Played a Modern side event (4 rounds) yesterday, went 3-1 beating Burn, Merfolk and 8-Rack but losing to Scapeshift.
So my question is - how do we beat Scapeshift. In Game 2 I managed to Entomber Exarch his Scapeshift and died while on 24 life to double Valakut, 6 Mountains top-decked Scapeshift.
Is there a Pod option I'm missing (I had Chord and forgot to get Spellskite - but it didn't matter as he had a Steam Vents in his hand anyway).
My match win % against scapeshift is actually positive, though I've always played 1-2 goyfs and 4 voices in main. I think Voice is actually the most important card as the way I usually lose is if they do t1 play land/serum visions t2 ramp, t3 ramp+counter, t4 counter(+dig/visions/kill some of your guys), t5 scapeshift (possibly ramp first). If you get a voice out on turn 2, they can't counter you(well they often actually still do) and will have to either deal with the voice or give you an elemental, which in combination with voice and a dork is enough to kill with by t5. If you get a goyf out t2 (will usually be 4/5 by the time it attacks on t3 if you try to resolve a spell before combat), it will when you're on the play deal 12 damage by itself by t5 usually. If they fetch twice you just need to resolve 1 more beater to get there. This is done by overloading their counters with cheap creatures or thoughtseize. If you can't seem to ever beat scapeshift it probably means your curve is too high, and your low-drops probably consists of spellskites and wall or roots. If you try to beat them with 4-mana spells(hopefully played t3) it had better be restoration angel so that you can resolve siege rhino or some other beaters on your turn, as otherwise they'll just counter/kill whatever it is you're playing while they get their mana online.
After board the matchup depends really on what they sideboard and what tools you have. Thoughtseize, sin collector, memoricide and entomer exarch can give you a few more turns or at least protects themselves so you can get some damage in. Numerous people (me included) also side in choke, which is either hit or miss depending on their draw. If you hit them when they have only tapped islands you should win, but from my experience they usually will either counter your t3 play (unless you have a voice out) or they only have a few islands and choke doesn't put a clock on them so they just put some forests and mountains in play and continue to ramp into scapeshift anyway. The main problem is really when they don't go for scapeshift, but get a lot of primeval titans that fetch up valakuts, killing all my guys with the triggers. My list at least is poor at dealing with them as I only have a few paths and I can't really side them in as I need to be as aggressive as possible, and I already side in a lot of non-creature spells. Luckily most scapeshift-players still go for the scapeshift-plan after boarding, which isn't really that hard to deal with with 7 hand-disruption spells (4 thoughtseize+2 memorice+sin collector) and the rest cards that either ramp you or put him on a clock.
I find the amulet of vigor decks much harder to beat if they get a decent draw. In a daily I played a few months back I was 6-0 in games and then played against amulet of vigor. I won game 1 and lost game 2 turn 2 and game 3 turn 3 (even after I abrupted an amulet he had 2 more!). The same day I was 1 win short of top 8 in a premier and once again faced off against bloom titan and got killed t2 and t3 once more. Really felt like an unwinnable matchup as even though I thoughtseized on turn 1 I still lost by turn 3. I have beaten it a few times since, so it's really more a consistency issue than anything. If they get a 'good' draw there's not a lot you can do. The hive mind-variants are pretty bad against chalice though, so expect that will be easier at least.
I've been going with the Memoricide plan, and mulling somewhat aggressively. Being able to strip their primary wincon completely helps slow the game down a lot, and you get the information of what's in their hand to play around. Other than that, fetching basics and keeping lifegain in post-board is my best response. Still leaves the matchup about 55/45 in their favour.
I'm still not fully understanding why Goyf-Pod shouldn't have a Wall of Roots to support the Rhino/Resto/Tusks and things. I guess the only argument I have against it is that most games you won't have it, so you might as well play a little more consistently. Is this a good enough argument?
I'm still not fully understanding why Goyf-Pod shouldn't have a Wall of Roots to support the Rhino/Resto/Tusks and things. I guess the only argument I have against it is that most games you won't have it, so you might as well play a little more consistently. Is this a good enough argument?
