The deck idea actually started when I declared to my friends that I am going to build a full foil deck. I was surfing magiccards.info then, saw the M11 Media Insert - Birds of Paradise and went gaga over it. The art is astounding.
Hence green became the 1st color I chose for the deck. I was like pretty determined not to use blue as the secondary color (reason being blue foils are hard to acquire, moreover expensive). During that time, WOTC spoilt the Gatecrash set and I was stunned to see Zegana, Prime Speaker. Acquired my commander and started building the deck.
Wasn't too happy after playing a few games with the new simic deck helmed by Zegana, reason being the deck was too 'good stuff' and not thematic. All the deck does was play the top 50 'good to have in EDH' cards of the color, run powerul palinchron based infinites and win.
Soon, Vorel was revealed and I was elated. I wanted a commander to make use of my pretty Chessex dice and I am definitely sure he can do the job very well. And yes rest is history if not you will not be seeing me writing a post about the deck.
Why you should consider this deck
Do consider giving this deck a whirl if you:
Like to play with the numerous interactions and synergies between the cards
Like having a sub tribal theme
Like having different routes and options to win the game
Dislike general good stuff decks that is not on thematic
Deeply enjoy twirling numerous dice around here and there, putting counters here and there
DEEPLY LOVE MATH, especially the 2 times table.
This deck is not suitable for those who:
Doesn't like bringing extra side accessories (dice and counters) besides the deck to a gaming night.
Hate Elves to the core
Like control decks and good stuff decks more
Likes simplicity
Gets a headache when trying to differentiate between charge counters, +1/+1 counters, level counters and age counters
How does the deck rank?
Here is the ranking of the deck based off games with my playgroup in several different categories. Due to the difference in playgroups, please take this with a pinch of salt as they are mostly my own opinions. Scale is from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Please note that for some categories, higher doesn't mean better.
Mana acceleration and speed : 7/10
Fast mana ramp with the amount of mana dorks available. This deck will always have plenty of mana available. This deck is fast, beware of over-extending into a sweep.
Tutoring : 5/10
Average in tutoring. There are a number of creature tutors, 1 artifact tutor and zero enchantment/spell tutors. This deck runs a high number of creatures hence the tutoring is skewed towards creature permanents.
Board/Spell Control : 4/10
The deck features a few spells that can get rid of creatures/graveyard cards/enchantments and artifacts. 4 counter magic is also available for spell control. What the deck lacks is a board-wipe kind of spell, hence a low 4. The recent M14 Dismiss into Dream addition might help this a little, but with it's high casting cost and UG being unable to tutor it out efficiently makes it not able to push the ratings higher.
Draws and Card Advantage : 6/10
I rank this a 6 as it is still rather inconsistant in draws, in some games I would draw an average of 3-4 cards a turn and others 1 card a turn.
Dependence on Commander : 4/10
This is the best position the deck should be in in my opinion. Vorel is needed in the deck but not to an extent that the deck doesn't work or is deadly slow without him. In the current deck his presence will enhance the capabilities making it more explosive.
Win consistency of deck : 5/10
The deck currently wins roughly 1 match out of 4 in a 4 player multi-player setting. Differs from playgroup to playgroup.
Combo/Aggro potential : 7/10
There are several routes of winning through aggro and combo route. Infinites are available for groups who are okay with them. Most of my won matches are through the aggro route than combo as most of the combo engines require 3 cards and above to work.
Initial perceived Threat level : 5/10
Vorel doesn't give off a vibe of a top-tier absolutely must kill general. Generally most good stuff cards don't associate with our dear commander. One thing to beware is the threat level will usually increase when you start doubling x2 in 1 turn.
Explosiveness : 9/10
This deck is pure sick. There are numerous times when I cast a Primordial Hydra with just a 1x +1/+1 counter, untapping the next turn and start the next turn with like 24+ counters on it. Or hitting an opponent with a 1/1 Inkmoth nexus, proliferating 5+ times a turn using Inexorable tide and shrieking drake.
Ease of play : 3/10
This deck is filled with numerous interwoven synergies between cards. Many of the cards are chosen with the mindset of "Being strong collectively and not singularly". The deck might feel clunky and hard to pilot in the beginning but it will get alot better once you learn more about the intricacies in the deck.
Over here and the next few sections we will talk about the fundamentals of the deck, the thought processes on the purpose of each and every card/card group and the rationale of their placement in the 99 slots (whether they are really worth their salt or not). Important pieces of information are bolded for quick browsing.
First the commander
Let us first talk about the commander, Vorel. Vorel is a 3 cast cost, Human Merfolk hybrid with the power of 1 and a toughness of 4. He has only 1 activated ability, to double the number of counters on a target creature, artifact or land. This may seem very overwhelming and overpowered at first glance, but most of the time during actual play Vorel hardly sticks to the board for more than 3 turns. In fact most of the time when you have a substantial amount of board presence enough for Vorel to actually make a huge difference, the board will probably get sweeped within a round. Hence it will be good to make the deck to be not so dependent on Vorel to function properly.
Evolution does take some time, and so does comboing.
To be honest, this isn't the fastest, most explosive deck around. Although there are certainly "I win" type of infinite combo moments, the time it took to set it up usually spans over a few turns. It is easy to over extend in this deck due to the amount of draws it provides and fall prey to sweeps, so do be careful. The deck features 2 primary infinite combos to help end long games or when attacking isn't an option and a few draw engines to draw the neccessary key combo cards. To know more about the combos, please head over to the "Noteworthy combos" section.
Following the essence of evolution, do not be surprised that you don't find much fatties in the deck. Every creature in the deck will get stronger when they are paired with other creatures. That is the key of evolving as a whole. If at times you are in dire need of a fattie, do make use of the numerous clones available in the deck to create your own (using opponents' as a blue print lol).
There is something for turn-sideways strategists too
At its most basic core, the +1/+1 counters will make it easy for your creatures to overpower other non-buffed creatures. Cards like Champion of Lambholt and Bramblewood Paragon give creatures evasion to make it even more one sided in attacking. Combat tricks involving Vorel and Immaculate Magistrate make it hard for opponents to pick blockers for your creatures without risking their creatures dying.
Card choice explanations and alternatives
Why Elves as main sub tribe
Elves helped Vorel in various number of ways, let us look at the various 'departments' (packages) they function in.
Elf: +1/+1 counter
What we are looking here is the ability to bestow +1/+1 counters to other creatures, with Immaculate Magistrate being the most hardworking worker. She taps and gives +1/+1 counters based on the number of elves the player controls. Currently no other card in Simic colors does what she does with that kind of power. One reason to run more elves in the deck. Master Biomancer and Zameck guildmage both bestow the counters on creature ETB, with Zameck having the additional ability to convert the counters to cards.
Elf: Tutors and Utility
Fierce Empath is an EDH green staple that is an Elf. In this deck it can tutor for combo pieces like Triskelion and Vigor. or Progenitor Mimic copying the empath for more tutoring. Viridian Zealot isn't the best green EDH artifact/enchantment removal, but he is the best Elf for the job.
Elves are small creatures, there is always a need to beef them up for them to fight against the endless fatties which EDH has plentiful of. Joraga Warcaller pumps his brethren based on the number of +1/+1 counters he has on him. Bramblewood Paragon gives creatures that has +1/+1 counters evasion in the form of trample.
Card draws and advantage
These 3 cards are powerhouses when it comes to card draws. Fathom Mage is my favourite though, it draws more and more with each Vorel activation focusing on it. And yeah for using the gorgeous prerelease art. Sage of Fables converts the +1/+1 counters into card advantage and has big synergy with wizards, especially Glen Elendra Archmage. Soul of the Harvest is a staple green draw which works wonders with persist creatures.
Sacrifice Engine, the Spawning Pit
Spawning Pit has replaced Power conduit as the deck needs a sacrifice engine against creature exile effects. It also provides a channel for Vorel to double the counters for more 2/2 spawning. Lastly the pit forms the 3rd pillar in the woodfall infinite combo. With a card having that much use, it sure is worth a slot.
Tricks and Common Strategies
MVP of deck - Cytoshape
Ah, the all rounder instant card which is a hidden gem in the deck. This card is mainly used to stop creature based infinites and kill off opposing creature-type threats. It allows us to make any targeted creature into a copy of a non-legendary creature. One of the uses is to copy a 0/0 creature, (eg a hydra) hence making the 'clone' die if it doesn't has an effect that boost the toughness. Another use is to clone our own creature with boat loads of +1/+1 counters into Triskelion, effectively using up all the counters as ammunition. Yet another use is to turn an opposing Avacyn into an elf when the avacyn player decides to wrath. Or change the dreaded Sylvan Primordial into another creature if someone decides to abuse the ETB by cloning it. Endless possibilities, endless fun.
That froggy is strong
Amongst all grafters, I love this frog and Cytoplast Root-kin the most. Besides the graft ability interaction with persist, the frogling gives shroud for creatures with a +1/+1 counter. The wonders of this ability stretches beyond the obvious protection it gives to our own creatures. Do not ever hesitate in gifting your opponents' creature with a +1/+1 counter, a +1/+1 counter is a resource just like cards and mana.
Ever have an opposing commander voltroning around the battlefield using so many weapons that he needs to use his legs to wield them? Gift the commander a +1/+1 counter, and they will find it extremely hard to don their equipments until they find something to get rid of the counter or the frog.
U for a card? Sure
How it works
A very nice ETB combination brought forth from my old Zegana deck. With soul of the harvest out on the battlefield, cast and return shrieking drake for more cards.
Vorel's Sweeps
How it works
Simic is a very weak color when it comes to controlling creatures on the board. Unlike the other 3 colors UG doesn't have a great access to global creature sweeps. In M14 wizards gave us a very unique enchantment called Dismiss into Dream. This enchantment makes all opponents' creatures "Phastasmal"-like, resulting in them sacing those creatures which are targetted. Why should this card be part of Vorel's arsenal? Vorel targets... Thousand-year elixir targets, Staff of Domination targets... and Cauldron of Souls just became a "Tap to kill any number of target opponents' creatures" artifact. What not to like...
Noteworthy combos
Infinite - Self-propelled Trisk
How it works
With all 3 cards on the battlefield, have Triskelion shoot itself expending a +1/+1 counter. Vigor's triggered effect replaces the damage with a +1/+1 counter and is doubled by the doubling season. Net gain 1x +1/+1 counter per activation. Repeat until Triskelion has enough ammo to kill everyone else.
Infinite - Persistant Evolution
How it works
Whenever a creature with persist enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter, Master Biomancer's ability will trigger, giving the persisted creature a boost of the master's power in +1/+1 counters. Hence, repeated sacrificing Woodfall to the pit will create endless ETB triggers which will kill off all opposition non-creatures (read lands and mana rocks).
Infinite - Mana/Card engine
How it works
Self-explanatory. Staff of domination rocks with any mana dork that produces 5 mana per tap. Vorel seems to happen to like to help in doubling Gyre Sage's counters too. While Gyre Sage isn't around, Elvish Archdruid and Priest of Titania are available as alternatives too.
Infinite - Endless Tides
How it works
With Inexorable Tide and Gemstone Array at 2 charge counters, use 1 counter/mana to produce U. Cast Shrieking Drake, proliferate gemstone array + other cards and return the drake back to your hand... and there we have, endless proliferates. Shrieking drake's power really impressed me till a stage where I deemed him worthy enough to include even when there is no foil version of it.
Infinite - Infinity Untaps
How it works Seeker of Skybreak can untap itself + another creature with a low cost of 2 with the help of Rings of Brighthearth. With Elvish Archdruid + another elf, we can achieve infinite mana + infinite untaps of any other creature.
