So randomly wanted to do something with Atogatog that wasn't just load every atog into a deck and give them all food. Which while interesting, I like the idea of turning normally non-atog creatures into Atogs to feed the Atogatog.
He's a relatively inexpensive card, and creature with a decent sized body and a workable ability. He also just plain looks cool. And there's nothing like coming out of nowhere with a large army of Atogs to devour your opponents whole.
Reasons to not run Atogatog?
He's kind of single minded. Atogatog wants to eat atogs and smash faces. He doesn't bring as much to the table as generals like Sliver Overlord, Azami, or Zur.
Why not {enter 5 color general here}?
If you want to swap it out you can with only a few changes, the Conspiracy and Xenograft most notably. But the decklist was built with Atogatog in mind. There are others that can probably make "better" use but they'll also be pegged more readily for what they are where as more often than not no one sees Atogatog coming.
Why Cascade?
The deck wants to get as many things into play as fast and as cheap as possible. Cascade is exceptionally good at doing this. Pay WUBRG to play Kozilek, Cascade into Enigma Sphinx, Cascade into Urabrask, Draw 4 cards. You just can't tell me that wouldn't feel good to do.
-Bringers; The black and blue bringer both bring power effects to the table. Vampiric Tutor and draw 2 extra cards every turn to be specific. And they fit with the decks idea of using WURBG instead of actual casting cost.
-Praetors; Jin-Gitaxis is invaluable to the deck's use of Hypergenesis and to getting it's combo pieces faster. Vorniclex helps pull board control duty, something the deck lacks, and mana ramp which is something the deck needs as much of as it can get. Urabrask joins Vorinclex in the board control duty and doubles as making sure your game winning swing can happen the first turn possible instead of letting the board get to take shots at you first.
-Titans; Grave Titan is a solid beater who comes with buddies to back him up and can combo into infinite mana/creatures. Primeval joins Vorinclex in the mana ramp department and helps you achieve the 5 basic land types you'll need.
-Eldrazi; No deck cheating big creatures in cheap is complete without a few Eldrazi.
-Cascaders; Enigma Sphinx is fun for it's cascade and it's ability to just refuse to stay dead very long. Kathari Remnant makes a decent chump blocker and nets you a cascade in the process, Bloodbraid Elf can be good for a surprise smack, and Enlisted Wurm is just fun for it's beef in blocking/attacking and it's heft cascade.
-Thopter Assembly is in the deck primarily to generate tokens to be used as fodder. Either blocking fodder, attacking fodder, or Altar Fodder. Or even Atogatog fodder via Conspiracy/Xenograft. Adding in a Time Sieve, gives you access to infinite turns, but it goes away from the general direction of the deck. Worth inclusion if you want to add more combo to the deck though.
-Mana ramps; Ashnod's Altar is in for it's ability to turn creatures (tokens mainly) into extra mana. And it can also be used to prevent one of your creatures from being snatched by an opponent which is always good. Prismatic Omen is in for the fact of making what land types you have in play mostly Irrelevant, Joiner Adept doubles in this role somewhat.
-Tutors; Each tutor can be used to find a combo piece. Enlightened Tutor double duties for artifact and enchantment combo pieces, while fabricate is slightly less versatile it does put the tutored card directly into your hand instead of making you wait to draw. The demonic and vampiric tutor are pretty self explanatory. Conflux of course is the king of all tutors, at least in this deck. The variety of what it can get you is staggering.
-Twincast/Wild Ricochet are in to pull double duty. In one side they double up on a good spell and give you a copy, or even the spell and a copy of it, and in another can be used to counter in some situations. Counterspell on my Confulx? I'll twincast your counterspell targeting your counterspell.
-Stranglehold is in the deck for it's ability to keep others from tutoring and taking more turns, and for it's synergy with Maralen, of the Mornsong which results in no one being able to get new cards but yourself.
-Conspiracy/Xenograft are used to make the Atogatog feel less lonely by flooding your board with Atogs. Ever seen Kozilek, Atog of Truth? How about Blightsteel Collossatog? Yeah.
