you're drawing a bunch of new cards.

Draw

Your commander will take care of most of your card draw, but you'll want a couple of ways to draw before it comes into play and a few ways to maximize your card draw while it's doing its thing. That way, you can ensure you have the tools to protect the Gitrog, and draw enough land to maximize its land drop ability.

Skullclamp is a staple for any deck that sacrifices lots of creatures. For one mana you can equip it to one of your creatures, tap it to saddle The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, then sacrifice it to the Gitrog to draw three more cards than you would have otherwise.

Garruk's Uprising and Elemental Bond will reward you for playing the large creatures you'll already be casting to sacrifice by drawing extra cards, and will synergize with the token generating effects we'll discuss later.

Turtle Power

The german word for "turtle" is Schildkröte, which also translates as "shield frog," and you definitely want to shield the Frog in your command zone. A deck built for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is going to struggle if it can't stay in play long enough to get at least a couple of big land drops, so you'll want to include several ways to keep it alive.

Heroic Intervention is a green staple because it protects all of your creatures from both targeted removal and mass destruction. It won't save you from a Cyclonic Rift, but it will save you from everything from Blasphemous Act to Swords to Plowshares. More importantly, you can use it to make your own board wipes single-sided, destroying all of your opponents' permanents while keeping yours in play.

Black also offers about a dozen spot recursion options in the form of instants that cost two or less mana and return a creature to play immediately after being destroyed. At one black mana, Undying Malice is an excellent example that returns your creature to play with a +1/+1 counter on it, while others will return it with a Wicked aura or an extra Treasure token to play with.

Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire is a standout because it can also be played as a land if you're behind the curve or have already made your commander untouchable.

Instants shouldn't be your main source of protection, though. Commander staples like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves will protect The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride from being targeted by your opponents for as long as they're equipped, freeing up your mana to do more important things than standing by to protect it.

A few green enchantments and auras such as Asceticism and Alpha Authority are also available to give one or more of your creatures hexproof, giving you even more options.

Silver Shroud Costume, from Fallout, is another excellent addition. For two mana you can cast this flashy Equipment and attach it as an instant to give the Gitrog shroud for a turn, leaving it unblockable afterward.

Shroud is less useful than hexproof, since it prevents you from targeting your own creature, but you definitely want the Gitrog to be able to attack for maximum damage.

Finally, while Darksteel is a go-to Equipment to make your commander indestructable, Mithril Coat costs the same and attaches to a legendary creature automatically, at instant speed. Both are good, but if you only have room for one, include Mithril Coat.

Sacrificial Lambs

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride eats whatever creature saddles it, and the bigger the creature the happier the Gitrog is. But big creatures are expensive! So when you take your commander out to eat, make sure you stick to the value menu: big bruisers with big downsides and low costs, just like McDonald's.

Hunted Horror is a great example. It's a 7/7 Horror that only costs two black mana, but it does give one opponent two 3/3 centaur tokens with protection from black. These would kill the Gitrog, so just give the centaurs to whichever opponent is the smallest threat and attack a different one.

Another great example is Phyrexian Soulgorger, an 8/8 Phyrexian Construct that only costs three generic mana. The cumulative upkeep of sacrificing a creature is a huge downside, but not if you play your Phyrexian Construct in main phase one, use it to saddle The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, and then sacrifice it to draw eight cards and play up to eight lands. For three mana, that's a bargain!

Remember, tapping for saddle pays for an effect on the Mount, not on the creature being tapped, so summoning sickness is ignored.

Finally, don't overlook big vanilla creatures, like the overwhelming Yargle and Multani. With 18 power, it's a wonder that it only costs six mana. But it doesn't have trample, menace, or any other type of evasion, so it can be chump-blocked by a mouse, which might explain its relatively low cost.

Still, feeding this Frog Spirit Elemental to the Gitrog means you'll draw almost a quarter of your deck by the time you sacrifice it to The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride.

Junji, the Midnight Sky and Kura, the Boundless Sky are excellent additions, able to swing for significant flying damage and offering great value options when you feed the frog. Junji can reanimate any non-Dragon creature when it dies, allowing you to get back a creature to sacrifice to the Gitrog next turn, but Kura brings the real value.

Kura can search your deck for up to three lands to put into your hand, guaranteeing the ability to play your best lands with The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride's ability in the early- to mid-game, or creating a Spirit token with power and toughness equal to the number of lands you control in the mid- to late-game when you have every land in your deck in play.

