The best thing about Pod is that you can play a lot of different cards and still be competitive. In Modern, you have literally dozens of potential strong choices (ever tried Keiga at 6cc to steal their Ulamog?). I sometimes even actively try not to combo out because it's so fun to play the deck as a proper Pod deck rather than a Melira combo shell, which is so reductive. Running just 1 Melira and 2 Viscera Seers maindeck free a lot of juicy slots for me. (It's also worth noting that the deck is just one Mirror Entity and one Body Double short of hosting Reveillark combo too, and both are strong cards on their own right).
Gaddock is a good choice for sure (even if Urzatron brings Pyroclasm and Firespout against you in game 2, that's what their Grove of Burnwillows are for). It hoses your own deck too, but I like to do these kinds of hazardous calls. I have a full set of Chalice of the Void in every Modern sideboard, and it's always a pain for the opponent when I bring them in, even if I have to play around them myself. Most Melira lists run a copy of Ethersworn Canonist maindeck, or at least in the sideboard, but I still had to find a matchup where I really needed her, so in the end I dropped her. My side is mostly safety measures, like the Chalices and Krosan Grips, which is a solution for so many problems, including our fearful artifact nemesis Torpor Orb and Grafdigger's Cage, but especially Splinter Twin.
My worst matchup is Hive Mind: most of the times is an auto-lose, because you can hardly combo out faster than them (they can easily do a turn-4 Seething Song into Hive Mind into good game, sometimes even turn-3), and you have no direct answers (Chalices don't work, you can't use Trickbind, and Angel's Grace is too narrow). I just bring more early discard for that matchup now, but it's a desperate manoeuver which rarely works.
My number 1 suggestion is to cut the too many sac outlets (which make you splash red too, is it worth it?) and add at least 1 second Redcap, because if you lose the first one to exile, that's bad news for you, and you'll be hardly unhappy to draw into a Redcap anyway. Worst case scenario is one Arc Trail and 2 Pod activations into 5cc targets (one of them being Reveillark = Redcap comes back).
Step 1: cast Finks. On the board, Finks.
Step 2: sac Finks into Redcap. On the board, Redcap, Finks.
Step 3: sac Finks into Ranger. On the board, Redcap, Ranger. In hand: Viscera Seer.
Step 4: sac Ranger (or Redcap) into Reveillark (or Whatever at 5cc). On the board, Redcap (or Redcap and Ranger), Reveillark (or Whatever).
Step 5: sac Reveillark into Mikaeus. Cast Viscera Seer. On the board: Redcap, Mikaeus, Viscera Seer, assorted other stuff.
Step 6: good game.
This was of course just to prove you can do it with 1 creature (you can start with 1 Birds of Paradise and still get to Finks with 2 passages) and 1 Pod. That's not possible with just Melira. (Or better, it is, but involves necessarily starting with her or a Birds, then killing her and revive her with Reveillark. Meaning they will have more chances to exile the key combo creature - Melira - before you get to the end game, and you have more forced choices. With Mikaeus you can use Acidic Slime or Archon of Justice as a 5cc passage and get rid of the problematic permanent before comboing out. And all in all it's more fun!).
AJ playing with your horrors was a gas! Our third round opponents were just not prepared to put up a proper fight against your insanity and my tricks. Unfortunately your 2 land draws games 1 & 2 didn't help vs the combotastic decks we faced.
To answer the question, Duel Decks have often been enticing but just as often been pretty awful. I view them as a way for people without many resources to get right to the playing even if they include lots of bad cards. You get a duel deck, share one half with a friend and you two can play all day.
This whets the appetite and prepares you for getting deeper into it. So while I don't like the current Venser vs Koth duel deck (What a crap load of garbage!) I admire the idea. The decks might still be worth obtaining for the two big cards if you turn them around right away, though since SOM block is exiting in less than 6 months you might want to just wait and buy the good cards separately.
Hey, thanks for your suggestions! I didn't think about Spellskite, but I am definitely getting some for those pesky Zoo matchups where they get removal for everything.
I have a lot of confidence in Sword of War and Peace- it hoses Urzatron completely, as they always have cards in their hand. I think I might just go down to one Sword of Light and Shadow, though, just for the recursion.
