Get ready for massive spells with massive value with a design that looks actually attain or reach infinity itself.
In contrast to Rootha, Zimone is probably one of the easiest commanders to build around within the Secrets of Strixhaven precons. Zimone cares solely about “x” spells. She wants you to cast large spells that cost potentially absurd amounts of mana. She rewards you by lowering the costs of your “x” spells while growing larger on board. The longer she sticks around, the cheaper your first “x” spell each turn gets and the more powerful she gets.
What Zimone’s precon does well is it has some very good value oriented “x” spells. Some of these are very excellent with Kinetic Ooze being a new card that also doubles as removal.
The other half is me wondering, much like most precons, what is the actual deck’s gameplan. Are we some kind of proliferate pile? Do we care about combat? Also why are we looking to draw cards based on the number of times Zimone gets sent back to the command zone? What are these cards aiming to do? The deck has some hydras and big bodies, but we don’t exactly have a lot of combat tricks either, at least consistent amounts.
Furthermore, Zimone is looking to play on everyone’s turn to maximize the potential of her counters and discounts. More than half of the cards in the deck only work during our turn.
There are so many options to mess with our opponents or interrupt their game plans. We should make full use of our arsenal. Repulsive Mutation is also incredibly value oriented since we can use it to grow Zimone, counter a spell, and then make our next spell even cheaper on the next player’s turn.
The precon does do a good job with giving us some decent ways to ramp with both Animist’s Awakening and Open the Way. At first, I thought we could add Genesis Wave to the mix since it can put lands on the battlefield but if it were to spawn most of our creatures, they’d be very weak since we can’t pay their “x” costs when the spell is resolving. Kamahl’s Druidic Vow gets around this and plays pretty much the same as Genesis Wave to some extent. Even something like Mind into Matter is excellent with Zimone, giving us the Simic special of both draw and ramp.
I didn’t want to give Silver Scrutiny its own section, but this modular spell with built in Flash is great because it continues to trigger Zimone on different turns (just keep in mind the mana spent). Pest Infestation is another way to remove cards while providing our own threats for later.
We’re in 2026 and creatures need to do more than just be a generic beatstick. Broodguard Elite does very silly things with Zimone and can trigger itself in the early game thanks to Warp. Gadwick refills our hand and can be a way to tap down our opponent’s creatures and secure a win with a simple swing. Hormagaunt Horde is technically a generic beater, but Ravenous gives us extra card draw if we meet the condition, and more importantly, it is can be easily recurred from the graveyard.
Illithid Harvester can be a very easy way to lose your friends or as a temporary stun for the board if need be. The flexibility is great and the facedown ability can heavily cripple existing creatures while getting rid of any annoying abilities.
There are so many options for even “x” creatures in Simic colours that are bound to be useful in one way or another to you. Mockingbird has a plethora of uses in copying creatures including your opponents’. Rampaging Yao Guai wipes out artifacts and enchantments. Ravener, while having a niche sort of taunt ability, is important for flash as another enabler for Zimone’s passive counters.
In place of the rather lackluster Lattice Library and the random Hardened Scales, we can opt for these two enchantments. Extraordinary Journey can act as a way to recast our own cards for value or to temporarily repeal our opponent’s creatures. Either way, we get card advantage whenever anyone plays a creature from exile. Lost in the Maze most importantly has flash and can temporarily stun threats. We can also protect our own creatures after they have swung with the extra amazing hexproof supplied by the enchantment.
In terms of artifacts, Astral Cornucopia is an absolute beast of a card with Zimone. If we have the excess mana, we can make this an exponentially powerful mana rock.
Honestly, I’m not sure if there’s any land really worth mentioning outside of Alchemist’s Refuge which is already included in the precon. Zimone cares about the first “x” spell cast each turn, so being able to give your cards flash is perfect for meeting that objective. If you really care of a counters, you could include Karn’s Bastion, but I’ll leave that to your decision.
Zimone really is the living definition of “x” spell value. You can choose to take her in many different directions if you’d like, but I’ve chosen here to focus primarily on making value and providing interruption. You’re in Simic. You got both card draw and making extra land drops. You can definitely find some way to use her to your own advantage. Just remember, Zimone wants to see at least one “x” spell during each turn, so make sure to keep a bunch of “x” spell interaction or cards to play on your opponents’ turns to speed up your game plan.