Hello everyone,
I'm having difficulties with a regular opponent's mono-black discard deck. I play Simic Flash so have quite a few counters as well as game finishers... the issue is that I can't get around to using them!
My opponent regularly seems to have an amazing first turn, typically mulliganning until he gets Hypnotic Specter and Dark Ritual. After that, his remaining cards are usually sorcery (2 card discard targetted), land destruction, Mindstab Thrall, Rack and Royal Assassins.
What I am really struggling with is the first 2 turns typically. My turn one is usually just a land (Breeding Pool or Temple of Mystery), whereas his turn one is Swamp > Dark Ritual > Hypnotic Specter
Turn two if I can afford a creature it won't be able to block the Specter (Flying) and I would unlikely to have enough for a counterspell. Specter attacks, 18 HP left, and the discard commences.
What are useful card combos or tactics that Simic flash decks could employ?
Am I going to assume this is a casual game between friends or have you two settled on a format?
Do you have a deck list? It might help to see what you're trying to do with the deck and the rest of us can offer ideas or suggestions to help improve your existing deck.
We are playing casually. Ball-park budget is <$300/£350 although I'd like to keep the deck as close to Simic Flash as possible as it is honestly a nice deck, just needs a few tweaks I think/hope.
Well... Simic isn't one of my strong colors pairings.
You have many cards that appear to be from more recent sets.
You have 16 conditional or overly costed counterspells that you have no hope of playing on T1 on the draw. Consider swapping them out for Mental Misstep (stops Dark Ritual) and Force of Will (wait until he casts Dark Ritual then use it to stop Hypnotic Specter) for those turn one shenanigans. Add Counterspell for the hard counters and I would probably add Veil of Summer or Lifeforce depending on your play style. Unfortunately, Force of Will might set you back about $400 or so for a set unless you're willing to play with Championship versions or shop around.
I've never been a big fan of Temple of Mystery. The CIPT cost in exchange for a Scry never really sat well with me. The other two dual lands are OK, but I don't really know how it will go for you, speed of importance and having land that just comes in tapped is too slow. Obviously, it's too expensive to shell out for ABUR duals but there it is.
Consider creatures that are headache inducing. Historically, cards like Whirling Dervish have always been a headache for monoblack. More recently, so has Vine Mare but there are other creatures with hexproof and/or protection from black. One creature I would trade out is Nightpack Ambusher, It's a powerful card in the right circumstances, but you want to be in control and not casting stuff might not be in your best interest. Perhaps Nullhide Ferox, if you lose control and he starts tearing your hand apart, you get a 6/6 face beater he must deal with.
An old way of dealing with discard is to use Library of Leng and cast it afterCursed Rack. Effects of this nature are time stamped so you'll have an unlimited hand size unless the opponent plays a second Cursed Rack after Library of Leng. As an added bonus, you can choose to put cards you discard back to the top of the library. To dig deep, Howling Mine or its ilk is used to dig past the discarded card and Icy Manipulator shuts off the mine to prevent your opponent from drawing extra cards. A less effective, but cheaper, version of Library of Leng is Reliquary Tower and Spell Book but they lack the discard clause. You usually gain life back with Ivory Tower
Unbalanced land destruction is an absolute PITA to deal with. It's why I detest cards like Teferi. You can try and ramp ahead of the destruction by using cards like Growth Spiral, Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves or save your lands with Gush and Boomerang to name just tiny handful of cards. If you're brave, look at Fastbond. Coupled with intense hand draw and life gain there is virtually no stopping the ramp outside of full board wipes.
That's all off the top of my head.
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I'm having difficulties with a regular opponent's mono-black discard deck. I play Simic Flash so have quite a few counters as well as game finishers... the issue is that I can't get around to using them!
My opponent regularly seems to have an amazing first turn, typically mulliganning until he gets Hypnotic Specter and Dark Ritual. After that, his remaining cards are usually sorcery (2 card discard targetted), land destruction, Mindstab Thrall, Rack and Royal Assassins.
What I am really struggling with is the first 2 turns typically. My turn one is usually just a land (Breeding Pool or Temple of Mystery), whereas his turn one is Swamp > Dark Ritual > Hypnotic Specter
Turn two if I can afford a creature it won't be able to block the Specter (Flying) and I would unlikely to have enough for a counterspell. Specter attacks, 18 HP left, and the discard commences.
What are useful card combos or tactics that Simic flash decks could employ?
Do you have a deck list? It might help to see what you're trying to do with the deck and the rest of us can offer ideas or suggestions to help improve your existing deck.
What is your ball park budget?
Out of the gate, I guess you can look at cards like Veil of Summer and Autumn's Veil as shields, Lifeforce for repeatable counters, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilak, Butcher of Truth, Quest for Ancient Secrets or any number of other graveyard recursion cards to get your stuff back. Compost to draw cards. Crucible of Worlds to get your lands back.
Island x8
Forest x5
Breeding Pool x4
Temple of Mystery x3
Hinterland Harbor x4
Frilled Mystic x4
Brineborn Cutthroat x4
Spectral Sailor x3
Nightpack Ambusher x4
Merfolk Trickster x4
Essence Scatter x4
Sinister Sabotage x4
Negate x2
Opt x2
Syncopate x2
Unsummon x3
We are playing casually. Ball-park budget is <$300/£350 although I'd like to keep the deck as close to Simic Flash as possible as it is honestly a nice deck, just needs a few tweaks I think/hope.
You have many cards that appear to be from more recent sets.
You have 16 conditional or overly costed counterspells that you have no hope of playing on T1 on the draw. Consider swapping them out for Mental Misstep (stops Dark Ritual) and Force of Will (wait until he casts Dark Ritual then use it to stop Hypnotic Specter) for those turn one shenanigans. Add Counterspell for the hard counters and I would probably add Veil of Summer or Lifeforce depending on your play style. Unfortunately, Force of Will might set you back about $400 or so for a set unless you're willing to play with Championship versions or shop around.
I've never been a big fan of Temple of Mystery. The CIPT cost in exchange for a Scry never really sat well with me. The other two dual lands are OK, but I don't really know how it will go for you, speed of importance and having land that just comes in tapped is too slow. Obviously, it's too expensive to shell out for ABUR duals but there it is.
Consider creatures that are headache inducing. Historically, cards like Whirling Dervish have always been a headache for monoblack. More recently, so has Vine Mare but there are other creatures with hexproof and/or protection from black. One creature I would trade out is Nightpack Ambusher, It's a powerful card in the right circumstances, but you want to be in control and not casting stuff might not be in your best interest. Perhaps Nullhide Ferox, if you lose control and he starts tearing your hand apart, you get a 6/6 face beater he must deal with.
An old way of dealing with discard is to use Library of Leng and cast it after Cursed Rack. Effects of this nature are time stamped so you'll have an unlimited hand size unless the opponent plays a second Cursed Rack after Library of Leng. As an added bonus, you can choose to put cards you discard back to the top of the library. To dig deep, Howling Mine or its ilk is used to dig past the discarded card and Icy Manipulator shuts off the mine to prevent your opponent from drawing extra cards. A less effective, but cheaper, version of Library of Leng is Reliquary Tower and Spell Book but they lack the discard clause. You usually gain life back with Ivory Tower
Unbalanced land destruction is an absolute PITA to deal with. It's why I detest cards like Teferi. You can try and ramp ahead of the destruction by using cards like Growth Spiral, Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves or save your lands with Gush and Boomerang to name just tiny handful of cards. If you're brave, look at Fastbond. Coupled with intense hand draw and life gain there is virtually no stopping the ramp outside of full board wipes.
That's all off the top of my head.