I really wish we could swing 6cmc for podding up Massacre Wurm against Delver, but that's probably way too cutesy to actually be good.
You can get this effect with Orzhov Pontiff and a sac outlet.
True, but I'm more of a dedicated Angel Podder. Might be time to cram a sac outlet in like Cartel Aristocrat just for stuff like that and the combo with Archangel/Finks.
You also don't get the fun of doming them for 6-10 that you get from Massacre
I like Viscera Seer over Cartel Aristocrat because it is much easier on the mana. You usually have to take a few points of damage to cast Cartel Aristocrat while that doesn't happen often with the Seer. Something I've been thinking about lately, and will probably go back to trying soon is Blasting Station. As far as the early game goes you're on the same plan of naturally drawing it. It's not until later in the game that you can really tutor a 1 drop and it's a very powerful card in a field of x/1's and x/2's. It's not really until Chords, Ranger of Eos, or a podded Elemental token come into play that Seer has an advantage and that's a turn 4-5 thing, Blasting Station can come down and kill a Young Pyromancer as early as turn 2.
Note that the three best matchups for Blasting Station are Affinity, Delver, and Burn. Three decks that are huge right now.
You're making a solid case for Blasting Station. How many are you running? My big concern is it not being tutorable via Pod/Chord
When I used to run it I only ran 1, same as I'll do now once I figure out the cut. It's real bad in multiples. The lack of tutoring is an issue but like I was saying before, tutoring Viscera Seer is usually a late game prospect anyways as the only ways to get it are to Chord for 4 (massive waste of a Chord), Ranger of Eos, or pod a Voice token. I'm kind of liking it as a game 1 hedge though, it gets much better with Lingering Souls out of the board which is something else that's well positioned currently.
To me blasting station doesn't seam that great, sure is good against delver and burn but you need to sac a creature. Even if it comes down early what are you going to sac? A dork? We need as much mana as possible in the early game; maybe just in response to a bolt, but who is going to bolt your bird when you have an untapped blasting station? I find it just a winmore card, like a 6 drop
Sacing a creature is a benefit. It counters Searing Blood. And you can sac many things, it all depends on what you have on board, with the graveyard recursion we have if you stack your triggers right you can get a lot of damage out of the card. As far as bolting your Bird goes when you have a sac outlet... isn't that the entire point? Get value off of their removal. Seer is good at this too, but Seer doesn't kill the opposing board.
Have you ever played the card, or seen it in action? (note that it's easier to understand the card on MTGO, the untap triggers are key to it).
Ugh, you've got the idea in my head now. Blasting Station is also an infinite-damage combo with Archangel/Finks, which is really nice, and Station/Finks can nuke a flipped Delver.
Blasting Station doesn't fit in with the Birthing Pod strategy for the most part and isn't powerful enough to diverge from that plan. Using it actively makes your Chords awful and playing it only to respond to removal screams failure. Playing a lackluster card to "get value out of your opponents removal" when you already play value creatures to deal with removal is definitely not where I want to be.
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Latest attempt. Switched over to the Archangel combo. If the logic holds that Blasting Station is good due to the field being low toughness then it also holds that Spike Feeder is relatively good, or atleast better than Melira.
Every time I decide to look at this thread (maybe twice a month) you guys are on some mediocre idea :/ . If you actually feel the need to play blasting station for a sac outlet, just play a 2nd pontiff which is tutorable, kills all of the pyromancer tokens not just the pyromancer itself, and against affinity comes down on turn 2-3 kills steel overseer, without ruining your board by sac'ing your birds. This deck is a toolbox deck, because you get to play a bunch of tutors, some of which are usable more than once. Cutting the chords and adding untutorable cards is just not good, and nowhere near where you want to be in this deck. Think of it like this. I look at a sideboard and I see Canonist, and eidolon is Maindeck. Why aren't you just playing rule of law? Because it's tutorable? Then why are you playing blasting station? As for fume spitter in the Sideboard, Blister Beetle's a card and just about as bad as that is. I think you guys are overvaluing the ***** out of delver it's not that bad of a matchup at all. Delver's not very good at dealing 24-26 life while dealing with fatties. Baloth/Siege Rhino (ugh at rhino) is generally enough, but I also don't cut my wall of roots etc.
