I actually keep Thoughtseize in against burn. Being able to discard/force their hand on skullcrack is really important.
StrichnineGaming: Needs more Linvala. She's a beating against both Pod and Twin, and neither of the decks can get rid of her easily.
Is the Match-Ups section seriously outdated? I'm asking because this deck is generally said to be one of, if not the best deck(s) in the format, yet most of its match-ups are considered unfavorable. In the BGx thread, it says Melira Pod is an easy matchup, yet here it says it's favorable for us. Who's right?
Additionally, from my experience exclusively playing this deck for one year (two years total) against my friend's UWR Control deck, that match-up is not favorable; maybe even at best but it's always a chore to play against it. Affinity is also challenging if your deck doesn't include Harmonic Sliver or Lingering Souls in the MD (most lists I've seen on mtggoldfish don't).
So, am I a bad player or are UWR Control and Affinity definitely troublesome match-ups unless you seriously tweak your deck list? Which decks from the Proven section are clearly favorable, and why is this deck so successful if the majority of its match-ups are unfavorable?
What do you guys think of this deck in a Pod and Twin heavy meta?
23 LANDS
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Gavony Township
3 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Marsh Flats
1 Godless Shrine
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Swamp
27 CREATURES
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Eternal Witness
1 Spellskite
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Viscera Seer
1 Wall of Roots
1 Shriekmaw
1 Reveillark
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Restoration Angel
6 INSTANTS and SORC.
2 Chord of Calling
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Birthing Pod
SIDEBOARD
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Lingering Souls
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Dismember
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Sin Collector
I'd only keep Kataki in the sideboard if there's also an Affinity player in your meta, I'd only keep Lingering Souls in the sideboard if you still see fair midrange and heavy control (e.g. Jund, UWR, not Pod, not Twin), I'd only keep Eidolon of Rhetoric if you see UR Storm, I'd only keep Obstinate Baloth if you see non-evasive full aggro (e.g. Zoo, Goblins, not Affinity) or Burn, I'm on the fence about keeping Sin Collector because Twin will board in board wipes but it hits nearly nothing against Pod...
Maindeck Linvala/Spellskite/Pontiff/Shriekmaw/Entomber Exarch/Pridemage look spiffy in that meta, though!
However, I don't support Restoration Angel in such a combo-heavy meta. The best she'll do is protect your creatures for a hefty price (OK, fine, she blocks Pestermite, opposing Restos, and opposing Linvalas). I'd rather go for another Murderous Redcap, as it's a combo piece (so you might win the Pod combo race) and it nails some pretty vital stuff against both Twin and Pod.
Is the Match-Ups section seriously outdated? I'm asking because this deck is generally said to be one of, if not the best deck(s) in the format, yet most of its match-ups are considered unfavorable. In the BGx thread, it says Melira Pod is an easy matchup, yet here it says it's favorable for us. Who's right?
Additionally, from my experience exclusively playing this deck for one year (two years total) against my friend's UWR Control deck, that match-up is not favorable; maybe even at best but it's always a chore to play against it. Affinity is also challenging if your deck doesn't include Harmonic Sliver or Lingering Souls in the MD (most lists I've seen on mtggoldfish don't).
So, am I a bad player or are UWR Control and Affinity definitely troublesome match-ups unless you seriously tweak your deck list? Which decks from the Proven section are clearly favorable, and why is this deck so successful if the majority of its match-ups are unfavorable?
Yeah, the match-ups are so outdated that I blatantly say how outdated they are. The Jund match-up still mentions the banned Deathrite Shaman (our match-up against Anger of the Gods has tanked since--Deathrite was easy to handle compared to Scavenging Ooze--Redcap consistently nailed it), UW Restoration Tempo/Midrange is still in the primer despite (nearly) falling out of the meta, Twin gets only one section (and All-In, the variant I cover, has to be the least popular Twin variant right now)...
I also have a hunch that the UWR Control match-up is even to unfavourable and gets worse post-board (maindecks changing to heavier removal isn't helping).
Affinity is a bit hairy pre-board, but it gets significantly better post-board. Pray their mulligans fail them (they fail them fairly often when I tested against them), and whip out every removal spell you can (Pontiff/Pridemage/Decay/Witness recurring stuff/Redcap also do serious work against Affinity).
I don't have much experience post-board, but pre-board, I don't think any of the Proven match-ups are solidly favourable. In particular, the Twin/Kiki Pod match-up is hard to salvage pre- and post-board. The UR Storm match-up does get significantly better post-board, though!
In Established, we roast Faeries, we roast Soul Sisters, we do well against Infect, we do OK against Zoo and Burn (especially post-board), I suspect we do decently well against Nykthos Green and Amulet, we get our butt handed to us by RG Tron...
