Ok lets stop talking about bad cards in the main and lets start talking about how to improve the flex/sideboard slots.
Anyway. For me, personally, I'm going into a PTQ come the end of August and I'm between this deck and Affinity. I've been playing Affinity for longer, but Affinity has become a very popular beast in my area. Along with Affinity, I'm expecting BG Rock as the 2nd most popular deck I think.
Regardless, I'm trying to decide between Angel Pod and Melira Pod, with the following lists for both:
Burrenton Forge-Tender - Havent got to do too much with this card yet, so I'm unsure how good it will be.
Kataki - I want Affinity hate, not sure if this is the correct one or not.
Lingering Souls - Havent got to play too much with this card, so we'll see. Seems awesome though.
This is the one I'm leaning towards, however I realise Melira Pod is better vs. Affinity so I think what I SHOULD play is:
Why not just play melira pod, sub out sin collector and a card of your choice. Then add spike feeder and archangel of thune. I did and I've seen some great results sofar
Anyway. For me, personally, I'm going into a PTQ come the end of August and I'm between this deck and Affinity. I've been playing Affinity for longer, but Affinity has become a very popular beast in my area. Along with Affinity, I'm expecting BG Rock as the 2nd most popular deck I think.
If Affinity is popular in the area you can probably make a pretty good prediction that decks good against Affinity will be the decks to beat. Obviously you don't want to be cold to Affinity either but if you can make it just 55% or so you're probably fine. I've played against Affinity a lot. Kataki is nice and you get major points in the hands you draw it but I think you can take or leave it simply because it's so inconsistent (need to naturally draw usually) and narrow. Lingering Souls is really helpful though and you probably want to include them since they're also applicable in other matches. Another good reason to use Lingering Souls is that Affinity is at it's worst against control and Souls is good against them both, it's even decent against BGx the card just does it all.
In an Affinity heavy environment Shriekmaw might not be the best, it's also pretty bad against the decks that beat Affinity.
I've found that I would usually prefer Forge Tender to just be a creature I can use to rebuild than have it for protection because Forge Tender is only good when they have it but a threat is good any time.
If you want sideboard slots for the souls perhaps 1 Thoughtseize, Sigarda, and the Forge Tender then you can swap Shriekmaw and Reclamation Sage to hedge MB?
Why not just play melira pod, sub out sin collector and a card of your choice. Then add spike feeder and archangel of thune. I did and I've seen some great results sofar
Because that's a lot of deck space you're devoting.
Why not just play melira pod, sub out sin collector and a card of your choice. Then add spike feeder and archangel of thune. I did and I've seen some great results sofar
My dilemma is not which combo to run. Its "do i want thoughtseize/more interaction or the midrange/combo deck"
I have a successful list that i played last August 3 here in our country [Philippines]. The event was for GPT and luckily i goes to top8 with a 5-0-2 record a 7 round swiss with 90+ players. Here's my list.
What you described is how it should work in theory, but in practice, it always underperforms. Your opponent will cast bolt during their own turn instead of at the end of your turn, but ultimately it doesn't matter because they're still spending their mana before their next untap step. Against Aggro, it's 2 blockers, against Combo, they can just ignore it, and against Control, it's a bad Grand Abolisher, where if they decide they want to respond to you casting a Pod, they still can. If you want the chance to get real value out of it, you need to keep it on the table, and while you do that, he's just a bear. Instead of two extra redundant Voices, you could say I have Sin Collector and Entomber Exarch, which provide actual real disruption and card advantage against both Combo and Control, rather than pseudo virtual card advantage against just Control.
I want options. We're a toolbox deck, after all. If all I played against was Control, of course I'd play more Voices in place of dead cards like Shriekmaw. Keep in mind that we have a sideboard, and my list is designed to maximize our options in game 1, and our slots are limited.
