Hydroform
GU
Instant
Target land becomes a 3/3 Elemental creature with flying until end of turn. It's still a land.
At first I thought this could be comparable to a giant growth, but after thinking about it this seems playable but we are talking the 22-23rd card if there is nothing else. Offensively it will usually net 3 damage but that's pretty awful - you're better off with a lava axe. Defensively I see it being useful, but you are very likely to 2-1 yourself where Hydroform and a land/creature have been spent to kill an opponents creature.
For example, let's say the opponent attacks with a 5/4 and you have a 2/3 in play. Well you can animate a land and double block, but yeah.... great 2-1 for your opponent.
Am I missing something? Is this only good for flashing in and blocking a 2/2?
3) Bioshift is insane!!! I think it's one of the best cards for Simic and it is just nuts. If your opponent tries to remove your evolved creature, you can save the counters. You can move counters to make your opponent's blocks unfavorable to him/her. You can move counters to an unblocked creature to get damage through. You can move counters from a tapped aggressive creature to your untapped blocker. Plus, you can move your opponent's counters around in the mirror match to ruin their combat math. Specifically at the prereleases since all the simic players will have fathom mage, it can once in a while be Ancestral Recall. Plus, it only costs :symug:, and in a simic deck it might as well be colorless. insane!
I am going to be playing Simic and this is based only on a handful of sealed games I've played on octgn, but in my opinion Bioshift is unplayable unless you are lucky enough to have 8+ playable evolve creatures. In my pool I had 2 Clinging Anemones, a Shambleshark, and a Simic Fluxmage. I ended up playing one of each. Out of the 3 games I've played with the deck so far I've only had one evolve creature in play which has been the fluxmage and he was awful because the game ended before he evolved even once.
On the other hand from my testing I am liking Simic, I've found several cards to be stronger than I thought such as Rapid Hybridization and Leyline Phantom (especially since my deck has two Pit Fights).
Well it's a guaranteed 2-1. I'd imagine at the pre-release it's going to blow out some plays like charms. At first I was sure it would be main deckable, but then I realized that it is awful against Gruul because it can't target their discard pump effects.
@chrupson it looks like a good start except for deathrite shaman and jaces. You can't activate the lifegain ability for the shaman so for this deck it is nothing more than a birds of paradise that is inconsistent.
Cards I would recommend instead are Cryptic Command, Mesmeric Orb, Remand, and/or wraths.
No one seems to understand how much Mesmeric Orb will mill. I can see why though, I didn't realize how powerful it is until I tried it. It mills 10+ cards very consistently throughout the course of a game for only 2 colorless mana. I have won numerous games solely with an early orb in play and 1 other mill source. It also makes snapcaster mage a lot better because it mills you as well.
Doesn't spellskite completely wreck this deck? It's possibly for an opponent to change the target of all auras to their spellskite no? That would mean the meta can sideboard against bogles with a very broad answer.
@jonboyjon consider Mesmeric Orb. Your opponent will mill a card everytime they tap anything including their lands. It's inexpensive too. You're also missing ghost quarters to activate archive traps. I'd play smother and even doom blade over ultimate price it can't hit artifacts or multicolored. One blade splicer and all your removal is a blank.
I can't believe Mesmeric Orb has not been mentioned on this thread until now - a turn 2 orb will mill more than any other card. It's exactly what this deck needed. After numerous matches I've settled on the following deck. I returned to white after trying U/B for a while, Path and Hedron Crab are just too good and the sideboard is so much stronger with white.
The deck needs some sort of disruption or defense in order to win (at least win more). I found that 4 mana cost cards like wraths and cryptic command come too late as this deck wins faster now almost like a burn deck. I tried numerous cards such as Remand, Mana Leak, and Wall of Omens. Then I tried Inquisition of Kozilek and found it was WAY more effective. No matter what deck you play against it is a perfect turn 1 play. That also evened out the curve with seven 1 drops and eight 2 drops.
You may wonder why I play 24 land - mainly for hedron crab, but also to be able to hardcast Archive Trap which is a very common finishing play against a good player which won't let you get very many of them in for free. It's very common for me to hold fetch lands in hand if I already have 3 lands in play in case I draw a crab.
As far as the sideboard, the all star has been Spellskite against twin, infect, and burn. I was running surgicals in the sideboard, but they are good against almost all the most important matchups - Jund, Pod, Storm, Robots, Twin. It's really only bad against Infect.
