Every week in Standard there’s a hot, new and sweet deck; isn’t it exciting? This week I brought Simic Quasiduplicate–after seeing the list from Grzegorz Kowalski I decided to test it, and I like where I am right now with it.
I went all the way to #2 place on the Mythic ladder, just one step behind my teammate Javier Dominguez.
Simic Quasiduplicate in Standard
Andrea Mengucci
This is a combo deck, even though it may not seem that way. Thanks to Nexus of Fate and the aggressive milling of Cavalier of Thorns and Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, or the aggressive card drawing of Risen Reef + Quasiduplicate, you can deck yourself quickly and only be left with 4 Nexus of Fate in your deck. Winning from there is easy.
Not a card that has done much in Standard to this point, but since Risen Reef and Cavalier of Thorns it’s been popping up. Having a bunch of Risen Reef is great, and you can mill copies of Quasiduplicate over with your Tamiyo and Cavalier to gain free value.
This deck can go off as early as Turn 5, which makes it good against any kind of slow Field of the Dead deck. Against Simic Nexus and Kethis Combo, it will be a race.
Against Vampires and Mono-Red, it depends a lot on the number of Cavalier of Thorns you see. Cavalier is incredibly good at stopping what your opponent is doing, and it’s a safe target for Quasiduplicate since it’s hard to kill.
Risen Reef is much better than Jadelight Ranger, as it both ramps instead of drawing you lands, and it works with all your other Elementals. Jadelight Ranger is a necessary evil because it works with Quasiduplicate, as you need those creatures to make your deck function. Wildgrowth Walker is another medium card that has some synergies with the deck. Of course the synergy with Jadelight Ranger is obvious, but it’s also an Elemental for Risen Reef.
Sideboard Guide
Field of the Dead decks
Out
In
This matchup is very good and you don’t need anything particular here. Against Causalities of War, I would board in Veil of Summer, but otherwise I wouldn’t touch the core of the deck too much.
Wildgrowth Walker, as we know from the past days of Sultai Midrange, is bad against midrange decks, although it can stop Zombie aggression and give you some more turns if you take longer to assemble your combo pieces.
Esper
Out
In
Against Esper, I want to change plans and play like a Simic Ramp deck, with lots of mana and 4 Hydroid Krasis. I’m still unsure if you want all the copies of Veil of Summer and Negate, as those are very bad against Teferi, Time Raveler.
Quasiduplicate is bad against any decks with lots of removal, as you they can two-for-one you in response to casting. Nexus of Fate is sometimes clunky and expensive; I still don’t want to cut them all entirely but I can see trimming down to 2.
At the beginning I was sideboarding out Llanowar Elves, fearing Kaya’s Wrath, but I now think that is important to leave in a bunch of them, as you want to play a Turn 2 threat as much as possible.
Vampires
Out
In
Selective Snare is a tech that I spotted from Kowalzki, and while I hate River’s Rebuke, I liked Snare. It’s only good in this matchup and Jund Dinos, but it can give a crucial extra turn or break their start of Vampires into Sorin into Champion of Dusk. I used to keep 2 Nexus on the play and only 3 Wildgrowth Walker to play around Legion’s End, but moved to this recently.
I’ve had success so far in this matchup, mainly again thanks to Cavalier of Thorns giving you enough time to build your value plan.
Mono-Red
Out
In
This is a very tough matchup, although Cavalier of Thorns is huge and a series of them plus Quasiduplicate can take the game over.
I was playing Cerulean Drake for a while, but that card has been very underwhelming (although I never copied it with a Quasiduplicate), and I lost enough games to Experimental Frenzy that I replaced them with Thrashing Brontodon, which happens to be good against Simic Nexus.
I really like this deck for this week, and I recommend it for the current metagame.
Discussion