Are you sure you are playing the voice correctly (not forgetting triggers)? It completely shuts down faeries, creates all sorts of headaches to control. It can reset the pod chain for lists running Viscera Seer and it's VERY good against all kinds of aggro, usually being 2-for-1. If your meta is combo heavy, I can understand you aren't too happy about it and you would be better off running something like Eidolon of Rhetoric instead.
Unless you are in late game without Pod (and you are then royally screwed anyway), Voice makes very good topdeck. Your deck should be loaded with value 3drops. If getting a 3 drop you need AND grizzly bear that can get out of hand pretty quickly for just 4 mana is not enough for you, I'm not sure what would.
Let's face it, with current card pool in Modern, Voice is always (even when PtE'd - you get land then) card advantage, exactly what deck like Pod is built for.
Ok lets stop talking about bad cards in the main and lets start talking about how to improve the flex/sideboard slots.
Anyway. For me, personally, I'm going into a PTQ come the end of August and I'm between this deck and Affinity. I've been playing Affinity for longer, but Affinity has become a very popular beast in my area. Along with Affinity, I'm expecting BG Rock as the 2nd most popular deck I think.
Regardless, I'm trying to decide between Angel Pod and Melira Pod, with the following lists for both:
Burrenton Forge-Tender - Havent got to do too much with this card yet, so I'm unsure how good it will be.
Kataki - I want Affinity hate, not sure if this is the correct one or not.
Lingering Souls - Havent got to play too much with this card, so we'll see. Seems awesome though.
This is the one I'm leaning towards, however I realise Melira Pod is better vs. Affinity so I think what I SHOULD play is:
I've also been thinking about the best way to metagame against robots. I beat it a decent amount of the time when I test with my friends (slightly unfavorable pre-board, favorable post-board like you'd expect), but I've dropped my last five matches to it in tournaments >_<. The highlight was probably when my opponent Spell Pierced my Creeping Corrosion. Is that even a thing?
Anyway, I prefer Melira from the start. Running Reclamation Sage as well as Qasali Pridemage is reasonable (I like Sage maindeck over Pridemage tho since you can pod it after you kill their Plating), as is running 3 Abrupt Decays. Obviously Path is very good against them, but Dismember is better against more decks, so I still run Dismember.
I'd run Lingering Souls and Kataki regardless of which list you're playing. I think the keys to the matchup post-board are 1) kill their big cards with Abrupt Decay/Kataki/etc and 2) get out fliers via Lingering Souls. The Blinkmoth lands get around every piece of hate we have EXCEPT Souls.
What you described is how it should work in theory, but in practice, it always underperforms. Your opponent will cast bolt during their own turn instead of at the end of your turn, but ultimately it doesn't matter because they're still spending their mana before their next untap step. Against Aggro, it's 2 blockers, against Combo, they can just ignore it, and against Control, it's a bad Grand Abolisher, where if they decide they want to respond to you casting a Pod, they still can. If you want the chance to get real value out of it, you need to keep it on the table, and while you do that, he's just a bear. Instead of two extra redundant Voices, you could say I have Sin Collector and Entomber Exarch, which provide actual real disruption and card advantage against both Combo and Control, rather than pseudo virtual card advantage against just Control.
I want options. We're a toolbox deck, after all. If all I played against was Control, of course I'd play more Voices in place of dead cards like Shriekmaw. Keep in mind that we have a sideboard, and my list is designed to maximize our options in game 1, and our slots are limited.
Are you sure you are playing the voice correctly (not forgetting triggers)? It completely shuts down faeries, creates all sorts of headaches to control. It can reset the pod chain for lists running Viscera Seer and it's VERY good against all kinds of aggro, usually being 2-for-1. If your meta is combo heavy, I can understand you aren't too happy about it and you would be better off running something like Eidolon of Rhetoric instead.
Unless you are in late game without Pod (and you are then royally screwed anyway), Voice makes very good topdeck. Your deck should be loaded with value 3drops. If getting a 3 drop you need AND grizzly bear that can get out of hand pretty quickly for just 4 mana is not enough for you, I'm not sure what would.