Every time I decide to look at this thread (maybe twice a month) you guys are on some mediocre idea :/ . If you actually feel the need to play blasting station for a sac outlet, just play a 2nd pontiff which is tutorable, kills all of the pyromancer tokens not just the pyromancer itself, and against affinity comes down on turn 2-3 kills steel overseer, without ruining your board by sac'ing your birds. This deck is a toolbox deck, because you get to play a bunch of tutors, some of which are usable more than once. Cutting the chords and adding untutorable cards is just not good, and nowhere near where you want to be in this deck. Think of it like this. I look at a sideboard and I see Canonist, and eidolon is Maindeck. Why aren't you just playing rule of law? Because it's tutorable? Then why are you playing blasting station? As for fume spitter in the Sideboard, Blister Beetle's a card and just about as bad as that is. I think you guys are overvaluing the ***** out of delver it's not that bad of a matchup at all. Delver's not very good at dealing 24-26 life while dealing with fatties. Baloth/Siege Rhino (ugh at rhino) is generally enough, but I also don't cut my wall of roots etc.
Pontiff has a different role from Blasting Station. Blasting Station kills X/2's and X/3's like Swiftspear or a flipped Delver, or Etched Champion. Pontiff kills a bunch of X/1's at once or rarely (and with a lot of setup) X/2's. As far as Blister Beetle goes, Blister Beetle doesn't beat a Wurmcoil Engine. Fume Spitter mostly does. It reduces the swing over two turns from 12 lifelink to 5.
But if these ideas are mediocre why not contribute your own? What is your list that has tested to a good Delver and Burn matchup (say 55%+ over 30+ rounds)?
So I'm just getting back into the game, and after purchasing an event deck with a couple pods in it...I've become COMPLETELY obsessed on trying to perfect a green black build of this deck.
Being new though, I really have no idea how competitive it is yet (will be taking it to an FNM in a couple weeks).
I honestly don't think there's a whole lot I can change about the deck at this point (without adding white and making it more like the current pod lists). The only thing I can really think of is -2 Woodland Cemetery / +2 Twilight Mire.
I don't expect to play a whole lot of delver or burn...but I know at least one of the better players there will be running a U/W/x control deck...other then that though, I have no idea what my local meta's going to look like.
How competitive do you think my deck can be going blind into a meta? To me on paper it looks pretty dang nice...and vs. my friends I feel unstoppable (but that's only cause they are waaaay too casual for my likes).
I know this isn't as competitive as the current lists running white...but in my mind it should be able to hold it's own. My deck started out as casual, but now I think it's way beyond that point.
Apart form blasting station and chord that i dont like, your mana base is more painful than it should, the life that you save earlygame with Razorverge Thicket is more then worth the ETB tapped clause from turn 4+, i know that you are playing 4 finks but saving as much life as possible is kinda the point to be better against aggro deck. To be honest i've never seen blasting station in action, but i would prefer a creature based sac outlet, because creature density is more important than killing an x/1 or x/2. If your meta is Tron heavy just use 2 path instead of dismember and fume spitter, could you also explain the Wall of Roots in the board?
Could you explain the mana changes? I take very little from the manabase as it currently is because I can fetch basics with most hands. The only thing I'm seeing is 1 Razorverge over 1 Temple Garden. The Wall of Roots in the board is just a local meta consideration. There's a couple people who run dirt cheap aggro decks like budget zoo or black/red things. Forked Bolt has been popular and having the blockers is good so I like being able to go up another wall while maintaining my mana dorks in that matchup. Just the typical plan of running more Walls against aggression. The Fume Spitter is also good against them, it's just well positioned in the local meta of blue tron and x/1's.
I also think that Blasting Station in Archangel Pod is pointless, or at least much less useful than in Melira. It's not like you can reliably combo off with it + Archangel + Finks and the other benefits are not worth a non-tutorable slot, to me.
I agree with S.A.K. that Delver's not that bad of a matchup, at least not as bad as some posters claim it to be. Learn to fetch basics and play shocklands tapped, learn to be patient with your Pod. Better slow and alive than fast and dead. There are games where they just run us over, but that is not the majority of the games.]
Blasting Station has been very good in the past, it might still be.... where it fell out of favor among those who used it was with the unbanning of Nacatl and PT: Zoo. Matches like Delver and Affinity are where it shines so I'm thinking it's time to bring it back for a bit. Maybe it won't be good. It hasn't come up yet in the games I've played since adding it back in but it's not like it's there just for trying to combo. Non tutorable is an issue but along that line of reasoning why play Abrupt Decay or hope to Evoke a Shriekmaw? Those are also non tutorable.
