I didn't think about that fact of top-decking a pod target and not having 3 red to cast it etc... Regarding the filters/misty and island, that does not seem unreasonable. Having more basics is always good and the corner case of hallowed fountain/flooded grove hands don't come up often. Double green does come up often with chord and ooze but +1 misty,+1 island should still cover that. It is definitely worth testing and it sounds very good in my head.
The reason I shy away from exarch is because of how low impact it can be after turn 3. Tapping something after turn 4 is not the most impactful spell. Pestermite is different as it is 2 powers of evasion but significantly more vulnerable as you stated.
You talking about Sigarda made me think of the benefits of Sigarda over Thrun in the variety of matchups in modern. Sigarda has been in and out of my sideboard multiple times. Sigarda does die to colonnade + resto in the UWR matchup and can get countered so that's a win for Thrun. Sigarda is indeed quite a beater against BGx if you can get it out. I might consider trying to find a slot for it. Sower of temptation I don't think is the route we want to take when decks are siding in removal against us. Creature shaped hate cards are way better indeed and I 100% agree with you.
Thanks for the reply. Path is indeed good against alot of common matchups. Against BGx, the plan is to usually out aggro them in the air or as always get birthing pod online. Using Path on a turn 2 confidant, although necessary, feels very bad as you are ramping your opponent. The ground gets too clogged up with oozes and tarmogoyfs. After trying to attack the matchup from multiple perspectives, I believe the old plan of playing 4/4's is just not as effective now that they have ooze and are not playing as many bolts, bloodbraid elves or deathrites. Tarmogoyf in the midgame gets to 4/5 frequently (instant, sorcery, land, creature) and ooze gets big easy in the matchup as well. These 2 creatures just are too big for Thrun and Baloth. They did not solve the matchup for me.
As for your maindeck choices, as I said earlier there's no right or wrong, just personal playstyles. Here are my observations and opinions. If you run 2 exarchs and 0 image, you are only allowing the 2CMC/2CMC chain with birthing pod but are cutting the 2 drops you don't care about sacrificing (wall of roots) which stick around the most. This also suggests you are a bit more combo oriented, so why only 1 chord? 1 Chord also means you lean heavily on having birthing pod if you need to combo win (nothing wrong with that) and may have path as a dead card in some matchups that play without creatures (scapeshift, tron, UWR). If you only run 1 chord though I can see why you cut some Wall of Roots. I personally like chord as I feel it makes the deck more consistent. Remember also that the less chords you have, the less effective your silver bullets are as each chord adds additional copies of silver bullets like kataki, spellskite, qasali pridemage etc.
I apologize for being absent and not more actively participating in the discussion on this thread. I have been busy due to school but have still been keeping track of what's been going on here. I just wanted to give everyone my current list and thoughts about the deck, including the numerous discussion on variations of this deck. The thoughts that I'm going to write will probably be rather controversial and will guaranteed generate a lot of arguments against them. I will be glad to hear them out and discuss further. In my opinion, there have been a lot of variations of this deck and I think what people decide to play in their 75 is ultimately based on their playstyle. There is very rarely a straight up right or wrong answer. Now that that is out of the way, let's delve into some topics I want to discuss.
Kitchen Finks
Many of the decklists I have seen on MTGgoldfish and here contain 2-3 Kitchen Finks in the main 60. Over the past months I have begun to more and more shy away from this card. It is by all means a very solid card, but I've found myself, in the end, only putting 1 in my main 60. Most people will probably think I'm crazy. Having 1 is essential for Podding up, the ability to gain life and having the sweet interaction of podding a finks into a restoration angel to seal away games in some matchups. I feel as though however, kitchen finks is making less and less of an impact against most matchups. This is compared to its other alternatives in my mind, voice and scavenging ooze. Against the top 4 modern archetypes (affinity, BGx, twin, Pod), kitchen finks is mediocre at best. It does nothing to stop affinity or help the combo in that matchup. It gets outclassed by tarmogoyf and is terrible against scavenging ooze against BGx. It is ok against twin but gets blocked by a deceiver exarch. Against pod, it usually isn't interacting well against voice, ooze, walls and angels. Against combo, tron and scapeshift, it is rather embarassing. It shines against burn and zoo, which are not as popular and still winnable with 1 finks. Its alternative, scavenging ooze and voice on the other hand, I believe are much better against the field. They interact favorably with your plan and interact with your opponent to disrupt their gameplan. Ooze is good against UWR, twin, Jund, Pod, creature decks, graveyard decks etc. Similarly, I would rather have voice against UWR, twin, Jund, pod, U tron, scapeshift etc. I am just starting to realize I would rather have ooze or voice in over finks. Opponents shrug their shoulders when they see finks, but have headaches when they see voice or ooze. The one downside is that you don't gain incremental value with restoration angel. TL:DR Ooze and voice are more useful in more matchups than Kitchen Finks. They allow you to interact with your opponent and further your plan.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Across all lists I have seen, Kiki-Jiki has always been a 2 of. Even I for the longest time have done so. But why? When I first started playing this decks years ago, it was a 3-of with 4 restoration angels and more chords. The combo was a huge part of the gameplan and having more draws for combo pieces helped. Now, I've been starting to realize, I only need 1. The arguments I can see for 2 is that, you have a higher chance to draw it, and that you have a backup if your first one dies. You can also say that pre-board, you win more games through combo as your opponent is less prepared for it, so 2 kiki is better. As I've grown more and more skilled with the deck, I've realized that I only need 1. In my games, if I'm going to go for the combo, I've already maneuvered the game state so that I either my opponent can't stop it or I have to go for it as a last ditch resort or I lose. In both cases, I don't need a backup one (though if I REALLY did, there's always eternal witness). Granted I have had games where casting Kiki-jiki without the combo on board to copy voice, finks or eternal witness every turn have won me the game. In those cases however, I'm already had and any spell would have been great. In most cases however, I'm not too much a fan of having Kiki in hand. I run 3 chords along with the 4 pods, so there's no shortage of ways to put one into play when needed, but I don't think I need 2. TL:DR 1 Kiki-jiki Mirror breaker in mainboard because I find no reason to have 2.