It's not that wall of roots is bad or anything. It's just that you only have room for so many 2-drops. Personally I want 4 voice (angel pod), 1 qasali pridemage and 1 scavenging ooze and 2 other 2 drops. Now these two slots are typically either wall of roots or tarmogoyf. If you go tarmogoyf you go for cheap efficient spells and more disruption, in the form of thoughtseize main for instance. While if you go for wall of roots you go big and bring in more rhinos/shriekmaw thragtusk. Both decks are very strong right now, though they match up quite differently against the field. The deck that goes big is better against burn (more lifegain and more big cards that don't get hurt by eidolon of great revel) and delver. The goyf-deck is better against control and combo. I've been trying a hybrid with 1 goyf and 1 wall of roots and works fine too, but I think if you can anticipate what the meta is going to be the day you play you should choose the one that works the best. Right now it's sort of hard as there seems to be less burn and more scapeshift, but delver is still being played a lot and could be the best deck. Not sure which deck I think is stronger of swiftspear-delver and angel-pod.
Pod to eidolon and chord the tunnel in response to scapeshift
The problem with Tunnel Ignus or Aven Mindcensor or any other trump card to the Scapeshift itself is that they just won't sacrifice. Scapeshift sacrifices on resolution, not casting, so they can choose to sacrifice nothing if it's not to their advantage. When it comes to that matchup, we need to search for proactive, not reactive answers. We can't just "get" them with a narrow one-off like some other matchups.
I'm still not fully understanding why Goyf-Pod shouldn't have a Wall of Roots to support the Rhino/Resto/Tusks and things. I guess the only argument I have against it is that most games you won't have it, so you might as well play a little more consistently. Is this a good enough argument?
It's not that wall of roots is bad or anything. It's just that you only have room for so many 2-drops. Personally I want 4 voice (angel pod), 1 qasali pridemage and 1 scavenging ooze and 2 other 2 drops. Now these two slots are typically either wall of roots or tarmogoyf. If you go tarmogoyf you go for cheap efficient spells and more disruption, in the form of thoughtseize main for instance. While if you go for wall of roots you go big and bring in more rhinos/shriekmaw thragtusk. Both decks are very strong right now, though they match up quite differently against the field. The deck that goes big is better against burn (more lifegain and more big cards that don't get hurt by eidolon of great revel) and delver. The goyf-deck is better against control and combo. I've been trying a hybrid with 1 goyf and 1 wall of roots and works fine too, but I think if you can anticipate what the meta is going to be the day you play you should choose the one that works the best. Right now it's sort of hard as there seems to be less burn and more scapeshift, but delver is still being played a lot and could be the best deck. Not sure which deck I think is stronger of swiftspear-delver and angel-pod.
I don't know. I have Slaughter Games side for Scapeshift and it's been great, as well as Choke and Chalice for the fast decks. And it seems like you think that playing Rhino/Resto/Shriek Pod is different from Goyf Pod, when in fact they are usually all in the same list (as in Goyf Pod players are usually playing Rhinos and Restos and such, not necessarily vice versa), which is why I like a Wall of Roots. I'm not sure 1 Wall of Roots would throw off the balance too much when it comes to the curve.
I don't know. I have Slaughter Games side for Scapeshift and it's been great, as well as Choke and Chalice for the fast decks. And it seems like you think that playing Rhino/Resto/Shriek Pod is different from Goyf Pod, when in fact they are usually all in the same list (as in Goyf Pod players are usually playing Rhinos and Restos and such, not necessarily vice versa), which is why I like a Wall of Roots. I'm not sure 1 Wall of Roots would throw off the balance too much when it comes to the curve.