-Curse of the Cabal is there for it's ability to hinder an opponent who is building up to fast for your tastes, or to make It that Betrays very happy.
-Hypergensis/Genesis Wave/Tooth and Nail/Mind's Desire are all for the cheating things in very cheaply effects they have. While it may be tempting to use the infinite storm count on Mind's Desire it can end up hurting you if you aren't careful.
-Fist of Suns is the star attraction some games. Praetor's Counsel for 5? Sure. Curse of the Cabal to? Why not? Is that an Ulamog for 5 mana? Fun times. Oh you just tutor'd and filled your hand with your game winning play? You're bragging? Well ok... I pay WUBRG and summon Jin-Gitaxis. Have fun.
-Praetor's Counsel should generally be saved until you have a good chunk in your GY for it to feed into, or until you're going to drop Jin-Gitaxis if you don't have a Reliquary Tower ready.
-Elixir Of Immortality; In the words of the Baron Sengir, Bottled Life.
-Maelstrom Nexus/Violent Outburst; The outburst is good if you just need a little extra damage, or if you just need one more cheap spell cascaded in, where as the Nexus basically says the first spell you play every turn gets you a free spell following it.
-Delay; I just plain like the flavor of this one. If you want a more effective spell however, Cryptic Command, Mana Drain, Rewind, and Mindbreak Trap can all fill the bill.
-Mystic Speculation; I just like this card, same as with Delay. It costs 2U to scry 3 every turn. Sure it's a sorcery but scrying is always a good thing. Doing it every turn is good as well even if there's no draw to go with it. Best things to replace it would be Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top, both of which are a bit pricey in comparison.
-Ghostly Prison; Protection may be needed, use only as directed. Can be dropped entirely or in favor of similar spells. Depending on how the local meta is.
-Fetch Lands; This deck relies heavily on green mana so the only fetches I included are the ones that fetch forests and something else.
-Reliquary Tower; No hand size limit is the best hand size limit.
-Crystal Quarry; It turns your Sol Ring and Temple of the False God mana into WUBRG. Bit of a price on it's ability but toss in a Mana Reflections and it pays for itself.
-Temple of the False God; 2 mana for the price of one. Yeah there's better cards but again it's just a I like this one card. For replacing it Vivid lands could work, as could Shock lands, which would reduce the number of basics in the deck a little bit and replacing them with more. Mostly in this build's case a budget related choice.
If anyone wants to make suggestions feel free. I know it's not exactly polished but it's done fairly well testing it. As for what exactly the combos and synergies do; Grave Titan/Goblin Marshal each produce 2 tokens when they enter play. Ashnod's Altar allows you to sacrifice a creature to make 2 colorless mana, sacrificing 1 Goblin Token and then 1 Goblin Marshall, results in 4 mana, which is funneled into Nim Deathmantle to bring the token producer back into play creating two more tokens, sacrificing 2 creatures ect ect for infinite tokens which are then funneled back into the Altar, or if Xenograft/Conspiracy is in play (Naming Atog cause there's nothing like zombitogs and Goblitogs to make an old Atogatog happy) into the general for a ramp on his p/t.
Praetor's Grasp of course is good to use to grab say, an opponent's Mana Reflections. Or anything really you'll have the mana to play any cards they have.
Maralen of the Mornsong/Stranglehold Results in no one but you can use Maralen and every turn you lose 3 life to tutor up a card. This life loss is mitigated by first searching Time Stretch to take 2 extra turns, then Elixir of Immortality to gain 5 life and shuffle Time Stretch back into your library. You lose 6 life, take two extra turns, and gain 5 life. Though if you've already got Maralen's headlock initiated it's probably overkill but good to have just in case you're going against some kill spell heavy opponents.
And speaking of Praetor's Counsel, it and Reliquary Tower negate the major drawback to Jin-Gitaxis, Core Augur. And to back Jin up the forcing your opponents to discard their hands at the end of their turns leaves you open, if it comes back to you with everyone handless, to overextend into a combo lock without fear of counterspells or repercussions.
