Budget Arena: Simic Frillionaires (Standard, Magic Arena)
Welcome back to this week's episode of Budget Arena! We're going to be playing a budget version of Simic Tempo!
Gameplan
We combined the already tried and true Explore package with Wildgrowth Walker and the sweet blue tempo cards like Frilled Mystic. We even added a few counterspells as we have a decent chunk of wizard creatures in the deck so we can actually counter a few key spells like a Kaya's Wraith, then close out the game! We top out our curve with a late game Hydroid Krasis to fill our hand up again.
Just from looking at a few creatures up there, we have eight wizards, so I decided to play a few more in Exclusion Mage so we can turn on Wizard's Retort more often. This deck will often try to jam a Wildgrowth Walker and sit back on Wizard's Retort and just keep going for the opponent's face with the two or three threats on board. Retort is amazing as it allows us to shift gears as we go from aggressor to control deck.
If you also couldn't tell...we've got a sweet +1/+1 counter package in our deck without even trying so you know we had to play some Hadana's Climb.
There will be turns where I will play this and flip it immediately by targeting our Hydroid Krasis or if our Jadelight Ranger has two counters on it just to avoid Mortify. When this card flips and we get the Winged Temple, all of our threats can just win in one punch. (not a One Punch Man anime reference).
Match-Up Recaps
Esper Midrange (W): We fought through a very grindy matchup and got there off a few key counters off our Mystic and then adapted our Zegana, Utopian Speaker to bash with trample.
Dimir Control (W): It was a quick match as our opponent got shafted on mana, eventually leadinh to a concession
Bant Midrange (W): Bant suffers from efficient hard removal and Zegana, Utopian Speaker and an army of Frilled Mystic came smashing through. On top of that, our opponent had to deal with the threats that we dropped early. After a certain point, we just stop casting spells and hold up counterspells and force them to deal with what's on board. This proved to be too much.
Dimir Control (L): We got demolished as they're able to disrupt our hand and keep the board clean. This matchup showed the holes in our armor as hand disruption backed up by board wipes and hard removal is too much for us.
Grixis Thousand-Year Storm (W): This matchup was close but it actually came down to the last play of the game when our opponent had a Thousand-Year Storm. We flashed in Frilled Mystic to counter a key draw spell which kept them off lands and being able to cast Beacon Bolt to pick off both of our threats.
Mono-Blue Tempo (L): This matchup is 50/50 as our opponent flooded the board with too many 1/1s that are evasive. This deck has an issue with decks going wide unless we're able to get a board of big trampling threats with Zegana, Utopian Speaker
Mono-Blue Tempo (W): We played another down to the wire game here, but we won on the back of Zegana, Utopian Speaker giving our two Wildgrowth Walkers trample. Also the life gain from both Walkers was too much for them and gave us a small cushion but a cushion none the less.
If Budget Weren't a factor, this is probably what I'd build.
Conclusion
The deck was a lot fun and I would highly recommend it if you're a fan of tempo decks. Just be careful and hope you don't run into anything going too wide. If your opponent is able to chump block forever you can potentially add more Herald of Secret Streams. Luckily Hadana's Climb can give us that final flying punch so we do have a way around wide boards.
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger