Simic often ends up being ramp, largely based on card draw and filtering being very valuable when you want to find your ramp spells early but avoid them late. I've also seen one very successful build that was lighter on ramp but would aim for 1 or 2 early ramp effects and converted that into a big tempo advantage through the rest of the game.
I'm trying out Weaver of Currents as a signaling/anchor card for UG ramp, even though I recognize it's not the most powerful option for the slot. I also like Skyrider Elf as it can slot into UG tempo but also works very well in five-color green builds which often start as UG.
Also, I think Shardless Agent is a sneaky good card in a ramp deck, because so many of your ramp spells are at one or two mana. Agent into any mana rock, two-mana ramp spell, or mana elf is pretty spectacular for you. Also, you tend to be running fewer of the misses that can hamper Shardless Agent, things like counterspells, pump spells, auras, etc.
It's a 3 mana ramp spell there. If you're happy running Borderland Ranger/Civic Wayfinder/etc it's pretty much a better version of those since the elves/rocks are generally better. It means you end up not wanting to run Mana Leak because hitting that is awful, but those decks often don't have mana leak mana open anyways.
There's no debate for 1st and 2nd because Shardless and Trygon are objectively the most powerful Simic cards. As for 3rd place, there's a lot to choose from, but my vote goes to Ongoing Investigation.
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The first half is an subjectively worse coastal piracy (it comes down earlier but you have to pay for the draws, after the 2nd it becomes more expensive than piracy), but when you hit a late game board lock or really whenever you have the open green mana, it also has effectively an off-color Azure Mage ability of 3G: Draw a card. Gain 2 life.
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Warning: Not for the durdly-hearted!
I have already noticed a bump in power of the blue (black) evasive aggro decks with the addition of the pirates, just with my cubetutor practice drafts.
Ongoing Investigation is just relevant on any kind of board and basically any match-up. With Coastal Piracy it's either on or off, but with Investigation if you're not able to get a hit in you can probably use the second ability. Imo, what really makes the card is the incidental lifegain which helps a lot if you're on the backfoot (you don't even need to pop the clues), meaning it's solid against aggro as well as slower match-ups.
I don't see pay 1G a limited number of times and gain 2 life each time, as solid against aggro. If it doesn't replace itself, gaining 6 or 8 or 10 life for any real amount of mana is bad.
Even if it replaces itself, draw a card + gain 6 isn't a good card against aggro. Draw one gain 10 over several turns could be good enough vs aggro, but thats still a total of 14 mana being paid out.
So I'm really looking for when it draws 2 and maybe gains 4 as where I start feeling ahead. This is pretty deep in the game and reaching outside the realm of playing vs aggro.
I don't think I'm convinced that it's good outside of midrange mirrors
360 base since there are rarely more than 8 people and a a few packs extra to add variety but not make strategies reliant on specific key cards too unreliable (total 390).
The quality of the card pool drops significantly right around or after 450, and in order to support certain things I needed more than 360. So I ended up around 380-400
for what its worth, if you're burn drafting you tend to need more (4 people require a 540 cube) and IMO that's the best way to draft with a smaller group. But it's probably a bit tougher with peasant.
I think card quality is totally fine at 540, aside from the issue of mana fixing.
If you want to have just 40 lands (7.4% of your cube) you need to either use multiple copies of the good ones; break rarity from being strictly Peasant; or play some pretty bad cards (i.e. Blossoming Sands... or Selesnya Sanctuary, which is less 'bad' but having karoos definitely warps the speed of your cube)
For a Coastal Piracy that does ridiculous stuff in slower match-ups it's pretty solid against aggro.
You are a reasonably fast/aggressive UG deck. You play on curve. You have very few awkward draws. You are creature centric. How are you being run over by aggro? If it turns into a slow value grind Investigation is good; if they try to kill you then the incidental life gain is useful.
The effect looks limited, but if you're creature heavy it's not a problem, especially against aggro.