Palinchron's casting cost being reduced to 5 effectively with Fist of Suns also comes in handy. Same with Mana Reflections/Vorinclex for him for the classic infinite mana loop. Though there's nothing currently in the deck to abuse the infinite storm count.
And lastly coming to the co-name of the deck. Maelstrom Nexus and it's cascading friends are quite interesting. Especially if you luck out enough to get multiple cascades in one turn. Including the option of it cascading into Hypergenesis if you've got a full hand for example.
Delay, I just plain like. The flavor of going into a combo hearing someone "Hinder that." "Delay that Hinder I'm busy right now." Or after a Genesis Wave hearing "Gather Specimens." "Hold on, now's not a good time Delay that for a few turns you might get something better." I just find amusing to no end.
Stripmine - I feel it puts to big a target on you. When people see it hit the board they immediately think you're going to go for a Stripmine/Crucible lock and will hate you out of the game for it. This deck doesn't particularly want to pull hate like that. Wasteland - See Stripmine. Lightning Greaves - It doesn't really need to protect Atogatog as is and most of it's creatures don't particularly need to be protected either. With only a few exceptions. It could go in if the deck is moved to a more aggro and less combo oriented design however. Fauna Shaman/Survival of the Fittest - Again they seem to be hate magnets. You want to try to stay under the radar while you can and dropping either paints a target on you. Eternal Witness - Likely to be included soon. Will probably drop Ghostly Prison for it. Plague Wind/Damnation/Wrath of God/Day of Judgement - I've noticed the trend of every deck and it's mother packing a half dozen or more of these kinds of spells. It's a little risky to gamble on it but I'm betting one of my opponents will be running them and can take care of board wiping without me drawing the aggro for it. Oblivion Stone/Akroma's Vengeance - These are even worse. Either one resolving can shut the deck down and put it from almost game, to rebuild mode quickly. Darksteel Forge - Possible add in a later build if it proves needed. Currently however it isn't. Last Stand - Was in the original build, but it proved a bit annoying to do all the math for it with a Prismatic Omen in play. It certainly can find a spot though for a late game big play. Epic Struggle - Would be interesting for an alternate win condition but sadly the token generation is primarily a spur of the moment thing. Walk the Aeons - Time Stretch is just plain better. The lower cost and buyback are both nice and all but I'll stick to the two for one spell one any day. Liliana Vess - I really do like her tutoring ability for the deck, but she's just to fragile for it and 5 mana for 1 tutor then she gets her face smashed in isn't worth it. Garruk Wildspeaker - Another one that's nice but there aren't enough ways to effectively protect him until late game when you're almost comboing out. Jace, The Mindsculpter - Considered him as an alt kill con for Maralen lock but decided against it as it'd just take to long. Time Seive - With Thopter Assembly this results in infinite turns. It also doesn't fit the theme of the deck quite as well which is my only defense for not including it. Defense of the Heart - Tooth and Nail does the job better. Brain Freeze/Tendrils of Agony/Grapeshot - While good with the high number of spells the deck can cast in a turn, the only thing really to use it is Palinchron loop which isn't enough to justify adding otherwise dead cards to me. I can see them making the cut into a more control oriented build of it though. Bitter Ordeal - Another one likely to get a place in the list soon. Seedborne Muse - Good card but it's another one (at least locally) that paints a target on you.
The easiest way to alter things in deck is to look for things that work similarly or to find cards that just don't work for you and replace them with things that do. EDH is an ever evolving format, and people change their decks regularly. That said no decklist is ever truly finished. Experiment with different cards in the deck and find what works. If you want to play a more control oriented game drop some of the more aggressive creatures for counterspells and redirection. If you want more aggro swap out some of the spells not focused on getting your combos going, like Twincast and Wild Ricochet and swap in some things to get more creatures or better ones like Fauna Shaman and Survival of the Fittest. If you want to make your general a bigger player in the early game add in some recursion like Debtor's Knell, Reya Dawnbringer, Sheoldred, The Whispering One, and Oversold Cemetery, taking out things like Praetor's Grasp, Kathari Remnant, and other less impacting spells/creatures. And to make sure Atogatog gets through some evasion in the form of a new Whispersilk Cloak, or perhaps some Lightning Greaves.
