Honestly, I had convinced myself that I couldn't run Trackers because their having counters conflicted with the bounce of Thing and the Waves. I love Trackers and I really want to love Thing, but when I switched the Advocates out for Trackers and blew out three opponents in a row, including a Superfriends deck, I saw the error of my ways. I'm a dumbass, I admit it.

Personally, I don't know what the fascination with a 26+ land deck is. I have had only rare games where I don't get to 10 to 12 lands because of the ramp in this deck. I tried it out, though, and the first four games went too much land, all land, too much land, perfect land. I admit I'm leaning toward adding 2 more land, and trying to figure out what to sacrfice for them, but I can't see running 26.

Counters on the manlands happens so rarely, it's kinda a novelty of the deck. I mentioned it because it just a cool thing to do, but I agree, having a couple of good monsters is better than one huge expensive one.

Edited version with Trackers and additional land...it now works even better!


I ran against a Simic deck someone was using in Duels that I thought had a core of a really great idea. I took what I saw from his deck and ran with it, and it's not only pretty effective, but a blast to play.


Monster Ego

Creatures
2x Thing in the Ice
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Duskwatch Recruiter
2x Sylvan Ranger
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Primal Huntbeast
2x Altered Ego
2x Cyclone Sire
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
1x Gaea's Revenge
2x Plated Crusher

Spells
3x Disperse
2x Displacement Wave
2x Gather the Pack
2x Scatter to the Winds
2x Spell Shrivel
3x Nissa's Pilgrimage
3x Explosive Vegetation


Lands
10x Island
10x Forest
2x Lumbering Falls
2x Westvale Abbey/Ormendahl, Profane Prince


So, basically a ramp simic deck, but there’s some fun synergies in this. The obvious goal is to get to one of the big boys as fast as you can, but the ramps work nicely to get a Thing out quickly as well. Since Simic lacks the easy removal that the other colors have, this deck relies on bounce to clear the deck, so Thing works well there. With the land pumpers (Sylvan Advocate, Cyclone Sire, Scatter to the Winds), I’ve made my Lumbering Falls 6/6 or more…and who can argue with a gigantic hexproof beast that can’t be swept by Planar Outburst? The real joy, though, comes in knowing three turns in advance that your opponent has no chance. After a nice ramp, put down the Crusher, then next turn Alter Ego him as far as you can go, then take out any last-ditch sweep spells with your counters.

I’m not completely happy with the functioning of the deck yet, but it is a whole lot of fun to play. Lemme know what you guys think.

Not running Bounding Krasis in any Simic Deck is a crime. Card is just dope.

I've been working this deck and refining it for the past several weeks, and it is now as dominant a deck as I have run in some time. This deck has been potent against every major meta I've run up against. In particular I LOVE playing against elf/ally/wolf decks. There is something truly satisfying about flipping a Thing or dropping a cheap Displacement Wave and watching those token armies and plus counters evaporate.

The base strategy is disruption and countering everything your opponent is doing that is dangerous to you so you can build up enough resources to truly take over. I took out almost all creatures except the essential ones and pared back the ramp, leaving a much heavier spell base. That may seem scary to some, but I like playing like that. There's still enough ramp to get to the Crusher when you need him. The average game goes Ranger, Thing, Dissolve, counter, Dissolve, counter, Thing attacks, repeat. By the time you get down the uncounterable 13/14 Altered Ego of your Plated Crusher, the game is done.

It's not a deck for everyone, as it takes patience and attention, as well as knowing when to have resources ready when your opponent is about to cast an important spell. But it's been a fun one for me.

Monster Ego

Creatures 15
2x Thing in the Ice
3x Sylvan Ranger
2x Bounding Krasis
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Altered Ego
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
1x Disciple of the Ring
1x Gaea's Revenge
2x Plated Crusher

Spells 22
3x Clutch of Currents
4x Disperse
2x Just the Wind
2x Displacement Wave
2x Gather the Pack
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Broken Concentration
2x Ruin in Their Wake
2x Explosive Vegetation

Planeswalkers 1
1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets


Lands 22
10x Island
8x Forest
2x Lumbering Falls
2x Hinterland Harbor

.

