Hey guys I recently switched off UWR control to kiki pod, I felt that right now having a reactive plan and trying to kill people with colonnade is a little slow in the current field of decks.
Just wondering if I could find a general guideline/list on sideboarding against popular decks in the meta, I feel as if I'm making mistakes after g1's and boarding out things I shouldn't be.
Is there a Sideboarding primer around anywhere? Did Liu post a guide I missed? I feel pretty good about knowing what I need to put in, but not so much on what to take out, when to dilute the combo, and so on.
Thanks.
This is my basic sideboard plan: I posted this a few pages ago so it might be just barely out of date, but as of now this is the SB plan I still play by.
I am playing kiki pod over a year now,I only won on minor tournament (less than 20 players) but on major tournament maybe average of 40-50 players,its really disappointing..I really had bad matchup against splinter twin,infect,mono blue tron,UWR control..Now,I really want to switch deck..I already experiment to domri rade instead of chord of calling,lot of switching on sideboard.Recently i copied brian liu's GP richmond kiki pod,i ended up 3-2,losing to tarmo-twin and affinity..The downside of this deck on game 1 you dont have any removal for infect,affinity and twin.It has lot a bad draw,always mulling to 6 or 5.Sometimes mana dorks are liabilities,for example for merfolk match-up they just vapor snag dork on turn 1,on UWR matchup they just bolt it,then your deck become slower
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.
the main problem i have is Anger of the gods: how do we fight this card??? in my local meta many decks play this card, also in main deck ( Twin, UWR, white moon, jund etc ). that card is printed against Birthing Pod decks and sincerely i don't know ho to get off my way...
Creatures that bite it harder to Anger of the Gods than to Wrath of God are not the way to fight Anger of the Gods (e.g. Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks, Noble Hierarch).
X/4+'s fight Anger of the Gods decently well (e.g. 4th Restoration Angel, 2nd Wall of Roots, 2nd Deceiver Exarch, maindeck Spellskite).
Your meta seems reasonably Domri Rade-friendly--Domri can land on Turn 2 instead of Chord of Calling's Turn 3+ (which means that Chord might not dodge Turn 3 Anger of the Gods on the play), and he withstands Anger of the Gods better than any non-X/4+ you tutor with Chord. (He's not so good against combo, but the only combo deck you've mentioned is Twin...)
How did Brian Liu was able to defeat them?
I need godlike hands to win these matchups.
Against valakut I've found that Gavony Township does wonders at applying pressure to them after they have all the counterspell in the world but I got to stick creatures in the field.
Trying to go for the combo is futile.
Birthing pod is always helpful, but I have the misfortune of never getting it against them, and my t1 dorks always die to pyroclasm.
Against Tron.
I hate this matchup.
I feel as if it were a coin toss where if they get t3 Karn I'm out of the game.
What is the plan against a resolved Torpor orb against a removal heavy deck. With Melira pod you always board out chords since you probably can't use convoke anyways. Is that wrong with Kiki pod, I mean Graf diggers cage is pretty scary.
Could someone list a sideboard guide with Brian list against the most common decks? Thanks
Against a resolved torpor Orb you can outrun them with a Gavony Township, and tutor Qasali Pridemage whenever you can.
This deck has answers to almost anything you throw at it.
IMHO, that is just wrong. I have never lost to melira pod either in my local meta or any of the bigger tournaments I have played in. Cards like abrupt decay and thought seize are very good cards, but without the ability to tutor for them need to be drawn into. Kiki-pods answers to most decks can be searched for, and the combo has to be respected. If you can deny melira pod one combo piece they will need to draw very well to catch you and stop you.
Melira Pod actually wins over Kiki Pod more frequently due to better disruption in form of removal
It really doesn't. You can look at tournament reports over the course of the past year, the Kiki vs Melira matchup favors Kiki for being the less fair of the two decks. Kiki Pod is built to handle disruption as second nature.
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.
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.
So what are you bringing to the conversation? This forum is to discuss Kiki pod and how to make/play it better. All you seem to be saying is that you prefer melira pod. Thats cool but why post it here?
Melira Pod actually wins over Kiki Pod more frequently due to better disruption in form of removal
It really doesn't. You can look at tournament reports over the course of the past year, the Kiki vs Melira matchup favors Kiki for being the less fair of the two decks. Kiki Pod is built to handle disruption as second nature.