Strengths and Weaknesses
No deck is perfect, which is why we Simic always strive to evolve to get closer to perfection. In this section we will explore what are the core strengths of the deck, how to abuse it to our advantage; and also the weaknesses our deck comes with and what to do to lower the risks of them pulling us back.
Strengths Aggro primary with a combo fallback
This deck, unlike other Vorel builds, is built to be more offensive. Elves made up the core group of the offense wing, with hydras coming second to wipe things up should the elves fail. Numerous enhancers like Vigor, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa are specially selected to make going aggro a profitable route. The deck features a couple of combo fallbacks when the aggro route is not viable (especially when that Fogger Angus is around, Constant Mists with Crucible of Worlds oh man...)
Incredibly synergistic
The deck is choked full of card interactions, each card is chosen more for its interactions with other cards more than just its own strength. Hence you do not see much key staples like Eternal Witness, Deadeye Navigator, Sylvan Primordial, Avenger of Zendikar in the deck. Many cards serve a dual purpose in the deck, with cards like Kamahl who buffs aggro builds also doubles as land removal with the presence of Dismiss into Dream, and cards like Spawning Pit which provides a valid sacrifice engine and token producer with a very low threat.
Low threat footprint on Commander
Vorel is a commander that does nothing on its own, with a meager power of 1. This alone makes him ill-suited for 'voltron~ish' builds and aggro route. Players often let him live for sometime until he starts doing insane things, this is a plus point for us. (edit: depends on playgroup, my current playgroup has branded him as a KOS {kill on sight} target, meh).
Balanced deck with options and fallbacks
This deck functions well without Vorel, but becomes even faster and more aggressive when Vorel is around. This is the key selling point of the deck, having a deck that is not too reliant on the commander is really good when there are rampant "commander tuck" strategies in the meta. The deck is also specifically balanced to have a little of everything, and not needlessly fold to strategies kill-cards like Torpor Orb, Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence. The ability to add +1/+1 counters via ETB/activated route from lands and artifacts make us don't suffer as much when Humility is in play.
Speed balancing, built for Johnnies and Timmies in mind
This deck functions well in most of the environments (besides when it kicks up a tantrum giving me land screw or flood), be it a speed race or slowing down in battlecruiser magic. The deck and its creatures scale well with fast light skirmishes in early game to huge 100+ power creatures late game. Spikes however don't really like it as the deck doesn't really hold alot of powerhouses/good stuff.
Weaknesses Constant sweeps and Creature control
The main problem of this deck is it is incredilbly weak against constant/consecutive creature board wipes and creature control. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and its numerous clones, Umezawa's Jitte are the 2 main problems the deck faces in this section.
Lack of a second resource point - the Graveyard
Big problem which decks without white or black face. Green has some graveyard strategies but it requires too many slots to get it going. In this deck the graveyard is seldom used besides the occasional throwing of cards back to bottom of library using the kelpie or bow.
Non-toolbox
Unlike other simic decks like Zegana and Momir-Vig, this deck is not a toolbox deck. It doesn't have the means to tutor for whatever card to curb the situation as needed.
Limited control elements
We have very little control elements, with counterspells at a mere 3 cards and 3 artifact/enchantment removals. With nearly 0 recursion we only have limited resources available for defense. And aside from Grazing Kelpie, we have no other means to stop others from abusing their graveyard.
After Action Reviews (AAR)
Since the release date in May 2013, Vorel has fought quite a number of matches untill now. Not really much but there are still some insights to it. Here is where I record significant matches against other decks which makes me realise the shortcomings of the deck and make fine tunings.
Evolution begets progress, the true essense of Simic.
This is a really interesting matchup. One of the reasons I like 3 player matches the most is the amount of thinking it involves. Akin to 3 kingdoms style, one can't really over-extend or attack without worrying about the other player building up. There is a lot of to and fro until the Nath player drops his semi-lock into place. Nath with contamination. This is where I come to realise that me and the Sisay player didn't have anything to stop contamination once it is out on the field. All of Vorel's anti-enchantment options are green based. There are no color mana rocks in Vorel too. I sent Nath back to the command zone with a phyrexian metamorph (paying using phyrexian mana). With this the Nath player is forced to end his lock after a few turns as he didn't draw into any color mana rock nor his black spells.
The game ends with Sisay winning dropping Sigarda and a hasted Ulamog attacking into a clean field after numerous sweeping.
This particular game gets me thinking, what can be done to minimise the damage done to Vorel when colored mana locks are in place. The piece of puzzle if I place it in, must work in unison with Vorel and the other cards, like a cog in the wheel. Borrowing from other Vorel commanders decklists, I've found the answer; now is just finding a slot to put it in.
White's version of Silent Hill, dead elves everywhere...
This is a straight up build-fest to see which player is able to get his creature controls up and running first. Umazawa's Jitte has really pull off its worth here. With 2 counters gleamed from attacking, it is able to stop Kaalia and Sisay down on their tracks until they find someway to remove it. Usually in this kind of stand-off, opponents will be less likely to remove Jitte especially when the Kaalia player ran a Lightning Greaves and Captain Sisay has a Hall of the Bandit Lord on board. Skullbriar player dropped a Call to the Grave, which helps in keeping the board free. All is fine for me as I tutored for Imperious Perfect to help mitigate the effects of the grave call.
Out came Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and everything took a turn for the worse. Selesnya has a remarkable history of being the most resilant duo color combination in EDH. While great care is taken to ensure that the white praetor's partner in crime (Kamahl, Fist of Krosa) isn't present in the field, one lone ability of -2/-2 is more than enough to kill off most of my deck's creatures. Killing it wouldn't do much, with Saffi Eriksdotter, Loyal Retainers and Karmic Guide bringing her back to life everytime.
Till now I still can't find a good way to effectively guard against the white praetor. Simic elves is relatively weak when it comes to recuperating after a one sided sweep. Perhaps the only way is to prevent the spell/creature/reanimation from happening in the first place. Listed below are some cards which I find useful in general spell defense and reanimators. A strong emphasis is put on either the ability being reusable or has the ability of getting rid of the menace forever.
Different takes and builds by other Vorel players
Vorel of the Hull Clade - Counters Everywhere
By Danissimus. An artifact build, fun and synergistic with Vorel. Remember to bring loads of dice, best in different colors. You don't want to mix up the charge counters and +1/+1 counters on Chimeric Mass.
Vorel in Slow Motion
By HansonWK. Prison based build of Vorel. Be sure to take a look at your opponents' face when you drop down Tangle Wire and doubling it with Vorel.
Update history
Decklist changes Changes from version 1.5
Tangle Wire is out, much tutoring needed to get it to come out and work. Wild Pair is out, to pave new strategies for the deck. Pulokranos is out, is a powerful hydra but I have no space for it, lack of trample makes it weaker than other 2 hydras. Sakashima is out to lower the U devotion count, Thassa is better as an enchantment than enchantment creature (which always got people want to trade her bident with a plowshare zzz).
Testing out Tangle Wire, it is a really great card to have in Vorel but with limited access to tutors it might be hard to get it into play during early stage.
Finally some goodies for Vorel in the upcoming set.
We have
1) Kalonian Hydra
I don't know really how to rate this hydra. It has an awesome and on-theme ability but like Fangren Firstborn, it needs to swing first before getting the doubling ability. Might be just the creature Vorel is hoping for.
Pros:
+ On theme, +1/+1 counters doubler on swing
+ Good cost for the ability, a 4/4 for 3GG
+ One of the few hydras that can be safely Birthing Pod into.
+ Has evasion (trample)
- Without any kind of aid, needs one full turn to swing.
Verdict: 8/10
2) Strionic Resonator
If you inspect the image really really closely (you might need a magnifying glass), you can see a reelly tiny, little laboratory on the tropical island that big tuning fork is installed on. And yes, that belongs to us Simic and Vorel is happy to have the fork.
Seedborn 'Muses' in unison with the resonator. What more can we say? It doubles every thing, triggered. Even sometimes Doubling Season needs some doubling too.
Pros:
-- In fear of saying, later it will get banned for being too 'unfun' --
Cons:
-- Can't think of any --
Verdict: 10/10 (A MUST GET)
2) Primeval Bounty
A new green "do everything" kind of card. With this card around, we can turn all our non-creature spells into mini-bounty of the hunts. Elves come with a beast companion too and lands give us more life. Can't hurt to have it around.
Pros:
+ A do all card, every ability is triggered and appropriate to the deck.
Cons:
- In Simic colors it is relatively hard to dig this card out without heavy investment in portals and wish rings.
Verdict: 8/10
Looks like I need to drop some of the cards in my decklist. What cards do you all think should be replaced? So far I can only think of Door of Destinies...
Pros:
- With enough mana dorks out he could be a turn 4 or even 3 depending what you have out. He is a major draw engine for the amount of critters you have in the deck so by late game all you are going is drawing into spells. His Alt is bonkers with this deck, he tutors for anything you need to put out. Also works with DS.
Cons:
- His -3 might not work well if you don't have green in your hand, the turn you have him out and nothing to chump block for him might not be good.
Pros:
- With being a 3/3 for 3 with hex is nice by its self, i would more then likely only use this if i know my playgroup well enough to know to put him in or not. He gets big if played right.
Cons:
- like i said up there if your going against blue/black not going to get big at all just a hexproof body.
Many thanks for the suggestions, a lot of them are great for the deck. I am too plagued by the decision of removing/adding cards due to slot limitations. Heck I want to even drop 1-2lands just to put in a couple of cards... haiz.
1) Asceticism
This is a really nice card to include, gives all our guys the much needed hexproof and anti-sweep tech through regeneration. My only gripe to it is that in Simic colors it is relatively hard to tutor to it when we need it the most (i.e facing an imminent danger of getting sweep). This card has been on my "to put in list".
2) Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Garruk 4.0, has a pretty niche set of abilities as compared to Garruk Wildspeaker (1.0). I feel that he is more for a deck that commands hordes of beasts (eg. Animar deck running 50+ creatures). In a deck which has 30+ creatures his abilities is weakened, we probably will hit only 1-2 cards per activation of his 1st ability. I really can't imagine how I will react when I hit a key card like Thousand Year Elixir using Garruk's 1st ability, in which the deck has very little artifact tutors to begin with.
The 2nd ability is a weaker version of Elvish Piper at sorcery speed. Not really optimal for a deck running many low casting cost elves.
I absolutely love the ultimate for this Garruk. Getting there is a problem though, as I can't recall a time when [car]dDoubling Season[/card] actually sticks (+ being there for a couple of turns) without being krosan gripped or countered.
3) Kalonian Hydra
YES this is definitely going in. I'll get it in even if I need to cut a land as a resort.
4) Llanowar Reborn
Great find. I don't know why I keep missing out this land, will add it in once I find a copy of it.
5) Evolution Vat
This card has been in and out of the deck for a few times. The main problem of vat is the cost involved in activating it is very high (3 for activation + 2UG for doubling). The best buddy for this card is Cytoplast Manipulator, when these 2 cards are in play, the cost of gaining control of a creature is 3U.
In "to put in list", I seriously need more slots for my deck.
6) Gilder Bairn
Really powerful card and appropiate, doubles everything unlike Vorel. Any suggestions to utilise his ability without risking him going to combat deep into opponent's territory? Presence of Gond?
So ive been bouncing back and forth on this topic in my head so im just going to list some ideas for you to think about. i like to improve decks so here we go
and that is all i have for at the moment and again there just thoughts for the mind. Have fun. I do like this deck as soon as i start rolling in some money this is deff going to be built. thanks!
