Overview
The main goal of this deck is to do simic things. Whenever you play a land and/or draw a card, you can:
- Gain life
- Draw more cards
- Play more lands
- Make absurdly large creatures
Previous versions of this deck contained
Psychic Corrosion
or
Sphinx's Tutelage
. After some more gameplay, I realized I spread my win conditions too thin, and moved them to the sideboard.
Thus, this deck is very focused around growth, in the simic sense of the word. This means tons of card draw, tons of ramp, and tons of massive creatures that get more massive. Features lifegain/draw engines like
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
and
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
to outlast your opponents, doubling mechanics like
Pir, Imaginative Rascal
and
Alhammarret's Archive
for even more absurd value.
Playstyle
Opening Hand: You'll want to have some form of early game ramp in your hand, some card draw, and at least 3 lands. Preferably, some beginnings of a combo as well.
Midgame: Keep in mind that because of your absurd value generation, you thrive in drawn out battles. Unless a massive threat emerges early, your best bet is to play passive and build your board up to around turn 4-5ish. By then, you should have at least 6-8 mana on hand, and you can begin working towards a wincon.
Endgame: The easiest wincon to pull off is
Simic Ascendancy
, but it can feel cheap, and sometimes you don't get a combo piece you need and it's too slow. Winning with ascendency is easy. Get enough of your card-growth creatures on the board, and preferably
Pir, Imaginative Rascal
, and then play
Simic Ascendancy
and get 20 counters on it the same turn.
The other standard win conditions involve either
Open Into Wonder
or
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
.
Winning with wonder is fairly straightforward. You stay back until you have enough power for a one-shot, and then play
Open Into Wonder
and swing for the kill. If for some reason you're really tight for cards and you have wonder in hand, you can use it for a burst of card draw.
Winning with
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
is rare. Often, when you do, it's the result of a very long war of attrition. If you want to win with Jace, you will need
Alhammarret's Archive
on the board. You will likely need
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
and/or
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
as well, for consistent card draw.
You can always swap a wincon for mill from the sideboard. You can go for mill with
Psychic Corrosion
(
Sphinx's Tutelage
for 1v1's). Mill is generally always effective, but draws a lot of hate, especially in 3+ player games. This deck doesn't do very well with a large target on your back.
If worst comes to worst, you can always beat your opponents into submission with your massive creatures.
Tips and Tricks
If you need a large amount of cards, and need them fast, you can replay
Toothy, Imaginary Friend
or target it with
Simic Charm
. This will kill/bounce the old toothy, causing you to draw cards when it leaves the battlefield. The best part is, if you have
Pir, Imaginative Rascal
and/or
Alhammarret's Archive
on the board, the new toothy (if applicable) will come in with twice/four times the counters! You can easily pop off
Simic Ascendancy
with this, and very easily win on the spot with
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
.
Oversimplify
can actually pop off
Simic Ascendancy
. Since it exiles
Toothy, Imaginary Friend
, you can win with
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
too if
Alhammarret's Archive
is on the board. Even if you are just using it as a board wipe, It's still better for you than for anyone else at the table. What are the chances that your opponent is going to have 20 to 40+ power on the board? If they had enough time and resources to get 20 power out, you should have had enough time to build up 30-50.