This is my Simic Willbreaker deck list. I came across the idea of building it in the Steam forums for Magic Duels:

Simic Breaker

2 x Confront the Unknown
1 x Slip Through Space

1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 x Sigiled Starfish
2 x Herald of the Pantheon
1 x Duskwatch Recruiter
2 x Alchemist's Vial
2 x Telling Time
1 x Press for Answers

1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
3 x Bounding Krasis
2 x Void Grafter
3 x Retreat to Coralhelm
2 x Retreat to Kazandu
2 x Spell Shrivel
1 x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

3 x Whirler Rouge
1 x Kiora, Master of the Depths

2 x Willbreaker
1 x Outland Colossus
1 x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

8 x Island
6 x Forest
2 x Lumbering Falls
1 x Rouge's Passage
4 x Evolving Wilds


My Walkers:
Jace, Telepath Unbound: This card works fairly well within my deck. His +1 (after flipping) allows me to steal a creature via Willbreaker, while his -3 lets us cast any of our sorcery/instants from the graveyard. I don't always care for his creature ability, though, because I don't always want to discard any of the cards in my hand.
Nissa, Sage Animist: My second favorite out of all the Origins planeswalkers, after Liliana. Her creature form isn't bad. Her flipped +1, however, is basically "either draw an extra card or play an extra land this turn," and her ultimate has won me games in the past.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: I'm not sold on her in this deck. I like all of her abilities, but not as much as I'd like an Altered Ego. I've been looking for a slot for the Ego, and it's either going to be this Nissa or the Duskwatch Recruiter.
Kiora, Master of the Depths: She's great for this deck; her +1 can steal a creature or create a blocker, and give you that extra mana source to pull something off. Her -8 isn't too relevant, and her -2 works fairly well. If I cut the Recruiter, it would be better.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets: I have no opinion on this card yet. I seriously just added this card, swapping out a [Pore Over the Pages[/card] after I drew him. He seems like he'll work better than the Pages, though.

My Best Creatures/Spells:
Willbreaker: He steals the opponent's creatures with ease. One time, I was playing this deck in 2HG and I had control of every monster on the field (it's worth noting that my partner was running a control deck that didn't play any creatures while I had the Breaker).
Bounding Krasis: He's an all-star of the deck. His flash + tap/untap combo means that I can steal one of my opponent's creatures any time, even after they've declared attackers to get 2 extra blockers with Willbreaker, or allow myself to push through a blocker by flashing him out in the end step. I wish I could run 4.
Retreat to Coralhelm/Retreat to Kazandu: The guy talking about this deck in the forums said he used U/G Willbreaker with the Retreats. These guys let you snag an opponent's creature just by playing a land (hence 4 Evolving Wilds) or gain life/scry. The biggest downside is that if you steal an opponent's monster with Kazandu, they get it back with a +1/+1 counter if they kill your Willbreaker. However, you can use these counters to boost the Willbreaker out of range of sweepers like Languish and Radiant Flames. These guys are also why I have Herald of the Pantheon.
Outland Colossus: I just wanted a win condition besides for Willbreaker. This can, and has, won without either the Willbreaker or the Colossus, but he's always nice to play as a threat.

There's a chance that some of you will notice my lack of Sylvan Advocate and Tireless Tracker. Well, I don't have either of them. Even if I did, however, I think I would only play 1 Tracker, as I'm trying to stay away from cards that can't help trigger Willbreaker.

That's interesting. I think I prefer some of the choices in the earlier version better, mostly just on personal preferences. For example, with the ramp and awakening, I might go with the Advocate over Thingy, but that's just me, probably comes out the same. I might be tempted to swap the Greenwarden for Woodland Bellower in that case, too.

Though I have to question Ruin in Their Wake without any chance of ever using it to put the other land in play. Why not Natural Connection? It's 1 more cost but is an instant. or at the very least Fork in the Road gives you the option to thin one land out of the deck if you're holding enough.

Generally speaking, not just your deck but a lot of them in this thread, where's Kiora, Master of the Depths? At the very least she's ramping 1 more mana, getting you to 6 on turn 5.


Edit to add:
Gather the Pack with only 15 creatures? Is that paying off? What about Elvish Visionary instead? Chump blocker early in addition to the card. If you "accidentally" unsummon it with Displacement or Thingy you get another draw. Clutch of Currents with Awaken on your own Visionary is kind of neat.

