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Sick Copy

This Week: I continue with my Super Hero inspired EDH decks. Make copies and proliferate. It's infectious.

Thanks for reading and all the support to date. I have affiliate links with Mana Pool and TCG Player to help fund these off the wall strategies. It's what makes all this possible


Sometimes a card just looks cool, and you want to build a deck around it for that reason. I got hit with a card like that in the Return to Ravnica block. Roalesk, Apex Hybrid was that card. It has all the superhero hallmarks. He flies, he’s strong, his stingray wings look like a cool cape, and it even has the Mutant Creature type. It's very Superman meets X-Men. I opened Roalesk from one of my prerelease kits but never got to play him in Standard. I stumbled upon him recently while downsizing my collection and felt the need to let this hero fly. It's more like Roalesk, Apex Hero!

 

When you see Roalesk, everything it does screams Simic. It’s proliferating, it has Flying and Trample, and it gives out counters. The only other way to make it feel more Simic would be if it said search for a land and draw a card. With the card being so on the nose, was there a way for me to lean into my philosophy of Make EDH Weird again? Of course there was.


 

Arguably, this card’s greatest strength comes from the double proliferate triggers. Like all good heroes, if Roalesk dies heroically in battle, he strengthens his allies, so they don’t meet the same fate. Classic. The problem is that Roalesk is expensive. Proliferating twice is at least twice as good as Proliferating once. Just look at Contagion Engine and Contagion Clasp if you don’t believe me. 5 mana isn’t prohibitive, per say, but when you need the thing to die and then have it again that tax will add up quick. Simic reanimator is an interesting idea, but not where I’m going. If only there was a super hero saga that had the answer to my cost issues?


 

Oh, wait, there is. One of the most hated storylines, the Clone Saga from Spider-Man. The hyphen is important there. No, I will not be using UB Spider-Man cards just because we’ve seen them in digital form. My solution came in the form of Clones. If you aren’t aware, I have some familiarity with Clones thanks to my Zinnina deck (check it out). In all seriousness, why clones though? They offer greater flexibility than simply including a card that says Proliferate. If I don’t have any counters out there Proliferate does nothing. With clones, I can target my Commander and immediately get 2 proliferate triggers. Or I could target another more impactful creature on the board. It’s really situation dependent, in the best way.


 

Luckily, Simic offers some of the best clones in the game. There is not just the question of which clones to play, but also if I should let the clone live, or if I should let the original Roalesk go to the command zone. Ben Reilly fans rejoice.

Croaking Counterpart is a clone effect, but the duplicate becomes a 1/1 Frog. That is an easy choice to sacrifice the copy to the legend rule and keep Roalesk. Naga Fleshcrafter and Vizier of Many Faces are a graveyard bound pair. The Embalm/Renew effects mean I can get the effect again from the graveyard. It’s on par with the Flashback of Croaking Counterpart. It makes my choice easy. Phantasmal Image is great since it’s so cheap, but it’s fragile. It turns any targetable spell into a removal spell, which is not what I want.

 

Altered Ego is one that I always choose to keep around. It comes in with some counters which is great on a flying trampler. When the Original Roalesk dies, I immediately get 2 more. I still maximize X for this spell; I don’t hold back a mana or 2 just because I know I’ll get 2 extra counters. Would you? Copycrook is another one I’ll keep over the original. Connive offers me cards, counters, and more value when I Proliferate.


 

I have some great additional effects to get copies outside your traditional Shapeshifters and Instants/Sorceries. Helm of the Host offers me a token copy each combat of the enchanted creature. The benefit is that the copy avoids the legend rule. Which means I can attack more recklessly since I wouldn’t necessarily care if I get in for damage or get the Proliferate triggers. Blade of Selves lets me convert any creature, including the token it creates, into a copy of my Commander if I have it on the field for immediate effect. Bramble Sovereign allows me to pay and make a token copy of whatever hits the field. I remember in a Battle Bond 2 Headed Giant game I used it to copy my Enduring Scalelord. I was able to put a counter on one of them and started a chain where I put infinite counters on them. This was all in one turn, so they had summoning sickness. My partner and I got swarmed that same turn and never got to attack with our beefy dragons.          


 

That’s great and all, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more than to just play a straight up Clone deck. What else makes for good proliferate effects? Something that wins games. I’m talking about Poison Counters. Infect is the go to for this effect, but Toxic exists to, and a couple one off cards that distribute poison counters independently. You might think Poison is bad, or that the number of counters should be raised to 20 because of the higher life totals. These are great discussions I would love to have with you. The argument to keep poison at 10 is it boils down to threat density and risk vs reward. There are no casual infect cards besides Triumph of the Hordes, which wins on par with Craterhoof Behemoth or Overrun effects. So, a player needs to commit, and you’re not likely to play a game where half the table is playing infect. The second consideration is just as important. 9 poison counters means nothing. No one loses at 9. If you never connect again, it’s like you did nothing. This is the same risk/reward issue with mill, if you mill 99 cards you haven’t eliminated anyone.          

There are some impactful cards that give out poison counters, but sneaky ones are arguably better. Phyrexian Swarmlord can eliminate an opponent in a couple of turns, which is nice. The infectious tokens it makes have actually been more important to sneak in those poison counters. Blighted Agent gets around any blocker, which is important to start the infection. Viral Drake and Thrummingbird are evasive, and evasion is important.


 

Evasion is great, but what if I can’t attack? I need to get that initial counter on an opponent and Roalesk and the clones can do the rest. I’ve never ended a game with Infectious Bite, but it's always great to get the ball rolling. It works that much better when paired with Venerated Rotpriest, removing a small creature and putting an extra poison counter into consideration. Bloodroot Apothecary is more passive than my other effects, but arguably more effective. Each time an opponent sacrifices a token they get 2 poison counters. Even if the Apothecary never gives out a counter it’s still winning because I shut down opponents from using those additional resources like Treasure and Food. Maybe this squirrel is another casual poison counter card?


 

Poison counters are only so scary because of Proliferate. The pool of cards that give out poison counters is relatively small. The number of effects that multiply those counters is higher, and they don’t all rely on combat damage. My favorite proliferators in the deck are attached to my draw spells. Contentious Plan, Steady Progress, Tezzerett’s Gambit, and Experimental Augury all fit this dual role.       


 

I’m almost ready to show you the list, but I want to bring my 2 strategies to a close out with some additional ways to win the game. If Roalesk become too expensive to cast, or I’m, never able to get a poison counter on an opponent, I still need to close out the game. Luckily Simic offers 2 great ways to do this. Biovisionay doesn’t win me the game, but 4 will. Don’t expect to play it and 3 clones all on the same turn. I’ve never been able to. The other way to sneak out a win is with Simic Ascendancy. This Enchantment does draw attention from the table. It needs to put an initial +1/+1 counter on a creature to start the growth counters, but after that I can pay or proliferate my way to 20. Timing is important here since I need those counters at the beginning of my turn. I don’t currently have Helix Pinnacle in the deck. If I ever move into some big mana generation I would add it in, but for now it’s off the list.

 

Take a look at the list

 

This is a sweet deck. I feel like it’s the most Simic deck you could build and fits in the Make EDH Weird Again philosophy at the same time. I’ve played it to commander damage wins, poison damage, and a controll-y judo style before. It’s always refreshing and interesting. The opponents don’t always like the infect, but they tend to respect the deck because there’s more than just that going on. What about you? Do you think I’ve gone too far with poison counters? Or is it a happy middle ground?


 
 
 

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