The deck as it is isn't the cheapest to build, however there are some changes that can reduce it's price drastically.
Fetch Lands- These build up a sizeable price increase however there are alternate less expensive ways to do their effects. Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Vivid lands to an extent, and to a lesser extent the Tap Lands.
Titans- While Primeval Titan is a hard card to find a good replacement for, your best idea if trying to reduce the overall price is to just do something different with the card slot. Symbiotic Wurm while not quite as useful is much cheaper, a little bigger, and when it dies it brings 7 1/1 tokens to bear so you're at least a little ahead in case of a wrath of god dropping, and it combos with the Nim Deathmantle/Ashnod's Altar. Grave Titan is just a tricky, thankfully his price is dropping but he's still a good $6-$12 depending on where you go. Again we can turn to our Symbiotic friends in the form of Symbiotic Wurm/Symbiotic Beast to get some tokens when it dies at least.
Progentius - It's sad to see a big evasive beater go, but he's also got a price tag attached. Though it can't fill the same slot, Bringer of the Red Dawn can at least provide some trickery. The Sphinx of Uthuun is a good replacement as well if you want to get a bit more card advantage out of your beaters.
Eldrazi Titans- These are probably the ones you'll least want to see go, but it may be required if your budget isn't very big. As for replacing them, you'll want something big with a comes into play effect that can be board altering in Ulamog's case, and something to draw you some cards in Kozilek's. Angel of Despair and Arcanis the Omnipotent both clock in with smaller price tags.
Urabrask - Another guy that's good in the deck with it's ability to make so many tokens so unexpectedly. Sadly his price tag is climbing so it might be worth it to swap him with, Anger, Mass Hysteria, or Madrush Cyclops which while they can't take advantage of Fist of Suns, they do at least help fill Urbrask's shoes.
Sol Ring - Pricey card, but it's staple status might mean you already have one. If not, there's a few decent alternatives though not many are as good. Gemstone Array can be useful in this slot, as can Darksteel Ingot.
Vampiric Tutor/Demonic Tutor - These are invaluable to have, but if needed, Demonic Collusion, Diabolic Tutor, and/or Diabolic Intent can work.
Enlightened Tutor - Another hard one to lose. One of the black tutors can take it's place most easily or drop it all together for something more useful in your local meta, like a counterspell variant.
Tooth and Nail - This one is more a "just useful" to have than an "essential" to have. Replacing it would be done well with anything that can fetch a creature. Green Sun's Zenith comes to mind.
Ulatog, the Infinite Gyre
Marlatog, of the Mournsong
Primevatog Titan
Joiner Atog
Uratog the Hidden
Goblin Marshatog
Enigmatog Sphinx
Birds of Paratog
Kathatog Remnant
and of course the dread, Maelstrom Archatog.
Through me the way to the suffering city; Through me the everlasting pain; Through me the way that runs among the Lost. Justice urged on my exalted Creator: Divine Power made me, The Supreme Wisdom and the Primal Love. Nothing was made before me but eternal things And I endure eternally. Abandon all hope - You Who Enter Here.
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1 Atogatog
Basic Lands
9 Forest
4 Plains
4 Mountain
4 Island
4 Swamp
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bant Panorama
1 Jund Panorama
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Crystal Quarry
1 Temple of the False God
1 Command Tower
Mana Fixing
1 Primeval Titan
1 Joiner Adept
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Progenitus
1 It That Betrays
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Grave Titan
1 Maelstrom Archangel
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Maralen of the Mornsong
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Bringer of the Blue Dawn
1 Enigma Sphinx
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Enlisted Wurm
1 Kathari Remnant
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Palinchron
1 Goblin Marshal
1 Thopter Assembly
Mana Fixing/Ramping
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Sol Ring
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Mana Reflection
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Praetor's Grasp
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Conflux
1 Counterspell
1 Twincast
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Capsize
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Stranglehold
1 Conspiracy
1 Xenograft
1 Comet Storm
1 Time Stretch
1 Curse of the Cabal
1 Hypergenesis
1 Genesis Wave
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Fist of Suns
1 Mind's Desire
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Violent Outburst
1 Maelstrom Nexus
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Ghostly Prison
He's a relatively inexpensive card, and creature with a decent sized body and a workable ability. He also just plain looks cool. And there's nothing like coming out of nowhere with a large army of Atogs to devour your opponents whole.
