Four Updated Simic Lists

Getting ready for Bloomburrow

I am starting to sketch out lists using some of my top cards from Bloomburrow that I discuss here. I talk a lot about Risen Reef in that article, so figure best to get some of my thoughts in that direction on paper.

Blue Devotion is for the Birds

These first two lists are based on the Risen Reef Blue Devotion core I discuss here.

Nykthos Version

I have been having good results with the Omen Hawker/Vizier/CoCo version of this deck recently.

Mockingbird is the big new addition for this deck I want to test. It seems like a perfect dual mode of a one drop to help build devotion turn 1 and a clone effect for later game.

Decklist Link

This is very much a combo deck. You are mostly setting up for an end of turn CoCo and then comboing off the next turn.

The combo is a combination of Risen Reef, Master of Waves, Glasspool Mimic, and now Mockingbird drawing your entire deck and Nykthos + Vizier providing you enough mana along the way. Then you play a Thassa’s Oracle and win.

There are not many flex slots in this list and I am using most of them for the bird package here and it will be interesting to see if that proves good enough.

I am worried there may not be enough card advantage in this list.

Mutavault Version

This is my other main version of the Blue Devotion Risen Reef concept. This is much more of a go long, while chipping away at their life total deck.

Decklist Link

The birds and Eluge I think will offer some interesting dimensions to the deck. The birds almost providing a spirits like angle. Eluge provides an alternative way to take over the game.

This deck is weak to non-red aggressive decks, so will be meta dependent. I again am also a bit worried that I am giving up too much card advantage and board presence for the birds, but that is exactly what testing is for to see where the issues are and if I can get the balance right.

Simic Elementals Ramp

Here is a take on the Simic Elementals list I discuss here, featuring some of the new elemental creatures.

Decklist Link

There are a lot of new cards in here, so I will need to take this into a league to get a sense of how they play.

It will be interesting to see if Fecund Greenshell plays better than Cavalier or not. Cavaliers mana cost was a bit of an issue, so running Fecund may give me more room to do interesting stuff with my manabase.

I really like the idea of Clifftop Lookout and Fecund Greenshell in the same deck. Its rare you see two ramp cards that sequence into each other both directions so well (i.e. Lookout ramping into Greenshell or playing Lookout with Greenshell in play and getting a land, a draw, and likely a 3/4 reach at that point).

It will also be interesting if Greenshell’s pump and Lumra’s massive size is just enough to win by attacking over and over with massive creatures or if I need to add something more in the direction of a wincon.

Fecund Greenshell Ramp

Here is a variation on the above, shifting away from Risen Reef and focusing more on Fecund Greenshell and the toughness greater than power theme.

Decklist Link

The key aspect here is leveraging Storm the Festival to get overwhelming advantage. Using cards like Kitesail Larcenist and Dreamdw Entrancer as interaction that synergizes with both Storm the Festival and Greenshell. This a slower, but more interactive form of a Storm the Festival deck than we see out of the Mono-G lists.

Wrap Up

I’m excited to test all four of these decks. They are hard to judge until I get to play them. All these Simic decks are vey meta dependent and have a fine line of getting just enough ramp, card advantage, blockers, interaction, so no matter how much experience I have with them I find them hard to evaluate without playing.

Of these lists, the one I am most excited to try is the Simic Elementals with Lumra list. In comparison to my prior Simic Ramp Elementals lists I like that it is moving away from Cavalier of Thorns and Storm the Festival, which, while both very powerful, put a strain on the manabase and Storm puts a strain on what cards you can play.

I also love how much Reach the list has, particularly large creatures with Reach. That will be huge against in Phoenix and big in general for just staying alive until the mana advantage can take over.

Bloomburrow will be dropping soon, I am excited to start testing my ideas and see all the other brews out there!