Fan Submission - Simic Combo Deck

Rick M. shared this Simic Combo deck with us after seeing our previous blog post about my own Green Devotion Hydra deck. While this deck isn't standard legal, it uses many of the same pieces to create a truly epic kitchen table combo deck.  Let's take a look at his deck list.

---Creatures (34)
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Kiora's Follower
3 Elvish Mystic
1 Hydra Broodmaster
2 Progenitor Mimic
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
3 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Mistcutter Hydra
3 Zameck Guildmage 
1 Genesis Hydra
3 Fathom Mage
3 Vorel of the Hull Clade
2 Gyre Sage
1 Kruphix, God of Horizons 
1 Azor's Elocutors 
1 Laboratory Maniac 
---Spells (6)
1 Dictate of Karametra
2 Plasm Capture 
2 Polymorphous Rush 
1 Cyclonic Rift
---Land (24)
7 Forest 
7 Island 
3 Temple of Mystery 
4 Simic Guildgate
2 Yavimaya Coast 
1 Thornwood Falls


Alright, I see a few familiar faces, but quite a few new ones too.  Tell me what's going on here.

"Originally the deck was a Biovisionary deck (i.e., Polymorphous Rush) but I've since changed it to what you see now. After the interaction between Vorel and Fathom Mage became a real threat, I realized I could Laboratory Maniac for the win, and Azor's Elocutors could win also because Vorel doubles the filibuster counters.

Plus being a something something black player it was a good change of pace for me to build way out of my color spectrum."

What inspired the deck? How did you decide on the cards in the deck?

"Honestly I decided on the deck when I pulled my third Temple of Mystery and second Yavimaya Coast. I had just way too many blue green cards in my binder and they never saw play so I thought I I'd just throw them together and see what happens. There were a lot of cards that got cut after a while like Unexpected Results and Biovisionary. So you could say I began by seeing the spare cards laying around and built off that."

Walk me through the mana curve. What does the deck do early, mid, and late game?

"The mana curve is designed with green in mind, so early on you have the Elvish Mystics, Sylvan Caryatids, and Kiora's Followers. As long as you have two mana and one is green then your mana should be safe. The 3-drop creatures are Vorel and Yisan. Vorel is the driving engine in the deck and being a 3-drop with 4 toughness is really nice or if I can't find him, Yisan can start doing his thing and putting out my creatures in increasing order. Fathom Mage is my 4-drop and is the super draw in the deck. Once she gets a single evolve trigger, off she is going. Vorel will double the counters on her, and Prophet of Kruphix lets me do it every turn. Kruphix and Gyre Sage are there for the hydras."

"If I can't keep out my Fathom Mage and all I have left is Gyre Sage, don't doubt the power of a mana-ramper whom will tap to add say.....128 green mana at a time. Kruphix also is needed if I am using and abusing Fathom Mage as I don't have a max hand size and is fetch-able with Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. Hydras are there for the smashing and possible counter removal from the Zamek Guildmages. They can function for draw possibilities as well. The Progenitor Mimics are needed for anti-fliers and if possible, I have done this a few times: Progenitor Mimic, Hydra Broodmaster, opponent's turn, monstrous hydra with the fat Gyre Sage, get a bunch of hydra tokens, swing for game! Oh and I got new Hydra Broodmasters to keep monstrifying."

"The instants are for emergencies only. Cyclonic Rift is for when my opponent is nearing completion for swinging for victory, countering spells. Also I keep the Polymorphous rushes in case of flash entrances. I had an opponent flash in Emrakrul and I rushed my Fathom Mage with five +1/+1 counters on it while she swung. Yes I missed the Emrakrul trigger but I did keep the counters, so Fathom Mage took down Emrakrul. In terms of play-style, unless there isn't any other option but to attack, I will sit there and keep building up my board-state and watch my opponent be baffled why I don't swing with a 33/33 Fathom Mage. It's usually safer and consistent to win with the key Laboratory Maniac and Azor's Elocutors. I keep them in hand and flash them in when I need them for victory thanks to Prophet of Kruphix."

"Thanks for being interested. I honestly never designed a sideboard as this is supposed to be fun. I mean, when you lose to Azor's Elocutors, how mad can you be as you're laughing your butt off."

I hope you enjoyed this in-depth look at Rick's Simic Combo deck.  It uses the same ramp/untapping engine of Kiora's Follower and Prophet of Kruphix, but instead of focusing on huge hydras, this deck aims to abuse the counter-adding ability of Vorel and the alternate win conditions of Azor's Elocutors and Laboratory Maniac.  While I cringe at the use of 64 cards instead of 60, Rick and his friends have carefully tweaked this deck for maximum fun at the kitchen table, and each card choice brings more and more combo fun to the deck.

