"Frogs First" | Immortal Throne Magician Evolution

A poor mage dreamt of a great treasure hidden beneath a bridge near a royal palace in a distant land. The mage, hungry and weak, journeyed to find the bridge. Upon arrival at the bridge, the mage was confronted by a royal guard.

"Halt! What are you doing?" Inquired the guard.

"I dreamt of a great treasure beneath this bridge," replied the mage.

Laughing, the guard retorted, "You fool! You had a dream of great treasure? I had my own dream of a great treasure buried under bed of an old mage in a distant town — your town!"

The mage raced home with haste and dug under his bed to discover a trove of gold he'd been unknowingly sleeping atop for decades.

Seeing What's Always Been

I've been testing my most recent version of Immortal Magician to identify its strengths and weaknesses. My most recent handful of matches helped discern that, first and foremost, it's a Frog deck. Frogs are its framework, and everything powerful that it's capable of is an extension of that.

There are a plethora of combos and engines that the list is capable of, but it's not guaranteed that any of them happen in any given game. What is guaranteed is the number of Frog tokens that will enter the Realm. {Croaking Swamp}, {Gift of the Frog}, {Four Fat Frogs}, {Plague of Frogs}, {Tadpole Pool} and by extension, {Mirror Realm} generate the material that all the other most powerful payoffs require.

I have known this to be true for a while but did not fully lean into it as the lens by which I clarify my card choices. Adding a {Panpipes of Pnom} to my previous list was a step in that direction, though not full-throated. I have that clarity now.

Frogs First

When deciding whether a card is worth its spot in an extremely tight list, I am now asking, "Does this support or pay off Frogs?" If so, it's in. If it doesn't, it's out.

That has caused me to flag some cards that I typically feel naked without, but through the Frog lens seem wildly out of place. Let's break it down card by card.

Non-Site Fast Mana

This is a fundamental structure within {Magician} to leverage its benefit of being absent an Atlas. That includes {Amethyst Core}, {Aquamarine Core}, {Mix Aer}, {Mix Aqua}, {Four Waters of Paradise}, {Shrine of the Dragonlord}, as well as {Key to the City}, {Onyx Core}, {Ruby Core}, {Philosopher's Stone}, and {Black Obelisk}.

ForceofPhil in an alternative timeline is dead set on finding how to exploit {Homecoming} in this deck, but we'll explore that when the timelines cross paths.

Card Draw & Tutors | Worthy or Wrong?

Pound for pound, [fire] arguably has the best card draw of any element via {Searing Truth}, {Morgana le Fey}, and {Pact with the Devil}. [air] has great card draw in {King's Council}, {Unlikely Alliance}, and {Grandmaster Wizard}, but the former two have heavy deckbuilding considerations to account for, and the latter we will talk about later in this article.

Outside of [fire], Frogs might secretly pose the highest upside for the most broken ways to draw cards. If they support or are supported by Frogs, they're worthy. If they don't, they're wrong.

• {Kythera Mechanism} + {13 Treasures of Britain} | WORTHY

  • Arguably the most powerful combination in the game, converting every unit into a cantrip every turn.

  • This combo necessitates {Highland Princess} and, to a similar extent, {Browse}.

• {Salmon of Knowledge} | WORTHY

  • On par for mana rate with {Morgana le Fey} but better in that {Morgana le Fey} can draw sites in {Magician} without a way to develop them. {Salmon of Knowledge} guarantees three cards with {Kythera Mechanism} in the Realm. Even without it, all the Frogs allow for sufficient attempts to fish for it successfully.

  • Fishing without a {Kythera Mechanism} carries the following odds of rolling 14 or higher:

    • 1st roll: 35%

    • 2nd roll: 57.5%

    • 3rd roll: 72.5%

    • Curving {Croaking Swamp} into {Gift of the Frog} into {Salmon of Knowledge} is a favorably weighted coin flip. {Tadpole Pool} or {Four Fat Frogs} has excellent odds of successfully fishing.

• {Pnakotic Manuscript} | WORTHY

  • Enables every Frog to sacrifice itself for another card, except when a site is revealed. In that case, the chain stops since the living Frog can't drop the book, but the engine remains extremely potent for a single-card payoff with Frogs.

• {Sunken Treasure} | WORTHY

  • [3] mana for two cards remains above rate, and the Frogs are the most efficient way to surface it.

  • {The Lady of the Lake} is flexible and my favorite card in the game. More often than not, it functions as a fourth {Sunken Treasure} and a powerful chain piece to scale {The Immortal Throne} in combination with {Four Waters of Paradise}.

  • {Sewer Rats} and {Buried Treasure} are an extension of the Frog theory. {Sewer Rats} is effectively a Frog that can find and surface {Buried Treasure}.