Reasons to not run Atogatog?
He's kind of single minded. Atogatog wants to eat atogs and smash faces. He doesn't bring as much to the table as generals like Sliver Overlord, Azami, or Zur.
Why not {enter 5 color general here}?
If you want to swap it out you can with only a few changes, the Conspiracy and Xenograft most notably. But the decklist was built with Atogatog in mind. There are others that can probably make "better" use but they'll also be pegged more readily for what they are where as more often than not no one sees Atogatog coming.
Why Cascade?
The deck wants to get as many things into play as fast and as cheap as possible. Cascade is exceptionally good at doing this. Pay WUBRG to play Kozilek, Cascade into Enigma Sphinx, Cascade into Urabrask, Draw 4 cards. You just can't tell me that wouldn't feel good to do.
-Bringers; The black and blue bringer both bring power effects to the table. Vampiric Tutor and draw 2 extra cards every turn to be specific. And they fit with the decks idea of using WURBG instead of actual casting cost.
-Praetors; Jin-Gitaxis is invaluable to the deck's use of Hypergenesis and to getting it's combo pieces faster. Vorniclex helps pull board control duty, something the deck lacks, and mana ramp which is something the deck needs as much of as it can get. Urabrask joins Vorinclex in the board control duty and doubles as making sure your game winning swing can happen the first turn possible instead of letting the board get to take shots at you first.
-Titans; Grave Titan is a solid beater who comes with buddies to back him up and can combo into infinite mana/creatures. Primeval joins Vorinclex in the mana ramp department and helps you achieve the 5 basic land types you'll need.
-Eldrazi; No deck cheating big creatures in cheap is complete without a few Eldrazi.
-Cascaders; Enigma Sphinx is fun for it's cascade and it's ability to just refuse to stay dead very long. Kathari Remnant makes a decent chump blocker and nets you a cascade in the process, Bloodbraid Elf can be good for a surprise smack, and Enlisted Wurm is just fun for it's beef in blocking/attacking and it's heft cascade.
-Thopter Assembly is in the deck primarily to generate tokens to be used as fodder. Either blocking fodder, attacking fodder, or Altar Fodder. Or even Atogatog fodder via Conspiracy/Xenograft. Adding in a Time Sieve, gives you access to infinite turns, but it goes away from the general direction of the deck. Worth inclusion if you want to add more combo to the deck though.
-Mana ramps; Ashnod's Altar is in for it's ability to turn creatures (tokens mainly) into extra mana. And it can also be used to prevent one of your creatures from being snatched by an opponent which is always good. Prismatic Omen is in for the fact of making what land types you have in play mostly Irrelevant, Joiner Adept doubles in this role somewhat.
-Tutors; Each tutor can be used to find a combo piece. Enlightened Tutor double duties for artifact and enchantment combo pieces, while fabricate is slightly less versatile it does put the tutored card directly into your hand instead of making you wait to draw. The demonic and vampiric tutor are pretty self explanatory. Conflux of course is the king of all tutors, at least in this deck. The variety of what it can get you is staggering.
-Twincast/Wild Ricochet are in to pull double duty. In one side they double up on a good spell and give you a copy, or even the spell and a copy of it, and in another can be used to counter in some situations. Counterspell on my Confulx? I'll twincast your counterspell targeting your counterspell.
-Stranglehold is in the deck for it's ability to keep others from tutoring and taking more turns, and for it's synergy with Maralen, of the Mornsong which results in no one being able to get new cards but yourself.
-Conspiracy/Xenograft are used to make the Atogatog feel less lonely by flooding your board with Atogs. Ever seen Kozilek, Atog of Truth? How about Blightsteel Collossatog? Yeah.