Path to Exile Mainboard
I myself and the lists on MTGO have been playing 2 paths mainboard. Why? I came to this conclusion from the fact that I was siding out my second kiki and finks every game for paths. Again the top 4, (affinity, BGx, twin and pod) all are matchups which you sideboard in path. So why not just put it main deck so you can have that slight advantage? There are matchups where its terrible (scapeshift, tron, storm etc come to mind) but mostly its good. I can see why people would do so! My latest list however plays 0 mainboard and 2 sideboard and you'll see why later. Again the argument of combo being your main plan game 1 is relevant here. TL:DR Most matchups you board in path, so why not have it main deck?
Vendilion Clique
This is probably the biggest change and arguably the most controversial of them all. After playing with 2 path mainboard for a long while and still not being happy with the BGx matchup and various other matchups, I searched high and low for solutions. Over the years, I've seen all the things people have tried to play in this deck and I arrived at Vendilion Clique. Users in this thread have also suggested it in the past. I myself was skeptical but have now been convinced after trying it out over various tournaments and having success. It was embarrassingly good against combo, scapeshift, UWR and twin. I stepped back and looked at my plan against BGx and realized I was winning the games through restoration angel beats. Vendilion Clique acts on the same axis. They are weak in the air and deal lots of damage to themselves (though lingering souls might be a thing now). The best argument against Clique and one which I can 100% agree is that it costs double blue. Like we really needed to make our manabase worse. I have however realized that my manabase hasn't really changed over the time my deck has changed. Now that I'm playing 1 kiki-jiki which I'm rarely casting, I don't need fire-lit thickets which I believe are due to the old days when this list used to play 3 kiki-jiki and wanted to cast it turn 4 ever game. A simple switch of 2 fire-lit thicket to 2 flooded groves makes it better though no less atrocious on paper. In total I have 3 red cards, 1 redcap, 1 kiki jiki and 1 zealous conscripts. Do I really need fire-lit thicket for these late drops? Casting voice into clique seems impossible at first, but again and again I've been able to do it. I've played this deck so much that when fetching, I can see how the next 3-4 turns will look and the lands I get will allow me to best do it without taking damage. Fetching with this deck is not an easy task and can easily cost you the game. I've had success with Cliques and will be having 2 in my 60 for my next 2 PTQ's. I may be wrong but I'm very optimistic. It shores up a lot of bad matchups and helps in the good matchups. It is always quite bonkers with restoration angel as you can imagine.Clique is at its worst against zoo, merfolk and affinity so keep that in mind. TL:DR 2 Vendilion Cliques mainboard. Yes I'm crazy but it works!
Those are the big changes and the controversial ones in my eyes. A lot of the changes and decisions I've made all have one thing in common: They all allow me to interact with my opponent. The 3rd chord and 4th restoration angel so many people shy away from along now with the 2 cliques allow me to play a lot of my game at their end step. Using wall of roots and instant speed spells allow us to speed things up even more and unload our hand faster, play spells on our turn and their turn. We all enjoy the times when we leave mana open and our opponent looks distraught going into the tank about what you could possibly chord up. Voice and ooze over finks, clique, more chords is more interaction with my opponent, stopping their plan and furthering ours.
The following are other things I've decided
2 Threads of Disloyalty Sideboard
I was unhappy about my BGx matchup and decided to put these in my sb now that I have flooded groves. Tarmogoyf and Ooze were the problematic cards and this solves it beautifully as they usually side out most of their Abrupt Decays postboard. If not you can always pod their creature or steal it with resto angel permanently before they decay it. If they use a removal spell on the creature you stole, nice 2 for 1!
3 Hierach and 3 Wall of Roots
This is due to the fact that I have 3 chords and most instant speed spells which allow me to utilize Wall of Roots better. The 4 angels and 2 Cliques take over the skies while it gets clammed up on the ground. I can however see playing a fourth hierarch over a wall as a turn 1 accelerant is always more powerful and it also fixes your mana. It is up to you.
4 Restoration Angel, 3 Chord
Most lists I see are running 3 Angels and 2 Chords. I like to play the game at instant speed more and have more interaction. I like having an extra chord for slightly more adaptability. It is however justifiable to see less depending on your version and playstyle
0 phantasmal image, 1 exarch
I've gone over this multiple times but I just don't see the need for having 2 whole slots for unexciting creatures only to allow for birthing pod to combo at 1CMC/2CMC or 2CMC/2CMC. They are only there in the mainboard of lists for that reason. In my opinion, if you have pod in play, you don't need to use that risky ladder up the chain to win. You can mostly like get ahead using pod without it.
Thanks for the read. I understand that this is a super long post but I wanted to generate more discussion. I expect people to say I'm wrong or what I'm doing is crazy and would love to discuss with you about the decisions. If you say I'm wrong though or say otherwise, please remember to put reasoning behind your argument. We all want this deck to be the best and discussing it is the best way to do so. Other things people might want to discuss are the 6 city of brass vivid land version that got attention a while ago due to a friend of mine top 8'ing a PTQ with it, fauna shaman, playing gods (podding kitchen finks into ephara to draw cards?), strangleroot geist, loxodon smiters etc. There are hundreds of creature people have considered adding, feel free to bring the up!
Kiki Pod has a better combo and a better midrange plan than Melira Pod. In short, it's a better deck. The only downsides are the mana and the fact that it's insanely hard to play. If anyone played the deck absolutely perfectly, they'd probably win 95% of their games, but you're going to make a lot of misplays with Kiki. I'd suggest Kiki if you're an experienced player and are willing to commit to the deck.
I think you just summed up my thoughts on kiki-pod I agree whole-heartedly. When people ask me how Kiki does against this or that or if it has a bad matchup against a certain deck, I find myself usually saying that, as long as you know your game plan and have experience with the deck, you can beat anything. The only really bad matchup is scapeshift. I feel like playing this deck is like a puzzle game, there's usually a way to win, you just have to find out how. The mistakes you can make with this deck are really punishing and even the slightest one can cause you to lose the game.
Should we be playing more basics? I've been experimenting with running two over some combination of Grove and Fire-Lit Thicket and I like having them against Affinity and decks with Blood Moon.
Grove is probably the best land in your deck. I would not suggest you cut it for a basic. Fire-Lit thicket, powers out kiki, Paying GGG for chord, double green spells and scavenging ooze activations. I can very much see why you want another basic. The 4 color mana base just doesn't allow it however
Thanks a lot Brian! Really appreciate it and agree with all your points. Updated my sideboard plan and going to test it out during a GPT tomorrow. What's your opinion about Summoning Trap? I saw a list from MTGO do well with two of those in the sideboard. I can just imagine playing four of those and casting 2 of them in response of a Remand for a turn two kill. Probaly to cute though.
Also what was your reason not to include Kiora's Follower? I want to test him because he can accel, attack, has some nice chain possibilities with untapping pod and can go infinite in your opponent end step to untap for the win. Curious whether you tested him already.
I have considered summoning trap in the sideboard. It is honestly only good in your opening hand and you have to hope your opponent plays a counterspell. Searching out an extra creature is solid and gains you tempo but it is just so conditional. The deck is also not built around summoning trap but chord. There are too many 1 ofs and mana dorks for it to be worth it. Chord is probably more consistent. As for Kiora's follower, seems sweet but very hard to cast. Blue is the last color you search for. I would not replace wall of roots for it.
@Shpoog: The trinket mage is a neat idea, but I agree with what the other users are saying. You already have a tutor mechanic and that's your chords and birthing pods. There are plentiful creatures that do the same thing. There is also no room for all the artifacts + trinket mage.
@Udrew: Learning what hands to keep is very tough for this deck. It's very easy to say, I'll mulligan all hands without mana acceleration. If you do that, you will find yourself mulliganing too much. Any hand without green is a mulligan, that one is pretty hard set I think, (though I keep steam vents + fire-lite thicket). I've on numerous accounts kept 1 land hands with multiple mana accelerants. You just have to play a lot with the deck to know which hands can get there and which hands can't.
Brian, I've posted my sideboard plan two pages back, would you mind to take a look at it and tell me what you think of it? Thanks a lot in advance!
UWR: In addition to your sb plan, I put in 2 combusts. It can get frustrating not being able to attack into an open activation of celestial colonnade and combust lets you get through. +2 combust, -1 wall of roots, -1 image (or -1 chord if you run my 60)
Twin: I would take a wall of roots and a kitchen finks instead of 2 Hierarchs.
Pod Mirror: +2 Combust, +3 Path, +1 Fiery Justice, -1 Spellskite, -2 Voice, -1 Glen Elendra Archmage, -1 Kiki, -1 Wall of Roots. You need combusts to kill linvalas, archangel of thunes, restoration angels etc.
Tron: You don't need paths. Keep in some 2 drops. All you care about is turn 3 Karn or O stone.
If you think there will be a lot of affinity, you can play an additional fiery justice, as that is the most flexible sideboard card. This is of course in addition to the ancient grudge, 3 paths, 1 fiery justice and shatterstorm already in your sb. Path is probably your best answer to phyrexian obliterator. You can attempt to get back your path with an eternal witness to keep doing it, otherwise, just race it. The deck already has all the tools to beat Twin(2 combust, 3 paths in sb), the best thing you could do is to practice the matchup. Eidolon of Rhetoric should be better than Canonist because it doesn't die to bolt or ingot chewer from living end. Then again, storm switching to echoing truth or flame slash is kind of inevitability.
I don't feel like going into the new metagame with a Kiki Pod as opposed to Melira Pod for various reasons:
It is more suspectible to hate, which we will see more of now
You have to mulligan more frequently in a 15 round tournament, lots of hands are non-keepers
Melira Pod actually wins over Kiki Pod more frequently due to better disruption in form of removal
Melira pod feels way more reliable and is the more Jund-like deck with a combo people have to be afraid of.
Many of the decks in modern are susceptible to hate due to how strong hate cards in modern. I don't believe Kiki-pod is a deck that falls over by any means if your opponent has a resolved torpor orb, suppression field, grafdigger's cage or stony silence. I actually laugh when my opponent plays something like stony silence since he just spent a whole turn and card turning off a card that might not come into play. I just then proceed to kill them with Restoration angels. As to it being more susceptible to hate than melira pod, I believe both pod decks are on equal footing, except grafdigger's cage is much more devestating to melira than kiki-pod.
Having to mulligan more? Like any deck, there are good and bad opening hands. The 4 color mana-base and sometimes hands with only high CMC cards can lead to some awkward hands. Any hand with 0 green sources is an automatic mulligan and hands without a play turn 1 or 2 are usually too slow. On the flip side, you have 9-11 creatures that produce mana, that increase consistency. Having a two card combo with many ways to assemble means taking a mulligan isn't that bad. The sheer power level of cards pulls many hands through. A hand with a Birthing pod can go a long way. It is up to you to make the call.
As many people before me have stated, Kiki-pod has a favourable matchup against Melira Pod. This is because Melira Pod has no way of disrupting your combo game 1 and the fact that they have difficulty dealing with restoration angel. You state disruption in form of removal, abrupt decay is pretty bad against kiki-pod and both my opponents in the quarter and semi-finals correctly sided them out. Post board we both have paths and other more solid forms of removal. I can also be misunderstanding your statement and you might actually mean that Melira pod wins more matches in general due to the fact they have abrupt decay. Abrupt decay and thoughtseize are very strong cards and is definitely an argument to play melira pod over kiki-pod. Those cards are very useful against say splinter twin. I personally just like being proactive and killing them consistently on turn 4 with the combo. It is a much better plan when playing against tron, scapeshift or boggles.
Hello Ryzaru, congratulations on your performance.
What are your thoughts about Aven Mincensor?(Pod / Tron / Scapeshift)
Does it have room in the SB or doesnt make the cut?
Thanks
It definitely is a consideration for the SB as Tron and Scapeshift are probably our worst matchups. It really balances pod mirrors in your favor when in play. Against Tron, it might be a bit to slow though as they are usually using their "search" effects on turns 2-3 and unless you have it in hand, it doesn't come out by then to stop them. Against scapeshift, it totally stops their gameplan and is quite effective when casting in response to scapeshift (but they usually have counter/izzet charm backup).
As a tutor target though, aren't we already playing better targets? Linvala is usually a better target against pod and avalanche riders a better target against scapeshift/tron matches. I would need to test it out again to see how good it is in this metagame but I am not hopeful.
Thanks lev1atan, it really means a lot to me to see people enjoying my article and I appreciate your comment. It motivates me to write more articles and enjoy magic that much more. I am trying to set up a stream on twitch to champion kiki-pod and go through some of my plays and thoughts throughout matches. My username on twitch is the same as it is on here "ryzaru" so you can follow me there. I am only starting out though so there are still a few things I need to iron out like lag issues, banning trolls etc. Thanks again guys.
