At a glance
- Format: Standard
- Colors: Blue / Green (UG)
- Archetype: Simic Ouroboroid ramp
- Power tier: competitive
- Standard: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Simic ramp that converts lands into an unstoppable board. Llanowar Elves and the {1}{G} druids (Druid of the Cowl, Great Forest Druid — the latter also fixing blue) accelerate into a turn-3 Ouroboroid, the snowball finisher: at the beginning of each combat it puts X +1/+1 counters on EVERY creature you control, where X is its own ever-growing power, so one untouched turn ends the game. Earthbend is the engine that makes lands into threats — Toph, Badgermole, The Boulder, Earthbending Lesson, Earth Rumble and Ba Sing Se all animate lands and load them with counters, and Toph’s power scales directly off the counters sitting on your lands. Innkeeper’s Talent is the multiplier: its combat trigger resolves ahead of Ouroboroid’s so X starts a point higher, Level 2 blankets your countered permanents in ward {1} against spot removal, and Level 3 doubles every counter you place thereafter — Ouroboroid’s X becomes 2X on each creature and earthbend 2 becomes 4. Germination Practicum then re-fires a free board-wide +2 every single turn once cast, and Mossborn Hydra doubles its own counters on every land drop. The Legend of Kyoshi draws a fat handful and flips into a permanent anthem that gives your lands trample and hexproof; Badgermole hands trample to every creature carrying a counter, and Flopsie makes the power-4 bodies near-unblockable. Tatyova, Benthic Druid turns every land drop into a card. Blue is the protection package — Essence Scatter and Negate held up from turn four while you out-mana the room — and Earth Rumble fights down problem blockers while earthbending at the same time.
Upgrade path
Rebuilt 2026-08-10 after Badgermole Cub was banned in Standard. ZERO wildcards of any rarity. Badgermole Cub x4 → Great Forest Druid x4 (common, own4), chosen over Raucous Audience because it taps for any colour — which also repairs the deck’s long-standing blue shortfall — and its 0/4 body walls Mono-Red where a 2/1 dork does not. Spell Pierce → Innkeeper’s Talent (rare, OWNED x1; the previous note wrongly called it unowned and forbidden): its beginning-of-combat trigger is ordered ahead of Ouroboroid’s so X resolves one higher, L2 gives ward {1}, L3 doubles every counter placed. One Forest → one Island takes blue from 10 to 11 land sources (~13 effective with the any-colour druids), meeting Karsten’s 13. A proposal to spend 3 MYTHIC wildcards on Bristly Bill, Spine Sower was rejected on review: the timing claim was right but the payoff is ~1 turn of clock, and Innkeeper’s Talent plus the already-maindecked Germination Practicum do the same job for free. The previous note also described a manabase (Dreamroot Cascade, Temple of Mystery, Thornwood Falls, Meditation Pools, Simic Guildgate) that this deck does not contain.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Deck
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Druid of the Cowl
3 Toph, the Blind Bandit
2 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
2 Badgermole
1 The Boulder, Ready to Rumble
2 Flopsie, Bumi's Buddy
3 Ouroboroid
1 Germination Practicum
1 The Legend of Kyoshi
1 Earthbending Lesson
2 Earth Rumble
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
4 Breeding Pool
3 Ba Sing Se
1 Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy
11 Forest
6 Island
2 Mossborn Hydra
4 Great Forest Druid
1 Innkeeper's Talent
Sideboard
A 15-card sideboard for best-of-three (Traditional) play — swap these in game 2/3 against the matchups below.
Ramp deck plan: survive early, answer the engines, resolve a payoff. Zuko’s Exile is the workhorse (exile ANY artifact/creature/enchantment) and the answer to Screaming Nemesis. Green reach (Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion, Migrating Ketradon) blocks aggro and flyers and cycles when flooded.
vs Mono-Red / Gruul / Boros Aggro: +3 Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion, +1 Migrating Ketradon, +1 Glorious Decay (exile mode is moot, but 4 dmg kills fliers / it kills artifacts) / -2 Negate(main), -2 Essence Scatter(main), -1 Druid of the Cowl(main). Zuko’s Exile stays for Screaming Nemesis. Reach walls + lifegain (Ketradon 4, Percher 3) buy time to ramp; the maindeck Earth Rumble mops up.
vs Dimir Midrange: +3 Zuko’s Exile, +1 Rooftop Percher, +1 Negate / -2 Earth Rumble, -1 Druid of the Cowl, -1 slow top-end. Exile Enduring Curiosity and their fliers; Percher is an evasive resilient clock that dodges spot removal. Keep counters up.
vs Golgari Midrange: +3 Zuko’s Exile, +2 Origin of Metalbending, +1 Pawpatch Formation / -2 Essence Scatter, -2 Earth Rumble, -2 mana dorks on the draw. Blow up Unholy Annex and grind their permanents; go over the top with Ouroboroid.
vs Zur / Domain / ramp: +1 Disdainful Stroke, +1 Negate, +3 Zuko’s Exile / -2 Earth Rumble, -3 aggro-oriented dorks. Disdainful Stroke + Negate answer Overlords and big payoffs; Zuko’s Exile handles resolved enchantments.
vs Azorius Oculus / graveyard: +2 Glorious Decay, +1 Rooftop Percher, +1 Pawpatch Formation / -2 Earth Rumble, -2 slow dorks. Glorious Decay exiles graveyard fuel and kills Abhorrent Oculus (flier), Percher exiles two more cards on entry.
vs Mono-White / Jeskai go-wide: +2 Origin of Metalbending, +1 Pawpatch Formation, +3 Zuko’s Exile / -2 Negate, -2 dorks (Druid of the Cowl). Break their enchantment engines (Caretaker’s Talent, Enduring Innocence) and race with Ouroboroid; reach blockers hold the ground.
Full deck with sideboard (paste into Arena for Bo3):
Deck
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Druid of the Cowl
3 Toph, the Blind Bandit
2 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
2 Badgermole
1 The Boulder, Ready to Rumble
2 Flopsie, Bumi's Buddy
3 Ouroboroid
1 Germination Practicum
1 The Legend of Kyoshi
1 Earthbending Lesson
2 Earth Rumble
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
4 Breeding Pool
3 Ba Sing Se
1 Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy
11 Forest
6 Island
2 Mossborn Hydra
4 Great Forest Druid
1 Innkeeper's Talent
Sideboard
3 Zuko's Exile
2 Glorious Decay
2 Origin of Metalbending
1 Pawpatch Formation
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
3 Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion
1 Migrating Ketradon
1 Rooftop Percher
Card images & data via Scryfall.