I think Forgotten Ancient, Inexorable Tide, Renegade Krasis, and Predator Ooze all should be included. They are really good, and I also recommend other proliferate cards in here if you can find the room, which I know is tough. Overall, though, nice deck, I really enjoy Elves and Vorel.
So ive been bouncing back and forth on this topic in my head so im just going to list some ideas for you to think about. i like to improve decks so here we go
and that is all i have for at the moment and again there just thoughts for the mind. Have fun. I do like this deck as soon as i start rolling in some money this is deff going to be built. thanks!
Many thanks to Dragonkeeper for the suggestions! I tested a number of cards in this list and quite a few made it to my deck.
Sporeback Troll
Primordial Hydra
Cytoplast/Simic Manipulator are in my backup list of nice stuff to add in.
I would like to talk a little about Renegade Krasis. I really like this card during testing, however it need another card to work properly. Unfortunately I am still half sold about the card's usefulness in the current version of the deck. The card in question is called Ooze Flux.
One of the big weakness of Renegade Krasis is the high P/T it comes in by default. Not many of the creatures will trigger it after it had evolved 2 times. Ooze Flux solves that by removing the counters and converting it to creatures. Speaking of the 2 cards, utilizing both the krasis and ooze flux with 2 other creatures (presumely with +1/+1 counters), we can keep generating 3/3 ooze tokens at a mere cost of 1G. This is something nice to look into.
I think Forgotten Ancient, Inexorable Tide, Renegade Krasis, and Predator Ooze all should be included. They are really good, and I also recommend other proliferate cards in here if you can find the room, which I know is tough. Overall, though, nice deck, I really enjoy Elves and Vorel.
Thanks bccohen for the suggestions. Yeah proliferate cards are godly in a deck that dabbles with counters. All your suggestions are good and I have already bought foiled copies of them. I just need the space omg.... *bangs head*
Forgotten Ancient is a hit and miss for me, if I count the card which I slot in and out, this has to be the card that goes in and out the most. It is extremely powerful early game with it netting counters for me. In late game the usability of it drops as opponents are often 1-2 spells away from comboing/dealing lethal damage to the table.
I've removed Body Double, seems like having additional clones doesn't really help the deck out much as most of the important fatties are actually the hydras. Followed Footsteps is so wow... the predecessor of Progenitor Mimic.
Dropped Sylvan Primordial and Avenger of Zendikar, both are classified under 'good stuff' cards that isn't really on theme. Added in Rapid Hybridization for more creature control, especially against cards like Elesh Norn.
Added in the Inexorable tide combo. Hope it really does its job well... in theory everything seems nice until we start playing it lol. There is currently not enough stuff in the deck to actually benefit from proliferate.
Shrieking drake, on the other hand, is fantastic. It allows me to either replay any creature for ETB goodness or becomes a recast-able cantrip when Soul of the Harvest is in play. So good till it make me question why am I not adding it due to the self-imposed magpie ruling. After convincing myself I can alter the card the drake has a permanent place in the deck.
Currently 3 cards are on 'watch list', Sporeback Troll, Wirewood Channeler and Plasm Capture. I still can't decide between Mindbreak Trap (more utility imho) vs Plasm Capture. While the former can exile un-counterable spells, the latter is more in-line with Vorel... being Simic with a flavourful quote from our dear Commander himself.
This deck really needs a mana sink... hopefully there will be more cards in Theros that will fill up this gap. Hail Hydra!
Updated the deck list to feature more defensive strategies and the new hydra(s). Testing out Tangle Wire, it might not be a main stay in the deck due to slot limitation (I really want that new Bow of Nylea to be in the deck)
Vorel's Sweeps
How it works
Simic is a very weak color when it comes to controlling creatures on the board. Unlike the other 3 colors UG doesn't have a great access to global creature sweeps. In M14 wizards gave us a very unique enchantment called Dismiss into Dream. This enchantment makes all opponents' creatures "Phastasmal"-like, resulting in them sacing those creatures which are targetted. Why should this card be part of Vorel's arsenal? Vorel targets... Thousand-year elixir targets, Staff of Domination targets... and Cauldron of Souls just became a "Tap to kill any number of target opponents' creatures" artifact. What not to like...
Theros is out and it is time to update the deck again. Since the last update a few weeks ago there has been numerous changes made to the deck, quite a number of previous strategies are scraped and new cards added to create more new and fun interactions/synergies. The main post will be changed once I've acquired and tested the cards from the new Theros block. Below are some of the changes and intended changes to the deck.
New cards from Theros that are noteworthy and most likely to be given a place in the deck:
1) Prophet of Kruphix -
This is a direct replacement for Seedborn Muse. If I have slots I would have run both cards + Murkfiend Liege... but oh well, I can't be too greedy.
2) Bow of Nylea -
In the entire world of MTG, we can really count cards that give a +1/+1 counter as an activated ability with 1 hand. Experiment Kraj, Immaculate Magistrate, Dragon Blood, Forcemage Advocate and to a certain extent, Power Conduit. Bow of Nylea is a very good utility card especially in this deck. The low cast cost and low threat level makes it really ideal for a deck that really wants to keep itself off the radar, not to mention the extra abilities it has. More on the threat level later, Vorel isn't really a low threat deck as how my playgroup perceives it.
3) Thassa, God of the Sea -
She is in mainly for her unblockable ability. One of the weakness of the deck is an opponent is able to chump block anyone of our evolved fatties all day. Bramblewood Paragon and Champion of Lambholt do solve the problem for a bit, but most of the time they are gone as fast as they ETB. Having a 3rd way to get damage in is really good.
Deck changes:
Wild Pair strategy out! -
Don't get me wrong, Wild Pair is actually a fantastic card in Vorel. It is really sad to let it go, but I find that only when I take it out, the deck then will have more options to evolve into something better. One of the main limitations for Wild Pair is I have to really build around it, the deck must have a certain amount of fatties to actually make it worth the effort. Slots have to be dedicated to shift counters around, with cards like graft creatures and Simic Guildmage. Hence, in order to embrace the true Simic ideals of evolving, this has to go.
Another kind of doubler is in -
With the 'creature doubler' out, I bring in another type of doubler, Rings of Brighthearth. Vorel is a deck choked full with activated abilities, what is better than 1 activated ability? Two of them. With that and the wish to increase the Elf count of the deck in mind, Seeker of Skybreak is added in conjunction with the rings. Untapping a creature with an activated ability is another way to double the effects, moreover Seeker has much lower perceived threat than Staff of Domination or Thousand-year Elixir. With these 2 working together, it reads "{2} : Untap target creature".
With the Rings of Brighthearth in deck, it gives me another reason to use Sensei Divining Top, a format staple for some draw power.
Addressing the draw weakness and recovery after sweeps
It is really disheartening to hear that a UG deck is lacking in draw power. We are in U for goodness sake, having draw power should be easy. There are currently quite a a few cards in Vorel that aids in the draw department, why not enough draws?
If you look at the decklist carefully, you will see that most of the card draws actually comes from creatures, Sage of Fables, Zameck Guildmage, Fathom Mage and Soul of the Harvest. This actually post quite a problem as creature sweeps are aplenty in my current playgroup. Some decks even pack up to 7 sweeper cards just to make sure they can sweep every single game.
After some brainstorming and throwing ideas around, I have decided to include Garruk, Primal Hunter and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage in. They both have excellent utility abilities and are able to give card draw when needed. Both of them survive sweeps (especially Austere Command & Jokulhaups and gang) and have really relavant abilities which are in line with the deck's strategy (Garruk drawing from creature power "+1/+1 abilities" and Tamiyo drawing from tapped creatures).
Format Staple - Eternal Witness out
She is really an underperformer in this deck. Out.
Upping the persist count Grazing Kelpie is added back in. Scavenging Ooze needs a buddy for graveyard hate and it is the best card for the deck for it. Another reason for adding the kelpie is with the added persist count, Cytoshape has more targets.
MVP card of the deck - Cytoshape
After playing with this card so many times in the deck, I come to realise why it is worth the rare rarity status. This card is GODLY to an extent that I blame myself why I didn't play it in Vorel in the 1st place. The potential of this card is limitless in the deck. It currently does the following:
- Creature kill spell
- Stops creature type infinite combos
- Reanimator
- Double the creature ability
- Makes all my creatures invulnerable to damage, including the Vigor it copies
- Makes players who likes to play Avacyn + Armageddon cry.
MVP card of the deck - Cytoshape
After playing with this card so many times in the deck, I come to realise why it is worth the rare rarity status. This card is GODLY to an extent that I blame myself why I didn't play it in Vorel in the 1st place. The potential of this card is limitless in the deck. It currently does the following:
- Creature kill spell
- Stops creature type infinite combos
- Reanimator
- Double the creature ability
- Makes all my creatures invulnerable to damage, including the Vigor it copies
- Makes players who likes to play Avacyn + Armageddon cry.
Can you elaborate on this card a little more? Are you targeting mainly your stuff or your opponent's stuff?
Can you elaborate on this card a little more? Are you targeting mainly your stuff or your opponent's stuff?
I use this card mainly as utility based on the situation on the field.
Cytoshape
Instant, 1UG (3)
Choose a nonlegendary creature on the battlefield. Target creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn.
At first look cytoshape is just a weak 'clone' that only lasts until end of turn, don't let it ability fool you. Use it well and you will find that it is like a spell based swiss army knife, depending on what is available on the field.
Creature kill spell
There are many creatures in UG colors that have a base Power/Toughness of 0/0, and ETB with a number of +1/+1 counters (eg Primordial Hydra). How cytoshape kills an opponent's creature is first, choose a 0/0 creature of ours, then target an opponent's creature to make it 0/0 and it dies as it doesn't have +1/+1 counters to modify the toughness.
What about killing creatures which have counters or anthem based buffs? It is a little more tricky but it can be done. Let me introduce the companion card for Cytoshape, meet Phantasmal Image, a format staple for U. What we do is to choose the image as the creature being copied (it doesn't die as the 1st choice is not targetted), then target an opponent's creature that we want it to be "Phanstasmal". After that is done and resolved, find a way to target that creature to make opponent sacrifice it. Fortunately in Vorel we are blessed with a lot of targetting abilities, like Thousand-Year Elixir, even Vorel himself can make the kill.
Stops creature type infinite combos
It throws a wench to Sharuum, Kiki Jiki, Mikaeus based infinites, what not to love. Other creature kill spells work too but being a utility card, Cytoshape is so much better.
Reanimator
Cytoshape works exceptionally well with persist guys, which is the sole reason why I want to increase the persist count in Vorel. Cards like Kalonian Hydra are often the target of destroy effects. With Cytoshape we can change the hydra into a Grazing Kelpie while it is about to be destroyed, granting it persist, making it return back as a hydra (with 1 head short, but oh well lol). This works with any non-toughness 1 creatures we want to 'reanimate'.
Another way is more meta dependent, in my playgroup cards like Reveillark is abundant. It is always good to have an instant spell that take advantage of this.
Double the creature ability
Ever have your ultra-uber big 58/58 creature (with tons of +1/+1 counters making it that big) being tapped down or chump blocked all day?
Cytoshape it to give it evasion (flying, trample), or change it into something that makes use of the +1/+1 counters. Like Triskelion or Mindless Automaton. Another nice combat trick that I employ quite often is to attack with a creature with 9 or more +1/+1 counters and an Inkmoth Nexus land on my side. Opponents first facing off Vorel will never brave the front by saying "10 damage only? I'll take it". Make them learn that any creature can be cytoshaped into an inkmoth nexus.