I would like to see the said "tournament reports". The data form the last months I have access to show 69 to 55 won matches in favour of Melira Pod. Favoring Melira Pod even more in the recent months with the updated builds for the current meta.
In Brian Liu/Ryzaru's opinion according to his 1st place GP Richmond tournament report, Melira Pod lacks disruption against Twin Pod and generally can't overcome Twin Pod's creatures fast enough. Liu also won against Melira Pod with his Twin Pod list in the quarterfinals and semifinals of GP Richmond.
...Of course, Melira Pod maindecking Linvala and Twin Pod not maindecking Linvala can throw a monkey wrench in the match-up, and Twin Pod sideboarding Fiery Justice (like Liu did) throws another monkey wrench...
Melira Pod actually wins over Kiki Pod more frequently due to better disruption in form of removal
It really doesn't. You can look at tournament reports over the course of the past year, the Kiki vs Melira matchup favors Kiki for being the less fair of the two decks. Kiki Pod is built to handle disruption as second nature.
I would like to see the said "tournament reports". The data form the last months I have access to show 69 to 55 won matches in favour of Melira Pod. Favoring Melira Pod even more in the recent months with the updated builds for the current meta.
I've been playing Kiki pod for a long time and I very rarely lose to melira pod. It always seems like a very good match up for us. Our dudes are just bigger than theirs and we don't really care about their disruption because we also have very good disruption for them.
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.
How are you supposed to win against Tron or Scapeshift as a pod deck?
Good luck? Pray to not fight against them?
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.
Then just don't.
Better for us Kiki players.
Melira pod is a favourable matchup for kiki pod for several reasons.
Also:
* Kiki pod races with creatures better.
* Plays the grind game better.
* Has better pod chains.
* Is as resilent to hate than melira pod.
Melira has Abrupt Decay and thoughtseize, and that's a perfectly understandable argument. If you like those cards, melira is the way to go.
I prefer having a better beatdown plan, and all my creatures being useful by themselves even without Kiki-Jiki on the table.
IMO both decks can handle hate very well on their own ways.
How are you supposed to win against Tron or Scapeshift as a pod deck?
Good luck? Pray to not fight against them?
The good news? Twin Pod has a better RG Tron match-up than Melira Pod does!
Stick X/3+'s that dodge Pyroclasm, try to EOT "Exarch" into untap Kiki-Jiki, destroy all the Tron lands you can post-board (Restoration Angel blinking Avalanche Riders in response to Echo is the nuts), and feel free to combo off without protection. This is one match-up where all your speed Pod chains are actually usable without protection.
Against Scapeshift, I'd try sticking X/4+'s that dodge Anger of the Gods and LD'ing the snot out of them. Comboing off without protection against them is more risky because they pack instant-speed removal.
Aven Mindcensor works against both (to a certain extent, at least). Against Scapeshift, board in your Negates.
How are you supposed to win against Tron or Scapeshift as a pod deck?
Good luck? Pray to not fight against them?
The good news? Twin Pod has a better RG Tron match-up than Melira Pod does!
Stick X/3+'s that dodge Pyroclasm, try to EOT "Exarch" into untap Kiki-Jiki, destroy all the Tron lands you can post-board (Restoration Angel blinking Avalanche Riders in response to Echo is the nuts), and feel free to combo off without protection. This is one match-up where all your speed Pod chains are actually usable without protection.
Against Scapeshift, I'd try sticking X/4+'s that dodge Anger of the Gods and LD'ing the snot out of them. Comboing off without protection against them is more risky because they pack instant-speed removal.
Aven Mindcensor works against both (to a certain extent, at least). Against Scapeshift, board in your Negates.
Thanks. I was using Sowing Salt on my sideboard, but now I see how better Avalanche Riders are.
Chord of Calling is a huge card, and recurring the Riders is just exactly what I wanted to do to that pesky Tron
All right so I picked up Brian Liu's deck from Richmond (with small changes) and have played it in a couple of 8-mans/Daily/Premium Events.
First of all I have never had so much fun playing magic, second of all the deck feels extremely powerful and third the mana base sucks big donkeys' ass. No I mean really! I have lost more games to being color screwed or mulliganning into oblivion because of no green sources than I've lost to what my opponent was doing. I'm thinking switching to Melira because they have it all smooth and clean. But then again I'm thinking on a second posibility: cutting red. Giving up the ability to hard cast Kiki and just rely on Pod and Chord to find him.
First of all I've already cut Redcap. He's big, dumb, ugly, clunky and clumpsy and lacks relevant targets (Electromancer, Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter are the only ones I can think of). Some Melira decks have moved him to the sideboard and that speaks in high volumes to me as it's their actual win condition! So that leaves me with 2x Kiki-Jikis and one Conscripts. Looking at Kiki Pod lists I can't help but to think that it's kinda those drafts where you go into U/W and then open a Garruk, Primal Hunter in the 3rd pack and decide to "splash" him by adding 6 forests. Sure if you draw him you probably win the game, but is it worth it? If it was a Thragtusk I could understand the splash as it would be an actual splash and not a heavy commitment. Or better yet it reminds me of a Polymorph deck that decides to run a Tron mana base so that they can hardcast one of their two copies of Emmy in case they draw them (ok so maybe I'm being hyberbolic here)
But that's not what bothers me the most. What bothers me the most is that even when you do draw Kiki you're not always able to cast him, because fetching tripple red is a decision you need to make early on in the game. Fetching triple mountain is not always the right move so you have to do a lot of guess work. Sometimes you go for it and the opponent cuts you off of blue or white by burning your dorks and tec edging your lands and you never draw him. Sometimes you shock youself to death for no reason because you don't end up drawing him and sometimes you take the cautious route and end up drawing him at a time when he would win you the game on the spot. The deck only runs 23 lands and 7 fetches so fetching one land or the other makes a huge difference, especially when you keep a mana light hand.
Losing some sweet side board cards would obviously hurt, but we could still keep in a singleton Stomping Ground and keep those bad boys in.
I don't know as I said I'm new with this deck so I might talk nonsense. But have other more experient pilots thought the same?
PS: and yes I've dropped out of 4 out of 5 tournaments so far solely because of being color screwed so that's probably why I'm a bit frustrated. It could just be variance though.
I was also thinking of removing a color, but blue instead of red.
My main reason for this is due to the fact that I don't have any Noble Hierarchs.
So if you substitute Avacyn's Pilgrim for Nobles, that limits your blue.
It's pretty much a 1-for-1 swap to Village Bell Ringer for Deceiver Exarch.
Subbing Archmage is tougher. Grand Abolisher does the job, but doesn't fit the pod chain (but you can pod it out much quicker or chord for it cheaply, so maybe that's a good thing?)
The Spellskite is worth keeping (and since you still need lots of G, keep the Misty's in to search up your Breeding Pool or Steam Vents). I'd ditch the Hallowed Fountain then and maybe add a Razorverge Thicket instead.
You don't mess up your SB this way, and giving up Blue is pretty much a no brainer to me really. I'm doing it for budget reasons, but there's no reason why you shouldn't. Or were you more talking about getting rid of red, and being primarily GW with a splash or Blue? That's also an intriguing possibility. Ditch both UR and worry about tricking in Kiki for the combo. You'd want to go up to 4 chords I think to do that (or at minimum stay at 3).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
currently playing Modern: U tron WG boggles EDH: GW saffi ericksdotter
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This is my basic sideboard plan: I posted this a few pages ago so it might be just barely out of date, but as of now this is the SB plan I still play by.
Affinity:
- 1 Kiki Jiki
- 2 Domri Rade
- 1 Birthing Pod
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Glen Elendra
+ 2 Ancient Grudge
+ 1 Fracturing Gust
+ 3 Path to Exile
UWR:
- 1 Izzet Staticaster
- 1 Kiki Jiki
- 1 Wall of Roots
- 1 Qasli Pridemage
- 1 Birthing Pod
- 1 Redcap
- 1 Linvala
+ 1 Obstinate Baloth
+ 1 Thragtusk
+ 2 Negate
+ 1 Voice
+ 1 Sigarda
+ 1 Thrun the Last Troll
Living End:
- 1 Staticaster
- 2 Domri Rade
+ 2 Negate
+ 1 Sigarda
Maybe path to exiles as well.