P.S. lev1atan, i already see you follow me on twitch so thanks again!
Well, an article about kikipod written by you would be awesome
seconded.
My Kiki-pod and GP Richmond article has been posted on Manadeprived.com. You can find it by following this link. I will also be on an upcoming podcast on quietspeculation.com and be a guest next week on the Eh Team, look forward to those as well! Please feel free to read when you have the time and I would love to hear any and all comments! Thanks again!
Thragtusk: UWR, Jund, Zoo, Burn. Not good enough against affinity as it doesn't fly, costs 5 and usually affinity hits in way larger chunks than the 5 life you gain.
Speaking of that, what do you think of using Obstinate Baloth instead? Sure Thragtusk can net you a beast if you Angel him or when they remove him, but you're never going to pod him away, he's harder to cast, harder to Pod or Chord for (both of those are relevant because these matchups don't like to give you time), and Bolt is roughly as efficient against it as against Obstinate Baloth. If it was only that, Thragtusk would still probably be preferable, but Liliana is still a card and the blowout of getting Baloth in play on a Liliana +1 is probably worth it, even though realistically it will happen about once every 7 games (so probably at most one time in a given event).
I also sideboarded him (Baloth) against Merfolk. Do you not do that with Thragtusk, or did you just forget them in the list of aggro decks?
- Pros still advocate melira pod even though it has a MUCH weaker combo and worse aggro plan. Our pods are better, our beatdown is better, our combo is more consistent. The trade-off is our manabase.
And also the ability to run catch-all answers like Abrupt Decay and Thoughtseize, no? Or do you consider our hate to be better/on a level with those cards?
- On modo, people don't scoop when you have the combo. This is especially frustrating against soul sisters having to manually create 1000 exarchs.
That's extremely rude and unsporting. I cannot believe Wizards allows that, there should be a way for Modo players to call a judge for those situations (there would still be a lot less judges required than in paper events). Oh well, I don't play modo so not my problem, but having whole strategies discouraged by the interface seems very wrong.
Obstinate Baloth is the 16th card in the sideboard that barely made it. I decided to go with thragtusk as it is slightly more synergistic with restoration and also MUCH better against zoo. I was expecting to face more zoo during the GP, and thragtusk is just game ending against zoo as opposed to the baloth. In general, thragtusk just ends games against fair decks like hatebears or jund. From my experience you almost NEVER discard baloth against a jund opponent. Baloth used to be ok with lillianas running around everywhere, but without that being the case, baloth just isn't as good anymore. If you wanted to run a 4 drop that gains you life, run loxodon hierarch as it has a much more relevant ability than baloth. I do not sideboard Thragtsuk/Baloth against Merfolk. Your usual plan against merfolk is to assemble the combo as fast as possible. Thinking you can outrace their unblockable islandwalk creatures is a usually a losing strategy.
Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay are indeed very strong cards and make their Twin matchup much much easier. I however find that Melira pod is just too fair. In this format of broken things, I like consistently killing on turn 4 rather than being reactive. I personally think Melira pod durdles too much, while Kiki-pod is looking to kill you in short order or just lock you out of the game.
As to modo, the chess clock is a very real thing. Even though you are playing the same game with the same rules, things can play out very differently. Triggers happen automatically, people prey on the high probability of misclicking when comboing with kiki-jiki and the metagame is extremely different.
is there anyone has the decklist of mihara on GP valencia?thanks in advance
I too want to see his sweet list. I tried running summoning traps but the deck just isn't built around it yet and the trap is only good in your opening hand. You also have to hope your opponent counters something which is awkward...
Blue Tron (That's still a thing?):
+2 negate
+1 aven mindcensor
+1 avalanche riders
+1 ancient grudge
-1 murderous redcap
-1 linvala
-1 spellskite
-1 ooze
-1 Wall of roots
First off, big kudos to Brian for coming and explaining some of his choices, always nice to pick someone's brain that has had success at a major event. Also wanted to thank you for solving one of my big problems with the deck, which is the 2 "flex" land spots you gave to Fire-Lit Thicket. Small change, but very effective, I much prefer the Thickets to another basic or Rugged Prairie, I rarely find myself wanting that much W. Sideboard choices were nice as well...I'd played Combust for a long time in my GR Tron deck and it was an all-star, it's performed very well in my playtesting.
Would you mind giving some sideboard analysis for some cards? A lot are fairly obvious, but some stand out:
What matchups do you bring in Fiery Justice? Anything with a lot of low-toughness creatures (Affinity, Pod decks, Elves)?
How often do you bring in Avalanche Riders? Obviously good against a deck like Tron, but does it come in against UWR (for Colonnade) and any 3-color decks to disrupt the manabase? Or is that too cute?
Thragtusk only comes in against aggro decks (Affinity, Zoo, Burn) as well as "fair" decks? (UWR, Jund, etc)
As for my own testing, I've been running with this list (and your land/sideboard changes) and it feels very strong (at least in the MTGO meta). It went 3-0 (6-1 in games) in an 8-man last night, beating a Naya deck with Knight of the Reliquary and two Melira Pod decks. I cut 1 Chord of Calling and 1 Wall of Roots as 3 Chords always seemed to clog up my hand, and I wanted another "action" card instead of the 3rd Wall. Bonkers card, but it seems like too many especially with the rise of combo, where I seem to be boarding out Chords very often.
I also cut Eternal Witness, but I'm much less sure of whether or not it's correct. It is nice to have some recursion, but I've never really felt like I needed it. It is possible it's right to still have 1 Witness and 2 Kitchen Finks, but I need more testing on this front.
Izzet Staticaster is an absolutely insane card and I'm totally in love with it. I can't count the number of times I've flashed it in versus another Pod deck and taken 3 or more dorks with it between end step/untap step after they overextend. It's definitely a bad card in some matchups, but being able to double-shoot with it and Deceiver Exarch/Restoration Angel/Zealous Conscripts feels just filthy at times :). It's certainly a dead card in some matchups, but it's a great all-around card that I almost never mind seeing and it's a card that can easily be boarded out for better cards instead of having to shave down the numbers of other good cards.
I also went back to Phantasmal Image and a second Exarch, losing that Pod chain hurts because there are moments when your opponent taps out and you only have that 1-turn window to combo off, and I'd hate to miss it. It's also just a very flexible, cheaply-costed card that enables some really cool interactions and lines. For me personally, it just makes the deck more fun to play! Would love to hear comments from anybody, this is just what I've found in my testing on MTGO, and apologies for length!
Edit: Formatting
I apologize in advance about the less comprehensive answers as I do not have time to flesh out all the answers.
I do not understand why people ran Rugged prairie in the first place. Your only double white spell is Linvala. Fire-lit thicket allows you green and red sources for your eternal witness, kitchen finks, scavenging ooze activations, chord of calling mana, redcap, kiki-jiki and allows you to still cast green spells even if your starting lands are something like steam vents and fire-lit thicket.
Sideboard:
Fiery Justice: pod, affinity, merfolk, elves (that's still a thing?), jund (kills bobs, goyfs and lillianas), hatebears. Do not make the mistake of boarding it in against zoo as their usually it can only kill 1 of their guys.
Avalanche riders: UWR to kill colonnades, tron and scapeshift
Thragtusk: UWR, Jund, Zoo, Burn. Not good enough against affinity as it doesn't fly, costs 5 and usually affinity hits in way larger chunks than the 5 life you gain.
The number of chords is the way it is in order to be able to have cards that interact with unfair decks. i.e Chording for spellskite against twin. It also makes the deck more redundant and consistent. It allows the deck to be able to turn 4 combo kill pretty consistently while also having quite a strong plan 2 of beating down.
I have already explained my stance on eternal witness in a previous post.
I have never found staticaster to be insane. Double shooting with Deceiver Exarch/Restoration Angel/Zealous Conscripts as you describe can be filthy but I would just rather pair those 3 cards with kiki-jiki from a chord. It's only OK against Dark confidant and pestermite, but other than that, you have to have things line up well. Staticaster in the pod mirror is very awkward.
As to the PI and second exarch, there's no right or wrong answer. I didn't play them because I didn't feel I would ever need them due to the fact that podding a 2 drop into glen elendra or redcap usually secures the board. It's also a question of playstyle (some people just like to go for it!). Again, I believe I have explained those two slots and the reasoning for their absence in my list.
Well, an article about kikipod written by you would be awesome
It is in the works, I have contacted/been contacted various places and will give an update when things are finished.
Yep ,keep us updated
On a separate issue, why is kikipod that unpopular in mtgo? We have same meta share than goblins right now according to mtggoldfish lol
It is unpopular on mtgo because of numerous reasons:
- modern is not a format in which people can just switch decks at a moment's notice due to card prices.
- it is a hard deck to pilot optimally, so people just don't want to put in the time to learn it
- Pros still advocate melira pod even though it has a MUCH weaker combo and worse aggro plan. Our pods are better, our beatdown is better, our combo is more consistent. The trade-off is our manabase.
- On modo, people don't scoop when you have the combo. This is especially frustrating against soul sisters having to manually create 1000 exarchs.
Why isn't reveillark player in Kiki pod? Is because of no sacrifice outlets? Seemes nice with resto angel, witness and it could pickup the combo pieces
Probably because podding to 5 usually wins the game (Kiki-Jiki)
What fsbrain said. As sweet as restoration angel on a reveillark would be, restoration angel on kiki jiki is a bit more effective.
I didn't think about that fact of top-decking a pod target and not having 3 red to cast it etc... Regarding the filters/misty and island, that does not seem unreasonable. Having more basics is always good and the corner case of hallowed fountain/flooded grove hands don't come up often. Double green does come up often with chord and ooze but +1 misty,+1 island should still cover that. It is definitely worth testing and it sounds very good in my head.
The reason I shy away from exarch is because of how low impact it can be after turn 3. Tapping something after turn 4 is not the most impactful spell. Pestermite is different as it is 2 powers of evasion but significantly more vulnerable as you stated.
You talking about Sigarda made me think of the benefits of Sigarda over Thrun in the variety of matchups in modern. Sigarda has been in and out of my sideboard multiple times. Sigarda does die to colonnade + resto in the UWR matchup and can get countered so that's a win for Thrun. Sigarda is indeed quite a beater against BGx if you can get it out. I might consider trying to find a slot for it. Sower of temptation I don't think is the route we want to take when decks are siding in removal against us. Creature shaped hate cards are way better indeed and I 100% agree with you.
Thanks for the reply. Path is indeed good against alot of common matchups. Against BGx, the plan is to usually out aggro them in the air or as always get birthing pod online. Using Path on a turn 2 confidant, although necessary, feels very bad as you are ramping your opponent. The ground gets too clogged up with oozes and tarmogoyfs. After trying to attack the matchup from multiple perspectives, I believe the old plan of playing 4/4's is just not as effective now that they have ooze and are not playing as many bolts, bloodbraid elves or deathrites. Tarmogoyf in the midgame gets to 4/5 frequently (instant, sorcery, land, creature) and ooze gets big easy in the matchup as well. These 2 creatures just are too big for Thrun and Baloth. They did not solve the matchup for me.
As for your maindeck choices, as I said earlier there's no right or wrong, just personal playstyles. Here are my observations and opinions. If you run 2 exarchs and 0 image, you are only allowing the 2CMC/2CMC chain with birthing pod but are cutting the 2 drops you don't care about sacrificing (wall of roots) which stick around the most. This also suggests you are a bit more combo oriented, so why only 1 chord? 1 Chord also means you lean heavily on having birthing pod if you need to combo win (nothing wrong with that) and may have path as a dead card in some matchups that play without creatures (scapeshift, tron, UWR). If you only run 1 chord though I can see why you cut some Wall of Roots. I personally like chord as I feel it makes the deck more consistent. Remember also that the less chords you have, the less effective your silver bullets are as each chord adds additional copies of silver bullets like kataki, spellskite, qasali pridemage etc.
I apologize for being absent and not more actively participating in the discussion on this thread. I have been busy due to school but have still been keeping track of what's been going on here. I just wanted to give everyone my current list and thoughts about the deck, including the numerous discussion on variations of this deck. The thoughts that I'm going to write will probably be rather controversial and will guaranteed generate a lot of arguments against them. I will be glad to hear them out and discuss further. In my opinion, there have been a lot of variations of this deck and I think what people decide to play in their 75 is ultimately based on their playstyle. There is very rarely a straight up right or wrong answer. Now that that is out of the way, let's delve into some topics I want to discuss.
