forgot omens is white. Hrmm, elvish visionary? Wall of roots just doesn't seem like a good draw most of the time, a dork that you can't cast until turn 2 and can't even kill a 2/1. Also doesn't seem to block many things that are relevant in the format right now. Visionary was massively awesome in Naya Pod in standard before rotation and seems potentially useful here.
Even though pontiff is white, I'd definitely include him. Heck, in my non budget deck I'd consider it even if it required a purple mana and just rely on pod or birds/deathrite. Such a great answer to so many things.
I would up the mana dork count to 8. Maybe some llanowar elves or something. The reason is that playing that turn 2 pod or finks is really really good. I think wall of roots is really good even without chord because of its 5 toughness. Blocks most goyfs.
I would really find a way to add qasali pridemage into the deck somehow. Torpor orb, rest in peace, etc. are all things that the deck needs to be able to deal with otherwise it is going to have a really hard time. Maybe take out 1 melira for it. If you really don't want to add white maybe viridian zealot.
Finally, I would consider both hex parasite and gavony township. The persist guys are really the backbone of the deck and many times you will not draw a pod, even with 4 of in the deck. Being able to just attack with a bunch of creatures and have them be super resilient to everything except PtE is just really good.
Finally, I would consider both hex parasite and gavony township. The persist guys are really the backbone of the deck and many times you will not draw a pod, even with 4 of in the deck. Being able to just attack with a bunch of creatures and have them be super resilient to everything except PtE is just really good.
This is worth repeating. Just this past Friday I was playing Pod at FNM and played 12 games over 5 rounds. Despite running 4 pods I only drew it twice out of those 12 games. The deck has to be functional without it.
What would be a good a good answer to torpor orb in this? I'm thinking any green artifact hate (krosan's grip, naturalize, ancient grudge) but I am thinking the deck needs other answers.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks
:symg:Elves | :symg:Mono Green Infect
| :symb:12post |
What would be a good a good answer to torpor orb in this? I'm thinking any green artifact hate (krosan's grip, naturalize, ancient grudge) but I am thinking the deck needs other answers.
Other than that, Qasali Pridemage's naturalize comes on an activated ability.
What would be a good a good answer to torpor orb in this? I'm thinking any green artifact hate (krosan's grip, naturalize, ancient grudge) but I am thinking the deck needs other answers.
I started with budget melira pod and now play pretty much a full melira pod nonbudget, but I always side in stuff like 4 abrupt decay, acidic slime, qasali pridemage, harmonic sliver. That's pretty much what you have to hope for to counter the torpor orb game 2.
And again back to what I said earlier, this deck should also be able to be strong value guys and attack and win that way, even with torpor orb out until you draw the artifact hate.
Since abrupt decay isnt budget, I would go with putrefy
I think it's hard to build this deck on a budget, and I want to commend the effort for trying. I think skipping white though makes the deck underpowered to the point where it's not worth running, however. There are better modern decks that can be made for $50 that have more power than this. The white in pod decks is crucial.
Obviously on a budget, you can't get fetches, and even if deathrite shamans were cheaper, they'd be much worse without the fetches. This makes Birds of Paradise the only good mana dude really worth using to enable the use of white, which are not too expensive ($3.5 per card is not terrible). I think you have to make a concession here for good fixing, and it will draw out removal more than the other guys will, which makes your threats more potent.
I think you need white for Cartel Aristocrat, Orzhov Pontiff, Qasali Pridemage and Reveillark. All of these cards do very powerful things for the deck, and you want to be able to cast them if they are in your hand. Ranger of Eos is less exciting, as without Deathrite Shamans, there is little point to having it in the deck.
Sin Collector may also be a good inclusion as well.
I think Sigarda, Host of Herons is worth having in the deck. She'll give the deck another way to win. She's worth having, even if you have the non-budget version.
