Here's a list I've been running to a 24-1 record on cockatrice right now (list has changed a bit from this during the last couple of months). Seeing as I don't personally have time to travel to GPs for much this year and don't play on magic online I won't be able to showcase the deck, which I think is unfortunate as it's both incredibly good and also fun to play. So here's hoping someone will pick this up and post some good finishes with it.
So it resembles Melira-pod, but without Melira and the cards that either belong to or go well with the combo (i.e. viscera seer, Ranger of Eos, Chord of Calling, etc). The sideboard obviously needs to be tweaked to whatever the new meta will look like, but 3 Stony Silence is one of the reasons the deck performs so well (obviously siding out the 3 Birthing Pods. The one loss was against Scapeshift, which I think might be a slightly bad matchup mainboard, but with 2 Tectonic Edge, 4 Thoughtseize, Aven Mindcensor, fulminator mage, Spellskite and resilient creatures like voice, redcap and finks I believe the post board matchup is favorable.
The idea with the deck is to avoid the bad draws of melira-pod, where you sit with multiple pods and chords or Viscera Seers, pontiff, spellskite or Ranger of Eos, Reveillark etc.. With three birthing pods you will see them in around half the games, but when you do they're pretty much always gold. I'm not too much fan of the melira-pod combo either as most good decks will usually have enough removal to stop you from going off, so replacing all the mediocre and bad cards in melira-pod for Tarmogoyf, Blade Splicer and removal is sort of a bonus.
I give you credit for trying something different and stepping out of the box, although the list does look like its almost Melira Pod.
How do you find yourself favoring against other combo decks? I could be wrong but it doesn't look like you have much speed on them.
As I stated in the other thread Martyr mentions I'm planning on a Pod build with less Melira myself, so I do like the direction your going here. I do still think a full set of Birthing Pods is the way to go, otherwise it just seems like a heavy mid-ranged creature list. But I'm glad it proves well for you.
Among my 24 matches, I didn't face Melira-pod a single time, but I have no doubt that as long as I can keep them off the combo I should be heavily favored. For sideboarding there are a number of options and would need to test if it's worth it to swap out the pods for stony silence and go down on creatures to incorporate more removal. It depends probably whether you're on the play or not. I prefer being proactive when on the play so would probably keep in both pods and most creatures obviously getting aven mindcensor in there. On the draw I'd probably get 2 or 3 stony silence in.
I played against splinter twin two times. The first was normal blue/red, which I matched up very well against. I remember getting voice remanded, then playing it again the next turn. He plays exarch in response attempting to tap my white source. I tap in response and play a path and next turn he's at 5 mana playing out his Kiki-Jiki. I play my redcap to get rid of it and after that there was only a couple of snapcasters causing some hassle, but he only had a path and remand in the gy, so snapcaster with splinter twin on didn't really do a lot once I started clogging up the board. Game two I can't really remember anymore. Guess I can try look up the replay as it's stored on cockatrice for a while, but I won the match for sure. The second splinter twin match I played yesterday. It was a bit different that what I've seen before, being UWR with wall of omens and restoration angels. Game 1 won the roll and played treetop village turn 1, voice turn 2 (which he bolted on his turn+serum visions), thoughtseize on his splintertwin turn 3(did not see any counters at all so seems this version runs less counters in favor of more removal?)+tarmogoyf(4/5). He played wall of omens, I attack with goyf and play a mana dork and birthing pod. He plays land and passes. I play another voice, he responds with a pestermite, tapping goyf(I still have 2 lands+dork in play and not played land yet). I pod away the voice for a blade splicer, and attack with voice for 7(6/6+exalted), which he chumps with the wall. I have green and black mana up and 1 card in hand, taking some damage from the pod and trying to signal an abrupt decay, hoping that if he had drawn another splinter twin he would be hesitant to play it. Lucky for me he either did not draw it or decided not to risk it, as my last card was a gavony township. He played a restoration angel on my turn, tapping down one of my voice tokens (through pestermite), but threatening gavony there was no good blocks for him and he ended up chumping something and lost the following round after me poding splicer into redcap. Game 2 I side in all my removal and thoughtseizes and hit two thoughtseizes in my opener. He mulls to 5 and is on the play, needless to say I win very easy.
Two matches is obviously not enough to say that splintertwin is an easy matchup, but having played Junk at GP Prague and facing 4 splinter twins and ended 7-2 in games against them (lost two games to blood moon). I'd say that as long as you have at least 1 answer to their combo in your opener and some early threats like voice or goyf, the matchup should be heavily in your favor.
I did not play against Hive Mind, but the deck is faster than regular melira-pod as the creatures are stronger and 2 thoughtseize in the main ups the win rate against that kind of decks game 1 significantly.
I did play against a version of eggs I have never seen before. Playing urzatron lands and a bunch of cycle artifacts and faith's reward and open the vaults to get all of them back up and eventually kill with grapeshot. I lost game 1, but game 2 stony silence shut him off completely while g3 I played 2 thoughseizes getting rid of a sylvan scrying and a grapeshot, giving me enough time to run him over.
I'm not sure how many cards in a deck need to be different for it to be called a new deck. There's little leeway in Melira-pod as I see it and I think more than 90% only differ by a single card. If you take away 2 pods, 3 chords, melira, spellskite, quasali, viscera seer, ranger of eos, wall of roots, cartel aristocrat, pontiff, and whatever other 1-ofs those decks might run(linvala, phyrexian metamorph, etc) and change up the manabase. I think very few would agree that it can be called the same deck. I'm uncertain whether I should go up to 3 birthing pods though, as the card obviously is extremely good in this shell. I don't mind heading over to the melira-pod thread as long as no one claims that I'm highjacking the thread. The decks play a lot differently as melira-pod is much more combo focused and much more prone to disruption and much worse at disrupting others. Having played Junk before, I prefer to have a bit more answers to whatever it is I'm facing, and enjoy having cards that also perform well on their own.
What is it that makes you want to continue to play black? Are Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay, and Murderous Redcap worth taking a lot of damage in the land base and increased susceptibility to non-basic land hate?
