The 48 Best Simic Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 12, 2026

Neoform | Illustration by Bram Sels

Simic is arguably the most powerful color pair in Magic, or at least in contention for the title. The pairing of green with blue, Magic’s historically best color, has created terrifying threats that easily dominate games.

With so many broken cards, it’s no wonder it’s an incredibly popular color pair to build and has some groan-worthy commanders when you see them across the table. But which Simic cards are the best?

Let’s find out!

What Are Simic Cards in Magic?

Simic Charm | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

Simic cards are cards that have a blue-green color identity. The name comes from the guild on Ravnica whose primary focus is research on biological phenomena and using that research to further oneself via mutation.

Flavorfully, Simic cards often push the boundaries of nature. Augmenting nature, typically via creatures but also by interacting with mana. To determine the best Simic cards, I look for efficiency first and foremost – the most impact you can have for the least mana. Simic excels at this, as a core tenet of green’s design is big monsters at lower costs.

Because of the nature of blue and green, cards that generate either a mana advantage or card advantage are valuable as well. It’s simply a function that comes from the two enemy colors coming together that make Simic as powerful as it is.

#48. Biovisonary

Biovisionary is a delightful alternate win condition. While you can play four of these and pray, the best strategy utilizes Simic’s abundant clone options to make Biovisonary copies. I won’t pretend this is the strongest or most consistent win condition, but it’s fun.

#47. Kiora’s Follower

Kiora's Follower is a humble little creature. It acts as a 2-mana accelerant by untapping lands, which is especially potent with Utopia Sprawl and similar effects. Its true value comes from utility as a combo piece; something as basic as a free untap can be powerful indeed.

#46. Quandrix Apprentice

While Simic boasts a menagerie of creatures to unleash, it’s no stranger to slinging spells. Quandrix Apprentice provides decks that can trigger magecraft with a ton of consistency, assuring them all the land drops they want.

#45. Biomass Mutation

Biomass Mutation can be a powerful finisher for token decks or other strategies going wide. Pumping your team’s base power works wonders with counters and other augments, but making small creatures big can drop unexpected damage.

#44. Simic Charm

Each guild has a charm, and Simic Charm is one of the stronger ones. It’s a flexible interactive spell; bouncing a creature can result in strong tempo, but the Giant Growth mode is functionally a removal spell if you get into combat. Blowing out removal rounds this out as an effective card.

#43. Bonny Pall, Clearcutter

The bane of my existence in Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft, Bonny Pall, Clearcutter manages to be both powerful and unremarkable. Beau is a powerful threat, and the souped-up Growth Spiral you get with every attack makes this a powerful landfall commander and solid top-end for Simic Ramp in Cubes, but it lacks a spark. This Simic card is just another generically powerful Simic creature in the vein of Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait and Koma, Cosmos Serpent that fails to meaningfully distinguish itself from its predecessors.

#42. Master Biomancer

Magic often expresses biological innovation via +1/+1 counters. Master Biomancer excels at getting your creatures large. Not only does it fuel +1/+1 counter synergies, but this card benefits from them by getting larger and spreading even more counters.

#41. Keruga, the Macrosage

We can all agree that the companion mechanic was broken. The errata that makes you pay to put the companion from your sideboard into your hand hit Keruga, the Macrosage the hardest since it was already the slowest companion due to its deckbuilding restriction. But a bulky fighter that refills your hand can still be a potent threat, especially when you skirt the restriction with cards like Brazen Borrower and Fire / Ice to interact in the early turns.

#40. The Pride of Hull Clade

The Pride of Hull Clade has one of the most impressive stat boxes in Magic, especially once you consider how easily you can power this out with a handful of high-toughness creatures like Fecund Greenshell and Loot, Exuberant Explorer.

The real charm lies in the activated ability, which is expensive, but lets you connect for plenty of damage, and more importantly, card draw. This Simic card exists in a narrow space to serve the defenders archetype but does so with style and that trademark Simic flair.

#39. Progenitor Mimic

Clone effects can be quite strong. Progenitor Mimic is on the expensive side but pays off the mana investment by generating an army over time. This is especially potent when copying a creature with a powerful ETB ability, like Mulldrifter or Scourge of Fleets.

#38. Mutational Advantage

Mutational Advantage only fits into a small slice of Simic’s design space, but +1/+1 counter decks are quite popular for the color pair, with several Simic commanders caring about counters. And when you care about stacking counters on creatures, you need to be prepared for those creatures to ignite the Wrath of God and have countermeasures.

