Simic Chonkers - Arena Historic Brawl

[BLUKE7373]

Simic Chonkers

Hey there fine fellow planeswalkers!

I am loosing every single match I play with my current Simic Historic Brawl deck, commanded by Lonis, Cryptozoologist. So, in an effort to loose less I'm re-making the deck, starting with a new Commander: Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy.

Hopefully, I cast commander early and capitalize on mana dorks and artifacts to really ramp up mana production, then use said ramp to produce VERY CHONK creatures. Win con being more combat focused.

All cards in this deck are able to be used in the MTG:A game and can be crafted if needed. For the same reason, the maybe board is full of other things you might sub in should you wish.

Suggestions always helpful, but please keep in mind this deck is meant to work on MTG:A. Thank you in advance!

[BLUKE7373]

Sorted cards into sections based off type. Removed a card that was accidentally added.

As of now I am 6 cards over limit, so I will go through and move cards to the sideboard that are either not of great use to me or that I cannot create in game right now.

Revision 3

Added/removed cards:
-1 Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
-1 Kodama of the West Tree
-1 Koma, Cosmos Serpent
-1 Probe
-1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
+1 Wilderness Reclamation

[BLUKE7373]

forgot I needed to add shared summons and clear the mind for some tons of fun. Added a ton of creatures to the side board for consideration as well.

Revision 4

Added/removed cards:
-1 Arcane Signet
-1 Colossal Skyturtle
-1 Double Major
-1 Explore
-1 Greater Tanuki
-2 Growth Spiral
-1 Harrow
-1 Incubation // Incongruity
-1 Llanowar Elves
-1 Maraleaf Pixie
-1 Mirrorshell Crab
-1 Soulstealer Axe
+1 Angler Turtle
+1 Beast Whisperer
+1 Clear the Mind
+1 Forceful Cultivator
+1 Incubation Druid
+1 Nylea, Keen-Eyed
+1 Shared Summons

[BLUKE7373]

Ran out of tokens to create cards as I needed. So subbed things in from maybeboard that will tide me over for now.

Revision 5

Added/removed cards:
-1 Circle of Dreams Druid
-1 Cultivator Colossus
-1 Forceful Cultivator
-1 Old Gnawbone
-1 The Tarrasque
+1 Challenger Troll
+1 Drawn from Dreams
+1 Elder Gargaroth
+1 God-Eternal Kefnet
+1 Hydroid Krasis
+1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned

[BLUKE7373]

Finished deck for now. Will adjust as needed.

Revision 7

Added/removed cards:
-1 Sublime Epiphany

[BLUKE7373]

Alright, after about 20 games my current thesis is:

Needs more mana.

There are several issues I have been running into. 1, things being bounced back to my hand SUCK. Especially if I'm trying to make things work quickly. 2, taking control over another player's creatures sucks when they target your Nyxbloom Ancient. 3, most of the time I was losing games because I was making bad calls due to inexperience with this deck.

SO, this brings me to my next question for all you fine folk, What in the world would you change? Let me know in the comments and I will play test it for you.

[Slyvester12]

I am unfamiliar with Historic (it looks like just another WotC EDH clone going back farther than Brawl?), but I did build my partner a very successful Kinnan deck for regular EDH. Taking a look at your list, I think you're missing the point of Kinnan a bit. Cheating out creatures is cool, but Kinnan's biggest strength is the ability to ramp, HARD. You have basically nothing on the lower end of your curve and almost all of your mana production is through lands.

Why are things like Llanowar Elves, Arcane Signet, and other cheap nonland mana generators in the sideboard? Arcane Signet with Kinnan out is 2 mana for 2 mana, so basically free. Mox Amber is 2 mana for nothing, so a better Sol Ring with Kinnan out. The great thing about Kinnan (unlike Mayael, who Kinnan essentially replaced) is that you don't have to cheat out something big. As long as Kinnan is the only human in the deck, you can use the ability on any creature you flip. Sometimes, flipping a Priest of Titania will help you more than some 5/5.