Makes all my creatures invulnerable to damage, including the Vigor it copies
Cytoshaping Vigor always leave a smile in my face when a Blasphemous Act is on the stack.
Makes players who likes to play Avacyn + Armageddon cry
Cytoshape really pulls the Avacyn player down together with the group when that player armageddons and expect to see his lands still intact.
This sums up what the card can do in my deck. There are a lot more interactions that are still waiting to be found, which is why it makes me very excited whenever I have the card in my hand.
Love the deck but I am confused about some of your uses for Cytoshape. The card specifies non-legendary creatures.
@Nathones: The card is confusing to me too in the beginning. There are 2 parts in Cytoshape. The first is to "Choose a nonlegendary creature on the battlefield". This ability we can only choose a non-legendary creature. The second however, "Target creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn", we can choose whatever creature that can be targeted, be it legendary or non-legendary. Hope this clears the confusion.
In this way for example, we can change Avacyn into a copy of Joraga Treespeaker, then ping it for 1 damage via Triskelion.
My only issue with this card is that it doesnt fit the theme - and my Vorel decklist is as much counter oriented as possible. But despite this fact I am strongly considering this card
@Danissimus:
Yes, the card is extremely useful when it is out. A bit high on threat though. It changes the gameplay of opponents decks to a certain extent and will usually leave them frustrated. Some of the frustrations stem from:
- Unable to equip Lightning Greaves to their own commander. Weakening commanders like Captain Sisay who needs shroud and haste in order to stay on the field.
- Voltron Commanders feel the pain, especially those who focus mainly on equipment and auras.
Overall I am quite satisfied with Dismiss into Dream, I have only two complaints about it though. First is due to the card type Enchantment. In simic we have really limited ways to tutor it out, most of the time I only got the card by drawing into it.
The latter is the same as yours, it is not on theme with the vorel's double counter theme. But as I think about it, my current vorel deck has quite a number of themes running,
- +1/+1 counters
- activated abilities (many of which targets)
- Elf sub-tribe
Dismiss into Dream fits relatively well into the activated abilities theme imho, sometimes we just need to leave room for other cards to supplement/support the theme.
@Nathones: The card is confusing to me too in the beginning. There are 2 parts in Cytoshape. The first is to "Choose a nonlegendary creature on the battlefield". This ability we can only choose a non-legendary creature. The second however, "Target creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn", we can choose whatever creature that can be targeted, be it legendary or non-legendary. Hope this clears the confusion.
In this way for example, we can change Avacyn into a copy of Joraga Treespeaker, then ping it for 1 damage via Triskelion.
Ah, this is the part I was missing. Very nice.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my articles about EDH on MTGO HERE
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
I like your decklist very much and plan to switch from my competitive Zegana to a more casual Vorel built.
What do you think about Lux Cannon for permanent kill?
Thanks for liking my list, it brings me great joy to hear that.
Lux Cannon fits perfectly in a Vorel deck theme-wise. There was period of time where both the cannon and magistrate's scepter are both in the deck. After playing with them for some time, I found that for the cannon to really work, a substantial amount of card slots need to be dedicated to increase the amount of counters being placed on these artifacts as to minimise their clunkiness. Currently as of now the decklist doesn't have the capabilities to maximise the use of the Lux Cannon. For non-creature permanents I will have to rely on Woodfall Primus with a sacrifice engine. Creatures can be taken care of with Dismiss into Dreams.
One of the future updates to this thread is the inclusion of variant deck builds and strategies. I am starting to collect an alternate list of artifacts to build a variant artifact build, will post the decklist and strategies once it is done and tested.
Edit: I face a meta with a huge amount with sweepers. How do you face Damnation, Oblivion Stone & co?
I am in the same boat as you, my meta is choke full of sweepers too. As Simic we have the inherent weakness of being susceptible to board wipes, recovery is a pain too as we don't have reanimating capabilities that Black and White has. Green does provide some form of card recycling in graveyards, for example Eternal Witness, Regrowth, Deadwood Treefolk. However these are not enough to form a solid recovery option against sweeps. Most of them are non in-theme too, sigh.
To be honest, this deck doesn't really have that much defense against numerous sweeps, but I do still put some thought into sweep-protection when I make the decklist.
1) Setting up a counter-wall.
90% of the sweeps in EDH are sorcery/artifact/enchantment based. Very very few actually come from creatures. Hence, setting up an early Glen Elendra Archmage + Master Biomancer/Sage of Fables/Zameck Guildmage will give you a solid defense against these sweeps as long as you have U mana untapped. Do bear in mind that this is a very high threat setup, you can be sure that every single removal will be targetted at your poor faerie wizard once she is out.
2) Show your opponents your persistance.
Cauldron of Souls provide a second life to all the creatures via persist. Most of the time the -1/-1 counter is negligible as we do have numerous ways of getting rid of them. Novijen, Heart of Progress is one such way to do it.
3) Conventional counterspells
This deck have 2-3 counterspells to rely on for situations like this. In the case of Oblivion Stone, it will be good to consider switching out dissipate for voidslime.
Edit2: How about Tawnos's Coffin? It works wonders with Prime Speaker Zegana, leaving her counters as they were before the exile. You can save own creatures in response to removal or sweepers. You can exile creatures from your opponents or even kill them with Dismiss into Dreams or just trigger some ETB's you like. And it works insanely good with Seedborn Muse
I love Tawno's Coffin, it is the top contender in my Zegana list before I made the switch from Zegana to Vorel. When I made the switch to Vorel, things became quite different. ETB-abilities are no longer the main focus of the deck like Zegana was, Vorel is a very much "Activated ability" styled deck. Much of the deck is used to make that activated ability theme more focused, such as lowering the amount of creature ETB abilities.
I think as the amount of creature ETB-abilities increase, the more worth Tawno's Coffin is. Right now as the deck stands, it doesn't really do justice to such a great card.
Wow, that's a nice list you have there. Let us go through some of the card choices and brainstorm for more options. I have broken down my thoughts into sections so it will be easier for us to refine the list.
Vorel's ability - Thematic
Currently from your list, here are the cards which can be doubled with Vorel's ability.
Currently there are a total of 9 cards. Not too shabby, but perhaps we can increase the count to roughly 14-15 to maintain it as a vorel themed deck.
Tap down theme
I really like the inclusion of Opposition, can't believe that I miss out this. We can expand a bit further on this and Tangle Wire making it a vital part of the deck.
Proliferate & ETB
It seems like you will like to keep some ETB abilities and go with some proliferate. We can keep this and expand on it too.
Below are some of my suggestions keeping the 4 points above.
Adding a new engine
Since Rings of Brighthearth is in the deck, we can do more combos with it. Combine it with both Gilded Lotus and Tidewater Minion and we get a very powerful infinite mana engine + the capabilities to untap every permanent on the board. Gilded Lotus is a format staple and the captain can untap our own vorel for more doubling fun.
Edit: Miscalculate the mana required, Captain of the mists can only work when it is paired with a mana rock/dork that taps for 4 mana and above. Sorry about that.
More targets for Proliferate
Pentavus is an excellent creature that can create mini-drones using the +1/+1 counters. That is the closest we can get to Ghave's ability and is highly relavant in Vorel deck. The created creature tokens can be used as opposition fodder to tap down opponent's permanents too.
With the lack of effects that shift +1/+1 counters around, the best way is to include another spike to compliment Spike Weaver. Spike Feeder is a good card as it can utilise the +1/+1 counters right away without mana investment. Another good card in this catagory is Mindless Automaton which is not shown.
A natural fit for a deck that focus on proliferating are the planeswalkers. Tamiyo provides both tap down and draw, a good fit for a deck that uses quite a bit of creature activated abilities.
Main decklist updated with Theros cards. Some old existing strategies (Wild Pair) has been dropped to pave in new strategies.
Strangely though the old and new Simic abilities are all reduced to 1 card each in Vorel (Fathom mage for evolve and Plaxcaster Frogling for Graft), that is kind of sad.
What are you views on Gyre Sage? Currently I'm replacing it with Viridian Joiner.
I would never replace Gyre Sage with Joiner in my deck.. reason? Joiner doesn't use counters..
And even if I think about the power level of the two cards, Gyre is much higher (at least in my deck). Very abusable
Generally, mana sources with counters (Everflowing Chalice, Gemstone Array, City of Shadows, Gyre Sage are very important cards in my deck, usualy part of some nasty combo or synergy and providing cool things (accelerate, good against stax decks etc).
I am interested in your testing games, my personal guess is that you will redo this change :)) but maybe I am mistaken
Many thanks for your feedback, listed are the pros and cons of each card:
+ Able to generate G without any external aid (+1/+1 counters or anthem)
+ Interacts well with Elf Lords, especially Joraga Warcaller, which buffs the joiner letting him produce more mana
+ Power of the elf adds to giving more mana
- Cost 2G to cast, comes out later than Gyre Sage
- Needs external factors to boost ability, either giving counters or anthem effects
- Doesn't mix really well with Vorel unless it has +1/+1 counters
This is what I can think of, currently for both of them the pros and cons are about the same... with Gyre Sage leading as we can boost the sage's ability to 3/4 easily by just casting creatures alone (a normal 2/2 followed by vorel). In terms of creature interaction between cards, Viridian Joiner works better when the other Elves (especially lords) are present. Will have to test the deck first.
Magpie.dec
Table of contents
Brief history of the deck
The deck idea actually started when I declared to my friends that I am going to build a full foil deck. I was surfing magiccards.info then, saw the M11 Media Insert - Birds of Paradise and went gaga over it. The art is astounding.
Hence green became the 1st color I chose for the deck. I was like pretty determined not to use blue as the secondary color (reason being blue foils are hard to acquire, moreover expensive). During that time, WOTC spoilt the Gatecrash set and I was stunned to see Zegana, Prime Speaker. Acquired my commander and started building the deck.
Wasn't too happy after playing a few games with the new simic deck helmed by Zegana, reason being the deck was too 'good stuff' and not thematic. All the deck does was play the top 50 'good to have in EDH' cards of the color, run powerul palinchron based infinites and win.
Soon, Vorel was revealed and I was elated. I wanted a commander to make use of my pretty Chessex dice and I am definitely sure he can do the job very well. And yes rest is history if not you will not be seeing me writing a post about the deck.
Why you should consider this deck
Do consider giving this deck a whirl if you:
This deck is not suitable for those who:
How does the deck rank?
Here is the ranking of the deck based off games with my playgroup in several different categories. Due to the difference in playgroups, please take this with a pinch of salt as they are mostly my own opinions. Scale is from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Please note that for some categories, higher doesn't mean better.
Mana acceleration and speed : 7/10
Fast mana ramp with the amount of mana dorks available. This deck will always have plenty of mana available. This deck is fast, beware of over-extending into a sweep.
Tutoring : 5/10
Average in tutoring. There are a number of creature tutors, 1 artifact tutor and zero enchantment/spell tutors. This deck runs a high number of creatures hence the tutoring is skewed towards creature permanents.
Board/Spell Control : 4/10
The deck features a few spells that can get rid of creatures/graveyard cards/enchantments and artifacts. 4 counter magic is also available for spell control. What the deck lacks is a board-wipe kind of spell, hence a low 4. The recent M14 Dismiss into Dream addition might help this a little, but with it's high casting cost and UG being unable to tutor it out efficiently makes it not able to push the ratings higher.
Draws and Card Advantage : 6/10
I rank this a 6 as it is still rather inconsistant in draws, in some games I would draw an average of 3-4 cards a turn and others 1 card a turn.
