Cloudfin Raptor seems like the obvious choice here.

Cloudfin Raptor is the way to go here. Although I do like the Frilled Oculus and Rust Scarab . But the flying beat stick is what we should pick.

Cloudfin Raptor . If we already had tons of evolvers and such, I'd lean toward Rust Scarab , because that thing is beastly. Or, rather, insectly. But the Bird Mutant is one of the best cheap creatures in the format, and plays really well with our double Shambleshark s, etc.

Cloudfin Raptor

Yep, definitely Cloudfin Raptor .

Frilled Oculus and it's not even close... the biggest weakness of Simic is a lack of strong blockers in the early game. It's easy to overlook, but the Oculus is a huge benefit. It's the fastest 3 toughness creature we can get and the ability makes it scary to attack into (or block, if we want to aggro).

It's very close between Cloudfin Raptor and Frilled Oculus personally I think I would go with the raptor just cause we don't seem like a lategame deck so far.

Cloudfin Raptor . But the Oculus would not bother me.

Cloudfin Raptor

We don't have that great of a need for early blockers, this isn't constructed... Limited is usually slower.

over well 50% of all GTC drafted games end by turn 8, look it up. We need either early blockers, or bossmode aggressiveness. Frilled Oculus .

well over*

I vote for Frilled Oculus . At 3 toughness it can evolve creatures. A 3/5 is pretty substantial. Cloudfin Raptor wouldnt be bad.

Any simic deck needs as many rapotrs as it can get its hands on. That's our pick here. VOte cloudfin.

Cloudfin Raptor . It's evasiveness wins out.

Frilled Oculus

I wouls go with Cloudfin Raptor as the evasiveness is incredibly useful and once it evolves a few times it can be a huge beating. Although Frilled Oculus would be a fine choice as well.

French-Frilled Oculus

i know from experience that oculus is a huge house. He shuts dowm 1/1s and 2/1s and can outrght eat most creatures in standard. Often atakes a bloodrush just to get rid of him. I would love to have one but we do need the raptor.

keilahmartin and cartwheelnurd each have a compelling argument.

keilahmartin and cartwheelnurd each have a compelling argument.

The oculus is rather specific with its green cost ability, the raptor could be snapped up by Dimir or anyone splashing blue. I'd say take the Cloudfin Raptor and the Frilled Oculus might wheel.

I agree Frilled Oculus is a great early card for defense and can even get in there for damage if need be.

Cloudfin Raptor , people keep talking about how we need triggers to evolve with, when we have jack squat to evolve.

Cloudfin Raptor

Cloudfin Raptor for sure, the other stuff has a pretty good chance to come back around.

Cloudfin Raptor

It comes down to whether or not we think the Frilled Oculus will wheel. It's a much stronger card than Cloudfin Raptor , even without the evasion. It's a powerful draw at every stage of the game, where the raptor is only powerful before turn 3 or so.

I don' think that the Frilled Oculus is so niche that somebody else won't snatch it. I say we grab it.

i vote for Frilled Oculus

great on D and good enough at offence, can evolve some early thing as well. Right now we would be crushed in the early game against boros, especially if they get Wojek Halberdiers or Boros Elite , the oculus prevents that

Frilled Oculus has got to be the choice . . . it triggers evolve, blocks well and comes with a built in pump . . .

I'm assuming we all think Rust Scarab will wheel, if so then we need the Cloudfin Raptor to actually have evolve creatures. From experience, a playset of them in a draft deck is silly especially if we're lucky enough to be handed Ooze Flux . That being said Rust scarab can be the removal bomb we need for something like Madcap Skills or Alpha Authority .

Cloudfin Raptor gets the nod here though.

I think the big problem here is that everyone thinks that just because we are Simic we HAVE to have an evolve deck. Yeah some evolve creatures are nice but they work the best when mixed with some non-evolve creatures to help them out. If we had drafted an Ooze Flux rather than Gyre Sage to start with then I might agree that the more evolve creatures we have the better, but if you look at the only 11 creatures with evolve 7 of them have power and toughness of 2 or less and of the other 4 one of them has defender and can't even attack. My experience with evolve in draft is you either need lots of removal (Which we passed on last pack) or you need to get the evolve creatures out early and make them as big as you can as fast as you can. A deck full of evolve creatures just can't do that real well. In addition when we are facing, say, a 4/4 Towering Thunderfist what do we want to draw, a 0/1 flying evolve, a 2/1 flash evolve, or a 4/5 beater that will trigger probably every evolve we have in play and can also deal with keyrunes, equipment, Madcap Skills and other nasty enchantments, unless your opponent is willing to take 4 to the face. I say we go with Rust Scarab .

Frilled Oculus

It's within 5 votes, but we need to move on, and Cloudfin Raptor is the winner.