I am running a straight G/W Pod list that fights on an anti-meta level; where your deck melds Junk with Melira Pod, I am mixing Melira Pod with G/W Hatebears. One card that I highly recommend playing is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which absolutely devastates a lot of the spell-based combo decks in the format such as U/W/r decks and Storm until they deal with her. Living End also gets slowed down by two turns because of her. Since this deck only runs 8 non-land, non-creature cards, the symmetry of the effect doesn't have much of an impact against the overall gameplan. I've found that she can single-handedly turn a lot of unfavorable matchups in your favor. I would also advise having a couple more Scavenging Ooze as a concession to graveyard based combo decks such as Griselbrand Reanimator and Living End.
I am very curious how your Zoo and Merfolk matchups are, as I feel that the limited disruption of Pod decks makes Pod a bit of a dog to a really aggressive deck. I also feel that a single Kataki in the sideboard (maybe even 2, since you are only running 2 Pods) is a necessary concession to the Affinity matchup. Spellskite is also a consistent overperformer for me in my testing in eating up removal meant for my hate creatures.
I also question how good Tarmogoyf is in a deck that can't consistently get it beyond a 2/3 without help from the opponent (Creature, Land). I've found that even a 3/4 for 2 isn't really where a Pod deck wants to be, but your testing may yield a conclusion in favor of its inclusion. I'm curious to hear back, since I do think that there are other Pod decks beyond Melira Pod and Kiki-Pod that have a lot of potential
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What is it that makes you want to continue to play black? Are Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay, and Murderous Redcap worth taking a lot of damage in the land base and increased susceptibility to non-basic land hate?
I am running a straight G/W Pod list that fights on an anti-meta level; where your deck melds Junk with Melira Pod, I am mixing Melira Pod with G/W Hatebears. One card that I highly recommend playing is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which absolutely devastates a lot of the spell-based combo decks in the format such as U/W/r decks and Storm until they deal with her. Living End also gets slowed down by two turns because of her. Since this deck only runs 8 non-land, non-creature cards, the symmetry of the effect doesn't have much of an impact against the overall gameplan. I've found that she can single-handedly turn a lot of unfavorable matchups in your favor. I would also advise having a couple more Scavenging Ooze as a concession to graveyard based combo decks such as Griselbrand Reanimator and Living End.
I used to play hatebears before I played junk, and lost a lot of games just to mulliganing, as I just coulnd't interact and as my cards did very little on their own I just got out valued so easily. I just refuse to run 2 mana+ cards that don't potentially give me a two for one. Thalia is a tempo card doing a lot of work in the matchups you mentioned, but she doesn't hit for a whole lot compared to goyf and is still easy to bolt/abrupt/path/dismember and allows my opponent to 3 for one me with electrolyze. I just refuse to maindeck cards that give my opponent such opportunities to get me. Thalia main deck will occasionally hurt me more than my opponent. Not being able to play pod for three can obviously be awkward. I also run more removal than your average pod-list, especially post-board, making her generally not very great in my list at least. Dark Confidant also is in this boat, but can obviously give me a lot of value if left unchecked. Confidant is still one card I'm still torn on whether should remain in the list or not. Against UWR-type decks that counter my turn 3 and 4 plays I can end up hurting myself enough to get on the backfoot and leaving myself vulnerable to Celestial Collonade. Thoughtseize is probably my favorite magic card and is the main reason to go black, but abrupt and redcap are definetly worth it in my opinion. Thoughtseize is one of the most ways to effectively fight the control decks like UWR and Tron and combo decks like storm.
Taking a lot of damage from the manabase is rarely an issue. If I curve out (which is the only case that would cause my manabase to hurt), there's really few matchups where my opponent gets any opportunity to take advantage of my low life total. Voice, goyf, blade splicer, resto angel and finks do good work at keeping my life total healthy and keeping my safe from beatdown type strategies. Blood moon can obviously be crushing, but with 7 manadorks and if you're expecting it, it can be played around most of the time, just fetching at least a forest in the beginning, being able to cast large part of the deck and getting mana dorks out. In the G/W shell I don't run any more basics usually, leaving me just as vulnerable to blood moon. The utility lands like Horizon Canopy, Gavony Township, Treetop Village, Stirring Wildwood and Tectonic Edge are all too good to pass up on.
I am very curious how your Zoo and Merfolk matchups are, as I feel that the limited disruption of Pod decks makes Pod a bit of a dog to a really aggressive deck. I also feel that a single Kataki in the sideboard (maybe even 2, since you are only running 2 Pods) is a necessary concession to the Affinity matchup. Spellskite is also a consistent overperformer for me in my testing in eating up removal meant for my hate creatures.
The Zoo matchup is pretty close to a bye, as all your creatures block very efficiently (voice, goyf, finks, redcap, resto, blade splicer). You can two for one all the way, but have to be careful with shocking yourself to not get hit with too much burn straight to the face. If you get a finks and pod out you can for 2 mana gain 2 life and a resto angel each turn (3 times at least and getting redcaps is usually very good as well), making it nearly impossible for them to get through. This is also true for Melira-pod, though I believe the matchup is even more favorable for my list. Zoo is the deck I have faced the most and is probably the main reason I have such a good record right now.
Affinity can be tough when they're on the play as they can sometimes fly over and get me before I get restos or removal to get the game under control. Post board, 3 stony silence and so much removal makes it really tough for them. Kathaki is obviously great, forcing them to have an answer or they lose straight up, but not that great in any other matchup. Think sideboard cards should be a bit more impactful and stony silence works great against affinity, tron and pod, so a much broader card. Spellskite is obviously great in some matchups and definetly worth the sideboard slot, being huge against Splinter Twin, Infect, Auras and ok in a lot of other matchups. I run into a lot of tron decks in my meta though, and thus need all my two-drops to do damage in order to fight through turn 3/4 Karns.