I think you misunderstand me. It's not that goyf-pod doesn't run 4 and 5 drops, it just runs less, or should run less as (people do all sorts of stuff that doesn't neccessarily make sense). As long as you only play with 60 cards you have to take something out when you put something in. When you take goyf in you can either replace ooze, voice, spellskite, qasali, wall of roots or Melira if that's where you come from. The best 2-drop to pod away in a value-pod deck is voice, and also gives you counter resistance and will usually be both the best turn 2 play(if you don't have a dork) and best 2-drop to play when you have a pod out and should be a 4 of. Ooze is a powerhouse in the late-game and comboes with archangel, so that's not going anywhere and qasali is still a good beater with extra utility. Spellskite is fairly narrow without Melira or chord to get it in when you want to protect something big, and does little to help with the beatdown plan. So that leaves goyf replacing spellskite, wall of roots or both. People who play goyf and like 3 5-drops usually play less voice of resurgence, which I think is wrong. Occasionally goyf will be better, but in my experience voice is better around 75% of the time. The reason goyf could be better occasionally is when you consider keeping a hand with fetch, gavony and bird. If the bird dies you can still play goyf, but unless you draw another non-gavony land, voice will get stuck in the hand. If you can choose between voice or goyf turn 2 you pretty much always choose voice, unless you played a thoughtseize turn 1 and saw a pillar of flame or anger of the gods or something. Anyway if you take out wall of roots and play tarmogoyf without changing the curve at all you obviously will be crimped on mana a bit more often. Thoughtseize is an insanely powerful card in that it lets you set up the game and play with perfect information for a while and also synergizes with goyf, so cutting 1 4-drop and 1 5-drop and adding 2 thoughtseizes makes sense when you go down on wall of roots. That's why I mean that goyf-pod should utilize a lower curve. There's no dramatic changes, you play 1 less resto angel or siege rhino and drop either thragtusk, reveillark or shriekmaw. Alternatively you can drop the combo entirely as well, though I still win a good deal of games with it, so don't feel like doing it myself.
Right now I play 3 different pod variants depending on where I play (my store/magic online/cockatrice/other store). At my local store there is hardly any control or tron left, only one or two guys playing scapeshift (tournament size typically 15-25 people). Goyf is really good vs control and combo by just being a really fast clock that's hard to deal with, but against delver, pod and burn I prefer more lifegain and larger creatures so wall of roots is really good there and I don't play goyf anymore (I played with him during the entire spring though with huge success). On magic online scapeshift is probably big enough to warrant playing him, but not quite sure. Goldfish says meta is only 10% or so, but everyone including me seems to face it all the time so sure feels more like 15%.
I don't know. I have Slaughter Games side for Scapeshift and it's been great, as well as Choke and Chalice for the fast decks. And it seems like you think that playing Rhino/Resto/Shriek Pod is different from Goyf Pod, when in fact they are usually all in the same list (as in Goyf Pod players are usually playing Rhinos and Restos and such, not necessarily vice versa), which is why I like a Wall of Roots. I'm not sure 1 Wall of Roots would throw off the balance too much when it comes to the curve.
I think you misunderstand me. It's not that goyf-pod doesn't run 4 and 5 drops, it just runs less, or should run less as (people do all sorts of stuff that doesn't neccessarily make sense). As long as you only play with 60 cards you have to take something out when you put something in. When you take goyf in you can either replace ooze, voice, spellskite, qasali, wall of roots or Melira if that's where you come from. The best 2-drop to pod away in a value-pod deck is voice, and also gives you counter resistance and will usually be both the best turn 2 play(if you don't have a dork) and best 2-drop to play when you have a pod out and should be a 4 of. Ooze is a powerhouse in the late-game and comboes with archangel, so that's not going anywhere and qasali is still a good beater with extra utility. Spellskite is fairly narrow without Melira or chord to get it in when you want to protect something big, and does little to help with the beatdown plan. So that leaves goyf replacing spellskite, wall of roots or both. People who play goyf and like 3 5-drops usually play less voice of resurgence, which I think is wrong. Occasionally goyf will be better, but in my experience voice is better around 75% of the time. The reason goyf could be better occasionally is when you consider keeping a hand with fetch, gavony and bird. If the bird dies you can still play goyf, but unless you draw another non-gavony land, voice will get stuck in the hand. If you can choose between voice or goyf turn 2 you pretty much always choose voice, unless you played a thoughtseize turn 1 and saw a pillar of flame or anger of the gods or something. Anyway if you take out wall of roots and play tarmogoyf without changing the curve at all you obviously will be crimped on mana a bit more often. Thoughtseize is an insanely powerful card in that it lets you set up the game and play with perfect information for a while and also synergizes with goyf, so cutting 1 4-drop and 1 5-drop and adding 2 thoughtseizes makes sense when you go down on wall of roots. That's why I mean that goyf-pod should utilize a lower curve. There's no dramatic changes, you play 1 less resto angel or siege rhino and drop either thragtusk, reveillark or shriekmaw. Alternatively you can drop the combo entirely as well, though I still win a good deal of games with it, so don't feel like doing it myself.