Let's face it, with current card pool in Modern, Voice is always (even when PtE'd - you get land then) card advantage, exactly what deck like Pod is built for.
I have a slight dislike of Voice of Resurgence (not as much as Wizards, though). First lettt's assume we remember all our Voice triggers. It's like a Kitchen Finks that doesn't help combo. Against many decks the value just doesn't matter, and you're left with a 2/2 while you get pounded by Cranial Plating or Karn Liberated. As for the other matchups... UWR is easy to beat even without it. It is definitely nice to have against GB, I won't lie (though it needs some help to fight Tarmogoyf). It's okay against Scapeshift, but they will just kill you (much sad). And finally it's nice against Twin but not as important as Abrupt Decay and hate creatures. So, I play two. In almost all my games that's enough.
Also if you have pod out, any creature is a very good topdeck.
Lol, yes I'm sure that I am playing the easiest card in the deck correctly. You'd have to be a pretty bad player to forget such beneficial triggers, and in that case, Pod would definitely not be the right deck for you. Let's assume we are competent players, please. The thing I'm unsure about though, is what parts of my posts are you arguing about? I'm gonna address your points in a random order:
I was already being very generous when I said Voice was two blockers against Aggro, but it's certainly not VERY good against all kinds of Aggro. What kinds of aggro decks are you playing against? Let's rationalize a bit here: Affinity flies over, Merfolk is unblockable, Burn ignores it, Hatebears have any combination of First Strike, Flying and Exalted and Zoo is hardly played anymore and their creatures all start at x/3 anyway.
Faeries (as much as it is played) is also already so soft to Pod that you don't need redundant Voices at all. Their best card in the matchup is Pack Rat, against which Voice helps in no way.
Yes, Voice can reset the pod chain, and it's generally a good two drop to pod into and from, which is why I still run one. You get a token when it dies, which goes back to my original point of it merely playing out as a glorified version of Doomed Traveler. Would you play Doomed Traveler in Melira Pod? It's a 2-for-1 after all!
You'd get a land out of any creature they Path, and you just lose additional potential value if they use it on your Voice of Resurgence. It's actually one of the best non-combo creatures in the deck to Path. Also, Anger of the Gods is a card, and I'm not even talking about Spell Snare. I say that just because you exaggerate by saying Voice is always card advantage when it's not, but this isn't really why I dropped them to one.
If you have a Pod out, any creature is a good topdeck.
My current meta is mostly Affinity, Scapeshift and UWR Control. Against Affinity, I prefer having an extra dork, Qasali Pridemage and Reclamation Sage than the 2nd and 3rd Voices. Against Scapeshift and UWR Control, I prefer having Sin Collector, Entomber Exarch and Ranger of Eos than the 2nd and 3rd Voices. Against Midrange, I prefer having Entomber Exarch, Phyrexian Metamorph and Restoration Angel. Many lists run one or two out of three cards from each of those three groups, but they rarely run all three. I do, and they give me a lot more options for preboard games than Voice of Resurgence, resulting in a generally better preboard win %. BGx is a bit harder, but it's still slightly favorable; Birthing Pod is just so much value.
Voice is not super-exciting, especially when your opponent just untaps and kills it anyway, but it's the best 2-drop that serves as a bridge between mana dorks and the real meat in the Pod chain. What else are you going to play in its place? No other card does as much stuff at the equivalent CMC (plenty of cards other cards leave bodies behind and there's many stronger hatebears, but there's nothing that is both), not unless WotC loses their minds and unbans SFM or something. I wouldn't fault anyone for only playing 1.
...Also, looking through the other 2-drops you could try to play instead of Voice, it makes me sad that Epochrasite is probably a little too slow for Modern overall. A colourless 4/4 haste that never, ever dies would be kinda neat in some attrition games, though.