Dependence on Commander : 4/10
This is the best position the deck should be in in my opinion. Vorel is needed in the deck but not to an extent that the deck doesn't work or is deadly slow without him. In the current deck his presence will enhance the capabilities making it more explosive.
Win consistency of deck : 5/10
The deck currently wins roughly 1 match out of 4 in a 4 player multi-player setting. Differs from playgroup to playgroup.
Combo/Aggro potential : 7/10
There are several routes of winning through aggro and combo route. Infinites are available for groups who are okay with them. Most of my won matches are through the aggro route than combo as most of the combo engines require 3 cards and above to work.
Initial perceived Threat level : 5/10
Vorel doesn't give off a vibe of a top-tier absolutely must kill general. Generally most good stuff cards don't associate with our dear commander. One thing to beware is the threat level will usually increase when you start doubling x2 in 1 turn.
Explosiveness : 9/10
This deck is pure sick. There are numerous times when I cast a Primordial Hydra with just a 1x +1/+1 counter, untapping the next turn and start the next turn with like 24+ counters on it. Or hitting an opponent with a 1/1 Inkmoth nexus, proliferating 5+ times a turn using Inexorable tide and shrieking drake.
Ease of play : 3/10
This deck is filled with numerous interwoven synergies between cards. Many of the cards are chosen with the mindset of "Being strong collectively and not singularly". The deck might feel clunky and hard to pilot in the beginning but it will get alot better once you learn more about the intricacies in the deck.
Decklist and Statistics
1x Vorel of the Hull Clade (*)
Persist (2)
1x Woodfall Primus (*)
1x Glen Elendra Archmage (*)
Elf Lords - Sub Tribal (1)
1x Joraga Warcaller (*)
Untaps (4)
1x Prophet of Kruphix (*)
1x Staff of Domination
1x Thousand-Year Elixir (*)
1x Seeker of Skybreak (*)
+1/+1 Counters On ETB/Cast (4)
1x Master Biomancer (*)
1x Zameck Guildmage (*)
1x Bramblewood Paragon (*)
1x Champion of Lambholt (*)
+1/+1 Counter Creatures (5)
1x Plaxcaster Frogling (*)
1x Spike Weaver (altered)
1x Primordial Hydra (*)
1x Kalonian Hydra (*)
1x Triskelion (*)
Combo Pieces/Sacrifice Engines (1)
1x Spawning Pit (*)
1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Blinks and Proliferate (2)
1x Inexorable Tide (*)
1x Shrieking Drake (altered)
Equipments (1)
1x Umezawa's Jitte (*)
Effect Doublers (2)
1x Doubling Season (*)
1x Rings of Brighthearth (*)
+1/+1 counters Adders (3)
1x Immaculate Magistrate (*)
1x Bow of Nylea (*)
1x Ivy Lane Denizen (*)
Clones (3)
1x Phyrexian Metamorph (*)
1x Phantasmal Image (*)
1x Progenitor Mimic (*)
1x Fertilid (*)
1x Elvish Archdruid (*)
1x Joraga Treespeaker (*)
1x Priest of Titania (*)
1x Oracle of Mul Daya (*)
1x Wood Elves (*)
1x Viridian Joiner (*)
Mana Rocks (4)
1x Sol Ring (*)
1x Everflowing Chalice (*)
1x Gemstone Array (*)
1x Gilded Lotus (*)
Land Ramp (1)
1x Cultivate (*)
Card Advantage & Fixes (6)
1x Sage of Fables (*)
1x Fathom Mage (*)
1x Sylvan Library (*)
1x Soul of the Harvest (*)
1x Sensei's Divining Top (*)
1x Thassa, God of the Sea (*)
Counters (2)
1x Dissipate (*)
1x Pact of Negation (*)
Protection (8)
1x Viridian Zealot (*)
1x Vigor (*)
1x Cyclonic Rift (*)
1x Beast Within (*)
1x Cytoshape (*)
1x Lightning Greaves (*)
1x Dismiss into Dream (*)
1x Cauldron of Souls (*)
1x Grazing Kelpie (*)
Tutors (4)
1x Green Sun's Zenith (*)
1x Fierce Empath (*)
1x Natural Order (*)
1x Birthing Pod (*)
Planeswalkers (2)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker (*)
1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Lands (35)
1x Breeding Pool (*)
1x Flooded Grove (*)
1x Simic Growth Chamber (*)
1x Ancient Tomb (*)
1x Hinterland Harbor (*)
1x Yavimaya Coast (*)
1x Novijen, Heart of Progress (*)
1x Command Tower (*)
1x Dryad Arbor (*)
1x Reliquary Tower (*)
1x High Market (*)
1x Alchemist's Refuge (*)
1x Wirewood Lodge (*)
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge (*)
1x Pendelhaven (*)
1x Inkmoth Nexus (*)
1x Misty Rainforest
9x Forest (*)
9x Island (*)
Pimped: 94*/100
(2 cards cannot be altered)
Creatures: 37
Sorcery/Instants: 8
Artifacts: 12
Enchantments: 6
Planeswalkers: 2
Lands : 35
Avg casting cost: 3.32
Link to deckstats
Understanding the deck
Over here and the next few sections we will talk about the fundamentals of the deck, the thought processes on the purpose of each and every card/card group and the rationale of their placement in the 99 slots (whether they are really worth their salt or not). Important pieces of information are bolded for quick browsing.
First the commander
Let us first talk about the commander, Vorel. Vorel is a 3 cast cost, Human Merfolk hybrid with the power of 1 and a toughness of 4. He has only 1 activated ability, to double the number of counters on a target creature, artifact or land. This may seem very overwhelming and overpowered at first glance, but most of the time during actual play Vorel hardly sticks to the board for more than 3 turns. In fact most of the time when you have a substantial amount of board presence enough for Vorel to actually make a huge difference, the board will probably get sweeped within a round. Hence it will be good to make the deck to be not so dependent on Vorel to function properly.
Evolution does take some time, and so does comboing.
To be honest, this isn't the fastest, most explosive deck around. Although there are certainly "I win" type of infinite combo moments, the time it took to set it up usually spans over a few turns. It is easy to over extend in this deck due to the amount of draws it provides and fall prey to sweeps, so do be careful. The deck features 2 primary infinite combos to help end long games or when attacking isn't an option and a few draw engines to draw the neccessary key combo cards. To know more about the combos, please head over to the "Noteworthy combos" section.
Following the essence of evolution, do not be surprised that you don't find much fatties in the deck. Every creature in the deck will get stronger when they are paired with other creatures. That is the key of evolving as a whole. If at times you are in dire need of a fattie, do make use of the numerous clones available in the deck to create your own (using opponents' as a blue print lol).
There is something for turn-sideways strategists too
At its most basic core, the +1/+1 counters will make it easy for your creatures to overpower other non-buffed creatures. Cards like Champion of Lambholt and Bramblewood Paragon give creatures evasion to make it even more one sided in attacking. Combat tricks involving Vorel and Immaculate Magistrate make it hard for opponents to pick blockers for your creatures without risking their creatures dying.
Card choice explanations and alternatives
Why Elves as main sub tribe
Elves helped Vorel in various number of ways, let us look at the various 'departments' (packages) they function in.
Elf: +1/+1 counter
What we are looking here is the ability to bestow +1/+1 counters to other creatures, with Immaculate Magistrate being the most hardworking worker. She taps and gives +1/+1 counters based on the number of elves the player controls. Currently no other card in Simic colors does what she does with that kind of power. One reason to run more elves in the deck. Master Biomancer and Zameck guildmage both bestow the counters on creature ETB, with Zameck having the additional ability to convert the counters to cards.
Elf: Tutors and Utility
Fierce Empath is an EDH green staple that is an Elf. In this deck it can tutor for combo pieces like Triskelion and Vigor. or Progenitor Mimic copying the empath for more tutoring. Viridian Zealot isn't the best green EDH artifact/enchantment removal, but he is the best Elf for the job.
Elf: Mana Fixing and Ramp
Elves are gods in mana ramping, land tutoring and mana fixing. Other mana rampers which are in the deck are Elvish Archdruid, Priest of Titania, Viridian Joiner and Joraga Treespeaker.
Elf: Lords
Elves are small creatures, there is always a need to beef them up for them to fight against the endless fatties which EDH has plentiful of. Joraga Warcaller pumps his brethren based on the number of +1/+1 counters he has on him. Bramblewood Paragon gives creatures that has +1/+1 counters evasion in the form of trample.
Card draws and advantage
These 3 cards are powerhouses when it comes to card draws. Fathom Mage is my favourite though, it draws more and more with each Vorel activation focusing on it. And yeah for using the gorgeous prerelease art. Sage of Fables converts the +1/+1 counters into card advantage and has big synergy with wizards, especially Glen Elendra Archmage. Soul of the Harvest is a staple green draw which works wonders with persist creatures.
Sacrifice Engine, the Spawning Pit
Spawning Pit has replaced Power conduit as the deck needs a sacrifice engine against creature exile effects. It also provides a channel for Vorel to double the counters for more 2/2 spawning. Lastly the pit forms the 3rd pillar in the woodfall infinite combo. With a card having that much use, it sure is worth a slot.
Tricks and Common Strategies
MVP of deck - Cytoshape
Ah, the all rounder instant card which is a hidden gem in the deck. This card is mainly used to stop creature based infinites and kill off opposing creature-type threats. It allows us to make any targeted creature into a copy of a non-legendary creature. One of the uses is to copy a 0/0 creature, (eg a hydra) hence making the 'clone' die if it doesn't has an effect that boost the toughness. Another use is to clone our own creature with boat loads of +1/+1 counters into Triskelion, effectively using up all the counters as ammunition. Yet another use is to turn an opposing Avacyn into an elf when the avacyn player decides to wrath. Or change the dreaded Sylvan Primordial into another creature if someone decides to abuse the ETB by cloning it. Endless possibilities, endless fun.
That froggy is strong
Amongst all grafters, I love this frog and Cytoplast Root-kin the most. Besides the graft ability interaction with persist, the frogling gives shroud for creatures with a +1/+1 counter. The wonders of this ability stretches beyond the obvious protection it gives to our own creatures. Do not ever hesitate in gifting your opponents' creature with a +1/+1 counter, a +1/+1 counter is a resource just like cards and mana.
Ever have an opposing commander voltroning around the battlefield using so many weapons that he needs to use his legs to wield them? Gift the commander a +1/+1 counter, and they will find it extremely hard to don their equipments until they find something to get rid of the counter or the frog.
U for a card? Sure
How it works
A very nice ETB combination brought forth from my old Zegana deck. With soul of the harvest out on the battlefield, cast and return shrieking drake for more cards.
Vorel's Sweeps
How it works
Simic is a very weak color when it comes to controlling creatures on the board. Unlike the other 3 colors UG doesn't have a great access to global creature sweeps. In M14 wizards gave us a very unique enchantment called Dismiss into Dream. This enchantment makes all opponents' creatures "Phastasmal"-like, resulting in them sacing those creatures which are targetted. Why should this card be part of Vorel's arsenal? Vorel targets... Thousand-year elixir targets, Staff of Domination targets... and Cauldron of Souls just became a "Tap to kill any number of target opponents' creatures" artifact. What not to like...
Noteworthy combos
Infinite - Self-propelled Trisk
How it works
With all 3 cards on the battlefield, have Triskelion shoot itself expending a +1/+1 counter. Vigor's triggered effect replaces the damage with a +1/+1 counter and is doubled by the doubling season. Net gain 1x +1/+1 counter per activation. Repeat until Triskelion has enough ammo to kill everyone else.