Right now I play 3 different pod variants depending on where I play (my store/magic online/cockatrice/other store). At my local store there is hardly any control or tron left, only one or two guys playing scapeshift (tournament size typically 15-25 people). Goyf is really good vs control and combo by just being a really fast clock that's hard to deal with, but against delver, pod and burn I prefer more lifegain and larger creatures so wall of roots is really good there and I don't play goyf anymore (I played with him during the entire spring though with huge success). On magic online scapeshift is probably big enough to warrant playing him, but not quite sure. Goldfish says meta is only 10% or so, but everyone including me seems to face it all the time so sure feels more like 15%.
I don't like the idea that there needs to be X-2 drops and Y-4 drops in your deck, etc. You should run a healthy number of each. EDIT: I'd like to have a conversation about Pod in detail if you will oblige me. Maybe through messages?
I don't know. I have Slaughter Games side for Scapeshift and it's been great, as well as Choke and Chalice for the fast decks. And it seems like you think that playing Rhino/Resto/Shriek Pod is different from Goyf Pod, when in fact they are usually all in the same list (as in Goyf Pod players are usually playing Rhinos and Restos and such, not necessarily vice versa), which is why I like a Wall of Roots. I'm not sure 1 Wall of Roots would throw off the balance too much when it comes to the curve.
I think you misunderstand me. It's not that goyf-pod doesn't run 4 and 5 drops, it just runs less, or should run less as (people do all sorts of stuff that doesn't neccessarily make sense). As long as you only play with 60 cards you have to take something out when you put something in. When you take goyf in you can either replace ooze, voice, spellskite, qasali, wall of roots or Melira if that's where you come from. The best 2-drop to pod away in a value-pod deck is voice, and also gives you counter resistance and will usually be both the best turn 2 play(if you don't have a dork) and best 2-drop to play when you have a pod out and should be a 4 of. Ooze is a powerhouse in the late-game and comboes with archangel, so that's not going anywhere and qasali is still a good beater with extra utility. Spellskite is fairly narrow without Melira or chord to get it in when you want to protect something big, and does little to help with the beatdown plan. So that leaves goyf replacing spellskite, wall of roots or both. People who play goyf and like 3 5-drops usually play less voice of resurgence, which I think is wrong. Occasionally goyf will be better, but in my experience voice is better around 75% of the time. The reason goyf could be better occasionally is when you consider keeping a hand with fetch, gavony and bird. If the bird dies you can still play goyf, but unless you draw another non-gavony land, voice will get stuck in the hand. If you can choose between voice or goyf turn 2 you pretty much always choose voice, unless you played a thoughtseize turn 1 and saw a pillar of flame or anger of the gods or something. Anyway if you take out wall of roots and play tarmogoyf without changing the curve at all you obviously will be crimped on mana a bit more often. Thoughtseize is an insanely powerful card in that it lets you set up the game and play with perfect information for a while and also synergizes with goyf, so cutting 1 4-drop and 1 5-drop and adding 2 thoughtseizes makes sense when you go down on wall of roots. That's why I mean that goyf-pod should utilize a lower curve. There's no dramatic changes, you play 1 less resto angel or siege rhino and drop either thragtusk, reveillark or shriekmaw. Alternatively you can drop the combo entirely as well, though I still win a good deal of games with it, so don't feel like doing it myself.