• {Dhol Chants} | WORTHY

  • I initially fell for {Dhol Chants} for its sweet way to scale {The Immortal Throne}. If the throne has five counters and {Kythera Mechanism} in the Realm, {Dhol Chants} triggers the throne to six. If you reveal {Chaoswish}, trigger the throne to seven, and choose a [7]-mana spell like {Death Dealer} to trigger the throne to eight and ensure you're atop it alone. If {Chaoswish} is already in hand, {Dhol Chants} can reveal mana (e.g., a mix or the {Four Waters of Paradise}.

  • There were times when I thought {Dhol Chants} was underwhelming and inconsistent, but then I realized those were only when I was moving away from the Frog shell. {Four Fat Frogs} and {Plague of Frogs} turn {Dhol Chants} into {Browse} that casts whatever it finds for free.

• {Grandmaster Wizard} | WRONG

  • I've learned much from the {Grandmaster Wizard}, including understanding that it might be wrong in this deck. On raw rate, it's [2] per card, which is top tier, but it offers no synergy with the Frogs, which translates into openings the opponent can exploit.

  • Going up cards is excellent, but spending [6] to not reinforce the engines or the surrounding shell is exposing holes in your armor. I had previously cut {Maiden, Mother, Crone} for similar reasons.

Combo Pieces & Other Payoffs

• {The Immortal Throne}

  • This is card draw and dictates the spread of mana values through the deck, but it is the primary means to win the game, ignores Death's Door, and it's the absolute coolest thing.

• {Chaoswish}

  • This is the coolest payoff with {Kythera Mechanism}. It functions as the way to finish scaling the throne but also as a second copy of any other combo piece. I have {Chaoswish}ed for {13 Treasures of Britain} and {The Immortal Throne} on many occasions. I have even {Chaoswish}ed for {Plague of Frogs} while wielding {Kythera Mechanism}-{13 Treasures of Britain} to reload.

  • Requires studying the codex. In a tournament, you can't pull out your phone to search the codex for an effect, so you must have an encyclopedic knowledge of it. I lost two matches at my previous Grand Contest because I couldn't recall a card that would have won the game:

    • Against an undead-themed {Necromancer} deck, I forgot about {Returned King}, which would have gained control of the entire Realm and Doored the opponent immediately.

    • I could scale {The Immortal Throne} to eight counters by {Chaoswish}ing for a [7]-mana spell, but the opposing Avatar was on the throne's square with me. {Death Dealer} wouldn't work, but {Megalurker} would have both triggered the throne and pulled the opposing Avatar away.

    • In a different match, I was at Death's Door and stared down an {Autumn Unicorn} three squares to my right. I needed to play around {Grapple Shot} and {Toolbox} for {Zap!}. I failed to think of it at the time, but the out was {Legion of Gall} to jester's cap their Collection and to stand in the way of the {Autumn Unicorn}.

• {Ring of Morrigan}

  • Aside from being extremely powerful and a means to heal, it is also part of the combo with {Chaoswish} and {Kythera Mechanism} against Avatars that get nearby — {Chaoswish} names {Chaoswish} ad nauseam, {Ring of Morrigan} pings them to Death's Door, and then a final {Chaoswish} naming {Courtesan Thais} will end the game.

• {Atlantean Fate}

  • Primarily a [5] for {The Immortal Throne}, but also critically an answer to hate sites like {Garden of Eden}.

New Additions

• {Panpipes of Pnom} | WORTHY

  • This was a singleton, but I'm bumping it to the two allowable copies. It pays off Frogs on an alternative axis that your opponent will have to respect. Frogs buffer a lot of time by chump blocking, but if instead those Frogs became removal spells or a way to Door the opponent out of nowhere, then suddenly the deck as a whole is more robust.

• {Call of the Sea} | WORTHY

  • {Call of the Sea} is the next test, replacing {Grandmaster Wizard}. {Call of the Sea} can sort of draw cards by generating a three-for-one or better for [6]. It should always be asymmetrical since all the Frogs can hear the call and survive submerged.

• {Gilman House} | WORTHY

  • This can serve a function similar to {Panpipes of Pnom}. If this is developed in the first few turns with [water][water][water][water], then {Gift of the Frog} and {Croaking Swamp} can battle aggressive early beaters like {Wild Fanatic}, {War Horse}, and {Kettletop Leprechaun}.

  • Mid-to-late game, {Gilman House} developed next to an enemy site in combination with a {Four Fat Frogs} can present a two-turn clock to Death's Door.

Collection

I've played so much {Silver Bullet} in Magician. Pretty much since I built the initial concept, I've leaned on {Silver Bullet} for access {Exhume} and {Dredge} should {The Immortal Throne} somehow go to the subsurface via {Earthquake}, {Atlantean Fate}, or the like. Alternatively, I could access {Swap} to counter an opposing {Swap} or {Scatter} to push an opposing Avatar on {The Immortal Throne} with me away.