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Wall of Roots
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Spellskite
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Eternal Witness
1 Deceiver Exarch
4 Restoration Angel
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Birthing Pod
3 Chord of Calling
Land
4 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Gavony Township
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Breeding Pool
2 Flooded Grove
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Path to Exile
2 Combust
1 Fiery Justice
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Avalanche Riders
2 Negate
1 Kataki, War's Wage
Kitchen Finks
Many of the decklists I have seen on MTGgoldfish and here contain 2-3 Kitchen Finks in the main 60. Over the past months I have begun to more and more shy away from this card. It is by all means a very solid card, but I've found myself, in the end, only putting 1 in my main 60. Most people will probably think I'm crazy. Having 1 is essential for Podding up, the ability to gain life and having the sweet interaction of podding a finks into a restoration angel to seal away games in some matchups. I feel as though however, kitchen finks is making less and less of an impact against most matchups. This is compared to its other alternatives in my mind, voice and scavenging ooze. Against the top 4 modern archetypes (affinity, BGx, twin, Pod), kitchen finks is mediocre at best. It does nothing to stop affinity or help the combo in that matchup. It gets outclassed by tarmogoyf and is terrible against scavenging ooze against BGx. It is ok against twin but gets blocked by a deceiver exarch. Against pod, it usually isn't interacting well against voice, ooze, walls and angels. Against combo, tron and scapeshift, it is rather embarassing. It shines against burn and zoo, which are not as popular and still winnable with 1 finks. Its alternative, scavenging ooze and voice on the other hand, I believe are much better against the field. They interact favorably with your plan and interact with your opponent to disrupt their gameplan. Ooze is good against UWR, twin, Jund, Pod, creature decks, graveyard decks etc. Similarly, I would rather have voice against UWR, twin, Jund, pod, U tron, scapeshift etc. I am just starting to realize I would rather have ooze or voice in over finks. Opponents shrug their shoulders when they see finks, but have headaches when they see voice or ooze. The one downside is that you don't gain incremental value with restoration angel. TL:DR Ooze and voice are more useful in more matchups than Kitchen Finks. They allow you to interact with your opponent and further your plan.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Across all lists I have seen, Kiki-Jiki has always been a 2 of. Even I for the longest time have done so. But why? When I first started playing this decks years ago, it was a 3-of with 4 restoration angels and more chords. The combo was a huge part of the gameplan and having more draws for combo pieces helped. Now, I've been starting to realize, I only need 1. The arguments I can see for 2 is that, you have a higher chance to draw it, and that you have a backup if your first one dies. You can also say that pre-board, you win more games through combo as your opponent is less prepared for it, so 2 kiki is better. As I've grown more and more skilled with the deck, I've realized that I only need 1. In my games, if I'm going to go for the combo, I've already maneuvered the game state so that I either my opponent can't stop it or I have to go for it as a last ditch resort or I lose. In both cases, I don't need a backup one (though if I REALLY did, there's always eternal witness). Granted I have had games where casting Kiki-jiki without the combo on board to copy voice, finks or eternal witness every turn have won me the game. In those cases however, I'm already had and any spell would have been great. In most cases however, I'm not too much a fan of having Kiki in hand. I run 3 chords along with the 4 pods, so there's no shortage of ways to put one into play when needed, but I don't think I need 2. TL:DR 1 Kiki-jiki Mirror breaker in mainboard because I find no reason to have 2.
Path to Exile Mainboard
I myself and the lists on MTGO have been playing 2 paths mainboard. Why? I came to this conclusion from the fact that I was siding out my second kiki and finks every game for paths. Again the top 4, (affinity, BGx, twin and pod) all are matchups which you sideboard in path. So why not just put it main deck so you can have that slight advantage? There are matchups where its terrible (scapeshift, tron, storm etc come to mind) but mostly its good. I can see why people would do so! My latest list however plays 0 mainboard and 2 sideboard and you'll see why later. Again the argument of combo being your main plan game 1 is relevant here. TL:DR Most matchups you board in path, so why not have it main deck?
Vendilion Clique
This is probably the biggest change and arguably the most controversial of them all. After playing with 2 path mainboard for a long while and still not being happy with the BGx matchup and various other matchups, I searched high and low for solutions. Over the years, I've seen all the things people have tried to play in this deck and I arrived at Vendilion Clique. Users in this thread have also suggested it in the past. I myself was skeptical but have now been convinced after trying it out over various tournaments and having success. It was embarrassingly good against combo, scapeshift, UWR and twin. I stepped back and looked at my plan against BGx and realized I was winning the games through restoration angel beats. Vendilion Clique acts on the same axis. They are weak in the air and deal lots of damage to themselves (though lingering souls might be a thing now). The best argument against Clique and one which I can 100% agree is that it costs double blue. Like we really needed to make our manabase worse. I have however realized that my manabase hasn't really changed over the time my deck has changed. Now that I'm playing 1 kiki-jiki which I'm rarely casting, I don't need fire-lit thickets which I believe are due to the old days when this list used to play 3 kiki-jiki and wanted to cast it turn 4 ever game. A simple switch of 2 fire-lit thicket to 2 flooded groves makes it better though no less atrocious on paper. In total I have 3 red cards, 1 redcap, 1 kiki jiki and 1 zealous conscripts. Do I really need fire-lit thicket for these late drops? Casting voice into clique seems impossible at first, but again and again I've been able to do it. I've played this deck so much that when fetching, I can see how the next 3-4 turns will look and the lands I get will allow me to best do it without taking damage. Fetching with this deck is not an easy task and can easily cost you the game. I've had success with Cliques and will be having 2 in my 60 for my next 2 PTQ's. I may be wrong but I'm very optimistic. It shores up a lot of bad matchups and helps in the good matchups. It is always quite bonkers with restoration angel as you can imagine.Clique is at its worst against zoo, merfolk and affinity so keep that in mind. TL:DR 2 Vendilion Cliques mainboard. Yes I'm crazy but it works!
