This came out of the Ramp in AKH topic. This list went 11-1 from rank 30 to rank 40, with the only loss to a Boros vehicles deck (piloted by the AI, no less) where I didn't have an answer to T2 Smuggler's Copter. List first.

Creatures
2x Sylvan Advocate - obvious really, especially since it survives your own sweepers. Best possible play against control on turn 2, heck best possible play in general on turn 2.
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer - Nissa is just a good card and can help you make your land drops to win conditions. However I think it's genuinely possible Reclamation Sage is better instead to shore up weaknesses.
2x Gaea's Revenge - you don't want your ramp targets to die. Gaea's cannot be countered, deals a substantial amount of damage (no trample though) and getting opposing planeswalkers off the board.
2x Plated Crusher - see above. Plated has trample and is somewhat sturdier, but no haste & can be countered are both significant drawbacks.
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - every ramp deck runs this.

Spells
2x Fatal Push
4x Cathartic Reunion - this card is good. Ramp decks have inherent problems if they draw the wrong half of their deck and this helps. Discard win conditions early and excess lands / ramp spells later. Discarding creatures can even be actively great, given the planeswalker suite in the deck. More on this later.
2x Unlicensed Disintegration - no artifacts, but it's easier on the mana than Murder.
2x Never // Return - great value card. Kills planeswalkers and importantly turns into a 2/2 late-game. It's not much but better than nothing and it will grind down control decks.
1x Oath of Liliana - a one-of specifically meant to kill indestructible creatures and / or hexproof creatures. Used to be Trial of Ambition but turns out the 1-extra mana typically doesn't matter, while the occasional zombies almost always do (and by a lot).
3x Nissa's Pilgrimage - It's either this or Gift of Paradise. More on this later.
2x Languish
2x Yahenni's Expertise
3x Explosive Vegetation - mandatory ramp card.
1x Nissa's Renewal - all the way to Ulamog and gains nontrivial amount of life.

Planeswalkers
1x Liliana, the Last Hope - single-handedly kills all 1-toughness creatures and the minus is also good with Cathartic Reunion. All-around good card.
1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance - all-around good card, more on her later.
1x Nissa, Vital Force - not that strong but the modes are all relevant. Threatening an immediate ultimate is great at helping grind and the minus works well with Cathartic Reunion too.
1x Liliana, Death's Majesty - best combo with Cathartic Reunion, I won one game on the back of T5 Ulamog. This deck has no qualms with the +1 as well, since it's got plenty of ways to win before it decks itself.
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited - all-around good card.
1x Chandra, Flamecaller - great in many ways. The +1 kills other planeswalkers, the zero turns your dead cards to real cards (see Cathartic Reunion) and the minus acts as a fifth board clear.

Lands
2x Swamp
2x Mountain
4x Forest
2x Hissing Quagmire
2x Smoldering Marsh
2x Cinder Glade
2x Rootbound Crag
2x Woodland Cemetery
2x Dragonskull Summit
4x Evolving Wilds

Deck Tech
Some of this is in the list above, but a few discussion points and tips below:

Nissa's Pilgrimage vs. Gift of Paradise: this is symptomatic of one of the weaknesses of the deck. After many games it became apparent that there aren't enough basic lands in the deck. After a single Nissa's Pilgrimage for example odds are the second one (and there are three in the deck) will only be able to dig up one forest, if at all. However Nissa's Pilgrimage is simply a powerful ramp card. It can't be removed unlike Gift, and it makes sure you hit your following land drop. If it were not for the basic land issue I would totally run all Nissa's Pilgrimage instead of Gift of Paradise. Gift has three advantages - one, it gains three life which is typically not relevant but can matter; two, it can be cast on Evolving Wilds; three, it can fix your mana. At the moment I'm using Gift of Paradise but a mixture of both cards might be best.