I also question how good Tarmogoyf is in a deck that can't consistently get it beyond a 2/3 without help from the opponent (Creature, Land). I've found that even a 3/4 for 2 isn't really where a Pod deck wants to be, but your testing may yield a conclusion in favor of its inclusion. I'm curious to hear back, since I do think that there are other Pod decks beyond Melira Pod and Kiki-Pod that have a lot of potential
3/4 is exactly where you want to be. Playing manadork turn 1 and thoughtseize goyf turn 2, you'll already have a 3/4 (occasionally 2/3, which is still unboltable if you didnt take an instant, and sometimes 4/5 depending on matchup), which is bigger than anything at this point. You can block Wild Nacatl, forcing them to two for one themselves unless you play against domain version, where they need to draw a tribal flame to get him down (thoughtseize usually protects goyf in such a situation), which I think is ok not getting in the face(pretty much only way to loose). The main problem I see with goyf is that the deck is already very weak to Rest in Peace. Luckily not a whole lot of decks that run that, but if I were to face one I think it would be pretty hard to win.
We will see if Thrun really is needed, but control is definetly the hardest matchups, so think it might be a good idea. Currently testing standard deck at the moment so don't have time to test this much right now.
Twin seems to be the strongest deck these days, so I think I agree on Linvala main. I will swap one redcap for her for now. In main the deck only runs singleton 5-drop main, so 4-drops don't necessarily need to be good pod-targets. When it comes to the 3rd pod it's not easy to see what to change out. In my list I will probably go down to 2 restos to test it. Pod is just so insanely strong so I do think going to 3 is worth it. I'm not completely sold on spellskite though, as it's best with Chord of Calling, which I don't run at the moment. As a 2-drop he doesn't apply enough pressure against control and I have few creatures that have problems with bolt/helix, so the only removal I'm afraid of is path to exile usually, which he doesn't really provide any advantage over opposed to a goyf, which I think is what I would have replaced. Of course if the meta is all splinter twin then a spot in the main might be justified.
Updated my list to how it is currently. I'm swapping Linvala for 3rd birthing pod occasionally depending on what I think the meta looks like, but otherwise I'm not changing much around these days. Playing with the idea of getting thragtusk in there somehow, but afraid of even testing it seeing how well the deck performs right now. Just back from 4-0 on FNM, putting me at 56-4 record right now, my 3 losses being to UWR, UW and Tron. None of them are bad matchups, though the UW deck played both rest in peace and torpor orb, both really great against me so with enough hate it obviously can get tough.
I feel the deck is just getting better and better the more I play with it. Completely demolished storm today, which some could think was a bad matchup, with game 1 playing manadork followed by thoughtseize, eternal witness getting back thoughtseize, followed by resto angel flickering witness and thoughtseizing yet again, leaving him with 2 rituals and two lands. Game two I mulligan to four, but keep a hand with 2 hierarchs and two lands. Draw relic followed by sin collector followed by resto angel=win (he mulled to six and was on the play).
Won the last FNM again (that's 3 in a row), only 3 matches this time around though, 2 wins and a draw (drew against UWR, won vs BW tokens and infect). More importantly, it seem LSV went 13-3 with a very similar list in GP minneapolis, so seems to do ok in larger tournaments as well. Hopefully his list will become available tomorrow. Would love to see what differences there are.
Won the last FNM again (that's 3 in a row), only 3 matches this time around though, 2 wins and a draw (drew against UWR, won vs BW tokens and infect). More importantly, it seem LSV went 13-3 with a very similar list in GP minneapolis, so seems to do ok in larger tournaments as well. Hopefully his list will become available tomorrow. Would love to see what differences there are.
While the idea is much the same, the lists are actually quite different. Not sure if it should be considered the same deck or not. I think Value-Pod is a pretty good deck name though.
For those not bothering to follow the link here's the list it appears the Channel Fireball members that attended GP Minneapolis were using and got all of them except Shuhei Nakamura into day two.
Luis Scott Vargas' List (13-3 GP Minneapolis) (don't know how to not make it say Calladan's deck)
I suppose they all had 2-3 byes and they're all great players, but they admitted not having play-tested much prior to the tournament with it, so I think the results are quite impressive. I don't believe they got the right iteration of the deck though. First of all, one of the points of cutting Melira is to get rid of some of the cards that don't really do much in some matchups. Spellskite it one such card that can easily put to the sideboard as you no longer have a combo that is very important to protect and while it's great vs twin, it doesn't put any pressure on against control, which is extremely important as cutting the combo means you're a beat down deck that needs to apply pressure from turn two. I'm also pretty sure that Reveillark is no longer worth it. First of all there's no viscera or Melira to get back, which usually are primary targets for it together with redcap. Secondly since there is no viscera, you will not be able to sacrifice it at will when needed in order to for instance get a redcap back in order to deal the final 2-3 dmg. Another card that is lackluster without Viscera Seer is Orzhov Pontiff. Combined with viscera it can be a real sweeper against some decks, due to sacrificing it in response to its trigger and haunting a creature that is dying from the trigger. Without viscera it will rarely be better than a 2 for 1 that gets rid of creatures that aren't really a problem for this deck anyway. The card will thus be a lot more situational, than lets say kitchen finks or blade splicer.
Another card I have an issue with is Sin Collector in main. I have had it in sideboard for several months now and it comes in a bit less than 40% of the time, and when I take it in I'm not even sure it's the right choice all the time. Say for instance against twin, it doesn't take any of the combo pieces and is outclassed or trades to every creature there is practically. I like it vs UWR, but 1 toughness creatures are prone to giving the opponent a 3-for-1 opportunity with electrolyze, but stripping away an anger of the gods has won me enough games that I still think it's worth it. Also important against jund for the same reason. It could of course be a metagame call, but in an open meta I believe sin collector belongs in the sideboard.
Now since the deck is first and foremost a beatdown deck I also disagree on running harmonic sliver over qasali pridemage, which I think is a much better card anyway, as its exalted trigger is amazing with restoration angel, the blade splicer golem or even birds together with hierarchs and maybe most important, it can deal with splintertwin. Also torpor orb can be very annoying for this deck and the sliver can't deal with it.
Now by getting rid of all these highly situational cards, the need for chord of calling is suddenly not so high. There are much less tools to fetch and much less need to fetch them also. Combined with a large number of pods it also causes a high amount of mulligans as the creature light hands are always risky to keep. Cutting chords and a lot of situational cards means that you in ~80% of the games look at a hand stacked with solid threats and/or disruption, i.e. very keepable hands against pretty much every deck.