Those are the big changes and the controversial ones in my eyes. A lot of the changes and decisions I've made all have one thing in common: They all allow me to interact with my opponent. The 3rd chord and 4th restoration angel so many people shy away from along now with the 2 cliques allow me to play a lot of my game at their end step. Using wall of roots and instant speed spells allow us to speed things up even more and unload our hand faster, play spells on our turn and their turn. We all enjoy the times when we leave mana open and our opponent looks distraught going into the tank about what you could possibly chord up. Voice and ooze over finks, clique, more chords is more interaction with my opponent, stopping their plan and furthering ours.
The following are other things I've decided
2 Threads of Disloyalty Sideboard
I was unhappy about my BGx matchup and decided to put these in my sb now that I have flooded groves. Tarmogoyf and Ooze were the problematic cards and this solves it beautifully as they usually side out most of their Abrupt Decays postboard. If not you can always pod their creature or steal it with resto angel permanently before they decay it. If they use a removal spell on the creature you stole, nice 2 for 1!
3 Hierach and 3 Wall of Roots
This is due to the fact that I have 3 chords and most instant speed spells which allow me to utilize Wall of Roots better. The 4 angels and 2 Cliques take over the skies while it gets clammed up on the ground. I can however see playing a fourth hierarch over a wall as a turn 1 accelerant is always more powerful and it also fixes your mana. It is up to you.
4 Restoration Angel, 3 Chord
Most lists I see are running 3 Angels and 2 Chords. I like to play the game at instant speed more and have more interaction. I like having an extra chord for slightly more adaptability. It is however justifiable to see less depending on your version and playstyle
0 phantasmal image, 1 exarch
I've gone over this multiple times but I just don't see the need for having 2 whole slots for unexciting creatures only to allow for birthing pod to combo at 1CMC/2CMC or 2CMC/2CMC. They are only there in the mainboard of lists for that reason. In my opinion, if you have pod in play, you don't need to use that risky ladder up the chain to win. You can mostly like get ahead using pod without it.
Thanks for the read. I understand that this is a super long post but I wanted to generate more discussion. I expect people to say I'm wrong or what I'm doing is crazy and would love to discuss with you about the decisions. If you say I'm wrong though or say otherwise, please remember to put reasoning behind your argument. We all want this deck to be the best and discussing it is the best way to do so. Other things people might want to discuss are the 6 city of brass vivid land version that got attention a while ago due to a friend of mine top 8'ing a PTQ with it, fauna shaman, playing gods (podding kitchen finks into ephara to draw cards?), strangleroot geist, loxodon smiters etc. There are hundreds of creature people have considered adding, feel free to bring the up!
I think you just summed up my thoughts on kiki-pod I agree whole-heartedly. When people ask me how Kiki does against this or that or if it has a bad matchup against a certain deck, I find myself usually saying that, as long as you know your game plan and have experience with the deck, you can beat anything. The only really bad matchup is scapeshift. I feel like playing this deck is like a puzzle game, there's usually a way to win, you just have to find out how. The mistakes you can make with this deck are really punishing and even the slightest one can cause you to lose the game.
Grove is probably the best land in your deck. I would not suggest you cut it for a basic. Fire-Lit thicket, powers out kiki, Paying GGG for chord, double green spells and scavenging ooze activations. I can very much see why you want another basic. The 4 color mana base just doesn't allow it however
I have considered summoning trap in the sideboard. It is honestly only good in your opening hand and you have to hope your opponent plays a counterspell. Searching out an extra creature is solid and gains you tempo but it is just so conditional. The deck is also not built around summoning trap but chord. There are too many 1 ofs and mana dorks for it to be worth it. Chord is probably more consistent. As for Kiora's follower, seems sweet but very hard to cast. Blue is the last color you search for. I would not replace wall of roots for it.
@Shpoog: The trinket mage is a neat idea, but I agree with what the other users are saying. You already have a tutor mechanic and that's your chords and birthing pods. There are plentiful creatures that do the same thing. There is also no room for all the artifacts + trinket mage.
@Udrew: Learning what hands to keep is very tough for this deck. It's very easy to say, I'll mulligan all hands without mana acceleration. If you do that, you will find yourself mulliganing too much. Any hand without green is a mulligan, that one is pretty hard set I think, (though I keep steam vents + fire-lite thicket). I've on numerous accounts kept 1 land hands with multiple mana accelerants. You just have to play a lot with the deck to know which hands can get there and which hands can't.
UWR: In addition to your sb plan, I put in 2 combusts. It can get frustrating not being able to attack into an open activation of celestial colonnade and combust lets you get through. +2 combust, -1 wall of roots, -1 image (or -1 chord if you run my 60)
Twin: I would take a wall of roots and a kitchen finks instead of 2 Hierarchs.
Pod Mirror: +2 Combust, +3 Path, +1 Fiery Justice, -1 Spellskite, -2 Voice, -1 Glen Elendra Archmage, -1 Kiki, -1 Wall of Roots. You need combusts to kill linvalas, archangel of thunes, restoration angels etc.
Tron: You don't need paths. Keep in some 2 drops. All you care about is turn 3 Karn or O stone.
Hatebears: +3 Path, +2 Combust, +1 Fiery Jusice, -3 Chord, -1 Glen elendra, -1 Spellskite, -1 Linvala
The rest of your sideboarding plan is correct.
@Udrew: look at Rbd340's sideboarding plan
Many of the decks in modern are susceptible to hate due to how strong hate cards in modern. I don't believe Kiki-pod is a deck that falls over by any means if your opponent has a resolved torpor orb, suppression field, grafdigger's cage or stony silence. I actually laugh when my opponent plays something like stony silence since he just spent a whole turn and card turning off a card that might not come into play. I just then proceed to kill them with Restoration angels. As to it being more susceptible to hate than melira pod, I believe both pod decks are on equal footing, except grafdigger's cage is much more devestating to melira than kiki-pod.
Having to mulligan more? Like any deck, there are good and bad opening hands. The 4 color mana-base and sometimes hands with only high CMC cards can lead to some awkward hands. Any hand with 0 green sources is an automatic mulligan and hands without a play turn 1 or 2 are usually too slow. On the flip side, you have 9-11 creatures that produce mana, that increase consistency. Having a two card combo with many ways to assemble means taking a mulligan isn't that bad. The sheer power level of cards pulls many hands through. A hand with a Birthing pod can go a long way. It is up to you to make the call.