Mutational Advantage being a thematic protection spell is incredible because you get so much more out of this than you would a measly Heroic Intervention. You might even steamroll the player attempting to wipe your board!

#37. Decisive Denial

Decisive Denial has a simple, elegant design. It’s a modal spell that lets you choose between a fight spell or a soft counter, bringing green and blue into a compact package. In a deck with the creatures to back the fight side, this offers lots of flexibility with your open mana.

#36. Bred for the Hunt

Card draw and damage go hand in hand in Simic. Bred for the Hunt offers a powerful payoff for +1/+1 counter decks by giving them card advantage. This effect is easy to facilitate with cards like Herald of Secret Streams and Skatewing Spy giving your creatures evasion.

#35. Mikey & Don, Party Planners

Mikey & Don, Party Planners are not the first play-cards-from-your-library creature, but the addition of buff counters and ward means you're in for a fantastic party.

#34. Koma, World-Eater

Koma, World-Eater doesn’t quite hit the same peaks of power as its original iteration (at least, not in Commander, where this belongs), but it’s still a devastating threat. Green decks ramp this out before most players can handle the staggering ward 4 cost and the game quickly warps around the dangerous saboteur ability, especially when paired with cards like Roaming Throne and Strionic Resonator to double-down on the trigger and Elemental Bond effects to get even more bang for your serpent.

#33. Growth Spiral + Variants

It might seem odd to think Growth Spiral was once deemed too strong for Standard in an era where cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Omnath, Locus of Creation were getting banned. Its power lies in simplicity. Drawing cards and making land drops are the best game actions you can take; doing both for so little mana is deceptively powerful.

Move that slider up on card draw with Joint Exploration, Eureka Moment, Urban Evolution, and you get one of the most power crept versions yet in Lessons from Life.

#32. Coiling Oracle

I love this little snake. Coiling Oracle is just good value, either replacing itself or ramping you. Power creep has made this less appealing, but Coiling Oracle is still perfectly respectable in decks that care about exploiting ETB abilities.

#31. Doppelgang

Murders at Karlov Manor‘s Doppelgang might be the most Simic card to ever Simic; it’s all about producing big mana for a bigger impact on the board and this can be one of the strongest spells in a deck if you can stomach the triple-X mana cost. My favorite target? Doubling Season.

#30. Lonis, Cryptozoologist

One of Magic's best investigate cards and a fairly swingy Clue commander, Lonis, Cryptozoologist makes lots of rectangles, which is very nice in modern Magic. The Doctor Who decks brought an influx of cards that care about Clues, giving this a boost; a creature that makes lots of artifact tokens is easily exploited.

#29. Fathom Mage

Fathom Mage is a fantastic payoff for counter decks. A 4-mana 1/1 looks weak, but this draws a surprising number of cards with relatively little effort, especially when paired with effects like Master Biomancer and Tribute to the World Tree. Your opponents have to kill this, or it runs away with the game.

#28. Planar Genesis

Though simple, Planar Genesis is quite the potent card. It exists in a similar vein to Growth Spiral, though it isn’t quite as good since it can’t ramp and draw you a card. But the modality of this card—sometimes Impulse, sometimes ramp—often makes the cut in my Simic EDH decks to consolidate my deck; having a ramp spell that’s not useless late in the game is incredible.

#27. Rashmi, Eternities Crafter

Am I a little biased towards my first and favorite commander? Yes. Is Rashmi, Eternities Crafter still a really solid value engine? Absolutely. Simic has no concerns about casting spells on other players’ turns, so Rashmi can draw multiple cards a turn cycle and even get some value off casting free spells.

#26. Risen Reef

Coiling Oracle is very solid. Now imagine getting that trigger multiple times a turn. Risen Reef is often seen alongside Omnath, Locus of Creation for tons of value. It just does all the strong things while replacing itself at a minimum.

#25. Prophet of Kruphix

Ranking Prophet of Kruphix is tricky. It’s inarguably powerful but banned in Commander – the format where it holds the greatest relevance. A better Seedborn Muse is a risky investment, but only until the end of the turn you cast it, at which point it doubles your mana and gives you plenty of ways to interact.

#24. Mystic Snake

I love a good Mystic Snake. The combination of interaction and board presence provides tempo decks a bit of top-end that prevents their opponent from winning, allowing you to start turning the corner.

#23. Hydroid Krasis

Once a beast in Standard (literally), Hydroid Krasis is still respectable in any format where dumping a bunch of mana into a serious threat that draws you a couple of cards is a worthwhile investment. The card draw and lifegain coupled with a massive creature stabilizes many boards and turns games on their head.

