first of all, no +1+1 counters in this deck, and please don't recommend them thanks :) the synergies rely heavily on having a good number of creatures, so +1+1 counters can slow down the pace of this deck pretty heavily if drawn at the wrong time. the main weakness of this approach is obviously removal, but it does well against aggro, since it builds a substantial board in 3-4 turns. +1+1 counters actually have negative synergy with this deck since it takes up slots that could be used to create more creatures or ramp more mana. the deck's mana curve is pretty well tuned, give it a try!
the key word in this deck is value. let me introduce some of the interactions to you!
i chose 4 simic growth chambers because, yes it slows down the pace of your game, but it essentially lets you draw 2 lands in 1 card. running a couple of sol rings helps balance it out, so you're sacrificing color-specific consistency for a card and mana advantage. you still usually get enough mana to cast nearly anything by turn 4. garruk also synergizes very well with the growth chambers. for mana purposes i usually mulligan if i don't have forest+birds of paradise or a sol ring. anything else you can draw into is always worth your time, you just want to have your mana straight.
mycoloth is your main objective for turn 3-4, since he has a lot of synergies with your deck. the primary cards to sac are coiling oracles, arachnogenesis spiders, voice of resurgence and birds of paradise. every now and then, a reef worm too. a 10/10 mycoloth on turn 4 is not uncommon at all, and very hard to deal with.
voice of resurgence isn't very hard to cast, between the 4 birds of paradise and 4 vivid groves. for two mana, this little bugger really takes the cake as my favorite card in this deck. not only does he synergize with parallel lives amazingly, he's also great against decks with heavy removal. if they remove him they still need to deal with the token, except if they specifically exile him on their own turn, and they're not always going to have an exile effect handy by turn two.
oviya and rhys are cheap and can snowball a situation out of proportion, even if you don't have parallel lives. they smooth out your mana curve nicely, and since their abilities are activate-able instant-speed, you can hold your arachnogenesis without fear of wasting mana. prophet of kruphix also enables you to find more opportunities to use your activateable abilities and arachnogenesis. kruphix, god of horizons doesn't fit super super well into this deck, but he's got a lot of value for a 5 drop, and more mana is never a problem.
reef worm is really a large threat in this deck. it's the one single card in all of magic that procs parallel lives as often as it does for as much mana as it costs. if you have parallel lives out before reef worm dies the first time, you get a total of 96/96 worth of stats out of a 4 drop. that's hard to compete with, no matter who you are. exile is really strong against reef worm, but single target removal is useless.
i'm really into how much potential value is in this deck, and how specific the interactions are. i hope you guys enjoy it as much as i do! leave a comment, feel free to criticize.
any recommendations are welcome.
TOKENS!