Patrick

Budget Deck - Black Green Toughness Deck

"Even if I don't learn anything new as an experience player, it is nice to read and get reminders from others and new perspectives. It would be great to hear from you about the goals behind the decks you build and why you built them like that. maybe also suggested upgrades."
- Paul G.

I was going to type up a big disclaimer about what a budget deck is NOT, but hopefully nobody expects a budget deck to contain all the all-star rares and mythics that you see winning championships. I'll just jump right into our goals for a true BDB budget deck.  These goals typically apply to any deck in our store that falls between $10 and $40.

Goals for a BDB Deck:

• Be budget friendly! The deck is usually built around commons/uncommons, and a few rares are sprinkled on top.
• Be fun to play!  The deck should have an easily recognizable theme or strategy that provides some satisfaction when played correctly.
• Be able to compete!  While you probably won’t win the Pro Tour with it, the deck should still have the ability to win games against your friends, or make a run at Friday Night Magic.
• Be consistent!  We crunch all the numbers to make sure it has a good mana curve, the right number of lands, and balance between creatures and spells so that it can perform well consistently.
• Be creative! We try to give every card a chance. Cards that are often overlooked can be pretty good if put into the right deck.
• Be inspiring! We want our decks to be fun right out of the package, but we also hope that the deck inspires you to upgrade or tweak it to your play style. Maybe you have some cards in your collection that would make the deck better, go for it!

Why our decks are built the way they are:

First, I want to quickly revisit our guidelines from our last post.  Our team has quite a bit of Magic experience from casual play, Friday Night Magic, MTGO, reading articles, forums, blogs, listening to podcasts and watching the pros play on Twitch or YouTube.  We have also been building and selling decks on eBay since 2012.  The culmination of all this experience has led to these guidelines that greatly reduce the time spent designing a deck.

1. Keep the deck to 60 cards.  Don't "water down" the best cards.
2. Start with 23 lands, +/-1 depending on the speed and mana requirements of the deck.
• 20-30 Creatures
• 7-17 Spells
3. Follow the mana curve, have something at each mana cost if possible, with the majority of the deck between 2 and 4.
4. Include a few instants to be able to react to the opponent and avoid being too predictable.
5. Have a clear plan for winning.  Know what cards will win the game and how the rest will support them.

Second, we are guided by the sets of cards we are working with. You may notice when you dissect a set like Khans of Tarkir, there are clear themes.  Set designers build these themes into sets, spread across many of the commons, uncommons, and rares. While Khans has the obvious five clans: Abzan, Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai, and Temur, if you look closer, there are also five more enemy-color themes: White/Black Warriors, Black/Green Toughness, Blue/Green Morph, Blue/Red Spells, and White/Red Monks.  It’s very easy to  build a deck around these themes because the set designers make sure that each color gets a good balance of creatures and spells across the mana curve and that they work nicely together. 

Let's take a look at our Black/Green Toughness deck.  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTG-Black-Green-Toughness-Deck-Rakshasa-Deathdealer-Standard-Legal-Magic-Khans-/251797634047

Kin-Tree Invocation by Ryan Alexander Lee

As I'm flipping through a box of Khans of Tarkir, Kin-Tree Invocation immediately catches my eye.  It begs to be exploited by having a high toughness creature in play. I then start to notice other creatures in black and green that mention toughness, like Sultai Flayer and Kheru Bloodsucker. These cards also want me to sacrifice my creatures for full effect.  I’ve found a theme!  I start to look through all my black and green cards for anything with high toughness or that benefits from sacrificing.  I come across Disowned Ancestor as my 1-drop.  Grim Haruspex will let me draw cards when I sacrifice my creatures, and Swarm of Bloodflies will get +1/+1 counters.  So I’ve got a pretty good spread of creatures that work well together across my mana curve. I just need to throw in a few spells to glue it all together.  I think every deck should have removal, and Murderous Cut looks perfect.  It’s one of the set's strongest removal spells, and I’ll be sacrificing creatures any way to help with delve.  I also find Scout the Borders will fit nicely, fetching me a creature or land and fueling delve. This also looks like a perfect opportunity to use Meandering Towershell with toughness 9. Now I just throw in some lands and I have a theme deck on a budget!