Infinite - Persistant Evolution
How it works
Whenever a creature with persist enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter, Master Biomancer's ability will trigger, giving the persisted creature a boost of the master's power in +1/+1 counters. Hence, repeated sacrificing Woodfall to the pit will create endless ETB triggers which will kill off all opposition non-creatures (read lands and mana rocks).
Infinite - Mana/Card engine
How it works
Self-explanatory. Staff of domination rocks with any mana dork that produces 5 mana per tap. Vorel seems to happen to like to help in doubling Gyre Sage's counters too. While Gyre Sage isn't around, Elvish Archdruid and Priest of Titania are available as alternatives too.
Infinite - Endless Tides
How it works
With Inexorable Tide and Gemstone Array at 2 charge counters, use 1 counter/mana to produce U. Cast Shrieking Drake, proliferate gemstone array + other cards and return the drake back to your hand... and there we have, endless proliferates. Shrieking drake's power really impressed me till a stage where I deemed him worthy enough to include even when there is no foil version of it.
Infinite - Infinity Untaps
How it works
Seeker of Skybreak can untap itself + another creature with a low cost of 2 with the help of Rings of Brighthearth. With Elvish Archdruid + another elf, we can achieve infinite mana + infinite untaps of any other creature.
Strengths and Weaknesses
No deck is perfect, which is why we Simic always strive to evolve to get closer to perfection. In this section we will explore what are the core strengths of the deck, how to abuse it to our advantage; and also the weaknesses our deck comes with and what to do to lower the risks of them pulling us back.
Strengths
Aggro primary with a combo fallback
This deck, unlike other Vorel builds, is built to be more offensive. Elves made up the core group of the offense wing, with hydras coming second to wipe things up should the elves fail. Numerous enhancers like Vigor, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa are specially selected to make going aggro a profitable route. The deck features a couple of combo fallbacks when the aggro route is not viable (especially when that Fogger Angus is around, Constant Mists with Crucible of Worlds oh man...)
Incredibly synergistic
The deck is choked full of card interactions, each card is chosen more for its interactions with other cards more than just its own strength. Hence you do not see much key staples like Eternal Witness, Deadeye Navigator, Sylvan Primordial, Avenger of Zendikar in the deck. Many cards serve a dual purpose in the deck, with cards like Kamahl who buffs aggro builds also doubles as land removal with the presence of Dismiss into Dream, and cards like Spawning Pit which provides a valid sacrifice engine and token producer with a very low threat.
Low threat footprint on Commander
Vorel is a commander that does nothing on its own, with a meager power of 1. This alone makes him ill-suited for 'voltron~ish' builds and aggro route. Players often let him live for sometime until he starts doing insane things, this is a plus point for us. (edit: depends on playgroup, my current playgroup has branded him as a KOS {kill on sight} target, meh).
Balanced deck with options and fallbacks
This deck functions well without Vorel, but becomes even faster and more aggressive when Vorel is around. This is the key selling point of the deck, having a deck that is not too reliant on the commander is really good when there are rampant "commander tuck" strategies in the meta. The deck is also specifically balanced to have a little of everything, and not needlessly fold to strategies kill-cards like Torpor Orb, Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence. The ability to add +1/+1 counters via ETB/activated route from lands and artifacts make us don't suffer as much when Humility is in play.
Speed balancing, built for Johnnies and Timmies in mind
This deck functions well in most of the environments (besides when it kicks up a tantrum giving me land screw or flood), be it a speed race or slowing down in battlecruiser magic. The deck and its creatures scale well with fast light skirmishes in early game to huge 100+ power creatures late game. Spikes however don't really like it as the deck doesn't really hold alot of powerhouses/good stuff.
Weaknesses
Constant sweeps and Creature control
The main problem of this deck is it is incredilbly weak against constant/consecutive creature board wipes and creature control. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and its numerous clones, Umezawa's Jitte are the 2 main problems the deck faces in this section.
Lack of a second resource point - the Graveyard
Big problem which decks without white or black face. Green has some graveyard strategies but it requires too many slots to get it going. In this deck the graveyard is seldom used besides the occasional throwing of cards back to bottom of library using the kelpie or bow.
Non-toolbox
Unlike other simic decks like Zegana and Momir-Vig, this deck is not a toolbox deck. It doesn't have the means to tutor for whatever card to curb the situation as needed.
Limited control elements
We have very little control elements, with counterspells at a mere 3 cards and 3 artifact/enchantment removals. With nearly 0 recursion we only have limited resources available for defense. And aside from Grazing Kelpie, we have no other means to stop others from abusing their graveyard.
After Action Reviews (AAR)
Since the release date in May 2013, Vorel has fought quite a number of matches untill now. Not really much but there are still some insights to it. Here is where I record significant matches against other decks which makes me realise the shortcomings of the deck and make fine tunings.
Evolution begets progress, the true essense of Simic.
The laboratories are contaminated!
Format: Multi-player commander, Free for All
Other commanders: Captain Sisay, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
This is a really interesting matchup. One of the reasons I like 3 player matches the most is the amount of thinking it involves. Akin to 3 kingdoms style, one can't really over-extend or attack without worrying about the other player building up. There is a lot of to and fro until the Nath player drops his semi-lock into place. Nath with contamination. This is where I come to realise that me and the Sisay player didn't have anything to stop contamination once it is out on the field. All of Vorel's anti-enchantment options are green based. There are no color mana rocks in Vorel too. I sent Nath back to the command zone with a phyrexian metamorph (paying using phyrexian mana). With this the Nath player is forced to end his lock after a few turns as he didn't draw into any color mana rock nor his black spells.
The game ends with Sisay winning dropping Sigarda and a hasted Ulamog attacking into a clean field after numerous sweeping.
This particular game gets me thinking, what can be done to minimise the damage done to Vorel when colored mana locks are in place. The piece of puzzle if I place it in, must work in unison with Vorel and the other cards, like a cog in the wheel. Borrowing from other Vorel commanders decklists, I've found the answer; now is just finding a slot to put it in.
White's version of Silent Hill, dead elves everywhere...
Format: Multi-player commander, Free for All
Other commanders: Captain Sisay, Kaalia of the Vast, Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
This is a straight up build-fest to see which player is able to get his creature controls up and running first. Umazawa's Jitte has really pull off its worth here. With 2 counters gleamed from attacking, it is able to stop Kaalia and Sisay down on their tracks until they find someway to remove it. Usually in this kind of stand-off, opponents will be less likely to remove Jitte especially when the Kaalia player ran a Lightning Greaves and Captain Sisay has a Hall of the Bandit Lord on board. Skullbriar player dropped a Call to the Grave, which helps in keeping the board free. All is fine for me as I tutored for Imperious Perfect to help mitigate the effects of the grave call.
Out came Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and everything took a turn for the worse. Selesnya has a remarkable history of being the most resilant duo color combination in EDH. While great care is taken to ensure that the white praetor's partner in crime (Kamahl, Fist of Krosa) isn't present in the field, one lone ability of -2/-2 is more than enough to kill off most of my deck's creatures. Killing it wouldn't do much, with Saffi Eriksdotter, Loyal Retainers and Karmic Guide bringing her back to life everytime.
Till now I still can't find a good way to effectively guard against the white praetor. Simic elves is relatively weak when it comes to recuperating after a one sided sweep. Perhaps the only way is to prevent the spell/creature/reanimation from happening in the first place. Listed below are some cards which I find useful in general spell defense and reanimators. A strong emphasis is put on either the ability being reusable or has the ability of getting rid of the menace forever.
Different takes and builds by other Vorel players
Vorel of the Hull Clade - Counters Everywhere
By Danissimus. An artifact build, fun and synergistic with Vorel. Remember to bring loads of dice, best in different colors. You don't want to mix up the charge counters and +1/+1 counters on Chimeric Mass.
Vorel in Slow Motion
By HansonWK. Prison based build of Vorel. Be sure to take a look at your opponents' face when you drop down Tangle Wire and doubling it with Vorel.
Update history
Decklist changes
Changes from version 1.5
Tangle Wire is out, much tutoring needed to get it to come out and work. Wild Pair is out, to pave new strategies for the deck. Pulokranos is out, is a powerful hydra but I have no space for it, lack of trample makes it weaker than other 2 hydras. Sakashima is out to lower the U devotion count, Thassa is better as an enchantment than enchantment creature (which always got people want to trade her bident with a plowshare zzz).
Other minor card switches...
Major Out: Tangle Wire, Wild Pair, Gyre Sage, Pulokranos, World Eater, Sakashima the Imposter, Elvish Harbinger,Acidic Slime, Duplicant
Major In: Rings of Brighthearth, Sensei's Divining Top, Thassa, God of the Sea, Gilded Lotus, Viridian Joiner, Grazing Kelpie, Sylvok Replica, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Changes from version 1.4
Testing out Tangle Wire, it is a really great card to have in Vorel but with limited access to tutors it might be hard to get it into play during early stage.
Out: Wirewood Channeler, Vigean Graftmage, Rhystic Study,
In:
Changes from version 1.3
Testing out Inexorable Tide combo. Hopefully there is enough stuff for me to proliferate.
Out: Vastwood Hydra, Vigean Graftmage, Avenger of Zendikar, Ivy Lane Denizen, Body Double, Coiling Oracle, Sylvan Primordial, Plasm Capture
In: Inexorable Tide, Shrieking Drake, Gemstone Array, Wirewood Channeler, Rapid Hybridization, Soul of the Harvest[/card, Acidic Slime, Mindbreak Trap
Changes from version 1.2
Reworked on the entire deck strategy. Numerous card changes reworked from ground up.
Changes from version 1.1
Out: Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Yeva, Nature's Herald, Ant Queen, Spawning Pit, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary, Soul of the Harvest, Blue Sun's Zenith, Genesis Wave, Grazing Kelpie, Sword of the Paruns, Skyshroud Poacher, Rite of Replication, Mimic Vat, Birds of Paradise, Acidic Slime, Rapid Hybridization, Cauldron of Souls, Brutalizer Exarch, Boseiju, Who Shelters All
In: Glen Elendra Archmage, Seedborn Muse, Spike Feeder, Plaxcaster Frogling, Power Conduit, Hunting Triad, Give // Take, Progenitor Mimic, Fertilid, Cultivate, Sylvan Library, Sage of Fables, Sensei's Divining Top, Dissipate, Pact of Negation, Trygon Predator, Natural Order, Faerie Conclave, Forest
Changes from version 1.0
Out: Fathom Mage, Simic Guildmage, Ivy Lane Denizen, Captain of the Mists, Avenger of Zendikar, Devoted Druid, Umezawa's Jitte, Garruk Wildspeaker, Blasting Station, Evolving Wilds, 1x Forest, 1x Island
In: Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Yeva, Nature's Herald, Murkfiend Liege, Ant Queen, Spawning Pit, Plasm Capture, Eternal Witness, Treetop Village, Inkmoth Nexus, Wirewood Lodge
Change log
4th Oct 2013 - Ver 1.6 decklist changes
8th Sep 2013 - Ver 1.5 decklist changes
11th Aug 2013 - Ver 1.4 decklist changes
21th Jul 2013 - Ver 1.3 decklist changes, writeups for understanding the deck and more strategies.
6th Jul 2013 - AAR section added
29th Jun 2013 - Minor decklist change, presentation format change (for the greater good)
25th Jun 2013 - Ver 1.2 decklist changes
30th Apr 2013 - Ver 1.1 decklist changes
18th Apr 2013 - Changes in presentation, monologue = =.
