As you know from the previous post my Simic deck won last weekends Standard Showdown.

I also had that mini rant about basically the local meta being a bit stale with the same decks being played each week. The week before the pirate deck I came up with ended up mid table. I still have the mono blue mill to try in anger. Although it has been fun to play in the casual play.

But with all this in mind and partaking in the side of the game I really like, deck building. I’ve decided to rebuild the Simic deck with a different focus. My initial version of the Simic deck had a ramp element, and that is the side I decided to focus on and be a bit more aggressive.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for my decks.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Right with that out of the way back to the conversation about this “new” deck.

It’s going to feel odd playing with so many creatures now, and so few spells.

But with the theme being ramp and aggro, the Llanowar Elves had to be back into the folder, along with the Steel Leaf Champions. We all know the dream starting hand of 2 forests, a Llanowar and Steel Leaf in this type of deck.

With 8 creatures that can tap for mana, 2 cards in the sideboard that have the Convoke mechanic (creatures I control can tap to add mana to cast the card) and Growth Spiral I think I have the ramp side covered. Oh and Song of Freyalise will help with the ramp.

I went with Evolving Wilds over Open the Gates as my mana fixing because Evolving Wilds puts the basic land I fetch on the battle field tapped. While Open the Gates doesn’t, it goes to hand and costs a forest to cast. Plus I’m not playing Guild Gates in this deck. They are too slow. This deck needs to come out sprinting, not walking. Lands that come in tapped are therefore out.

This deck also has a plan to handle the aerial threat of flyers with the classic two for one Crushing Canopy. Whether I like it or not enchantments are apart of the meta. So this card allows me to handle both. There is also Sagittars’ Volley in the sideboard to handle those 1/1 weenie fliers.

I’m also playing some fog cards which hopefully will nullify an attack and leave it open for me to swing in with lethal. Or ride out the storm if sleep has been played.

Naturally with Carnage Tyrant and Nullhide Ferox I have creatures in place that combat control decks. There is also Thrashing Brontodon included as part of the anti-enchantments plan.

Impervious Greatwurm, the buy-a-box promo. Probably unplayable, definitely not competitive. But it’s a fun card, that with the ramp and it’s convoke could be cast easily. With that on the battlefield even Ghalta looks punny.

So that’s enough of justifying my decisions for this deck. Let’s look at the mana curve.

Would like it under 3 For the AMC but I’ll live with it. Fitting Siren Stormtamer into the deck somehow would bring it down. But that’s a card to try after some testing.

Here is the initial deck list. What would you take out or add?

Creatures:27

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Hydroid Krasis
4 Incubation Druid
4 Steel Leaf Champion
3 Thrashing Brontodon
3 Nullhide Ferox
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Carnage Tyrant
2 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:11

3 Growth Spiral
3 Root Snare
2 Song of Freyalise
2 Crushing Canopy
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
2 Evolving Wilds
10 Forest
2 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

4 Frilled Mystic
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Impervious Greatwurm
1 Root Snare
2 Crushing Canopy
4 Pause for Reflection
2 Sagittars’ Volley

Before I present the deck list and my “analysis” of the deck here is my get out of jail disclaimer about these decks.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Sufferer’s of this blog will remember not too long ago, a couple of Standard Showdowns back, I played the daughter of the owner of the FLGS in one of the rounds. She had constructed a pirate deck the evening before that needed some work. There were a few one of’ s, which meant it wasn’t consistent.

I liked the idea/theme of the deck. It just needed some tinkering. So I’ve done some tinkering and come up with a Dimir Pirate Aggro deck.

Like my friends daughter I will be using Hostage Taker and Forerunner of the Coalition. Although if memory serves me rightly she only had one copy of Hostage Taker. I can’t remember the other cards she had in her deck. Which is probably best. Starting with a clean slate so to speak.

So I went through the stack of cards digging out all my pirates. I’m not splashing red, so those pirate cards are out. Which was a great way to eliminate a load of cards. It was hard enough getting down to the 75 for this deck as it was from the two colours.

So this is an aggro deck. It needs to hit the ground running. Sadly none of the cards have haste. So it needs to be swinging in for damage turn 2 the latest. Turn one is play a land, and a one drop. Turn two play a land, play a duress, and hit for damage and drop another one drop. Turn three is hopefully another land and the first Forerunner of the Coalition. And so on. That’s the prefect start.

I thought the Timestream Navigator will provide a useful distraction to the opponent, and if allowed to be used that all important extra turn. Who needs Nexus of Fate?