Removing chords reduces the power of Wall of roots however, which I also think does not work that great with the beatdown plan, and consequently why I'm not running them in my list. I prefer a noble hierarch by far as it gives much more explosive draws and is better at fixing mana and help with the beatdown plan.
As LSV says in the interview, his version is weaker to Tron and Affinity. These matchups can however become quite ok by adding 2-3Stony Silence to the board. It might seem strange to side out birthing pod, but against Tron I have noticed that having creatures on the field is all that matters. If I curve out, then Karn doesn't do much and If they get an early oblivion stone, then pod doesn't do a lot. Siding out pods and abrupt decays and getting in stony silence, thoughtseize, entomber exarch, aven mindcensor and fulminator mage (+path if you have some extra in side) makes the sideboarded games very good for us as long as they don't go turn 3-5 all is dust.
I have as of yet not actually dropped a single match to affinity with the deck (only played a few), usually because of restoration angel (+stony silence after board). It does such a good job at ambushing their fliers and combined with for instance blade splicer, I have also been able to ambush etched champions thanks to the golem I get.
The last issue I have is the 3 Gavony Township. I understand it's important in that version as it runs so many weak creatures, but if you upgrade most of them to finks/splicer/resto/voice/goyf, it's much less important. There are so many decks that have lands as part of their wincon (e.g. tron, UWR, scapeshift, etc) and Tectonic Edge is also great for playing around cryptic commands or giving you an extra turn against splinter twin when you know they sit on a Kiki that you don't have an answer for yet. It also gives you extra answers to jund, affinity, infect as their manlands can be highly problematic.
I also cannot understand why they don't run a single plains. The only time I have lost post board to twin with the deck is to blood moon. There are so many cards that require white that I just can't understand why they risk it. Sure with a lot of abrupts you usually just keep two mana up when they play it and get rid of it, but obviously that won't happen all the time. Being able to fetch all the basics and making the blood moon useless has been so good for me in every splinter twin match of late that I can't see why they'd not give themselves that option, especially when they run 2 wall of roots. 3 basic forests is just too much (though due to the misty I can see why they did it).
I do however think running Linvala both in main and side might be a good idea in the current meta though. With so much pod and twin around the card is definetly winning a lot of games for me of late.
Made a couple of adjustments to the list. Removed a land as I've been running with 23 of late and that seems to be enough. Adjusted sideboard to make affinity matchup a lot better, while making tron a lot worse. For tron heavy meta I still recommend stony silence, but there's less tron in my meta now ironically and more affinity, so prefer to make that matchup really great post board. With 4 abrupts, 2 paths, 2 creeping corrosions, 1 zealous persecution and 1 Kataki, it's very hard to not blow them out somehow.
I went 3-1 on the last two FNMs. Lost one match to boggle in the first tournament (won vs. gifts ungiven, melira.pod and RG land destruction/blood moon deck) and lost 1 to a summoning trap deck now on friday (won against bogle, faeries, affinity). The summoning trap deck I was up a game and kept a 2-lander. He mulliganed to 4. Unfortunately for me I never saw a 3rd land while he hit land drops up to 6 and just played a primeevil titan. Last game he got a great draw with emrakul turn 4 or 5 or something (cast from windbrisk). Didn't feel like a very bad or good matchup, though I believe melira-pod is better against it as it had very few ways to interact and it should be easy to combo off early against them.
Would you ever look into running the Saffi Eriksdotter + Crypt Champion combo (that does nothing on it's own) if you are not playing with the Melira one? Although they may not be huge beaters, on their own they do add some utility and value to the deck. Crypt Champion can recur basically anything and Saffi just synergies with every ETB effect. If you include cards like Teysa, Orzhov Scion or Essence Warden then you get the same kind of game ending effects as the Melira combo, but with more individual creature value.
That looks like a different deck to be honest and I'm not too sure I agree on the value aspect. Voice seems strictly better to me than Saffi and crypt champion can be very awkward and backfire horribly(+I don't play red). Teysa seems to require a lot of work to get going and even then she doesn't win you the game unlike twin or melira combo for example. When I think of value I think of creatures that provide card advantage by themselves and do not require any other card to do so, e.g. voice, finks, blade splicer, redcap, witness, shriekmaw, sin collector, entomber exarch, resto angel(with any ETB card or if it ambushes something or both). If there's any other modern legal card like those, then that's something I could consider. Finding a better two-drop to pod away than goyf for instance would be sweet. It would have to be on par with voice though and I think that's gonna be hard to find.
Mostly for my own reference, here's my current list to combat the current meta. For pod-heavy meta I would go with Anafenza main. Goyf has been replaced with wall of roots in order to accomodate more 4 and 5 drops.
How's Blade Splicer been working out for you?
Have you ever considered maybe replacing it for a mainboard Linvala or mainboard spellskite? Or maybe 1 more siege rhino?
I run a b/g pod deck and haven't played a game yet where I've regretted drawing into a spellskite. Especially in a burn or control heavy environment...that card just does so much work.
Also glad to see you're now running 4x pod...that was going to be a suggestion I made lol.
...oh...and yeah, I played against a pod list that had a mainboard anafenza this last friday at a modern FNM. he played against my pod deck...and it took me by surprise. It just completely wrecked my combos (I do run the whole melira package). Luckily for me he made a HUGE play mistake by attacking with it (letting me block with a strangleroot, then I played a chord with x=4 bringing in a redcap to finish his anafenza off...which in turn let me combo off with infinite damage haha...Good times...good times! lol).
Anyhow...pod is awesome. It's SO my new favoritest toy! lol
Even with a suboptimal b/g build I was able to go 6-1 at my first FNM (even played a couple 'pros' including my state's champion! :D).
How's Blade Splicer been working out for you?
Have you ever considered maybe replacing it for a mainboard Linvala or mainboard spellskite? Or maybe 1 more siege rhino?
Blade splicer is the most aggressive card in the deck, but also a flex spot, I often side it out. This deck wants to go t1 dork t2 finks/splicer t3 resto angel/pod. The splicer+resto angel draw is usually winning against any fair decks. I believe the density of 2 and 3 drops should be very high in a pod deck as it's these cards that give you the most value when you pod them away. Having the option to pod voice into splicer is also nice when you need to be as aggressive as possible. The token also blocks etched champion and mirran crusader, which is relevant from time to time.