As far as Delver goes, I've gotten a ton of games in against it lately as my two Modern decks are Pod and Delver, I have experience on both sides of that match. It was never favorable with Pod being one of their good matchups but it was never a big deal because Delver was a small metagame share and it was still around 45% but it has gotten much worse lately. I would say that right now it's around 33%-40% preboard and it gets a little worse postboard (but I haven't tried my new sideboard plan yet post board). The problem is only partially Treasure Cruise, some of the deck changes they made as a result have made them much better against us like Forked Bolt and not playing clunky Swords. I've had games where I had Spellskite, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Voice of Resurgence, and Restoration Angel on the board and still lost. That's where the problem comes in the match, we have cards but they don't actually do anything Delver cares about so we can't meaningfully interact.
Thats the key question vs any deck really - What do[ they care about? if we can meaningfully prioritise the most important things for any deck we can begin to hate them out / Avoid or mitigate what they try to do. We should be reading the Delver and burn boards to find out what they are discussing as potential threats.
Darkblast. Choke. Chalice of the Void at 1. Which are things you can put in Pod, but they're kind of at odds with the general plan of the deck. I could imagine a full set of Abrupt Decays and double Orzhov Pontiff being a headache.
@ twitch77: I have never tried a BG version, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. Anyway, this is what I would personally do:
- don't play creatures at CMC 6+. Just don't. They will rot in your hand for ages and you will feel very bad. This deck already mulligans way too much, you don't need to add additional ballast.
- you only have 2 Chords to find Viscera Seer and you can't even Pod into it by saccing a Voice of Resurgence token. Either you find a poddable way to tutor for Viscera Seer, or you add a CMC 2 or more sac outlet. Options include Varolz, which is a decent card by itself. If you prefer something at CMC 2, I don't know anything better that Bloodthrone Vampire (which is admittedly bad). Another (crappy) possibility is playing a Dryad Arbor, so that you can find it with fetchlands and Pod it into Seer.
- why no Wall of Roots at all?
- what does Obliterator do for you? I'd rather maindeck Thrun and free a SB slot.
- you could try out Phyrexian Metamorph. Many people consider it the 76th card, the one that never makes the list but that would deserve it. Maybe in a BG list you do have room.
- I would play a couple more mana dorks.
- why not cutting the 2nd Witness to maindeck Exarch? They often do the same, but Exarch has other uses too.
- I don't really understand the Zeniths in the SB. What matchup requires such a suicidal card? I know you have no Pontiff, but decimating your board to get the effect feels counterproductive.
- wild idea here. Maybe Oran-Rief, the Vastwood could make a decent Gavony Township impression.
Hey thanks for all the suggestions!
about the viscera and only 2 chords to find him.
I have thought of running 3 chords...just haven't been sure where to find the room.
I do have my 2x treetop villages that can be used to pod him up though...and I've even tried running a single dryad arbor with awesome success in casual. With all my fetches available to me, I was often able to fetch out a arbor then sac it with pod to fetch out a viscera...and it felt great! I just wasn't sure if I wanted dryad in the deck going into anything competitive...if god forbid I have arbor in my opening hand, I'm just going to feel bad about it.
Aside from that, I also have thragtusk's and grave titan's tokens I can pod away for my viscera...doesn't happen often...but it does happen from time to time.
I've thought of adding a varolz...he gives me a VERY easy pod target and in any sort of long game can really give me a nice finisher. That and he can reset my finks and redcaps as well.
I like 2x Finks. I find 2 finks is needed in this deck. I take a lot of self inflicted damage with this deck and just think 2x finks is a must. He can be aggressive, and defensive, and he's part of my combo...and his life gain is often times very relevant.
Obliterator is doing nothing more then being a fatty for me. I want a big fatty fat stick at 4cc in this deck...and I thought I'd give this guy a try...for no other reason then to try him out haha.
I have no idea how he'll run...I'm still waiting to recieve him in the mail (gah I hate waiting for things in the mail!)...but from what I've seen from my deck, I really need something fat and mean at 4cc and this guy is exactly that. His huge drawback of costing BBBB isn't the worst thing in the world for this deck. I've been keeping track, and it's not rare at all for me to have the 4 black mana to produce by turn 3-5 in this deck. Plus I'm usually looking to cheat him into play anyhow with my pods.
I don't know...I just really wanna give this guy a try. lol...it might be dumb...I may regret running him...but I think for now he's worth a shot :).
About the 6cc+.
Gah...I do agree with you. It always makes me sad when I draw into my sheoldred.
That being said...I don't know that this deck has a great long game without running a few 6cc+ creatures. With the versions running white, you guys have access to flyers and gavony township...township is an AMAZING card for your long game. Gawd I wish I could run that card haha.
If I'm going against mid-range grindy decks (which I'm hoping I will)...I need some late game beaters.
Don't like Oran-Rief...I just think it slows down my deck too much. I've considered it cause it does reset my kitchen finks (by reset I mean it can take the -1/-1 counters off)...but I'm already running 2 comes into play tapped lands (treetop) and 4 potentially comes into play tapped lands (woodland cemetery). I'm just very reluctant to add anymore comes into play tapped lands in this deck. It's too important that I have untapped lands turn 1 and turn 2 in this deck.
I do like the idea of adding a couple more mana dorks and a wall of roots. /sigh...Just not sure where to find the room for them.
Should spellskite be in my sideboard? Spellskite is a brand new addition to my deck...and he too hasn't shown up quite yet in the mail, so I've gotten no testing in with it.
Would you -1 spellskite (putting it in the sideboard) +1 Wall of Roots?
I will say however that this deck has run very well with just my 4 mana dorks. It's not rare at all for me to be casting a birthing pod turn 2 with just the 4 mana dorks.
And I'm very, very rarely finding myself mana screwed.
Also...originally it was -1 solemn simulacrum, +1 entomber exarch. Man I love exarch...I'm starting to think he's just the better card for my deck then solemn. Solemn is great, and he makes for great pod food...but man, exarch just does SO much work!
Oh and the 2x Black sun's in the sideboard. No idea haha...pretty much just a place holder. You have any suggestions on what I can replace them with?
...
What do you think about the thoughtseizes main deck? I originally bought them to have them in my sideboard (was -3 thoughtseize, +1 chord of calling, +2 abrupt decay main board).
Anyhow, thanks a lot for the reply!
You really gave me a lot to consider! It's appreciated
---edit---
oh! /facepalm
I for some reason thought you were thinking I should replace a finks with the exarch. But you're saying I should replace a witness! Brilliant! Making that change for sure!
So my quest to try random durdle-y cards maindeck continues. Swapped out the Blasting Station for Aven Mindcensor, and shaved a Finks for a Redcap. Both are helping different matchups I was somewhat struggling with (Scapeshift and Delver). My plan is to change that slot to be a hate card to match whatever the flavour-of-the-day is on MTGO, which is Scapeshift and Delver atm (Who knew that Dig Through Time was good in a ramp deck?)
Thats the key question vs any deck really - What do[ they care about? if we can meaningfully prioritise the most important things for any deck we can begin to hate them out / Avoid or mitigate what they try to do. We should be reading the Delver and burn boards to find out what they are discussing as potential threats.
From my experience playing against my Delver builds on Cockatrice, these are the creature priority kills:
Kill Delver first. It's the only guy with evasion, and it gets a butt of 2 so Pontiff and Persisted Redcap can't quite get it.
Kill Young Pyromancer second. We're generally able to lock up the ground and keep Pyro with a token or two from swinging with anything, but you occasionally lose to too many tokens and not enough blockers.
Kill Monastery Swiftspear third. Unreliable Goyfs that can die to Redcaps are jokes compared to the rest of their threats, but fat juuuust might get there occasionally.
Kill Snapcaster Mage last--we don't care about 2/1's without evasion.
Kill Grim Lavamancer before Delver (or hose him with Linvala) because he kills our guys, then swings for 2 with evasion.
Kill V. Clique after flipped Delver but before Pyro--it's like Delver if it had a butt of 1 instead if 2.
I'd think so. It hits all sorts of things...dark confidants, unflipped delvers, snapcasters, random tokens, vendilion cliques, lavamancers...and though it's less relevant, it can even help to pump up a late game scavenging.
