This is my take on a fun simic deck. It started around the idea of making a deck that utilizes Sage of Hours to win with infinite extra turns, but I also wanted it to be able to stand on it's own if I didn't draw one of the combo pieces, so I finally ended up with this piece of work. I tried to make it semi-competitive and keep it on somewhat of a budget. As of now the deck costs about $150 but without shock lands, Hinterland Harbor and the sideboard the deck costs somewhere around $70-$80.
STAPLE CARDS
This deck uses the Hardened Scales
+
Simic Guildmage
combo to constantly displace and create more +1/+1 counters. You can use these counters for mana ramping with Gyre Sage, gaining extra turns with Sage of Hours or for whatever else you see fit.
Prophet of Kruphix
lets me utilize my opponent's turn if I can't get Sage of Hours rolling. Flash for all my creatures plus everything untaps every turn... Nuff said.
GAME ENDERS
Sage of Hours and Gyre Sage have already been mentioned. Sage of Hours can easily give you infinite extra turns if you can figure out a way to put 5 counters on him every turn. Gyre Sage can mana ramp enough to easily play your entire hand all at once, or you can use the mana to cast an overloaded Cyclonic Rift, or just use it with the Hardened Scales
+
Simic Guildmage
combo to make a bunch of extra counters. Champion of Lambholt can quickly shut down your opponent's blockers for an easy win.
Elusive Krasis
can become very big very fast, with the right cards, and easily poke their life down.
SUPPORT CARDS
Vorel of the Hull Clade
and
Kalonian Hydra
can ramp up a bunch of counters for a quick win.
Give / Take
can give me a burst of counters when I need it or help me fill up my hand. Forced Adaptation a nice one drop that continuously feeds me counters to munch on. Simic Guildmage can also move Forced Adaptation around to different creatures if need be. Chasm Skulker
+
Fathom Mage
gives me good draw and more counters on the field. Plus Chasm Skulker can be used to suicide block and give me a bunch of islandwalk tokens, which is always a nice option if you're in a pinch. Momir Vig, Simic Visionary gives me good search for mid game so I can pull out whatever I need to keep me going.
Master Biomancer
lets me put creatures down with counters already on them. This is pretty important because if a big Chasm Skulker dies it can bring in the islandwalk tokens as big threats and end the game very quickly. It also helps proc evolve easier and even fill my hand up faster if I lay down Fathom Mage afterwards.
SIDEBOARD
This deck lacks a lot of removal and control so the sideboard is set up to give you at least a couple answers to any kind of threat. Simic Charm can save one of my creatures by giving it hexproof or bounce an annoying creature back to the opponent's hand. Hurkyl's Recall because nothing is more annoying than an artifact deck full of graveyard pull and indistructible creatures. Pithing Needle if they have an activated ability that is troubling me. Mana Leak is a kind of catch-all I can use to counterspell anything I don't want to deal with. Plasm Capture was in here but most of the time I don't think I will have 4 mana for a counterspell unless
Prophet of Kruphix
is on the field so I replaced them with Relic of Progenitus to use against decks that utilize their graveyard as a resource. Bident of Thassa and Prime Speaker Zegana I can throw in if I need more draw.
Kruphix, God of Horizons
I mean c'mon its a 4/6 indestructible what's not to love? Plus it can save any unused mana I can't spend when I'm mana ramping with Gyre Sage and takes away my maximum handsize. Wasn't worth main boarding but figured it wouldn't hurt to throw one in the sideboard. Last but not least Bow of Nylea which does all sorts of good stuff for me.
All in all it's a very consistent deck, albeit slow at times. It usually takes about 2-3 turns to get rolling and wins around turn 7 or so. I could make the deck aggro if I used more one drops and evolve cards but I want to keep it at least loosely based around Sage of Hours because it's my favorite card. That being said I do want it to be semi-competitive still. I've playtested it against all my casual decks, and it has done wonderfully, but I have yet to be able to put it up against other semi-competetive decks.
Any suggestions to make the deck more competetive or to help with the sideboard is always appreciated. I don't have a lot of experience building sideboards so it's always nice to hear other opinions.
And of course +1's are always a sight of joy :)
PLAYTESTING
When I do playtests I do best out of three and I don't use the sideboard. So keep that in mind.
VS BITE MY SHINY MILLING @$$!!!
Game 1- after getting off to a strong start the mill deck lost its footing around turn 3 due to lack of drawing mana. With little mana and no cards to effect board state it was overrun at turn 6 after a Gyre Sage emptied my entire hand on the battlefield.
Game 2- again the mill deck was moving very fast and had about 35 cards in my graveyard by turn 4, which made the turn 5 consuming abberation very scary. Luckily I had the cards for infinite turns by turn 6 and the game was won without having to deal with the aberration at all.
Game 3- the mill deck finally takes a win due to mana starving at turn 7. With no mana it was only a matter of time before a Wight of Precinct Six and buffed up Jace's Phantasm killed all my blockers and took the win.
If I were to use the sideboard I could have used Relic of Progenitus to exile my own graveyard and even switched in some Spell Pierce to counter early game Mind Funeral or
Breaking
. Either way simic takes the win with 2-1.
VS Budget Sultai self mill sexyness!!
Game 1- An early Splinterfright causes trouble but the threat of having a Chasm Skulker die while Champion of Lambholt
+
Hardened Scales
is on the field is enough to deter any thoughts of attacking. On turn 7 the infinite extra turn combo kicks in and it's game over.
Game 2- both decks start off slow but an early
Elusive Krasis
and
Master Biomancer
give me the defense I need to hold out. A prophet of kruphix allows me to put Sage of Hours
+
Vorel of the Hull Clade
onto the field and use vorel's ability during the opponent's turn. By turn 7 I had enough counters to get 3 extra turns, which was more than enough time for vorel to get my krasis big enough to end the game.
Game 3- 2 early Hardened Scales and a Forced Adaptation give me a lot of early raw power, but a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant enchanted by a Nighthowler starts to overrun me. Luckily I was able to get a
Master Biomancer
down and buff him up enough to bring a Sage of Hours in with 10 counters on it on turn 7. This bought enough time for me to get the mana I needed for an overloaded Cyclonic Rift and swing for the win with no blockers to stop me.
Again the Relic of Progenitus would have been amazing here, but the sultai deck just couldn't self mill fast enough to overtake all the +1/+1 counters. Simic wins 3-0.
