This week I’ll be doing a Standard Deck Tech for each of the five guilds from Ravnica Allegiance. Today I’ll be continuing Standard Deck Tech week with a Simic Standard deck! Simic is known for its many creatures that have +1/+1 counters thanks to the new Simic mechanic Adapt. The goal of this deck will be to win with 2 cards in particular, Hydroid Krasis and Marwyn, the Nurturer. The goal of this deck is to tap and untap Marwyn for mana until you can cast an incredibly large Hydroid Krasis to draw a lot of cards and gain a lot of life.
I first want to start off with a list of cards from Ravnica Allegiance that I believe could possibly be a good fit in the deck. These could include main deck cards and cards that would eventually end up in the sideboard.
Potential Ravnica Allegiance Cards for the deck
Now that I’ve pulled out the best from Ravnica Allegiance, I want to turn my attention to the card pool from the rest of Standard. There are plenty of cards to choose from, so let’s see what list I’ve come up with of potential cards to put in the deck.
Potential Existing Cards from Standard
Now that I have a list of cards to choose from to make the deck, it’s now time to decide what goes and what stays. What I like to do first is break them down by their casting cost with creatures and noncreature spells separated. Let’s see how that breakdown looks below.
1-Casting Cost Spells
Llanowar Elves are a must have for this deck as they are a great way to get out an early Marwyn, the Nurturer. This deck can always use extra mana. One of the key cards to this deck is Stony Strength. Not only does it provide more permanent power to Marwyn, the Nurturer, but also untaps it, allowing it to tap for more mana that turn. Dive Down is a great sideboard card to bring in to protect your Marwyn, the Nurturer and any large creatures you get on the battlefield.
2-Casting Cost Spells
With Marwyn, the Nurturer and Llanowar Elves already in the deck, I don’t think we need any Incubation Druid to be in the deck. Thorn Lieutenant is a great two drop that is irritating to kill. It can also be used as a mana sink for all the mana you are creating as well. The new Growth-Chamber Guardian is perfect in the two-mana slot. It will get more creatures every time you adapt, giving you more Elves to put out on the battlefield. Like this card is Elvish Clancaller which can fetch multiple copies of itself, growing your entire army when it enters the battlefield. Gift of Growth is another key part of the combo in this deck, adding up to 4 power to Marwyn, the Nurturer while untapping her at the same time. I find this to be much better selection than Titanic Growth. Growth Spiral isn’t needed as we have plenty of ways to get mana from our creatures. Simic Ascendancy will be used out of the sideboard to win long grinding games. One or two Hydroid Krasis with tons of counters on it could win you the game with this enchantment out.
3-Casting Cost Spells
The namesake and key card to this entire deck is Marwyn, the Nurturer. It the center of the deck and will power most of how the deck works. Crash the Ramparts will be used out of the sideboard to get through some pesky blockers with a large Marwyn, the Nurturer if needed.
4-Casting Cost Spells
Frilled Mystic seems a little too mana intensive as there will be plenty of times, we won’t have 2 blue mana to be able to cast it. Prime Speaker Vannifar could be used to search up Marwyn, the Nurturer but I don’t believe it is best suited for this deck. One of the issues sometimes is when you create a large Marwyn, the Nurturer but there are chump blockers on the other side of the table. Zegana, Utopian Speaker is a great way to solve this problem. It will give Marwyn, the Nurturer trample, but is also a powerhouse herself.
5 and more Casting Cost Spells
Another key part of this deck is having large creatures to use all this wonderful mana to cast. First off is Hydroid Krasis. You will be able to refill your hand and gain some life to survive thanks a huge Hydroid Krasis. You will get the opportunity after that to win in a short amount of time as you trample and attack over your opponents’ creatures. Speaking of trampling, the other large creature we have in the deck is Ghalta, Primal Hunger. With Marwyn, the Nurturer becoming large quickly thanks to the spells in the deck, you should be able to get out Ghalta, Primal Hunger cheaply.
Here are the lands that I could choose from for this deck.
Forest, Island, Breeding Pool, Hinterland Harbor, Simic Guildgate
With plenty of ways to get mana, this deck uses 22 lands to power out what it needs. 2 extra islands are put in the deck on top of the 8 dual lands due to the importance of needing blue mana.
Now that we’ve figured out what cards to use, its now time to build the deck! Here is what I came up with for quantities for the final deck list.
I can’t wait to try this deck out and surprise my opponent with some of the plays I have. I hope this deck shows off the power of Hyrdoid Krasis and what kind of a force it can be in the Standard format. Thanks again for reading this Standard Deck Tech on Ravnica Allegiance deck tech week. Join me again tomorrow for a new guild and a new Standard deck.
