<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Leyline of Anticipation" href="#" target="_blank">Leyline of Anticipation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/charlesurbachart/?hl=en">Charles Urbach</a>)</h6>
<h1>Whatcha Doing in My Waters?</h1>
<p>Hello, fellow brewer, and welcome back to <em>Brew for your Buck</em>, where we swap out the top 10 most expensive cards in a deck with 10 budget cards that add a unique twist. <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/brew-for-your-buck-the-legend-persists/">Last time</a>, we played around in Orzhov, so this week we're going to get our feet wet (pun very intended) in Simic.</p>
<p>A little about me: I love the ocean, so much that I based my education and career on it, in addition to three different Commander decks I've built over the years. Our commander today slid right into the 99 of one of them, my sea creature deck, though I'm seriously considering swapping her into the command zone. Anything that has "Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent" in its card text catches my eye for that deck, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kenessos, Priest of Thassa" href="#" target="_blank">Kenessos, Priest of Thassa</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is no different.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kenessos, Priest of Thassa"></div></div>
<p>Looking at the average list on EDHREC, the deck clocks in at $277.42. Not an awful price tag, but we can do better. As usual, we'll start by removing the most expensive cards in the deck, then take a look at our budget package, noting that all prices listed below were current at time of writing.</p>
<p><a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Picture2.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-95173 aligncenter" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Picture2.png" alt="" width="262" height="256" /></a></p>
<p>Stompy decks like this tend to have a common weakness: you drop a huge monster, making you an immediate threat, but without something granting haste we can't pressure any of our opponents until our following turn, giving them ample time to sink (more maritime puns!) our plans.</p>
<p>Enter our budget package. Operating at instant speed is not exactly a new thing for Simic, as anyone who played <em>Arena</em> in 2019 will know. Applying that playstyle to sea monsters offers them pseudo-protection, surprises our opponents, and makes playing these powerful creatures that much more... well... flashy. With a mana sink like Kenessos in the command zone, we can hold up mana for our counters and other instant-speed tricks, then, if we didn't need to use those, just activate Kenessos and put a prehistoric terror into play.</p>
<hr />
<h2>Additions</h2>
<hr />
<h3>Instant Speed Enablers</h3>
<p>First, let's throw in some enablers. Before you ask, we will not be including the literal flash fish, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tidal Barracuda" href="#" target="_blank">Tidal Barracuda</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, since we're greedy and don't want to share our instant speed shenanigans extending to everyone else. We will, however, include the banned-in-Pioneer <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wilderness Reclamation" href="#" target="_blank">Wilderness Reclamation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($1.50), since in this deck it can quadruple the frequency we can activate Kenessos. Partnered with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Leyline of Anticipation" href="#" target="_blank">Leyline of Anticipation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($2.79) or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vivien, Champion of the Wilds" href="#" target="_blank">Vivien, Champion of the Wilds</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($0.38), it puts the deck's ability to turbo out our deep-dwelling friends into overdrive, even if Kenessos isn't on the battlefield. Vivien even allows our monsters to beat down our opponents and remain available to block on the crack back, assuming someone is brave enough to swing back into our 6/6s.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wilderness Reclamation"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Leyline of Anticipation"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Vivien, Champion of the Wilds"></div></div>
<h3>Interaction</h3>
<p>Even before we make our swaps, there is only one <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Counterspell" href="#" target="_blank">Counterspell</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> (yes, that one) in the whole deck. Adding some more will help us protect our critical pieces and allow us to answer threats before they hit the battlefield. The best part is that if we don't use them, we just dump the mana into Kenessos. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stubborn Denial" href="#" target="_blank">Stubborn Denial</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($1.33) will almost always be a one-mana <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Negate" href="#" target="_blank">Negate</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> in this deck. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Voracious Greatshark" href="#" target="_blank">Voracious Greatshark</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($0.21) and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Intervention" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Intervention</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($0.17) both fit our oceanic flavor and are almost always 2-for-1s when cast, so they seem like obvious inclusions as well. Our opponents will be scrambling for a bigger boat indeed.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Stubborn Denial"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Voracious Greatshark"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Thassa&#039;s Intervention"></div></div>