...I suppose the real magic of Pod is that you don't tend to have really terrible match-ups (besides Tron and Twin Pod, and the Twin Pod match-up looks good compared to the Tron one).
Sorry about the list... dont know how to make it organized with links like eveyrone else.
So I was talking to a guy on Craigslist and scored all the cards I needed for this deck, after picking up everything else I ended up missing only the marsh flats and 1 misty rain forest. Are those really neccesary? if not, what should I replace it with? And ya, I'm thinking of dropping the resto angel for a 2nd murderous redcap.
I actually keep Thoughtseize in against burn. Being able to discard/force their hand on skullcrack is really important.
I really disagree with this notion. Skullcrack is a card that is good against bursts of lifegain. Pod is a deck that exploits incremental lifegain through Kitchen Finks and Scavenging Ooze. Skullcrack is the least of your worries, and my experience is that it's best to just jam into it. It's not a card you can heavily play against besides forcing them to have it. I would rather have cards like Forge-Tender, ScOoze, and Eidolon against them.
Sorry about the list... dont know how to make it organized with links like eveyrone else.
So I was talking to a guy on Craigslist and scored all the cards I needed for this deck, after picking up everything else I ended up missing only the marsh flats and 1 misty rain forest. Are those really neccesary? if not, what should I replace it with? And ya, I'm thinking of dropping the resto angel for a 2nd murderous redcap.
8 fetchlands is pretty ideal for this deck, and I would say the commonly accepted configuration is 4/3/1 Verdant/Misty/Flats. They're not necessary, per se, but they really smooth out your draws. What would you replace them with?
I think the 1st Restoration Angel is better than the 2nd Murderous Redcap, despite being in a combo meta. Pod is a deck that really takes advantage of the flexibility of singletons. I don't play the card myself, though.
Fetchlands are basically tri-lands in a deck like this. For a 3 color deck with some hellish color requirements and 3 colorless lands, that's a really big boon.
I currently do not own Archangel or Shriekmaw (working on it). What's another good 5-drop to have (besides Reveillark)?
If you don't have archangel or shirekmaw I'd definetly go for a resto angel instead. Podding Finks into resto angel is so much value it usually wins you the game. When finks is saced to pod, it comes back before pod trigger resolves, netting you a sweet 4 life(-whatever you paid for playing/activing pod)+letting you pod away finks again next turn without killing it+giving finks pseudo vigilance. Personally I run meliraless and run 2-3 resto angels so I can do it several turns in a row, which usually wins against any fair deck.
How do you guys play and sideboard against Infect? Everything I put out gets dismembered or killed spelled. And they tear my hand apart with Inquisition. :/
Don't go on the offensive in the early game. Like, at all. You're always the control deck against Infect, you need to keep all your men back to block their early guys to prevent being blown out by nut draws of more creatures than you have + multiple Mutagenic Growths. Throwing away your mana dorks is alright, but what you really want to aim for is to be blocking with creatures with power>0 to force them to waste their pump spells that would otherwise go straight to your head; you have more creatures than they do, so just curving out is often enough to keep you in the game, especially if you're playing all these 2-for-1s like Voice, Lingering Souls, etc.. They exhaust their hand very quickly, and if you're still alive you can usually stabilise by sticking Melira or Spellskite (Chording for either of these creatures in response to a pump spell usually results in unhappy faces from the Infect player) or by picking off their remaining creatures with Redcap, Shriekmaw, and especially Orzhov Pontiff. Pontiff is a sound beating against them, since it a) can knock out their whole team of tiny creatures at once, b) forces them to waste more pump spells to keep their creatures on the board, c) ignores Apostle's Blessing, and d) can slow down the second wave of creatures through the fear of getting its haunt trigger to go off.
And sometimes they just get lucky with two draws that are unbeatable and stupid, because that's how Magic works with the high-variance all-in aggro decks like Infect and Bogle. Accept that it happens, and don't beat yourself up too badly about it when that's the case.
Oh, and Melira turns Inkmoth Nexus completely useless. Because of the way the layers are applied (you'll need to get a judge to explain this in detail), animating a Nexus with Melira on the table results in a creature that can't deal any damage. Don't forget about this little quirk of the rules, because it's different to the way Melira interacts with other cards with infect.
Would it be smarter to simply side out my two thought seizes for 2 lingering souls, shriekmaw and one other card for an abrupt decay? It seemed like every time I thought seized him, all I would find was: guaranteed 1 dismember, 2 other kill spells, creature card and Inquisition. Then he just Inquisitions me next turn and sweeps my board.
THe one that plays at my LGS is a mono black infect.