I decided the easiest way to beat Urzatron was to use Gaddock Teeg. I now have a playset- this is how much trouble Karn and Mindslaver have proven to be. It also stops Gifts Ungiven, which is a big bonus.
There are times when I want to go at a lower CMC, but then when I take out my 7 CMC creature from the mainboard, I find myself ready to sacrifice a 6 CMC creature with no 7-drop there. Massacre Wurm is a fantastic idea- I will probably run that over Sun Titan. But I think I'll keep using Elesh Norn, who I have now replaced Sheoldred with.
The main thing I've learning in running Melira Pod is that you have to have the right answers for the deck you are facing. Because it's Modern, this can be hard. For me, I just try to recognize the decks I'm most likely to see and prepare for those. I think most players are using other Pod decks, Urzatron, or Affinity. With the right sideboard, you can beat all three.
Heyo, this card would almost assuredly never be printed in black. Black has never(?) been able to cheat on costs/play stuff for free without using the graveyard/life as a resource and has very little to no interaction with the top of its library.
No card draw=black. Pay 3 life to do : this=black. Play top card if permanent for free is green for creatures, blue in general. Red also has access to this for sorceries/instants, but "you may play" would likely change to "play if able".
U/B or artifact is the appropriate color for this card if you intend to keep the current abilities. But frankly, they are clunky and it probably just needs a complete overhaul. hebergement web
Nice to see someone use Goblins, even if it probably took a lot of luck to get them into a top 8. That deck wishes WOTC would of started Modern one block earlier so badly. With Warchief, Piledriver, Gempalm Goblins would of been a force.
the RUG deck you list looks a lot like Brad Nelson's list from January. He did an overview of the format on SCG as a premium article but it is now public. The main difference is he seems to have moved the Shackles to the main deck here, presumably to deal with the upsurge in zoo matches? Not sure really.
"You can do it this way: sac Kitchen Finks into Redcap, sac Redcap into Ranger of Eos taking a couple Viscera Seers, sac Ranger of Eos into Mikaeus, cast Viscera Seer, good game. Very linear, everything with just 1 creature and 1 Pod."
Beautiful sideboard. I had a Land Destruction deck in Modern a while back - and everyone wanted to know why I had hornet sting in the sideboard, it was JUST for Viscera Seer - any redsource was easily played around, but green tended to kill the combo. The purist in me hates so many 1x, but I can't deny how consistant and nasty this deck is. It is a big part of the meta and like they say, "Be prepared to beat it or be beaten by it."
As a longtime Pod user/theorizer (with a good share of 2-man queue wins and two recent Eurodrive! wins with it), I'm always surprised nobody apparently realizes that you don't really need Melira anymore. Ok, it's not that you drop her (I have 1 left in the deck, 1 in the sideboard), it's just that it's not your only option to combo out anymore: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is in the building now. And he's so much better than Melira, or along with her, because you find him in your way up and he can combo out with a persister already "worn-out", because Undying doesn't care about -1/-1 counters (and when the persister comes back with the +1/+1 counter, Persist will kick in. In the meantime, your Redcap is doing 4 damage, since Mikaeus gives him a further bonus).
You can do it this way: sac Kitchen Finks into Redcap, sac Redcap into Ranger of Eos taking a couple Viscera Seers, sac Ranger of Eos into Mikaeus, cast Viscera Seer, good game. Very linear, everything with just 1 creature and 1 Pod.
Not to mention that once Mikaeus is there, even your pumped, undying Birds of Paradise become lethal. I won more than one game just by swinging with an apparently ragtag team after Mikaeus came. Nobody expects that.
Indeed I see you miss Ranger of Eos in your build, which is a crucial creature in the deck. You don't need to run more than 2 Viscera Seers or other sac outlets, since you don't want to sac anything before the combo is in place, and you already have to keep fresh creatures for the Pod. You don't even play Melira or Viscera Seer before the combo is in place, because they don't accomplish nothing on their own, they're sitting ducks on the board for the opponent to kill (of course that's different if you're facing discard, but Eternal Witness and Reveillark are there for this purpose). When Ranger fetches two Seers, you'll have the one you need and one backup.
