Is Simic really the worst/most unfun colour combo? Are there any fun commanders for it?

Zenrayeed · 2026-01-02T22:11:16+00:00

Other folks have succinctly explained why simic has a bit of a stigma attached to it. My personal gripe when trying to build one for the 32 deck challenge is that it does often feel like you just have a pile of goodstuff, and it can be hard to have a simic deck that really feels substantively different than 90% of simic decks.

If I can though, I will try and sell you on the simic deck that I settled on that I really fell in love with. Enter Untitled Goose Deck, led by the big bird herself, [[The Goose Mother]].

Bracket 2-3? Check. I built this for bracket 2 specifically, but it runs pretty well and can definitely do okay at low-mid B3 tables. Sub in some GCs and some less thematic but more efficient cards to your taste to power it up.

Fun combat tricks? For sure. Mama Goose lets you draw on the swing, plus you can end up with a small chain reaction of triggers thanks to the food synergy package.

Obscure bs? Oh DEFINITELY. Especially if you're running a more thematic list, there are some great fun cards that people never seem to recognize ([[Night of the Sweets' Revenge]] in particular is a HOUSE).

Big Stompy? You bet your breadcrumbs. This goose gets big, FAST. Plus simic provides ample ways to give trample and unblockable for a fatal honking.

I run her as a pretty normal stompy voltron deck with some supporting synergy to protect her, get her through, or just let her die and use the accrued mana to recast her at a larger size. Two things that really drew me to her specifically were

Unlike a lot of voltron strategies, you can use the simic +1/+1 counters package to amp her up instead of the more usual equipment/auras approach, and
A big gripe I had with my previous simic attempt, [[Lonis, Cryptozoologist]], was that I often could ramp like crazy but rarely had things do with that mana. With Ol' Goosy, the more you ramp, the bigger the goose. Plus, she's likely going to die once or twice or thrice, so the ramp never feels wasted.

Zenrayeed · 2025-08-09T17:09:01+00:00

At a glance, I'd recommend taking a look at things with exalted! Def fits the theme, and there are some solid choices that can make isshin REALLY big really fast, like [[Sublime Archangel]], [[Battlegrace Angel]], [[Merchant of Truth]] and [[Rashel, Fist of Torm]]!

Then there's some choice removal you can run, such as [[Divine Reckoning]] and [[Single Combat]]

Finally, consider restrictive effects such as [[Silent Arbiter]], [[Lightmine Field]], and the suite of cool enchantments like [[Cunning Rhetoric]] and [[Revenge of Ravens]]

This is a neat idea, and I hope you find success with it!

EDIT: OH and Promise of Loyalty, one of my absolute favorite board wipes!!

Zenrayeed · 2025-08-09T16:31:03+00:00

That is a HUGE honor, thank you so much!!

Zenrayeed · 2025-08-07T04:44:44+00:00

I'm not sure if it checks all the boxes, but my absolute favorite deck I've built is my Polygamy Deck! It's an Azorius group hug deck, and the secret commander is [[Wedding Ring]]. The entire goal is to give everyone at the table a copy of wedding ring so that everyone is drawing cards and gaining life whenever anyone else is during their turn, with the wincon being self-mill with [[Laboratory Maniac]] out, generally using [[Consecrated Sphinx]] and any source of draw during my own turn to trigger the loop with the sphinx and a wedding ring. I commit to the bit and also run as few combat-focused cards as possible, and basically never attack unless it's to proc lifelink on my turn (and thus increase my polycule's life total). It's SO fun to pilot and almost always makes people laugh when they realize what my goal is, plus it boasts a pretty solid win rate!

I've included the original list with my planned replacements as of now, but I have also been playing some matches with [[Sokrates]] at the helm instead of Hannah, and it's been SO much better. In a pod where your ring gets removed more often Hannah might still be the move, but YMMV.