Right now I play 3 different pod variants depending on where I play (my store/magic online/cockatrice/other store). At my local store there is hardly any control or tron left, only one or two guys playing scapeshift (tournament size typically 15-25 people). Goyf is really good vs control and combo by just being a really fast clock that's hard to deal with, but against delver, pod and burn I prefer more lifegain and larger creatures so wall of roots is really good there and I don't play goyf anymore (I played with him during the entire spring though with huge success). On magic online scapeshift is probably big enough to warrant playing him, but not quite sure. Goldfish says meta is only 10% or so, but everyone including me seems to face it all the time so sure feels more like 15%.
I don't like the idea that there needs to be X-2 drops and Y-4 drops in your deck, etc. You should run a healthy number of each. EDIT: I'd like to have a conversation about Pod in detail if you will oblige me. Maybe through messages?
I have Birds and a single Stomping Ground main. I have no problem casting it.
I've been testing Slaughter Games with a Stomping Ground as well, I cut a forest for it. I also noticed there was a list from the World Championship that did the same. I'm currently running the following list. What does yours look like?
BTW, some people have talked about dropping an Overgrown Tomb in favor of an additional Temple Garden. I think this is wrong, we want as many turn one black sources for Thoughtseize as is reasonable. Ideally, we would have 14 to have a 90% chance to cast it on turn one.
I'll post my list soon once I'm a little more tested almost there. I just cut the second Tomb moments ago for a second Garden, but I also think it's wrong. I'm going to test it anyways, though. To compensate, I removed a Heath for a single Marsh Flats as I'm now playing 2 Thoughtseize main.
Glad to see someone else is hosing people with slaughter games.
Odd that none of them run 'goyf. I love Sam Black's list. I always felt 3 Townships were too much. And I'm sure he gets free wins from his opponents fearing a combo and lose to 3!!! Rhinos.
I really like Jacob Wilson's list. The splash for red against Scapeshift and Twin is mandatory at the moment (especially for the first one, a Slaughter Games means that he cannot combo off and we have removal for his titans).
On the other side, I don't understand Sam Black's deck. The MD is absolutely solid, but he sides 7 cards for the Melira combo, against what specifically?
Sad to sam not siding out thoughtseize against edel. He can't have tested that matchup before as that card is horrendous in the matchup. GBx is all about topdeck-mode, so you need to fill deck with as much good topdecks as possible. GBx strips your hand so fast, you don't want so many dead topdecks. Siege rhino does the job anyway but Edel also surprises me. Keeping in all the Lilianas against pod is just wrong. Voice, finks, redcap, resto angel, abrupt decay all own her. I wonder what his reasoning is as this should be well known.
As for the pod-decks, I think they're all too high-curve for the expected meta at worlds, goyf-pod would have been better. I think it might have been hard to guess how much jeskai ascendancy would be played. It's the most broken deck in modern, so would expect some players to play it. Definetly need main-deck thoughtseizes to fight it and goyf to pressure it, though I guess that matchup will never be good. UR delver seems definetly the best call for the tournament.
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So my question is - how do we beat Scapeshift. In Game 2 I managed to Entomber Exarch his Scapeshift and died while on 24 life to double Valakut, 6 Mountains top-decked Scapeshift.
Is there a Pod option I'm missing (I had Chord and forgot to get Spellskite - but it didn't matter as he had a Steam Vents in his hand anyway).