Also missing: Spellskite. Another crucial piece because it defends the Pod.
Moreso, Massacre Wurm: I can't count the number of matches I won thanks to the Wurm, including mirror matches. I don't know the meta of daily/premier events, but in the queues and in the PREs you find tokens, Kithkins, Goblins and such. You also find a lot of black-based creature decks like Zombie or Vampire, so experience told me Skinrender is more effective than Nekrataal or Shriekmaw (also more effective: more Redcaps. You'll target 2-toughness creatures a lot, starting with your sworn enemy, Gaddock Teeg). I sideboard Shriekmaw in only if I'm dealing with non-black titans. Among the big players it can't kill there are Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine, so definitely a downer to me.
I keep Oversoul of Dusk in the sideboard. I rarely bring it in, but I feel safer to know the "half Progenitus" is there.
I also agree with the typical non-creature package of 4 Pod, 3 Chord of Calling, 3 Inquisition of Kozilek (or even better Thoughtseize, which I don't own, unfortunately). You need early discards because you're not very interactive in the early turns, and you have to slow down the opponent and take out its early answers to your battleplan. Late game, an Inquisition makes sure everything is fine to combo out. I rarely side them out.
Yosei is amazing in Pod, but I feel like it belongs to a different build than Melira Project. Some of the Melira builds don't even go as high as 6cc. I use 6cc to combo out with Mikaeus or clear the board (and possibly go for lethal) with the Massacre Wurm. Even Sun Titan is in my sideboard now, I essentially never bring him in anymore (but theoretically, it's against heavy disruption decks). I agree with Elesh being the 7cc creature of choice if you want to play a Pod that goes up there (most of the times, Massacre does the same job better and faster than her anyway). Protean Hulk is another strong 7cc choice, since it single-handedly comboes out upon further sacrifice. If you like mad, overcomplicated interactions you might also want to try Body Double, because it does crazy things with Reveillark and Sun Titan.
Sword of War and Peace looks like it belongs to another deck, as it doesn't offer tactical value and doesn't really interact with anything else in the deck. Then again, I can imagine you can win games out of just strapping it on a Birds of Paradise or something. But it's the kind of "good stuff slot" that I usually try to avoid.
Trust me dude I usually end up picking between the same cards as you for my seventh pick. This was just one of those rare drafts where the stars aligned and I got some crazy late picks.
Huntmaster could be amazing in a Pod build...never thought of it myself. I don't like Hellrider because a lot of the time, you won't want to swing with your creatures. The quickest way to win with this deck is through the combo. I'm on the fence about Inferno Titan...three doesn't seem like enough to me. If you're running blue, I like Frost Titan a lot better. It will keep tapping down Tarmogoyf and let you get through.
I do agree with Elesh Norn, and I found that putting him in there makes it very, very hard. However, I use Wurmcoil Engine at the six level with Norn because when you sac your Wurmcoil, you get two 5/5 creatures and (typically) your opponent has their board wiped.
Regarding Urzatron, the matchups are so even that it comes to down your opening hand and what you draw.
Why am I never in these drafts? It almost seems like you are all 8 players in that draft the cards passed were just that damn good.
I mean people will literally make an entire deck around an captain, and the only one I have ever seen late in any draft, is the Vamp one.
*And you are much stronger than I am. I would have splashed for black with all that amazing stuff going around the table.
- I am calling malarky on this draft as you were given amazing card after amazing card, while I'm usually trying to pick between Haunted Fengraf, Bar the Door, and Curse of something stupid by pack 7.
Glad to see you posting articles again Kara. I think Pod might be the obvious ringer in the house. So people tend to put hate for it in their decks. Even so it does win even past Tron on occasion though thats usually because Tron dropped a game somewhere else and thus got paired down as POD destroyed what would also have been meat for tron.
Pod is a deck that does not require a lot of skill to pilot but to win with it every game requires an intimate knowledge of your opponent's game plan and your own.
I don't play the queues so for my own purposes I try and dumb Pod down a bit and not combo out with it since it is too over the top for JuFF imho. That said if I were to take it to the queues I would definitely run Elesh. Sheoldred is classier but lacks the punishing quality that makes Elesh an instawin against some decks. What do you think of Hellrider, Inferno Titan and Huntmaster of the Fells in a RUG version?