As many people before me have stated, Kiki-pod has a favourable matchup against Melira Pod. This is because Melira Pod has no way of disrupting your combo game 1 and the fact that they have difficulty dealing with restoration angel. You state disruption in form of removal, abrupt decay is pretty bad against kiki-pod and both my opponents in the quarter and semi-finals correctly sided them out. Post board we both have paths and other more solid forms of removal. I can also be misunderstanding your statement and you might actually mean that Melira pod wins more matches in general due to the fact they have abrupt decay. Abrupt decay and thoughtseize are very strong cards and is definitely an argument to play melira pod over kiki-pod. Those cards are very useful against say splinter twin. I personally just like being proactive and killing them consistently on turn 4 with the combo. It is a much better plan when playing against tron, scapeshift or boggles.
It definitely is a consideration for the SB as Tron and Scapeshift are probably our worst matchups. It really balances pod mirrors in your favor when in play. Against Tron, it might be a bit to slow though as they are usually using their "search" effects on turns 2-3 and unless you have it in hand, it doesn't come out by then to stop them. Against scapeshift, it totally stops their gameplan and is quite effective when casting in response to scapeshift (but they usually have counter/izzet charm backup).
As a tutor target though, aren't we already playing better targets? Linvala is usually a better target against pod and avalanche riders a better target against scapeshift/tron matches. I would need to test it out again to see how good it is in this metagame but I am not hopeful.
P.S. lev1atan, i already see you follow me on twitch so thanks again!
My Kiki-pod and GP Richmond article has been posted on Manadeprived.com. You can find it by following this link. I will also be on an upcoming podcast on quietspeculation.com and be a guest next week on the Eh Team, look forward to those as well! Please feel free to read when you have the time and I would love to hear any and all comments! Thanks again!
Obstinate Baloth is the 16th card in the sideboard that barely made it. I decided to go with thragtusk as it is slightly more synergistic with restoration and also MUCH better against zoo. I was expecting to face more zoo during the GP, and thragtusk is just game ending against zoo as opposed to the baloth. In general, thragtusk just ends games against fair decks like hatebears or jund. From my experience you almost NEVER discard baloth against a jund opponent. Baloth used to be ok with lillianas running around everywhere, but without that being the case, baloth just isn't as good anymore. If you wanted to run a 4 drop that gains you life, run loxodon hierarch as it has a much more relevant ability than baloth. I do not sideboard Thragtsuk/Baloth against Merfolk. Your usual plan against merfolk is to assemble the combo as fast as possible. Thinking you can outrace their unblockable islandwalk creatures is a usually a losing strategy.
Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay are indeed very strong cards and make their Twin matchup much much easier. I however find that Melira pod is just too fair. In this format of broken things, I like consistently killing on turn 4 rather than being reactive. I personally think Melira pod durdles too much, while Kiki-pod is looking to kill you in short order or just lock you out of the game.
As to modo, the chess clock is a very real thing. Even though you are playing the same game with the same rules, things can play out very differently. Triggers happen automatically, people prey on the high probability of misclicking when comboing with kiki-jiki and the metagame is extremely different.
I too want to see his sweet list. I tried running summoning traps but the deck just isn't built around it yet and the trap is only good in your opening hand. You also have to hope your opponent counters something which is awkward...
I am going to base the sideboarding off of my list:
Merfolk:
+3 PTE
+1 Fiery Justice
+2 combust
-1 glen elendra
-1 finks
-2 ooze
-1 spellskite
-1 linvala
Blue Tron (That's still a thing?):
+2 negate
+1 aven mindcensor
+1 avalanche riders
+1 ancient grudge
-1 murderous redcap
-1 linvala
-1 spellskite
-1 ooze
-1 Wall of roots
UWR control/midrange:
+1 avalanche riders
+1 thrun
+1 thragtusk
-1 linvala
-1 redcap
-1 kiki-jiki
These are my general sideboarding strategies, feel free to adjust to your liking
I apologize in advance about the less comprehensive answers as I do not have time to flesh out all the answers.
I do not understand why people ran Rugged prairie in the first place. Your only double white spell is Linvala. Fire-lit thicket allows you green and red sources for your eternal witness, kitchen finks, scavenging ooze activations, chord of calling mana, redcap, kiki-jiki and allows you to still cast green spells even if your starting lands are something like steam vents and fire-lit thicket.
Sideboard:
Fiery Justice: pod, affinity, merfolk, elves (that's still a thing?), jund (kills bobs, goyfs and lillianas), hatebears. Do not make the mistake of boarding it in against zoo as their usually it can only kill 1 of their guys.
Avalanche riders: UWR to kill colonnades, tron and scapeshift
Thragtusk: UWR, Jund, Zoo, Burn. Not good enough against affinity as it doesn't fly, costs 5 and usually affinity hits in way larger chunks than the 5 life you gain.
The number of chords is the way it is in order to be able to have cards that interact with unfair decks. i.e Chording for spellskite against twin. It also makes the deck more redundant and consistent. It allows the deck to be able to turn 4 combo kill pretty consistently while also having quite a strong plan 2 of beating down.
I have already explained my stance on eternal witness in a previous post.
I have never found staticaster to be insane. Double shooting with Deceiver Exarch/Restoration Angel/Zealous Conscripts as you describe can be filthy but I would just rather pair those 3 cards with kiki-jiki from a chord. It's only OK against Dark confidant and pestermite, but other than that, you have to have things line up well. Staticaster in the pod mirror is very awkward.
As to the PI and second exarch, there's no right or wrong answer. I didn't play them because I didn't feel I would ever need them due to the fact that podding a 2 drop into glen elendra or redcap usually secures the board. It's also a question of playstyle (some people just like to go for it!). Again, I believe I have explained those two slots and the reasoning for their absence in my list.
It is unpopular on mtgo because of numerous reasons:
- modern is not a format in which people can just switch decks at a moment's notice due to card prices.
- it is a hard deck to pilot optimally, so people just don't want to put in the time to learn it
- Pros still advocate melira pod even though it has a MUCH weaker combo and worse aggro plan. Our pods are better, our beatdown is better, our combo is more consistent. The trade-off is our manabase.
- On modo, people don't scoop when you have the combo. This is especially frustrating against soul sisters having to manually create 1000 exarchs.
What fsbrain said. As sweet as restoration angel on a reveillark would be, restoration angel on kiki jiki is a bit more effective.
It is in the works, I have contacted/been contacted various places and will give an update when things are finished.
Maybe I should just write an article somewhere....