Card/Deck The Simic Combine (GU)

ravnic

ravnic

Simic is a guild that offers a lot of interesting options imo.

What are you running in your Simic sections? What themes/archetypes do you support? Did you have some surprising successes? What do you want the Simic Combine to do?

My 2 cents:

Like with every guild, I have 1 hybrid (only true hybrids, which work fully with either color) and 4 gold cards:



Sweet hybrid, good in every non-aggro deck and with great synergies for the Dredge/Threshold decks.




Awesome as well, perfect for ramp and blink, but also just good everywhere. Staple-Snake.




This snake is just a big dumb beater, but it can become dumber and bigger! Draw synergies are sweet with this and I really don't want to cut this anytime soon.




Third Snake, third Staple. Snakple. Almost too good with stuff like Crystal Shard. But it is easy enough to handle with creature or artifact removal to keep. A classic as well.




Not a snake. Maybe that's why I don't like him. No, jokes aside, this card is boring and not super good, I'm looking for a replacement. Only thing that keeps him in for the second is the sweet promo full art probably



So, I'm looking for 1 more perfect fit for my Simic sections. Does anyone of you have some experience with Prophet of Kruphix?
 
ravnic

ravnic

It's an elvish visionary that ramps you ~46% of the time. That's enough to earn a gold slot for me. I guess I wouldn't play it in a high powered cube, but in a peasant-like meta, this guy is pure value. Always feels good to cast it.

And the comparison with Steve seems odd to me. Tribe Elder is a card I would play in pretty much every cube that wants green ramp to be good.


Rasmus Källqvist said:
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/the-simic-combine.922/

Interestingly enough we had a previous thread with the same name.
Click to expand...

Hm, since that thread is more about finding a draft archetype and this one here more about filling the precious gold slots, I think it is okay to have them coexist?
 
ravnic

ravnic

It is not the fastest engine ever, but it can take over a game. Most decks don't need more than 6 mana anyway, so having the option to start copying the best creature on the board with every land you topdeck is gravy. When the opponent has the biggest guy, you can copy it an trade. If doesn't trade you can copy it again and again with otherwise useless topdecks. It's not like you're skipping your draw for it or anything, the value comes with no card disadvantage.

It is a great control finisher. Slow but hard to disrupt. In ramp decks it works well because you often have juicy targets. And the value to play it out of your graveyard in self-mill strategies is another great argument for it. On top of all of this, it is also a card that can lead to memorable plays and turns. I think I would expand my hybrid/guild sections before cutting this. So much fun.

It is probably too slow for really high power levels, but I would recommend testing it to every cube manager out there at least once.
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

If your format isn't too high powered, I've always been a big fan of


Pretty much always a 2 for 1 in a color combination that usually has trouble finding a lot of removal.

Prophet of Kruphix is really powerful but a bit durdly. So YMMV on how well it performs in your cube. Worth trying out IMO.
 
ravnic

ravnic

ahadabans said:
If your format isn't too high powered, I've always been a big fan of


Pretty much always a 2 for 1 in a color combination that usually has trouble finding a lot of removal.

Prophet of Kruphix is really powerful but a bit durdly. So YMMV on how well it performs in your cube. Worth trying out IMO.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that Snakeform is good. But I slot gold and hybrid cards seperately, and when I weht down to 1 hybrid per guild, I cut it instead of Spitting Image without much thinking.

In which decks is Prophet of Kruphix at it's best? Midrange with Counterspells? Ramp with mana sinks?
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

I tried testing Prophet in a Bant midrange/control shell. And it's completely crazy if you get to the latter part of the game. But it felt slow and vulnerable against a lot of the efficient decks (my removal is really good too) so I didn't leave it in long enough to really see all the places it could fit. There's certainly potential there though.
 
ravnic

ravnic

I'm fine with cards being vulnerable. I'm more in fear of the things it can do in a BCS, ramping it out with multiple other 4+ drops in hand. It seems sketchy for tight high power lists, but in a fair environment it could be, well, unfair maybe :p

Just a guess, I probably have to see her in action
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I'd like to throw in my two cents and mention this card:



Lot of missed potential here. 90% of this card is an illusion, as her first two abilities are more of a trap than anything else. The returns on loyalty from UGX are just too narrow and her plus ability is so incapable of fighting back against a moderate creature opposition to really consider. I get why, she can be cast on turn 2, so a lot of balancing is in order, but it's a shame that does really hold her back.