I think Pod, in the right hands, is arguably the best deck in the format. The utility "swiss army knife" style of the deck makes it great for someone who knows what they are doing.
Great look at this very misunderstood and powerful deck archetype.
just bandwagon logic re: youngwolf...no reason not to run 4x. "Hey, there's this great and amazing card that's an auto include 2:1....let's play 3!" lol... There are many, MANY copycats in the magic world...and they're just afraid to break the list/mold/status quo. The sporefrogs main are deluxe when ETW storm is around (which was prominent when the mentioned list was avail) - nothing like a fog hitting for 1 every turn :)
Speculating is a game, but also a game that you can have a little more control over than something like the stock market.
I remember bringing up the idea of buying Honor of the Pure when it was 0.10 a piece. I had bought 30. I sold them at $1.50.
But people laughed at me when I said to buy Honor of the Pure. The same in paper. This is what happened to me at FNM last night:
"Oh man Liliana is Terrible... So what do you value Liliana at?"
I think the main issue with buying any card is that people do most of their buying based on the decks currently being played and completely forget the simplest thing of all. READ THE CARDS.
There are a lot of great cards that might not be used in a deck 'At The Moment', but that doesn't mean they aren't good. And if you buy them before people catch on, and you would think this is easy for people, but it isn't, then you will make money.
And of course I have made bad choices, but I like to keep my losses to a minimum. That being said, trying to trade (Buy/Sell) STD is probably the hardest thing to do since there are only 5 decks at the moment, but I like to speculate on what I am playtesting and whether or not it will catch on. I'll give you my 2 most current examples.
I have 2 decks I have been playing, one has won a few 8 man queues but isn't ready for DE's, and the other is built getting ready for Avacyn Restored.
Deck 1: Mono Black Smallpox.
This is my favorite deck. If played well, it is not only the most annoying deck you will ever play against, but also has the cards, thanks to DKA, to be a great deck.
It runs Liliana, Gravecrawler, Black Cat, Smallpox, Despise, and a few others.
It is as close to mono-black control you will get to in STD. It mills hands, lands, and has creature removal, so your opponent is forced to top-deck. I think this is the first deck to utilize Liliana to her fullest potential, and does wonders against all the creature based decks running around at the moment.
The second deck is something I'm still working on. It's RB Vamps.
The deck is really good, and DKA has some amazing Vampires (Look at what Falkenrath Aristocrat does), but it's weak in the 2 drop spot. I think that if they release a top of the line 2 drop vampire in Avacyn Restored, you have yourself a deck that makes Zombies look like it's Tier 3.
Olivia is already one of the best cards in ISD, Falkenwrath Aristocrat is hard to kill, Bloodline Keeper is the Standard staple creature for Black, and you can even add in Sorin. Either way, if you get to the point where you can flip Bloodline Keeper by turn 4, and you have 3 vamps on the board at least (If 2 get killed), you win the game.
I have won some 1v1 2 Tix matches with having Bloodline Keeper on the board, with summoning sickness, putting out an Aristocrat, flipping Keeper and winning. But it's still a little hit and miss. I'm thinking adding white for Sorin and Vault might make it a little better, but It's still being worked out. Either way, it has something that you need, and Zombies can't deal with... Artifact destruction.
Zombie decks are very weak. They are too dependent on getting that really good opening hand. But otherwise you are just drawing off the top. At least there are ways to get Vamps using a Planeswalker or a token maker and you are set. So you want to throw a Hero of Bladehold at me? That's cool. I'll stick with my aristocrat. And for late game, there isn't much out there better than Olivia either taking out creatures or taking control of Titans.
The best thing about Pod is that you can play a lot of different cards and still be competitive. In Modern, you have literally dozens of potential strong choices (ever tried Keiga at 6cc to steal their Ulamog?). I sometimes even actively try not to combo out because it's so fun to play the deck as a proper Pod deck rather than a Melira combo shell, which is so reductive. Running just 1 Melira and 2 Viscera Seers maindeck free a lot of juicy slots for me. (It's also worth noting that the deck is just one Mirror Entity and one Body Double short of hosting Reveillark combo too, and both are strong cards on their own right).