Voice is insane. It screws up your opponents tempo, has multiple lives, returns from Reveillark and more. At 2 power it's a bit weak to aggro but the card itself is solid.
Yes, it's a solid card. My point is that the first one is much better than the extra copies, and we have limited deck slots. Had the minimum deck size been 70 cards or something, I would've probably ran additional copies. The fact that you can recur it with Eternal Witness, Entomber Exarch and Reveillark is just further indication that the first Voice is way better. As DeadManSeven said, it is excellent as a bridge from 1-drops to 3-drops in a Pod chain, and I can do that fine with just 1 copy in the deck.
Keep in mind that I am discussing the card in the context of an actual decklist (in my sig if you missed it), and not in a vacuum. If you want to trade more options in Game 1 for a better chance at a Voice of Resurgence in your opening hand, that's personal preference. To me, it's not worth it, especially since you don't need it in your opener most of the time, and if you factor in mulligans and the fact that we want a hand with a dork + Birthing Pod in all preboard scenarios, you're gonna ship a ton of hands that just had a Voice of Resurgence in them. The single copy in the deck is enough for Pod chains. Let's face it, we're talking about some more consistency versus some more versatility. Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling are already consistency engines, the additional silver bullets really pay off.
I'm not trying to convince anyone to stop running copies #2 and #3, I'm explaining why I only run 1 because Lectrys asked me about it.
So this is my 60. My board hasn't been solidified and I'm still working on the main.
There are definitely cards that i'd like to cut but i'm not sure where the cuts NEED to be.
I do like running both "combos" in this list. The flexibility really allows me to take the game in whichever direction I feel is necessary.
The flex spots are cards I feel like just dont hold up their spot in the list. Or do they, and I'm just playing them to lesser potential?
How does anyone feel about Dryad Arbor? Definite way to start the combo without sacrificing a voice token.
How does anyone feel about Dryad Arbor? Definite way to start the combo without sacrificing a voice token.
Dryad Arbor stinks. It effectively enters tapped due to summoning sickness, dies to everything that kills other mana dorks, can't accel very well because GSZ is banned, and its place in providing a launching point for the combo is covered by Voice and Ranger of Eos. The ability to get it with a fetch is cute, but without something like Natural Order or Jitte or whatever other tools Legacy decks have to make that 1/1 relevant, you'll be wishing it was just a normal Forest 99% of the times you draw it. If you run Cartel Aristocrat you have all the flexibility with assembling the Melira combo you need.
About a year ago I was trying to get Dryad Arbor to work but I gave up on it. Summoning sickness on a land is a really big deal and we don't really have any synergies with it other than turning it into a card. Horizon Canopy will accomplish the same thing if you're in the market for that type of effect.
I've grown to dislike Woodland Cemetery. Any land that cannot tap for green on turn one can be extremely awkward with our seven 1-drop mana dorks. I decided to try Marsh Flats instead—it serves as an untapped green on turn one and another fetch that can find Godless Shrine.
I've grown to dislike Woodland Cemetery. Any land that cannot tap for green on turn one can be extremely awkward with our seven 1-drop mana dorks. I decided to try Marsh Flats instead—it serves as an untapped green on turn one and another fetch that can find Godless Shrine.
Some time ago I played Llanowar Wastes over Cemetery and it was actually good, the life loss was rarely relevant (surprising, I know) but I'm happy with Cemetery for now. I've been playing 1 Marsh Flats over a Misty Rainforest for months now, and have never looked back.
On Cemetery and Marsh Flats, I've found a single checkland to be ok. I'm using Cemetery myself but it could just as easily be Isolated Chapel. The double check lands are abysmal however so you really can't afford to ever have more than one. Marsh Flats is quite good, I'm glad to see it catching on again, although it seems to be catching on as fetch #9. I've found the 4 Catacomb, 2 Marsh Flats, 2 Misty Rainforest fetch base to do wonders. I have 6 ways to fetch a basic forest or swamp and 2 ways to get a plains. The plains is a little lower than ideal but it works.
