Arena Standard - [MID] Simic Ramp

16 33
21 11 4 24
Midrange

This deck began as a Selesnya where Esika's Chariotimage + Wrenn and Sevenimage synergy was strong enough to win games on its own, but the rest of the deck didn't support the snowball power of this pair.

The aim is to ramp on turn 2/3 with Lotus Cobraimage and Prosperous Innkeeperimage, ideally drop Esika's Chariotimage turn 3 and Wrenn and Sevenimage turn 4 and start snowballing by copying the Treefolk tokens.

Iymrith, Desert Doomimage is an amazing draw engine and a hard-to-remove flying blocker and when combined with one or two Alrund's Epiphanyimage it can end the game on its own by flying over aggro decks. Against small aggro decks (e.g. white weenies) Verdant Masteryimage just lets you overwhelm them so easily by unlocking the entirety of your deck and Prosperous Innkeeperimage often gives you that little bit of life needed to outpressure them. Combined with Esika's Chariotimage it can get you up to 10 life a game essentially for free and also works as a crew for The Omenkeelimage (the extra lands are really helpful in this deck and sometimes lets you overcome bad hands). Cosima, God of the Voyageimage and Verdant Masteryimage is a surprisingly powerful combo against small-creature decks (bant party, mono white, mono red goblins) because you ramp a LOT more than they do. Normally if you exile Cosima, play a land and Mastery you get to draw 2 cards and have a 4/6 body which either stops them or they have to spend a turn removing her, giving you extra time to go off.

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderimage is literally a meta-breaker since it shuts off white weenie decks (until they get 6 creatures), Immersturm Predatorimage, planeswalkers, The Book of Exalted Deedsimage (lol), Ranger Classimage, slows down Smoldering Egg // Ashmouth Dragonimage and probably more. Yes, it dies to removal, but you've been snowballing way before you cast him with your tokens and your opponent will most likely have to use most of their removals on other things, so you're almost guaranteed to get 6 damage in and if they don't remove it, your Wrenn and Sevenimage either refills your hand or makes 3 massive Reach tokens.

The Eureka Momentimage is there mainly so that when you're holding open mana for Decisive Denialimage, you still have something to play instantly in case you don't use Decisive Denialimage, but this could certainly be swapped for 4th Quandrix Cultivatorimage and Decisive Denialimage.

Finally, after all that when both of you are top-decking to win, you get the edge by destroying their man-lands with Field of Ruinimage and swinging for lethal with Lair of the Hydraimage. Today's standard event I went 7-1 with this list and I'm really happy that my original deck managed to do well :) (6-0 then land-flooded against white weenie deck that got shut down by my Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderimage but I didn't draw any follow-up and finished last game with The OmenkeelimageLair of the Hydraimage and 2 Bird tokens against a Rakdos with 0 cards in hand and a lonely 4/4 Immersturm Predatorimage on board)

Update #1: -2x Eureka Momentimage, +1x Lotus Cobraimage, +1x Decisive Denialimage: Eureka Momentimage just didnt bring anything interesting to the table and I always felt like I wanted to play other things rather than it. Decisive Denialimage is the greatest thing since sliced bread, catches people off-guard all the time, lets your big creatures remove their creatures with evasion (mainly flying). I would still rather play 4x Llanowar Elvesimage than Lotus Cobraimage, but that's all we've been given.

Update #2: Just went 4-3 in Standard Event. Lost twice to mana-screw/too expensive opening hand and once to white-weenie where I was going second, they removed my ramp, Elite Spellbinderimage took away my Wrenn and Sevenimage and Reidane, God of the Worthyimage locked me out of the game. Managed to beat Orzhov angels (one of the rising meta decks) which made me happy. Other matches were just a classic beatdown. Trying out -3x Quandrix Cultivatorimage, -1x Decisive Denialimage, +1x Cosima, God of the Voyageimage, +2x Verdant Masteryimage, +1x Forestimage at the moment and it's working out okay. Cultivator always felt bad to ramp into and Denial is nice as a 1-of at the end of the game to prevent my opponent from coming back, drawing 2 Denials rarely felt helpful. 4th Cosima as an extra 3-drop, trying out 4 Masteries again to ramp into Vorinclex/Iymrith/Wrenn. My main consideration at the moment is adding 3rd Vorinclex because playing him won me sooo many games already, but I'm afraid of drawing either multiples of him or drawing him without the ramp to support the high cost. After the Event I played some ranked games and managed to beat Izzet Dragons, Golgari Skeletal Swarmingimage and Crokeyz's Boros (which he says is the strongest deck right now), so I feel really good with where the deck is right now. Strongly considering Briarbridge Trackerimage for the pressure, extra crew member for Esika's Chariotimage and potential draw. I would recommend trying it in the list if you have them, unfortunately I don't have the wildcards to test all cards that look promising :(

Update #3: The current list just got me into Gold with like 6 or 7 wins in a row. Final game I played 3x Alrund's Epiphanyimage against an Izzet Dragons deck which was more than enough to finish the game (and a bit ironic). This could very well be the final version of the Bo1 decklist. I'm really happy with it because it feels like almost every card has a synergy with at least one other card in the deck and Epiphany, Cobra and Denial just top it off. I could still see replacing Cobra with something, but right now the deck feels great to play. I will try my best to figure out a sideboard as well. If the Selesnya landfall gets too popular, Prosperous Innkeeperimage might have to get replaced.