Between Hostage Taker and Kitesail Freebooter there is removal to take care of the creatures Walk the Plank can’t deal with (basically her dad’s merfolk deck).

Naturally the sideboard has a plan to take out those nasty Carnage Tyrants and Ghalta’s that one or two players are using in our local meta in the form of Dino Hunter. And the sideboard has more removal and hopefully a way to get rid of token spam.

So I’m excited to play this deck in a few test games now. The lands could be better. I’d like the Dimir shock land and check land in this deck. But that’s an expense I’m not going to splash out on. I definitely don’t want guild gates in here they would slow the deck down. It was hard enough using the two Submerged Boneyards. Maybe I could put in a couple of Evolving wilds. The ratio of the basics also needs tweaking to be more in favour of swamps.

Ok here is mana curve for the deck.

I’m happy with that. The CMC is about what I want for this type of deck.

Ok here is the deck list I have come up with for this initial Dimir Pirate Aggro deck.

Creatures:30

4 Grasping Scoundrel
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Timestream Navigator
4 Forerunner of the Coalition
3 Slippery Scoundrel
3 Hostage Taker

Spells:8

4 Duress
4 Walk the Plank

Lands:22

10 Island
2 Submerged Boneyard
10 Swamp

Sideboard:15

4 Dinosaur Hunter
1 Warkite Marauder
4 Deadeye Rig-Hauler
3 Golden Demise
3 Vraska’s Contempt

What would you change?

Yesterday I said I would put up the deck list for the tweaked Simic deck from the weekends Standard Showdown.

And I’m a man of my word, and like to carry out my threats.

Didn’t do this following bit for the last version of the deck. Maybe because I forgot. But to help me sleep I try and convince myself I did it to keep the length of the post down.

The AMC has gone up from 2.89 to 3.11. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I am happy with the mix of creatures and spells. It’s definitely a frustrate the other player until my pieces are in place type of deck.

With a bit more money the land base could be improved. But it’s Standard Showdown not a Pro-Tour or Grand Prix. So it’s slower than it could be.

Here is the moment you have been waiting for in this post. The latest iteration of my Simic deck.

Creatures:15

3 Hydroid Krasis
4 Incubation Druid
3 Frilled Mystic
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
3 Biogenic Ooze

Spells:23

4 Syncopate
3 Blink of an Eye
4 Essence Capture
2 Essence Scatter
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid
3 Nexus of Fate

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
5 Forest
2 Hinterland Harbor
7 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

3 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Frilled Mystic
2 Carnage Tyrant
2 Negate
2 Repudiate // Replicate
2 Root Snare
3 Sagittars’ Volley

Well it’s that time again where I cover another card in the Standard format that I like.

I’ve used this card myself. I got really lucky that I bought my copies at the right moment. Within a week of me buying my copies, the price shot up. I was feeling smug at the time. But also kicking myself for not getting at least a fourth, if not more copies. But then those extra copies I’d never have got round to selling, and I’m not into this whole MtG finance speculation thing. I have strong opinions about that side of things. In short I hate it.

The card I was lucky enough to get at a bargain price was Hydroid Krasis.

Whoever thought of crossing a jellyfish with a Hydra was a genetic genius. A person playing with nature and creating something beautifully monstrous.

This card is finding it’s way into many decks not just Simic ones. Many are splashing green just to play it.

For 2 CMC plus X this card is very flexible.

It’s the X that allows for the pumping of mana into it. The bigger the X the bigger benefits.

Because of this the first ability is so powerful especially mid to late game. Even if the card is countered, you still get the first ability because it’s a cast trigger not an etb.

Cast the card for a total of 10 mana, that means X is 8. That’s 4 life back, and 4 cards in hand. Refilling your hand at that stage of the game is really useful.

After that if the Krasis is allowed to enter the battlefield, having flying and trample makes it a great blocker and attacker. Especially if that X is high. Going back to the example above, having an 8/8 flyer with trample is more or less game over.

But at a push this can come out early in the game to use as a chump blocker to stop some of those pesky 1/1 fliers that are currently in the format.

With my Simic deck, the above mid/late game scenario is not unrealistic. But I have cast it for 4 CMC as well to get that flying blocker.

So what was missing from yesterday’s brief and subpar write up from the Ravnica Allegiance Standard Showdown season start?

Yep my subpar deck lists for the two decks that I played.

Before I present the deck lists here is my get out of jail disclaimer about these decks.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

And based on the weekends performances these decks are definitely not competitive.

