Blue/ Green Evolve Standard Deck Threats
Standard forum
Posted on Feb. 7, 2013, 10:52 a.m. by Falcon_Terror
Im trying to build a standard deck around the Simic evolve effect but at the moment the deck is going too slow and there isnt really any decent threatening cards in it, providing the deck works as it should at the moment its only becoming any good by turn 9 and even then it is too creature heavy at the moment, can anyone give me some ideas for decent threatening cards for the deck
Many Thanks
You can mix evolve up with a strong mid-range line-up so that you end up with powerful Simic creatures and then also a Wolfir or Thragtusk or Sentinel Spider or whatever your funds allow you to acquire.
February 7, 2013 11:09 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
Do you actually have the decklist on this site, or is this just a theory discussion? If it's the latter, I will move this thread to the Standard forum.
February 7, 2013 11:18 a.m.
Falcon_Terror says... #5
its the latter at the moment i have built a deck but not worth putting a decklist up at the moment
February 7, 2013 11:33 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
Moved to Standard.
The problem I have with evolve is its speed. Evolve is kind of slow to get off the ground, which means you need to have the luxury of time - something very rarely afforded to you in competitive play - to build up both your defense and offense. The unfortunate result is you end up paying for weak creatures on the promise they'll get stronger, and you gamble against board wipes and tempo decks that can outpace evolve. Add to this a lack of particularly strong evolve creatures (in this case meaning ones with good abilities or utility) and you have a clunky mechanic around which to build.
February 7, 2013 11:38 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #7
Epochalyptik brings up a good point. I have found that if you combine Evolve with Undying you get double the speed as things dying and undying will trigger evolve multiple times. This also provides more stability against decks with spot removal. Cap all of that off with Zameck Guildmage who can reset undying by drawing you cards or he can act as a pseudo Master Biomancer if required.
February 7, 2013 12:16 p.m.
detentionsphere says... #9
Yes, you definitely need a way to deal with Supreme Verdict is you want to be a creature deck in this Standard. Strangleroot Geist and Young Wolf are good for that and synergise with Zameck Guildmage . Experiment One also regenerates. As for threats, Thragtusk and Prime Speaker Zegana are good.
April 13, 2013 1:55 a.m.
JollyJoker says... #10
I sketched out a deck ( Vorel Evolver ) to use the new Vorel of the Hull Clade. It should be plenty fast and have a decent punch with Primordial Hydra and Prime Speaker Zegana , but I suspect it can never really handle Supreme Verdict or enough early removal.
It might give you some ideas on what cards / combos / synergies you can use though.
April 14, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Either garruk is good because their tokens are fast for evolving, and with little garruk you can actually hit a young wolf to bring him back with a counter, AND transform mini garruk to his better form at 2 loyalty. Big garruk evolves until the creatures reach 3 power, which makes pretty much any evolver threatening. Cards with flash, like Wolfir Avenger , and Yeva, Nature's Herald are helpful as with evolve they work as combat tricks that can be very advantageous, and if you fear your deck is too slow, why not use your opponent's strategies against them (Simic Manipulator )? Also Gyre Sage is good for helping get out big cards soon, and Fathom Mage is good to keep your hand full... Deadly with Increasing Savagery , or Bioshift to get ridiculous card advantage... Or use savagery on gyre sage then use the flashback on fathom Mage thanks to the 5 mana sage can now make... Then prime speaker zegana :) but seriously, undying like young wolf, simic manipulator... Should have Carnivorous Death-Parrot 's flavour text because it is the definition of tempo, gyre sage, fathom Mage, flashers, and garruk s are good in simic
April 15, 2013 1:02 a.m.
ZarBluestar says... #12
I would suggest a Duskdale Wurm , It is a 7/7 with trample and is can help your evolvers get even stronger.
June 3, 2013 8:41 a.m.
@ZarBluestar a vanilla 7/7 with trample might seem efficient, but there are better ways to accomplish that even more efficiently in this standard.
@KingSorin Simic Manipulator is slow as piss. I had the absolute worse time running him, from 4 copies, to 3, 2 and then none. Opening hand with him is bad. Played on turn 3 when I could play an Elusive Krasis instead, If I have something out already it'd be Cloudfins or Wolves, and the wolves are probably already undead, and my opponent more than likely won't like Manipulator being on the field so his odds of living are low. Not only that, but you won't be blocking with him among other high-potential cards so you'll be forced to take damage that ends up not being worth it.
I had been playing a typical Simic evolve deck for a while, and have recently switched to B/U/G midrange, still keeping the evolve effect.
