At a glance
- Format: Standard
- Colors: Green / Blue (GU)
- Archetype: Simic Tempo / planeswalker-value (Standard)
- Power tier: competitive
- Standard: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Focused Simic evasive tempo-value. One clean loop: cheap fliers (Spyglass Siren, Spectral Sailor, First-Time Flyer, Iguana Parrot, Floodpits Drowner) deal combat damage that Kaito (loyalty per hit → ninja pressure/ultimate) and Enduring Curiosity (draw per hit, recurs as an enchantment) convert into inevitability, protected by a lean instant suite (Into the Flood Maw, Spell Pierce, An Offer, Tishana’s Tidebinder). The finalize pass raised the evasive creature density (now ~12 fliers reliably triggering both engines) and lowered the curve by cutting the lone 5-drop, tightening the deck’s true tempo identity. Manabase is Karsten-exact (24 lands, 19 blue clears the double-U engines with a cushion, 10 green for Oko’s optional flip) with zero taplands. Oko is a defensive/ceiling tool rather than an engine driver, honestly costed at 10 green sources. Strong, coherent ladder deck; main risk is the fragile 1/1-flier clock stumbling into a sweeper or a faster Mono-Red draw, which the 6 anti-aggro SB slots address post-board.
Upgrade path
Owned-first: every nonland spell, every dual land, and the entire sideboard are already owned at the quantities used. Owned rares run as-is with no craft (Enduring Curiosity own4, Ty Lee own4, Kaito own4-mythic, Overlord own1-mythic, Breeding Pool own4, Willowrush Verge/Dreamroot Cascade own1 each, Tishana’s Tidebinder own2, Scavenging Ooze own1). The ONLY craft in the deck is the marquee itself: Oko, Lorwyn Liege is owned 1x and run at 3x (2 mythic wildcards) — unavoidable, since the deck is built to centre on him and 3 is the correct count for a legendary planeswalker (extra copies collide on the legend rule). No common/uncommon/rare-spell/land crafts. Upgrade path if wildcards are spent later: a 2nd Overlord of the Floodpits and a 4th Oko are the only cards worth crafting; the manabase is complete.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Deck
4 Oko, Lorwyn Liege
4 Spyglass Siren
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Floodpits Drowner
2 Brineborn Cutthroat
2 Tishana's Tidebinder
4 Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator
4 Enduring Curiosity
1 Iguana Parrot
1 Into the Flood Maw
2 Spell Pierce
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
4 Breeding Pool
1 Willowrush Verge
14 Island
5 Forest
1 Boomerang Basics
1 Flitterwing Nuisance
1 Enduring Vitality
Sideboard
A 15-card sideboard for best-of-three (Traditional) play — swap these in game 2/3 against the matchups below.
Blue-primary tempo — the sideboard’s job is to firm up the green splash into real removal and to swap counters to match the opponent’s spell mix.
vs Mono-Red / Gruul / Boros Aggro: +2 Essence Scatter, +2 Unforgiving Aim, +1 Scavenging Ooze / -2 Spell Pierce, -1 Stock Up, -1 Overlord of the Floodpits, -1 Proctor’s Gaze. Essence Scatter and Unforgiving Aim (kills fliers, makes a 2/2 blocker) plus Floodpits Drowner, Ty Lee, and Oko’s +1 form a wall; Scav Ooze gains life. Oko flips to make Elk blockers when you stabilize.
vs Control / Domain ramp: +2 Negate, +1 Disdainful Stroke / -2 Essence Scatter, -1 Into the Flood Maw. Their creatures matter less; you want counters for their sweepers, planeswalkers, and ramp payoffs. Kaito and Oko are your best resilient threats through a sweeper (walkers survive board wipes) so lean on them and hold Spell Pierce/Negate for the sweeper.
vs Dimir / Golgari midrange: +2 Tishana’s Tidebinder, +2 Spell Snare, +1 Disdainful Stroke / -1 Stock Up, -2 Spectral Sailor, -1 Into the Flood Maw, -1 Essence Scatter. Tishana counters their engine triggers and strips abilities; Spell Snare hits the two-drops that anchor those decks. Grind with Enduring Curiosity + Kaito.
vs go-wide tokens / convoke: +2 Unforgiving Aim, +3 Glorious Decay, +2 Essence Scatter / -2 Spell Pierce, -3 Proctor’s Gaze, -2 Spectral Sailor. Glorious Decay kills their fliers/artifacts and exiles graveyard fuel while cantripping; Oko’s +1 and Floodpits/Ty Lee tap down their best payoff each turn.
vs graveyard / spells decks (Cauldron, delirium): +1 Scavenging Ooze, +3 Glorious Decay, +2 Tishana’s Tidebinder / -3 Proctor’s Gaze, -2 Spectral Sailor, -1 Stock Up. Ooze and Glorious Decay’s exile mode hate out the graveyard; Tishana counters their key activated/triggered payoffs.
Full deck with sideboard (paste into Arena for Bo3):
Deck
4 Oko, Lorwyn Liege
4 Spyglass Siren
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Floodpits Drowner
2 Brineborn Cutthroat
2 Tishana's Tidebinder
4 Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator
4 Enduring Curiosity
1 Iguana Parrot
1 Into the Flood Maw
2 Spell Pierce
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
4 Breeding Pool
1 Willowrush Verge
14 Island
5 Forest
1 Boomerang Basics
1 Flitterwing Nuisance
1 Enduring Vitality
Sideboard
3 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
3 Ice Magic
1 Aegis Turtle
2 Fog Bank
2 Glorious Decay
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Annul
Card images & data via Scryfall.