All 12 Atogs in Magic Ranked

Atogatog | Illustration by Ron Spears

Magic has no shortage of iconic creature types spanning its history. Many of them are familiar to long-time fantasy fans: Elves, dwarves, vampires, demons, angels, and so on occupy the Multiverse on numerous planes.

But Magic also has unique creature types that don’t appear in other fantasy worlds. Of these, the strangest might be the atogs, a deadly nuisance from Dominaria with a massive appetite and a distinct mechanical theme. Let’s see which ones are best for your next brew!

What Are Atogs in MTG?

Megatog | Illustration by Pete Venters

Atogs are a species of small scavengers found primarily on Dominaria that have insatiable appetites, portrayed mechanically with activated abilities that sacrifice permanents of specific types or exile cards from the graveyard to increase their power and toughness. Atogs appear in all colors and while their diets vary, they share the design of consuming some kind of resource for a power boost—only a temporary one, however. An atog is never satiated.

Honorable Mention: Chronatog Totem

It’d be a shame to not mention Chronatog Totem, a mana rock from Time Spiral with an activated ability that makes it into its namesake card. It’s more of a curiosity than anything since it takes considerably more mana to play this than Chronatog in decks with the synergies to make it work.

#12. Megatog

Atogs are powerful cards because they’re extremely cheap creatures that punch well above their mana cost. Megatog being a big creature from the offset means that benefit is no longer relevant; this isn’t a special threat, it’s just another big beater, and not a particularly exciting one.

#11. Necratog

Necratog doesn’t need you to sacrifice anything, but that’s a boon as often as a flaw. This card requires a creature-dense deck with plenty of ways to get creatures in the graveyard, which is rather demanding considering the number of synergies other atogs grant.

#10. Foratog

Requiring a mana investment limits Foratog, though it gets a significant power boost from each forest consumed. There’s a world where it works very nicely with Ashaya, Soul of the Wild to make your creatures into forests; suddenly every creature can tap to sacrifice itself.

#9. Atogatog

If you want an atog commander, look no further than the 5-color monstrosity Atogatog. The trouble is how little overlap the atogs have; the deck that properly feeds Atog probably won’t have the creatures for Necratog, not to mention the issues of Foratog in a 5-color deck. Because it’s so hard to collect all the atogs into a single list, Atogatog suffers from a lack of fuel.

#8. Lithatog

Lithatog gets big fast, but the main reason I’ve dropped it lower on the list is the tension between Gruul () and artifacts. Any color combination can house an artifact shell but green is least likely to. At best, it’s a free land sacrifice outlet for Hearthhull, the Worldseed.

#7. Sarcatog

Atogs that can feed from the graveyard and consume another resource have a handy synergy: One ability fuels the other. You can sacrifice two artifacts to Sarcatog, which then get exiled to the other ability. Surround this with cards like Disciple of the Vault and gravebreak cards and you could cook up quite a few triggers.

#6. Thaumatog

Sacrificing lands and another permanent type gives Thaumatog plenty of fodder, even on a sketchy draw. It’s similar to Lithatog but ranks a little higher because enchantress decks often want to be Selesnya, so there’s no contorting required.

#5. Phantatog

An atog that makes you discard is a fun one. You get lots of power for no mana investment since the cards never have to hit play, plus you enable graveyard and empty hand synergies for cards like Accumulated Knowledge and Ensnaring Bridge. That makes Phantatog a fascinating little card, but there’s a similar, stronger atog.

#4. Auratog

Auratog gets its accolades from being cheaper than any of the other enchantment-munching atogs (and being significantly easier to cast as a mono-colored card) and getting a bigger power boost. Sure, you can’t fall back on discarding cards or sacrificing lands, but twice the power per card invested makes this a significant threat fast. A fun path is to use Pacifism and other aura-based removal to stop your opponents from blocking, then eating them all before damage for lethal.

#3. Chronatog

Chronatog might be the strangest atog, since it eats time. Skipping your next turn generally isn’t advisable, but there are synergies that make it worthwhile, like skipping your upkeep so you don’t need to pay for Stasis. You could also evade Tangle Wire by skipping your upkeep, then use Seedborn Muse to untap your lands while your opponents stumble around their tapped lands.

#2. Psychatog

Psychatog saw play historically and currently sees Premodern play, and it’s one of the most competitive atogs. The secret lies in the abilities: The discard ability fuels the exile-from-graveyard one, which is in turn very strong because it makes cheap cantrips like Opt and Gush into additional points of power. That makes the deck incredibly efficient at using every bit of its resources—and I’d be remiss not to point out this atog doesn’t require spending any mana on cards to grow. Good luck catching this out with Lightning Bolt

#1. Atog

Atog is the classic, the first, and the greatest atog ever to exist because it’s so easy to sacrifice 10 artifacts that cost almost no mana, then Fling it at your opponent. The Mirrodin artifact lands really pushed this to the brink, giving it the flexibility of 3-mana atogs that sacrifice multiple permanent types while maintaining its low mana cost and higher power buff. It was such a staple of Pauper Affinity decks that it got banned.

Best Atog Payoffs

Sacrifice synergies are great with atogs. These might be specific to the permanent type you sacrifice—Disciple of the Vault for artifacts, Hearthhull, the Worldseed for lands, etc., or more general payoffs like Mayhem Devil and Evendo Brushrazer.

If your atog devours cards from the graveyard, consider gravebreak synergies like Insidious Roots and Teval, the Balanced Scale to get extra value from the power boost. Similarly, look for cards that want to be in the graveyard like Bloodghast and Dread Return for atogs that make you discard.

You might want to take advantage of the high power atogs get with Fling effects and trample enablers like Temur Battle Rage. These work best with Atog and Auratog since they grow much more efficiently than the others.

What Plane Are Atogs From?

Atogs are from Dominaria, where they’re generally regarded as a nuisance by the plane’s citizens due to their appetites, similar to Avishkar’s gremlins. Some atogs found their way to Mirrodin before it became New Phyrexia; there they went from scavengers to alpha predators capable of eating virtually anything on the metallic plane.

Are There Any Atog Commanders?

Atogatog is the atog commander, both as a legendary creature that’s an atog and a commander that cares about atogs. If you want to play a dedicated atog typal deck, it’s your best bet, but a couple of other commanders can support some atogs if you want.

For example, Teval, the Balanced Scale could handle Psychatog as a discard outlet/greavebreak enabler, and Breya, Etherium Shaper dabbles with artifact sacrifice enough to look towards Atog. If you really want to build a deck that takes advantage of atogs, I’d recommend that you pick a synergy and work the atog into your deck instead of trying to stick them all into one strategy.

Wrap Up

Lithatog | Illustration by Franz Vohwinkel

Atogs are a delight. They have dorky art and appear just often enough to be amusing without reaching the level of saturation that would make them obnoxious (looking at you, Loot). They aren’t all bangers, but they’re interesting cards to build synergy packages around and some of them are strong enough to compete in powerful formats.

Have you ever played with an atog? Which is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below! If you want more Draftsim, don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!