It’s rare to see a totally new archetype emerge in any Magic: The Gathering format. Metagames tend to evolve via slow iteration rather than explosive innovation, so new decks are more likely to be tweaks on older ones in most cases. Sometimes, however, those expectations are subverted. This past weekend, for instance, a spicy new Simic Ritual deck has been putting up results in the MTG Modern format.
If you haven’t heard of Simic Ritual before, that’s because it hasn’t really existed until now. It’s the epitome of a fair Midrange deck, in colors that don’t normally lend themselves to such strategies. While ‘Modern’ and ‘fair Magic’ haven’t exactly been synonymous in recent times, the deck is actually performing very well. Perhaps the format is finally slowing down into a spot where reasonable decks can thrive.
Simic Ritual In MTG Modern
The Simic Ritual deck we’ll be looking at today comes via goron27, who piloted it to a second place finish in yesterday’s MTG Online Modern League. They went 9-1 overall, only losing out to Broodscale Combo in the finals. The deck has seen multiple 5-0 League finishes in the last few weeks, too, so it’s definitely on the up.
As the name suggests, this is a deck centered around Birthing Ritual. For two mana, this is essentially a free-to-use Birthing Pod, albeit one that only digs seven cards deep. This makes it ideal for decks that run a lot of similarly costed creatures. You have a suite of excellent two drops in Floodpits Drowner, Coiling Oracle, and Ice-Fang Coatl. These can lead you into powerful three drops like Shardless Agent and, most importantly, Abhorrent Oculus.
Oculus is the go-to finisher for this deck. Birthing Ritual lets you drop it as early as turn three, at which point it’ll start generating 2/2s and taking over the game. A 5/5 Flier is no joke on its own, either. Hitting Oculus off of Ritual is obviously the ideal line, but the deck is set up quite nicely to cast it naturally, too. Nine Fetchlands in the mana base give you a solid start, and the creatures you sacrifice to Ritual help out too. There are also a couple of copies of Seal of Removal in the deck, a little-seen bounce spell that fuels Oculus to boot.
This grindy creature plan is the heart of Simic Ritual. You play your cheaper creatures early for value, then hope to flip them into Oculus’ to push through for the win.
In Response
While Simic Ritual is very honest for the most part, a totally linear creature-based strategy just isn’t enough for MTG Modern these days. Unless you’re as hyper-aggressive as Boros Energy, you need an additional edge to survive. In Simic Ritual’s case, that edge comes in the form of a comprehensive instant-speed game plan.
A lot of the creatures in goron27’s deck come with Flash, which lets you hold them up on your opponent’s turn. Floodpits Drowner can burst in and lock down a creature, Ice-Fang Coatl can cycle a card and potentially remove an attacker, etc. These are perfectly fine cards to play as-is, but the element of surprise makes them all the better.
Of course, Flash creatures are only really useful if you have other spells to hold up alongside them. Thankfully, this deck has them in spades. Sink into Stupor is probably the best of the Modern Horizons 3 MDFCs, serving as a bounce spell and a counterspell in one. It can also be an untapped blue source in a pinch. Goron27 pairs this with two of the best ‘free’ counterspells in Modern, Flare of Denial and Force of Negation. Both help you combat Combo decks like Amulet Titan and Belcher. Flare of Denial even fills your ‘yard for Oculus at the same time.
Endurance is another great Flash option, helping out against opposing Oculus decks and Murktide lists. Brazen Borrower, as always, is a hugely efficient card on both sides. All of this interaction helps protect and support the core Midrange plan above, and is what really makes Simic Ritual competitive in current Modern. This many free spells may seem unreasonable for a fair deck, but they’re really just here to keep the really unfair strategies in check.
The Eyes Have It
Goron27’s strong Challenge performance is a great sign for Simic Ritual in the MTG Modern format going forward. That said, it is hard to gauge the deck’s long-term viability at the moment. There simply aren’t many analogues to compare it to, such is the unique nature of the list.
The closest point of comparison at the moment is probably Dimir Frog/Oculus/Murktide, a steady tier one Modern deck with a 5.51% meta share according to MTG Decks. There’s a lot of crossover between the two decks in terms of specific cards played, as well as overall game plans. Both rely on big Flying threats like Oculus or Murktide to end the game. Both also run a ton of interaction and disruption. Dimir, naturally, has access to more on-board removal, but otherwise the two play very similarly.
Based on the limited matchup data we have so far, Simic Ritual seems to share the same weaknesses as Dimir, too. Both decks suffer against Broodscale Combo, so it’s not a stretch to imagine that Ritual will also struggle in other Combo matchups like Dimir does. The deck’s pilot also noted in a post on X that Boros Energy and Izzet Prowess are very difficult matchups at the moment.
In terms of strengths, the deck put in great results against Grixis Control, Orzhov Energy, and Izzet Artifacts. Interestingly, it also did very well against Dimir Murktide. Goron27 faced the deck three times during yesterday’s Challenge, and only dropped a single game. Given this fact, and given their similar playstyles, perhaps this is a deck that can usurp Dimir’s position in the weeks to come.
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