The first cards that I look to side out are the surgicals, trapmaker's snares, ghost quarter, and detention spheres. I always try to keep the rest of mill intact.
The deck is so much fun to play - give it a try. It naturally wins against any kind of Pod especially with the surgicals in main and Pod is becoming more popular than Jund now it seems. It's also quite entertaining to play against the lifegain deck.
Also - Surgical Extraction does not trigger Archive Trap. I wanted to mention that on this thread as early on people were saying it or Extirpate does. You search their library, they don't.
I'm going to try a B/U build now without hedron crab. I think against white leylines the plan will be bounce+counter with Into the Roil or simply Cryptic followed by Spell Pierce/Negate. Looking at the mtgo daily's I'm not seeing leylines very often so it's probably not worth going a 3rd color for that sole purpose.
I made some changes before playing in the tournament as I was playtesting until an hour before. The Ravenous Trap mainboard is the solution to tron reshuffle effects which can be snapcastered again if needed twice.
I finished X-1-2 in the tournament. Both my losses were to JUND, my draw was against tron (first game win too) - we ran out of time. My highlight was beating one of the best players in Austin, a close to pro player. He was playing splinter twin (non-pod version) and I milled him out. It was awesome!!
The deck is incredibly fun to play, it's so awesome once you play an active Visions of Beyond.
I do think the build I played is really weak to Jund and I'm not sure how to make it better. The 8 fetch lands make the crabs amazing - guaranteed 6 cards milled minimum - BUT against Jund I found myself in the awkward position of deciding whether to take 3 to cast manaleak on a Tarmogoyf or Dark Confidant. My only sideboard option against Jund was surgical which was not very good in my opinion.
One idea I have is Rest in Peace it makes Tarmogoyf a 0/1 and Deathrite Shaman is also hosed. It also takes care of lingering souls. The problem is, that would require that I take out snapcasters and they are very useful for blocking their creatures - namely Bloodbraid Elf.
There is a 1k modern tournament here in Austin tomorrow and I'm going to try out mill. After playtesting last night on mtgo I have settled on a similar build to dlite's (control/mill) but as Esper with black as a splash and heavy white. The way I see it, the only card in black that is really key is Glimpse the Unthinkable. Otherwise, white has far better removal (with synergy) and sideboard options. Here is my build:
At first I was going to go with Relic of Progenitus maindeck instead of the spellbombs in case I face Tron, but my local singles shop is out of that card. It turns out nihil spellbomb has more synergy with snapcaster mage anyway, so we'll see. Mindbreak Trap is another single they are out of, I would have liked it against storm. In my playtesting though it seems storm is a good matchup for us naturally though since they mill themselves, and most don't run creatures so Telemin Performance automatically wins you the game.
GU
Instant
Target land becomes a 3/3 Elemental creature with flying until end of turn. It's still a land.
At first I thought this could be comparable to a giant growth, but after thinking about it this seems playable but we are talking the 22-23rd card if there is nothing else. Offensively it will usually net 3 damage but that's pretty awful - you're better off with a lava axe. Defensively I see it being useful, but you are very likely to 2-1 yourself where Hydroform and a land/creature have been spent to kill an opponents creature.
For example, let's say the opponent attacks with a 5/4 and you have a 2/3 in play. Well you can animate a land and double block, but yeah.... great 2-1 for your opponent.
Am I missing something? Is this only good for flashing in and blocking a 2/2?
I am going to be playing Simic and this is based only on a handful of sealed games I've played on octgn, but in my opinion Bioshift is unplayable unless you are lucky enough to have 8+ playable evolve creatures. In my pool I had 2 Clinging Anemones, a Shambleshark, and a Simic Fluxmage. I ended up playing one of each. Out of the 3 games I've played with the deck so far I've only had one evolve creature in play which has been the fluxmage and he was awful because the game ended before he evolved even once.
On the other hand from my testing I am liking Simic, I've found several cards to be stronger than I thought such as Rapid Hybridization and Leyline Phantom (especially since my deck has two Pit Fights).
Well it's a guaranteed 2-1. I'd imagine at the pre-release it's going to blow out some plays like charms. At first I was sure it would be main deckable, but then I realized that it is awful against Gruul because it can't target their discard pump effects.
Thoughts?
Cards I would recommend instead are Cryptic Command, Mesmeric Orb, Remand, and/or wraths.