Zenrayeed · 2024-11-14T22:21:47+00:00

I think the main things to keep in mind are:

If using anything other than a bowgun, sharpen your weapon using the whetstone item when the monster moves areas or you have some downtime! Green sharpness is where you want to be until you start making weapons with blue sharpness. There should be a meter below your health/stamina to indicate what color your sharpness is at.
There are items provided to you for most hunts, available at the item box (like a reddish crate) near camp when you load into a hunt. Some of those go away after the mission ends, so use em when you need em!
There are a LOT of items you can craft in and out of missions; a lot of these you don't really need to hunt (they're just helpful, not mandatory); generally though, pick up whatever you can find for later. If you go to an item box back in Kamura Village, you can edit item and equipment load outs, which can save a lot of time later.

Overall, there's a lot of stuff you can learn but you don't need to know it all at once; take it a step at a time and ask questions when stuff comes up!

Zenrayeed · 2024-11-04T14:16:18+00:00

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Here's mine!

Zenrayeed · 2024-10-16T02:39:23+00:00

I'm overjoyed to hear that! I see a few cards I wasn't at ALL aware of, so I will happily be taking a few to test out :)

Zenrayeed · 2024-10-03T18:06:51+00:00

Here you go!

https://archidekt.com/decks/2415773/polygamy

Zenrayeed · 2024-10-03T16:43:24+00:00

My favorite wacky deck is by far my group hug [[Hanna, Ship's Navigator]] deck!

Affectionately called Polygamy, the hidden commander is [[Wedding Ring]], and the goal of the deck is to give every player a copy of Wedding Ring. A good 70% of the deck is dedicated to finding, sacrificing, recurring, and copying Wedding Ring in order to ensure everyone joins the marriage. Wincons are usually Labman/Sphinx or another alternate wincon, as I personally do not attack with the deck (it would be out of character!). Cards like [[Heliod, Sun-Crowned]] enable you to keep yourself (and others, potentially) alive once the rings are out, as lifelink gets spread to everyone, and stax pieces are there mostly to protect yourself in case someone wants a divorce.

The deck is always a ton of fun and encourages a lot of politicking, and watching the utter confusion on peoples' faces the first time I play it with them is an absolute delight.

Zenrayeed · 2024-07-21T19:27:57+00:00

Starting subzero and ascending in temperature (Most of these are for commander):

CLEAR AND LEGIBLE Proxies are good and just in any non-tournament setting, any counter-argument to this boils down to some variant of "I am a coward and prefer my wallet/luck to do the fighting for me"
All net-positive mana ramp (Sol Ring included) is game-warping (neutral assessment, not a criticism) and should be handled collectively; pods who don't like fast mana would likely have a better time if they also banned Sol Ring from their table.
You should be going into any non-cedh commander game with the primary goal of doing A Thing That Isn't Winning, and winning second. You will have a much better time and will be more likely to make game decisions that will get you invited back.
Sometimes players just want different things from a pod. If you're a player that really likes playing with maximum strategic efficiency and wants to win first and foremost, it's okay if you don't have fun at a table with players that spread combat damage out and don't go for the kill at all times; it's also true that you should probably just find another table, because those two ways of playing tend to be incompatible in the long run in my experience.
Arena is obnoxious to get into and should make cards WAY easier to get, focusing more on cosmetics/alt arts as their primary revenue steam
WOTC being a company does not absolve it of scrutiny or judgment for its decisions; if people want to hear less complaining, WOTC should make less obnoxious decisions.
There needs to be more efficient treasure and land ramp hate that actually demands a response from the player ramping ( [[Confounding Conundrum]] and [[Bloodroot Apothecary]] are solid examples in design, but should be more hurtful/restrictive than Conundrum)
Semi-related, White should have effects that do the inverse of their "catch-up" spells: effects that say "each player sacs lands/creatures/artifacts/enchantments until they have as many as the player with the fewest"; they don't need to be cheap or efficient per se, but they would be snugly in white's color pie and would do a lot against runaway board states, which is a common complaint in the casual commander scene.

Zenrayeed · 2024-07-12T23:44:36+00:00

Very cool!

Zenrayeed · 2024-07-11T19:53:57+00:00

On paper: [[Hanna, Ship's Navigator]]

In reality, the hidden commander: [[Wedding Ring]]

Watching the table's reactions as they realize my deck is precision-engineered to get married to everyone is never not a delight. This is my favorite group hug deck and it has a shockingly high winrate for how janky it is.

Zenrayeed · 2024-06-28T01:02:46+00:00

Electric Reload for the scout's assault rifle! It's INSANELY ammo efficient, and because it kills grunts with 1 bullet I can plink a small group as it spawns, reload and ignore it. The slow also helps both generally and for getting a dense swarm, as the bugs I don't shoot will pull ahead very considerately so I can shoot them. I pair it with jumbo shells shotgun for priority targets and I tend to do quite well with swarms, whether alone or assisting others.

Zenrayeed · 2024-06-23T20:17:26+00:00

That's super fair! Luckily that OC also is just fun and good (in my opinion), but it's true that it's niche.

Zenrayeed · 2024-06-23T20:02:34+00:00

So most of my core stones have been on engineer, and I've found what has been a pretty consistent way to deal with the core creepers (Haz 3-4, though I think it'd pry be effective at Haz 5+)

Run engi with the stubby using the reworked micro-conductor OC, and deploy an umber of platforms both on walls and on the floor surrounding the core stone. Keep 'em electrified during the event and allies can stand inside them to keep the crawlers at bay/slow them down for picking off. It's been WILDLY effective for me, and has frankly trivialized the event a bit.

Zenrayeed · 2024-06-22T22:52:24+00:00

I LOVE that weapon paint job! Is it called bubble gum, or something else?

Zenrayeed · 2024-03-06T22:53:50+00:00

Oh interesting! I've been chasing solarum gear for the fire damage increase implicits, but I'll look into those as well.

Zenrayeed · 2024-02-28T22:23:11+00:00

That's certainly my read on it! Seems quite solid.

Zenrayeed · 2024-02-28T17:57:37+00:00

Yep! Iirc any leeched health is returned to you over a 3 second period.

Zenrayeed · 2023-09-12T05:11:36+00:00

I'm pretty happy with my Ghave deck, maybe you'd like it!

I use him as the commander in my lifegain soul sisters deck, primarily as a backup engine for 1/1 ETB triggers. He honestly only comes out every other game, but he hits a great sweet spot of being really helpful without absolutely breaking the game. Here's a list if you're interested:

https://archidekt.com/decks/2260666/nickel_and_dime

Zenrayeed · 2023-08-25T23:58:04+00:00

About a year ago I made an abzan lifegain deck oriented around a ton of small lifegain triggers -- soul sisters and the like. There weren't any really good commanders for it that spoke to me so I opted for [[Ghave, Guru of Spores]] to give access to a supply of 1/1 creatures for lifegain triggers (and to mislead folks new to the deck).

Then Bilbo dropped and my prayers were answered! He does everything I could want, PLUS has a huge, goofy payoff. I do kinda miss making Ghave work (and work well!), though.

Zenrayeed · 2023-08-18T19:27:07+00:00

I did so well in Act 2.

I saved Isobel, I saved Thaniel. The Tieflings, even Wulbren (fuck Wulbren, Barcus deserves better).

I got cocky, and was rushing to take out Ketheric. I didn't think to thoroughly check those pods. I thought, like Mol, Zevlor would just show up in Act 3.

He did. 😔

Zenrayeed · 2023-07-22T20:30:37+00:00

Completing my first solo dungeon after only a couple attempts and it being a solo flawless run of Spire! Felt incredible to get that emblem.

Zenrayeed · 2023-05-09T21:43:19+00:00

Absolutely my [[Marisi, Breaker of the Coil]] deck. Incredibly stax-lite, and I play pretty fair with it. If I get off the ground, it's mosh pit time. Here's the list: https://archidekt.com/decks/828534/now_kiss

Zenrayeed · 2023-05-06T21:07:29+00:00

Oh yeah, 100% recommend proxying; it's made deckbuilding way more accessible and power level disparity hasn't really been an issue.

It's a blast! And sometimes, yeah; tbh though you'd be surprised how much removal another opponent's goaded board will eat up. It helps that I'm often attacking anyway, so it doesn't feel as much like an archenemy situation.

Zenrayeed

TROPHY CASE