Creature (14)
- 2x Aquastrand Spider
- 2x Cytoplast Root-Kin
- 4x Iron Apprentice
- 4x Servant of the Scale
- 2x Vorel of the Hull Clade
Enchantment (4)
Instant (20)
Land (22)
Sideboard
Artifact (3)
Sorcery (4)
Maybeboard
Creature (3)
Instant (1)
This was the most fun I’ve had deckbuilding in quite some time. Affordable and with a myriad of interactions to keep track of, it’s a blast to play. There’s an element of fairness here that ensures despite having a non traditional wincon, each game feels fair and above the board for both sides of the table and wins are earned—not cheaply handed out. I hope you enjoy playing this as much as I do.
Let’s get this out of the way immediately—this is a budget oriented build. Out of necessity, we won’t be scraping the bottom of the barrel with mediocre tap lands yet there are some cutbacks here. That said, obvious upgrade paths include adjustments to mana sources, notably running playsets of Misty Rainforest and Breeding Pool.
•Hinterland Harbor has a high probability of masquerading as a Tropical Island, as percentages are good it’ll enter untapped.
•Barkchannel Pathway is our other ‘pricey’ land, but the utility offered cannot be understated. These two lands will go a long way toward smoothing out any mana fixing issues.
•Basic forests and islands provide the majority of and we will need, leaning slightly in favor of .
Selecting the right creatures was a lengthy process, but after much trial and error these in particular proved to have excellent synergy with each other and our common goal.
•Iron Apprentice will invariably buff or be buffed; while debuting at a meager +1/+1, it has the potential to grow considerably more robust in the blink of an eye. Doubling or otherwise moving counters about can greatly increase the amount of +1/+1’s on this little guy, and if/when he dies it’s all net gain. Should Simic Ascendancy already be in play, the martyrdom of our poor little robot could feasibly contribute half of the growth counters necessary in one fell swoop.
•Servant of the Scale is for all intents and purposes a second playset of Iron Apprentice. Once again we have a one mana creature that can share the wealth after death, reallocating its counters and bestowing them upon another fortunate soul.
•Aquastrand Spider and Cytoplast Root-Kin are the Goldilocks of the relevant Graft creature subset; Simic Initiate is too weak, Cytospawn Shambler is too mana intensive, but these two Graftees are juuuuuust right. The Spider has the advantage of being playable much sooner at only two mana, thus offering more Graft opportunities.
The Mutant contributes more directly toward our wincon though, as the Enchantment will likely already be in play by the time we are ready to cast this creature. Should it be played earlier than expected, Graft is there to take advantage of. Should we be on curve, the second ability accelerates our wincon. Should we be in dire straits, the final ability can be utilized in a pinch. A potent threat all around.
In Case of Emergency Break Glass Show
Modern is a fast paced, removal heavy format. Our creatures are not particularly strong, so protecting them as we wait to cast our wincon (and then protecting the wincon itself) is our primary concern.
•Snakeskin Veil wards off removal while simultaneously bolstering our counter count. Depending on the situation, allowing a Servant of the Scale with a few extra +1/+1’s stacked on it to be removed may be advantageous; what is never a good thing are those pesky exile spells. That would certainly put a damper on our strategy, but that’s where Snakeskin Veil can save the day. Unfortunately it only targets creatures. If only there were some way to protect our Enchantment wincon…
•Lazotep Plating feels like I called WotC and custom ordered a card just for this deck. “Yeah, I’m looking for a card that will protect me, my creatures, and especially my enchantment. Oh and it’s gotta be playable in Simic. And make it cheap. Throw in a +1/+1 counter too while you’re at it.” Now how about that.
•Tamiyo's Safekeeping is one of the better things to come out of the most recent set. Despite that atrocious sharpie art style, the card itself is exactly what we’re looking for. It will protect any permanent we control, it’s cheap, it helps offset minor life loss and it’s on color.
•Bioshift and Solidarity of Heroes are here more so to work toward accruing enough growth counters on our Enchantment to win the game, although they can be used to preserve our creatures in a pinch. Readjust or double the counters on a particular creature selected to block an incoming attacker, and what would have been lethal damage is now easily tanked and it’s the opponent’s creature that will perish. Keep an eye out for how best to use these multipurpose spells; Vorel’s ability falls under this advice as well.
Aggrandizement. Ascension. Apotheosis. To take that which is incomplete, impure, imperfect and to elevate it to perfection. George Washington had the right idea; one need only check the ceiling of the Capitol Rotunda for the proof.
Detailed below are our wincon and supporting spells which will incite deification.
•Simic Ascendancy is the cornerstone of the deck, everything else revolving around it. Fortunately for us, timing doesn’t matter nearly as much as it does for many other combo decks out there. A cursory glance might indicate we’d want to play this as early as possible to get a jump on accumulating growth counters, but that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, concealing this enchantment and only casting it after carefully calculating the exact number of +1/+1 counters we can produce may be the more prudent decision. Read on.
•Bioshift is a seemingly innocuous card; in most decks it’s a noob play that at best tries to surprise an opponent by pumping up a weak and unblocked attacker. But make no mistake, this card is as deadly as an assassin’s blade in our deck.
Technically speaking, Simic Ascendancy doesn’t care how one or more +1/+1 counters happen to be placed on a creature. Creating new ones is fine, but so is simply moving existing counters from one creature to another. For a mere we earn the right to move any number of +1/+1 counters from one creature to another, and each one will translate to an additional growth counter placed on Simic Ascendancy. One creature with 10 +1/+1’s on it (which is extremely doable with this setup) can produce half the growth counters Simic Ascendancy requires thanks to a single Bioshift.