In other news I've started to attend another shop that does Modern every week so I get to develop my list much more often now. Just got back from the first tournament tonight where I tied for first. Ended up playing Twin, Infect, Jund, and UW. I definitely wasn't at my best tonight in terms of play speed (2 matches went to turns) but this deck is just good. More importantly I got some good feedback on my Gitaxian Probe idea I've still been messing with as of a few pages back. Probe was directly responsible for my G1 wins against Twin and Infect by letting me know what I had to respect and what I could ignore. Against UW it gave me great information to play around permission as well. A better player probably wouldn't have needed the info but for where I'm at it was a very useful thing to have and it really shined against this line up of decks that weren't pressuring my life total. Over 10 games I took 10 damage from probe, but it probably also saved me 7 damage and won me some games so in the end I don't think the life loss was too horribly relevant. This all changes when Zoo is a thing.
The one thing I did find with probe is that my sideboard is built all wrong. I have fewer things to take out in a match so I need to reflect that in the card choices and make my board a bit more broad.
Otherwise the Sin Collector/Entomber/Resto package way overperformed. At this rate Restoration Angel may be stealing Kitchen Finks title as the best creature in the deck.
isnt melira pod supposed to be a combo deck? why are people cutting the finks and redcaps soo much? I feel 4 finks and 2 redcaps are a minimum but alot of ppl are cutting 1 redcap for resto now?
With Birthing Pod, you don't really need many redundant copies of combo creatures; if you want to find a combo piece, you can. Finks and Redcap are good value creatures outside of the combo, but there's often not room to run them at 4/2 and have room for spot removal, discard, other value creatures, etc.. The fourth Finks feels very redundant and the BB in Redcap is sometimes awkward as the deck has slowly become more GWb than GBw.
But Pod's not a combo deck. It has a combo in it, but as combos go it's a pretty bad one: it requires 2-3 creatures, none of which have flash or inbuilt protection, some of which are of extremely dubious value on their own, and it folds to any piece of spot removal (or in the case of the Melira combo, graveyard removal), all outside the colour that could offer reasonable protection in the form of counterspells. Relying on the combo and forcing it every game will make you lose, a lot. Since the majority of games are won with old-fashioned creature beatdown, it's incorrect to play Pod like it's a combo deck... but it's also incorrect of your opponents to not treat you as though you were playing a combo deck, and that's why it's so damn good.
Anyway. For me, personally, I'm going into a PTQ come the end of August and I'm between this deck and Affinity. I've been playing Affinity for longer, but Affinity has become a very popular beast in my area. Along with Affinity, I'm expecting BG Rock as the 2nd most popular deck I think.
Regardless, I'm trying to decide between Angel Pod and Melira Pod, with the following lists for both:
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Spellskite
1 Spike Feeder
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Wall of Roots
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sin Collector
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod
3 Forest
3 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Thoughtseize
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Lingering Souls
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Dismember
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
Sideboard slots I'm definitely open to changing:
Burrenton Forge-Tender - Havent got to do too much with this card yet, so I'm unsure how good it will be.
Kataki - I want Affinity hate, not sure if this is the correct one or not.
Lingering Souls - Havent got to play too much with this card, so we'll see. Seems awesome though.
This is the one I'm leaning towards, however I realise Melira Pod is better vs. Affinity so I think what I SHOULD play is:
1 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Murderous Redcap
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Spellskite
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Wall of Roots
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Viscera Seer
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Sin Collector
2 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod
3 Forest
3 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Thoughtseize
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Dismember
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Reclamation Sage
Thoughts?
