How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Frog

Psychic Frog fascinates me. Its art mesmerizes from any angle, and its text features the three greatest words in Magic: draw a card. The Frog has leapt across formats and archetypes as a powerful card advantage engine that single-handedly takes over games. Its strength is both enhanced and inhibited by the vast range of complex decisions available to its controller. This makes Psychic Frog a slippery, skill-intensive card to the frustration of fledglings and the merit of masters.

In Modern, Psychic Frog takes center stage in Dimir Murktide. The archetype attacks the Modern metagame on the joint axes of disruption and pressure. Efficient removal and countermagic prevent opponents from developing a winning board state, while efficient creatures threaten to gradually pull ahead and close out games. Psychic Frog progresses both of these play patterns as an efficient, evasive threat that defends itself and generates card advantage. It ensures that the Murktide player never runs out of interaction as they chip away at opposing life points. The Frog has proven sufficiently powerful as a threat and engine that Murktide players have abandoned the Izzet builds of eras past for Dimir builds featuring the Frog. In the age of Modern Horizons 3, Psychic Frog breathes new life into a powerful interactive deck that rewards format knowledge and tight play.

The intricacies of Psychic Frog arise from an interplay between its three abilities. The first is a triggered ability that draws a card whenever the Frog deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker. The second is an activated ability that allows the controller to discard a card to put a +1/+1 counter on the Frog. The third and final ability synergizes with the second, giving the Frog flying at the cost of exiling three cards from the graveyard. All these come attached to a 1/2 body for two mana, providing access to limitless possibilities as early as the second turn of the game.

At first glance, the Frog encourages aggressive play patterns by linking attacking with drawing cards. The activated abilities make connecting with the Frog a simple task, as blocks are discouraged by the discard buff or made impossible via flying. The draw ability immediately replaces a discarded card, creating a seemingly free exchange of mediocre cards in hand for damage. In more linear decks, this may be the optimal way to play the card. In the context of Dimir Murktide, however, this play style is at odds with the reactive and anticipatory nature of the archetype. As a whole, the deck requires a careful balance of every available resource to thwart opponents and close games on razor-thin margins. Playing fast and loose with the Frog will leave the Murktide player low on resources, effectively ending the game before it starts.

The convoluted and counterintuitive nature of Psychic Frog is exacerbated by its placement in a reactive deck like Murktide. Any Frog player is immediately bombarded with a vast array of potential actions once it hits the battlefield. In a proactive deck like Esper Goryo’s, these options tend to be simplified: attack as often as possible to draw the combo and discard reanimation targets when the time is right. When played in a more reactive deck, each option needs to be carefully considered to maximize the Frog’s impact on the game. Against opposing board states and interaction, the Frog can send an inexperienced Murktide player spiraling into decision paralysis. The sheer magnitude of decisions can be overwhelming and frustrating, especially when small mistakes lead to huge blowouts and game losses.

On the flip side, optimal Frog play is radically disruptive. An unanswered Frog will supply a constant flow of card draw to ensure land drops and replenish removal. The discard buff can make blocker math nightmarish for opponents with small creatures, and even flyers are not safe from the Frog. It also poses a unique challenge for damage-based removal, as the Frog player can opt to discard cards from their hand to render the damage insufficient to kill the Frog. The flying ability has explosive synergy with Murktide Regent, as exiling instants and sorceries from the graveyard with the Frog will put additional counters on the Murktide. This provides the deck with a bombastic exit strategy for ending games before opponents get out of control. In the hands of an experienced pilot, Psychic Frog is a versatile game piece capable of adapting to many situations and warping games in its favor.

The first key to mastering Psychic Frog is knowing when to cast it. This decision is governed by two primary considerations: an opponent’s ability to react, and counterplay to that reaction. Psychic Frog tends to be better on early turns, as the card draw ability threatens to generate insurmountable advantage over multiple turns. It also benefits from having more cards in hand for insulation against damage-based removal and combat damage. Although the Frog is an amazing turn two play, it may be best to wait a couple turns to cast the Frog. Tapping out early gives opponents a window to remove the Frog and slam threats of their own. This is especially relevant against Energy decks, which can efficiently remove the Frog and continue assembling an undeterred onslaught of dangerous creatures. Balancing the tension between prioritizing an early Frog and ensuring it stays on the board requires careful consideration of the matchup at hand. By having an early read of an opponent’s deck, the Frog player can utilize their metagame knowledge to anticipate possible responses and minimize their impact. Paying close attention to fetch lands, companions, and early spells helps build a clear image of the opposing strategy. This evaluation will dictate the correct course of action for a given game, whether it be emphasizing patience and reactivity or jamming the Frog as quickly as possible.

