Pattern Recognition #375 - Standard Simic

Current Standard Features Pattern Recognition

berryjon

17 July 2025

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

So, I had some people asking me what was up with that Standard deck that I showed off last video. Simic... what the heck was that?

Well, I might as well tell you about it today and share some of my thought process behind it. It'll be a nice way to focus on Standard itself for a little bit. But first, I should include the decklist for you all here, shouldn't I?

THE DECK

Berryjon's Post Rotation Simic Artifact Deck (Version 0.9)

8 Island (UST) 213
3 Restless Vinestalk (WOE) 261
3 Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy (FIN) 272
5 Forest (MID) 277
4 Hedge Maze (MKM) 262

4 Gingerbrute (JMP) 466
4 Tough Cookie (WOE) 193
3 Zimone, Paradox Sculptor (FDN) 126
2 Kitesail Larcenist (LCI) 61

2 Astrologian's Planisphere (FIN) 46
3 Bear Trap (DSK) 243
3 Agatha's Soul Cauldron (WOE) 242

4 Case of the Filched Falcon (MKM) 44
4 Zoetic Glyph (LCI) 86
4 Relic's Roar (LCI) 71
4 Behind the Mask (MKM) 39

You can just copy and past that into Arena if you want.

Now, I want to make something clear from the start. This deck isn't great. It's massively flawed, and looking at it now, there's already changes I want to make. But before I get to that, I want to at least go over the deck as it is.

The first section is the Lands. I'm going to say right now that I'm tossing Balambb Garden, SeeD Academy as while my initial plan to eventually flip it over into a vehicle in later turns was great on paper, I don't have the ability to reduce the cost of that effect in the deck, so the total cost of is out o fmy reach. As it is, it's just a tap land, so I'll probably toss it for Lush Oasis, or Kishla Village or Willowrush Verge. Not sure yet. The Hedge Mazes will be kept as Surveil is better than Scry in my experience, and they activate the Verge which will probably be my solution. I may drop down one of the Vinestalks to add in a fourth Verge.

Moving onto the creatures, I will say this first. Zimone is effectively a placeholder for me. She provides a little boost to combat in the mid-game, but I've never really been able to pull it off. In theory, she works hilariously well with Case of the Filched Falcon for doubling the counters on the flying artifact, but the more I play her, the more I feel that I should never have gotten rid of Sentinel of the Nameless City in the first place for her.

In terms of cards kept, Gingerbrute is a classic quick-attacker that as the game develops can slip past blockers and can in the face of aggressive decks, can be cracked as an emergency food source for lifegain. In the same vein, Tough Cookie not only is a food itself, but creates a token food that is the intended-use target for its activated ability to animate an artifact.

As I mentioned earlier, Zimone is redundant, and can be replaced. I'm waiting to see what drops out of Edge of Eternities, and at this point I may look into Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy or Biomechan Engineer instead of the Sentinals.

Kitesail Larcenist is a solution that I need more of. That being the ability to remove a permanent (ish, as it's still a Treasure) without damaging it. Cards like Screaming Nemesis and Phyrexian Obliterator are a pain and three-thirds and killing without killing is a good skill to have. Thankfully, the latter is rotating out, but who knows what's coming. Moving this up to 4 copies is an easy choice to make, as well as looking into alternatives and redundancy in the card pool over the next year.

Of the general artifacts in the deck, the only one I'm attached to is Agatha's Soul Cauldron. Targetted and repeatable graveyard hate cannot, in any format, be underestimated. Pulling Valvagoth or another high-value reanimation card out of the yard in response to it being targeted has saved me more than once. My favourite example of this was removing a Stilzkin, Moogle Merchant from my opponent's graveyard to tap a Tough Cookie to give them back their Demonic Pact before it could kill me. But just in general - the capacity to remove creatures and make your own creatures bigger in the process helps a lot, especially after, say a board wipe or two.

The Bear Trap was there to be an experiment in additional removal when the Larcenist has more important things to hit, but honestly, it's always been a miss to me. It can go without issue. Actually maybe not, as I think I remember why I put it in the deck in the first place, but I will get back to that.

I still have doubts about Astrologian's Planisphere. The idea of being able to make creatures bigger when I cast non-creature spells is a good one, and being an equipment, when the creature dies, the next one will get bigger too! But it just doesn't... jive with the rest of the deck. I'm never going to get the triple-draw counter here, and in fact, card draw in general is a weakness. It's there, but I feet it could not be?

