Synthesist

If you're looking for a general critique, it looks good overall, having nice synergy, basic land ratios, and a decent mana curve.

My more detailed critique, for if you're looking for ideas, would say that since your curve is decent, and could even be slightly improved, that you can get away with 22 lands, in order to free up 2 card slots. Get rid of 1 temple and 1 barrens as you have too many lands that come in tapped. Also, and even though you are running a control variant, you have too much of the same effect type non creature spells, and not enough creatures. Get rid of 2 Stain the Mind, 1 Despise, 2 Hero's Downfall, and 2 Bile Blight. This frees up 7 more slots. With the 9 slots you now have open, I'd add 1 more Wingmate Roc, 3 Grim Haruspex, 3 Chief of the Edge, and 2 Aegis of the Gods.

Thanks for the comment. I acquired most of the cards for this deck when they were much newer and the cost not so much. You are correct, that at todays' price, the performance to cost ratio is a bit flat for what many expect out of their EDH decks. However, the goal was to make a Samurai EDH Deck as strong as possible, and to that end, this Deck works to keep as many Samurai as possible, opposed to just a Samurai General, while also having enough other cards to bring up its strength. At this point the, weakest cards, are probably 4 or 5 of the artifacts that I kept around to fit the theme. Thanks again.

Effective combo, looks like fun. I'd drop the 1 Meletis, 1Steel Wall, and 1 Benediction, and adjust some of the wall choice and mana curve slightly. Plus, you have no draw. Add another Vent Sentinel and scrap some of the other walls to consider, Wall of Omens, Wall of Reverence, Wall of Hope, Shield Sphere, Perimeter Captain, Rolling Stones, and Flamewright

I agree with the above who are suggesting High Tide as ramp, it does work well once you get the feel for it. Try swapping in 3 maybe. I'd also take a look at Memory Lapse, Remand, or even Exclude, instead of Foil.

Finally, between the 6-7, instants and sorceries you are using for control, you may not quite have enough variety/utility in the deck. Consider pruning a few cards that you have 3 or 4 of, and adding maybe some Whispersilk Cloaks, Darksteel Forge, Darksteel Plate, Mind Control, Ray of Command, or Master Thief.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not really seeing how those cards would be better though. Right now, the Dovescape infinite combos with the Guile, and the standstill is my card draw, since this deck seems to run through cards a bit. What would I really be copying with the Mirror sheen? As for the Propaganda, it is a solid resource control card, but being as this is counter themed, I'd rather not let the creature on the field in the first place. Thanks again, though.

Aptly named. Slow and Steady wins. I guess the Punish Ignorance, Sen Triplets, and Sorin are your win conditions after you've stalled them out. You might consider Guard Gomazoa over the Fog Bank, that way you do 1 damage, unless you were using Fog Bank for a certain curve.

After adjusting the cards a tad more, this is what I ended up with based on your cards:

http://www.mtgvault.com/synthesist/decks/simic-initiative/

230 views and no comments ? Allow me to be the first. This deck seems simple, yet elegant and effective. The things that came to mind were:

I'd drop the 2 curse of stalked prey, yeah it fits, but it's a bit redundant, maybe just add the 4th Rakish Heir.
You chose Pillar of flame over Lightning Bolt in the side board, I'd pick the old standard bolt.
For your unblockable you have 4 Artful Dodge and 4 Ghostform, but they are 1 turn only, I'd drop1 of each and add 2 Whispersilk Cloaks.

Lastly, I'd consider dropping the 4 Pillars/Bolts all together, along with the 2 Curses, and maybe 1 more of each of the Artful Dodge, Ghostform, and the Curiosity. This frees up 6-9 spots. The cards I'd consider, that serve similar purposes instead, are:

Izzet Charm , Electrolyze, Dragonshift, and/or Teleportal.

Hope that helps.

You have a lot of good synergy here, and I like it overall. For suggestions, my personal adjustments would be roughly as follows:

Get rid of llanowar elves: your curve is good, and don't really need all that ramp, or if anything add an actual land or 2 and go up to 23, plus you have gyre sage and I added paradise mantles below.
Get rid of 2 Cloudfin raptor and Add 3 Nimbus Swimmer from your sideboard.
Get rid of 4 Kiora's Follower, you don't have enough tap cards to warrant that card, unless you were running it for mana, which again I don't think you need, or defense, in which case I'd rather have a different defense?
Get rid of Helix Pinnacle, 1 isn't enough to rely on, and it's too slow anyway unless you completely build around it.
Get rid of 4 Shambleshark, it's weak imo.
Get rid of 2 Bident of Thassa and Add 2 more Bred for the Hunt instead.
Add 1 more Master Biomancer.
Add 1 more Primordial Hydra
Add 2 more Vorel of Hull Clade
Add 3 Gilder Bairn from sideboard
Add 3 Paradise Mantle to put on Gilder Bairns or to help with mana in general.