Wow, looking back on that deck, I've made a few very important changes and have since had a very consistent and competitive deck. The funny thing is, I'd addressed almost all of your comments since then. It's not perfect, but it is very, very good and lots of fun. Update 3:

Monster Ego

Creatures 15
2x Thing in the Ice
3x Sylvan Ranger
2x Bounding Krasis
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Darkslick Drake
2x Altered Ego
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
2x Guardian of Tazeem
1x Gaea's Revenge
2x Plated Crusher

Spells 22
4x Disperse
3x Just the Wind
2x Displacement Wave
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Broken Concentration
2x Nissa's Pilgrimage
3x Explosive Vegetation

Planeswalkers 1
1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets


Lands 22
10x Island
8x Forest
2x Lumbering Falls
2x Hinterland Harbor[/quote]

Thing or Advocate, I've thought about a LOT. Thing fits the theme of the deck better, but I do go back and forth between the two. In the end, what wins out is the early game wall and quick sweep/massive attack of Thing over average early game and slightly above average mid-game power of Advocate. Comes down to preference.

I ditched the Ruins and went with more Pilgrimages, which have that extra mana punch early. I ditched Gather the Pack, too, as I can afford to take my time getting to the big boys, and I added more flyers to get evasion edge, plus I focussed more on disruption and counters.

I like Kiora, but I don't love her. It's a tough call, but her impact on the game isn't as profound as Chandra or Jace or Sorin, so including her doesn't seem to help as much as replacing her with a card I'd rather have in a pinch. She's very passive until she gets her ultimate, and that doesn't work for me as much.

Thanks for the comments!

Okay, I've been working on a deck based on an old version of EncinoGino's Monster Ego. Basically it is ramp for the first 4 turns with some lifegain capability, then control and mill for big bad greenies and Alter Ego's. I haven't played this in ranked so it may be complete trash but I've been enjoying the AI, although I do see where the AI makes terrible decisions that nobody would make. I'd like to take this deck for a spin in ranked but it seems that all my blue control games last at least 45 minutes and I haven't had any uninterruptible downtime lately. If you test this out in ranked let me know if it's viable? It's definitely a fun play.

3x Jaddi Offshoot

1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2x Sylvan Advocate
3x Telling Time
3x Just The Wind
4x Disperse

1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Broken Concentration
3x Nissa's Pilgrimage

2x Altered Ego
2x Bone to Ash
3x Explosive Vegetation
1x Kiora, Master of the Depths

1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

1x Ulvenwald Hydra
1x Nissa's Renewal

2x Gaea's Revenge
2x Plated Crusher

9x Island
9x Forest
2x Hinterland Harbor

Only thing I'm thinking is that a Rogues Passage could be useful, and Ulvenwold Hydra can mill. Generally you are putting down so many lands that you can be confident that your draws will always be spells, then if you have Big Jace or Nissa out you can take an extra card or two each turn. Kiora is great for letting your biggest creature attack then untap to block as well (or if you're in a pinch to mill for creatures). Perfect starting hand is Jaddi, Sylvan, Island, Forest, Forest, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Explosive Vegitation. 21 lands means great draws after you cast a few ramp spells. I used to have more ramp & land but I was playing games where I'd get every one of 26 lands down and be sitting on a nissa's renewal with 20 cards left to draw. It is nice to know when you have 30 cards on the stack that there's only like a 10% chance of a useless late-game mana draw. It's also nice to be able to take advantage of Bone to Ash's draw capability or cast Scatter to the Winds with the awakening cost late-game.

Let me know all your thoughts!

UPDATE

-4 Disperse
+3 Unsubstantiate
+1 Greenwarden of Murasa

1/1 ranked games so far. Took an hour and won with 5 cards left on the deck. Lost both my crushers to a Tragic Arrogance. Need greenwarden and might sub out a Nissa's Pilgrimage and Explosive for a couple Pulse of Murasa's. Also may try to fit in a couple Drag Under's somehow as draw is pretty important in here and once you hit your ramp you can generally afford the 1 extra mana cost for the utility. Other than the mistake with the crushers (should've saved the 2nd one to play later, but I decided to gamble for the quick win) this deck is totally in control. Ended up with 34 life from Jaddi's and swung once with a Gaea's and Altered Ego for 29.