•Solidarity of Heroes can exponentially increase the total amount of +1/+1 counters we have at any given time, and for cheap. Two mana doubles the amount of counters on a given creature, and that can be repeated until we run out of mana or creatures. Between these two spells and the myriad of ways to redistribute the counters, racking up 20 individual instances is easier done than said.
•Don’t forget that Cytoplast Root-Kin functions as a late game bomb. We’ll no doubt have a plethora of +1/+1’s stacked on various creatures by the time we have access to 4 mana, so casting this fellow will bestow yet another +1/+1 counter upon each of them.
Yes, the majority of spells and abilities in this deck were carefully tuned to make the allocation of +1/+1 counters almost second nature. By my count no less than 34 cards—half the deck—allow the potential placement of at least one +1/+1 counter. The real test of mettle is not whether or not you can put a counter on a creature, but rather in what way can I maximize the number of counters I distribute at any given moment. These game winning decisions separate the men from the boys, as the saying goes.
Ascension. Apotheosis. Are you ready?
Ahh, Kos, or some say Kosm…Do you hear our prayers?
•Cast creatures on curve, protecting them with the likes of Snakeskin Veil. Reallocate +1/+1 counters as necessary.
•Cast Simic Ascendancy after confirming you can distribute at least 20 +1/+1 counters amongst your creatures. Bioshift and Solidarity of Heroes will aid in exponentially increasing the amount of counters available.
•Protect the enchantment at all costs, using Lazotep Plating and Tamiyo’s Safekeeping, as it will immediately become your opponent’s primary target for removal. Should it survive until the beginning of your next upkeep, then Congratulations. You’ve won the game and ascended to a higher plane.
Mostly geared toward yet more ways to prevent the removal of Simic Ascendancy, supplemented with additional odds and ends.
•Contentious Plan is perhaps the most effective of the Proliferate spells I looked at, and it helps out a bit if our hand is beginning to dwindle.
•Mana Leak is traditional counter magic, and more likely to be cast than Counterspell in a deck that leans harder into than . Due to the nature of just how easy it will be for us to multiply and shift counters around once we get our wincon in play, it’s really the early turns that require the most attention. Mana Leak is most effective at this time and will undoubtedly prove invaluable.
•Fog can buy additional time during the first few turns to ensure we have a healthy creature presence to generate and move counters around.
•Natural State offers some artifact and enchantment hate of our own, very useful against the wealth of Treasure Tokens and all manner of low costed enchantments populating the format.
•Pithing Needle shuts down that which cannot otherwise be removed, clearing a path for our own shenanigans.
•Tormod's Crypt
is cheaper than Relic of Progenitus and it’s always wise to run some graveyard hate.
As part of the deck building process I combed through many, many relevant cards. The following are individual cards I contemplated adding, but for whatever reason decided against. Please do not suggest any of these cards unless there’s some unbelievable combo/interaction I overlooked that’s simply too good to pass up.
•Hardened Scales is fantastic; I’m not blind. It’s the price that makes this a no go. I really wanted to keep the cost of this deck down as much as possible, and at $15 a pop it’s a bit out of range. If you have a few, absolutely include them—it’ll speed things along tremendously, whether cast before or after Simic Ascendancy.
•The same goes double for Doubling Season.
•Heroic Intervention is an excellent way to protect our boardstate, but it’s too far out of the price range to consider running.
•Likewise, Veil of Summer would be great but it’s too costly. Autumn's Veil might be worth consideration, but it seems very situational.
•Gilder Bairn is what you get when you Tim Burton-ize Glimmer Bairn. Not a bad card by any means, but difficult to use effectively when not specifically built around. The ability is similar to that of Vorel of the Hull Clade—better, in fact—but requires you to untap it rather than tap it. This…is problematic. We aren’t set up to tap creatures on command, leaving attacking as the only option to induce a state. And as fragile as poor Gilder Bairn is, it would likely result in its untimely demise. So Gilder Bairn is out; Vorel of the Hull Clade is in.
•Vastwood Fortification draws you in with the promise of versatility, but the front side only adds one +1/+1 counter—which simply isn’t efficient enough to merit inclusion. Also, the inverse side doesn’t count as a Forest and thus doesn’t play nice with Hinterland Harbor. An interesting card but ultimately ineffective.
•Lastly, yes I am aware of the Ivy Lane Denizen + Scurry Oak combo. While it would fit here (and arguably be better than just the combo by itself, since we would win during our upkeep and not need to wait until next turn’s combat phase to attack with an army of squirrels) I wanted to veer away from that solo style of play in favor of more interaction with the opponent.
Instead of simply grinding out all the counters Simic Ascendancy needs all at the same time from the same source, I think it’s much more interesting to need to calculate where and how to generate and move +1/+1 counters among your creature populace to earn those growth counters. This is the deck I’ve built; if you want to pursue a rabid rodent army then it’s there for the making.
”For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and this which is mortal must put on immortality.”
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99% Casual
Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 2 years |
| Last updated | 8 months |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 14 - 2 Rares 14 - 1 Uncommons 18 - 12 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.63 |
| Tokens | Zombie Army 0/0 B |
| Folders | Modern, Budget Modern Decks, This looks amazeballs and I want to play it, Maybe Modern?, Playtests |
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