After playtesting I'm of opinion that Nissa's Pilgrimage is firmly superior to Gift. Gift has three advantages: it gains three life (typically not relevant), it can be cast on Evolving Wilds (okay), and it can fix your mana (but this seldom matters). Against that Nissa's draws you cards, which you can use to fuel Cathartic Reunion. It guarantees you make your next land drop, and possibly the one after that as well (you also have Cathartic Reunion to help trigger spell mastery). This is important since you really don't want to miss land drops given your late-game. Finally Sylvan Advocate does not trigger off Gifts, but will off Pilgrimage. I'm of opinion that Pilgrimage is virtually strictly superior, and if one runs Gift at all, one should only run one copy.

Pilgrimage becomes almost useless after the first one is cast, so keep it in your hand for the eventual Cathartic Reunion / Chandra Flamecaller discard.

On the basic land issue, there's another problem in that the deck is quite black-intensive and there are only two Swamps to fetch. It's not that uncommon that I want to e.g. cast both Liliana and Murder on the same turn, and only have three black sources available. I do not know how to fix this. Only way I can think of is to drop an Evolving Wilds for another swamp but that has clear negative consequences.

The basic land issue is no longer a big issue, after the Murder -> Unlicensed Disintegration switch.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance: don't forget that his card has four modes! Use the other modes as you wish, but remember the 2nd mode can act as a pseudo-Explosive Vegetation. Also don't forget that her first +1 ability can do two damage to the opponents' planeswalkers. Seldom important but can matter.

The three reanimate planeswalkers: this deck is not very reliant on their ultimates to win, so don't forget that you can conceivably tick down to bring back a card. The most obvious is with Liliana, Death's Majesty since it comes back to play immediately. But the other two planeswalkers can do similar things so don't forget it's possible, especially if they're not likely to survive even if ticking up. Example: if your Esper control opponent has just cast Planar Outburst to kill Gaea's Revenge, and your play for the turn is Liliana, the Last Hope, I would recommend ticking down to bring back Gaea's. You could conceivably tick up and win with Liliana emblem, but it takes four turns, plenty of time for the Esper player to find an answer. On the other hand Gaea's forces them to have another answer (and they only have few) or die, and they have to answer the Liliana in play as well.

Remember Nissa, Vital Force's +1 can lose you the land to a removal spell (Fatal Push kills it as well). All things being equal use the +1 on a forest since those are the most expendable land types. Similarly, all things being equal, fetch black or red mana first with Evolving Wilds.

Gaea's Revenge & Plated Crusher: remember what kills these guys. There aren't many options, basically just sweepers like Planar Outburst / Tragic Arrogance and sacrifice effects like Blessed Alliance and Trial of Ambition. That means you typically do not want to play more than one of them at a time. One is usually enough to win, you don't need more. Against sacrifice effects remember that you can animate Hissing Quagmire and sacrifice that if you have the mana. The zombies from Oath of Liliana, Never // Return, and Liliana, Death's Majesty also help a lot.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer: if you've dug out all the forests in your deck, don't forget to keep a land in hand to trigger her. Also remember that against some decks, it's better to keep her in hand until you can play and flip her on the same turn.

Cathartic Reunion and Chandra, Flamecaller: these cards mean that you don't want to play all your cards later in the game. If you have excess land, ramp spells, etc, just keep them and hope for one of these. You can also play Cathartic Reunion early to find your early-game removal & ramp spells. Remember that a draw-three effect is odds-on to draw you a land, so you can usually discard a land and still make your land drops. Other obvious discards are the spells you can't cast, and the big creatures.

Weakness: the one game I lost was to an unanswered Smuggler's Copter out of a Boros deck. That I think is the biggest weakness with the deck aside from the basic land issue: vehicles. They're immune to sweepers, and answering them with spells is possible but easier said than done.

Play
Easy - ramp into your late-game and hope it's enough to win. Land sequencing can take some thought to optimize (think of what you might draw or want to play next turn), and don't forget Evolving Wilds can still be used to trigger revolt if you run out of lands to fetch late-game (but at that point you probably want to keep it in your hand for Cathartic Reunion / Chandra, Flamecaller).