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Modern
Small Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-03-15-small-zoo/)
Green/White Hatebears (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/08-02-15-hate/)
Legacy
Affinity (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/stega/)
Commander
Heavenly Inferno Kaalia of the Vast (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/heavenly-inferno-revised/)
That's a Handful Nekusar, the Mindrazer (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/thats-a-handful/)
Uprising Sliver Overlord (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/up-rising/)
Retired Decks
Jundassic (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jundassic/)
Melira Pod (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/22-09-14-melira-pod/)
Dark Naya Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/26-01-15-dark-naya-zoo/)
Naya Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-10-14-my-zoo/)
I like Viscera Seer over Cartel Aristocrat because it is much easier on the mana. You usually have to take a few points of damage to cast Cartel Aristocrat while that doesn't happen often with the Seer. Something I've been thinking about lately, and will probably go back to trying soon is Blasting Station. As far as the early game goes you're on the same plan of naturally drawing it. It's not until later in the game that you can really tutor a 1 drop and it's a very powerful card in a field of x/1's and x/2's. It's not really until Chords, Ranger of Eos, or a podded Elemental token come into play that Seer has an advantage and that's a turn 4-5 thing, Blasting Station can come down and kill a Young Pyromancer as early as turn 2.
Note that the three best matchups for Blasting Station are Affinity, Delver, and Burn. Three decks that are huge right now.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
When I used to run it I only ran 1, same as I'll do now once I figure out the cut. It's real bad in multiples. The lack of tutoring is an issue but like I was saying before, tutoring Viscera Seer is usually a late game prospect anyways as the only ways to get it are to Chord for 4 (massive waste of a Chord), Ranger of Eos, or pod a Voice token. I'm kind of liking it as a game 1 hedge though, it gets much better with Lingering Souls out of the board which is something else that's well positioned currently.
Modern
Small Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-03-15-small-zoo/)
Green/White Hatebears (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/08-02-15-hate/)
Legacy
Affinity (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/stega/)
Commander
Heavenly Inferno Kaalia of the Vast (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/heavenly-inferno-revised/)
That's a Handful Nekusar, the Mindrazer (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/thats-a-handful/)
Uprising Sliver Overlord (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/up-rising/)
Retired Decks
Jundassic (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jundassic/)
Melira Pod (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/22-09-14-melira-pod/)
Dark Naya Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/26-01-15-dark-naya-zoo/)
Naya Zoo (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/18-10-14-my-zoo/)
Sacing a creature is a benefit. It counters Searing Blood. And you can sac many things, it all depends on what you have on board, with the graveyard recursion we have if you stack your triggers right you can get a lot of damage out of the card. As far as bolting your Bird goes when you have a sac outlet... isn't that the entire point? Get value off of their removal. Seer is good at this too, but Seer doesn't kill the opposing board.
Have you ever played the card, or seen it in action? (note that it's easier to understand the card on MTGO, the untap triggers are key to it).
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Gavony Township
Creatures 28
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Wall of Roots
1 Spellskite
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Spike Feeder
1 Sin Collector
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Restoration Angel
1 Shriekmaw
1 Reveillark
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Chord of Calling
3 Abrupt Decay
Artifact 5
4 Birthing Pod
1 Blasting Station
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Thoughtseize
3 Lingering Souls
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Dismember
1 Fume Spitter
1 Wall of Roots
Pontiff has a different role from Blasting Station. Blasting Station kills X/2's and X/3's like Swiftspear or a flipped Delver, or Etched Champion. Pontiff kills a bunch of X/1's at once or rarely (and with a lot of setup) X/2's. As far as Blister Beetle goes, Blister Beetle doesn't beat a Wurmcoil Engine. Fume Spitter mostly does. It reduces the swing over two turns from 12 lifelink to 5.
But if these ideas are mediocre why not contribute your own? What is your list that has tested to a good Delver and Burn matchup (say 55%+ over 30+ rounds)?
Being new though, I really have no idea how competitive it is yet (will be taking it to an FNM in a couple weeks).
I honestly don't think there's a whole lot I can change about the deck at this point (without adding white and making it more like the current pod lists). The only thing I can really think of is -2 Woodland Cemetery / +2 Twilight Mire.
I don't expect to play a whole lot of delver or burn...but I know at least one of the better players there will be running a U/W/x control deck...other then that though, I have no idea what my local meta's going to look like.
How competitive do you think my deck can be going blind into a meta? To me on paper it looks pretty dang nice...and vs. my friends I feel unstoppable (but that's only cause they are waaaay too casual for my likes).