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
Decks:
Standard:
Nope
Modern:
Mono-Green Nykthos
Gifts Tron
Melira Pod
Legacy:
Maverick (retired)
If Affinity is popular in the area you can probably make a pretty good prediction that decks good against Affinity will be the decks to beat. Obviously you don't want to be cold to Affinity either but if you can make it just 55% or so you're probably fine. I've played against Affinity a lot. Kataki is nice and you get major points in the hands you draw it but I think you can take or leave it simply because it's so inconsistent (need to naturally draw usually) and narrow. Lingering Souls is really helpful though and you probably want to include them since they're also applicable in other matches. Another good reason to use Lingering Souls is that Affinity is at it's worst against control and Souls is good against them both, it's even decent against BGx the card just does it all.
In an Affinity heavy environment Shriekmaw might not be the best, it's also pretty bad against the decks that beat Affinity.
I've found that I would usually prefer Forge Tender to just be a creature I can use to rebuild than have it for protection because Forge Tender is only good when they have it but a threat is good any time.
If you want sideboard slots for the souls perhaps 1 Thoughtseize, Sigarda, and the Forge Tender then you can swap Shriekmaw and Reclamation Sage to hedge MB?
Because that's a lot of deck space you're devoting.
My dilemma is not which combo to run. Its "do i want thoughtseize/more interaction or the midrange/combo deck"
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Spellskite
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Spike Feeder
1 Sin Collector
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Wall of Roots
1 Reveillark
1 Restoration Angel
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Shriekmaw
1 Eternal Witness
1 Linvala Keeper of Silence
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Birthing Pod
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chord of Calling
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Forest
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Razorverge Thicket
2 Gavony Township
1 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Woodland Cemetery
2 Nevermore
2 Dismember
2 Lingering Souls
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
Goodluck on deck brewing
Are you sure you are playing the voice correctly (not forgetting triggers)? It completely shuts down faeries, creates all sorts of headaches to control. It can reset the pod chain for lists running Viscera Seer and it's VERY good against all kinds of aggro, usually being 2-for-1. If your meta is combo heavy, I can understand you aren't too happy about it and you would be better off running something like Eidolon of Rhetoric instead.
Unless you are in late game without Pod (and you are then royally screwed anyway), Voice makes very good topdeck. Your deck should be loaded with value 3drops. If getting a 3 drop you need AND grizzly bear that can get out of hand pretty quickly for just 4 mana is not enough for you, I'm not sure what would.
Let's face it, with current card pool in Modern, Voice is always (even when PtE'd - you get land then) card advantage, exactly what deck like Pod is built for.
I've also been thinking about the best way to metagame against robots. I beat it a decent amount of the time when I test with my friends (slightly unfavorable pre-board, favorable post-board like you'd expect), but I've dropped my last five matches to it in tournaments >_<. The highlight was probably when my opponent Spell Pierced my Creeping Corrosion. Is that even a thing?
Anyway, I prefer Melira from the start. Running Reclamation Sage as well as Qasali Pridemage is reasonable (I like Sage maindeck over Pridemage tho since you can pod it after you kill their Plating), as is running 3 Abrupt Decays. Obviously Path is very good against them, but Dismember is better against more decks, so I still run Dismember.
I'd run Lingering Souls and Kataki regardless of which list you're playing. I think the keys to the matchup post-board are 1) kill their big cards with Abrupt Decay/Kataki/etc and 2) get out fliers via Lingering Souls. The Blinkmoth lands get around every piece of hate we have EXCEPT Souls.
I have a slight dislike of Voice of Resurgence (not as much as Wizards, though). First lettt's assume we remember all our Voice triggers. It's like a Kitchen Finks that doesn't help combo. Against many decks the value just doesn't matter, and you're left with a 2/2 while you get pounded by Cranial Plating or Karn Liberated. As for the other matchups... UWR is easy to beat even without it. It is definitely nice to have against GB, I won't lie (though it needs some help to fight Tarmogoyf). It's okay against Scapeshift, but they will just kill you (much sad). And finally it's nice against Twin but not as important as Abrupt Decay and hate creatures. So, I play two. In almost all my games that's enough.
Also if you have pod out, any creature is a very good topdeck.