Simic DOES have speed, it's just in odd placed.T1 Cloudfin Raptor T2 Young Wolf Rapid Hybridization on wolf. a 3/3 2/2 and 2/3 flyer on t2 which is the most common Simic aggro trick.Playing U/G alone doesn't give a whole lot of tricks outside aggro, so you need to get in the feel of playing balls-out aggro with it. Elusive Krasis Primordial Hydra and Cloudfin Raptor are your big threats.
Cards to NOT use: Forced Adaptation Bioshift Forced is way too slow, and Bioshift is too conditional and ends up a dead card.Spell Rupture is your friend against Supreme Verdict and etc. Don't worry about being creature-heavy, it's fine for the type of deck. Rancor is good though.
The biggest thing you can do to speed your deck up is to stop relying on card specific combos and cards that rely too much on each other. If you can combo them, that's great, but you need to be able to reliably use the cards without having a combo set up.
June 9, 2013 11:45 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #14
Don't forget Renegade Krasis . He is a BEAST 3 drop in evolve.
Also, Sl1p5 Supreme Verdict can't be countered, though I understand what you meant.
June 10, 2013 12:09 a.m.
Oh right, forgot about that. There are other board wipes though, but specifically for Verdict, I suppose regen is the best bet.
June 10, 2013 12:11 a.m.
Green Blue Super fast Aggro
4x Young Wolf
4x Rapid Hybridization
4x Experiment One
4x Cloudfin Raptor
4x Beetleform Mage
4x Giant Growth
4x Simic Charm
4x Bioshift
4x Rancor
You can always replace the beetleform mage for another blue flier like Judge's Familiar
, but i really like the threat aspect of flying over for pumped damage.
Also another explosive card with cheap guys is Delver of Secrets
Flip
At 20 instants he would also fit in nicely or even Faerie Impostor
can add value to return a young wolf back for another round. But downside is delver doesnt help evolve creatures.
Being able to Turn one young wolf, Turn two experiment one or cloudfin raptor then rapid hybridization makes the 2/2 trigger and the 3/3 trigger from frog token.
You get a 2/3 flyer or 3/3 exp one, 2/2 young wolf, and a 3/3 frog token on turn 2. That is the most explosive draws you can get. Beetleform Mage is your finisher as the perfect Bioshift target to put counters on.
side board more cheap counter spells 1 and 2 mana only. Maybe some hexproof in Mizzium Skin and bingo cheap fast blue green aggro :)
June 10, 2013 9:39 p.m.
@raca137 No beetleform, no bioshift.Best build for U/G aggro. I saw it somewhere else before, so it's not my build.
Creatures:4 Cloudfin Raptor 4 Young Wolf 4 Zameck Guildmage 4 Elusive Krasis 4 Dungeon Geists 4 Deadbridge Goliath
Other:4 Rapid Hybridization 4 Pit Fight 4 Rancor 2 AEtherize
Lands4 Shocks4 Checks7 Forest7 Island
June 11, 2013 12:59 p.m.
Cyber Locc says... #21
I had a deck beat the snot out of me on modo the other day he beat everuthing i could throw and after talking to him he said he won alot he gave me his deck list i altered it to my likings but it grew and fast. And with greens mana fixers the turn 9 problem became less apparent in 1 game he had a hydra out turn 5. Heres my verison of it still in progress Ohh They Grow
July 19, 2013 11:16 a.m.
Any UG aggro deck that isn't running Strangleroot Geist is doing it wrong
July 19, 2013 5:26 p.m.
Cyber Locc says... #23
Arm thats only true if eere talking current standard in 2 months strangleroot will be gone sooo
July 19, 2013 5:39 p.m.
It's kind of silly to ignore a whole block for two months. No one has a clue whats happening with standard post rotation right now anyway, so why worry about it now.
July 19, 2013 7:06 p.m.
JollyJoker says... #25
Wizard's site had a version splashing white that apparently works. The main trick is evolving Cloudfin Raptor and Experiment One with Geist of Saint Traft , Strangleroot Geist and Voice of Resurgence . Also, Rapid Hybridization for the undying critters.
Standard 4th Place, Magic Online Premier #5686241
July 22, 2013 11:46 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #26
I've always found the evolve mechanic to be janky as hell. You need to have the right cards, and play them in the right order for it to work at all, which screams a reliance on the Christmas wonderland strategy. Which isn't a strategy anyone should try to hope to pull off during competitive play.
I would avoid evolve like the plague, go for undying creatures, they are much better.
July 22, 2013 7:48 p.m.
JollyJoker says... #27
Well... When you have 1 mana evolvers, playing the cards in the right order comes somewhat naturally. Experiment One is a fine card in itself, without a plan to evolve it. Undying critters + Geist of Saint Traft are also playable in a vacuum and keep boosting the evolvers.
