Topic: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

Hi, novice deckbuilder here!

http://deckbox.org/sets/714317

I've been trying to build a Simic Budget Standard deck (no cards over $0.50/card except for the ones that I pulled from boosters. Cheap rares are fine, like Heroes' Bane.) I found this infinite mana combo that's only moderately hard to pull off. I would like the deck to be control / midrange outside of the combo, just stalling long enough with distracting creatures and instant tricks until the combo can go off.

Combo 1: Land enchanted with Market Festival, Kiora's Follower or Voyaging Satyr equipped with Illusionist's Bracers, and Thassa's Ire. Tapping the creature to untap the enchanted land generates 6 mana per tap. Using 4 of them through Thassa's Ire to untap the equipped creature nets 2 mana. Repeat to infinity.

Combo 2: Two Kiora's Follower and Illusionist's Bracers equipped to one of them. Tap the equipped one to untap the unequipped one and a land. Tap the land for mana and tap the unequipped one to untap the equipped one, netting 1 mana of that land's color. Repeat to infinity.

Combo 3: Land enchanted with two Market Festival, Kiora's Follower or Voyaging Satyr, and Thassa's Ire. Same as Combo 1, but without Illusionist's Bracers.

Now, win conditions with your infinite mana:
1) Nylea, God of the Hunt can make any creature that you already have out get +big/+big and trample, so this grants a win (hopefully) as soon as you play this god.
2) Heroes' Bane can become (4^big)/(4^big). If this isn't enough, bestowing Nimbus Naiad for +2/+2 and flying should help.
3) Polukranos, World Eater can become very very monstrous and destroy all opposing creatures along the way.
4?) Not really a win condition, but with Thassa's Ire, you can tap down all opposing creatures and give your creatures pseudo-vigilance while you wait for faster win conditions. (I've won a game in this manner without win conditions 1-3.)

I'm looking for ways to win faster and/or more reliably. For creatures, I have seven 1-2 mana deathtouch creatures (Wasteland Viper and Deadly Recluse) to gum up the battlefield early, and hopefully direct removal spells at them instead of my combo pieces. The aforementioned Nimbus Naiad can also be a good flying blocker if there's nothing good to bestow. The lone Prognostic Sphinx is a card that I already own that I can use to scry and dig for my pieces and apply pressure to my opponent (and also distract removal spells toward).

For noncreature spells, I have 4 Simic Charm and 2 Dissolve to protect my things (maybe I need more?), and 3 Inaction Injunction to stall their creatures and draw a card. (Divination used to take these 3 spots, but I decided to roll Frost Breath / Triton Tactics and Divination into one for space.)

My main issues are that I get overwhelmed too early by very aggressive decks, and that sometimes I get the infinite mana combo assembled but I don't win for a while, still tapping and stalling while trying to search for something that can win me the game (so much mana, so little to do with it). I'm also unsure of the ratios of the important cards (like I have 2 Thassa's Ire and 2 Illusionist's Bracers at the moment, because they're not so great in this deck until all the pieces come together. Is this a good idea?)

Any and all feedback is appreciated! Remember, I'm trying to stick to Budget, so while another Nylea, God of the Hunt would be great, I'd only add it if I obtained another one via booster pack. Please tell me what I should add, and also what could be removed to make room for the addition!

Thanks for reading this far!

Last edited by SimicDragon (2014-06-21 21:15:04)

Re: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

So, what's your goal with the deck?  FNM? Casual? tournaments? 

What's your magic budget, you said you buy booster?  How much do you normally spend a week/month etc? really think about it.

Last, I skimmed through your post.  Combo's are usually pretty fragile especially in standard.  You can't do most of them before turn 4-5 and one removal spell breaks the combo.  How do you win sands combo?  And illusionist's bracers are apart of every combo, so if you really want to stick to this plan ( I personally don't recommend it) it's a 4 of auto include because you need to see it every game.  Simic has not "fireball" type card to dump this mana efficiently.

Re: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

Thanks for the feedback! I'm just playing casually with my group of friends, and we all have different budget requirements. I'm buying boosters least frequently, only getting them when we play Sealed. My plan is to design my deck under a budget, since I care more about developing my deck-building skill than assembling a card collection. Basically, I want to subvert the "pay-to-win" idea, where whoever spends the most money on their deck wins.

And yeah, combos are fragile; I don't think this would be tournament worthy. When the combo doesn't go off, I usually win by swinging with a Hydra and leaving deathtouch blockers behind. If the combo doesn't hit infinity, I can usually keep 4 mana per turn to double Heroes' Bane's P/T.

I'm willing to sacrifice combo consistency to make room for a more consistent deck. Like win the majority of games without combo, and have the combo go off like one every 5 times or so. Any good cards that work well with the combo pieces independent of combo would be helpful (like Illusionist's Bracers and Kiora's Follower). Thanks for tips!

Re: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

Just a thought on "pay to win" it gets thrown around a lot but if you spend any money on your collection at all, you're paying to win.  It's really a bad way to view the game.  Magic is not a free hobby and it has a very healthy 2ndary market for singles.  Most hobbies aren't free, golfers must pay for expensive clubs, balls and course fees.  Wood workers need saws, lumber, work benches and other tools.  So the question is really where does magic fit in your budget?

It's 10x more effeicient to just by the cards you want instead of buying boxes or boosters. I've given up buying boosters and boxes in favor of just buying the cards I want online because it's just cheaper in the long run.

For instance the cost of 1 nylea is about the same prices as 1 booster, but how many boosters of theros would you have to open to crack 1 nylea? 

That being said you can play a consistent "budget" deck but you should probably lose the "combo" all together and go more towards a 4x9 rule.  Find the best 9 cards in your colors and include four copies of them.  I guarantee you'll win more games by just having  a more consistent deck.  You want to look for creatures that have good stats for their CMC something like kalonian tusker 6 stat points for 2 mana?  that's value.  Also, try to stay away from enchants and things that might get you 2 for 1'd.  Bestow creatures from theros block and provide good value like boon satyr.

Last edited by elpablo (2014-06-23 20:04:51)

Re: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

arbiter of the ideal seems like it would be easier to abuse and play with then what you're doing right now to some extent. Or at least like it could fill in bigger threat slots just fine on the cheap.

Alternatively you could look into splashing red for clan defiance?

Re: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

Without access to sylvan caryatid's and better multi-colored lands I wouldn't recommend splashing a 3rd color in the deck. It would be more inconsistent.

Re: [Standard] [Budget] [Opinion] Embracing Siminfinity

elpablo wrote:

Without access to sylvan caryatid's and better multi-colored lands I wouldn't recommend splashing a 3rd color in the deck. It would be more inconsistent.

With a suite of land untappers you can feasibly use some of the guild gates reasonably well. Or even unknown shores if you're only goal is to tap for a single red source once in the game.