As we inch closer to Standard rotation in September, the Standard 2022 metagame continues to develop and grow. We have seen a brand new deck in Dimir Cycling show up and be a real force on the ladder. Today we have a deck that has been floating around, but has definitely evolved into a power house and might just be the best deck in the format.
Simic Ramp
Today’s deck is SImic Ramp. This deck aims to go big and get there really fast. We have a core game strategy and some great supporting cards to get us there.
Ramp Hard
Our ramp package consists of 4 cards. Neverwinter Dryad is a great turn 1 play and blocker. Even if we have to crack it on turn 2, it sets us up nicely for our 4 mana plays. Prosperous Innkeeper gives us a treasure to help fix our mana, and gives us a little boost in mana production for some key turns. It also has the added benefit of giving us some life as we play our creatures. Eureka Moment is a great card advantage piece, letting us draw a couple cards and ramping us a land. The land here comes in untapped, which is very relevant for double spelling in 1 turn. Lastly, Quandrix Cultivator puts a solid blocking body in play, and lets us ramp. Once again, the land comes in untapped, which is very good.
Tempo Plays
We have 2 different early / midgame tempo cards in this deck. Decisive Denial can act as a counter spell for 2 mana, but can also act as a fight spell to help remove a problematic creature. Divide By Zedo is the best card in the deck. The ability to return a spell on the stack to our opponent’s hand is a huge tempo swing, and we get to grab a card from our Learn board. This can set us up for an explosive following turn with our opponent often tapped out.
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Finishers
Once we’ve gotten to ramp a bunch, how are we closing out the game? Cyclone Summoner often is enough to cause our opponent to scoop on its own. Bouncing all permanents in play is a huge tempo swing in our favor. Koma, Cosmos Serpent is a very difficult threat to deal with, and if our opponent cannot deal with it when they untap, we’re going to be able to protect it for the rest of the game. Ashaya, Soul of the Wild in the late game can be a huge creature that puts a ton of pressure on our opponent.
Alrund’s Epiphany helps us continue to push our advantage and set up for some insane turns, or give us the extra draw step or two that we need to push damage with our man lands. Speaking of, we take advantage of both of the Forgotten Realms man lands in our colors Hall of Storm Giants and Lair of the Hydra. Both of these lands represent an additional attacking creature that can very quickly close games out.READ MORE: Watch the Professor Lose Gloriously in the Newest ‘I Hate Your Deck’ Episode
Learn Board
Our Learn board is pretty standard stuff, but one thing to point out here is that since we are spending a fair bit of turns ramping, we can take some damage in the early game. To help extend our life total, we definitely want to use Environmental Sciences early on, which can help us ramp, and Basic Conjuration in the mid to late game to help find our end game threats and gain us a little bit of life as well.
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Pitfalls and Challenges
While this deck is incredibly consistent, there are a couple pit falls and challenges to watch out for. We want to be trying to do something every turn of the game, so try to keep hands with at least 3 lands in it. If you have 2 lands, it could be workable, but you’d need to definitely have a Prosperous Innkeeper in there to help you get to 4 mana. Additionally, don’t have any direct kill spells in the deck, so we can just fall over to a very fast mono white aggro or mono green aggro start. We can sequence our plays to stay alive, but it is a bit tricky.
There’s also a point where you’ll trade off your Innkeepers in the the midgame, so figuring out when that point is can be a bit challenging as well. If we trade off too early, we can lose out on some of life gain tempo, but trading off too late can put too much pressure on our own life total and our plays become a bit harder to navigate.
I’ve been climbing the Standard 2022 ranked ladder with this deck, and I’ve been having a blast with it! Games to relatively quick, and it seems to be really well positioned against a lot of the top decks in the format. Definitely give this a shot. I’m excited to see if the deck will stick around once rotation happens and we can get into Best of 3 games with Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. What decks are you playing in Standard 2022 right now? Let us know in the comments!