"draws 2 and maybe gains 4." So, you want a divination against aggro? I never took Divination as an anti-aggro card.
How is it not good against control? It is its own draw engine.
Divination isn't an anti aggro card. That's the point. You claimed ongoing investigations is good in basically any kind of matchup and I took issue with the claim, assuming you meant it's also good against aggro.
If you want to focus on the lifegain, how much life does a spell have to gain before it's actually worth considering against aggro (if it cantrips)? I would think somewhere between 8 and 10, if it's cheap (I would consider boarding in 1W, gain 8 life draw a card against aggro, but not for 2W I don't think). Paying in investments is clearly going to make this sounds worse than it is, but in order for me to get 8 life and a card off of this I need to pay 12 mana. And it doesn't do its job in creature-light draws either.
Claiming that when you draw well and have a good deck that the card is good (or that your matchup is so good that you don't need the card) is a weird way to evoke BCS. Is a simic creature-centric strategy some problem for aggro that I haven't noticed?
//
Against control, if you were to cast Ongoing Investigations and sac the clue that turn, you've just played a terrible version of Coastal piracy. Its only real upside is being able to fit in for 2 on a turn where you needed to spend 2 on something else/didn't have 4 mana yet. Which are both real things, sure.
I said Ongoing Ivestigation is "relevant" and "solid" in aggro match-ups. Solid != good; good means you actively want to draw it, while solid means you don't mind drawing it.
Aggro vs. aggro will tend to be a value grind or a race. If it's a value grind, do you know what gets better? Ongoing Investigation. If it's a race Investigation isn't ideal, but if you aren't racing immediately the life gain does matter. Now if you are the slightly bigger aggro deck, which UG is, you will have less incentive to race, which means Investigation gets better. Maybe I'm over valuing the life gain or I'm hitting Man-o-War on 3 every game, but I'm certainly not siding it out against aggro.
The thing about Investigation is that it fuels itself incredibly well. Drawing cards gives you more creatures to exile and more land to activate more, while the life gain keeps you alive to activate it more.
Coastal Piracy, from what I presume, is incredibly feast or famine. If you play it, swing, and your creature dies, you are incredibly far behind. In the same situation, Investigation puts you about equal against control if you can cast it with a 2 drop, as you can eat the killed creature with it; it's not like you're dying soon. I've probably had games where I only get 1-2 hits in with Investigation and it still carries the game hard.
If you think your theory is better than a random person's tests, then don't test it. I see no real use in arguing this further unless if you've gotten in games with it.
I said Ongoing Ivestigation is "relevant" and "solid" in aggro match-ups. Solid != good; good means you actively want to draw it, while solid means you don't mind drawing it.
I haven't played with Ongoing Investigation to make a comment about the card, but I think the assumption that everyone applies the same distinction between 'good' and 'solid' is a bit ambitious.
I feel like Leelue is underestimating the value of having a cheap mana sink. Yes, the card is a dead draw against aggro, but aggro has always been Simic's worst enemy. When you're in a midrange mirror or trying to out-grind a control deck, though, the ability to invest any spare 2 mana into draws at instant speed means you just get to be using more of your mana. Where other decks will topdeck land late-game and swear to themselves, the Ongoing Investigation player laughs and uses the land to fuel more draw.
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Warning: Not for the durdly-hearted!
I'm trying out Weaver of Currents as a signaling/anchor card for UG ramp, even though I recognize it's not the most powerful option for the slot. I also like Skyrider Elf as it can slot into UG tempo but also works very well in five-color green builds which often start as UG.
My cube discussion thread
Affinity
Legacy:
GBCombo Elves
EDH:
GEzuri, Renegade Leader's Elf Ball
Cube:
180 Peasant Micro Cube
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Fallout Commander
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
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Just the best, most powerful cards by a good margin.
Warning: Not for the durdly-hearted!
I'm still having trouble coming to grips with ongoing investigation vs something like coastal piracy.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Warning: Not for the durdly-hearted!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Hmm okay lets try this ongoing investigation.