UPDATE 2

Deck went 4-1 for it's first 5 ranked games (low rank, though). Should've mulliganed on the loss; draw was 5 lands and 2 plated crushers; had to chump block jaddi and sylvan to prevent loss, never hit ramp on the draw. Control is so nice now with unsubstantiate.

With the release of EMN, we got some new flash creatures! Here's an updated list for How About No?

Decklist:

How About No? (EMN Edition)
(Aggro-Control)

Threats
3x Duskwatch Recruiter/Krallenhorde Howler
2x Tireless Tracker

Flash Threats
2x Rattlechains
2x Dimensional Infiltrator
3x Nebelgast Herald
3x Bounding Krasis
2x Void Grafter
3x Pack Guardian
2x [] Elder Deep-Fiend

Counterspells
3x Unsubstantiate
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Broken Concentration
4x Spell Shrivel
2x Convolute

Lands (24)
9x Island
6x Forest
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Hinterland Harbor
2x Lumbering Falls
1x Woodland Stream


Changes from SOI

+2 Rattlechains
+2 Dimensional Infiltrator
+3 Nebelgast Herald
+3 Unsubstantiate
+2 Convolute
+2 Elder Deep-Fiend
+1 Woodland Stream

-2 Sylvan Advocate
-3 Lambholt Pacifist
-1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer/Nissa, Sage Animist
-1 Calculated Dismissal
-2 Bone to Ash
-2 Confirm Suspicions
-1 Island
-1 Forest
-2 Westvale Abbey/Ormendahl, Profane Prince


Reasoning

The strategy of this deck remains roughly the same, but with Elder Deep-Fiend to provide a new angle of attack. Perceptive readers may have noticed the classification shift from Control to Aggro-Control.

It's a lot harder to push over the new control decks - we can't beat a resolved Brisela, and more instant speed removal means that once our opponents can cast two spells per turn, we'll have a hard time pushing through damage. So, instead, let's get more aggressive! Nebelgast and Elder Deep-Fiend are both fantastic for killing people out of nowhere, so the list has been adjusted toward that goal. I cut all the expensive and situational counterspells along with the extra lands in favor of a stronger curve of mostly flash threats. The extra tap effects also help us race Mono-White. I've also made the almost unprecedented move of cutting Sylvan Advocate from a green deck - but it's honestly not that good here. We care about being able to push damage, act at instant speed, and kill quickly with disruption. Advocate does none of those things - it's a 2/3 at sorcery speed that has no evasion, no card advantage, and does nothing of note before six lands - which, unlike the SOI version, we're unlikely to hit. The land changes are also adjusting for a more aggressive build - this deck is almost all 2 and 3 mana plays, so we can afford a tap land as land 1 or 4 (or chucked to Pack Guardian) - but we cannot afford to be short colors of mana.

Minor notes: Duels sadly does not have an upkeep, so you can't just Emerge Elder Deep-Fiend and tap them out of mana before their first main phase. Unless a werewolf is flipping, in which case there is an upkeep and you totally can! But it ends as soon as the flip finishes, so don't wait for Duskwatch cost-reduction, or it's too late. However, you can always just tap them out as they go to enter combat or leave combat - but often, it's best to just tap down all their blockers (and any remaining mana) at end of turn. Basically, if you're going to EDF their lands, don't do it in either main phase - otherwise they can float mana for sorcery speed plays. You can definitely EDF in response to removal spells, which fizzles them and is an excellent idea.

Zerris, I've been a fan and watching all your deck building articles was a pleasure. While reading this new Simic build, I have a feeling that green might not be helping as much as white does in a similar UW flash fliers aggro/counter deck. I wonder what's your opinions.

Recruiter and Tracker aren't pushing damages most of the time. Void Grafter feels mostly reactive for ambushing. Krasis can tap down a defender which is probably best of all the green creatures in terms of pursuing the deck's goals. All in all, they lack evasion although they may have higher power. Some comparisons I can see
Pack Guardian vs. Thunderclap Wyvern
Void Grafter vs. Spell Queller
Tireless Tracker vs. Bygone Bishop or Thalia, Heretic Cathar

I feel those white alternatives better matching the goal of aggro+control?