I know this isn't as competitive as the current lists running white...but in my mind it should be able to hold it's own. My deck started out as casual, but now I think it's way beyond that point.
--1 Drops (5):
4x Birds Of Paradise
1x Viscera Seer
--2 Drops (6):
3x Strangleroot Geist
1x Spellskite
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Scavenging Ooze
--3 Drops (4):
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Eternal Witness
--4 Drops (4):
2x Murderous Redcap
1x Phyrexian Obliterator
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Thragtusk
1x Shriekmaw
--6 Drops (2):
1x Grave Titan
1x Massacre Wurm
--7 Drops (1):
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
----ARTIFACTS, INSTANTS & SORCERIES (13):
--Creature Fetch (6):
4x Birthing Pod
2x Chord Of Calling
--Spot Removal (4):
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Maelstrom pulse
--Hand Disruption (3):
3x Thoughtseize
--Fetch Lands (8):
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
1x Polluted Delta
--Mana Fixers (9):
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Woodland Cemetery
1x Urborg, Tomb Of Yawgmoth
--Man Lands (2):
2x Treetop Village
--Basic Lands (4):
2x Forest
2x Swamp
1x Thrun, The Last Troll
1x Entomber Exarch
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Dismember
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Creeping Corrosion
1x Thoughtseize
2x Choke
Could you explain the mana changes? I take very little from the manabase as it currently is because I can fetch basics with most hands. The only thing I'm seeing is 1 Razorverge over 1 Temple Garden. The Wall of Roots in the board is just a local meta consideration. There's a couple people who run dirt cheap aggro decks like budget zoo or black/red things. Forked Bolt has been popular and having the blockers is good so I like being able to go up another wall while maintaining my mana dorks in that matchup. Just the typical plan of running more Walls against aggression. The Fume Spitter is also good against them, it's just well positioned in the local meta of blue tron and x/1's.
Blasting Station has been very good in the past, it might still be.... where it fell out of favor among those who used it was with the unbanning of Nacatl and PT: Zoo. Matches like Delver and Affinity are where it shines so I'm thinking it's time to bring it back for a bit. Maybe it won't be good. It hasn't come up yet in the games I've played since adding it back in but it's not like it's there just for trying to combo. Non tutorable is an issue but along that line of reasoning why play Abrupt Decay or hope to Evoke a Shriekmaw? Those are also non tutorable.
As far as Delver goes, I've gotten a ton of games in against it lately as my two Modern decks are Pod and Delver, I have experience on both sides of that match. It was never favorable with Pod being one of their good matchups but it was never a big deal because Delver was a small metagame share and it was still around 45% but it has gotten much worse lately. I would say that right now it's around 33%-40% preboard and it gets a little worse postboard (but I haven't tried my new sideboard plan yet post board). The problem is only partially Treasure Cruise, some of the deck changes they made as a result have made them much better against us like Forked Bolt and not playing clunky Swords. I've had games where I had Spellskite, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Voice of Resurgence, and Restoration Angel on the board and still lost. That's where the problem comes in the match, we have cards but they don't actually do anything Delver cares about so we can't meaningfully interact.
Erebos B | Ghost Council WB | Grimgrin UB | Jhoira UR
Jor Kadeen RW | Melek UR | Mimeoplasm GUB | Rasputin WU
Savra BG | Sisay GW | Teneb BGW | Thada Adel U | Wort BR
I draft and play EDH. If a Standard player can't understand who a card is for, it's probably for me.
I also write things about good films.
Hey thanks for all the suggestions!
about the viscera and only 2 chords to find him.
I have thought of running 3 chords...just haven't been sure where to find the room.
I do have my 2x treetop villages that can be used to pod him up though...and I've even tried running a single dryad arbor with awesome success in casual. With all my fetches available to me, I was often able to fetch out a arbor then sac it with pod to fetch out a viscera...and it felt great! I just wasn't sure if I wanted dryad in the deck going into anything competitive...if god forbid I have arbor in my opening hand, I'm just going to feel bad about it.
Aside from that, I also have thragtusk's and grave titan's tokens I can pod away for my viscera...doesn't happen often...but it does happen from time to time.
I've thought of adding a varolz...he gives me a VERY easy pod target and in any sort of long game can really give me a nice finisher. That and he can reset my finks and redcaps as well.