18th Apr 2013 - Ver 1.0 decklist up.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Thanks for comments, I'll put up a breakdown of deck card by card over the next few days, too many things to sort out and type.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Sylvan Primordial is out. Reason: Not thematic and too 'good stuff'.
P.S: Learnt how to format the post using BBcodes... yay.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
We have
1) Kalonian Hydra
I don't know really how to rate this hydra. It has an awesome and on-theme ability but like Fangren Firstborn, it needs to swing first before getting the doubling ability. Might be just the creature Vorel is hoping for.
Pros:
+ On theme, +1/+1 counters doubler on swing
+ Good cost for the ability, a 4/4 for 3GG
+ One of the few hydras that can be safely Birthing Pod into.
+ Has evasion (trample)
- Without any kind of aid, needs one full turn to swing.
Verdict: 8/10
2) Strionic Resonator
If you inspect the image really really closely (you might need a magnifying glass), you can see a reelly tiny, little laboratory on the tropical island that big tuning fork is installed on. And yes, that belongs to us Simic and Vorel is happy to have the fork.
Seedborn 'Muses' in unison with the resonator.What more can we say? It doubles every thing, triggered. Even sometimes Doubling Season needs some doubling too.Pros:
-- In fear of saying, later it will get banned for being too 'unfun' --
Cons:
-- Can't think of any --
Verdict: 10/10 (A MUST GET)
2) Primeval Bounty
A new green "do everything" kind of card. With this card around, we can turn all our non-creature spells into mini-bounty of the hunts. Elves come with a beast companion too and lands give us more life. Can't hurt to have it around.
Pros:
+ A do all card, every ability is triggered and appropriate to the deck.
Cons:
- In Simic colors it is relatively hard to dig this card out without heavy investment in portals and wish rings.
Verdict: 8/10
Looks like I need to drop some of the cards in my decklist. What cards do you all think should be replaced? So far I can only think of Door of Destinies...
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
1) Asceticism
Pros:
- Card protection when throwing down all them nasty +1 +1 critters.
Cons:
- Late game might not be worth it.
For new cards i think that
2) Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Pros:
- With enough mana dorks out he could be a turn 4 or even 3 depending what you have out. He is a major draw engine for the amount of critters you have in the deck so by late game all you are going is drawing into spells. His Alt is bonkers with this deck, he tutors for anything you need to put out. Also works with DS.
Cons:
- His -3 might not work well if you don't have green in your hand, the turn you have him out and nothing to chump block for him might not be good.
3) Witchstalker
Pros:
- With being a 3/3 for 3 with hex is nice by its self, i would more then likely only use this if i know my playgroup well enough to know to put him in or not. He gets big if played right.
Cons:
- like i said up there if your going against blue/black not going to get big at all just a hexproof body.
as for this guy VV
Good god please put him in there lol
EDIT: here is some more food for thought, Llanowar Reborn, Evolution Vat, Gilder Bairn,Lorescale Coatl. not going to go into detail for them, they are more then self explanatory.
Many thanks for the suggestions, a lot of them are great for the deck. I am too plagued by the decision of removing/adding cards due to slot limitations. Heck I want to even drop 1-2lands just to put in a couple of cards... haiz.
1) Asceticism
This is a really nice card to include, gives all our guys the much needed hexproof and anti-sweep tech through regeneration. My only gripe to it is that in Simic colors it is relatively hard to tutor to it when we need it the most (i.e facing an imminent danger of getting sweep). This card has been on my "to put in list".
2) Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Garruk 4.0, has a pretty niche set of abilities as compared to Garruk Wildspeaker (1.0). I feel that he is more for a deck that commands hordes of beasts (eg. Animar deck running 50+ creatures). In a deck which has 30+ creatures his abilities is weakened, we probably will hit only 1-2 cards per activation of his 1st ability. I really can't imagine how I will react when I hit a key card like Thousand Year Elixir using Garruk's 1st ability, in which the deck has very little artifact tutors to begin with.
The 2nd ability is a weaker version of Elvish Piper at sorcery speed. Not really optimal for a deck running many low casting cost elves.
I absolutely love the ultimate for this Garruk. Getting there is a problem though, as I can't recall a time when [car]dDoubling Season[/card] actually sticks (+ being there for a couple of turns) without being krosan gripped or countered.
3) Kalonian Hydra
YES this is definitely going in. I'll get it in even if I need to cut a land as a resort.
4) Llanowar Reborn
Great find. I don't know why I keep missing out this land, will add it in once I find a copy of it.
5) Evolution Vat
This card has been in and out of the deck for a few times. The main problem of vat is the cost involved in activating it is very high (3 for activation + 2UG for doubling). The best buddy for this card is Cytoplast Manipulator, when these 2 cards are in play, the cost of gaining control of a creature is 3U.
In "to put in list", I seriously need more slots for my deck.
6) Gilder Bairn
Really powerful card and appropiate, doubles everything unlike Vorel. Any suggestions to utilise his ability without risking him going to combat deep into opponent's territory? Presence of Gond?
7) Lorescale Coatl
Forms a synergy duo with Zameck Guildmage and Sage of Fables. Shucks I really need more slots...
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Sapphire Drake
Simic Manipulator
Sporeback Troll
Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
Blastoderm
Forgotten Ancient
Fungal Behemoth
Inexorable Tide
Contagion Engine
Thrummingbird
Fungus Elemental
Gaea's Herald
Hunting Moa
Petrified Wood-Kin
Primordial Hydra
Renegade Krasis<<<< a must for you
Scavenging Ooze
Cosi's Trickster
Arctic Merfolk
Cytoplast Manipulator
Draining Whelk
Floodchaser
and that is all i have for at the moment and again there just thoughts for the mind. Have fun. I do like this deck as soon as i start rolling in some money this is deff going to be built. thanks!
Odric Master Tactician French 1v1 Rules:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=521622
Adun Oakenshield Multiplayer:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=521772
Please visit and comment!
Many thanks to Dragonkeeper for the suggestions! I tested a number of cards in this list and quite a few made it to my deck.
Cytoplast/Simic Manipulator are in my backup list of nice stuff to add in.
I would like to talk a little about Renegade Krasis. I really like this card during testing, however it need another card to work properly. Unfortunately I am still half sold about the card's usefulness in the current version of the deck. The card in question is called Ooze Flux.
One of the big weakness of Renegade Krasis is the high P/T it comes in by default. Not many of the creatures will trigger it after it had evolved 2 times. Ooze Flux solves that by removing the counters and converting it to creatures. Speaking of the 2 cards, utilizing both the krasis and ooze flux with 2 other creatures (presumely with +1/+1 counters), we can keep generating 3/3 ooze tokens at a mere cost of 1G. This is something nice to look into.
I just lack the 2 slots to slot them in...
Thanks bccohen for the suggestions. Yeah proliferate cards are godly in a deck that dabbles with counters. All your suggestions are good and I have already bought foiled copies of them. I just need the space omg.... *bangs head*
Forgotten Ancient is a hit and miss for me, if I count the card which I slot in and out, this has to be the card that goes in and out the most. It is extremely powerful early game with it netting counters for me. In late game the usability of it drops as opponents are often 1-2 spells away from comboing/dealing lethal damage to the table.
It is an alternate Rhystic Study though when combined with Fathom Mage. Hmm..
Updated:
Decklist has been updated to include M14 cards. As much as I like Primeval Bounty, I just don't know what to cut for it.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
I've removed Body Double, seems like having additional clones doesn't really help the deck out much as most of the important fatties are actually the hydras. Followed Footsteps is so wow... the predecessor of Progenitor Mimic.
Dropped Sylvan Primordial and Avenger of Zendikar, both are classified under 'good stuff' cards that isn't really on theme. Added in Rapid Hybridization for more creature control, especially against cards like Elesh Norn.
Added in the Inexorable tide combo. Hope it really does its job well... in theory everything seems nice until we start playing it lol. There is currently not enough stuff in the deck to actually benefit from proliferate.
Shrieking drake, on the other hand, is fantastic. It allows me to either replay any creature for ETB goodness or becomes a recast-able cantrip when Soul of the Harvest is in play. So good till it make me question why am I not adding it due to the self-imposed magpie ruling. After convincing myself I can alter the card the drake has a permanent place in the deck.
Currently 3 cards are on 'watch list', Sporeback Troll, Wirewood Channeler and Plasm Capture. I still can't decide between Mindbreak Trap (more utility imho) vs Plasm Capture. While the former can exile un-counterable spells, the latter is more in-line with Vorel... being Simic with a flavourful quote from our dear Commander himself.
This deck really needs a mana sink... hopefully there will be more cards in Theros that will fill up this gap. Hail Hydra!
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Vorel's Sweeps
How it works
Simic is a very weak color when it comes to controlling creatures on the board. Unlike the other 3 colors UG doesn't have a great access to global creature sweeps. In M14 wizards gave us a very unique enchantment called Dismiss into Dream. This enchantment makes all opponents' creatures "Phastasmal"-like, resulting in them sacing those creatures which are targetted. Why should this card be part of Vorel's arsenal? Vorel targets... Thousand-year elixir targets, Staff of Domination targets... and Cauldron of Souls just became a "Tap to kill any number of target opponents' creatures" artifact. What not to like...
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
New cards from Theros that are noteworthy and most likely to be given a place in the deck:
1) Prophet of Kruphix -
This is a direct replacement for Seedborn Muse. If I have slots I would have run both cards + Murkfiend Liege... but oh well, I can't be too greedy.
2) Bow of Nylea -
In the entire world of MTG, we can really count cards that give a +1/+1 counter as an activated ability with 1 hand. Experiment Kraj, Immaculate Magistrate, Dragon Blood, Forcemage Advocate and to a certain extent, Power Conduit. Bow of Nylea is a very good utility card especially in this deck. The low cast cost and low threat level makes it really ideal for a deck that really wants to keep itself off the radar, not to mention the extra abilities it has. More on the threat level later, Vorel isn't really a low threat deck as how my playgroup perceives it.
3) Thassa, God of the Sea -
She is in mainly for her unblockable ability. One of the weakness of the deck is an opponent is able to chump block anyone of our evolved fatties all day. Bramblewood Paragon and Champion of Lambholt do solve the problem for a bit, but most of the time they are gone as fast as they ETB. Having a 3rd way to get damage in is really good.
Deck changes:
Wild Pair strategy out! -
Don't get me wrong, Wild Pair is actually a fantastic card in Vorel. It is really sad to let it go, but I find that only when I take it out, the deck then will have more options to evolve into something better. One of the main limitations for Wild Pair is I have to really build around it, the deck must have a certain amount of fatties to actually make it worth the effort. Slots have to be dedicated to shift counters around, with cards like graft creatures and Simic Guildmage. Hence, in order to embrace the true Simic ideals of evolving, this has to go.
Another kind of doubler is in -
With the 'creature doubler' out, I bring in another type of doubler, Rings of Brighthearth. Vorel is a deck choked full with activated abilities, what is better than 1 activated ability? Two of them. With that and the wish to increase the Elf count of the deck in mind, Seeker of Skybreak is added in conjunction with the rings. Untapping a creature with an activated ability is another way to double the effects, moreover Seeker has much lower perceived threat than Staff of Domination or Thousand-year Elixir. With these 2 working together, it reads "{2} : Untap target creature".
With the Rings of Brighthearth in deck, it gives me another reason to use Sensei Divining Top, a format staple for some draw power.