Zoo:
- 1 Staticaster
- 1 Kiki Jiki
- 1 Pridemage
- 2 Domri Rade
+ 1 Obstinate Baloth
+ 1 Thragtusk
+ 3 Path to Exile
Tron:
- 1 Ooze
- 2 Domri
- 1 Staticaster
+ 2 Negate
+ 1 Avalanche Riders
+ 1 Fiend Hunter
Jund/ BGx:
- 1 Staticaster
- 1 Kiki Jiki
- 1 Pidemage
+ 1 Thrun
+ 1 Sigarda
+ 1 Thragtusk
Twin:
- 1 Staticaster
- 2 Domri
- 1 Kiki Jiki
- 1 Wall of Roots
+ 3 Path to Exile
+ 2 Negate
Pod/ Mirror
- 1 Kiki Jiki
- 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 1 Spellskite (maybe)
- 1 Glen Elendra
+ 3 Path to Exile
+ 1 Fiend Hunter
Scapeshift:
- 1 Staticaster
- 2 Domri
+ 2 Negate
+ 1 Avalanche Riders
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.
Creatures that bite it harder to Anger of the Gods than to Wrath of God are not the way to fight Anger of the Gods (e.g. Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks, Noble Hierarch).
X/4+'s fight Anger of the Gods decently well (e.g. 4th Restoration Angel, 2nd Wall of Roots, 2nd Deceiver Exarch, maindeck Spellskite).
Your meta seems reasonably Domri Rade-friendly--Domri can land on Turn 2 instead of Chord of Calling's Turn 3+ (which means that Chord might not dodge Turn 3 Anger of the Gods on the play), and he withstands Anger of the Gods better than any non-X/4+ you tutor with Chord. (He's not so good against combo, but the only combo deck you've mentioned is Twin...)
How did Brian Liu was able to defeat them?
I need godlike hands to win these matchups.
Against valakut I've found that Gavony Township does wonders at applying pressure to them after they have all the counterspell in the world but I got to stick creatures in the field.
Trying to go for the combo is futile.
Birthing pod is always helpful, but I have the misfortune of never getting it against them, and my t1 dorks always die to pyroclasm.
Against Tron.
I hate this matchup.
I feel as if it were a coin toss where if they get t3 Karn I'm out of the game.
Look his article:
http://manadeprived.com/kiki-pod-grand-prix-richmond-1st/
Against a resolved torpor Orb you can outrun them with a Gavony Township, and tutor Qasali Pridemage whenever you can.
This deck has answers to almost anything you throw at it.
It really doesn't. You can look at tournament reports over the course of the past year, the Kiki vs Melira matchup favors Kiki for being the less fair of the two decks. Kiki Pod is built to handle disruption as second nature.
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.
So what are you bringing to the conversation? This forum is to discuss Kiki pod and how to make/play it better. All you seem to be saying is that you prefer melira pod. Thats cool but why post it here?
In Brian Liu/Ryzaru's opinion according to his 1st place GP Richmond tournament report, Melira Pod lacks disruption against Twin Pod and generally can't overcome Twin Pod's creatures fast enough. Liu also won against Melira Pod with his Twin Pod list in the quarterfinals and semifinals of GP Richmond.
...Of course, Melira Pod maindecking Linvala and Twin Pod not maindecking Linvala can throw a monkey wrench in the match-up, and Twin Pod sideboarding Fiery Justice (like Liu did) throws another monkey wrench...
I've been playing Kiki pod for a long time and I very rarely lose to melira pod. It always seems like a very good match up for us. Our dudes are just bigger than theirs and we don't really care about their disruption because we also have very good disruption for them.
How are you supposed to win against Tron or Scapeshift as a pod deck?
Good luck? Pray to not fight against them?
Then just don't.
Better for us Kiki players.
Melira pod is a favourable matchup for kiki pod for several reasons.
Also:
* Kiki pod races with creatures better.
* Plays the grind game better.
* Has better pod chains.
* Is as resilent to hate than melira pod.
Melira has Abrupt Decay and thoughtseize, and that's a perfectly understandable argument. If you like those cards, melira is the way to go.
I prefer having a better beatdown plan, and all my creatures being useful by themselves even without Kiki-Jiki on the table.
IMO both decks can handle hate very well on their own ways.
I would argue that Melira Pod actually is a grinder list due to the fact that Kiki Pod plays more silver bullets.