I guess these suggestions put it out of the $50 range, but I think the extra money adds great power to the deck, and if the person already owns Temple Gardens, Godless Shrines and Overgrown tombs from Standard, as well as some of the M13 and Innistrad check lands, the manabase won't be that terrible at all. It will be a shame not to take advantage of Deathrite Shaman and Fetches that can potentially win games in another way, but that's less important than these other changes.
Honestly, the deathrite shamans, chords and fetches are the only "essential" money cards for this deck, and so skipping those really reduces the cost while not completely gutting the deck's power. Thoughtseizes, while nice, are not terribly essential and Duress is not a bad replacement - it gets most of what you want anyway. Voice of Resurgence is also a very nice inclusion, and I admit that's going to depower the deck as well, but can't be helped.
And of course, 2-3 Gavony Townships wouldn't hurt either.
Alternatively, one way to improve the current deck while not adding a lot of money is to add Green Sun's Zenith, which only adds another $15-18 to the deck's cost - a playset is less than a single Chord. Since most of the creatures are green, you have another 4 cards to tutor for almost anything in the current list, which is bound to improve your winning percentage by a mile. This is much better than Fauna Shaman, just because it's so much faster to use. It gives you 8 chances to draw kitchen finks if you need them for example. I realize it doesn't get your gravedigger or the seer, but it's not strictly worse than Chord - it can be quite a bit better in some cases as its unconditionally faster to use.
Something like below, while definitely above $50, may be a good starting point for someone who's already committed in Standard. If they already have access to shocklands, the missing cards would very much appear like a budget deck.
With this mana-base, there's still an 83% chance you can cast a mana dork on turn 1 (which I'd like to point out, is exactly the same as the G/B budget version in this thread). This isn't as high as we'd like it to be, but can't really be helped unless we add fetches.
With the dual lands from standard, this deck is only an additional $66. So while not completely budget, it would be kind of like a budget deck for someone wanting to go from standard to modern.
Overall, the deck is not as good as the real thing, but I think it's a lot better than the budget version suggested here. You'll win a lot more games with this with the inclusion of white.
I have made it a long time goal for me to slowly build a deck like this, I have only recently started playing magic so I don't have these older cards.
I already have the 4 birthing pod from last years standard.
I have been nabbing up as much of the deck as I can whille Modern Masters has increased supply significantly. However the lands and kitchen might take me awhille to get.
I got Scullers, Red caps and Reveilak from MMA limited. I have cartel aristocrats and 2 X Valoz's. own the 1 of phyrexian metamorph and shriekmaw.
Since without the tutors we aren't going to be as good at combo how can we improve the aggro plan?
I suppose adding in more combo pieces and moving some of other cards to the sideboard could be a solution. Perhaps moving out harmonic sliver and sin collector and maybe one of the mana dorks can be cut to make more room. I don't really see how to increase the odds of getting your combo without chord of calling though, and there's a fat chance that card will go down in price ever again.
Green's sun zenith will only work some of the time with this version of the deck, as it won't tutor for a sac outlet :/ It's not a terrible inclusion. In the worst cases, you can just get more kitchen finks.
Wall of Omens may not be that bad either. It'll block many aggro creatures and help you dig, but with rancor running rampant right now with the aggro decks, I think walls are just wasted space. You really need kitchen finks :/
I suppose adding in more combo pieces and moving some of other cards to the sideboard could be a solution. Perhaps moving out harmonic sliver and sin collector and maybe one of the mana dorks can be cut to make more room. I don't really see how to increase the odds of getting your combo without chord of calling though, and there's a fat chance that card will go down in price ever again.
Green's sun zenith will only work some of the time with this version of the deck, as it won't tutor for a sac outlet :/ It's not a terrible inclusion. In the worst cases, you can just get more kitchen finks.
Wall of Omens may not be that bad either. It'll block many aggro creatures and help you dig, but with rancor running rampant right now with the aggro decks, I think walls are just wasted space. You really need kitchen finks :/
Oh wow, didn't know that. lol. I just thought people didn't play it because it was only green creatures.
In that case, adding more combo pieces to the shell is a reasonable answer if the deck isn't running chord of calling. People are just going to bolt Fauna Shaman - it's too slow, and it's just going to waste your turns.
Summoner's Pact is still a $7 card, so not exactly budget. It's only green creatures though, like Green Sun's Zenith. It's super risky to play if they have a Tectonic Edge in play and/or they bolt your mana dork - it will force you to combo a turn or two later. If you can win the turn you play it, it can be a super good card though.
Congregation at Dawn gives you card disadvantage and it also has tempo loss, but you can assemble the combo very quickly with this card since it's a 3-mana tutor. Hell, you can get the entire combo if you don't have a single piece of it as it has no colour restriction. This card also has the advantage of being extremely cheap to obtain. Probably the best choice for budget, next to Jarod's Orders.
Jarad's Orders is another good budget option. It basically does what Summoner's Pact does (but isn't colour-restricted), however it'll cost mana on your turn, which makes you an entire turn slower. One upside to this is that the discarded creature works with Eternal Witness and Reveillark though, and you won't risk losing the game if your combo is disrupted or they bolted a mana dork and you can't pay the upkeep costs on Summoner's Pact. It'll do the job at least. It is nowhere near as good as Chord of Calling, but what is?
I think some testing would be required to see which of these 3 best candidates work best in the deck. You could also get 3 of each of the cheaper tutors and play test with them. If they both suck, then just get Chord of Calling and stop complaining
If one of these options actually functions okay, I guess I'd cut 2 or 3 of the following cards: Harmonic Sliver, Sin Collector, Thalia and one of the mana dorks. Thalia is probably the first to go to the sideboard, as it makes your tutoring much worse. Next would be Harmonic Sliver. I am not experienced enough to know if cutting the Sin Collector is better than cutting the mana dork - my gut says the mana dork - but I don't see where else to cut beyond these.
I think that's a fine list. I just want to clarify something. The point for my list is to get the dollars down though so that if somebody wanted to go from nothing to a deck quickly they can do that. If you're talking about what's "worth it," you have to have some context—worth it for what? My list is worth it for playing around, maybe getting familiar with the archetype in an FNM-like environment. It's not to take as a budget list to PTQ or even trying to win FNM-level events.
I see a lot of talk about the ground game, and I agree Pod wants a good ground game. The deck as it is maybe doesn't have the best GBw ground game, but it has some ground game and it gets you to the combo well.
I also want to stress that when you're aimed at making a basic Pod list to get you to the combo, Ranger of Eos really is the most exciting white card you can get—it easily finds a Viscera Seer and any other one-drop so that on the next turn you can Pod into a Melira.
What I really don't get is why you're all telling me to change the list by adding more money either directly or through the manabase to support white. The point for me was not to make the best deck for $125 or even to make the best one for $50, it was to make a passable Pod deck for as cheap as possible. Maybe if the posts were presented as, "Hey, here's level two," I would be a bit more appreciative, but I don't really appreciate, "Hey, skip that trash, do mine." That said, some of the specific card choice advice I have taken to heart; I'm thinking more about Wall of Roots and will definitely be replacing Fauna Shaman.
So for any reader, I would invite you to take these posts with a grain of salt. You can start from mysticc's list or anybody's list. That's fine. But don't feel like you need to start with any particular list. You can dip your toes in with mine, play it at some fun events or with your buds to learn how the deck works and what makes it tick. Then you can come back and follow other people's recommendations to ramp up before you jump into the most expensive versions. Or you can start with their recommendations; that's fine.
I think it's likely that someone who plays standard will want a budget upgrade to dip their toes into modern, rather than someone who has none of the cards wants to dip their toes into modern and bypass standard altogether. A lot of people who don't have access to cards usually start with standard. There's a lot of people that play standard.
If they play standard, my list really is "budget" and still remains fairly competitive. If you get above average draws with your mana, you may just end up doing quite well, and this list will definitely give the player the experience of piloting a non-budget pod deck - meaning the play experience will likely be more satisfying and relevant for when they do get the more expensive cards down the line.
I think a lot of us are insisting on white because it adds a lot of power to the deck - not to mention adds more sideboard options - otherwise, there is little incentive to build a pod deck in modern because it likely won't be powerful enough.
I'd love to add a Ranger of Eos to reduce the variance in assembling the combo even more - even if it is just finding the seer - but I don't know where to cut. If we had access to Inquisition or Thoughtseize, we could cut Shriekmaw, but we don't. Ranger of Eos' stock goes down when we don't have a pod out though. Without access to getting dual Deathrite Shamans, the card is kind of lame for 4 mana.
Last standard season I played naya pod and really enjoyed it. Currently I'm trying to get into the modern scene with a melira pod deck. I have a rough shell and would like some input!
I understand that the budget is a bit higher on my deck as I'm using a lot of my standard manabase but I feel like this list fits better in the budget thread than the official melira pod thread.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
~Signature by Rivenor @ Miraculous Recovery Studios~
I still recommend a singleton Ranger of Eos. You might think about replacing Dismember, too; a singleton you can't tutor with Pod is just okay. Shriekmaw could be a reasonable replacement on budget. Finally, you might think about a Reveillark, which can recur your combo pieces since you tend to have fewer copies of them.
I agree. I would not include the Dismember too and go with Shriekmaw.
I cannot emphasize how good Orzhov Pontiff is. I highly recommend adding it. Let's say your opponent has Dark Confidant in play. What you can do is pod in your Orzhov Pontiff, and when his trigger goes on the stack, you sacrifice it and haunt the Dark Confidant. Now the Orzhov Pontiff's ETB will finish triggering and the Dark Confidant will die, thus immediately putting yet another trigger on the stack. This effectively wipes out all of his x/2's on his board, which will include his Deathrite Shamans and whatever else he's got. This will be devastating.
Because you are running the metamorph, you also want to run Reveillark. While Reveillark can just be used for value, you do more crazy stuff with it. For example, if you copy the Reveillark with your Metamorph, you can sacrifice the Metamorph as the Reveillkark trigger goes on the stack, and then bring back that same Metamorph and another creature once that trigger resolves. Rinse and repeat. You can do this trick to bring back every creature with power 2 or less out of your graveyard into play. You can also infinitely do damage with the redcap and get back everything else with Eternal Witness. You can also scry your deck with the seer rather than the aristocrat until you find exactly what you want.
This is why white is so essential to the deck. It adds so much power. Please don't forget to include these cards! It gives you more ways to win even if you don't have Melira in play.
Without chord and fetches, are eternal witness even worth including? I feel like the card is only useful for me in non budget pod because I still frequently get use out of it even when I don't need to go retrieve a specific creature from the GY. Grabbing a fetch is a legit play many times and at the end of their turn, chord grabbing EWitness, getting chord back (to prevent huntmaster flip, to just get another body to pod away w/o losing the chord, another body to chord bigger, etc) is a very valid play.
Without fetches/chord, sometimes EWitness is a decent card and frequently it is just a terrible 2/1 body for 3 and I'd rather have another finks in its place. Ari cut them from his kiki pod deck even when running fetches, so might be worth considering how much value they still have here.
Eternal Witness is not super essential to the deck. You can probably cut it. You may regret it some games, but if you find that you can't get value out of it most games you draw it, then cut it.
Hey guys, I'm looking to get into playing this deck and I for the most part have all the creatures but I was looking for your help devleoping a budget mana base to try out for the time being before I get the money for fetchs and shocks. Here is what my deck currently looks like.
the m10 duals and the innistrad duals after rotation will probably be a good adition.
For a budget list I agree, but I do want to point out that the checklands are really bad in this deck. They lead to some awful hands. That said, they're better than nothing.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Even though pontiff is white, I'd definitely include him. Heck, in my non budget deck I'd consider it even if it required a purple mana and just rely on pod or birds/deathrite. Such a great answer to so many things.
I would really find a way to add qasali pridemage into the deck somehow. Torpor orb, rest in peace, etc. are all things that the deck needs to be able to deal with otherwise it is going to have a really hard time. Maybe take out 1 melira for it. If you really don't want to add white maybe viridian zealot.
Finally, I would consider both hex parasite and gavony township. The persist guys are really the backbone of the deck and many times you will not draw a pod, even with 4 of in the deck. Being able to just attack with a bunch of creatures and have them be super resilient to everything except PtE is just really good.
This is worth repeating. Just this past Friday I was playing Pod at FNM and played 12 games over 5 rounds. Despite running 4 pods I only drew it twice out of those 12 games. The deck has to be functional without it.
:symg:Elves | :symg:Mono Green Infect
| :symb:12post |
Other than that, Qasali Pridemage's naturalize comes on an activated ability.
I started with budget melira pod and now play pretty much a full melira pod nonbudget, but I always side in stuff like 4 abrupt decay, acidic slime, qasali pridemage, harmonic sliver. That's pretty much what you have to hope for to counter the torpor orb game 2.
And again back to what I said earlier, this deck should also be able to be strong value guys and attack and win that way, even with torpor orb out until you draw the artifact hate.
Since abrupt decay isnt budget, I would go with putrefy
Obviously on a budget, you can't get fetches, and even if deathrite shamans were cheaper, they'd be much worse without the fetches. This makes Birds of Paradise the only good mana dude really worth using to enable the use of white, which are not too expensive ($3.5 per card is not terrible). I think you have to make a concession here for good fixing, and it will draw out removal more than the other guys will, which makes your threats more potent.
I think you need white for Cartel Aristocrat, Orzhov Pontiff, Qasali Pridemage and Reveillark. All of these cards do very powerful things for the deck, and you want to be able to cast them if they are in your hand. Ranger of Eos is less exciting, as without Deathrite Shamans, there is little point to having it in the deck.
Sin Collector may also be a good inclusion as well.
I think Sigarda, Host of Herons is worth having in the deck. She'll give the deck another way to win. She's worth having, even if you have the non-budget version.
I guess these suggestions put it out of the $50 range, but I think the extra money adds great power to the deck, and if the person already owns Temple Gardens, Godless Shrines and Overgrown tombs from Standard, as well as some of the M13 and Innistrad check lands, the manabase won't be that terrible at all. It will be a shame not to take advantage of Deathrite Shaman and Fetches that can potentially win games in another way, but that's less important than these other changes.
Honestly, the deathrite shamans, chords and fetches are the only "essential" money cards for this deck, and so skipping those really reduces the cost while not completely gutting the deck's power. Thoughtseizes, while nice, are not terribly essential and Duress is not a bad replacement - it gets most of what you want anyway. Voice of Resurgence is also a very nice inclusion, and I admit that's going to depower the deck as well, but can't be helped.
And of course, 2-3 Gavony Townships wouldn't hurt either.
Alternatively, one way to improve the current deck while not adding a lot of money is to add Green Sun's Zenith, which only adds another $15-18 to the deck's cost - a playset is less than a single Chord. Since most of the creatures are green, you have another 4 cards to tutor for almost anything in the current list, which is bound to improve your winning percentage by a mile. This is much better than Fauna Shaman, just because it's so much faster to use. It gives you 8 chances to draw kitchen finks if you need them for example. I realize it doesn't get your gravedigger or the seer, but it's not strictly worse than Chord - it can be quite a bit better in some cases as its unconditionally faster to use.
Something like below, while definitely above $50, may be a good starting point for someone who's already committed in Standard. If they already have access to shocklands, the missing cards would very much appear like a budget deck.
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Woodland Cemetery
3 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
Spells
4 Birthing Pod
2 Duress
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Viscera Seer
1 Wall of Roots
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Sin Collector
1 Orzhov Pontiff
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
With this mana-base, there's still an 83% chance you can cast a mana dork on turn 1 (which I'd like to point out, is exactly the same as the G/B budget version in this thread). This isn't as high as we'd like it to be, but can't really be helped unless we add fetches.