Addressing the draw weakness and recovery after sweeps
It is really disheartening to hear that a UG deck is lacking in draw power. We are in U for goodness sake, having draw power should be easy. There are currently quite a a few cards in Vorel that aids in the draw department, why not enough draws?
If you look at the decklist carefully, you will see that most of the card draws actually comes from creatures, Sage of Fables, Zameck Guildmage, Fathom Mage and Soul of the Harvest. This actually post quite a problem as creature sweeps are aplenty in my current playgroup. Some decks even pack up to 7 sweeper cards just to make sure they can sweep every single game.
After some brainstorming and throwing ideas around, I have decided to include Garruk, Primal Hunter and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage in. They both have excellent utility abilities and are able to give card draw when needed. Both of them survive sweeps (especially Austere Command & Jokulhaups and gang) and have really relavant abilities which are in line with the deck's strategy (Garruk drawing from creature power "+1/+1 abilities" and Tamiyo drawing from tapped creatures).
Format Staple - Eternal Witness out
She is really an underperformer in this deck. Out.
Upping the persist count
Grazing Kelpie is added back in. Scavenging Ooze needs a buddy for graveyard hate and it is the best card for the deck for it. Another reason for adding the kelpie is with the added persist count, Cytoshape has more targets.
MVP card of the deck - Cytoshape
After playing with this card so many times in the deck, I come to realise why it is worth the rare rarity status. This card is GODLY to an extent that I blame myself why I didn't play it in Vorel in the 1st place. The potential of this card is limitless in the deck. It currently does the following:
- Creature kill spell
- Stops creature type infinite combos
- Reanimator
- Double the creature ability
- Makes all my creatures invulnerable to damage, including the Vigor it copies
- Makes players who likes to play Avacyn + Armageddon cry.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Can you elaborate on this card a little more? Are you targeting mainly your stuff or your opponent's stuff?
I use this card mainly as utility based on the situation on the field.
Cytoshape
Instant, 1UG (3)
Choose a nonlegendary creature on the battlefield. Target creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn.
At first look cytoshape is just a weak 'clone' that only lasts until end of turn, don't let it ability fool you. Use it well and you will find that it is like a spell based swiss army knife, depending on what is available on the field.
Creature kill spell
There are many creatures in UG colors that have a base Power/Toughness of 0/0, and ETB with a number of +1/+1 counters (eg Primordial Hydra). How cytoshape kills an opponent's creature is first, choose a 0/0 creature of ours, then target an opponent's creature to make it 0/0 and it dies as it doesn't have +1/+1 counters to modify the toughness.
What about killing creatures which have counters or anthem based buffs? It is a little more tricky but it can be done. Let me introduce the companion card for Cytoshape, meet Phantasmal Image, a format staple for U. What we do is to choose the image as the creature being copied (it doesn't die as the 1st choice is not targetted), then target an opponent's creature that we want it to be "Phanstasmal". After that is done and resolved, find a way to target that creature to make opponent sacrifice it. Fortunately in Vorel we are blessed with a lot of targetting abilities, like Thousand-Year Elixir, even Vorel himself can make the kill.
Stops creature type infinite combos
It throws a wench to Sharuum, Kiki Jiki, Mikaeus based infinites, what not to love. Other creature kill spells work too but being a utility card, Cytoshape is so much better.
Reanimator
Cytoshape works exceptionally well with persist guys, which is the sole reason why I want to increase the persist count in Vorel. Cards like Kalonian Hydra are often the target of destroy effects. With Cytoshape we can change the hydra into a Grazing Kelpie while it is about to be destroyed, granting it persist, making it return back as a hydra (with 1 head short, but oh well lol). This works with any non-toughness 1 creatures we want to 'reanimate'.
Another way is more meta dependent, in my playgroup cards like Reveillark is abundant. It is always good to have an instant spell that take advantage of this.
Double the creature ability
Ever have your ultra-uber big 58/58 creature (with tons of +1/+1 counters making it that big) being tapped down or chump blocked all day?
Cytoshape it to give it evasion (flying, trample), or change it into something that makes use of the +1/+1 counters. Like Triskelion or Mindless Automaton. Another nice combat trick that I employ quite often is to attack with a creature with 9 or more +1/+1 counters and an Inkmoth Nexus land on my side. Opponents first facing off Vorel will never brave the front by saying "10 damage only? I'll take it". Make them learn that any creature can be cytoshaped into an inkmoth nexus.
Makes all my creatures invulnerable to damage, including the Vigor it copies
Cytoshaping Vigor always leave a smile in my face when a Blasphemous Act is on the stack.
Makes players who likes to play Avacyn + Armageddon cry
Cytoshape really pulls the Avacyn player down together with the group when that player armageddons and expect to see his lands still intact.
This sums up what the card can do in my deck. There are a lot more interactions that are still waiting to be found, which is why it makes me very excited whenever I have the card in my hand.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
@Nathones: The card is confusing to me too in the beginning. There are 2 parts in Cytoshape. The first is to "Choose a nonlegendary creature on the battlefield". This ability we can only choose a non-legendary creature. The second however, "Target creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn", we can choose whatever creature that can be targeted, be it legendary or non-legendary. Hope this clears the confusion.
In this way for example, we can change Avacyn into a copy of Joraga Treespeaker, then ping it for 1 damage via Triskelion.
@Danissimus:
Yes, the card is extremely useful when it is out. A bit high on threat though. It changes the gameplay of opponents decks to a certain extent and will usually leave them frustrated. Some of the frustrations stem from:
- Unable to equip Lightning Greaves to their own commander. Weakening commanders like Captain Sisay who needs shroud and haste in order to stay on the field.
- Voltron Commanders feel the pain, especially those who focus mainly on equipment and auras.
- Saffi Eriksdotter combos fail badly.
- Sigarda players will love you to bits...lol
Overall I am quite satisfied with Dismiss into Dream, I have only two complaints about it though. First is due to the card type Enchantment. In simic we have really limited ways to tutor it out, most of the time I only got the card by drawing into it.
The latter is the same as yours, it is not on theme with the vorel's double counter theme. But as I think about it, my current vorel deck has quite a number of themes running,
- +1/+1 counters
- activated abilities (many of which targets)
- Elf sub-tribe
Dismiss into Dream fits relatively well into the activated abilities theme imho, sometimes we just need to leave room for other cards to supplement/support the theme.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Ah, this is the part I was missing. Very nice.
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
Thanks for liking my list, it brings me great joy to hear that.
Lux Cannon fits perfectly in a Vorel deck theme-wise. There was period of time where both the cannon and magistrate's scepter are both in the deck. After playing with them for some time, I found that for the cannon to really work, a substantial amount of card slots need to be dedicated to increase the amount of counters being placed on these artifacts as to minimise their clunkiness. Currently as of now the decklist doesn't have the capabilities to maximise the use of the Lux Cannon. For non-creature permanents I will have to rely on Woodfall Primus with a sacrifice engine. Creatures can be taken care of with Dismiss into Dreams.
One of the future updates to this thread is the inclusion of variant deck builds and strategies. I am starting to collect an alternate list of artifacts to build a variant artifact build, will post the decklist and strategies once it is done and tested.
I am in the same boat as you, my meta is choke full of sweepers too. As Simic we have the inherent weakness of being susceptible to board wipes, recovery is a pain too as we don't have reanimating capabilities that Black and White has. Green does provide some form of card recycling in graveyards, for example Eternal Witness, Regrowth, Deadwood Treefolk. However these are not enough to form a solid recovery option against sweeps. Most of them are non in-theme too, sigh.
To be honest, this deck doesn't really have that much defense against numerous sweeps, but I do still put some thought into sweep-protection when I make the decklist.
1) Setting up a counter-wall.
90% of the sweeps in EDH are sorcery/artifact/enchantment based. Very very few actually come from creatures. Hence, setting up an early Glen Elendra Archmage + Master Biomancer/Sage of Fables/Zameck Guildmage will give you a solid defense against these sweeps as long as you have U mana untapped. Do bear in mind that this is a very high threat setup, you can be sure that every single removal will be targetted at your poor faerie wizard once she is out.
2) Show your opponents your persistance.
Cauldron of Souls provide a second life to all the creatures via persist. Most of the time the -1/-1 counter is negligible as we do have numerous ways of getting rid of them. Novijen, Heart of Progress is one such way to do it.
3) Conventional counterspells
This deck have 2-3 counterspells to rely on for situations like this. In the case of Oblivion Stone, it will be good to consider switching out dissipate for voidslime.
I love Tawno's Coffin, it is the top contender in my Zegana list before I made the switch from Zegana to Vorel. When I made the switch to Vorel, things became quite different. ETB-abilities are no longer the main focus of the deck like Zegana was, Vorel is a very much "Activated ability" styled deck. Much of the deck is used to make that activated ability theme more focused, such as lowering the amount of creature ETB abilities.
I think as the amount of creature ETB-abilities increase, the more worth Tawno's Coffin is. Right now as the deck stands, it doesn't really do justice to such a great card.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Wow, that's a nice list you have there. Let us go through some of the card choices and brainstorm for more options. I have broken down my thoughts into sections so it will be easier for us to refine the list.
Vorel's ability - Thematic
Currently from your list, here are the cards which can be doubled with Vorel's ability.
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Plaxcaster Frogling
1 Cytoplast Root-Kin
1 Spike Weaver
1 Triskelion
1 Tangle Wire
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Gyre Sage
1 Everflowing Chalice
Currently there are a total of 9 cards. Not too shabby, but perhaps we can increase the count to roughly 14-15 to maintain it as a vorel themed deck.
Tap down theme
I really like the inclusion of Opposition, can't believe that I miss out this. We can expand a bit further on this and Tangle Wire making it a vital part of the deck.
Proliferate & ETB
It seems like you will like to keep some ETB abilities and go with some proliferate. We can keep this and expand on it too.
Below are some of my suggestions keeping the 4 points above.
Adding a new engine
Since Rings of Brighthearth is in the deck, we can do more combos with it. Combine it with both Gilded Lotus and Tidewater Minion and we get a very powerful infinite mana engine + the capabilities to untap every permanent on the board. Gilded Lotus is a format staple and the captain can untap our own vorel for more doubling fun.
Edit: Miscalculate the mana required, Captain of the mists can only work when it is paired with a mana rock/dork that taps for 4 mana and above. Sorry about that.
More targets for Proliferate
Pentavus is an excellent creature that can create mini-drones using the +1/+1 counters. That is the closest we can get to Ghave's ability and is highly relavant in Vorel deck. The created creature tokens can be used as opposition fodder to tap down opponent's permanents too.
With the lack of effects that shift +1/+1 counters around, the best way is to include another spike to compliment Spike Weaver. Spike Feeder is a good card as it can utilise the +1/+1 counters right away without mana investment. Another good card in this catagory is Mindless Automaton which is not shown.
A natural fit for a deck that focus on proliferating are the planeswalkers. Tamiyo provides both tap down and draw, a good fit for a deck that uses quite a bit of creature activated abilities.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Strangely though the old and new Simic abilities are all reduced to 1 card each in Vorel (Fathom mage for evolve and Plaxcaster Frogling for Graft), that is kind of sad.
What are you views on Gyre Sage? Currently I'm replacing it with Viridian Joiner.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
Many thanks for your feedback, listed are the pros and cons of each card:
Gyre Sage
Viridian Joiner
This is what I can think of, currently for both of them the pros and cons are about the same... with Gyre Sage leading as we can boost the sage's ability to 3/4 easily by just casting creatures alone (a normal 2/2 followed by vorel). In terms of creature interaction between cards, Viridian Joiner works better when the other Elves (especially lords) are present. Will have to test the deck first.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused