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Main » Articles » Super Simic Friends

Super Simic Friends

Blake Rasmussen
Posted on March 6, 2014
 Reddit

Batman and Robin. Bert and Ernie. Siegfried and Roy. The Captain and Tennille. Kiora and Jace.

One of these dynamic duos looks like it could revolutionize Standard. And since Captain and Tennille divorced, I’m willing to bet just about everything on Kiora and Jace.

While I wasn’t terribly excited about Born of the Gods in Constructed, Kiora, the Crashing Wave got set my Simic senses tingling from the get-go. Her loyalty seemed low, and the Explore ability was fine, but certainly not worth 4 mana. (Two Explores though . . . ). The “bubble” effect seemed fine, but I wasn’t sure the payoff was there. But despite all of that, it did all of the things I like: ramp mana and draw cards.

It turns out that Kiora, when paired with a friend from Ravnica, is actually just The Truth.

Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Jace, Architect of Thought

It seems so obvious now, but this pair of Planeswalkers dramatically changes how blue control decks play. Kiora’s ability to shut down large monsters combined with Jace’s ability to stymie small ones sets up a Forcefield-like effect that is incredibly difficult to penetrate without serious help.

The first place I started, of course, was with W/U/g Control—because I never met a Sphinx's Revelation I didn’t like.

"W/U/g Control"

This is basically the list Brian Braun-Duin posted, wrote about, and played a few weeks back with a few minor tweaks to account for some local things.

Kiora, the Crashing Wave
I was dubious at first. I liked having Divination and Elixir of Immortality in the deck to churn through cards and form a virtually-unbeatable late game. I liked having a lower curve and more reliable mana base and more than a pair of Mutavaults. I liked not having a glut at 4 mana.

But just having Jace and Kiora in play together once changed my mind. The deck suddenly played so much differently.

Where I once might have been scrambling to find Supreme Verdict, I started winning games against creature decks during which I didn’t find one until thirty cards in.

Whereas I once had trouble closing out games and spent most of the late game doing a lot of nothing to try to ultimate an Elspeth, I started winning games with twenty minutes left on the clock.

Whereas ultimating a Planeswalker was once just the final step in a game already won, it started becoming something that just kind of happened in the middle of a game and actually mattered to how things played out.

Kiora and Jace make all of this possible.

Now, I love the above deck and will continue tweaking it, but the success of its two key 4-drops led me to start exploring ideas about how to better leverage both ’Walkers and capitalize on their abilities to not be forced to rely on Supreme Verdict.

(Warning: All of these lists are rough sketches. Mana bases are not included. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.)

The first place I turned was exactly where I went when Farseek was legal: casting Jace on turn three—and Kiora, too, if possible.

"Sketch Number One"

This was an experiment to see how far we could push the turn-three Planeswalker thing and if that would be good enough. It surprisingly turned out to be pretty close, but I was having trouble ever catching my breath without Supreme Verdict. I dialed it back and replaced two Mana Blooms with two Verdicts and actually kind of enjoyed how the deck played out.

But what if we left the comfy confines of W/U/x Control for something a little . . . darker.

"Sketch Number Two"

This is an interesting starting place for a B/U/G Planeswalker deck with much the same aim, but a cheap brigade of removal and discard looks to keep things in check while any of the three Planeswalkers generate advantage. Gaining Thoughtseize and hard removal is pretty strong when you’re looking to protect Kiora, but the list might be light on actual ways to win the game. Maybe it needs more Pack Rat.

What about R/U/G?

"Sketch Number Three"

I originally had Ral Zarek slotted in here, but, ya know, it doesn’t actually do anything—maybe if Izzet Staticaster became a viable card again.

Either way, this is something of a counter-burn deck that plays more creatures than the other decks because Stormbreath just is that good.

But maybe the real answer is a little bit . . . foggy.

"Sketch Number Four"

Maze's End has been floating around for a while now, and Kiora seems tailor-made for it, acting as both a pseudo-Fog and as an extra land drop now and then, which this slowest of slow decks could certainly use.

How about we get more aggressive in the other direction?

"Sketch Number Five"

On second thought, ignore that. I can’t imagine what Kiora adds to Mono-Blue Devotion that white doesn’t just do better with Ephara, God of the Polis and Detention Sphere. But at least you can form a sense of how, um, devoted I am to Ms. Crashing Wave.

And what’s the point of all of these half-hearted lists and theories?

One, there’s still room for some creativity in Standard, even with cards that are from Born of the Gods.

Two, Kiora is the real deal, especially when paired with her brother from another plane: Jace.

Three, the G/U God and U/R scry land are both coming soon . . . 

You’ve been warned.

Bonus Deck with No Blue!

I played against a pretty cool deck the other night that seems to be gaining some ground locally and in the corners of the Internet. The Pain Seers (surprise!) are the touch of local Austin player Travis Sheen, but the whole package seems really good.

This is created from memory, so don’t kill me if it’s not totally correct.

"W/B with Pain Seer"

The deck played exceedingly well and clearly got a shot in the arm from both Eidolon of Countless Battles and Herald of Torment. Both are relatively cheap on the bestow for the cost versus the affect they actually have, and both make Supreme Verdict look kind of silly.

It’s the first really different deck I’ve seen in some time that I’ve actually respected, and any deck that can make Pain Seer almost look like the Dark Confidant we were all promised certainly has to catch the eye. It’s not my kind of deck (there’s not a single spell that draws a card without attacking!), but it is seriously cool that this is a real deck. I would certainly recommend it for your next Friday Night Magic or local tournament.

Things I Think I’m Thinking

Misty Rainforest
Apparently, I haven’t been thinking much since I abandoned this space filler brain dump super-awesome, running-column bit.

  • There was one Cruel Control deck in Valencia, and it didn’t do well. It was also poorly built (in my opinion), so I have hope that the deck is still real. For the record, Twin was always a pretty easy matchup. Zoo might be rough, but it’s also probably on the downswing.

  • The only reasonable speculation on fetch lands these days is when and how they’ll be reprinted. I think the most obvious places are, in order: Magic 2015, Modern Masters 2, starting to sprinkle them in special products like Commander and Event decks, or direct mailing.

  • I wanted to include a pithy comment on the Oscars, but considering I saw just three of the nine Best Picture nominees, I probably don’t have anything useful to say.

  • Anyone else hear, “Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you’re part of a team,” any time you see a picture of William Jensen, Reid Duke, and Owen Turtenwald?

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TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, simic, blake rasmussen, kiora the crashing wave, kiora

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