After board the matchup depends really on what they sideboard and what tools you have. Thoughtseize, sin collector, memoricide and entomer exarch can give you a few more turns or at least protects themselves so you can get some damage in. Numerous people (me included) also side in choke, which is either hit or miss depending on their draw. If you hit them when they have only tapped islands you should win, but from my experience they usually will either counter your t3 play (unless you have a voice out) or they only have a few islands and choke doesn't put a clock on them so they just put some forests and mountains in play and continue to ramp into scapeshift anyway. The main problem is really when they don't go for scapeshift, but get a lot of primeval titans that fetch up valakuts, killing all my guys with the triggers. My list at least is poor at dealing with them as I only have a few paths and I can't really side them in as I need to be as aggressive as possible, and I already side in a lot of non-creature spells. Luckily most scapeshift-players still go for the scapeshift-plan after boarding, which isn't really that hard to deal with with 7 hand-disruption spells (4 thoughtseize+2 memorice+sin collector) and the rest cards that either ramp you or put him on a clock.
I find the amulet of vigor decks much harder to beat if they get a decent draw. In a daily I played a few months back I was 6-0 in games and then played against amulet of vigor. I won game 1 and lost game 2 turn 2 and game 3 turn 3 (even after I abrupted an amulet he had 2 more!). The same day I was 1 win short of top 8 in a premier and once again faced off against bloom titan and got killed t2 and t3 once more. Really felt like an unwinnable matchup as even though I thoughtseized on turn 1 I still lost by turn 3. I have beaten it a few times since, so it's really more a consistency issue than anything. If they get a 'good' draw there's not a lot you can do. The hive mind-variants are pretty bad against chalice though, so expect that will be easier at least.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
Pod to eidolon and chord the tunnel in response to scapeshift
It's not that wall of roots is bad or anything. It's just that you only have room for so many 2-drops. Personally I want 4 voice (angel pod), 1 qasali pridemage and 1 scavenging ooze and 2 other 2 drops. Now these two slots are typically either wall of roots or tarmogoyf. If you go tarmogoyf you go for cheap efficient spells and more disruption, in the form of thoughtseize main for instance. While if you go for wall of roots you go big and bring in more rhinos/shriekmaw thragtusk. Both decks are very strong right now, though they match up quite differently against the field. The deck that goes big is better against burn (more lifegain and more big cards that don't get hurt by eidolon of great revel) and delver. The goyf-deck is better against control and combo. I've been trying a hybrid with 1 goyf and 1 wall of roots and works fine too, but I think if you can anticipate what the meta is going to be the day you play you should choose the one that works the best. Right now it's sort of hard as there seems to be less burn and more scapeshift, but delver is still being played a lot and could be the best deck. Not sure which deck I think is stronger of swiftspear-delver and angel-pod.
The problem with Tunnel Ignus or Aven Mindcensor or any other trump card to the Scapeshift itself is that they just won't sacrifice. Scapeshift sacrifices on resolution, not casting, so they can choose to sacrifice nothing if it's not to their advantage. When it comes to that matchup, we need to search for proactive, not reactive answers. We can't just "get" them with a narrow one-off like some other matchups.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
I don't know. I have Slaughter Games side for Scapeshift and it's been great, as well as Choke and Chalice for the fast decks. And it seems like you think that playing Rhino/Resto/Shriek Pod is different from Goyf Pod, when in fact they are usually all in the same list (as in Goyf Pod players are usually playing Rhinos and Restos and such, not necessarily vice versa), which is why I like a Wall of Roots. I'm not sure 1 Wall of Roots would throw off the balance too much when it comes to the curve.
How do you even cast it? With birds? Or you mean some effects like Slaughter Games,for example Memoricide or Stain the Mind
I struggle heavily in that maze of counters, cryptics and collonades. Any tips and tricks much welcomed.