I would strongly recommend going back to the beginning and aiming for a lower curve. Having 10-20 cheap (CMC < 3) sources of nonland mana will make your mana production spiral out of control. Someone stealing Nyxbloom Ancient doesn't matter if you can make 30 mana per turn without it.

For your big creatures, it's important to have a good number in Kinnan, but you only really want enough to guarantee flipping one most of the time. An occasional whiff is acceptable, but at least 80% of the time or so you want to be able to cheat in something terrifying. I settled around 15 big bois, but most of them were game winning (things like Blightsteel Colossus, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, or Ulamog the Infinite Gyre).

tl;dr: More mana dorks/rocks, lower curve, fewer big bois.

[Bonethousand]

I play a decent amount of historic brawl and I would say the restricted card pool is frustrating, but Kinnan has a ton of support. He's counterintuitive to build, because you want a good mass of creatures, but he's such a target for removal. I agree with a lowered curve so that you can flood the board a little more easily/quickly, but you also want a decent amount of protection, including counterspells. Don't rely on too many green protection spells like Heroic Intervention and Tamiyo's Safekeeping. Cards that are both creatures and protection, like that new channeling crab, are great.

Also, remove stuff like the monuments. The passive ramp doesn't synergize with Kinnan or really simic at all.

I suggest grouping your categories by role instead of card type. Make sure you have a good amount of interaction, I'd say like 10 pieces of counterspell magic, and removal based on bouncing creatures so that you can use them to protect Kinnan as well, bypassing the commander tax.

It would even be a good exercise to just look up other simic commanders, since the shell of a simic deck can be strong enough on it's own without relying on Kinnan. Playing Kinnan too early and too often are what get you blown out of the game.

[BLUKE7373]

Thank you so much for the ideas! I'm working on the updated deck now and will be updating this listing to show that soon.

Yes, the limitation of MTG:A is challenging, with high synergy cards often not even being an option unfortunately. However, I had an appifany while looking at adding Old Gnawbone. What if I start building a side piece of this deck being creating treasure tokens? They would be simple enough, adding 2 mana per artifact thanks to Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. However, if there was to be a card like flood of tears played, I would be screwed out of a LOT of mana potentially. Would this be something worth looking into?

[Bonethousand]

However, if there was to be a card like flood of tears played, I would be screwed out of a LOT of mana potentially. Would this be something worth looking into?

Hate to break it to you, but it's not Flood of Tears I'd be worried about; it's River's Rebuke. But, either of those spells are going to hose you anyways, treasures or no. That's why you want counterspells.

[BLUKE7373]

Alright. I've spent WAY too much time on this right now and need to take a break. Here is the new deck (listed in Main Deck) that I have so far. Will update tomorrow as I will have more time then.

Revision 8

Added/removed cards:
+1 Arcane Signet
+1 Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
+1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
+1 Brainstorm
+1 Circle of Dreams Druid
+1 Counterspell
+1 Deadeye Quartermaster
+1 Devious Cover-Up
+1 Elvish Mystic
+1 Finale of Devastation
+1 Glittermonger
+1 Goldvein Pick
+1 Growth Spiral
+1 Hedron Archive
+1 Hornswoggle
+1 Ilysian Caryatid
+1 Kenrith's Transformation
+1 Llanowar Elves
+1 Llanowar Tribe
+1 Lurking Predators
+1 Maraleaf Pixie
+1 Midnight Clock
+1 Mind Stone
+1 Mirrormade
+1 Negate
+1 Old Gnawbone
+1 Pirate's Prize
+1 Portal of Sanctuary
+1 Prosperous Pirates
+1 Prosperous Thief
+1 Prying Blade
+1 Ravenform
+1 Simic Ascendancy
+1 Solve the Equation
+1 Soul of the Harvest
+1 Spark Double
+1 Spell Swindle
+1 Tireless Provisioner
+1 Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood
+1 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate

Changed amounts:
+1 Cultivate
+1 Elder Gargaroth
+1 Gyre Engineer
+1 Hydroid Krasis
+1 Incubation Druid
+1 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
+1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
+1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
+1 Leyline of Anticipation
+1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
+1 Nyx Lotus
+1 Nyxbloom Ancient
+1 Return of the Wildspeaker
+1 Simic Locket
+1 Skyclave Relic
+1 The Great Henge
+1 Wilderness Reclamation

[Bonethousand]

I organized your deck into categories that might help you visualize what your deck is trying to do, and I only deleted stuff that felt like it didn't jive with the deck (I didn't add anything).