-Curse of the Cabal is there for it's ability to hinder an opponent who is building up to fast for your tastes, or to make It that Betrays very happy.
-Hypergensis/Genesis Wave/Tooth and Nail/Mind's Desire are all for the cheating things in very cheaply effects they have. While it may be tempting to use the infinite storm count on Mind's Desire it can end up hurting you if you aren't careful.
-Fist of Suns is the star attraction some games. Praetor's Counsel for 5? Sure. Curse of the Cabal to? Why not? Is that an Ulamog for 5 mana? Fun times. Oh you just tutor'd and filled your hand with your game winning play? You're bragging? Well ok... I pay WUBRG and summon Jin-Gitaxis. Have fun.
-Praetor's Counsel should generally be saved until you have a good chunk in your GY for it to feed into, or until you're going to drop Jin-Gitaxis if you don't have a Reliquary Tower ready.
-Elixir Of Immortality; In the words of the Baron Sengir, Bottled Life.
-Maelstrom Nexus/Violent Outburst; The outburst is good if you just need a little extra damage, or if you just need one more cheap spell cascaded in, where as the Nexus basically says the first spell you play every turn gets you a free spell following it.
-Delay; I just plain like the flavor of this one. If you want a more effective spell however, Cryptic Command, Mana Drain, Rewind, and Mindbreak Trap can all fill the bill.
-Mystic Speculation; I just like this card, same as with Delay. It costs 2U to scry 3 every turn. Sure it's a sorcery but scrying is always a good thing. Doing it every turn is good as well even if there's no draw to go with it. Best things to replace it would be Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top, both of which are a bit pricey in comparison.
-Ghostly Prison; Protection may be needed, use only as directed. Can be dropped entirely or in favor of similar spells. Depending on how the local meta is.
-Fetch Lands; This deck relies heavily on green mana so the only fetches I included are the ones that fetch forests and something else.
-Reliquary Tower; No hand size limit is the best hand size limit.
-Crystal Quarry; It turns your Sol Ring and Temple of the False God mana into WUBRG. Bit of a price on it's ability but toss in a Mana Reflections and it pays for itself.
-Temple of the False God; 2 mana for the price of one. Yeah there's better cards but again it's just a I like this one card. For replacing it Vivid lands could work, as could Shock lands, which would reduce the number of basics in the deck a little bit and replacing them with more. Mostly in this build's case a budget related choice.
The main idea is to resolve a massive, Genesis Wave, Hypergenesis, or Mind's Desire, load the board down, and lock it down with Maralen/Stranglehold and win via General Damage after using Grave Titan/Goblin Marshal with Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar with a Conspiracy or Xenograft in play. Or just massive number of large creatures, or an oversized Comet Storm, or using Elixir of Immortality to continuously put Time Stretch back into your library and reuse it every turn with Maralen. Or perhaps going with It that Betrays and the other Annihilators to start nabbing other people's permanents. Or if nothing else Palinchron out for infinite mana with Mana Reflections/Vorinclex and Capsize lock the board, which while it doesn't end the game right there it might as well.
If anyone wants to make suggestions feel free. I know it's not exactly polished but it's done fairly well testing it. As for what exactly the combos and synergies do;
Grave Titan/Goblin Marshal each produce 2 tokens when they enter play. Ashnod's Altar allows you to sacrifice a creature to make 2 colorless mana, sacrificing 1 Goblin Token and then 1 Goblin Marshall, results in 4 mana, which is funneled into Nim Deathmantle to bring the token producer back into play creating two more tokens, sacrificing 2 creatures ect ect for infinite tokens which are then funneled back into the Altar, or if Xenograft/Conspiracy is in play (Naming Atog cause there's nothing like zombitogs and Goblitogs to make an old Atogatog happy) into the general for a ramp on his p/t.
Praetor's Grasp of course is good to use to grab say, an opponent's Mana Reflections. Or anything really you'll have the mana to play any cards they have.