Once the Frog sticks, opponents will adapt their play patterns to prevent the Frog from running away with the game. Attacking gets much riskier, as cards in hand can be pitched to deny trades in combat. Swinging out leaves an opponent without blockers for the Frog, which then easily connects for damage and card draw on the next turn. The effective damage threatened by a Frog is reinforced by the cards in hand and multiplies with a Murktide on board. Opponents will prioritize removal, but must be careful when using damage-based removal. Frying the Frog often costs multiple cards and delays more proactive plays. The resulting strain on resources leaves opponents defenseless against future threats. The Frog provides so many options to its controller, and these same options must be considered by opponents who likely have much less experience playing the card. Opponents are forced to evaluate every potential response and make difficult inferences about possible lines of play, giving ample opportunity for the Frog player to capitalize on uncertainty.

On the battlefield, the discard ability becomes a critical tool for defending the Frog. When a damage-based removal spell is pointed at the Frog, there are two possible choices: discard enough cards to protect the Frog, or let it die. The best damage-based removal in Modern deals at least 3 damage, meaning that at least two cards must be discarded to save a counterless Frog. Saving the Frog thus comes at the significant cost of generating card advantage for the opponent. Expert opponents will leverage this exchange to drain valuable cards from the hands of unwitting Frog players, then punish further with a second removal spell. This worst-case scenario puts the Frog player so far behind that the game is all but over. However, in situations where opponents do not have access to additional removal, connecting with the Frog in combat will replace one of the discarded cards and smooth out the resource discrepancy. It will also speed up the clock by dealing more damage in combat. The decision to protect the Frog should be guided by cards in hand, the board state, and the importance of keeping a threat in the context of the matchup. There is no good heuristic for deciding when to protect the Frog, so the decision must be made through critical evaluation of each specific removal spell and the context of the board.

Taken to an extreme, the discard ability can be used to exchange most, if not all, cards in hand for counters. There are two situations where going all-in on the Frog is necessary. The safest opportunity to go all-in is when growing the Frog makes a lethal attack with no possible response. Keeping a counterspell or two in hand can insulate this aggressive line from removal and other roadblocks to victory. A much riskier situation arises in response to large attackers or damage spells, where keeping the Frog comes at the cost of a hand. In matchups and board states which are otherwise unwinnable without the Frog, it is necessary to shove in and protect it. Although this drastically weakens defensive positions, it converts anemic hands into aggressive ones in situations where the odds of winning worsen as the game gets longer. Moments like these require careful evaluation of hand composition and the cadence of the matchup. Winning off a well-executed all-in shove is an exhilarating finish and a feeling like no other.

Aside from these two extreme responses to removal, there are a handful of safe opportunities to proactively grow the Frog. If a card in hand does not progress the game in a meaningful way, it can always grow the Frog. This often manifests in the form dead one-ofs, unwanted Murktides, and extra lands. Newer builds can gain extra advantage from discarding Abhorrent Oculus as a reanimation target for Unearth, a powerful play reminiscent of patterns from Goryo’s Vengeance decks. Another excellent exchange for the Frog player involves discarding a single card to trade with a creature in combat. This is equivalent to casting a removal spell, except that no mana was spent and the larger Frog can likely draw another card on the next turn. In grindy matchups, discarding a single card per turn builds rising pressure with minimal impact on interaction potential. It is usually best to draw first and discard on future turns, as this bluffs a well-composed hand of countermagic. In the mid game, discarding can fuel Murktide Regent, powering out a game-ending threat that is often backed by counterspells. Psychic Frog is at its most powerful when played like its inspiration, Psychatog: use it to accumulate and hoard resources as much as possible, then dump the excess at the last minute to close out the game.

Though not as complex as the discard ability, the flying ability also needs to be played carefully to maximize its utility. “Jumping” the Frog in combat guarantees card draw at the cost of graveyard cards. Overusing this ability can delay Murktide Regents from hitting the board, slowing down a major win condition and giving opponents time to gain advantage. Depleting the graveyard also leaves the Frog player defenseless against attacks from flyers that could have otherwise been neutralized by a flying Frog. Thankfully, the powerful creature suite available in Modern means that opposing blocks come with significant costs. Opponents with small, but valuable creatures may not wish to block and risk losing them to a Frog buff. Attacking without flying forces an opponent to choose between two undesirable outcomes while leaving graveyard fodder for future threats and combat steps. Because the ability can be activated at any time, it also has unique situational utility. With a Murktide on the board, any instants and sorceries exiled by the Frog also put counters on Murktide. It can also fizzle targeted graveyard hate by removing the target before the spell resolves. This denies card draw from Cling to Dust in the mirror and prevents Surgical Extraction from stripping win conditions against Mill. With a well-stocked graveyard, the flying ability has surprising versatility, enabling subtle defenses and volatile offenses.

Psychic Frog is a challenging game piece due to the complex decision tree available to its controller. For the same reason, it has stuck as a central powerhouse of Modern’s de facto tempo deck. Despite its seemingly aggressive design, optimal Frog play in Dimir Murktide is closely tied to patience and anticipation. Mastery of these mind games unlocks a whole new level of strategy, beautifully enriching one of Modern’s most rewarding decks.