I took the advice and moved spined thopter, vault skirge and Porcelain Legionnaire to my artifact section cutting my mostly non-creature artifacts that were low picks.
To try out wanted scoudrels, ongoing investigation and well I guess I'll try Court Homunculus to keep enough aggro artifacts.
I have already noticed a bump in power of the blue (black) evasive aggro decks with the addition of the pirates, just with my cubetutor practice drafts.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
I don't see pay 1G a limited number of times and gain 2 life each time, as solid against aggro. If it doesn't replace itself, gaining 6 or 8 or 10 life for any real amount of mana is bad.
Even if it replaces itself, draw a card + gain 6 isn't a good card against aggro. Draw one gain 10 over several turns could be good enough vs aggro, but thats still a total of 14 mana being paid out.
So I'm really looking for when it draws 2 and maybe gains 4 as where I start feeling ahead. This is pretty deep in the game and reaching outside the realm of playing vs aggro.
I don't think I'm convinced that it's good outside of midrange mirrors
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Usually the amount of people you play with makes a difference, but generally I lean towards ~450
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
If you want to have just 40 lands (7.4% of your cube) you need to either use multiple copies of the good ones; break rarity from being strictly Peasant; or play some pretty bad cards (i.e. Blossoming Sands... or Selesnya Sanctuary, which is less 'bad' but having karoos definitely warps the speed of your cube)
You are a reasonably fast/aggressive UG deck. You play on curve. You have very few awkward draws. You are creature centric. How are you being run over by aggro? If it turns into a slow value grind Investigation is good; if they try to kill you then the incidental life gain is useful.
The effect looks limited, but if you're creature heavy it's not a problem, especially against aggro.
"draws 2 and maybe gains 4." So, you want a divination against aggro? I never took Divination as an anti-aggro card.
How is it not good against control? It is its own draw engine.
If you want to focus on the lifegain, how much life does a spell have to gain before it's actually worth considering against aggro (if it cantrips)? I would think somewhere between 8 and 10, if it's cheap (I would consider boarding in 1W, gain 8 life draw a card against aggro, but not for 2W I don't think). Paying in investments is clearly going to make this sounds worse than it is, but in order for me to get 8 life and a card off of this I need to pay 12 mana. And it doesn't do its job in creature-light draws either.
Claiming that when you draw well and have a good deck that the card is good (or that your matchup is so good that you don't need the card) is a weird way to evoke BCS. Is a simic creature-centric strategy some problem for aggro that I haven't noticed?
//
Against control, if you were to cast Ongoing Investigations and sac the clue that turn, you've just played a terrible version of Coastal piracy. Its only real upside is being able to fit in for 2 on a turn where you needed to spend 2 on something else/didn't have 4 mana yet. Which are both real things, sure.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Aggro vs. aggro will tend to be a value grind or a race. If it's a value grind, do you know what gets better? Ongoing Investigation. If it's a race Investigation isn't ideal, but if you aren't racing immediately the life gain does matter. Now if you are the slightly bigger aggro deck, which UG is, you will have less incentive to race, which means Investigation gets better. Maybe I'm over valuing the life gain or I'm hitting Man-o-War on 3 every game, but I'm certainly not siding it out against aggro.
The thing about Investigation is that it fuels itself incredibly well. Drawing cards gives you more creatures to exile and more land to activate more, while the life gain keeps you alive to activate it more.
Coastal Piracy, from what I presume, is incredibly feast or famine. If you play it, swing, and your creature dies, you are incredibly far behind. In the same situation, Investigation puts you about equal against control if you can cast it with a 2 drop, as you can eat the killed creature with it; it's not like you're dying soon. I've probably had games where I only get 1-2 hits in with Investigation and it still carries the game hard.
If you think your theory is better than a random person's tests, then don't test it. I see no real use in arguing this further unless if you've gotten in games with it.
Warning: Not for the durdly-hearted!