#22. Unruly Krasis

Unruly Krasis has one of my favorite designs for both Commander and Cube because it serves each format in different ways. In your big, sprawling EDH games, you get a creature that rewards you for piling on counter doublers and constantly triggering cards like Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

Come to Cube and you have a highly efficient threat that plays well with the various 1-drop mana dorks that often fill green’s slots and has a strong mana sink to ensure you can use every bit of mana you generate; it never becomes as tall in Cube as it would in Commander, but Cube better leverages the base stats of this monstrosity.

#21. Volo, Guide to Monsters

Volo, Guide to Monsters is an interesting card to build around. Copying your creatures is an almost unreasonable amount of value, checked by the need for diversity that makes building around Volo a little more interesting than chucking all the best creatures into your deck.

#20. Wistfulness

Wistfulness has card advantage woven throughout it's ETB effects. There's almost always an artifact or enchantment you should exile, and discard payoffs are more and more prevalent that the card draw has little drawback. Total it up with more power than its mana value and you have another great incarnation.

#19. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

Getting a token doubler on a creature is pretty nice, especially when said creature has ward 2. That offers Adrix and Nev, Twincasters just enough protection you can often double at least a few tokens off of them before they bite the dust.

#18. Sail into the West

Sail into the West hit the scene as an interesting, instant-speed wheel effect. The double Regrowth can also be powerful. This spell always draws you some number of cards; the question is, how often can you get the table to vote for what you want?

#17. Double Major

Double Major is one of the most efficient Clone effects we’ve ever seen, with the restriction that it must target a creature while it's on the stack. This closes the window of opportunity to a mere sliver, though it also opens you up to ways to copy Double Major for even more value.

#16. Kimahri, Valiant Guardian

Kimahri, Valiant Guardian is a sneaky good card with lots of text, so let me try to simplify it. Kimahri grows with a free +1/+1 counter, taps down your opponent's best creature then has the option to become a copy of that creature indefinitely.

#15. Neoform

Once upon a time, Neoform was the basis of a Modern deck that either put a turn-1 Griselbrand into play or lost. Neofrom is still an exceptional card. A 2-mana tutor that puts its target right into play is well worth building around.

#14. Aloy, Savior of Meridian

Aloy, Savior of Meridian has solid stats and turns the attack power of your strongest artifact creature into a scalable discover. I like to use Darksteel Juggernaut, but it works great with all sorts of cards like Emissary Escort.

#13. Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied

It's easy to forget that this creature you want for it's resting triggered ability is indestructible. Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied pays you off for keeping the counters odd with two cards and the ability to attack and block. Forgotten Ancient is one of it's best friends with a trigger at the upkeep to almost guarantee you get to the main phase with exactly the number of counters you want.

#12. Thrasios, Triton Hero

One of Magic's best merfolk, Thrasios, Triton Hero has made a mighty impact on cEDH in particular. Getting access to Simic colors and an infinite mana outlet in the command zone makes this cheap commander a fantastic half to many partner pairings.

#11. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait is one of the best Simic commanders. Nothing exploits landfall better than this beast of a card that provides endless card advantage when paired with pretty much any green effect.

#10. Prime Speaker Vannifar

Birthing Pod is one of the strongest artifacts ever printed, and Prime Speaker Vannifar is one of the strongest Pod commanders. Summoning sickness is a huge downside, especially since Vannifar has no means of protecting itself, but haste or a bit of luck turns this into a value or combo engine, depending on how you built your deck.

#9. Shardless Agent

Shardless Agent has had a tremendous impact on Modern, strengthening strategies that rely on cheating out Crashing Footfalls or Living End cheaply and effectively. Cascade is broken, and this creature shows that off in true form.

#8. Bring to Light

Perhaps it’s cheating to put Bring to Light here as it’s secretly a 5-color card, assuming you want the full value, but you can’t deny its power. Its primary home is currently in Pioneer lists using it as extra copies of their best cards, like Niv-Mizzet Reborn.

#7. Enigmatic Incarnation

Another solid combo card, Enigmatic Incarnation rewards careful deckbuilding by letting you cheat creatures into play. You’re netting mana as soon as you can find a 5-drop, but this can function similarly to Shardless Agent by building your deck around finding specific cards.

#6. Ice-Fang Coatl

What if Baleful Strix had flash? You’d get a fine card in Ice-Fang Coatl. This ran rampant when Arcum's Astrolabe was still in Modern, but it’s still a solid playable that asks you to add some snow basics to your mana base.