Gaddock is a good choice for sure (even if Urzatron brings Pyroclasm and Firespout against you in game 2, that's what their Grove of Burnwillows are for). It hoses your own deck too, but I like to do these kinds of hazardous calls. I have a full set of Chalice of the Void in every Modern sideboard, and it's always a pain for the opponent when I bring them in, even if I have to play around them myself. Most Melira lists run a copy of Ethersworn Canonist maindeck, or at least in the sideboard, but I still had to find a matchup where I really needed her, so in the end I dropped her. My side is mostly safety measures, like the Chalices and Krosan Grips, which is a solution for so many problems, including our fearful artifact nemesis Torpor Orb and Grafdigger's Cage, but especially Splinter Twin.
My worst matchup is Hive Mind: most of the times is an auto-lose, because you can hardly combo out faster than them (they can easily do a turn-4 Seething Song into Hive Mind into good game, sometimes even turn-3), and you have no direct answers (Chalices don't work, you can't use Trickbind, and Angel's Grace is too narrow). I just bring more early discard for that matchup now, but it's a desperate manoeuver which rarely works.
My number 1 suggestion is to cut the too many sac outlets (which make you splash red too, is it worth it?) and add at least 1 second Redcap, because if you lose the first one to exile, that's bad news for you, and you'll be hardly unhappy to draw into a Redcap anyway. Worst case scenario is one Arc Trail and 2 Pod activations into 5cc targets (one of them being Reveillark = Redcap comes back).
Good show, guys. Just wanted to let you know that the Magic Online Cube WILL be singleton in each draft, the way it should be. Have fun.
Step 1: cast Finks. On the board, Finks.
Step 2: sac Finks into Redcap. On the board, Redcap, Finks.
Step 3: sac Finks into Ranger. On the board, Redcap, Ranger. In hand: Viscera Seer.
Step 4: sac Ranger (or Redcap) into Reveillark (or Whatever at 5cc). On the board, Redcap (or Redcap and Ranger), Reveillark (or Whatever).
Step 5: sac Reveillark into Mikaeus. Cast Viscera Seer. On the board: Redcap, Mikaeus, Viscera Seer, assorted other stuff.
Step 6: good game.
This was of course just to prove you can do it with 1 creature (you can start with 1 Birds of Paradise and still get to Finks with 2 passages) and 1 Pod. That's not possible with just Melira. (Or better, it is, but involves necessarily starting with her or a Birds, then killing her and revive her with Reveillark. Meaning they will have more chances to exile the key combo creature - Melira - before you get to the end game, and you have more forced choices. With Mikaeus you can use Acidic Slime or Archon of Justice as a 5cc passage and get rid of the problematic permanent before comboing out. And all in all it's more fun!).
If you sac finks again, you don't have a 5 to sac to get Mikaeus (unless i am mistaken, big Mike is a 6).
Should just be "sacrifice Finks again" (since it came back the fist time around). Still linear.
AJ playing with your horrors was a gas! Our third round opponents were just not prepared to put up a proper fight against your insanity and my tricks. Unfortunately your 2 land draws games 1 & 2 didn't help vs the combotastic decks we faced.
To answer the question, Duel Decks have often been enticing but just as often been pretty awful. I view them as a way for people without many resources to get right to the playing even if they include lots of bad cards. You get a duel deck, share one half with a friend and you two can play all day.
This whets the appetite and prepares you for getting deeper into it. So while I don't like the current Venser vs Koth duel deck (What a crap load of garbage!) I admire the idea. The decks might still be worth obtaining for the two big cards if you turn them around right away, though since SOM block is exiting in less than 6 months you might want to just wait and buy the good cards separately.
Hey, thanks for your suggestions! I didn't think about Spellskite, but I am definitely getting some for those pesky Zoo matchups where they get removal for everything.
I have a lot of confidence in Sword of War and Peace- it hoses Urzatron completely, as they always have cards in their hand. I think I might just go down to one Sword of Light and Shadow, though, just for the recursion.