So here for your derision is the deck played in the Standard Showdown…

Simic Standard V3

Creatures:15

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Hydroid Krasis
2 Incubation Druid
3 Frilled Mystic
3 Biogenic Ooze

Spells:23

4 Syncopate
3 Blink of an Eye
4 Essence Capture
2 Essence Scatter
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid
3 Nexus of Fate

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
5 Forest
2 Hinterland Harbor
7 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

3 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Frilled Mystic
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Carnage Tyrant
2 Negate
2 Root Snare
3 Sagittars’ Volley

And now for the my casual deck for the day…

Mono Blue Mill V2

Creatures:19

6 Persistent Petitioners
3 Vodalian Arcanist
4 Wall of Lost Thoughts
3 Homarid Explorer
3 Muse Drake

Spells:22

3 Opt
3 Blink of an Eye
3 Drowned Secrets
3 Psychic Corrosion
3 Secrets of the Golden City
3 Thought Collapse
2 Unwind
2 Kumena’s Awakening

Lands:19

17 Island
2 Memorial to Genius

Sideboard:15

1 Fleet Swallower
1 Windreader Sphinx
2 Selective Snare
4 Syncopate
2 Sleep
2 Patient Rebuilding
2 Weight of Memory
1 River’s Rebuke

While I was looking through my Ravnica Allegiance pulls to see if I had any Tithe Takers or Unbreakable Formations to use in my Commander Death and Taxes deck. Although unbreakable Formations may well be finding it’s way into any of my decks that splash white. I came across the Frilled Mystic I’d pulled.

I’m seriously considering using this as a card in my Simic Standard deck.

What attracts me about the card? It’s a counter spell and a body on the board. So a two for.

I’m ok with the 4 CMC because of the value it gives. Although being a 3/2 it does die to a shock. But if it counters a spell and forces them to use a shock. That’s two cards to my one. I’ll take that bit of card advantage. I’d prefer that it was not two forests and two islands, but maybe one of each and two of any. But I suppose there is that delicate line of making sure that the card is not too over powered.

But what goes to make way for it? I’m thinking the two copies of Open the Gates in the main deck, and the copy in the sideboard. Plus the third copy of Simic Ascendancy in the sideboard.

I just need to play test this change now.

I’m having a hard time accepting the stupid high price of Hydroid Krasis. It’s a good card. But wow. So glad I got mine before that nasty spike.

I know with my deck the lands could be better. I’d love a play set of Breeding Pool and Hinterland Harbour. It would speed things up on that front. But I don’t think the cost justifies it. The deck could also do with another Vivienne Reid. But that too has spiked. Another Incubation Druid would be nice, potential go up to a full play set.

The deck is fun to play. There are some slight improvements that if this was for a GP or something might justify the extra expense to make them. But seeing as this is a Standard Showdown deck. I don’t think splashing out for those cards is justified. If I can trade for them then I can live with that, but not at spending more. In fact I am mid trade. I’ve traded a shock land, and just waiting for my friend to see if he has a spare one of the ones I need.

Well time to end this post. I’ve already reenforced Jonathan’s views of MtG being a money pit. Which it can be. I don’t deny it. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that the game is still pretty awesome. Time to read some RPG manuals.

Listening to the latest MTGoldfish podcast they were discussing the state of Standard after a weekend full of big tournaments such as the Star City Games one, and happenings online and Arena since the release of Ravnica Allegiance. When I think Saffron Olive one of the hosts mentioned that some of the Golgari players were going Sultai, ie splashing blue so they could add Hydroid Krasis to their decks.

That struck me as an interesting idea.

I know my Golgari deck (you can find a deck list here) is not the normal one that gets played in all these big tournaments. In those decks they are exploiting the explore mechanic. But there is some common cards like Carnage Tyrant. Isn’t that the fun thing about deck building? These tournament players went one way with the explore, I went mid range/aggro playing lots of removal, John went with exploiting the undergrowth mechanic. All playing the same guild, some common cards, but all expressing ourselves differently.

But if I splashed blue as well I could add Hydroid Krasis to my deck. It’s an idea. What helped sell it was in the same discussion about Golgari decks splashing blue and becoming Sultai, was Assassin’s Trophy. In the meta the podcasters were playing in, with the arrival of Ravnica Allegiance and the availability of all ten shock lands, they were seeing more three colour decks, and decks with very few basic lands in. So often when the Assassin’s Trophy was being played the opponent wasn’t actually getting anything in return in a few cases.

