The Little Bad Frog

Treatoad is a card that has gargantuan potential to impact the TCG’s meta just as it has impacted the OCG’s. I’d like to cover a few ways that decks can access this card. Treatoad is a rank 2 Aqua WATER xyz monster with a statline of 2200/0. It has a rather restrictive summoning condition but a very powerful contingent of effects that read:

2 Level 2 Aqua-Type monsters
Once per turn, during the Standby Phase: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 "Frog" monster from your Deck, except "Frog the Jam". Once per turn, during either player's turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect: You can send 1 Aqua-Type monster from your hand or face-up from your field to the Graveyard; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then you can Set the destroyed card on your field. If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 WATER monster in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.

One might think with a summon condition like that, how could this card cause anyone trouble? It’s actually quite impressive how accessible Treatoad is. There are two relatively easy ways to get to it: a frog engine centered around Swap Frog and Ronintoadin, and summoning it through Bahamut Shark.

The Frog Engine

Swap Frog can make a Treatoad all on it’s own by sending a Ronintoadin and a different frog to the grave, first by special summoning itself and then using your normal summon on it. Ronintoadin can then special summon itself from the grave if you’ve successfully resolved Swap Frog twice, which gives you access to rank 2s, and naturally Treatoad. The best bet when playing the frog engine is to fill it out with Dupe Frog and Poison Draw Frog. Dupe Frog can create a soft lock with a good amount of pressure when combined on field with Treatoad’s detaching effect. Poison Draw Frog provides a decent option for a little bit of draw power. There are other okay cards you can play like Unexpected Dai played with Frog the Jam or Psychic Kappa along with Rescue Rabbit, which is unfortunately limited in the TCG. Unifrog is also an okay option as a dump target since it’s backrow hate effect is decent. Pot of Desires can round out the deck’s draw power to get you to your power plays faster.

Frogs and Sharks are Best Friends

Bahamut Shark’s effect is straightforward and gives you a free Treatoad. The problem is it’s non-generic summon condition, which calls for 2 level 4 WATER monsters. However, the TCG has something to alleviate this that the OCG no longer has access to. Elder Entity Norden. Should this card live to see another format or two, making Bahamut Shark in a deck like HEROs or Mermail Atlanteans becomes incredibly easy.

HEROs have the very searchable Elemental HERO Bubbleman on top of Norden. Mermail Atlanteans have Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince, which is highly searchable within the deck and actually gives you a reasonable first turn power play, something that the deck lacks at the moment. With Neptabyss, Atlantean Dragoons, and Mermail Abyssmegalo at your disposal, you should have a relatively easy time bringing Treatoad out. You can supplement Mermail Atlantean’s access to Treatoad by playing a card like Aqua Spirit.

Treatoad also supports running multiple copies of Instant Fusion since it can recycle Elder Entity Norden upon hitting the grave from using its effect. This access will only get better when the TCG gets its hands on Rare Fish and Silent Angler, two more cards that facilitate summoning Bahamut Shark.

Playing Around Treatoad

There are no easy or guaranteed ways around Treatoad, but running things like Maxx “C”, and other hand traps can stop a Treatoad deck in its tracks. Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries stops Treatoad from ever getting out. Ghost Reaper’s counterpart, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, is definitely not the best option but it can destroy Treatoad should its negation effect be activated (provided that Treatoad wasn’t used as cost). Kaijus deal with a lot of problem monsters as you already know, but be sure that you have a follow-up play before committing a kaiju to your opponent’s board, since Treatoad can just put itself back into the extra deck and potentially be summoned out again next turn. You should also be prepared to deal with Dimensional Barrier and other disruptive backrow when playing against Treatoad decks. One can also expect these decks to be siding one copy of Pot of Acquisitiveness to potentially deal with your Ghost Reaper.

Last Words

Whether you want to field Treatoad or be more prepared for it, I hope this was an informative read. Treatoad is an incredibly powerful card, so having an idea about playing around it is better sooner rather than later. Please let me know if there’s anything that I can improve on or clarify! I really appreciate you reading this and your feedback!