#5. Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student / Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student earns bonus points with the clever design of associating the attack step not with aggression but genuine curiosity, sending your young moonfolk on adventures to find the Clues holding reality together and becoming Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar.

Flavor aside, this Simic card’s just a banger. Threats don’t get more efficient than this; it can’t quite snowball a game the way Ocelot Pride or Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer do, but the steady stream of card advantage via Clue tokens that pivots into a planeswalker gives slower decks a powerful threat. It was already strong in Modern but the 2024 unbanning of Faithless Looting has made it even better as you can easily flip Tamiyo for a single mana, and it’s fantastic in any Magic format with Brainstorm since you can transform Tamiyo at instant speed.

#4. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is kind of nuts, and probably the best Simic commander. There’s the infinite with Basalt Monolith, but even playing this “fairly” means doubling your mana and getting an outlet for all that mana. Cards like Void Winnower and Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant are just a few of the exciting options to drop in with that ability.

#3. Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath

I remember playing endless Uro-centric mirror matches in Standard. Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, one of MTG's best giants, provides so much steady value throughout a long game. It accelerates you early, gives you a bit of life to take the edge off aggro decks, and presents a resilient threat that’s tricky to answer without exiling the card or your graveyard.

#2. Nadu, Winged Wisdom

What can I say about Nadu, Winged Wisdom that hasn’t already been said after this staggeringly pushed 3-drop plagued Commander and decimated Modern with a 59% win rate at Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3? Triggering Nadu takes almost no effort—Modern players exploited Shuko, easily found with Urza's Saga, and made a plethora of tokens with Springheart Nantuko to keep the value chain going. It’s hard to interact with a game-winning threat that replaces itself several times over. Nadu is just the most recent in a chain of pushed cards that prove power creep is alive and well in Magic, for better or for worse.

#1. Oko, Thief of Crowns

Who else could reign over this list but good ol' Broko? Oko, Thief of Crowns is simply a design mistake. Something must have been misprinted on this card as it went from concept to print. The ability to generate an army or completely blank your opponent’s best creatures and artifacts has led to Oko’s banning in pretty much every format you could play it in. And even worse – he’s hot.

Best Simic Payoffs

The best payoffs for Simic cards are running lands and spells. I mean it. The color pair is just incredibly solid because it’s two of the most value-oriented colors in Magic paired together. Blue card draw with green creatures and a healthy mingling of both color identities makes for some broken cards. That said, there are a few more specific payoffs.

You can play a lot of different archetypes with Simic cards, but two with incredible support are +1/+1 counters and landfall.

To exploit +1/+1 counters to their fullest, you want to focus on small, efficient creatures that you’ll grow over time. There’s no point in dumping mana into an already-large creature to make it larger when you can have an army of big bois. Mana generation goes well with a bunch of cheap cards; creatures like Gyre Sage and Kami of Whispered Hopes, or enchantments like Branching Evolution help here.

If you want to exploit landfall, a few choice landfall cards like Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer, Scute Swarm, and Springheart Nantuko let you take over the game while utilizing cards like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Risen Reef to make all those extra land drops.

You always have the option of playing a “fair” Simic game plan that looks to accrue value rather than dedicate itself to a specific synergy; these are the kinds of decks that want to employ efficient threats and the best way to payoff threats and two-for-ones like these is simply cheap interactive spells; this often looks like countermagic such as Counterspell and Force of Will.

Since Simic cards love going big, you can build around and support top-end like Goldvein Hydra, Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Extravagant Replication, or Wan Shi Tong, Librarian with a variety of powerful ramp spells like Three Visits.

What Is Simic Good at in MTG?

Simic is best at performing basic game actions. This is the color of landfall, of Exploration, big plants and deep ocean horrors. It’s the mingling of card advantage, mana advantage, counters, tokens and the best creatures.

The strongest game actions you can take in Magic are making land drops and drawing spells. Simic’s strength comes from facilitating both these actions with its cards. Simic value piles are a real thing for this simple truth. The best way to build Simic decks is to find a gameplay aspect and get the most from it.

Wrap Up

Bring to Light | Illustration by Jonas De Ro

Even if Simic isn’t the most busted color pair in Magic, it’s got to be close. A color pair whose power rests in exploiting basic game actions to their fullest creates plenty of cards that generate more value than other decks can keep up with.

In Commander especially, such value engines can let a skilled Simic pilot grind out the rest of the table. What’s your favorite Simic card? What’s your favorite color pair? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe and keep Simic!