Linvala is strictly worse than resto angel in at least 70% of the matchups, especially now that burn and delver are so popular. I don't see why I should run it main now that splinter twin and junk/jund are being played less. Great in the mirror, but so is resto angel.
Spellskite is really poor in this list. It doesn't try to win through the combo so it doesn't need to protect any particular pieces and there's no chord so it's not really easy to find it should you need it. Spellskite is around 10x more powerful in Melira-pod than value/angel-pod. I only bring it in against infect, bogles, burn and twin(where I don't really like it that much). This deck is a beatdown deck with resilient threats, card advantage engine and a combo-kill. Spellskite really only works in the combo-kill scenario. This deck would around 85% of the time rather play a splicer or voice/wall of roots/goyf t2 rather than spellskite.
I do think siege rhino is insanely powerful in this list though, so might be worth the risk to up the curve even more, but I know how often I get t2 blade splicer and a lot of those times I would not have had any other t2 play as the rest of my hand is like an abrupt decay,resto angel and some lands. By upping the curve, I would have to mulligan more hands, which I don't think is worth it.
Also glad to see you're now running 4x pod...that was going to be a suggestion I made lol.
Luckily tron is not being in played in my meta anymore. In february when I posted that list for the first time, the meta at my store was 30% tron and 5-10% affinity, and on cockatrice it was something like 25% combined, so running stony silence in the board was a must. When you plan to side in stony silence so often you don't really want to have 4 pods as you need to take them all out. If you run 3 you can also take them out against opponents you know bring in artifact hate and crush them while they sit on two useless cards. With 4 you're locked in to playing them. If tron should start becoming popular again I'll switch back to that, but for now the sideboard is better off with other cards.
Some other value-pod lists have tried to use blue over black
Just food for thought
What does blue bring in that would be better then black out of curiosity?
Just having access to abrupt decay IMHO is enough of a reason to stay with black. From the small experience I've had with my own pod deck...decay is an amazing card. Especially vs all the control and delver decks out there.
Then there's the siege rhino which is another awesome card in this deck...as is redcap (even without the combo. It's just a solid card that often serves as pod food and 2 critter kills).
Not to mention the ability to board in the hand disruption and Anafenza. Ana is awesome vs any of the pod lists running the melira combo. Plus she's just a great beater.
I'm not trying to argue too much...I really don't keep up with pod lists...I'm just genuinely curious as to what blue brings to this deck that could possibly be better then the black.
In the current meta very little (siege rhino is pretty sweet). I saw the blue splash for glen alendra archmage and master biomancer. I am not sold on it myself. The deck may have been WGBU though I can not remember
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1 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Woodland Cemetery
Creatures(29)
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Blade Splicer
1 Eternal Witness
1 Spike Feeder
2 Restoration Angel
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Shriekmaw
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Path to Exile
Other(2)
3 Birthing Pod
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Sin Collector
2 Creeping Corrosion
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
1 Spellskite
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Kataki, War's Wage
So it resembles Melira-pod, but without Melira and the cards that either belong to or go well with the combo (i.e. viscera seer, Ranger of Eos, Chord of Calling, etc). The sideboard obviously needs to be tweaked to whatever the new meta will look like, but 3 Stony Silence is one of the reasons the deck performs so well (obviously siding out the 3 Birthing Pods. The one loss was against Scapeshift, which I think might be a slightly bad matchup mainboard, but with 2 Tectonic Edge, 4 Thoughtseize, Aven Mindcensor, fulminator mage, Spellskite and resilient creatures like voice, redcap and finks I believe the post board matchup is favorable.
The idea with the deck is to avoid the bad draws of melira-pod, where you sit with multiple pods and chords or Viscera Seers, pontiff, spellskite or Ranger of Eos, Reveillark etc.. With three birthing pods you will see them in around half the games, but when you do they're pretty much always gold. I'm not too much fan of the melira-pod combo either as most good decks will usually have enough removal to stop you from going off, so replacing all the mediocre and bad cards in melira-pod for Tarmogoyf, Blade Splicer and removal is sort of a bonus.
How do you find yourself favoring against other combo decks? I could be wrong but it doesn't look like you have much speed on them.
As I stated in the other thread Martyr mentions I'm planning on a Pod build with less Melira myself, so I do like the direction your going here. I do still think a full set of Birthing Pods is the way to go, otherwise it just seems like a heavy mid-ranged creature list. But I'm glad it proves well for you.
I played against splinter twin two times. The first was normal blue/red, which I matched up very well against. I remember getting voice remanded, then playing it again the next turn. He plays exarch in response attempting to tap my white source. I tap in response and play a path and next turn he's at 5 mana playing out his Kiki-Jiki. I play my redcap to get rid of it and after that there was only a couple of snapcasters causing some hassle, but he only had a path and remand in the gy, so snapcaster with splinter twin on didn't really do a lot once I started clogging up the board. Game two I can't really remember anymore. Guess I can try look up the replay as it's stored on cockatrice for a while, but I won the match for sure. The second splinter twin match I played yesterday. It was a bit different that what I've seen before, being UWR with wall of omens and restoration angels. Game 1 won the roll and played treetop village turn 1, voice turn 2 (which he bolted on his turn+serum visions), thoughtseize on his splintertwin turn 3(did not see any counters at all so seems this version runs less counters in favor of more removal?)+tarmogoyf(4/5). He played wall of omens, I attack with goyf and play a mana dork and birthing pod. He plays land and passes. I play another voice, he responds with a pestermite, tapping goyf(I still have 2 lands+dork in play and not played land yet). I pod away the voice for a blade splicer, and attack with voice for 7(6/6+exalted), which he chumps with the wall. I have green and black mana up and 1 card in hand, taking some damage from the pod and trying to signal an abrupt decay, hoping that if he had drawn another splinter twin he would be hesitant to play it. Lucky for me he either did not draw it or decided not to risk it, as my last card was a gavony township. He played a restoration angel on my turn, tapping down one of my voice tokens (through pestermite), but threatening gavony there was no good blocks for him and he ended up chumping something and lost the following round after me poding splicer into redcap. Game 2 I side in all my removal and thoughtseizes and hit two thoughtseizes in my opener. He mulls to 5 and is on the play, needless to say I win very easy.
