First off, I would like to give KrosanTusker all due credit. The overall format for this build was Timmy Simic Ramp. I would also like to agree with his sentiment that no one plays these big blue creatures, and that they are so much fun. We see them in the card catalogs and think "This is worth making a deck around..." and we never do. Well, KrosanTusker and I did.
Currently my sideboard is a direct C&P of Simic Defender Ramp's sideboard. That is, I need help with it, and any comments or card suggestions deeply are appreciated. Thanks!
This is a complete ramp deck. Let's get out some nice walls to buy us time, while
Axebane Guardian
and
Overgrown Battlement
can generate some serious mana fast. It is kind of like putting up sandbags before a storm.
Then comes the hurricane. Big Blue Heavy (BBH) creatures start crashing over the walls on turn 4 and 5, getting into your hand or the battlefield with Halimar Depths, Preordain, Mulldrifter, and Consecrated Sphinx.
Okay, onto the Big Blue Heavy creatures. Once they are attacking, each BBH starts devastating the opponent with flying/control fury.
Sphinx Ambassador and Keiga, the Tide Star grab your opponent's creatures.
Stormtide Leviathan and Inkwell Leviathan speak for themselves, and Inkwell L has shroud!
Also, to protect against removal, we have Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Turn Aside. That is, besides Keiga, who I would help only when he is being exiled.
Alright, stop. I want to praise the card that makes this deck so versatile. Riptide Shapeshifter deserves all four slots in this deck because it is essentially a Suspend X- 3UU while still being a 3/3 on the battlefield. Watch your friend's expression darken as the heavy they brought onto the battlefield is dwarfed by your BBH. Or, if your hand is full of BBH's then bring out an Axebane Guradian to ramp your mana production. Or a Consecrated Sphinx to increase card draw. Or a Keiga, the Tide Star to stop a deathtouch creature and take it (or even bump your own Keiga with another one [thanks to the legendary rule] to send them both to the graveyard and take 2 of their linchpin creatures).
So Riptide Shapeshifter, thank you for being a 3UU 3/3 with fetch, essentially becoming a 5UUUU "any creature of your deck onto the battlefield".
Keep in mind that all the library searching increases this likelihood, but steady draw makes this the best combo:
Turn 1: Forest/Island,
Wall of Vines
or
Steel Wall
Turn 2: Land,
Overgrown Battlement
Turn 3: Land, any walls or Mulldrifter Evoke or Ponder etc., then tap 1st Battlement to bring out
Axebane Guardian
Turn 4: Have at 10+ mana to play any BBH and something else.
Turn 5: Attacking with BBH and bringing another one out.
Turn 6: Swing for win :)
The best two BBH's in this deck (for synergy) are Stormtide Leviathan and Inkwell Leviathan, especially because Riptide Shapeshifter brings out either one when its ability is used on "Leviathan." Bringing Storm L out changes the game entirely for almost any non-flying aggro, and then bringing in Inkwell L is an unblockable 15 swing.
And for the decks that are flying/islandwalk, we have
Lorthos, the Tidemaker
who easily stops anything with his ability. And with the loads of mana sloshing around, I can usually give him 8, attack, and play another BBH in the same turn. While our legendary octopus is rendered useless by Storm Leviathan, there is only one in the deck and he gives protection when Storm L is MIA.
