Despite being away for almost two years, the deck hasn't changed much. There's a couple of cards that can be considered part of a "maybe" board and require more testing, however the core 99 has remained relatively unchanged aside for a few lands/artifact ramp that came out. The creatures/spells that have come out since Dominaria, where I quit, have not impressed me enough to include over what has been tested as tide and true for the last 7-8 years of playing commander. The spells listed show off the versatility and flexibility of the deck as well as shows how strong simic can be despite Zegana being a tier 2 or 2.5 commander at this point (rip Prophet of Kruphix). Consistency is key in commander which is why you'll see a lot of doubled up effects and cheap/efficient ramp in the form of mana rocks and ramp spells.
The cards in the maybeboard are what I'm still considering but not sold on. Needs more testing.
The cards in the sideboard are what I would recommend to put in if you are either: on a budget or want to decrease the power level of the deck but still maintain the overall strategy.
I personally like to switch out Garruk sometimes for sphinx of uthuun if I want to be more interactive and value a blocker that day.
Something I want to note for Sylvan Libray. Objectively speaking Sylvan Library should absolutely be part of the main 99. It's power and versatility effectively make it another Sensei's Divining top that actually allows you to draw you cards, even if it will cost you 4-8 life each time. And if you don't want to draw the cards, you can manipulate the top cards of your deck. A very strong ability especially at the early stages of the game, that can continue to be relevant late with deck manipulation strategies like featured in my build.
However, I personally feel that Sylvan Library paints too much of a target on you, especially if you run it out turn 2 which happens pretty often. The amount of cards you can draw before the average player is staggering and the life loss is negligible if you are drawing into ramp/card draw/relevant creatures or spells that affect the board state. Also Sylvan Library's effect often gets overlooked in threat assessment by newer or inexperienced players. Forcing a balance of power so early in the game that it warps the game in one of two ways. Either you're playing in a group that understands how powerful the card is and they either get rid of it, or you, early. Or if you're playing with a mix of inexperienced/experienced or all inexperienced players, you get to go off and its too little too late. You've already drawn your gas and you've taken control of the game.
My philosophy of EDH/Commander is that interaction is, at its core, the most important aspect of the format. As well as proper threat assessment and people wanting to do fun, cool things that encourage that interaction. However, a card like Sylvan Library warps that premise. Yes, it does force people to interact with it via enchantment/permanent destruction but it does it out of pure necessity otherwise the deck running it goes out of control. Plus with it being 2 mana I often times played sylvan over early ramp because it was the better, more powerful option.
Inexperienced players will look at it and think that its fine because you're losing 8 life from drawing 2 extra cards. But thats the problem. Drawing cards for life is not a drawback. Life is a resource, just like mana and if you're getting cards for life that already breaks some of the fundamental rules of modern magic design of getting cards like that for free. It's an inherently broken mechanic, which is why Yawgmoth's Bargain is banned from the format.
Thank you for reading my Ted-Talk.