The good news? Twin Pod has a better RG Tron match-up than Melira Pod does!
Stick X/3+'s that dodge Pyroclasm, try to EOT "Exarch" into untap Kiki-Jiki, destroy all the Tron lands you can post-board (Restoration Angel blinking Avalanche Riders in response to Echo is the nuts), and feel free to combo off without protection. This is one match-up where all your speed Pod chains are actually usable without protection.
Against Scapeshift, I'd try sticking X/4+'s that dodge Anger of the Gods and LD'ing the snot out of them. Comboing off without protection against them is more risky because they pack instant-speed removal.
Aven Mindcensor works against both (to a certain extent, at least). Against Scapeshift, board in your Negates.
Thanks. I was using Sowing Salt on my sideboard, but now I see how better Avalanche Riders are.
Chord of Calling is a huge card, and recurring the Riders is just exactly what I wanted to do to that pesky Tron
First of all I have never had so much fun playing magic, second of all the deck feels extremely powerful and third the mana base sucks big donkeys' ass. No I mean really! I have lost more games to being color screwed or mulliganning into oblivion because of no green sources than I've lost to what my opponent was doing. I'm thinking switching to Melira because they have it all smooth and clean. But then again I'm thinking on a second posibility: cutting red. Giving up the ability to hard cast Kiki and just rely on Pod and Chord to find him.
First of all I've already cut Redcap. He's big, dumb, ugly, clunky and clumpsy and lacks relevant targets (Electromancer, Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter are the only ones I can think of). Some Melira decks have moved him to the sideboard and that speaks in high volumes to me as it's their actual win condition! So that leaves me with 2x Kiki-Jikis and one Conscripts. Looking at Kiki Pod lists I can't help but to think that it's kinda those drafts where you go into U/W and then open a Garruk, Primal Hunter in the 3rd pack and decide to "splash" him by adding 6 forests. Sure if you draw him you probably win the game, but is it worth it? If it was a Thragtusk I could understand the splash as it would be an actual splash and not a heavy commitment. Or better yet it reminds me of a Polymorph deck that decides to run a Tron mana base so that they can hardcast one of their two copies of Emmy in case they draw them (ok so maybe I'm being hyberbolic here)
But that's not what bothers me the most. What bothers me the most is that even when you do draw Kiki you're not always able to cast him, because fetching tripple red is a decision you need to make early on in the game. Fetching triple mountain is not always the right move so you have to do a lot of guess work. Sometimes you go for it and the opponent cuts you off of blue or white by burning your dorks and tec edging your lands and you never draw him. Sometimes you shock youself to death for no reason because you don't end up drawing him and sometimes you take the cautious route and end up drawing him at a time when he would win you the game on the spot. The deck only runs 23 lands and 7 fetches so fetching one land or the other makes a huge difference, especially when you keep a mana light hand.
Losing some sweet side board cards would obviously hurt, but we could still keep in a singleton Stomping Ground and keep those bad boys in.
I don't know as I said I'm new with this deck so I might talk nonsense. But have other more experient pilots thought the same?
PS: and yes I've dropped out of 4 out of 5 tournaments so far solely because of being color screwed so that's probably why I'm a bit frustrated. It could just be variance though.
My main reason for this is due to the fact that I don't have any Noble Hierarchs.
So if you substitute Avacyn's Pilgrim for Nobles, that limits your blue.
It's pretty much a 1-for-1 swap to Village Bell Ringer for Deceiver Exarch.
Subbing Archmage is tougher. Grand Abolisher does the job, but doesn't fit the pod chain (but you can pod it out much quicker or chord for it cheaply, so maybe that's a good thing?)
The Spellskite is worth keeping (and since you still need lots of G, keep the Misty's in to search up your Breeding Pool or Steam Vents). I'd ditch the Hallowed Fountain then and maybe add a Razorverge Thicket instead.
You don't mess up your SB this way, and giving up Blue is pretty much a no brainer to me really. I'm doing it for budget reasons, but there's no reason why you shouldn't. Or were you more talking about getting rid of red, and being primarily GW with a splash or Blue? That's also an intriguing possibility. Ditch both UR and worry about tricking in Kiki for the combo. You'd want to go up to 4 chords I think to do that (or at minimum stay at 3).
Modern: U tron WG boggles
EDH: GW saffi ericksdotter