--- Main Deck 60

2 Rakshasa Deathdealer

2 Grim Haruspex

3 Meandering Towershell

4 Disowned Ancestor

4 Kheru Bloodsucker

4 Sultai Flayer

4 Swarm of Bloodflies

4 Kin-Tree Invocation

4 Scout the Borders

4 Murderous Cut

2 Death Frenzy

2 Jungle Hollow

11 Swamp

10 Forest

--- Sideboard 15

3 Kheru Dreadmaw

4 Rotting Mastodon

4 Dutiful Return

2 Bitter Revelation

2 Death Frenzy

The mana curve looks a little funky due to the high cost of Murderous Cut, but using delve should give you a discount.

Suggested Upgrades:

We did a series of Facebook posts about upgrading BDB decks, so some of this may look familiar.

• Lands: I would swap in 2 more Jungle Hollows and 4 Evolving Wilds. This will improve the mana base and help with delve. Llanowar Wastes works here too if you want to spend a few extra bucks.

• Fill in the Gaps: I'm pretty happy with how this deck turned out and don't see any obvious gaps. It has creatures across the mana curve with Swarm of Bloodflies or Meandering Towershell up top to finish the game. I think Archer's Parapet is another great, cheap, high toughness option but might be a bit redundant with Disowned Ancestor. The deck has good removal with Murderous Cut and a very effective sweeper in Death Frenzy. The high toughness should hold up well against aggro decks. Identifying the gaps will require some more playtesting.

• Better cards: As fun as Meandering Towershell is here... it should probably come out for a stronger rare that will finish the game quicker, something with flying like a demon, or even Tasigur would work nicely with the graveyard games. Drown in Sorrow is probably a better version of Death Frenzy.

• New Sets: At the writing of this article, I don't have a ton of experience with Fate Reforged, but they have continued the toughness theme with cards like Grim Contest and Sibsig Muckdraggers. These cards might not find a home in this deck, but it's fun to see all the new options each time a new set is released.

Well, I hope this shed a little light on how we come up with our budget decks at BDB. Really, what it boils down to, is maximizing your fun per dollar. We know as well as anybody that Magic can be a very expensive hobby, especially if you buy booster packs trying to find the cards you want. These decks get you into the action quickly and affordably. Until next time...

Patrick

Deck Building - Green Devotion Hydra Deck

"I'd like to hear more about deck building. Learning how to play with a given deck is not so hard. Building the deck myself is a different matter."
- Steven M.

Deck building is a very broad and also in-depth topic, and the process can vary greatly based on whether you are building an aggro, combo, control, or midrange deck. For this article, I will walk you through the creation of my own Green Devotion “Hydra Deck”.

For me, it starts by finding a card I like or find really interesting, or maybe it’s even an interaction I notice between two cards. I rarely start by saying, “I’m going to make a green deck." When I got the M15 Clash Pack and combined the two decks, I quickly noticed the mana-producing potential of Karametra’s Acolyte paired with Kiora’s Follower. This was going to be the core of my new combo deck!

Now I have three main areas to focus on: 

1. How do I exploit this combo even further and make more mana? 
2. How am I going to use all this mana to win the game? 
3. How do I make sure the combo goes off every time?

1.   I want most of my creatures/permanents to be green for devotion (to power Karametra's Acolyte), so I start filling out my mana curve, making sure I have creatures to cast on every turn. Elvish Mystic is an easy choice for my 1-drop. He adds to green devotion and makes more mana on his own. At the 2-drop I already have Kiora’s Follower. At 3 I started with Boon Satyr which has two green symbols for devotion, but as my budget increased I eventually ended up on Courser of Kruphix, who helps me hit land drops and can gain me some life while I setup my mana combo. A 2/4 power/toughness also makes a great blocker. At 4 we have Karametra’s Acolyte. This seems like a pretty good mana base. I will ideally have 3-4 creatures in play on turn 3, ready to start tapping/untapping for lots of mana on turn 4.

2.   Now for the fun part, I get to look for cards that will make use of all this mana and win the game! I start by looking at everything that has an X mana symbol in it. Genesis Hydra… yes please! With all my mana I can easily end up with 2 huge creatures for the price of 1 and further increase my devotion. Hydra Broodmaster and Polukranos have XX in their Monstrous abilities, and with enough mana can easily win the game. I am noticing a hydra theme here… so I’ve defined my win condition: lots of big hydras attacking to crush my opponent. Heroes’ Bane, Nessian Wilds Ravager, and Mistcutter Hydra are all cool hydra options but seem less versatile. Heroes’ Bane can easily die to a removal spell after I inflate him, Nessian Wilds Ravager lets my opponent choose the less lethal option, and Mistcutter Hydra seems more suited for a sideboard.

