I thought I'd start a thread for some Simic love. I chose Simic as my guild before the spoiler was complete mainly because I like blue/green (although more in a water meets nature way rather than the evolution theme in this set).
On the other hand I'm a very frequent limited player in the Austin tournament scene so I'm happy it is being considered a solid choice post spoiler. A channel fireball pro describes it as the #2 guild here.
My plan at prerelease is to play UGR. The idea is to hopefully fill the early slots with evolve creatures such as Cloudfin Raptor and Shambleshark followed by larger creatures in G/R. I already played a practice game where I had a Shambleshark up to 5/4 using this approach.
To go solely simic would require a stellar pool as we don't have much removal. Perhaps if we get 2 simic charms and some key cards like Aetherize then it would be possible. I suppose you could splash Dimir for removal, but I think the synergy is not as strong as a Gruul splash.
Please share your thoughts on Simic! What are the sleeper cards in our guild (like goblin electromancers for Izzet)? How do we plan to beat the more popular Orzhov guild?
I think that Keymaster Rogue is going to be very good in Simic, and I can't understand why Ivy Lane Denizen isn't talked about more, it seems really good for a common, and really, really good in multiples (the second one enters as a 3/4 for 3G, which is good to begin with, and then subsequent green creatures are insane!).
Since simic has little outright removal it's going to rely on card drawing, beef, and pump quite heavily. It has one of the only really good flying blockers in the set and it's common (Crocanura).
Overall I like Simic and will enjoy playing it. I believe that I may very well choose Simic at the prerelease because I will enjoy having access to bloodrush dudes and blue cipher spells and potentially splashing into Gruul or Dimir.
I don't know what guild I'm playing at the pre-release yet, but one card in Simic caught my eye: Frilled Oculus. This card just looks incredibly strong to me, a 2-drop that can block any 2 power creature with the option of outright winning the trade with stronger creatures as well. Seems incredibly efficient and a must-have in the 2-drop slot for simic. 3 toughness is also nice to trigger evolves off of such a cheap creature.
Frilled Oculus is very strong - I've played with it in practice games twice and it was awesome both games. It seems like a 3/5 for 2 mana a turn is very solid in this format.
My own crush is the Metropolis Sprite; nice little early attacker, but it you can get one or two +1/+1 counters she's an absolute brute; if only Simic had some way to do that...
Also, she's a Rogue, so she can block the Dimir hybrid nearly-unblockable guy.
Simic -doesn't- have many playable ways of putting a +1/+1 counter on Metropolis sprite.
I plan to go pure Simic, I don't think you really need removal when most of the set's removal is so borderline anyway. And if you're playing removal, you're not evolving.
I think that Keymaster Rogue is going to be very good in Simic, and I can't understand why Ivy Lane Denizen isn't talked about more, it seems really good for a common, and really, really good in multiples (the second one enters as a 3/4 for 3G, which is good to begin with, and then subsequent green creatures are insane!).
You're actually missing out here. The Denizen doesn't have to put the counter on the creature entering the game, he can put it on anyone.
The metropolis sprite that's begging for some counter? The Denizen can do that.
Frilled Oculus does look really good on paper, but pumping to a 3/5 has its plusses and minuses. If your opponent has an X/4 on defense, Frilled Oculus is going nowhere. That was one of the big reasons why I really loved Darkthicket Wolf in Innistrad. A 4/4 is going to get through a lot easier than a 3/5. It's a card I'm definitely going to have in my maindeck, but we just need to consider that it's a more defensive Rootwalla that is a great evolve enabler.
Frilled Oculus does look really good on paper, but pumping to a 3/5 has its plusses and minuses. If your opponent has an X/4 on defense, Frilled Oculus is going nowhere. That was one of the big reasons why I really loved Darkthicket Wolf in Innistrad. A 4/4 is going to get through a lot easier than a 3/5. It's a card I'm definitely going to have in my maindeck, but we just need to consider that it's a more defensive Rootwalla that is a great evolve enabler.