I like 2x Finks. I find 2 finks is needed in this deck. I take a lot of self inflicted damage with this deck and just think 2x finks is a must. He can be aggressive, and defensive, and he's part of my combo...and his life gain is often times very relevant.
Obliterator is doing nothing more then being a fatty for me. I want a big fatty fat stick at 4cc in this deck...and I thought I'd give this guy a try...for no other reason then to try him out haha.
I have no idea how he'll run...I'm still waiting to recieve him in the mail (gah I hate waiting for things in the mail!)...but from what I've seen from my deck, I really need something fat and mean at 4cc and this guy is exactly that. His huge drawback of costing BBBB isn't the worst thing in the world for this deck. I've been keeping track, and it's not rare at all for me to have the 4 black mana to produce by turn 3-5 in this deck. Plus I'm usually looking to cheat him into play anyhow with my pods.
I don't know...I just really wanna give this guy a try. lol...it might be dumb...I may regret running him...but I think for now he's worth a shot :).
About the 6cc+.
Gah...I do agree with you. It always makes me sad when I draw into my sheoldred.
That being said...I don't know that this deck has a great long game without running a few 6cc+ creatures. With the versions running white, you guys have access to flyers and gavony township...township is an AMAZING card for your long game. Gawd I wish I could run that card haha.
If I'm going against mid-range grindy decks (which I'm hoping I will)...I need some late game beaters.
Don't like Oran-Rief...I just think it slows down my deck too much. I've considered it cause it does reset my kitchen finks (by reset I mean it can take the -1/-1 counters off)...but I'm already running 2 comes into play tapped lands (treetop) and 4 potentially comes into play tapped lands (woodland cemetery). I'm just very reluctant to add anymore comes into play tapped lands in this deck. It's too important that I have untapped lands turn 1 and turn 2 in this deck.
I do like the idea of adding a couple more mana dorks and a wall of roots. /sigh...Just not sure where to find the room for them.
Should spellskite be in my sideboard? Spellskite is a brand new addition to my deck...and he too hasn't shown up quite yet in the mail, so I've gotten no testing in with it.
Would you -1 spellskite (putting it in the sideboard) +1 Wall of Roots?
I will say however that this deck has run very well with just my 4 mana dorks. It's not rare at all for me to be casting a birthing pod turn 2 with just the 4 mana dorks.
And I'm very, very rarely finding myself mana screwed.
Also...originally it was -1 solemn simulacrum, +1 entomber exarch. Man I love exarch...I'm starting to think he's just the better card for my deck then solemn. Solemn is great, and he makes for great pod food...but man, exarch just does SO much work!
Oh and the 2x Black sun's in the sideboard. No idea haha...pretty much just a place holder. You have any suggestions on what I can replace them with?
...
What do you think about the thoughtseizes main deck? I originally bought them to have them in my sideboard (was -3 thoughtseize, +1 chord of calling, +2 abrupt decay main board).
Anyhow, thanks a lot for the reply!
You really gave me a lot to consider! It's appreciated
---edit---
oh! /facepalm
I for some reason thought you were thinking I should replace a finks with the exarch. But you're saying I should replace a witness! Brilliant! Making that change for sure!
Also thinking -1 simulacrum, +1 varolz as well.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
From my experience playing against my Delver builds on Cockatrice, these are the creature priority kills:
Kill Delver first. It's the only guy with evasion, and it gets a butt of 2 so Pontiff and Persisted Redcap can't quite get it.
Kill Young Pyromancer second. We're generally able to lock up the ground and keep Pyro with a token or two from swinging with anything, but you occasionally lose to too many tokens and not enough blockers.
Kill Monastery Swiftspear third. Unreliable Goyfs that can die to Redcaps are jokes compared to the rest of their threats, but fat juuuust might get there occasionally.
Kill Snapcaster Mage last--we don't care about 2/1's without evasion.
Kill Grim Lavamancer before Delver (or hose him with Linvala) because he kills our guys, then swings for 2 with evasion.
Kill V. Clique after flipped Delver but before Pyro--it's like Delver if it had a butt of 1 instead if 2.
I'd think so. It hits all sorts of things...dark confidants, unflipped delvers, snapcasters, random tokens, vendilion cliques, lavamancers...and though it's less relevant, it can even help to pump up a late game scavenging.