I decided the easiest way to beat Urzatron was to use Gaddock Teeg. I now have a playset- this is how much trouble Karn and Mindslaver have proven to be. It also stops Gifts Ungiven, which is a big bonus.
There are times when I want to go at a lower CMC, but then when I take out my 7 CMC creature from the mainboard, I find myself ready to sacrifice a 6 CMC creature with no 7-drop there. Massacre Wurm is a fantastic idea- I will probably run that over Sun Titan. But I think I'll keep using Elesh Norn, who I have now replaced Sheoldred with.
The main thing I've learning in running Melira Pod is that you have to have the right answers for the deck you are facing. Because it's Modern, this can be hard. For me, I just try to recognize the decks I'm most likely to see and prepare for those. I think most players are using other Pod decks, Urzatron, or Affinity. With the right sideboard, you can beat all three.
Heyo, this card would almost assuredly never be printed in black. Black has never(?) been able to cheat on costs/play stuff for free without using the graveyard/life as a resource and has very little to no interaction with the top of its library.
No card draw=black. Pay 3 life to do : this=black. Play top card if permanent for free is green for creatures, blue in general. Red also has access to this for sorceries/instants, but "you may play" would likely change to "play if able".
U/B or artifact is the appropriate color for this card if you intend to keep the current abilities. But frankly, they are clunky and it probably just needs a complete overhaul.
hebergement web
Nice to see someone use Goblins, even if it probably took a lot of luck to get them into a top 8. That deck wishes WOTC would of started Modern one block earlier so badly. With Warchief, Piledriver, Gempalm Goblins would of been a force.
Yeah he missed the lark step.
the RUG deck you list looks a lot like Brad Nelson's list from January. He did an overview of the format on SCG as a premium article but it is now public. The main difference is he seems to have moved the Shackles to the main deck here, presumably to deal with the upsurge in zoo matches? Not sure really.
"You can do it this way: sac Kitchen Finks into Redcap, sac Redcap into Ranger of Eos taking a couple Viscera Seers, sac Ranger of Eos into Mikaeus, cast Viscera Seer, good game. Very linear, everything with just 1 creature and 1 Pod."
Isn't Ranger a 4cc? Am I missing something?
Beautiful sideboard. I had a Land Destruction deck in Modern a while back - and everyone wanted to know why I had hornet sting in the sideboard, it was JUST for Viscera Seer - any redsource was easily played around, but green tended to kill the combo. The purist in me hates so many 1x, but I can't deny how consistant and nasty this deck is. It is a big part of the meta and like they say, "Be prepared to beat it or be beaten by it."
Great visuals in this article too!
As a longtime Pod user/theorizer (with a good share of 2-man queue wins and two recent Eurodrive! wins with it), I'm always surprised nobody apparently realizes that you don't really need Melira anymore. Ok, it's not that you drop her (I have 1 left in the deck, 1 in the sideboard), it's just that it's not your only option to combo out anymore: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is in the building now. And he's so much better than Melira, or along with her, because you find him in your way up and he can combo out with a persister already "worn-out", because Undying doesn't care about -1/-1 counters (and when the persister comes back with the +1/+1 counter, Persist will kick in. In the meantime, your Redcap is doing 4 damage, since Mikaeus gives him a further bonus).
You can do it this way: sac Kitchen Finks into Redcap, sac Redcap into Ranger of Eos taking a couple Viscera Seers, sac Ranger of Eos into Mikaeus, cast Viscera Seer, good game. Very linear, everything with just 1 creature and 1 Pod.
Not to mention that once Mikaeus is there, even your pumped, undying Birds of Paradise become lethal. I won more than one game just by swinging with an apparently ragtag team after Mikaeus came. Nobody expects that.
Indeed I see you miss Ranger of Eos in your build, which is a crucial creature in the deck. You don't need to run more than 2 Viscera Seers or other sac outlets, since you don't want to sac anything before the combo is in place, and you already have to keep fresh creatures for the Pod. You don't even play Melira or Viscera Seer before the combo is in place, because they don't accomplish nothing on their own, they're sitting ducks on the board for the opponent to kill (of course that's different if you're facing discard, but Eternal Witness and Reveillark are there for this purpose). When Ranger fetches two Seers, you'll have the one you need and one backup.