Suggested sideboard:

- 2x Snakeskin Veilimage extra protection against black-based midrange decks. I am contemplating simply running 4x Negateimage because countering Blood on the Snowimage or other board wipes is the top of the priority list.

- 4x Malevolent Hermit // Benevolent Geistimage great against anything blue, especially control decks.

- 2x Negateimage better version of Decisive Denialimage against non-creature decks, or when you don't care about fighting their creatures. Extra counterspells against Selesnya "mirror", especially important to remove their Emeria's Callimage.

- 2x Outland Liberator // Frenzied Trapbreakerimage anti-Esika's Chariotimage, Ranger Classimage, Paladin Classimage and The Meathook Massacreimage. (Also Felidar Retreatimage? Didn't put it in at first because I don't think the card is good after playing first 2 days since rotation.)

- 2x Tangletrapimage against this exact deck and dragons. Destroy either Esika's Chariotimage, Iymrith, Desert Doomimage or any of the 3 red dragons.

- 2x Quandrix Commandimage this feels like the perfect card against the Selesnya land deck, but 3CMC is really high so I'm unsure.

- 1x Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderimage against mono-white weenies or lifegain counters or if you feel like you need to be faster.

(Big) Update #4: -3x Decisive Denialimage, -1x Verdant Masteryimage, -1x Forestimage, -1x Lotus Cobraimage, -1x Prosperous Innkeeperimage, +3x Tangled Florahedronimage, +3x Primal Adversaryimage, +1 Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderimage. It is the day after Hooglandia Open and as soon as I got into Gold I began to struggle against the newly refined decks. It was no longer necessary to keep Decisive Denialimages as an answer to what my opponent is doing, rather now I need to focus on doing my thing as soon as possible. Added different ramp, opened a bunch of Adversaries from mastery pass and they are surprisingly useful in top-deck situations, yet even as a 3mana 4/3 trample it is able to put serious pressure against low-health decks (+Chariot crew). Attack, Epiphany, play Vorinclex and attack again has become a regular win-condition and I've turned around so many games with Epiphany I'm starting to feel bad for my opponents. The current list got me to Gold 2 with 7-2 (I think that works out? I don't use tracker so calculating backwards starting at Gold 4 with 0 points). Mini-update: reached Platinum 4 with a single loss from Gold 2.

Gameplay Update: As soon as I reached Platinum this deck began to struggle, going 9-12. Players don't make easy mistakes, all decks are netdecked and optimised by pros and of course bad luck. I still believe there is a version of Simic with this theme that's good, but I'm not sure I will find it. The worst thing is that the popular Selesnya lands is stronger simply because it has Muraza Rootgrazer which is better in every regard than any of the ramp-dudes available to us. Reidane, God of the Worthyimage also turns off our deck and Yasharn, Implacable Earthimage turns off Innkeeper and Neverwinter Dryadimage. I have decided to switch to Bo3 with counterspells in the sideboard and try my luck that way. In the end, I think Platinum is an okay goal for any Jank deck, so I'm happy with where I've gotten.

P.S. Why not 4x Vineglimmer Snarlimage? Simply because I ran out of rare wildcards, so I will leave it up to you to test those ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Small update here: With the mana-fixing in this deck I rarely find myself needing a two-coloured land and hitting multiple untapped land-drops is very important and with 3x Lair of the Hydraimage I wouldn't risk it with more Snarls.

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4 comments

JeremyJoe
Played Bo3. Went 12-4 (75%) for Diamond 1. Then I went 0-9 to Diamond 4 with 2 points and I hate everything (5 losses due to mana-screw, 3 because I drew a counter-spell a turn after I needed it for win, 1 was just a deck that countered me harder than anything I've ever seen). I don't understand what happened today but I don't think I'm willing to continue playing my deck because the experience today was just awful.
JeremyJoe
DIAMOND!!! I have switched to Bo3 and just hit Diamond with my deck with a score of 19-9 (68% winrate) :) If I reach Mythic with it I will post my Bo3 version.
JeremyJoe
Watching Hoolandia Open I wonder if Dragonspan + Wrenn might be stronger? Not sure because Iymrith is such a powerhouse which also counters all red dragons and Alrund's Epiphany is a game-ender so often I'm afraid of ban. Also having 8x 5CMC top-end feels awkward to me, I like my choices because my 5CMC are suitable for different board-states and my curve ends just after, so I have a goal to work towards. The tournament will show...
JeremyJoe
If you play this deck with Storm the Festival, please let me know how it worked for you.
JeremyJoe
Last Updated: 24 Sep 2021
Created: 18 Sep 2021
861 405 4

Mainboard - 60 cards (17 distinct)

Creature (21)
$3.87€2.330.02
$58.95€42.010.36
$1.99€1.350.06
$0.520.02
$0.93€0.920.03
$0.280.03
$1.02€1.110.02
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (11)
$4.20€4.440.11
$0.37€0.200.02
$2.80
Land (24)
$1.50
$4.700.20
$2.16
$0.200.03
$0.150.03
$0.25€0.170.03
Planeswalker (4)
$6.60€5.990.31

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