Two matches is obviously not enough to say that splintertwin is an easy matchup, but having played Junk at GP Prague and facing 4 splinter twins and ended 7-2 in games against them (lost two games to blood moon). I'd say that as long as you have at least 1 answer to their combo in your opener and some early threats like voice or goyf, the matchup should be heavily in your favor.
I did not play against Hive Mind, but the deck is faster than regular melira-pod as the creatures are stronger and 2 thoughtseize in the main ups the win rate against that kind of decks game 1 significantly.
I did play against a version of eggs I have never seen before. Playing urzatron lands and a bunch of cycle artifacts and faith's reward and open the vaults to get all of them back up and eventually kill with grapeshot. I lost game 1, but game 2 stony silence shut him off completely while g3 I played 2 thoughseizes getting rid of a sylvan scrying and a grapeshot, giving me enough time to run him over.
I'm not sure how many cards in a deck need to be different for it to be called a new deck. There's little leeway in Melira-pod as I see it and I think more than 90% only differ by a single card. If you take away 2 pods, 3 chords, melira, spellskite, quasali, viscera seer, ranger of eos, wall of roots, cartel aristocrat, pontiff, and whatever other 1-ofs those decks might run(linvala, phyrexian metamorph, etc) and change up the manabase. I think very few would agree that it can be called the same deck. I'm uncertain whether I should go up to 3 birthing pods though, as the card obviously is extremely good in this shell. I don't mind heading over to the melira-pod thread as long as no one claims that I'm highjacking the thread. The decks play a lot differently as melira-pod is much more combo focused and much more prone to disruption and much worse at disrupting others. Having played Junk before, I prefer to have a bit more answers to whatever it is I'm facing, and enjoy having cards that also perform well on their own.
I am running a straight G/W Pod list that fights on an anti-meta level; where your deck melds Junk with Melira Pod, I am mixing Melira Pod with G/W Hatebears. One card that I highly recommend playing is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which absolutely devastates a lot of the spell-based combo decks in the format such as U/W/r decks and Storm until they deal with her. Living End also gets slowed down by two turns because of her. Since this deck only runs 8 non-land, non-creature cards, the symmetry of the effect doesn't have much of an impact against the overall gameplan. I've found that she can single-handedly turn a lot of unfavorable matchups in your favor. I would also advise having a couple more Scavenging Ooze as a concession to graveyard based combo decks such as Griselbrand Reanimator and Living End.
I am very curious how your Zoo and Merfolk matchups are, as I feel that the limited disruption of Pod decks makes Pod a bit of a dog to a really aggressive deck. I also feel that a single Kataki in the sideboard (maybe even 2, since you are only running 2 Pods) is a necessary concession to the Affinity matchup. Spellskite is also a consistent overperformer for me in my testing in eating up removal meant for my hate creatures.
I also question how good Tarmogoyf is in a deck that can't consistently get it beyond a 2/3 without help from the opponent (Creature, Land). I've found that even a 3/4 for 2 isn't really where a Pod deck wants to be, but your testing may yield a conclusion in favor of its inclusion. I'm curious to hear back, since I do think that there are other Pod decks beyond Melira Pod and Kiki-Pod that have a lot of potential
Went to a new shop from a friend's recommendation, DQ'ed for willful violation of CR 100.6b.
Have played duals? I have PucaPoints for them!
(Credit to DarkNightCavalier)
$tandard: Too poor.
Modern:
- GW Birthing Pod(?)
Legacy:
- UWR Delver
I used to play hatebears before I played junk, and lost a lot of games just to mulliganing, as I just coulnd't interact and as my cards did very little on their own I just got out valued so easily. I just refuse to run 2 mana+ cards that don't potentially give me a two for one. Thalia is a tempo card doing a lot of work in the matchups you mentioned, but she doesn't hit for a whole lot compared to goyf and is still easy to bolt/abrupt/path/dismember and allows my opponent to 3 for one me with electrolyze. I just refuse to maindeck cards that give my opponent such opportunities to get me. Thalia main deck will occasionally hurt me more than my opponent. Not being able to play pod for three can obviously be awkward. I also run more removal than your average pod-list, especially post-board, making her generally not very great in my list at least. Dark Confidant also is in this boat, but can obviously give me a lot of value if left unchecked. Confidant is still one card I'm still torn on whether should remain in the list or not. Against UWR-type decks that counter my turn 3 and 4 plays I can end up hurting myself enough to get on the backfoot and leaving myself vulnerable to Celestial Collonade. Thoughtseize is probably my favorite magic card and is the main reason to go black, but abrupt and redcap are definetly worth it in my opinion. Thoughtseize is one of the most ways to effectively fight the control decks like UWR and Tron and combo decks like storm.
Taking a lot of damage from the manabase is rarely an issue. If I curve out (which is the only case that would cause my manabase to hurt), there's really few matchups where my opponent gets any opportunity to take advantage of my low life total. Voice, goyf, blade splicer, resto angel and finks do good work at keeping my life total healthy and keeping my safe from beatdown type strategies. Blood moon can obviously be crushing, but with 7 manadorks and if you're expecting it, it can be played around most of the time, just fetching at least a forest in the beginning, being able to cast large part of the deck and getting mana dorks out. In the G/W shell I don't run any more basics usually, leaving me just as vulnerable to blood moon. The utility lands like Horizon Canopy, Gavony Township, Treetop Village, Stirring Wildwood and Tectonic Edge are all too good to pass up on.
The Zoo matchup is pretty close to a bye, as all your creatures block very efficiently (voice, goyf, finks, redcap, resto, blade splicer). You can two for one all the way, but have to be careful with shocking yourself to not get hit with too much burn straight to the face. If you get a finks and pod out you can for 2 mana gain 2 life and a resto angel each turn (3 times at least and getting redcaps is usually very good as well), making it nearly impossible for them to get through. This is also true for Melira-pod, though I believe the matchup is even more favorable for my list. Zoo is the deck I have faced the most and is probably the main reason I have such a good record right now.