Yeah, I think I initially underrated Oculus because it compares unfavorably to Darkthicket Wolf (I drafted so much GW aggro in Innistrad that I'm probably stuck subconsciously comparing things to Darkthicket Wolf and Travel Preparations until the end of time).
It's a MUCH more defensive card than wolf was for two reasons. As you said, it doesn't get through X/4s. Second (and importantly) the "pseudo-bluff" attack (where you'd rather not pump because you have a better use for your mana, but you still attack because your opponent has to respect the ability) is also a lot worse. With wolf, the "free" attack gets in for twice as much as oculus does. And representing the pump on defense isn't "free" in the same way representing it on attack is, unless you have a bunch of Shamblesharks or whatever.
I didn't really respect oculus until someone made the Frostburn Weird comparison... oculus is significantly worse, IMO, but I think Frilled Oculus comes out of the Frostburn Weird comparison a lot better than it does from the Darkthicket Wolf comparison, and I think it's going to be a solid common.
Is Bioshift any good as a combo with Fathom Mage? Or Forced Adaptation as a Phyrexian Arena of sorts? Is just the one Fathom Mage in a deck enough to justify playing these cards?
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I think that Simic is quite good, the only problem being Boros. They can kill us before our Evolve guys can become a real problem (Although Elusive Krasis seems like it could really hinder that deck).
I'm looking forward to playing it tomorrow afternoon.
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On the other hand I'm a very frequent limited player in the Austin tournament scene so I'm happy it is being considered a solid choice post spoiler. A channel fireball pro describes it as the #2 guild here.
My plan at prerelease is to play UGR. The idea is to hopefully fill the early slots with evolve creatures such as Cloudfin Raptor and Shambleshark followed by larger creatures in G/R. I already played a practice game where I had a Shambleshark up to 5/4 using this approach.
To go solely simic would require a stellar pool as we don't have much removal. Perhaps if we get 2 simic charms and some key cards like Aetherize then it would be possible. I suppose you could splash Dimir for removal, but I think the synergy is not as strong as a Gruul splash.
Please share your thoughts on Simic! What are the sleeper cards in our guild (like goblin electromancers for Izzet)? How do we plan to beat the more popular Orzhov guild?
Since simic has little outright removal it's going to rely on card drawing, beef, and pump quite heavily. It has one of the only really good flying blockers in the set and it's common (Crocanura).
Overall I like Simic and will enjoy playing it. I believe that I may very well choose Simic at the prerelease because I will enjoy having access to bloodrush dudes and blue cipher spells and potentially splashing into Gruul or Dimir.
Also, she's a Rogue, so she can block the Dimir hybrid nearly-unblockable guy.
I plan to go pure Simic, I don't think you really need removal when most of the set's removal is so borderline anyway. And if you're playing removal, you're not evolving.
You're actually missing out here. The Denizen doesn't have to put the counter on the creature entering the game, he can put it on anyone.
The metropolis sprite that's begging for some counter? The Denizen can do that.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10976
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10980
Yeah, I think I initially underrated Oculus because it compares unfavorably to Darkthicket Wolf (I drafted so much GW aggro in Innistrad that I'm probably stuck subconsciously comparing things to Darkthicket Wolf and Travel Preparations until the end of time).
It's a MUCH more defensive card than wolf was for two reasons. As you said, it doesn't get through X/4s. Second (and importantly) the "pseudo-bluff" attack (where you'd rather not pump because you have a better use for your mana, but you still attack because your opponent has to respect the ability) is also a lot worse. With wolf, the "free" attack gets in for twice as much as oculus does. And representing the pump on defense isn't "free" in the same way representing it on attack is, unless you have a bunch of Shamblesharks or whatever.
I didn't really respect oculus until someone made the Frostburn Weird comparison... oculus is significantly worse, IMO, but I think Frilled Oculus comes out of the Frostburn Weird comparison a lot better than it does from the Darkthicket Wolf comparison, and I think it's going to be a solid common.
I'm looking forward to playing it tomorrow afternoon.