Only other thing I could think of, would be to consider using something to give more trample, like: Berserk, Rancor, Brawn, or Primal Rage. Hope all that opinion gives you some things to consider.

With only 2 of each, you aren't going to see them both often, maybe focus on that synergy more then. What about going to 3 Mirror-Sigil, 3 Paradox Haze, and dropping to 2 Rhox, and 2 curse of chains?

P.S. Armadillo Cloak is still better than Unflinching Courage.

Yah Paradox Haze isn't helping, if you're going to stay with the blue splash maybe something like Reparations would be better.

Lol, hey thanks. Yah, I like the Curse of Stalked Prey, I'll add some. I wouldn't Act of Treason without a Fling or Brion out, unless I was in trouble, so the counter will add to the fling damage as I throw their creature back at them.

This captures most of what I would have to offer up toward critique and suggestions. I agree the deck needs to be thinned and a few lands added.

The two weakest creatures imo were the Ballynock Coronet and Diregraf Ghouls. I didn't view the Accorder Paladin's or Marauders as being as bad, however, I thought the Fabled Hero didn't fit well, wondering what you regularly target them with. Lastly, I wasn't a big fan of Path to Exile.

I agree Nether Traitor is a strong add choice, or maybe a Bloodghast would help. Tainted Field is decent lower cost land fix too.

My inner "grammar" Nazi couldn't contain itself. :P

My inner semantics Nazi knows you meant spelling ...

Overall, it looks good, I like it.

That said, I read that you were aware that blue splash is hurting it, and I agree. The mirror sigil just doesn't seem worth it when there are other great green or white rhinos and elephants, and other better enchantments. These 3 creatures stood out to me.

Loxodon Gatekeeper
Rhox Faithmender
Rhox Pikemaster

Other cards were Dawnglow Infusion and Elephant Guide.

Also, I noticed you're using a Behemoth Sledge. Armadillo Cloak is often considered slightly better, due to the fact that the life gain is tied to the aura not the creature and no equip fee.

With all those 1-of cards, it looks like you're building a 60 card EDH, in which case, you're not fully taking advantage of the 60 card format. Assuming you are going for 60 cards, you need to remove 3 cards, and even though it's mono colored, you probably should add 1-4 more lands. Go through the cards and pick the 1/2 that you think are the strongest and that work best together, and get rid of the rest. Then up the numbers on the ones that remain.

Oh, Hi there! And with the same name no less. I almost called mine "Damned if you do...", but the Lesser of Two Evils phrase seemed more catchy. Like I said in my response to the first comment, I suspected there were other "choice" decks out there, but didn't research it at first, and just started listing cards.

From what you suggested, and looking at your deck, I found 3 more cards I liked. I thought the Worms were, eh, but the Forbidden Ritual, Lethal Vapors, and Shivan Wumpus are solid. Onlytruereject suggested/wondered-about making an EDH version a few posts back, and at that point, it looked like one would only need to pick about 12 more good choice cards, This brings it to 9, I'm sure they are out there.

For those interested in these type of decks, check out The Answer's version here: http://www.mtgvault.com/theanswer/decks/lesser-of-two-evils/

Looks like it's possible. Roughly, 100 cards minus 40 lands = 60, minus 20 edh staples and fixer cards, leaves about 40 cards of this type that you would need. There's 18 in the deck atm, and about 10 or so more listed throughout the thread that aren't in the deck, so about 28 so far. Which, means that you need to find about 12 more, and that seems plausible. Won't be the best edh ever, but could be fun. Kaervek is a beast anyways, so that helps.

Yah I already have 4 x thrumming stones in there, you must of missed them. The Coat of arms is in a lot of rat decks, I tried it for a bit, but it seems too expensive and doesn't really matter. That is, the thrumming stones are my main 5 drop, and an early coat of arms doesn't win games. Plus, they get the coat bonus too. I'd rather just thrum or work on getting Door of Destinies out.... Speaking of which, I did have 2 in there, but recently removed them also, as being too slow. Idk maybe I'll add 2 back, still kinda on the fence on those.

At this point, people have offered many good suggestions and its getting hard to fit them in without thinning out the deck too much. The deck is at a point, where each card or ratio, swap or change, becomes a deeper theory discussion. Basic logic can filter a few, and that said, I've added the stronger ones to the sideboard, and added comments about them in the description, describing how they alter the deck.

Obviously, you can swap in your mechanic of choice, and alter the card ratios slightly to favor that. Thanks again, for all the great suggestions, and if you find something else that fits well, post it.