Affinity can be tough when they're on the play as they can sometimes fly over and get me before I get restos or removal to get the game under control. Post board, 3 stony silence and so much removal makes it really tough for them. Kathaki is obviously great, forcing them to have an answer or they lose straight up, but not that great in any other matchup. Think sideboard cards should be a bit more impactful and stony silence works great against affinity, tron and pod, so a much broader card. Spellskite is obviously great in some matchups and definetly worth the sideboard slot, being huge against Splinter Twin, Infect, Auras and ok in a lot of other matchups. I run into a lot of tron decks in my meta though, and thus need all my two-drops to do damage in order to fight through turn 3/4 Karns.
3/4 is exactly where you want to be. Playing manadork turn 1 and thoughtseize goyf turn 2, you'll already have a 3/4 (occasionally 2/3, which is still unboltable if you didnt take an instant, and sometimes 4/5 depending on matchup), which is bigger than anything at this point. You can block Wild Nacatl, forcing them to two for one themselves unless you play against domain version, where they need to draw a tribal flame to get him down (thoughtseize usually protects goyf in such a situation), which I think is ok not getting in the face(pretty much only way to loose). The main problem I see with goyf is that the deck is already very weak to Rest in Peace. Luckily not a whole lot of decks that run that, but if I were to face one I think it would be pretty hard to win.
- dismember
- orzhov Pontiff
+ Sin Collector
+ Entomber Exarch
We will see if Thrun really is needed, but control is definetly the hardest matchups, so think it might be a good idea. Currently testing standard deck at the moment so don't have time to test this much right now.
I feel the deck is just getting better and better the more I play with it. Completely demolished storm today, which some could think was a bad matchup, with game 1 playing manadork followed by thoughtseize, eternal witness getting back thoughtseize, followed by resto angel flickering witness and thoughtseizing yet again, leaving him with 2 rituals and two lands. Game two I mulligan to four, but keep a hand with 2 hierarchs and two lands. Draw relic followed by sin collector followed by resto angel=win (he mulled to six and was on the play).
It is currently available.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpmin14/day2#10
Also, a Grand Prix top 16 is enough to get this moved to Established after M15 comes out.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
For those not bothering to follow the link here's the list it appears the Channel Fireball members that attended GP Minneapolis were using and got all of them except Shuhei Nakamura into day two.
Luis Scott Vargas' List (13-3 GP Minneapolis) (don't know how to not make it say Calladan's deck)
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Gavony Township
Spells (37)
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Wall of Roots
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Spellskite
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reveillark
1 Spike Feeder
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Shriekmaw
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Restoration Angel
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Sin Collector
4 Birthing Pod
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chord of Calling
2 Lingering Souls
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Thoughtseize
2 Path to Exile
2 Dismember
2 Creeping Corrosion
I suppose they all had 2-3 byes and they're all great players, but they admitted not having play-tested much prior to the tournament with it, so I think the results are quite impressive. I don't believe they got the right iteration of the deck though. First of all, one of the points of cutting Melira is to get rid of some of the cards that don't really do much in some matchups. Spellskite it one such card that can easily put to the sideboard as you no longer have a combo that is very important to protect and while it's great vs twin, it doesn't put any pressure on against control, which is extremely important as cutting the combo means you're a beat down deck that needs to apply pressure from turn two. I'm also pretty sure that Reveillark is no longer worth it. First of all there's no viscera or Melira to get back, which usually are primary targets for it together with redcap. Secondly since there is no viscera, you will not be able to sacrifice it at will when needed in order to for instance get a redcap back in order to deal the final 2-3 dmg. Another card that is lackluster without Viscera Seer is Orzhov Pontiff. Combined with viscera it can be a real sweeper against some decks, due to sacrificing it in response to its trigger and haunting a creature that is dying from the trigger. Without viscera it will rarely be better than a 2 for 1 that gets rid of creatures that aren't really a problem for this deck anyway. The card will thus be a lot more situational, than lets say kitchen finks or blade splicer.
Another card I have an issue with is Sin Collector in main. I have had it in sideboard for several months now and it comes in a bit less than 40% of the time, and when I take it in I'm not even sure it's the right choice all the time. Say for instance against twin, it doesn't take any of the combo pieces and is outclassed or trades to every creature there is practically. I like it vs UWR, but 1 toughness creatures are prone to giving the opponent a 3-for-1 opportunity with electrolyze, but stripping away an anger of the gods has won me enough games that I still think it's worth it. Also important against jund for the same reason. It could of course be a metagame call, but in an open meta I believe sin collector belongs in the sideboard.
Now since the deck is first and foremost a beatdown deck I also disagree on running harmonic sliver over qasali pridemage, which I think is a much better card anyway, as its exalted trigger is amazing with restoration angel, the blade splicer golem or even birds together with hierarchs and maybe most important, it can deal with splintertwin. Also torpor orb can be very annoying for this deck and the sliver can't deal with it.
Now by getting rid of all these highly situational cards, the need for chord of calling is suddenly not so high. There are much less tools to fetch and much less need to fetch them also. Combined with a large number of pods it also causes a high amount of mulligans as the creature light hands are always risky to keep. Cutting chords and a lot of situational cards means that you in ~80% of the games look at a hand stacked with solid threats and/or disruption, i.e. very keepable hands against pretty much every deck.
Removing chords reduces the power of Wall of roots however, which I also think does not work that great with the beatdown plan, and consequently why I'm not running them in my list. I prefer a noble hierarch by far as it gives much more explosive draws and is better at fixing mana and help with the beatdown plan.
As LSV says in the interview, his version is weaker to Tron and Affinity. These matchups can however become quite ok by adding 2-3Stony Silence to the board. It might seem strange to side out birthing pod, but against Tron I have noticed that having creatures on the field is all that matters. If I curve out, then Karn doesn't do much and If they get an early oblivion stone, then pod doesn't do a lot. Siding out pods and abrupt decays and getting in stony silence, thoughtseize, entomber exarch, aven mindcensor and fulminator mage (+path if you have some extra in side) makes the sideboarded games very good for us as long as they don't go turn 3-5 all is dust.