Also missing: Spellskite. Another crucial piece because it defends the Pod.
Moreso, Massacre Wurm: I can't count the number of matches I won thanks to the Wurm, including mirror matches. I don't know the meta of daily/premier events, but in the queues and in the PREs you find tokens, Kithkins, Goblins and such. You also find a lot of black-based creature decks like Zombie or Vampire, so experience told me Skinrender is more effective than Nekrataal or Shriekmaw (also more effective: more Redcaps. You'll target 2-toughness creatures a lot, starting with your sworn enemy, Gaddock Teeg). I sideboard Shriekmaw in only if I'm dealing with non-black titans. Among the big players it can't kill there are Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine, so definitely a downer to me.
I keep Oversoul of Dusk in the sideboard. I rarely bring it in, but I feel safer to know the "half Progenitus" is there.
I also agree with the typical non-creature package of 4 Pod, 3 Chord of Calling, 3 Inquisition of Kozilek (or even better Thoughtseize, which I don't own, unfortunately). You need early discards because you're not very interactive in the early turns, and you have to slow down the opponent and take out its early answers to your battleplan. Late game, an Inquisition makes sure everything is fine to combo out. I rarely side them out.
Yosei is amazing in Pod, but I feel like it belongs to a different build than Melira Project. Some of the Melira builds don't even go as high as 6cc. I use 6cc to combo out with Mikaeus or clear the board (and possibly go for lethal) with the Massacre Wurm. Even Sun Titan is in my sideboard now, I essentially never bring him in anymore (but theoretically, it's against heavy disruption decks). I agree with Elesh being the 7cc creature of choice if you want to play a Pod that goes up there (most of the times, Massacre does the same job better and faster than her anyway). Protean Hulk is another strong 7cc choice, since it single-handedly comboes out upon further sacrifice. If you like mad, overcomplicated interactions you might also want to try Body Double, because it does crazy things with Reveillark and Sun Titan.
Sword of War and Peace looks like it belongs to another deck, as it doesn't offer tactical value and doesn't really interact with anything else in the deck. Then again, I can imagine you can win games out of just strapping it on a Birds of Paradise or something. But it's the kind of "good stuff slot" that I usually try to avoid.
Trust me dude I usually end up picking between the same cards as you for my seventh pick. This was just one of those rare drafts where the stars aligned and I got some crazy late picks.
Beezy, are you taking my 10 tix on the 3-1 offering you made that Goyf is in M13? Cuz I'd sure be happy if you did!
Huntmaster could be amazing in a Pod build...never thought of it myself. I don't like Hellrider because a lot of the time, you won't want to swing with your creatures. The quickest way to win with this deck is through the combo. I'm on the fence about Inferno Titan...three doesn't seem like enough to me. If you're running blue, I like Frost Titan a lot better. It will keep tapping down Tarmogoyf and let you get through.
I do agree with Elesh Norn, and I found that putting him in there makes it very, very hard. However, I use Wurmcoil Engine at the six level with Norn because when you sac your Wurmcoil, you get two 5/5 creatures and (typically) your opponent has their board wiped.
Regarding Urzatron, the matchups are so even that it comes to down your opening hand and what you draw.
Why am I never in these drafts? It almost seems like you are all 8 players in that draft the cards passed were just that damn good.
I mean people will literally make an entire deck around an captain, and the only one I have ever seen late in any draft, is the Vamp one.
*And you are much stronger than I am. I would have splashed for black with all that amazing stuff going around the table.
- I am calling malarky on this draft as you were given amazing card after amazing card, while I'm usually trying to pick between Haunted Fengraf, Bar the Door, and Curse of something stupid by pack 7.
Glad to see you posting articles again Kara. I think Pod might be the obvious ringer in the house. So people tend to put hate for it in their decks. Even so it does win even past Tron on occasion though thats usually because Tron dropped a game somewhere else and thus got paired down as POD destroyed what would also have been meat for tron.
Pod is a deck that does not require a lot of skill to pilot but to win with it every game requires an intimate knowledge of your opponent's game plan and your own.
