Revenge of the Frogman

I'm a hard bodied, hairy chested, rootin' tootin' shootin', parachutin' demolition double cap crimpin' frogman.

How do I play it?

Finding our Frog friends is key on this Water Tower qualifier we put together a few weeks ago to compete at our LGS qualifier a couple of weeks ago.  Look to utilize the Fish beastie to give your Frog’s a chance to work their magic, while it really just turns into a race to who can get Chessie out the fastest and most often.

A couple of sleepy splashes and leaning heavily on water pull and draw powers like Tidal Pull to help you mill through you deck to get those bigger beasties or aura quicker.  The surprise here are the additions of… more frogs!  Christmas Frogman Ornament will act as an easy search for any of your Frogs when you run into trouble.

Beasties

It’s no lie the affection we have for the Loveland Frogman here at Blastoise’s Lair, I mean he’s in the friggin’ logo!  So you know when we run a Water Tower deck it’s gotta have more Frogs than necessary or expected.  Everyone is familiar with the original Frogman’s abilities which will allow you to bookmark an additional page at the beginning of turn, as well as essentially turn any opposing beastie into dust with it’s Charmed ability.

The fun starts with the addition of Christmas Frogman which comes included with a built in search for the Christmas Eve Terra which will allow you to use his attack ability as well as buff his LP to 110.  His move, Chimney Expulsion Spell won’t do any damage but will bounce back an opposing beastie to caster’s hand, Gumberoo style.  While not completely crippling, this is endlessly frustrating when brought out before opponents can get board presence.

The additions of Beavershark and Ug-Wug prove as worthy shield for your Frog’s either as traps or as defenders.  Beavershark, while not only hilarious, is also extremely useful thanks to it’s low cost ability to end combat immediately when flipped as a trap.  Think of it as a one cost Smokey Spirits which then turns into a 25LP/15HP beastie.  Ug-Wug is low key one of my favorite beasties in not only Seance, but probably all of MetaZoo thanks to it’s ability to act like a Water Swiss-Army Knife.

First of all, it’s only a two drop, with the ability to play as a trap.  If flipped as a trap the beastie gains First Strike which will not be want opponents want or expecting.  Next, if you claim Scuba Gear as 4th Wall and decide to play face up, Ug-Wug comes in awakened swinging for 25HP with Fear, allowing you to take a chunk out of a beastie and potentially bounce them when next fatigued.

The beef in the build is provided from a traditional Loveland Lockdown look with lots of Chessie’s given the majority of water aura pages which will be in arena from both casters, as well as Oklahoma Octopus, to put opponents away with some perfectly played Tentacles Tokens.

Spells

This was the toughest portion to widdle down due to water aura percentage restraints and Water Tower requirements.  With 60% of non-aura/terra pages needing to be Water it means a lot a neutral spell staples have to be scrutinized, side-decked or removed altogether.  One prime example in my deck was the side-decking of New Year’s New Beginning’s, something I would pretty much never do in any other scenario.

In the end I opted to go heavy with spells mimicking my beastie’s strengths; Tidal Pull to help on the draw power to try to get to what I needed with Dampen to nullify any spells they try to spring.  If Loveland happens to be in arena and protected, that essentially means ability to nullify effects of any spell while filling up your hand with pages that much quicker allowing you to ditch what you don’t need at that time.  River of Time seemed like a no brainer, which I don’t usually run unless it’s a specific River deck, but with so many Water Aura in the build and the potential power here and to include.

Morpheus was my sleepy splash I sacrificed so much to include as a trick up my sleeve and comes in handy given there’s going to be a lot of Chessie swimming around the arena.

Aura & Artifact

My special sauce along with the Morpheus was in some unique artifacts like Sunken Gravestones of Manchac and Christmas Frogman Ornament.  The Frogman Ornament page is a fantastic holiday addition which allows to search for any page in your spellbook with “Love” or “Frog” in the name.  If a Christmas Ornament is within eye sight (not yet a qualified 4th Wall item) this page only costs one to play which is a great bargain to pull out your Frog, but still viable for a two drop as well in competition play.  The Gravestones helped balance the Water aura page count to 60% while helping out support my Morpheus splash and generally were quite helpful when I found them.

I included two terra which was questionable from the start, but was ok with it given Christmas Eve could be searched with Christmas Frogman’s ability and Full Moon would help support my water milling spells.  In the end they were helpful sometimes, but probably sacrificed precious spellbook space where more effective pages could have been put in place.

Weaknesses / Side Deck Options 

Typically I don’t review in-depth specific side-deck or archive options for our deck builds here because I like to keep it pretty open ended for you all to build on, given this is the actual, exact build I used in the Water Tower qualifier which I went 5-5 in gameplay and 4-4 in match play I’ll walk through my side-deck as well.

What I realized quickly in gameplay was whoever could either get out their Loveland Frogman or Chessie out quickest typically took the cake.  With that being said I was glad I added the fourth in my side-deck as it made it’s way into play pretty frequently after the first match.

The second realization was the power of artifacts and the needed ability to out ramp opponents.  Given everyone had to sacrifice neutral spells like we talked through before, my assumption was no one would be running Absorb Aura.  While I was mostly correct, I was also very happy I side-decked two Mermaid Scales artifacts in addition to main-decking the two artifact essence Sunken Gravestones.  Both Mermaid Scales almost immediately made there way into the deck given inability of opponents to destroy the traditionally fragile pages.

My other side-deck picks which didn’t come into play were Lightning in a Bottle, Smokey Spirits, and Sudden Camouflage which all would have potentially replaced Morpheus if I faced someone ready to Dampen my Morpheus.  New Year’s New Beginning’s I wish I would have had, and was played on my once or twice to pretty devastating proportions, so would probably reevaluate that move.

Lastly, we’re Fetish Artifact and Cursed Contract to act as additional Spirit splashed to replace Morpheus if they were on to my plan, but never played because Morpheus generally worked so well.

If I were to go back along with the changes discussed above, I would also probably only include one Christmas Frogman Orament and if I had them would obviously include Loveland Mailman to really Frog ‘em up.

Card List (43 Total Cards)

Beasties

• Beavershark x4
• Ug-Wug x4
• Loveland Frogman x2
• Christmas Frogman x2
• Chessie x3
• Oklahoma Octopus x1

Spells & Potions

• Powerup Red x1
• Bookmark x2
• Tidal Pull x3
• Dampen x2
• Morpheus x2
• River of Time x1

Aura, Artifacts & Terra

• Sunken Gravestones of Manchac x2
• Prism Aura x2
• Water Aura x2
• Christmas Eve x1
• Full Moon x1