Bonus section
If I had signed up for the tournament, I'd probably have run something like this sideboard.

3x Reclamation Sage
1x Fatal Push
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Murder
1x Oath of Liliana
2x Bristling Hydra
2x Radiant Flames
2x Midnight Oil
1x Desolation Twin

This sideboard is NOT TESTED and I have literally never played with a sideboard in my life, but it looks good in theory. Ideas here can also be used to tweak the list to your liking against whatever you're seeing on the ladder.

Against aggro you obviously bring in Fatal Push, Reclamation Sage (if they're running vehicles) and Radiant Flames (if they're not). You take out some of the big creatures since you're going to win anyway if it gets that long. I do not know how an aggro deck will sideboard against you - one thing everyone tries to do is to side into stuff that don't die to sweepers, but chances are they're already running both vehicles and planeswalkers. They will probably cut some removal to add more threats, but you're also adding more removal so ...

Against control you go for the spells that win the game if they resolve. Tireless Tracker doesn't win the game, but if they don't counter it drawing even a single card with it (of course you don't play this on turn 3) will help you pull ahead. Bristling Hydra has in-built protection against removal which should also be great. If they have to use a sweeper or sacrifice effect to kill it, they won't have those spells against your Gaea's and Plated Crushers. Desolation Twin has a cast trigger, which also helps you pull ahead even if they counter it. However while this deck is quite good at reaching 7-8 mana, getting to 10 mana is harder: you may run out of basic lands to search for with the ramp spells. If you aren't ballsy enough to run Desolation Twin (it is ten mana) then Oblivion Sower is another consideration, helping you pull even further ahead in lands to negate their Spell Shrivels. This is also a cast trigger. Finally you don't have to worry about holding something like Anguished Unmaking in hand to remove your opponent's win conditions, so Midnight Oil should be good. Take out the sweepers, Fatal Push and Cathartic Reunion if they're running counterspells, but keep some removal in Murder / Oath of Liliana, since although these cards are dead game 1 odds are they'll add more creatures to their deck. Other anti-control tech possible are Thought Knot Seer (super card against them, but requires Wastes), Distended Mindbender and Elder Deep-Fiend. You can't easily emerge the last two, but you can cast them for eight mana, and they are both cast triggers.

Comments etc welcome and will add more observations to the Ramp thread.

About Kiora, Master of the Depths:

I think that she warrants some consideration versus your concerns about Nissa's Renewal or Nissa, Vital Force.

Kiora's +1 gives you pseudo-vigilance and an extra mana per turn. This can give you more leverage with your big monsters, as well as correct your black mana problems.

Her -2 helps you dig for land and/or a creature. Gathering up to 2 cards isn't a bad break at all. And with all the other recursion, adding a couple card to the graveyard may not be too bad a deal, either.

And her emblem, combined with your fatties, could be devastating. Having the option to fight opponents' creatures with Plated Crusher or Ulamog is basically removal (not to mention the added bonus of 3 surly octopuses).

At a cost of 4 mana, Kiora is far-too-often overlooked. I'm not saying she's a guaranteed win for you, obviously, but she does help you with a few of your stated goals.

You only draw two cards with Kiora if you hit a creature and a land, and this deck has only eight creatures. Vigilance is not very relevant since this deck won't be attacking for a very long time, and has sweepers in any case. Emblem wins the game of course (although it's one of the weaker emblems), but one can never rely on a planeswalker ultimate.

I think Kiora is playable, but not in this deck.

Excellent post and playnotes man. I was going to dismiss the deck outright after hearing that it can't answer T2 Copter but you do have four direct cards to deal with it, as well as some tricks to kill it if you can trick opponent into defending with it. Plus you have LOTS of pilot hate

I think your deck is worth exploring as it's the best ramp I've seen since Donachaid simic, which is my oldest deck that I still play

I would consider swapping two cathartic reunion for Fatal push and murder

I'm debating if your advocates should be sages but I guess you'd rather have early blocker of quality? Only two man lands makes me think he could be a Sage instead

Gee thanks, I was not expecting that kind of comment from you!