I think you misunderstand me. It's not that goyf-pod doesn't run 4 and 5 drops, it just runs less, or should run less as (people do all sorts of stuff that doesn't neccessarily make sense). As long as you only play with 60 cards you have to take something out when you put something in. When you take goyf in you can either replace ooze, voice, spellskite, qasali, wall of roots or Melira if that's where you come from. The best 2-drop to pod away in a value-pod deck is voice, and also gives you counter resistance and will usually be both the best turn 2 play(if you don't have a dork) and best 2-drop to play when you have a pod out and should be a 4 of. Ooze is a powerhouse in the late-game and comboes with archangel, so that's not going anywhere and qasali is still a good beater with extra utility. Spellskite is fairly narrow without Melira or chord to get it in when you want to protect something big, and does little to help with the beatdown plan. So that leaves goyf replacing spellskite, wall of roots or both. People who play goyf and like 3 5-drops usually play less voice of resurgence, which I think is wrong. Occasionally goyf will be better, but in my experience voice is better around 75% of the time. The reason goyf could be better occasionally is when you consider keeping a hand with fetch, gavony and bird. If the bird dies you can still play goyf, but unless you draw another non-gavony land, voice will get stuck in the hand. If you can choose between voice or goyf turn 2 you pretty much always choose voice, unless you played a thoughtseize turn 1 and saw a pillar of flame or anger of the gods or something. Anyway if you take out wall of roots and play tarmogoyf without changing the curve at all you obviously will be crimped on mana a bit more often. Thoughtseize is an insanely powerful card in that it lets you set up the game and play with perfect information for a while and also synergizes with goyf, so cutting 1 4-drop and 1 5-drop and adding 2 thoughtseizes makes sense when you go down on wall of roots. That's why I mean that goyf-pod should utilize a lower curve. There's no dramatic changes, you play 1 less resto angel or siege rhino and drop either thragtusk, reveillark or shriekmaw. Alternatively you can drop the combo entirely as well, though I still win a good deal of games with it, so don't feel like doing it myself.
Right now I play 3 different pod variants depending on where I play (my store/magic online/cockatrice/other store). At my local store there is hardly any control or tron left, only one or two guys playing scapeshift (tournament size typically 15-25 people). Goyf is really good vs control and combo by just being a really fast clock that's hard to deal with, but against delver, pod and burn I prefer more lifegain and larger creatures so wall of roots is really good there and I don't play goyf anymore (I played with him during the entire spring though with huge success). On magic online scapeshift is probably big enough to warrant playing him, but not quite sure. Goldfish says meta is only 10% or so, but everyone including me seems to face it all the time so sure feels more like 15%.
I don't like the idea that there needs to be X-2 drops and Y-4 drops in your deck, etc. You should run a healthy number of each. EDIT: I'd like to have a conversation about Pod in detail if you will oblige me. Maybe through messages?
I have Birds and a single Stomping Ground main. I have no problem casting it.
I've been testing Slaughter Games with a Stomping Ground as well, I cut a forest for it. I also noticed there was a list from the World Championship that did the same. I'm currently running the following list. What does yours look like?
BTW, some people have talked about dropping an Overgrown Tomb in favor of an additional Temple Garden. I think this is wrong, we want as many turn one black sources for Thoughtseize as is reasonable. Ideally, we would have 14 to have a 90% chance to cast it on turn one.
1 Archangel of Thune
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Restoration Angel
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
2 Siege Rhino
1 Sin Collector
1 Spellskite
1 Spike Feeder
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Wall of Roots
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Birthing Pod
Lands:
2 Forest
3 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Choke
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Entomber Exarch
2 Fracturing Gust
2 Path to Exile
3 Slaughter Games
4 Thoughtseize
Glad to see someone else is hosing people with slaughter games.
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
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It's possible, but it's not advisable.
Thank you so much mchief111 for the amazing art!
BUG is the Jund of EDH!
Modern: Jund, Grixis Delver, Bant Eldrazi, TitanShift
Commander: Brago, Yidris, Mizzix, Marath, Atheros, Daretti
Also interested to have more insight into that.
As for the pod-decks, I think they're all too high-curve for the expected meta at worlds, goyf-pod would have been better. I think it might have been hard to guess how much jeskai ascendancy would be played. It's the most broken deck in modern, so would expect some players to play it. Definetly need main-deck thoughtseizes to fight it and goyf to pressure it, though I guess that matchup will never be good. UR delver seems definetly the best call for the tournament.