There are three reasons I call this deck "full retard."
1.Kraken Hatchling
2.Bioshift
3.Primordial Hydra
I have gotten so much shit for playing these cards, but I would never play without them.
A few early words about the deck..
This deck has come a very long way from the start of my Magic "career." It has gone from a very clunky, inconsistent, slow, non-threatening pile of Cloudfin Raptor crap, to this. The mana curve is downright sexy, it's very consistent, has multiple win conditions and most importantly IS FUN AS HELL TO PLAY.
THE DECK BUILDING PROCESS:
So this deck has come a very long way since I started. I was new to magic, bought the Simic Synthesis Intro Pack, and made it my goal to make an original, competitively viable Simic deck. Originally I had 4 Cloudfin Raptor, 4 Crocanura, 4 Kraken Hatchling, a few Fathom Mage and of course, 4 Bioshift.
I put the deck on Cockatrice and got smacked in the ween by Searing Spear, Abrupt Decay, Ultimate Price, Murder, Supreme Verdict, Terminus, Blasphemous Act and the list goes on. I realized straight up creature spam wasn't going to cut it, no matter how good it was when I played against an opponent without any cards.
So I decided to try creature spam + control and hexproof, with spells like Syncopate, Dissipate, Redirect, Mizzium Skin etc. While that DID work sometimes, most times it just fell flat on it's face. I was required to draw the right cards in the right order every time for the deck to work.
So the deck went through some more changes. I fiddled around with instants vs creatures, counter spells vs. hexproof, 36 creatures vs. 28 creatures vs. 26 creatures etc. Finally I realized the main problem was that I didn't have enough threats. I was spending so much time trying to protect myself from all the removal without realizing that the cards I was putting out were non-threatening and couldn't win games by themselves. They were all too dependent on each other to be good standalone.
I took a step back and re-examined every card I had. It was also at that point that I realized, not only were most of my cards non-threatening, most of them were absolute shit if I didn't pull them in the first 5 turns of the game. So now I had a new goal: Make (nearly) every card viable on the initial pull, turn 5, turn 10 and so on.
SO. Finally, after weeks and weeks of tweaking, hours and hours play testing on Cockatrice, this is what I ended up with. Every single card has a purpose, they all play nicely with each other and they're all "threats."
The backbone of the deck:
Master Biomancer is an amazing card. It goes so well with Elusive Krasis, Experiment One, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Prime Speaker Zegana and just about every other card in this deck.
Bioshift is also extremely good. It has so much utility at instant speed, all for just 1 colorless mana. THE COMBOS: Master Biomancer + (any creature) + Bioshift back to Master Biomancer. Now every creature is entering the battlefield with 4 +1/+1 counters. Have a Garruk out? Each +1 loyalty is a 7/7 beast now. How about Primordial Hydra+ Bioshift > Elusive Krasis? C'mon. They Victim of Night your 8/8 Primordial Hydra? No problem, Bioshift 8 counters to your Shambleshark, Master Biomancer or even your Kraken Hatchling to save them for later. One of my favorite combos is Garruk, Primal Hunter -6 loyalty right after a 4/4 Bioshift to Master Biomancer. It's pretty hard for most to deal with 7 or 8 12/12 Wurm tokens.
Shambleshark oh, Shambleshark. I don't even know where to start. Turn 1 Experiment One, turn 2 Farseek, turn 3 Master Biomancer (evolves Experiment) and on opponent's turn 4, flash in a 4/3 Shambleshark which evolves Experiment One to 3/3 and kill their 4/4 Champion of the Parish and 3/3 Boros Elite. Flashing this guy in during your opponent's attack phase to evolve 2 or 3 creatures is hilarious and can seriously change the course of the game. It's also great after a turn 4 Supreme Verdict into your turn 4 Elusive Krasis or Master Biomancer to evolve it and immediately smack them for 3. Plus, it's a fucking Fish Crab. How can you go wrong?
Kraken Hatchling is arguably the most controversial card in this deck. There are just a few reasons I'm running it. It's great against turn 1 and 2 aggro like Rakdos Cackler, Strangleroot Geist. Ash Zealot, a turn 4 Hellrider, you get the picture. Second, I use it to smooth out my mana curve and give me something to do on turn 1, turn 3 after Shambleshark, etc. There are plenty of times I have 1 left over mana to spend, why not Kraken Hatchling to evolve everything? Third, it's my secret weapon against Boros Reckoner. They never see it coming and it buys me plenty of time to set up the board and smash their face in.
Card draw, I.E. draw your whole library with Garruk, Primal Hunter and Prime Speaker Zegana. These are the 4 cards that pull the deck all together in the late game. A turn 7 Prime Speaker Zegana on a Thragtusk to dig for a Bioshift, swing with an Elusive Krasis and Bioshift 5 counters from Zegana to the Krasis is not far-fetched at all. These cards in conjunction are what makes a 1- of Increasing Savagery possible. Plus, if you pull more than 7 cards at any point, Deadbridge Goliath and Increasing Savagery are perfect discard fodder.
Garruk, Primal Hunter is absolutely INSANE with Master Biomancer. Turn 4 Biomancer, turn 5 Garruk, Primal Hunter and you've got yourself a 5/5 token which will evolve any Shambleshark, Elusive Krasis or Experiment One you already have in play. As I said in the previous paragraph, the -3 is perfect for smoothing the transition from mid to late game. Half the time I will drop this guy on an 8/8 Primordial Hydra and kill him immediately, just to dig for a Bioshift or Simic Charm to seal the deal.
The controversial Primordial Hydra. My assumption is that people dislike this card because it's too fragile and too slow before you have like 8 or 9 mana to spend. To be honest, I'm hesitant to run it quite often, but it almost always pays off. I think the biggest reason I see presence and threat in this card is Bioshift. I can either Bioshift counters away from it after a late removal, or Bioshift counters TO it after an early Searing Spear. The utility is just too much to pass up in my opinion. I will play this card as a 3 drop and not have a problem with it getting burned. If they don't burn it, it gets out of control in 4 turns. If they do remove it, well that's 1 less removal to go against Master Biomancer. The amount of cards I'm able to pull because of it with Garruk, Primal Hunter and Prime Speaker Zegana is insanity. One of the only problems I have with it is top decking a Prime Speaker Zegana while it's at 16/16 or 24/24 and I only have 25 cards left in my library, in which case I don't have much of a problem anyway. I have actually played a few games where this monster at 40/40+ with trample has saved me from near defeat. To me, it just seems ridiculous to laugh at this card.
More edits to come!
and a Farseek. Turn 4: Master Biomancer. Turn 5: Increasing Savagery on the Master Biomancer, swing into a big creature with the Strangleroot Geist, he blocks, the Strangleroot Geist comes back as a 10/9 and evolves the Experiment One to 4/4.