Reclamation Flash Deck Shell (Standard)

I really like playing Simic, but I'm not willing to drop close to $300 on a playset of Oko and Questing Beast. Here's one of several shells that I feel may be competitive if they're modified and filled out effectively.

The pre-rotation Simic Flash deck is dead. Counterspells are awful in this format. Powerful engines come out too fast (Turn 1 Edgewall, Turn 1 Oven, Turn 2 Oko) and many game-defining plays are uncounterable (Krasis still draws cards, Clover copies on cast, Edgewall draws on cast, countering Cauldron Familiar is pointless, Worthy Knight still gets soldiers, Teferi is still a thing, and Veil buys a turn against Oko so you see it a lot). This deck can't protect Nightpack Ambusher without counters and it's often the only thing you have that can block Questing Beast. It can't control the board, it can't protect its inevitability engine anymore, and it can't draw enough cards to keep trading 1:1.

But Simic Flash does have one tool that it can use better than any other deck: Wilderness Reclamation. There's two reasons for this. The first one is obvious: almost the entire deck works at instant speed. The second one is less obvious unless you've piloted the deck a lot: the mana sinks embedded in your creatures are both crucially important and almost impossible to afford. You need to draw cards from Spectral Sailor. Swinging with Wildborn Preserver is terrifying with 2-3 cards in hand and 4 mana up. You really want Brazen Borrower on the board, but with the bounce it's 2UUU and even over 2 turns that's asking a lot from a deck that spend most of its mana on disruption.

Reclamation solves a lot of these issues. So does Biomancer's Familiar, which doesn't work with Preserver but my God do you need the cards off Sailor. Familiar also enables the best form of inevitability we now have: Faerie Formation, which is everything I wish Spectral Sailor could be and more. 3U for a card and a 1/1 Flyer seems just okay, but with Reclamation we can easily do that on both turns. With Familiar out, it's 1U for a card and a 1/1 Flyer, which is ludicrous value. If both are out, your opponent has exactly his turn to kill Formation (sometimes through Frilled Mystic) and you'd still get 2-3 cards and flyers out of the deal. With Field gone, there's going to be less board clears and more Planeswalker hate. A wide flying board is going to give a lot of decks trouble.

It's still rough. I'm sure the ratios are wrong in a few places. But this lets you be the beatdown, and I think this is the sort of meta where instant-speed tempo does have a chance. It just needs a lot of cards and a lot of mana while still affecting the board at all times. And this actually kind of does that!

(After limited testing): It feels like Frilled Mystic is too hard on our curve to run over Sinister Sabotage. I feel like I should cut Ascendancy out for something like Growth Spiral or even Incubation // Incongruity (or Once Upon a Time, if you have the money). I'm feeling more and more like Tale's End should maindeck. It can counter Embercleave's effect through Veil, for example, by targeting the Equip ability. It's way more flexible than it seems. I'm not sure about Sanctuary and Mystery balance here. Topdecking those as our 4th or 5th land is just awful, but Sanctuary in particular is a powerful payoff for us. This deck flounders pretty hard pretty fast if it can't get Sailor in play. He's really not a throwaway card anymore.

Notes on specific card choices:

• Thrash is the best mono-green punch in the format, hands down. Hit a smug opponent's Teferi with it once - just once! - and you'll see what I mean.
• Ascendancy is a good way to draw enchantment hate away from Reclamation. It makes combat math even more of a nightmare for your opponent and can occasionally steal games.
• Every deck has a crucial Negate target, but many play multiple problem creatures. Use your Negates sparingly! A resolved Nissa probably kills you. A resolved Embercleave always does, and Veil in response to Unsummon or Theft is heartbreaking.
• I've considered maindecking Tale's End. It counters almost everything I want Negate for, plus it can counter on-cast abilities and Planeswalker activations in crucial situations.
• I would not run both Spyglass and Healer in the sideboard unless your meta is full of Cavalcade. Spyglass works against more decks (name the rare Chandra against Cavalcade), but Unsummon and Healer helps so much against pure burn. It's otherwise one of your worst matchups since they'll always Shock your 2-drops.
• I'm not sure I'd maindeck Mu Yanling, but she's so good out of the sideboard. Slower decks often find Mu difficult to deal with, and this deck defends her incredibly well. She can and will win games by herself if unanswered.
• Sharktocrab needs Familiar (or Ascendancy) on the board to work, but it shuts down Questing Beast and it enables very strong attacks. If Gruul becomes a format staple I think you have to maindeck Sharktocrab.
• Compulsory 4 Mystic Disputes in the sideboard to deal with Turn 2 Oko. Le Sigh.
• I like Steelbane Hydra more than Return to Nature when I'm running Familiar, where Hydra says (G: Remove counter to destroy artifact or enchantment). But it's a much greater expense for a very small relative gain.
• Voracious Hydra is very meta-dependent. GG for both of your punches is a pretty difficult ask, but sometimes you just really, really, REALLY need to kill innkeeper. And I prefer flexible punches over something like Kasmina's Transmutation.

...Oh, and I don't have it here because I don't consider it competitive-viable, but if you run 4 Untamed Wilds and literally 1 Plains, you can sneak a copy of Faeburrow Elder, Gauntlets of Light, and 1UUU Jace into this deck. Gauntlets untaps for just W with Familiar out, and you'll have 6-7 ways to use the infinite UG to draw your entire deck, casting Jace in the meantime to win. It's not something you ever want to rely on. But the reactions you get when you pull it off are priceless.