Right now the deck is only 29% creatures, and I'd shoot for more of a critical mass, considering Kinnan's ability.

Looks like the ramp, draw, and protection package is good, but the cards in Win More are superfluous, and there for the flavor if you want them. They just don't really do a ton for the deck, synergy-wise. Other than that, it's simic and simic will do simic stuff, so play around with trying different chonkers or cutting dead cards as you play with them, especially big splashy stuff if you find that your hand is full of them in the early game.

https://deckstats.net/decks/158324/2560195-copy-of-simic-chonkers

[BLUKE7373]

Editing deck today. Be prepped to see a LOT of changes for both old and new deck to create a better deck.

Why did I get rid of Hydroid Krasis? because when it's the only creature cheated out with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy (the commander) it's a 0/0 and dies. Otherwise great card.

Revision 9

Added/removed cards:
-1 Brainstorm
-1 Counterspell
-1 Elvish Mystic
-2 Hydroid Krasis
+1 Kiora, the Tide's Fury

Changed amounts:
-1 Incubation Druid
-1 Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

[BLUKE7373]

Sheesh that was a lot of changes. But heres the premise I came up with:

1. Use early artifacts to help ramp up mana
2. Using Kinnan, cheat out creatures as fast as you can.
3. Late game: Create treasure tokens to just cast anything you want, or you can use Omniscience to just cast things willy nilly.

Win via swing. Best thing I've seen for Kinnan so far. Thoughts?

Revision 10

Added/removed cards:
-1 Angler Turtle
-1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
-1 Beanstalk Giant // Fertile Footsteps
-1 Beast Whisperer
-1 Boon of the Wish-Giver
-1 Circuitous Route
-1 Drawn from Dreams
-1 Firemind Vessel
-1 Flood of Tears
-1 Garruk's Uprising
-1 God-Eternal Kefnet
-1 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
-1 Hornswoggle
-1 Into the Story
-1 Kefnet's Monument
-1 Kiora Bests the Sea God
-2 Leyline of Anticipation
-1 Migration Path
-1 Mind Stone
-1 Mirror Shield
-1 Negate
-1 Nylea, Keen-Eyed
-1 Omen of the Hunt
-1 Pelakka Wurm
-1 Prosperous Thief
-1 Replicating Ring
-2 Return of the Wildspeaker
-1 Rhonas's Monument
-1 Roiling Regrowth
-1 Simic Ascendancy
-1 The Immortal Sun
-1 The Magic Mirror
-1 Thunderous Snapper
-1 Treeshaker Chimera
-1 Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood
-1 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
+1 District Guide
+1 Loaming Shaman
+1 Quandrix Cultivator
+1 Ulvenwald Hydra
+1 Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy

Changed amounts:
-1 Cultivate
-1 Elder Gargaroth
-1 (Main) +1 (SB) Finale of Devastation
-1 (Main) +1 (SB) Grow from the Ashes
-1 Gyre Engineer
-1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
-1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
-1 (Main) +1 (SB) Letter of Acceptance
-1 (Main) +1 (SB) Maraleaf Pixie
-1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
-1 Nyx Lotus
-1 Nyxbloom Ancient
-1 Simic Locket
-1 Skyclave Relic
-1 (Main) +1 (SB) Spark Double
-1 The Great Henge
-1 (Main) +1 (SB) Thryx, the Sudden Storm
-1 Wilderness Reclamation

[BLUKE7373]

Bonethousand I am so sorry, I didn't see you had categorized things. I started editing today and completely missed it. So sorry. I will try to recategorize them now.