I have as of yet not actually dropped a single match to affinity with the deck (only played a few), usually because of restoration angel (+stony silence after board). It does such a good job at ambushing their fliers and combined with for instance blade splicer, I have also been able to ambush etched champions thanks to the golem I get.
The last issue I have is the 3 Gavony Township. I understand it's important in that version as it runs so many weak creatures, but if you upgrade most of them to finks/splicer/resto/voice/goyf, it's much less important. There are so many decks that have lands as part of their wincon (e.g. tron, UWR, scapeshift, etc) and Tectonic Edge is also great for playing around cryptic commands or giving you an extra turn against splinter twin when you know they sit on a Kiki that you don't have an answer for yet. It also gives you extra answers to jund, affinity, infect as their manlands can be highly problematic.
I also cannot understand why they don't run a single plains. The only time I have lost post board to twin with the deck is to blood moon. There are so many cards that require white that I just can't understand why they risk it. Sure with a lot of abrupts you usually just keep two mana up when they play it and get rid of it, but obviously that won't happen all the time. Being able to fetch all the basics and making the blood moon useless has been so good for me in every splinter twin match of late that I can't see why they'd not give themselves that option, especially when they run 2 wall of roots. 3 basic forests is just too much (though due to the misty I can see why they did it).
I do however think running Linvala both in main and side might be a good idea in the current meta though. With so much pod and twin around the card is definetly winning a lot of games for me of late.
I went 3-1 on the last two FNMs. Lost one match to boggle in the first tournament (won vs. gifts ungiven, melira.pod and RG land destruction/blood moon deck) and lost 1 to a summoning trap deck now on friday (won against bogle, faeries, affinity). The summoning trap deck I was up a game and kept a 2-lander. He mulliganed to 4. Unfortunately for me I never saw a 3rd land while he hit land drops up to 6 and just played a primeevil titan. Last game he got a great draw with emrakul turn 4 or 5 or something (cast from windbrisk). Didn't feel like a very bad or good matchup, though I believe melira-pod is better against it as it had very few ways to interact and it should be easy to combo off early against them.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Restoration Angel
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Blade Splicer
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Murderous Redcap
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Spike Feeder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Wall of Roots
1 Siege Rhino
1 Thragtusk
1 Path to Exile
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Birthing Pod
Lands
1 Marsh Flats
4 Windswept Heath
2 Gavony Township
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Thoughtseize
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Choke
1 Path to Exile
2 Creeping Corrosion
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Spellskite
Have you ever considered maybe replacing it for a mainboard Linvala or mainboard spellskite? Or maybe 1 more siege rhino?
I run a b/g pod deck and haven't played a game yet where I've regretted drawing into a spellskite. Especially in a burn or control heavy environment...that card just does so much work.
Also glad to see you're now running 4x pod...that was going to be a suggestion I made lol.
...oh...and yeah, I played against a pod list that had a mainboard anafenza this last friday at a modern FNM. he played against my pod deck...and it took me by surprise. It just completely wrecked my combos (I do run the whole melira package). Luckily for me he made a HUGE play mistake by attacking with it (letting me block with a strangleroot, then I played a chord with x=4 bringing in a redcap to finish his anafenza off...which in turn let me combo off with infinite damage haha...Good times...good times! lol).
Anyhow...pod is awesome. It's SO my new favoritest toy! lol
Even with a suboptimal b/g build I was able to go 6-1 at my first FNM (even played a couple 'pros' including my state's champion! :D).
Blade splicer is the most aggressive card in the deck, but also a flex spot, I often side it out. This deck wants to go t1 dork t2 finks/splicer t3 resto angel/pod. The splicer+resto angel draw is usually winning against any fair decks. I believe the density of 2 and 3 drops should be very high in a pod deck as it's these cards that give you the most value when you pod them away. Having the option to pod voice into splicer is also nice when you need to be as aggressive as possible. The token also blocks etched champion and mirran crusader, which is relevant from time to time.
Linvala is strictly worse than resto angel in at least 70% of the matchups, especially now that burn and delver are so popular. I don't see why I should run it main now that splinter twin and junk/jund are being played less. Great in the mirror, but so is resto angel.
Spellskite is really poor in this list. It doesn't try to win through the combo so it doesn't need to protect any particular pieces and there's no chord so it's not really easy to find it should you need it. Spellskite is around 10x more powerful in Melira-pod than value/angel-pod. I only bring it in against infect, bogles, burn and twin(where I don't really like it that much). This deck is a beatdown deck with resilient threats, card advantage engine and a combo-kill. Spellskite really only works in the combo-kill scenario. This deck would around 85% of the time rather play a splicer or voice/wall of roots/goyf t2 rather than spellskite.
I do think siege rhino is insanely powerful in this list though, so might be worth the risk to up the curve even more, but I know how often I get t2 blade splicer and a lot of those times I would not have had any other t2 play as the rest of my hand is like an abrupt decay,resto angel and some lands. By upping the curve, I would have to mulligan more hands, which I don't think is worth it.
Luckily tron is not being in played in my meta anymore. In february when I posted that list for the first time, the meta at my store was 30% tron and 5-10% affinity, and on cockatrice it was something like 25% combined, so running stony silence in the board was a must. When you plan to side in stony silence so often you don't really want to have 4 pods as you need to take them all out. If you run 3 you can also take them out against opponents you know bring in artifact hate and crush them while they sit on two useless cards. With 4 you're locked in to playing them. If tron should start becoming popular again I'll switch back to that, but for now the sideboard is better off with other cards.
Just food for thought
What does blue bring in that would be better then black out of curiosity?
Just having access to abrupt decay IMHO is enough of a reason to stay with black. From the small experience I've had with my own pod deck...decay is an amazing card. Especially vs all the control and delver decks out there.
Then there's the siege rhino which is another awesome card in this deck...as is redcap (even without the combo. It's just a solid card that often serves as pod food and 2 critter kills).
Not to mention the ability to board in the hand disruption and Anafenza. Ana is awesome vs any of the pod lists running the melira combo. Plus she's just a great beater.
I'm not trying to argue too much...I really don't keep up with pod lists...I'm just genuinely curious as to what blue brings to this deck that could possibly be better then the black.