Simic or Gruul?
General forum
Posted on Jan. 2, 2013, 2:15 a.m. by miles123
I really can't decide. I know the colors they contain, but that's about it. Can anyone help me to get a better understanding of the two?
I'd like to know how everyone thinks they're going to do, and what their basic mechanics do.
January 2, 2013 2:35 a.m.
GreatSword says... #4
Quick example of both Simic and Gruul mechanics, in case you haven't seen them, just scroll down a bit:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1138
Simic has "Evolve", which will give the creature a +1/+1 counter when another creature with greater power or toughness enters the battlefield under your control. It also seems to care about moving or using those counters for other effects like regeneration and card draw.
Gruul has "Bloodrush", which basically turns the card into a combat trick. Kinda short-sighted, but what else do you expect from Gruul? They also seem to care about land cards.
Both seem great in Limited, but if RtR is any example, none of the guild keywords will make a dent in the Standard metagame. Hopefully that'll change.
January 2, 2013 2:44 a.m.
I can actually see Simic and Gruul playing decently well together.
Simic may have a decent number of evasion creatures, and using Gruul bloodrush to pump them on a regular basis could mean a pretty good deck in Limited. Bloodrush is also uncounterable most of the time, because it is an ability rather than a spell.
Gruul creatures will be big and cost efficient, meaning that any Simic utility creatures will get many evolve triggers when followed up by straightforward Gruul beaters.
January 2, 2013 4:04 a.m.
Thedren_The_Inquisitor says... #7
I think simic will make a huge splash in standard. Experiment One's typing is Human Ooze so it plugs right into a GW human build and the Fathom Mage is sick.... now we just need a new bad to the bone Snake Elf Druid
January 2, 2013 4:32 a.m.
gheridarigaaz says... #8
I'm simic, for drawpower and possibly enchantment based removal. Though the creatures may start off small, the evolve mechanic's implementations allow for a slightly grindier game. Which would let you outlast your opponents if ye can keep putting bigger creatures down... plus with blue mixed in you've got a fair amount of evasion to back up the building of resources
Gruul isn't too bad for those reasons either, except the colour combination doesn't really have much in the way of drawpower and removal can be limited to combat tricks with bloodrush and burn spells. It's a lot more aggressive and depending on your playstyle you may just want to bash face with those gruul spells and creatures as opposed to waiting till your opponent runs out of steam. Though i do expect gruul will have a bit of graveyard interaction spells probably similar to Boneyard Wurm and Grim Flowering with the number of creatures you'll probably be dumping into the graveyard via guild mechanics...
January 2, 2013 4:56 a.m.
Fleetfiend says... #9
If it was me making the decision (and I hadn't already chosen), I would pick Gruul because they are the underdog and they could use your help, haha.
GreatSword says... #2
What do you want to know? Lore? How we think they'll do in Limited/Standard? We don't know a whole lot of the Gatecrash cards they'll have, other than the basic mechanics, so any conjecture at this point is premature. They both share green, but Evolve and Bloodrush don't seem to have any overlap, so it doesn't seem they'll play well together.
January 2, 2013 2:33 a.m.