I don't play the queues so for my own purposes I try and dumb Pod down a bit and not combo out with it since it is too over the top for JuFF imho. That said if I were to take it to the queues I would definitely run Elesh. Sheoldred is classier but lacks the punishing quality that makes Elesh an instawin against some decks. What do you think of Hellrider, Inferno Titan and Huntmaster of the Fells in a RUG version?
I disagree. Pod for the most part rolls over to Tron, based on the assumption that each pilot is of equal skill.
If you take that out of the equation, maybe it has the best match ups spread across the entire format?
I think Pod, in the right hands, is arguably the best deck in the format. The utility "swiss army knife" style of the deck makes it great for someone who knows what they are doing.
Great look at this very misunderstood and powerful deck archetype.
just bandwagon logic re: youngwolf...no reason not to run 4x. "Hey, there's this great and amazing card that's an auto include 2:1....let's play 3!" lol... There are many, MANY copycats in the magic world...and they're just afraid to break the list/mold/status quo. The sporefrogs main are deluxe when ETW storm is around (which was prominent when the mentioned list was avail) - nothing like a fog hitting for 1 every turn :)
CUBE
Speculating is a game, but also a game that you can have a little more control over than something like the stock market.
I remember bringing up the idea of buying Honor of the Pure when it was 0.10 a piece. I had bought 30. I sold them at $1.50.
But people laughed at me when I said to buy Honor of the Pure. The same in paper. This is what happened to me at FNM last night:
"Oh man Liliana is Terrible... So what do you value Liliana at?"
I think the main issue with buying any card is that people do most of their buying based on the decks currently being played and completely forget the simplest thing of all. READ THE CARDS.
There are a lot of great cards that might not be used in a deck 'At The Moment', but that doesn't mean they aren't good. And if you buy them before people catch on, and you would think this is easy for people, but it isn't, then you will make money.
And of course I have made bad choices, but I like to keep my losses to a minimum. That being said, trying to trade (Buy/Sell) STD is probably the hardest thing to do since there are only 5 decks at the moment, but I like to speculate on what I am playtesting and whether or not it will catch on. I'll give you my 2 most current examples.
I have 2 decks I have been playing, one has won a few 8 man queues but isn't ready for DE's, and the other is built getting ready for Avacyn Restored.
Deck 1: Mono Black Smallpox.
This is my favorite deck. If played well, it is not only the most annoying deck you will ever play against, but also has the cards, thanks to DKA, to be a great deck.
It runs Liliana, Gravecrawler, Black Cat, Smallpox, Despise, and a few others.
It is as close to mono-black control you will get to in STD. It mills hands, lands, and has creature removal, so your opponent is forced to top-deck. I think this is the first deck to utilize Liliana to her fullest potential, and does wonders against all the creature based decks running around at the moment.
The second deck is something I'm still working on. It's RB Vamps.
The deck is really good, and DKA has some amazing Vampires (Look at what Falkenrath Aristocrat does), but it's weak in the 2 drop spot. I think that if they release a top of the line 2 drop vampire in Avacyn Restored, you have yourself a deck that makes Zombies look like it's Tier 3.
Olivia is already one of the best cards in ISD, Falkenwrath Aristocrat is hard to kill, Bloodline Keeper is the Standard staple creature for Black, and you can even add in Sorin. Either way, if you get to the point where you can flip Bloodline Keeper by turn 4, and you have 3 vamps on the board at least (If 2 get killed), you win the game.
I have won some 1v1 2 Tix matches with having Bloodline Keeper on the board, with summoning sickness, putting out an Aristocrat, flipping Keeper and winning. But it's still a little hit and miss. I'm thinking adding white for Sorin and Vault might make it a little better, but It's still being worked out. Either way, it has something that you need, and Zombies can't deal with... Artifact destruction.
Zombie decks are very weak. They are too dependent on getting that really good opening hand. But otherwise you are just drawing off the top. At least there are ways to get Vamps using a Planeswalker or a token maker and you are set. So you want to throw a Hero of Bladehold at me? That's cool. I'll stick with my aristocrat. And for late game, there isn't much out there better than Olivia either taking out creatures or taking control of Titans.
He wanted to show off his best feature, and a shirt would have distracted from that.
His sunglasses I mean.