<h3>Top-Deck Manipulation</h3>
<p>Next, we can increase the number of ways to manipulate the top card of our library. My favorite suggestion for this pushes the the boundaries of a budget card, but <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cream of the Crop" href="#" target="_blank">Cream of the Crop</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($5.86) is too cool not to include. Imagine having it out and chaining together multiple Kenessos activations. You'll dig so deep into your deck, it's basically guaranteed that your next activation will hit a huge creature, triggering this again and further increasing the absurdity. You can even use this to dig to Mariana Trench depths for an answer just before a draw, assuming a mythical sea beast is somehow not the right answer.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cream of the Crop"></div></div>
<p>A less expensive but obvious addition is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Omen of the Sea" href="#" target="_blank">Omen of the Sea</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($0.13), adding more to the flavor but also offering two instances of scry 2, which will likely be scry 3, at instant speed. While not particularly exciting, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Crystal Ball" href="#" target="_blank">Crystal Ball</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($0.28) gives us a repeatable scry ability for only one mana, again freeing up the rest of our mana for Kenessos. Thinking a bit outside of the box, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reclaim" href="#" target="_blank">Reclaim</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> ($0.11) gives us a much-needed way to recur key sea monsters, essentially making that Kenessos activation an instant-speed <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zombify" href="#" target="_blank">Zombify</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> effect.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Omen of the Sea"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Crystal Ball"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Reclaim"></div></div>
<hr />
<h2>Wrap Up and Savings</h2>
<p>Let's take a look at where we ended up:</p>
<p><a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Picture1.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-95172 aligncenter" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Picture1-300x205.png" alt="" width="405" height="277" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Picture1-300x205.png 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Picture1.png 383w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Wow! We almost cracked the $100 mark and cut out more than half the cost of the deck AND you get to keep 90 cards from the original build, saving you all that money you would have spent on upgrades. Like <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/brew-for-your-buck-the-legend-persists/">my previous article</a>, I think the list still has too few lands, so I'll again recommend swapping some of the other expensive cards with a few basics to get the deck under $100 if that is your goal.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Fish Flash" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Kenessos, Priest of Thassa
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
*1 Biblioplex Kraken
*1 Biomancer&#039;s Familiar
*1 Brinelin, the Moon Kraken
*1 Charix, the Raging Isle
*1 Deep-Sea Kraken
*1 Hullbreaker Horror
*1 Icebreaker Kraken
*1 Inkwell Leviathan
*1 Koma, Cosmos Serpent
*1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
*1 Nadir Kraken
*1 Octavia, Living Thesis
*1 Octoprophet
*1 Reservoir Kraken
*1 Scourge of Fleets
*1 Serpent of Yawning Depths
*1 Shipbreaker Kraken
*1 Sigiled Starfish
*1 Simic Sky Swallower
*1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
*1 Spawning Kraken
*1 Stormtide Leviathan
*1 Trench Behemoth
*1 Tromokratis
*1 Voracious Greatshark
[/Creatures]
[Enchantments]
*1 Aqueous Form
*1 Cream of the Crop
*1 Garruk&#039;s Uprising
*1 In Search of Greatness
*1 Leyline of Anticipation
*1 Omen of the Sea
*1 Quest for Ula&#039;s Temple
*1 Retreat to Coralhelm
*1 Wilderness Reclamation
[/Enchantments]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Crystal Ball
*1 Lifecrafter&#039;s Bestiary
*1 Simic Signet
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Swiftfoot Boots
*1 The Temporal Anchor
[/Artifacts]
[Instants]
*1 Beast Within
*1 Brainstorm
*1 Counterspell
*1 Deliberate
*1 Growth Spiral
*1 Joint Exploration
*1 Opt
*1 Pongify
*1 Reclaim
*1 Return of the Wildspeaker
*1 Stubborn Denial
*1 Thassa&#039;s Intervention
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Cultivate
*1 Farseek
*1 Kodama&#039;s Reach
*1 Nature&#039;s Lore
*1 Ponder
*1 Preordain
*1 Rampant Growth
*1 Reason // Believe
*1 Serum Visions
*1 Whelming Wave
[/Sorceries]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
*1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
[/Planeswalkers]
[Lands]
*1 Castle Vantress
*1 Command Tower
*1 Dreamroot Cascade
*5 Forest
*1 Hinterland Harbor
*16 Island
*1 Rejuvenating Springs
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Rimewood Falls
*1 Simic Growth Chamber
*1 Snow-Covered Forest
*1 Snow-Covered Island
*1 Temple of Mystery
*1 Yavimaya Coast
[/Lands]"></span></div>

<hr />
<p>So what do you think? Does the flash package seem like a good idea or are you, like me, traumatized by Simic Flash from Arena? Do you want more nautical puns? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time when we brew for your buck!</p>


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