Rasputin Dreamweaver EDH
Lol, yes I'm sure that I am playing the easiest card in the deck correctly. You'd have to be a pretty bad player to forget such beneficial triggers, and in that case, Pod would definitely not be the right deck for you. Let's assume we are competent players, please. The thing I'm unsure about though, is what parts of my posts are you arguing about? I'm gonna address your points in a random order:
I was already being very generous when I said Voice was two blockers against Aggro, but it's certainly not VERY good against all kinds of Aggro. What kinds of aggro decks are you playing against? Let's rationalize a bit here: Affinity flies over, Merfolk is unblockable, Burn ignores it, Hatebears have any combination of First Strike, Flying and Exalted and Zoo is hardly played anymore and their creatures all start at x/3 anyway.
Faeries (as much as it is played) is also already so soft to Pod that you don't need redundant Voices at all. Their best card in the matchup is Pack Rat, against which Voice helps in no way.
Yes, Voice can reset the pod chain, and it's generally a good two drop to pod into and from, which is why I still run one. You get a token when it dies, which goes back to my original point of it merely playing out as a glorified version of Doomed Traveler. Would you play Doomed Traveler in Melira Pod? It's a 2-for-1 after all!
You'd get a land out of any creature they Path, and you just lose additional potential value if they use it on your Voice of Resurgence. It's actually one of the best non-combo creatures in the deck to Path. Also, Anger of the Gods is a card, and I'm not even talking about Spell Snare. I say that just because you exaggerate by saying Voice is always card advantage when it's not, but this isn't really why I dropped them to one.
If you have a Pod out, any creature is a good topdeck.
My current meta is mostly Affinity, Scapeshift and UWR Control. Against Affinity, I prefer having an extra dork, Qasali Pridemage and Reclamation Sage than the 2nd and 3rd Voices. Against Scapeshift and UWR Control, I prefer having Sin Collector, Entomber Exarch and Ranger of Eos than the 2nd and 3rd Voices. Against Midrange, I prefer having Entomber Exarch, Phyrexian Metamorph and Restoration Angel. Many lists run one or two out of three cards from each of those three groups, but they rarely run all three. I do, and they give me a lot more options for preboard games than Voice of Resurgence, resulting in a generally better preboard win %. BGx is a bit harder, but it's still slightly favorable; Birthing Pod is just so much value.
GWUB 4C Gifts Control
Commander:
GWU Derevi
BGW Ghave
BUG Muldrotha
Tiny Leaders:
BGW Doran
BGU Leovold
And what about those times that the 1/1 actually is a 5/5 and wins you the game because of it? Hm?
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
...Also, looking through the other 2-drops you could try to play instead of Voice, it makes me sad that Epochrasite is probably a little too slow for Modern overall. A colourless 4/4 haste that never, ever dies would be kinda neat in some attrition games, though.
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.
Keep in mind that I am discussing the card in the context of an actual decklist (in my sig if you missed it), and not in a vacuum. If you want to trade more options in Game 1 for a better chance at a Voice of Resurgence in your opening hand, that's personal preference. To me, it's not worth it, especially since you don't need it in your opener most of the time, and if you factor in mulligans and the fact that we want a hand with a dork + Birthing Pod in all preboard scenarios, you're gonna ship a ton of hands that just had a Voice of Resurgence in them. The single copy in the deck is enough for Pod chains. Let's face it, we're talking about some more consistency versus some more versatility. Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling are already consistency engines, the additional silver bullets really pay off.
I'm not trying to convince anyone to stop running copies #2 and #3, I'm explaining why I only run 1 because Lectrys asked me about it.
GWUB 4C Gifts Control
Commander:
GWU Derevi
BGW Ghave
BUG Muldrotha
Tiny Leaders:
BGW Doran
BGU Leovold
There are definitely cards that i'd like to cut but i'm not sure where the cuts NEED to be.
