Overview:

This Simic deck helmed by The Pride of Hull Clade leverages high-toughness creatures and defenders to enable a hybrid strategy of combat damage via toughness-based attacks, infinite mana combos, and draw-engine win conditions. The commander acts as a critical enabler, reducing its cost through toughness synergy and granting defender creatures evasion/card draw. Key themes include land ramp, activated ability cost reduction, and hand-size synergies. The deck can pivot between overwhelming with Assault Formation-enhanced creatures, infinite mana loops, or Laboratory Maniac/Jace, Wielder of Mysteries victories.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Early Setup (Turns 1-4):
   • Deploy land accelerators like Sakura-Tribe Scout, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Cultivate to hit land drops.
   • Establish defenders (e.g., Axebane Guardian, Glacial Wall) for early defense and mana generation.
   • Cast enablers like Assault Formation or Bedrock Tortoise to prepare for combat.

2. Midgame Engine (Turns 5-7):

   • Cast The Pride of Hull Clade using cost reduction from accumulated toughness.
   • Activate the commander’s ability on high-toughness creatures (e.g., Charix, the Raging Isle with 17 toughness) to draw massive card advantage.
   • Use Retreat to Coralhelm + Sakura-Tribe Scout/Walking Atlas to untap Axebane Guardian repeatedly, generating infinite mana with 3+ defenders.

3. Win Conditions:

   • Combat: Swing with creatures using Assault Formation/Bedrock Tortoise to deal damage via toughness. Towering Titan scales with total toughness.
   • Infinite Mana: Use infinite mana from Axebane loops to:
     • Draw the deck via The Pride of Hull Clade activations, then win with Laboratory Maniac or Jace.
     • Cast Doppelgang for massive token generation.
   • Alternate Wins: Simic Ascendancy counters or Psychosis Crawler pings from hand-size synergies.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with early ramp (e.g., Farseek, Sakura-Tribe Scout).
• Prioritize enablers like Assault Formation or Training Grounds.
• Ensure at least 3 lands, preferably with green/blue sources.

Key Tips:

• Use Biomancer's Familiar and Training Grounds to reduce The Pride of Hull Clade’s activation cost to {U}{U}.
• Kruphix, God of Horizons stores mana for explosive turns and enables hand-size synergies.
• Roil Elemental steals creatures on landfall, synergizing with land-drop engines.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Board Wipes: Lacks mass recursion; rebuilds slowly after Wrath of God effects.
• Commander Dependency: Removing The Pride of Hull Clade stalls the primary draw engine and combat plan.
• Anti-Defender Tech: Arcane Lighthouse or Glaring Spotlight negates evasion from the commander’s ability.

Moderate

• Combo Disruption: Removing Axebane Guardian or Retreat to Coralhelm cripples infinite mana lines.
• Enchantment Hate: Assault Formation and Simic Ascendancy are vulnerable to removal.

Minor

• Graveyard Reliance: Recursion via Eternal Witness is soft to graveyard hate.
• Slow Start: Early turns are passive if defenders/ramp aren’t drawn.

Most Important Cards:

• The Pride of Hull Clade (Commander: Enables combat/card draw)
• Axebane Guardian (Infinite mana combo piece)
• Assault Formation (Combat damage via toughness)
• Retreat to Coralhelm (Combo enabler with land-drop engines)
• Biomancer's Familiar (Reduces activation costs)
• Laboratory Maniac (Primary combo wincon)
• Simic Ascendancy (Alternate win condition)
• Kruphix, God of Horizons (Mana storage/hand-size enabler)
• Sakura-Tribe Scout (Land-drop engine for combos)
• Psychosis Crawler (Hand-size damage)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 6/10

• Can threaten infinite mana/draw wins by T7-8 with ideal sequencing but lacks fast mana for earlier explosive plays.

Resilience: 5/10

• Limited protection for key pieces; relies on counterspells like Negate and recursion like Eternal Witness but struggles against repeated removal.

Consistency: 6/10

• Moderate card draw and land tutors, but combo pieces lack redundancy (only 1 infinite mana engine).

Interaction: 4/10

• Light removal suite (Beast Within, Capsize) and counterspells (Counterspell, Negate), but minimal stax or stack control.

Rating Justification:

This deck operates as a focused midrange combo/combat hybrid with T7-8 win potential through resilient but slow engines. While it has powerful synergies, its reliance on commander-dependent combat and fragile infinite mana lines caps its speed and resilience below optimized tiers.

Power level: 5.5 - 6.0