Until Standard Showdown starts up again this weekend, I’m not sure if that’s something I’ll see in my local meta.

I know Dean who I’ve played against a couple of times now in the Showdown (and Commander) is planning a three colour deck. But the others who usually take part I’ve no idea what their plans are.

So with a couple of basic lands (islands), adding in the couple of Breeding Pool I have (I do need a couple more) and a couple of Hydroid Krasis, I have a second deck for this upcoming Standard Showdown season. If I make the changes to the mono blue mill deck as well that will be a third. Then each Showdown I have the hard decision of which deck to play.

On the subject of Hydroid Krasis. I’m so glad I got mine when I did. In a week (which also saw the official release weekend) they have nearly doubled in price. It’s insane. And would explain why the Simic deck was so costly. Three of those plus the Carnage Tyrants. Crazy. That’s the one thing I hate about the game. The speculation and cost of cards. It stops the game being accessible to all.

Now to decide what makes way for the Hydroid Krasis.

Last week I wrote a post about cards I was thinking of putting in a new standard deck for the upcoming Standard Showdown season. Which I believe is kicking off this coming weekend.

So it was about time I came up with a first build of the deck. That’s where the decked app comes in handy. It keeps track of the number of cards, mana curve etc.

Before giving you the deck listing, the stats and boring you with talk of it’s tactics, here is my boiler plate disclaimer.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Tactics

So the deck wants to ramp, get lots of land out early. To do that I have Llanowar Elves, Open the Gates and Growth Spiral. The more mana I can get out the better for this deck. Or that’s the plan.

There are three cards that love having lots of mana available in the deck. The first is Hydroid Krasis. The bigger I can make that X when casting the better. Not just from being a big thing to swing in with on the battlefield. But the life gain and card draw is half (rounded down) of that value of X.

The other two are mana sinks. Which if I have multiple copies of Wilderness Reclamation are going to be abused a lot in the end step.

The first of these mana sinks is Biogenic Ooze. Before it’s end step ability kicks in, the end step ability of Wilderness Reclamation needs to fire off. For illustration of how this can be abused, let’s assume there are six lands out, two Wilderness Reclamation’s along with a Biogenic Ooze. On this turn I’ve not cast anything. So there is six untapped lands. Start of the end step the Ooze trigger goes on the stack followed by the two reclamation triggers. In response to the first reclamation trigger I tap all six lands. So I now have six mana in the pool. The first trigger resolves untapping the lands. Then in response to the second reclamation trigger I once again tap all the lands and add six more mana to the pool, which is now sitting at twelve mana. The lands untap. I can now decide to tap the lands again, or leave them untapped to cast any counter spell during the opponents turn. For this illustration I’m going to tap the lands again now in response to the Ooze trigger, taking me to eighteen mana in the pool. Still in response to this trigger I now add four 2/2 Ooze tokens to the battlefield. The trigger now resolves making these new tokens 3/3 and puts addition +1/+1 counters on any other oozes on the battlefield.

If the other mana sink Simic Ascendancy is out this little shenanigans above adds five +1/+1 counters plus on to that. Plus a similar abuse of multiple Wilderness Reclamation’s can be done on that instead. Also if I had kept the mana open and not used it on my opponents turn. During their end step I can spend it on Ascendancy’s activated ability.

Both these mana sinks force the opponent to do something about them. If they are left to do their thing as you can see things could potentially get out of hand.

But the key card for me in this deck has to be Wilderness Reclamation. I really love the card. Why decide whether to cast a creature on your turn or hold off and use a counter spell or some other trick on your opponents turn? This let’s you do both. Plus as you can see how it can be used to abuse paid abilities.

The Decked App stats

Ok here is the bit you really want to see the actual cards in the deck. Let me know what you think, or how would you change it?

I’m not sure over the land base for the deck. It may be too slow. I’ll have to see how the Memorials go. Flipping them to basics may help.

Creatures:17

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Hydroid Krasis
3 Wall of Lost Thoughts
2 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Biogenic Ooze
2 Carnage Tyrant

Spells:21

2 Open the Gates
2 Applied Biomancy
2 Blink of an Eye
3 Essence Capture
3 Growth Spiral
2 Simic Ascendancy
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
1 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
2 Memorial to Unity
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Sideboard:15

1 Hydroid Krasis
1 Steel Leaf Champion
3 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Biogenic Ooze
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Open the Gates
1 Blink of an Eye
1 Essence Capture
1 Simic Ascendancy
2 Slimebind
1 Thought Collapse
1 Wilderness Reclamation