I'm hesitant to swap Cathartic Reunion because that card is really good. It's one of the cards I most want to see in my opening hand. It makes starting hands like Evolving Wilds / Rootbound Crag / Sylvan Advocate / Cathartic Reunion / Nissa, Vital Force / Murder / Ulamog go from completely unkeepable to actively good. Unless playing against counterspells it really has no equals. I am virtually always happy to see Cathartic Reunion unless I don't have two cards to discard to it.

As for Advocate, I also see it as core in the deck because of mana curve reasons. The deck seriously lacks 2-drops otherwise, and the fact that it survives its own sweepers later is great. Being a low-drop is also helpful to force something past a counterspell later as well. I remember one game against an Esper control deck where I landed an Advocate on turn 2 and he couldn't remove it while holding up a counterspell. Five turns later with him at 10 and Advocate threatening to hit for four damage, he finally decides he has to remove it, and then I landed a Liliana, Death's Majesty. If I drop something for a Reclamation Sage, it'd probably be Nissa. Nissa is good, but not exactly necessary, and by seven mana I'd be hoping for something more impactful than a 3-drop.

PS just curious what's this Donachaid simic deck? Care to share?

Donachaid won the first Fight Club tournament with a Simic Ramp that had lots of colourless cards, it's the oldest deck I play that still wins. I think he beat Vert 3-1 in the finals

With that opening hand you describe, what would you discard? I hate that reunion card but I totally get why people love it. I won with your deck last night using only one ramp spell, the land enchantment. Very fun

I watched game one of the match on YouTube, I can just imagine Very going "oops I lost" after the turn 1 Lumbering Falls lol, although he played well after Donachaid went for the kill too aggressively in my opinion (and apparently didn't see the Jace flashback on Languish incoming). It is quite an unusual deck though. Does he have any sort of removal?

With that opening hand, I'd Evolving Wilds (fetch a forest), Rootbound Crag, play Sylvan Advocate. By turn 3 I'd hopefully have some idea what my opponent is playing and would also have drawn some cards. If I do play Cathartic Reuninion on turn 3, Ulamog is an obvious discard. In a vacuum I'd discard Nissa before Murder as well (although this particular opening hand is short of black mana so discarding the Murder is also possible).

In 3 colors I think unlicensed disintegration is easier to cast than murder, plus will help with your issue. If you add Tireless Tracker you might actually be able to get the 3 damage trigger once in a blue moon.

That's a great suggestion and something I completely did not think of. I'll try it and see if I can find some artifacts to include as well. Tireless Tracker is a great card but I'm not so sure about it - it's mainly for value, and this deck doesn't try to win via value but via much bigger spells.

Also Barney do you have that Simic ramp list? The more I think about it the more interesting it gets, especially considering we now have Bounty of the Luxa.

Have you thought about adding Oath of Nissa? It's a very solid card both early and late game. Will help you fix mana strains of your planes walkers, fix mana curbs or find threats. Can't ask for more for a single .

I just encountered this on the iOS ladder. Kicked my ass (Grixis artifacts). I put up a hell of a fight, but an early Nissa ult pretty much decided the game. Nasty deck!

Funny, I came to post, that I also encountered the deck on ios ladder. But I actually had a pretty easy time playing izzet control, especially aftr countering his cathartic reunion.

After some testing, about ...

Unlicensed Disintegration - this was a great card to replace Murder with. Alleviates the black mana issue as well, even though I couldn't find any good artifacts to run with it. Noxious Gearhulk is probably best, replacing one of the planeswalkers, but of course it's a 1-of mythic. Thanks for suggestion anyway!

Gift of Paradise vs. Nissa's Pilgrimage - after playing with a bit more I'm firmly behind Nissa's Pilgrimage now. The card is powerful card advantage being at least a 1-for-2 the first time and possibly even 1-for-3 (see Cathartic Reunion's discard effect). Extra lands, not extra mana, is also what Sylvan Advocate needs to be a 4/5. At most I'd run only one Gift of Paradise.