Oh. Feel free to disregard most of my advice, then, I was talking about the G(/b)(/u) Infect deck. I don't even remember what Black creatures have infect, besides that dragon with the impossible name. I just took a look at the Infect primer, seems like a pretty brutish deck. Shriekmaw does exactly nothing, and Decay doesn't seem like it has that many targets (can't kill Vatmother or Inkmoth Nexus, which make up more than half the deck's threats) -- maybe you want a couple of Dismembers instead? Lingering Souls buys you time, but not really the kind that'll let you win the race the same way it would against the small men + pump spells Infect deck. I'd, uh... I dunno. Find room for Obstinate Baloth and/or Loxodon Smiter somewhere in your 75 and side out a lot of your top end? Discard sucks.
Would it be smarter to simply side out my two thought seizes for 2 lingering souls, shriekmaw and one other card for an abrupt decay? It seemed like every time I thought seized him, all I would find was: guaranteed 1 dismember, 2 other kill spells, creature card and Inquisition. Then he just Inquisitions me next turn and sweeps my board.
THe one that plays at my LGS is a mono black infect.
Definitely board out Shriekmaw against MBI, and boarding out targeted discard is also wise because they aim to shred you apart first, go nearly Hellbent taking you apart, then kill you on Turn 6+.
I honestly really don't know if there's anything I can do if I was a perfect player. They simply use their artifacts early game to exile my graveyard (hate on persist and scavenging ooze) and to draw cards and tutor for their land (to tape a land for 3 mana each). Then, once they get their land set up they get Karn planeswalker out and exile my field, roll out Wurmcoil Engine or, if Im really unlucky, get this 15/15 artifact out that looks like a squid... man.
I'm having trouble against Gr Tron too. I'm playing the 2 Thoughtseize version without the Melira combo but with the Angel combo. This means it's easier for me to disrupt, but slower to combo. However I recently played a dozen games against Tron, and I found it impossible to win.
Getting an early Birthing Pod on the board makes it easier to disrupt and beatdown, but everything goes awry when All Is Dust happens. I already sideboard Aven Mindcensor, but perhaps Fulminator Mage is also a possibility.
23 LANDS
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Gavony Township
3 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Marsh Flats
1 Godless Shrine
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Swamp
27 CREATURES
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Eternal Witness
1 Spellskite
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Viscera Seer
1 Wall of Roots
1 Shriekmaw
1 Reveillark
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Restoration Angel
6 INSTANTS and SORC.
2 Chord of Calling
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Birthing Pod
SIDEBOARD
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Lingering Souls
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Dismember
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Sin Collector
StrichnineGaming: Needs more Linvala. She's a beating against both Pod and Twin, and neither of the decks can get rid of her easily.
Additionally, from my experience exclusively playing this deck for one year (two years total) against my friend's UWR Control deck, that match-up is not favorable; maybe even at best but it's always a chore to play against it. Affinity is also challenging if your deck doesn't include Harmonic Sliver or Lingering Souls in the MD (most lists I've seen on mtggoldfish don't).
So, am I a bad player or are UWR Control and Affinity definitely troublesome match-ups unless you seriously tweak your deck list? Which decks from the Proven section are clearly favorable, and why is this deck so successful if the majority of its match-ups are unfavorable?
GWUB 4C Gifts Control
Commander:
GWU Derevi
BGW Ghave
BUG Muldrotha
Tiny Leaders:
BGW Doran
BGU Leovold
I'd only keep Kataki in the sideboard if there's also an Affinity player in your meta, I'd only keep Lingering Souls in the sideboard if you still see fair midrange and heavy control (e.g. Jund, UWR, not Pod, not Twin), I'd only keep Eidolon of Rhetoric if you see UR Storm, I'd only keep Obstinate Baloth if you see non-evasive full aggro (e.g. Zoo, Goblins, not Affinity) or Burn, I'm on the fence about keeping Sin Collector because Twin will board in board wipes but it hits nearly nothing against Pod...
Maindeck Linvala/Spellskite/Pontiff/Shriekmaw/Entomber Exarch/Pridemage look spiffy in that meta, though!
However, I don't support Restoration Angel in such a combo-heavy meta. The best she'll do is protect your creatures for a hefty price (OK, fine, she blocks Pestermite, opposing Restos, and opposing Linvalas). I'd rather go for another Murderous Redcap, as it's a combo piece (so you might win the Pod combo race) and it nails some pretty vital stuff against both Twin and Pod.
Yeah, the match-ups are so outdated that I blatantly say how outdated they are. The Jund match-up still mentions the banned Deathrite Shaman (our match-up against Anger of the Gods has tanked since--Deathrite was easy to handle compared to Scavenging Ooze--Redcap consistently nailed it), UW Restoration Tempo/Midrange is still in the primer despite (nearly) falling out of the meta, Twin gets only one section (and All-In, the variant I cover, has to be the least popular Twin variant right now)...