I do like running both "combos" in this list. The flexibility really allows me to take the game in whichever direction I feel is necessary.
The flex spots are cards I feel like just dont hold up their spot in the list. Or do they, and I'm just playing them to lesser potential?
How does anyone feel about Dryad Arbor? Definite way to start the combo without sacrificing a voice token.
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Noble Hierarch
1x Viscera Seer
3x Voice of Resurgence
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Cartel Aristocrat
1x Melira, Sylvok outcast
1x Wall of Roots
1x Spellskite
1x Eternal Witness
1x Orzhov Pontiff
4x Kitchen Finks
1x Spike Feeder
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Restoration Angel
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Ranger of Eos
1x Shriekmaw
1x Reveillark
1x Archangel of Thune
3x Chord of Calling
4x Birthing Pod
Lands
3x Forest
1x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Woodland Cemetery
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
3x Gavony Township
Cartel Aristocrat
Ranger of Eos
1 Voice of Resurgence
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Sin Collector
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
3x Dismember
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
4x Thoughtseize
1x Aven Mindcensor
2x Abrupt Decay
Sideboard definitely needs work, but that can't be tweaked until the 60 is solid.
Decks:
Standard:
Nope
Modern:
Mono-Green Nykthos
Gifts Tron
Melira Pod
Legacy:
Maverick (retired)
Dryad Arbor stinks. It effectively enters tapped due to summoning sickness, dies to everything that kills other mana dorks, can't accel very well because GSZ is banned, and its place in providing a launching point for the combo is covered by Voice and Ranger of Eos. The ability to get it with a fetch is cute, but without something like Natural Order or Jitte or whatever other tools Legacy decks have to make that 1/1 relevant, you'll be wishing it was just a normal Forest 99% of the times you draw it. If you run Cartel Aristocrat you have all the flexibility with assembling the Melira combo you need.
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.
Some time ago I played Llanowar Wastes over Cemetery and it was actually good, the life loss was rarely relevant (surprising, I know) but I'm happy with Cemetery for now. I've been playing 1 Marsh Flats over a Misty Rainforest for months now, and have never looked back.
In other news I've started to attend another shop that does Modern every week so I get to develop my list much more often now. Just got back from the first tournament tonight where I tied for first. Ended up playing Twin, Infect, Jund, and UW. I definitely wasn't at my best tonight in terms of play speed (2 matches went to turns) but this deck is just good. More importantly I got some good feedback on my Gitaxian Probe idea I've still been messing with as of a few pages back. Probe was directly responsible for my G1 wins against Twin and Infect by letting me know what I had to respect and what I could ignore. Against UW it gave me great information to play around permission as well. A better player probably wouldn't have needed the info but for where I'm at it was a very useful thing to have and it really shined against this line up of decks that weren't pressuring my life total. Over 10 games I took 10 damage from probe, but it probably also saved me 7 damage and won me some games so in the end I don't think the life loss was too horribly relevant. This all changes when Zoo is a thing.
The one thing I did find with probe is that my sideboard is built all wrong. I have fewer things to take out in a match so I need to reflect that in the card choices and make my board a bit more broad.
Otherwise the Sin Collector/Entomber/Resto package way overperformed. At this rate Restoration Angel may be stealing Kitchen Finks title as the best creature in the deck.
decks playing:
none
But Pod's not a combo deck. It has a combo in it, but as combos go it's a pretty bad one: it requires 2-3 creatures, none of which have flash or inbuilt protection, some of which are of extremely dubious value on their own, and it folds to any piece of spot removal (or in the case of the Melira combo, graveyard removal), all outside the colour that could offer reasonable protection in the form of counterspells. Relying on the combo and forcing it every game will make you lose, a lot. Since the majority of games are won with old-fashioned creature beatdown, it's incorrect to play Pod like it's a combo deck... but it's also incorrect of your opponents to not treat you as though you were playing a combo deck, and that's why it's so damn good.
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.