No one seems to understand how much Mesmeric Orb will mill. I can see why though, I didn't realize how powerful it is until I tried it. It mills 10+ cards very consistently throughout the course of a game for only 2 colorless mana. I have won numerous games solely with an early orb in play and 1 other mill source. It also makes snapcaster mage a lot better because it mills you as well.
The deck needs some sort of disruption or defense in order to win (at least win more). I found that 4 mana cost cards like wraths and cryptic command come too late as this deck wins faster now almost like a burn deck. I tried numerous cards such as Remand, Mana Leak, and Wall of Omens. Then I tried Inquisition of Kozilek and found it was WAY more effective. No matter what deck you play against it is a perfect turn 1 play. That also evened out the curve with seven 1 drops and eight 2 drops.
You may wonder why I play 24 land - mainly for hedron crab, but also to be able to hardcast Archive Trap which is a very common finishing play against a good player which won't let you get very many of them in for free. It's very common for me to hold fetch lands in hand if I already have 3 lands in play in case I draw a crab.
As far as the sideboard, the all star has been Spellskite against twin, infect, and burn. I was running surgicals in the sideboard, but they are good against almost all the most important matchups - Jund, Pod, Storm, Robots, Twin. It's really only bad against Infect.
The first cards that I look to side out are the surgicals, trapmaker's snares, ghost quarter, and detention spheres. I always try to keep the rest of mill intact.
The deck is so much fun to play - give it a try. It naturally wins against any kind of Pod especially with the surgicals in main and Pod is becoming more popular than Jund now it seems. It's also quite entertaining to play against the lifegain deck.
Also - Surgical Extraction does not trigger Archive Trap. I wanted to mention that on this thread as early on people were saying it or Extirpate does. You search their library, they don't.
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Nephalia Drownyard
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Marsh Flats
2x Evolving Wilds
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Watery Grave
1x Godless Shrine
2x Swamp
1x Island
1x Plains
4x Hedron Crab
4x Mesmeric Orb
4x Archive Traps
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
4x Mind Funeral
2x Trapmaker's Snare
Utility/Control 14x
4x Path to Exile
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Visions of Beyond
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Detention Sphere
3x Leylin of Sanctity
3x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Spellskite
2x Supreme Verdict
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Pithing Needle
1x Disenchant
Mind funeral mills 10 on average and costs 3, I think this is better. I will test with it and see.
Against Jund Wall of Omens, Spreading Seas, and Plumeveil seem like good options. Going to try seas + Plumeveil in my B/U sideboard.
I finished X-1-2 in the tournament. Both my losses were to JUND, my draw was against tron (first game win too) - we ran out of time. My highlight was beating one of the best players in Austin, a close to pro player. He was playing splinter twin (non-pod version) and I milled him out. It was awesome!!
The deck is incredibly fun to play, it's so awesome once you play an active Visions of Beyond.
I do think the build I played is really weak to Jund and I'm not sure how to make it better. The 8 fetch lands make the crabs amazing - guaranteed 6 cards milled minimum - BUT against Jund I found myself in the awkward position of deciding whether to take 3 to cast manaleak on a Tarmogoyf or Dark Confidant. My only sideboard option against Jund was surgical which was not very good in my opinion.
One idea I have is Rest in Peace it makes Tarmogoyf a 0/1 and Deathrite Shaman is also hosed. It also takes care of lingering souls. The problem is, that would require that I take out snapcasters and they are very useful for blocking their creatures - namely Bloodbraid Elf.
Anyone else have some thoughts against Jund?
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Nephalia Drownyard
3x Hallowed Fountain
2x Watery Grave
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Seachrome Coast
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Island
4x Hedron Crab
4x Archive Traps
4x Glimpse the Unthinkable
3x Trapmaker's Snare
3x Snapcaster Mage
4x Visions of Beyond
1x Ravenous Trap
Control 13x
3x Supreme Verdict
3x Mana Leak
3x Cryptic Command
4x Path to Exile
2x Disenchant
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Detention Sphere
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Telemin Performance
2x Negate
1x Mindbreak Trap
At first I was going to go with Relic of Progenitus maindeck instead of the spellbombs in case I face Tron, but my local singles shop is out of that card. It turns out nihil spellbomb has more synergy with snapcaster mage anyway, so we'll see. Mindbreak Trap is another single they are out of, I would have liked it against storm. In my playtesting though it seems storm is a good matchup for us naturally though since they mill themselves, and most don't run creatures so Telemin Performance automatically wins you the game.
EDIT - I updated the deck list, see next post