Maralen of the Mornsong/Stranglehold Results in no one but you can use Maralen and every turn you lose 3 life to tutor up a card. This life loss is mitigated by first searching Time Stretch to take 2 extra turns, then Elixir of Immortality to gain 5 life and shuffle Time Stretch back into your library. You lose 6 life, take two extra turns, and gain 5 life. Though if you've already got Maralen's headlock initiated it's probably overkill but good to have just in case you're going against some kill spell heavy opponents.
Conflux you'll generally want to use to fetch up either combo pieces, or things to fetch combo pieces. For example, Enlightened Tutor, Fabricate, Praetor's Counsel, Demonic Tutor, Stranglehold/Urabrask. You get 3 options for finding combo pieces, a way to get them back, and a combo piece. So that Fabricate and Enlightened Tutor becomes Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle, and that Demonic Tutor becomes Goblin Marshall and you're half way to a game winning swing.
And speaking of Praetor's Counsel, it and Reliquary Tower negate the major drawback to Jin-Gitaxis, Core Augur. And to back Jin up the forcing your opponents to discard their hands at the end of their turns leaves you open, if it comes back to you with everyone handless, to overextend into a combo lock without fear of counterspells or repercussions.
Palinchron's casting cost being reduced to 5 effectively with Fist of Suns also comes in handy. Same with Mana Reflections/Vorinclex for him for the classic infinite mana loop. Though there's nothing currently in the deck to abuse the infinite storm count.
And lastly coming to the co-name of the deck. Maelstrom Nexus and it's cascading friends are quite interesting. Especially if you luck out enough to get multiple cascades in one turn. Including the option of it cascading into Hypergenesis if you've got a full hand for example.
Delay, I just plain like. The flavor of going into a combo hearing someone "Hinder that." "Delay that Hinder I'm busy right now." Or after a Genesis Wave hearing "Gather Specimens." "Hold on, now's not a good time Delay that for a few turns you might get something better." I just find amusing to no end.
Stripmine - I feel it puts to big a target on you. When people see it hit the board they immediately think you're going to go for a Stripmine/Crucible lock and will hate you out of the game for it. This deck doesn't particularly want to pull hate like that.
Wasteland - See Stripmine.
Lightning Greaves - It doesn't really need to protect Atogatog as is and most of it's creatures don't particularly need to be protected either. With only a few exceptions. It could go in if the deck is moved to a more aggro and less combo oriented design however.
Fauna Shaman/Survival of the Fittest - Again they seem to be hate magnets. You want to try to stay under the radar while you can and dropping either paints a target on you.
Eternal Witness - Likely to be included soon. Will probably drop Ghostly Prison for it.
Plague Wind/Damnation/Wrath of God/Day of Judgement - I've noticed the trend of every deck and it's mother packing a half dozen or more of these kinds of spells. It's a little risky to gamble on it but I'm betting one of my opponents will be running them and can take care of board wiping without me drawing the aggro for it.
Oblivion Stone/Akroma's Vengeance - These are even worse. Either one resolving can shut the deck down and put it from almost game, to rebuild mode quickly.
Darksteel Forge - Possible add in a later build if it proves needed. Currently however it isn't.
Last Stand - Was in the original build, but it proved a bit annoying to do all the math for it with a Prismatic Omen in play. It certainly can find a spot though for a late game big play.
Epic Struggle - Would be interesting for an alternate win condition but sadly the token generation is primarily a spur of the moment thing.
Walk the Aeons - Time Stretch is just plain better. The lower cost and buyback are both nice and all but I'll stick to the two for one spell one any day.
Liliana Vess - I really do like her tutoring ability for the deck, but she's just to fragile for it and 5 mana for 1 tutor then she gets her face smashed in isn't worth it.
Garruk Wildspeaker - Another one that's nice but there aren't enough ways to effectively protect him until late game when you're almost comboing out.
Jace, The Mindsculpter - Considered him as an alt kill con for Maralen lock but decided against it as it'd just take to long.
Time Seive - With Thopter Assembly this results in infinite turns. It also doesn't fit the theme of the deck quite as well which is my only defense for not including it.
Defense of the Heart - Tooth and Nail does the job better.
