Simic is one of Magic's most interesting color pairs to build around. Simic Commanders deal in several different strategies, with many revolving around different kinds of counters, ramp, and niche Creature types like Frogs and Merfolk.

When it comes to building Simic Commander decks it's important to understand two key aspects of deckbuilding: including a significant number of dual Lands that can help you cast your spells with ease, and utility Lands that play into your specific Commander's strategy.

Today, we'll be looking at the best of the best Simic EDH Lands to play, ranging from the best Blue and Green dual Lands to some of the more unique Lands that play into certain Simic Commanders' identity. From Breeding Pool to Maze's End, let's look at the best and some of the unexpected best Lands for Simic Commanders.

Top Simic Lands for Commander

Top-Ranked Overall

1. Breeding Pool
2. Misty Rainforest
3. Tropical Island
4. Hinterland Harbor
5. Rejuvenating Springs

Best Simic Utility Lands

1. Alchemist's Refuge
2. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
3. Karn's Bastion
4. Boseiju, Who Endures
5. Otawara, Soaring City

Best Budget Simic Lands

1. Hinterland Harbor
2. Yavimaya Coast
3. Dreamroot Cascade
4. Flooded Grove
5. Vineglimmer Snarl

The Blue/Green Staples

When it comes to the best Simic EDH Lands to consider for your deck, the easily top three are Breeding Pool, Misty Rainforest, and Tropical Island. Tropical Island is undoubtedly the best of the three, as it is an untapped dual land that not only taps for Blue or Green mana, but also has the Island and Forest types stapled onto it. Tropical Island being on the Reserved List, however, means it hasn't been reprinted since the 90's, and fetches a very high price tag.

This is why Breeding Pool is the most accessible and best Blue/Green Land for Commander, as it is basically just Tropical Island, except it requires you to pay two points of life if you want to have it come into play untapped.

To easily fetch these Lands that have the Island and Forest types associated with them, you'll want to also include Misty Rainforest into your deck. For one life, you can search your deck for an Island or Forest card and put it into play, and it's nice that you can search for dual Lands that have these Land types on them, and not just basic Lands.

The other best Simic Land to consider, especially if you plan on playing more multiplayer (3+ people) games of Commander is Rejuvenating Springs. You unfortunately can't fetch this card with Misty Rainforest. However, if you're playing a game of Commander with two or more opponents, this will always come into play untapped, so it's a high inclusion in any Simic deck.

In a similar vein, if you're playing larger games of Commander I'd also highly consider Turbulent Wilderness, as this is a dual Land that can come into play early on in a game of EDH, but also has the Island and Forest Land types, meaning you can fetch for this card with Misty Rainforest.

Solid Simic Lands

When building a two-color Commander deck, it's important to include not only basic Lands but Lands that carry the respective basic Land types of the colors in your Commander's identity. This is so your Lands can come into play untapped with ease.

For example,Hinterland Harbor is one of the most popular Blue/Green Lands that you should consider adding to your Simic decks. However, since this Land requires you to have an Island or Forest in play means that you can sequence either a basic Land, or a Land with a basic Land type like Turbulent Wilderness before playing Hinterland Harbor, so it comes into play untapped.

Vineglimmer Snarl is another example of a Land like Hinterland Harbor and another worthy inclusion for your Simic deck, since it's a Blue/Green Land that can come into play untapped for a pretty minor cost. Dreamroot Cascade is arguably the next best Blue/Green Land, since the only cost to having this dual Land come into play untapped is just having two or more other Lands in play.

This is pretty easy to accomplish as a requirement, especially since after turn three this Land will come into play untapped. On the flipside, this is why I'd recommend against playing Lands like Botanical Sanctum, as this Land will always come into play tapped if you have only three or more others in play.

Hedge Maze and Temple of Mystery are two Simic Lands for EDH that do provide some utility. However, Hedge Maze is the best of the two since it counts as both an Island and Forest, and has a surveil trigger instead of a Scry.

Temple of Mystery is the more budget-friendly option, but with Hedge Maze you can search for it at Instant-speed with Misty Rainforest, giving you a decision whether to keep the top card of your library in place or move it to the graveyard.

Another Simic Land that provides some utility in card draw is Rain-Slicked Copse. This Land is nice because early on it's a dual Land that counts as an Island and Forest, but later on in a game you can cycle it away for just two mana if you already have enough Lands at your disposal.

Some other nice dual Lands to consider for your Simic decks are Lands like Barkchannel Pathway and Waterlogged Grove. Barkchannel Pathway lets you choose between putting the Green mana side into play permanently, or its Blue counterpart, Tidechannel Pathway. Waterlogged Grove is an untapped Land that can add either Blue or Green mana at the cost of one point of life, but can be sacrificed later on for a card.