3.   The trickiest part: making sure I get my combo every game. I know my combo won’t go off until turn 4 or later, so while I do need to be concerned about fast aggro decks, I feel like I have enough tough blockers built into my mana producing creatures. They should buy me a few extra turns. Since I am splashing blue for Kiora’s Follower, I decide to add Jace’s Ingenuity. I should be able to cast it well before turn five with all my ramp creatures, and it will help me find missing pieces for my combo or a hydra to finish the game. Genesis Hydra also serves a similar role. I notice that Prophet of Kruphix will work perfectly since I’m in green/blue, allowing me to untap and cast more creatures or activate monstrous on my opponent’s turn. With card drawing/searching and the accelerated mana I feel like my deck can now consistently combo and make a huge hydra.

So I’ve answered my three main questions, but notice along the way I was considering mana curve and what my deck is going to do in the early (ramp creatures), mid (combo), and late game (attack with hydras).

Now I have two areas for finishing touches:

1. Filling in Gaps
2. Lands/Mana base

1.   I can fill in gaps by anticipating what my deck will struggle against. I need to have answers against aggro and control decks. Curse of the Swine is a fun fit here against aggro as it can take advantage of all my mana and exiles creatures that are either threatening me or I have trouble attacking through. The drawback of a few 2/2 boars will be nothing but a snack for my huge hydras. Since I am able to search through so much of my deck with Jace’s Ingenuity and Genesis Hydra, I put in one each of Nylea for trample, Kruphix for even more mana goodness, and Archetype of Endurance for hexproof. My other obvious weakness against control is board wipes like End Hostilities. Not all my opponents will be playing those so I put Negate and Swan Song in my sideboard. I may also struggle against flying, so I add Archetype of Imagination and Arbor Colossus to my sideboard.

2.   When constructing my mana base, I start by counting up the mana symbols on my creatures and spells. I am really heavy on green (45) with a decent splash of blue (22). I am able to use Yavimaya Coast and Temple of Mystery for dual lands, so I only need a couple Islands and the rest can be Forests. I never mentioned Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, but obviously this combo works well with Kiora’s Follower. Normally I use 23 as the “magic” number of lands, but with all my mana ramp creatures I feel safe dropping it to 22. I do a quick check; I have 10 lands that make blue, and 18 that make green, with a couple Nykthos most likely providing lots of green… seems about right.

Here is my result:

---Main Deck 60
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
4 Genesis Hydra
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Karametra's Acolyte
3 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Kruphix, God of Horizons
4 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Archetype of Endurance
3 Curse of the Swine
4 Jace's Ingenuity
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
10 Forest
2 Island
---Sideboard 15
2 Reclamation Sage
4 Nylea's Disciple
2 Arbor Colossus
1 Heroes’ Bane
2 Swan Song
2 Negate
1 Aetherspouts
1 Archetype of Imagination

Genesis Hydra by Pete Mohrbacher

You will not build the perfect deck on your first attempt! The fun of building a deck is watching it evolve and get better as you play more games. Take out the cards that aren’t performing (Boon Satyr) and replace them something that fills the slot better (Courser of Kruphix). Fill in gaps and look for ways to make your deck more consistent. Look for cards that are strictly better, same cost, same role, but a better effect. Listen to advice from your friends; they have a different perspective and may know of ways to upgrade or improve your deck. My journey began with a $20 Clash Pack. I found inspiration in a simple combo and grew it into a $100+ deck that is a blast to play and consistently beats my friends. We hope that our customers find a similar journey in our BDB decks. A card, combo, or theme within that deck will spark your creativity and you can slowly evolve it into your own great creation.

I know that was a long article so here’s a quick summary of guidelines for building a deck:

1. Keep your deck to 60 cards, ALWAYS. Don’t “water down” your best cards.
2. We found 23 lands work in most cases, leaving 37 creatures/spells.
• 20-30 creatures
• 7-17 spells
3. Pay attention to your mana curve! Have a mix of cheap and expensive creatures, with most between 2-4.
4. Include a few instants. Have a few tricks up your sleeve so you aren’t so predictable, and you can even disrupt their deck’s combos and strategy.
5. Have a clear plan for winning.

Hope this helps, and please give me feedback on how you'd like to see future articles!
Patrick