And finally we come to the real power of the deck. Relic's Roar and Behind the Mask turn one of your artifacts into a decently sized creature for a turn. The Roar is the simplest, but the mask can, if you Collect 6, act as surprise removal when a creature becomes a lot smaller than it should be. But both of these are until the end of the turn.

The Case of the Filched Falcon not only provides an artifact token when it enters, but it is resolved when you have three or more artifacts. Something this deck excels at as a Turn 1 Case leading into a Turn 2 Tough Cookie is a legitimate play line. And thus, once solved, it can turn an artifact into a 4/4 flier, which works out great as it (probably) won't have summoning Sickness!

And these actions can all happen on curve, one - two - three.

But the real star of the show in my play experience has been Zoetic Glyph. It not only turns an artifact into a creature - and keeps it that way. It allows me to hold up a blocker when I need to and to keep swinging out for the win with a 5/4 on turn 3 at the earliest. Even RDW decks will have trouble matching something that beefy that quickly. Not impossible, but a good solid body to absorb blows.

And yet, that's not the real strength. No, that would be the Discover 3 that comes with the card when it leaves the battlefield. And aside from Zimone, every card in this deck would be Discovered when the creature dies. There are no bad hits here, and game after game, this card has done work for me with just that. And even if I don't want to cast the discovered spell right away - like it's Relic's Roar, well, I can save that for next turn.

THE PLAY

This deck isa very aggressive deck, and you need early artifacts as well as early animation effects. A turn 1 Case or Gingerbrute is a nice opening as long as I can capitalize on it. With only one tapped land - the Reckless Vinestalk once I get rid of the Garden... Sorry, forgot about the Hedgemaze. If I don't have a reliable turn 1 play, there are enough turn 2 plays that I could get away with either of those tapped lands as long as I could drop the Cauldron or the Cookie on turn 2.

On turn three, I really need to animate one of my artifacts, and start swinging. Aggression is key in this sort of deck, and the slower off the bat I am, the worse off I am. Ideally, it would be by getting the Glyph off on Turn 3 onto a token, or by cracking the Case and making a 4/4 Flier.

After that, it's just a matter of pressure and aggression, and keeping that up until my opponent collapses or I do. No grand plans here, just simple lines and simple actions.

I'd almost say it's a beginner friendly deck!

But it is not without its flaws. First is soft removal. Brackish Blunder is good as it provides me with a Map Token to animate or crack later, as well as being a viable Discover target. I may also consider Into the Roil or Jill, Shiva's Dominant  ^Flip for this. The former for being able to be kicked for more card draw, and the other for helping control the board state in the mid to late game. To that end, the classic Unsummon is back in rotation for a few years thanks to Foundations, and Unauthorized Exit can hit non-creatures as well as Surveil - important for topdeck checking.

Broad boardwipes are also a problem, and while Temporary Lockdown is rotating, it's being replaced with Pinnacle Starcage and I don't have much that can get around that. The Kitesail will survive, but the Glyph will not as the artifact it was attached to gets exiled. But I will get a Discover trigger off that.

I'm not sure how to deal with that at this point, except perhaps something in the sideboard for Bo3 games, or to perhaps luck out with a Kitesail.

I also need card draw. And as I'm looking into Edge of Eternities cards right now, Cryogen Relic would do good for soft-tapping problematic creatures, as well as card draw. The Nutrient Block is also interesting as I'm staring at things thanks to being Indestructible. One of those that's a 5/4 would be a tough nut to crack. But back to the topic at hand, the aforementioned Biomechan Engineer will draw cards in the late game with its activated ability. The Adventurer's Airship perhaps? I can animate it and skip the Crew aspect to it. Deduce could also work in replacing itself as well as making a token to animate later. There's also Hunter's Talent ice it's leveled up. It's a good choice even at Level 2 where my 5/4 attacker becomes a 6/4 with Trample. That changes the combat calculus a lot.

What I'm saying is that this deck is still a work in progress, and some feedback would be very appreciated!

Please! I would like some!

Anyway, I know I will miss Teething Wurmlet from Brother's War, as that creature did a lot of work for me in the past with life gain to counteract rude RDW decks, or Sheoldred decks. And once I had enough artifacts, well, Deathtouch is a very potent weapon against people who think they can just kill it for free.

And the lack of a Signpost Uncommon does hurt as well, but you know what? I'm OK with that as it means that I am treading new ground and not just following in the safe spaces that Wizards have laid down for players both new and old.

So go ahead and explore interactions that may not seem obvious. You never know what you'll find!

Thank you all for watching and reading, and I'll see you all next week!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!