I also have a hunch that the UWR Control match-up is even to unfavourable and gets worse post-board (maindecks changing to heavier removal isn't helping).
Affinity is a bit hairy pre-board, but it gets significantly better post-board. Pray their mulligans fail them (they fail them fairly often when I tested against them), and whip out every removal spell you can (Pontiff/Pridemage/Decay/Witness recurring stuff/Redcap also do serious work against Affinity).
I don't have much experience post-board, but pre-board, I don't think any of the Proven match-ups are solidly favourable. In particular, the Twin/Kiki Pod match-up is hard to salvage pre- and post-board. The UR Storm match-up does get significantly better post-board, though!
In Established, we roast Faeries, we roast Soul Sisters, we do well against Infect, we do OK against Zoo and Burn (especially post-board), I suspect we do decently well against Nykthos Green and Amulet, we get our butt handed to us by RG Tron...
...I suppose the real magic of Pod is that you don't tend to have really terrible match-ups (besides Tron and Twin Pod, and the Twin Pod match-up looks good compared to the Tron one).
So I was talking to a guy on Craigslist and scored all the cards I needed for this deck, after picking up everything else I ended up missing only the marsh flats and 1 misty rain forest. Are those really neccesary? if not, what should I replace it with? And ya, I'm thinking of dropping the resto angel for a 2nd murderous redcap.
I really disagree with this notion. Skullcrack is a card that is good against bursts of lifegain. Pod is a deck that exploits incremental lifegain through Kitchen Finks and Scavenging Ooze. Skullcrack is the least of your worries, and my experience is that it's best to just jam into it. It's not a card you can heavily play against besides forcing them to have it. I would rather have cards like Forge-Tender, ScOoze, and Eidolon against them.
8 fetchlands is pretty ideal for this deck, and I would say the commonly accepted configuration is 4/3/1 Verdant/Misty/Flats. They're not necessary, per se, but they really smooth out your draws. What would you replace them with?
I think the 1st Restoration Angel is better than the 2nd Murderous Redcap, despite being in a combo meta. Pod is a deck that really takes advantage of the flexibility of singletons. I don't play the card myself, though.
Legacy: UB(R/G) Storm UB(R/G)
Vintage: UBG Gush Storm UBG
Legacy: UB(R/G) Storm UB(R/G)
Vintage: UBG Gush Storm UBG
If you don't have archangel or shirekmaw I'd definetly go for a resto angel instead. Podding Finks into resto angel is so much value it usually wins you the game. When finks is saced to pod, it comes back before pod trigger resolves, netting you a sweet 4 life(-whatever you paid for playing/activing pod)+letting you pod away finks again next turn without killing it+giving finks pseudo vigilance. Personally I run meliraless and run 2-3 resto angels so I can do it several turns in a row, which usually wins against any fair deck.
It was sadface to lose today to 50$ decks
And sometimes they just get lucky with two draws that are unbeatable and stupid, because that's how Magic works with the high-variance all-in aggro decks like Infect and Bogle. Accept that it happens, and don't beat yourself up too badly about it when that's the case.
Oh, and Melira turns Inkmoth Nexus completely useless. Because of the way the layers are applied (you'll need to get a judge to explain this in detail), animating a Nexus with Melira on the table results in a creature that can't deal any damage. Don't forget about this little quirk of the rules, because it's different to the way Melira interacts with other cards with infect.
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.
THe one that plays at my LGS is a mono black infect.
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.
Lingering Souls is shifty against Phyrexian Crusader (but at least it does serious work against Inkmoth Nexus and Phyrexian Vatmother), but boarding in Abrupt Decay is somewhat wise (hits Crusader, hits Runechanter's Pike if they think racing is an option, hits their graveyard hate).
Definitely board out Shriekmaw against MBI, and boarding out targeted discard is also wise because they aim to shred you apart first, go nearly Hellbent taking you apart, then kill you on Turn 6+.
If by Voltron you mean Bogles...board in as much enchantment destruction as possible (Decay/Pridemage/Harmonic Sliver/Reclamation Sage once M15 is released), keep your really good blockers like Voice and Persist dudes, keep Orzhov Pontiff because it might take out their unlucky dudes, aim to hit evasion (Spirit Mantle/Unflinching Courage/Rancor), Daybreak Coronet, or hate (Suppression Field, RIP), and keep Dismember/PtE/Kor Spiritdancer in mind (we run little enough removal that they will Voltron Spiritdancer against us).
Be prepared to lose quite a few games against Bogles, though. They're hairy.
decks playing:
none
Getting an early Birthing Pod on the board makes it easier to disrupt and beatdown, but everything goes awry when All Is Dust happens. I already sideboard Aven Mindcensor, but perhaps Fulminator Mage is also a possibility.
We are fortunate in that Tron is far from the strongest deck choice, meaning that it we will not face it often.