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, 
arguably has the best card draw of any element via Searing Truth, Morgana le Fey, and Pact with the Devil. 
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 , 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
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 -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 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 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 Chaoswished for 13 Treasures of Britain and The Immortal Throne on many occasions. I have even Chaoswished 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 Chaoswishing for a -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 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 . 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
, 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 spells — all spells in the deck are either or .
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 is the acceptable rate to draw a card, Sunken Treasure is great at for two cards. If one of those cards is an unwanted site, however, then the rate of that card draw is diluted to 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: 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; 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- deck.
Considerations for Ersatz Platz Collection options include:
Mountain Peaks
Beacon
Haystack [earth}
Impenetrable Copse
Babbling Brook
Thin Ice
Mudslide
The Base of Babel
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
Aura (1)
1 Atlantean Fate
Artifacts (21)
2 Mix Aqua
2 Mix Aer
1 Aquamarine Core
1 Amethyst Core
1 Ring of Morrigan
1 Kythera Mechanism
4 Wiccan Tools
1 Four Waters of Paradise
1 Pnakotic Manuscript
3 Sunken Treasure
2 Panpipes of Pnom
1 The Immortal Throne
1 13 Treasures of Britain
Minions (4)
1 Highland Princess
2 Salmon of Knowledge
1 The Lady of the Lake
Magics (17)
1 Plague of Frogs
1 Browse
4 Gift of the Frog
2 Return to Nature
1 Occult Ritual
3 Four Fat Frogs
2 Dhol Chants
2 Call of the Sea
1 Chaoswish
Sites (17)
4 Croaking Swamp
3 Deep Sea
3 Mountain Peaks
2 Wizard's Den
1 Tadpole {Pool
1 Gilman House
1 Standing Stones
1 Mirror Realm
1 Sphinx Sarcophagus
Collection (10)
4 Horrible Hybrids
Opens TCGPlayer Mass Entry with the full decklist pre-loaded — select Sorcery: Contested Realm as the Product Line, then click Add to Cart
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Featured image: Call of the Sea by AronjaArt
