Back during the school year, while I was running the games club and playing MTG with the kids, I came across a playset of Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty. I knew I wanted to use it to build some sort of Simic ramp list, but wasn't quite sure what the gimmick would be beyond the basics. I searched around for mechanics that allowed me to cast high CMC creatures at a reduced cost, and it didn't take long to find what I was looking for. Lashweed Lurker soon emerged (heh, get it?) from my build pile, and things just came together from there.

Simic Cascade Emerge| Casual | James Heslip

• Creatures (37)
• 1 Mockery of Nature
• 2 Elvish Mystic
• 3 Aethersnipe
• 3 Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty
• 4 Biolume Egg
• 4 Coiling Oracle
• 4 Elder Deep-Fiend
• 4 Fierce Empath
• 4 Foul Emissary
• 4 Lashweed Lurker
• 4 Llanowar Elves

• Lands (23)
• 4 Temple of Mystery
• 4 Yavimaya Coast
• 7 Island
• 8 Forest

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Cost: 15.50$ at the time of publication

The Core

From here, I'd argue that our eldrazi fatty package of Lashweed Lurker and Elder Deep-Fiend makes up the rest of the core. All of the rest of our creatures were chosen to get the most out of their emerge ability. They also act as our primary win conditions, eliminating blockers and smacking face for high amounts of damage.

The Backup

Despite us casting our fatties for a reduced cost, they're still quite expensive. This makes mana ramp from cards like Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Elves a must. In the worst-case scenario, they can always help us hard cast our eldrazi the traditional way, should the need arise. Coiling Oracle skirts the line between card draw and mana ramp, but is overall extremely useful, and exactly what the deck wants to see.

If we want to cast our Eldrazi for a reasonable cost, the mana value sweet spot is around three, since it's possible to play a 3-drop on turn two (thanks to our elves), then drop an octopus following that. Foul Emissary was printed specifically with emerge in mind, and does everything we want it to do. Both it and Biolume Egg have relevant ETB abilities, and both replace themselves with something much larger once we feed them to our Lovecraftian horrors. Finally, Fierce Empath tutors for whichever fatty we want, only to offer himself as a meal on the following turn. Playing Empath also allows us to play any silver bullets we might want, including Mockery of Nature.

Aethersnipe might seem like an odd choice at first, but this serpentine elemental is one of the original reasons I built the deck. Similar to emerge, playing a creature for its Evoke cost still counts as casting the creature. So, with an Imoti in play, we can evoke Aethersnipe onto the battlefield while still triggering a cascade for six. A late game full-value cast is also plenty strong, all things considered.

Tips and Tricks

You may find yourself in the late game with enough mana to simply hard cast your emerge fatties, but that isn't necessarily the best thing to do every time. If you've got an Emissary or an egg, then usually you'll want to replace them with their stronger counterparts. Also, playing more than one fatty per turn is pretty much always better as long as you're not negatively affecting your card count.

There might be weird cases where you'll want to use Aethersnipe to target your own creatures. Almost everything you own has an ETB ability, so despite the absence of Flash, it's not that crazy of a play. Consider reusing Mockery of Nature, tapping out enemy blockers with Elder Deep-Fiend for a second time, or reusing Fierce Empath to silver bullet search for exactly what you need.

Additional Options

Additional Options | James Heslip

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Brindle Shoat
• 1 Colossal Skyturtle
• 1 Draconic Muralists
• 1 Drownyard Behemoth
• 1 Elvish Rejuvenator
• 1 Elvish Visionary
• 1 Enlightened Maniac
• 1 Fblthp, the Lost
• 1 Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood
• 1 It of the Horrid Swarm
• 1 Llanowar Visionary
• 1 Palace Familiar
• 1 Primal Druid
• 1 Quandrix Cultivator
• 1 Reclusive Taxidermist
• 1 Reef Worm
• 1 Rural Recruit
• 1 Skilled Animator
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sylvan Ranger
• 1 Timeless Witness
• 1 Viridian Emissary
• 1 Vital Splicer
• 1 Wing Splicer
• 1 Wretched Gryff
• 1 Wretched Throng
• 1 Yavimaya Elder

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Emrakul's Influence

• Lands (1)
• 1 Sanctum of Ugin

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Originally, I wanted to completely max out on ETB creatures, so I considered and played Sylvan Ranger, Elvish Visionary, and even Fblthp, the Lost. I realized, however, that the deck needed turn one plays, and the ability to ramp a turn earlier was much more powerful than anything else I was doing with these two-drops. Still, if any of them fit your style, they're not bad. I am pretty sad that Fblthp doesn't draw us extra cards when he gets hit by cascade, but such is life.

If you like, you can focus more on the sacrifice side of things, and throw in cards that accomplish their goals on death. Brindle Shoat, Palace Familiar, Primal Druid, Viridian Emissary, Wretched Throng, Yavimaya Elder, and more would all be fine. Solemn Simulacrum might be the most powerful of these options, while Reef Worm is the spiciest. Reclusive Taxidermist doesn't quite fit the theme, but he mana ramps for the deck and takes full advantage of the high number of creatures that will be sacrificed. If you have a soft spot for werebear, this callback could definitely have a place in the deck.

Some lists attempt to play 4-drops that are worth sacrificing to emerge, making the cost that much less of an issue. I've found that most are creatures that make respectably-sized tokens when they enter the field. Enlightened Maniac, Rural Recruit, Vital Splicer, and Wing Splicer are all examples. I think Wing Splicer is the best because of the flying it bestows on its tokens, but Recruit's Training ability is also relevant.

Finally, you could play any of the other large emerge Eldrazi, like Wretched Gryff or It of the Horrid Swarm, but they're not quite as good as what we've already filled the slots with. The 1/1 insects of Swarm are not relevant enough, and while drawing cards is always a good thing, Gryff just doesn't have the stats to hang with the big guys. This is true even considering his ability to fly.