In practice, I pretty much only ever used {Silver Bullet} to access {Poisonous Dagger} to pair with {Ring of Morrigan} or {Poison Nova} to contain the board. My theory for moving away from this is the expectation that {Panpipes of Pnom} and {Call of the Sea} will fill that space.

{Silver Bullet} also had targets to fill in the curve for {The Immortal Throne} so that the deck didn't have to be all-in on {Kythera Mechanism} + {Chaoswish} to scale the throne. Again, {Panpipes of Pnom} is an alternative win condition if the main combo is disrupted.

With the open Collection space, I'm interested in testing {Ersatz Platz}. I had been committed to {Lone Tower}, {Dark Tower}, and {Gothic Tower}, since it was the best opening in conjunction with {Croaking Swamp} and {Sunken Treasure}. What I routinely encountered, though, was that after that opening sequence, I never really wanted to draw a tower since none of them were effective at helping cast [air][air] spells — all [air] spells in the deck are either [air][air] or [air][air][air].

Inner Atlas

Draw

Since {Magician} can't choose to draw a site or a spell, a site drawn when action is needed feels like the card draw was diluted.

For example, if [2] is the acceptable rate to draw a card, {Sunken Treasure} is great at [3] for two cards. If one of those cards is an unwanted site, however, then the rate of that card draw is diluted to [3] for one card, undermining the upside of what {Magician} offers in the first place.

{Wizard's Den}, {Sphinx Sarcophagus}, and {Vaults of Zul} provide the actual best rate for card draw in the game: [0] for one or more cards. Since they don't provide threshold, though, {Wiccan Tools} might be the solution.

If that aforementioned {Sunken Treasure} drew a spell and a {Wizard's Den}, then the fail rate of drawing a site is circumvented; [0] to draw another card retains {Sunken Treasure}'s acceptable rate of card draw. I am actively seeking ways to get more site draw in my list.

Answers/Fixing

{Wiccan Tools} threshold smoothing could enable answer sites or recursion rather than site draw. These include {Heirloom Lost} and {Sinkhole}, or {Mirage} to pair with {Tadpole Pool}, {Mirror Realm}, and/or {Wizard's Den}/{Sphinx Sarcophagus}/{Vaults of Zul}.

An {Ersatz Platz} experiment is possible with {Wiccan Tools}. In my earlier builds, {Wiccan Tools} enabled some extremely greedy inclusions, such as {Morgana le Fey} and {Apply Alkahest}. In this more streamlined build, {Wiccan Tools} enables the deck to be a two-element mono-[water] deck.

Considerations for {Ersatz Platz} Collection options include:

• {Mountain Peaks}

• {Beacon} [air]

• {Haystack} [earth}

• {Impenetrable Copse} [earth]

• {Babbling Brook} [water]

• {Thin Ice}

• {Mudslide}

• {The Base of Babel} [earth]

Bigger Mana

I've previously played {City of Plenty} and {City of Glass} for additional mana. That may still be the way forward, but I have found more often than not, my bottleneck isn't mana but action.

FrogofPhil's Immortal Magician

DECKLIST_START

Aura (1)

1 {Atlantean Fate} [5][water][water]

Artifacts (21)

2 {Mix Aqua} [1]
2 {Mix Aer} [1]
1 {Aquamarine Core} [1]
1 {Amethyst Core} [1]
1 {Ring of Morrigan} [1]
1 {Kythera Mechanism} [1]
4 {Wiccan Tools} [2]
1 {Four Waters of Paradise} [2]
1 {Pnakotic Manuscript} [2]
3 {Sunken Treasure} [3]
2 {Panpipes of Pnom} [3]
1 {The Immortal Throne} [4]
1 {13 Treasures of Britain} [4]

Minions (4)

1 {Highland Princess} [2][air][air]
2 {Salmon of Knowledge} [3][water][water]
1 {The Lady of the Lake} [3][water][water][water]

Magics (17)

1 {Plague of Frogs} [1][water][water][water]
1 {Browse} [1][air][air][air]
4 {Gift of the Frog} [2][air][air]
2 {Return to Nature} [2][water]
1 {Occult Ritual} [2][air]
3 {Four Fat Frogs} [4][water][water]
2 {Dhol Chants} [5][air][air]
2 {Call of the Sea} [6][water][water][water]
1 {Chaoswish} [6][water][water][air][air]

Sites (17)

4 {Croaking Swamp} [water]
3 {Deep Sea} [water][water]
3 {Mountain Peaks} [air][air]
2 {Wizard's Den}
1 {Tadpole {Pool} [water]
1 {Gilman House} [water]
1 {Standing Stones}
1 {Mirror Realm}
1 {Sphinx Sarcophagus}

Collection (10)

4 {Horrible Hybrids} [3][water]

DECKLIST_END

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Featured image: {Call of the Sea} by AronjaArt