The main problem in the deck I linked above is the mana for Cloudfin Raptor . Not getting it cast turn one, but getting it cast with a land that gives you GG or WG on turn two.
July 23, 2013 6:54 a.m.
Falcon_Terror says... #28
Since putting this thread up I have built the deck and it has worked extremely well the only issue it has had is against Bant hexproof which I sideboard for but it has become such a versatile deck with different ways of winning but now I need to look at making it standard legal post rotation but Im still waiting on the Theros card listing
July 29, 2013 9:44 a.m.
Master Biomancer (four if your funds allow) is an absolute THREAT!! Add a Forced Adaptation on him and Alpha Authority and he'll keep getting bigger, thus your creatures that enter will get bigger, and Alpha Authority protects him from being targets (that your opponent control, you can still target him for extra pumps) and he can't be blocked by more than one creature..... He works extraordinary awesome with Renegade Krasis ...
As long as Master Biomancer enters AFTER Renegade Krasis , you're set... a 1/1 entering for 1 mana (just made this up) become a 4/4 for 1 mana (if Master Biomancer n Renegade Krasis both have 0 counters on them.. Master Biomancer gives it two +1/+1 counters, thus making it 3/3... Renegade Krasis will evolve due to it having higher toughness AND Renegade Krasis ' second ability ADDS another counter onto creatures that already have a counter when he evolves.. so it becomes a 4/4 for 1 mana... Renegade Krasis becomes a 4/3, Master Biomancer - 2/4 and newdude 4/4....
If you can work on something like this.. You'll be set to go.. Just make sure Master Biomancer has a way of adding counter to himself each turn.......
also Progenitor Mimic is a good creature to use with Master Biomancer to "wipe out" your opponents strong creatures (not all but most)...When Mimic enter he automatically gets counters, copy said strong creature and BOOM!! You're already stronger than said creature.... If you use Mutant's Prey (if strong creature isn't protected) you can wipe out their strong creature as Mutant's Prey lets one of your creatures with a +1/+1 counter fight a creature an opponent controls.... and next turn, you'll get a second copy of what you killed, which will get counters too... and so on and so forth...
If you wanna do Maths that can't be figured out - Make Progenitor Mimic copy Master Biomancer - I'm sure you could figure out what happens next... EACH turn you get a new Master Biomancer with +1/+1 counters equal to power of ALL other Master Biomancer 's even the tokens Progenitor Mimic created... chuck a trample creature after a third or so turn after this and you've pretty much won the game...
I did this once and I had, I think a 100/100 trample on the field... It was pretty insane....
Also, if you could make it work, Fungal Sprouting works perfectly for this type of set up... If you have a Master Biomancer with a decent type of power, ALL those Saproling tokens that just spawned will get stronger too... Thus making your defences pretty decent for such a small mana cost....
Zameck Guildmage will help to get what you need as you can remove a counter from something to draw. Gyre Sage will give you more Forest mana and works perfectly if Master Biomancer is already on the field.. Fathom Mage Helps with card draws too.. and has Evolve.
An idea.. Use Fungal Sprouting as your offences.. Only attack with those if you don't have at least 3 copies of all the above mentioned cards... there's a few others mentioned in this topic that works good in this type of deck...
I pretty much have this deck made (minus the Fungal Sprouting ....
Also Unexpected Results helps with lack of land (if you have a problem with that) as he'll either get you stronger creatures, or more land and it returns to your hand if you drew a land... pretty awesome card..
If you can build a deck with those cards, you'll be set destroy your opponents..
August 1, 2013 8:07 a.m.
Adding onto my precious comment - There's more I wanna talk about.
Death's Presence all those counters that you've added onto your creatures don't go to waste.. They just go onto another creature if/when your creatures die..... If you add them onto Fathom Mage you'll get to draw lots of cards... even creatures without counters will place counters onto creatures...
Boundless Realms Doubles your land in play - Pretty good AND it works perfectly with Sporemound as each land you just doubled, gives you a 1/1 Saproling token... which works with the Saproling bit I mentioned before... so basically, it's a perfect trifecta.
Parallel Lives also fits in as each token you just put in play due to Sporemound or Fungal Sprouting gets doubled too, and you know the rest....
Actually, I'm gonna build this deck now... I can post a decklist if you wish
Ohthenoises says... #2
Master Biomancer makes everything a threat. Even a topdeck Cloudfin Raptor comes in as a 2/3 flyer. deck:simic-example is a decent idea of where to start.
February 7, 2013 11:07 a.m.