Brain Freeze/Tendrils of Agony/Grapeshot - While good with the high number of spells the deck can cast in a turn, the only thing really to use it is Palinchron loop which isn't enough to justify adding otherwise dead cards to me. I can see them making the cut into a more control oriented build of it though.
Bitter Ordeal - Another one likely to get a place in the list soon.
Seedborne Muse - Good card but it's another one (at least locally) that paints a target on you.
The easiest way to alter things in deck is to look for things that work similarly or to find cards that just don't work for you and replace them with things that do. EDH is an ever evolving format, and people change their decks regularly. That said no decklist is ever truly finished. Experiment with different cards in the deck and find what works. If you want to play a more control oriented game drop some of the more aggressive creatures for counterspells and redirection. If you want more aggro swap out some of the spells not focused on getting your combos going, like Twincast and Wild Ricochet and swap in some things to get more creatures or better ones like Fauna Shaman and Survival of the Fittest. If you want to make your general a bigger player in the early game add in some recursion like Debtor's Knell, Reya Dawnbringer, Sheoldred, The Whispering One, and Oversold Cemetery, taking out things like Praetor's Grasp, Kathari Remnant, and other less impacting spells/creatures. And to make sure Atogatog gets through some evasion in the form of a new Whispersilk Cloak, or perhaps some Lightning Greaves.
The deck as it is isn't the cheapest to build, however there are some changes that can reduce it's price drastically.
Fetch Lands- These build up a sizeable price increase however there are alternate less expensive ways to do their effects. Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Vivid lands to an extent, and to a lesser extent the Tap Lands.
Titans- While Primeval Titan is a hard card to find a good replacement for, your best idea if trying to reduce the overall price is to just do something different with the card slot. Symbiotic Wurm while not quite as useful is much cheaper, a little bigger, and when it dies it brings 7 1/1 tokens to bear so you're at least a little ahead in case of a wrath of god dropping, and it combos with the Nim Deathmantle/Ashnod's Altar. Grave Titan is just a tricky, thankfully his price is dropping but he's still a good $6-$12 depending on where you go. Again we can turn to our Symbiotic friends in the form of Symbiotic Wurm/Symbiotic Beast to get some tokens when it dies at least.
Progentius - It's sad to see a big evasive beater go, but he's also got a price tag attached. Though it can't fill the same slot, Bringer of the Red Dawn can at least provide some trickery. The Sphinx of Uthuun is a good replacement as well if you want to get a bit more card advantage out of your beaters.
Eldrazi Titans- These are probably the ones you'll least want to see go, but it may be required if your budget isn't very big. As for replacing them, you'll want something big with a comes into play effect that can be board altering in Ulamog's case, and something to draw you some cards in Kozilek's. Angel of Despair and Arcanis the Omnipotent both clock in with smaller price tags.
Urabrask - Another guy that's good in the deck with it's ability to make so many tokens so unexpectedly. Sadly his price tag is climbing so it might be worth it to swap him with, Anger, Mass Hysteria, or Madrush Cyclops which while they can't take advantage of Fist of Suns, they do at least help fill Urbrask's shoes.
Sol Ring - Pricey card, but it's staple status might mean you already have one. If not, there's a few decent alternatives though not many are as good. Gemstone Array can be useful in this slot, as can Darksteel Ingot.
Vampiric Tutor/Demonic Tutor - These are invaluable to have, but if needed, Demonic Collusion, Diabolic Tutor, and/or Diabolic Intent can work.
Enlightened Tutor - Another hard one to lose. One of the black tutors can take it's place most easily or drop it all together for something more useful in your local meta, like a counterspell variant.
Tooth and Nail - This one is more a "just useful" to have than an "essential" to have. Replacing it would be done well with anything that can fetch a creature. Green Sun's Zenith comes to mind.
Ulatog, the Infinite Gyre
Marlatog, of the Mournsong
Primevatog Titan
Joiner Atog
Uratog the Hidden
Goblin Marshatog
Enigmatog Sphinx
Birds of Paratog
Kathatog Remnant
and of course the dread, Maelstrom Archatog.