Yavimaya Coast is the worse, but still acceptable version of Waterlogged Grove. Flooded Grove can help you cast spells that require double Green or double Blue mana, and Overflowing Basin, while needing another mana source to activate it, will always add pure Simic mana to your mana pool. From there you have slightly worse dual Lands like Sodden Verdure and Willowrush Verge, but with most Commander decks only having around 36 Lands total, it's important to keep a balance between Lands to help cast your spells, basic Lands, and Lands that provide unique utility.

Blue/Green Utility Lands

Utility Lands play an important role in your Commander deck's mana base. Whether they provide a generally good effect or value that plays into your Commander's unique design, you should always consider utility Lands when building your EDH decks.

For example, two generally good utility Lands that aren't necessarily unique to any certain Simic Commanders are Boseiju, Who Endures, and Otawara, Soaring City.

These two Lands have activated abilities that can be useful in a pinch, with Boseiju being able to destroy Artifacts, Enchantments, and non-basic Lands and Otawara being able to bounce any target Artifact, Creature, Enchantment, or Planeswalker - including your own.

Another universal Simic utility Land is Alchemist's Refuge, which allows you to cast spells at Instant-speed. This can be very useful with cards like Seedborn Muse, which can let you cast multiple spells over the course of a turn cycle. The fact that you can use Refuge to just flash in your Commander at a moment's notice can put a ton of pressure on your opponents to have to play around any tricks you might have.

You can tailor your utility Lands to meet your specific Simic Commander's needs, sometimes playing cards that only really work directly with your Commander's identity. For example, one of the more popular Simic Commanders, Hakbal of the Surging Soul, cares about exploring onto your Merfolk Creatures.

Since you'll end up putting +1/+1 counters on your Creatures with Hakbal or through other sources, Lands like Karn's Bastion are vital to your Commander's gameplan. Even though this Land only taps for colorless mana, it's a great way to add some additional power and toughness to your Merfolk army.

For a Commander that revolves around playing multiple Lands in a turn, like Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, you can include a swath of Lands that synergize with this Commander's unique ability. This is a Commander that actually benefits from some niche Lands that might not be as powerful in other decks, such as Jungle Basin, Coral Atoll, Mystic Sanctuary, and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds.

These utility lands can be useful when synergizing with cards like Scute Swarm, Avenger of Zendikar, and Tatyova, Benthic Druid.

For Commanders that care about specific Creature types, you can rely on Lands like Three Tree City and Cavern of Souls. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood can also be useful if your deck has a decent amount of Green Creatures in it.

If you're playing a Simic Commander that cares about a specific Creature type, like Clement, the Worrywort, you can utilize Lands like Oakhollow Village and Lilypad Village for some extra value. While these lands do tap for colorless mana, if your Clement deck is very creature-heavy, you can rely on your Blue/Green MTG dual lands to do more of the heavy lifting.

One specific Simic Commander that is both quite popular and cares about what utility Lands you include in your mana base is Omo, Queen of Vesuva. Omo's unique ability allows you to put everything counters on your Lands and Creatures. For Lands in specific, everything counters give Lands every Land type to it, in addition to its other types.

There are a lot of unique combinations of utility Lands you can play with Omo to make the most of this ability. For example, you can mill players out with Trenchpost, since all of your Lands with everything counters will have the Locus type. If you have enough Lands with everything counters on them you can flat out win the game with Maze's End, as those Lands will also count as gates.

Omo's ability also allows Creatures with everything counters to be every Creature type. This means utility Lands like Swarmyard can regenerate these Creatures, as they'll technically be Insects, Rats, Spiders, and Squirrels. You can continuously exile graveyards with Scavenger Grounds by sacrificing other deserts or bounce back your Creatures to your hand with Riptide Laboratory.

With Omo's ability you can actually use Lands like Dark Depths to tap for mana, while also still including Lands that combo with it like Thespian's Stage. Using Thespian's Stage you can copy Dark Depths, and since your copy won't have any counters on it you'll sacrifice immediately for a Marit Lage token.

All in all, you can find some really interesting combinations of utility Lands to match your Commander's unique abilities, allowing you to devote part of your mana base to cards that not only can tap for mana, but can add some pretty big value to your deck.

Conclusion

Overall, there are a ton of fantastic options to consider for your mana base when building your Simic Commander deck. From Blue/Green dual Lands that come into play untapped or add some extra utility, there are lots of great options and some that are even budget-friendly that can be the start of a working mana base.

Additionally, it's important to notate what your Commander deck is trying to accomplish. Whether your Simic Commander's focus is counter-based or cares about a specific Creature type, it's important to notate what potential Lands you want for your utility slots.

While you don't need an excess of utility Lands, it's important to at least include some that play into your Commander's overall theme, even if they provide just a little bit of extra value. You may have access to 100 cards, but it's important to make every card in your deck work for you.

I hope this article gives you a solid starting point for your next Commander deck, providing some potential Simic Lands to choose from. Whether your goal is to ramp out huge Creatures or enact some sort of crazy Land combo, we hope you find the right Simic Lands for your deck.