The ultimate however, is rude awakening, but even less interactive. I've never really seen either card do anything other than kill a player where no other card in magic could. You might say that anything costing this much (It is at least 8 mana across 2 colors) ought to win you the game, but I've never really found that makes for good magic.

the aggro v ramp matchup doesn't actually end when something like Karn Liberated hits the battlefield, it's just definitely winding down. Reducing the window of interaction to "Now or your dead" is the reason a lot of people (Okay maybe just me) begrudge the inclusion of Splinter Twin combo in cubes at large: a test of weather or not you have instant speed removal available right now should not be this punishing.
 
sigh

sigh

I've found Nissa's Crystal Ball mode to be quite powerful and liked, with the neat engine-y +2/+0 chains being used probably 75% of the time I've seen her in play. My biggest issue with UG is why does every good card seem to be CMC 3? Like we are talking monocolors U/G and the UG section both.

I could actually see myself trying out Spitting Image over this Nissa, tbh. That card does just seem so cool.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Chris Taylor said:
she can be cast on turn 2
Click to expand...
Not to detract anything from your argument, but if you cast her for X = 0 she'll go to the graveyard immediately on account of having zero loyalty. Unless you mean turn two off a mana elf, which I doubt was a consideration during the design of this card since there's no turn one mana accelerant in Standard right now....
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
That is indeed what I meant yes. They probably considered it at least a little. While they certainly test less for other formats, I imagine wotc gives at least a passing thought to modern/legacy/etc :p
 
safra

safra

Chris Taylor said:
While they certainly test less for other formats, I imagine wotc gives at least a passing thought to modern/legacy/etc :p
Click to expand...

Nope! They're promising to start though. They actually don't test Legacy at all, and Modern they test for like a couple hours a year. It's why we got Strix, and Leovold, and Scooze, and so on.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Test no, think about yes.
For me at least, it's almost hard not to. It almost has to affect their decision making, at least a little.

Especially for something as broad as "Any T1 accelerant"
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Chris Taylor said:
Test no, think about yes.
For me at least, it's almost hard not to. It almost has to affect their decision making, at least a little.

Especially for something as broad as "Any T1 accelerant"
Click to expand...

None of the previous 3 mana walkers were balanced around t1 accelerants, so I doubt {X}{G}{U} Nissa was. Not that I don't agree this should be at least a passing thought, but I sincerely doubt it was :)
 
xyz

xyz

Grillo_Parlante said:
Favorite simic cards




Ophidian force go!
Click to expand...




Ophidian force continue!

Ongoing Investigation has been surprisingly good over here. It plays very well as a second Bident of Thassa effect. The cheaper cost has the upside of letting you 2 spell sooner or hold up counters. The downside of cracking clues isn't so bad if you're interacting at instant speed. The bonus upside in UG decks is very real. It also synergizes nicely with the aforementioned Moldervine Cloak.

I've also enjoyed Void Grafter. As long as that body size matters in your cube, I'd recommend giving it a try. It's a nifty sort of split card that almost always has 2 for 1 value, and sometimes more. Even perhaps more all around useful and interesting than either Bounding Krasis or Lorescale Coatl. (Linking my thoughts on those here for convenience.)
 
vennythekid

vennythekid

Simic Ascendancy

simicascendancy1.jpg


This card looks like a lot of fun, and because I'm a sucker for alternate win-conditions, here's a brainstorm. I don't think it needs too much focused support to become playable, as a lot of the cards which generate +1/+1 counters work on their own.

Powerhouse Simic Cards



Hydras!
Hydras generate a large number of triggers for Ascendancy. There's a ton to choose from, so mix-and-match your favorites. Many come with ways to generate bonus counters.


Colorless Hydras


Moving into other colors, we get some interesting

I'm going to start playing Grenzo for Doomsday anyways, so even though it might feel ambitious, its an include anyways.

If you're deep into the hydra archetype:

Ok don't actually include this guy. He's probably too narrow. Instead:

(Incubation Druid)

White has some big go-wide counter payoff cards, and, the Humans cards can also generate a lot of counters.


Arcbound Ravager is interesting because the modular ability generates Ascendancy triggers twice.
If there's a high incidental artifact count in the cube, it could shine here. But, it could also be narrow and not work out in practice.


I'm sure I'm missing some obvious stuff... but I'm interested to hear thoughts on Simic Ascendancy!
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Velrun said:
In all fairness he did put both Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista as hydras though.
Click to expand...

I do think those are both more fair in a lower power environment (heck, I run both myself), though it depends on how much +1/+1 counter interaction you have. If you run counter doublers like Winding Constrictor or big fast mana like Gaea's Cradle and Sol Ring they become a lot scarier. I don't, so in my environment you can take them at face value. Hangarback Walker is the stronger of the two, and definitely at the top of the power band. Walking Ballista, on the other hand, has been completely fine. Good card, but not close to overpowering.
 
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