Could be. The real payoff for green is Duskwatch Recruiter, which is insanely good in a flash deck. Pack Guardian is also significantly better than Thunderclap Wyvern. The nuts of T2 Duskwatch into T3 flip and flash Pack Guardian discarding a land is basically unbeatable. The payoffs for white are Archangel Avacyn, Spell Queller, and hard removal in the form of Declaration in Stone - but it definitely puts on less pressure than the green version. It does get better mana, though, which is nice. I think they're very close in power level, especially now that white can give us more spirit synergies.

To me Recruiter was *insanely* good in the previous control version of "how about no" deck... Not sure whether it could be nearly as good in this aggro version. I really liked how that control version looked with Recruiter and Lambholt backed by counters. For this new version - an aggressive version of flash, I personally prefer white than green for the evasion + synergies Essence Flux, Nebelgast Herald, Rattlechains + three strongest cards in EMN for aggro/tempo Selfless Spirit
Spell Queller
Thalia, Heretic Cathar

I don't know how I forgot Thalia. Yeah, this should be in white. Thalia messes up decks trying to play defensively like nothing else. Selfless Spirit makes the cut, not sure Essence Flux does. Certainly not the full three copies.

Right. I was using Essence Flux as an example of Spirit Synergy. It may or may not fit in a flash aggro deck I agree.
Thalia would compare to Tireless Tracker in your Simic v2 deck. Both 3 cmc without flash but wins game if not removed quickly. Thalia makes the impact right away while Tracker builds card advantage in a longer run.
Again your v1 how about no deck was one of my favorites. Ramp fireball too. Awesome brewing.

I' m also a fan of zerris' brews, and I' ve noticed Wande
rer' s input recently. As a longstanding affectionafo of 'Simic Wolves' itthrtefore gives me great pleasitr to disagree eith your finddings and muddle the didcussion: I think white is a trap.
The main reason is the mana. I ' ve tried my own brews and others on steam, and there is no question Bant has the best quality selection for this arcjetype. The mana in duels is so poor however, that vs good devks well piloted, you lose to your own lands about 30% of the time. This assumes you are playing a tempo based list btw. Consider what impact the inability to play your 2 and 3 drop due to **** mana does to the gameplan of the archetype. That' right, you lose 90 % of the reason to play the archetype at all !
Do you really want to give up a functional gameplan that allows a full set of the best counters in duels, the best green 2 drops, niche carfs which overperform in this deck such sd Pack guardian, Rattlechains, Elder deep- fiend for a power increase the deck doesnt need most of the time but compromises the entire reason the deck was silently tier 1 in SOI ? White got alot of great stuff for tempo, azorius humans and spirits ate both respectable. Don't nerf the simic deck's consistency just because some matches are lost on the draw . I m on my phone but I would love to go more in depth about this at a later point.

Oh, of course don't go Bant. The mana fixing is not there, no matter how good Tamiyo is. I was simply claiming that Azorious might be better than Simic once we've become more aggro and less control. I think Thalia is such an insanely good card that it's probably better than our green creatures, and the rest of the U/W base is quite nice. I'll go whip up a list if you give me a sec.

Yeah Rabble... I don't think Zerris and I were discussing about going Bant in any way.
Those were some comparisons between UW and UG flash, with Zerris's v2 control/aggro idea.
I probably have said this but again I very much like that v1 counter wolves control. UW is just another path to go more aggro.

Actually, just tried it, and I honestly wasn't super impressed in the two games I played. is certainly more annoying to play against... but I think might just be stronger. The lack of Pack Guardian hurts a LOT, and white has no good replacements. The whole deck just feels too slow, where has a lot more pressure. We don't have enough copies of the spirit synergy payouts in Duels to justify it.

The more I played green flash creatures the more I feel their added power makes good difference like the 3 power krasis vs 2 power queller. Queller kills a spell where krasis kills a creature often. Thalia is good but not necessary. Fliers evasion can be something I miss from time to time when there's primal Druid or titi. White has better antisweeper effects and board wide pump in form of borrowed grace. uG can block white weenies but uw creatures 2/1 mostly can't serve the blocker role against aggro. Green 3/3 2/4 4/3 creatures can easily double block and trade with 4/5 advocate. I have to say both uw and ug counter flash are great decks with different characteristics.