Oath of Nissa - I've used this card before but it has a major problem, it can't find your ramp spells. I think the power level is there, but not for this deck (like Kiora). The deck doesn't typically have issues casting its planeswalkers either in my experience.

Whoever is netdecking this - would be nice if you'd say you're trying it or can post some observations! Cathartic Reunion is literally one of the worst spells possible to get countered (and hence it's always boarded out against control), I would be careful before attempting it against a deck with possible counterspells. Occasionally you really lose little if it's countered since you still get your fatty into the graveyard, but most of the time the effect is deadly.

At some level I'm curious how good this deck is against control. I won most of my games against it, but they did involve my opponent going through contortions (one opponent played Planar Outburst to kill Sylvan Advocate) or possibly misplay (another opponent tapped out to play Jace against my six lands, and I responded with Chandra Flamecaller). Anuuj, could your Izzet control deck have done anything if this deck played lands till 7 mana and then Gaea's? Or would you counter the ramp spells and hope to pressure him before it gets to that point?

I'm playing it a little, are you going to edit your original post with the tweaks?

Reunion has been my most stressful card to use cuz blue is everywhere

I haven't lost yet so it's hard to critique so far

Amended the OP - basically Pilgrimage > Gift, Unlicensed > Murder, and possibly in the sideboard Oblivion Sower > Desolation Twin since the deck isn't very good at hitting 10+ mana, although it hits 7-8 mana quite consistently. Still not sure about Reclamation Sage vs. Nissa Vastwood Seer.

I played a game against a Jeskai control deck and it basically played out similar to what I'd have expected. Resources traded for a bit and then I played Gaea's Revenge and it flipped the game on its own. Opponent had to play Commit against it, then force me to shuffle my library by playing Memory (even though I had fewer cards in hand at that point). Unfortunately for him I drew Gaea's again and he was forced to play Disciple of the Ring to threaten a trade. I avoided attacking into a possible Blessed Alliance for a few turns and eventually, played Never // Return on the Disciple, paid eight mana against him exiling four cards, and he conceded. Based off my (admittedly limited) games I'm not convinced this is a bad matchup. Yes you can lose if Cathartic Reunion gets countered, but he's also stuck with stuff like Galvanic Bombardment that will do literally nothing against any of your creatures, and Gaea's wins the game. Hell, my opponent played Galvanic Bombardment on his own Disciple to have more fuel to counter my Never // Return with.



Barney = the new divinevert?

Your opponent Committed your Gaea's?

Yes (which is also why he played Memory while I had fewer cards in hand and more lands in play - to shuffle my library).

I just beat another Esper control deck the same way. We both laid lands until he played Ob Nixilis @ 8 mana. I swept it off with Chandra and then seized the chance to play Cathartic Reunion. He played Anguished Unmaking on Chandra, and held up countermagic, so it was just my Hissing Quagmires poking here and there. Eventually he played Sorin, which I used Never // Return on. He countered, I played a 2nd Never // Return, and then used the Return side to keep pressuring his life total. Eventually he was at 12 life against my 2/2 zombie when I topdecked a Gaea's Revenge. I played it, which forced him to Commit. Two turns of frantic digging later he conceded.

I won't say I'm confident playing against counter control decks since after all they make Cathartic Reunion look silly, but really, the deck poses the question: how exactly are you going to answer Gaea's Revenge?

I can see this deck causing headaches for esper. You need blessed alliance or commit to memory (ideally BA), or a gearhulk. In a tournament where they know what you're doing it's easier. On the ladder I'm sure you catch em off guard guite a lot (double languish works too... But that's a tall order).

thanks for updating the build, Bane. I'll make the swaps tonight. It's been fun so far but I don't have many games under the belt yet.

3 Nissa's Pilgrimage with just 4 forest? I am not seeing it.