Daemogoth Woe-Eater may be the most perfect creature to saddle The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, checking all three of the criteria you want to meet: at four mana it's reasonably cheap to cast, has an excellent seven power, and when you sacrifice it to feed the Gitrog you'll draw an extra card, gain two life, and force each opponent to discard one card.

This makes it an excellent target for any repeatable, inexpensive reanimation effect, so that you can keep on getting the sacrifice effect every turn.

Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity can be used to reanimate Daemogoth Woe-Eater or any other creature in your graveyard for just five mana, every turn.

Myriad Landscapes

A lot of landfall effects are temporary, giving a creature a bonus until the end of the turn whenever a land comes into play under your control, but some provide a more permanent advantage.

Since you'll get most of your big landfall procs after declaring attackers, you should focus on effects that will benefit your next turn, like creating tokens and counters. Rampaging Baloths is a great example; a 6/6 Beast with trample, and each time you play a land it will create an extra 4/4 Beast to join the herd.

Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer is a double-whammy, growing stronger with each land you control while also creating 3/3 Badger tokens. This can give you an endless supply of Badgers to feed your Frog, or an army to block or swing wide with.

Scute Swarm doesn't get stronger as more lands come into play, but it does keep making 1/1 Insect tokens. Better yet, once you control six lands, it replicates exponentially.

When your seventh land comes into play you'll get a copy of Scute Swarm, then two copies for your eighth land, and four for your ninth. Before long, your opponents will be buried under a swarm of Scute Swarms.

Another great one for doubling up effects is Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, which drains three life from an opponent each time you play a land and turns that life into three +1/+1 counters. He can easily grow to a 9/9 or a 12/12 the first turn he's in play, fattening up nicely to be sacrificed to the Gitrog.

Finally, don't overlook Nissa of Shadowed Boughs. Planeswalkers don't often stick around long enough to build up enough loyalty counters to pull off their ultimate abilities, but Nissa accumulates loyalty via landfall triggers and only needs five to play a creature from your graveyard or hand for free with two extra +1/+1 counters.

Usually, this can happen the first turn she's in play, allowing you to pay four mana to play her and then immediately bring in Yargle and Multani or another more expensive creature.

Deck Tech

Blackblade Reforged is an incredible piece of equipment for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride. Giving the equipped creature +1/+1 for each land you control while that creature continues to throw lands into play is fantastic value, and since The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride's ability is based on the amount of combat damage it deals, this combo can snowball until you run out of lands in your deck.

Sacrificing creatures each turn can become a boon with the right effects in play. Death's Presence will add +1/+1 counters equal to the power of the creature you sacrificed to another creature of your choice.

So, if you sacrifice that 8/8 Phyrexian Soulgorger, you can put eight +1/+1 counters on your commander, or you could put them on Yargle and Multani so that next turn you have a 24/14 to sacrifice, and 24 counters for your commander.

Four mana of any one color is hard to justify in a multicolor deck, but green is pretty painless thanks to all the mana fixing and ramp options. Unnatural Growth fits well in a lot of green decks, but here it can double the size of your commander and whatever creature you use to saddle it, meaning more commander damage and way more draws and drops.

Rancor allows you to have an inexpensive, consistent power buff on one of your creatures. It only gives a creature +2/+0, but only costs one green mana and returns to your hand when your creature dies, meaning it functions similarly to Skullclamp when you sacrifice creatures to the Gitrog.

One interaction a lot of players overlook is how trample and deathtouch work together. Trample allows you to assign all remaining combat damage to the defending player after assigning lethal damage to all blockers, and deathtouch says that one damage is lethal.

So, giving The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride deathtouch with Basilisk Collar or similar equipment means that you can swing into something with six toughness, assign one damage to the blocker, and assign the remaining five damage to the defending player.

Lands put into play by The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride come into play tapped, so you can't do much with them until the next turn. Thankfully, there are a few ways to ensure that they enter play untapped, allowing you immediate access to your fresh lands.

Spelunking draws a card to replace itself, then keeps your lands coming into play untapped afterward. This affects not only The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride's lands, but also budget lands like Temple of Malady that come into play tapped normally.

Finally, don't underestimate double strike. You can use more than one creature to saddle The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, and then sacrifice one each time it deals combat damage, drawing an enormous number of cards. There are only a few Equipments that provide double strike, but Fireshrieker is the best by a significant margin.

Sample Decklist

To get you started on your own frog-wrangling adventure, we've compiled a sample decklist that you can use as the basis for your own The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride deck. This build is pretty general, so you can modify it to fit your preferred playstyle.