With the dual lands from standard, this deck is only an additional $66. So while not completely budget, it would be kind of like a budget deck for someone wanting to go from standard to modern.
Overall, the deck is not as good as the real thing, but I think it's a lot better than the budget version suggested here. You'll win a lot more games with this with the inclusion of white.
I have made it a long time goal for me to slowly build a deck like this, I have only recently started playing magic so I don't have these older cards.
I already have the 4 birthing pod from last years standard.
I have been nabbing up as much of the deck as I can whille Modern Masters has increased supply significantly. However the lands and kitchen might take me awhille to get.
I got Scullers, Red caps and Reveilak from MMA limited. I have cartel aristocrats and 2 X Valoz's. own the 1 of phyrexian metamorph and shriekmaw.
Since without the tutors we aren't going to be as good at combo how can we improve the aggro plan?
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Green's sun zenith will only work some of the time with this version of the deck, as it won't tutor for a sac outlet :/ It's not a terrible inclusion. In the worst cases, you can just get more kitchen finks.
Wall of Omens may not be that bad either. It'll block many aggro creatures and help you dig, but with rancor running rampant right now with the aggro decks, I think walls are just wasted space. You really need kitchen finks :/
Green Sun's Zenith is banned, for the record.
UWRUWR Midrange/GeistRWU
Retired
GWBMelira PodBWG
Oh wow, didn't know that. lol. I just thought people didn't play it because it was only green creatures.
In that case, adding more combo pieces to the shell is a reasonable answer if the deck isn't running chord of calling. People are just going to bolt Fauna Shaman - it's too slow, and it's just going to waste your turns.
I suppose you could use Congregation at Dawn (instant, but have to wait a turn. Not a bad option), Jarad's Orders (get it in your hand, but definitely slow), a flipped Garruk Relentless (even slower), Ranger of Eos (only gets the sac outlet though, so meh), or Summoner's Pact.
Summoner's Pact is still a $7 card, so not exactly budget. It's only green creatures though, like Green Sun's Zenith. It's super risky to play if they have a Tectonic Edge in play and/or they bolt your mana dork - it will force you to combo a turn or two later. If you can win the turn you play it, it can be a super good card though.
Congregation at Dawn gives you card disadvantage and it also has tempo loss, but you can assemble the combo very quickly with this card since it's a 3-mana tutor. Hell, you can get the entire combo if you don't have a single piece of it as it has no colour restriction. This card also has the advantage of being extremely cheap to obtain. Probably the best choice for budget, next to Jarod's Orders.
Jarad's Orders is another good budget option. It basically does what Summoner's Pact does (but isn't colour-restricted), however it'll cost mana on your turn, which makes you an entire turn slower. One upside to this is that the discarded creature works with Eternal Witness and Reveillark though, and you won't risk losing the game if your combo is disrupted or they bolted a mana dork and you can't pay the upkeep costs on Summoner's Pact. It'll do the job at least. It is nowhere near as good as Chord of Calling, but what is?
I think some testing would be required to see which of these 3 best candidates work best in the deck. You could also get 3 of each of the cheaper tutors and play test with them. If they both suck, then just get Chord of Calling and stop complaining
If one of these options actually functions okay, I guess I'd cut 2 or 3 of the following cards: Harmonic Sliver, Sin Collector, Thalia and one of the mana dorks. Thalia is probably the first to go to the sideboard, as it makes your tutoring much worse. Next would be Harmonic Sliver. I am not experienced enough to know if cutting the Sin Collector is better than cutting the mana dork - my gut says the mana dork - but I don't see where else to cut beyond these.
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Woodland Cemetery
3 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
Spells
2 Duress
3 Congregation at Dawn
4 Birthing Pod
Creatures
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Viscera Seer
1 Wall of Roots
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Sin Collector
1 Orzhov Pontiff
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
I see a lot of talk about the ground game, and I agree Pod wants a good ground game. The deck as it is maybe doesn't have the best GBw ground game, but it has some ground game and it gets you to the combo well.
I also want to stress that when you're aimed at making a basic Pod list to get you to the combo, Ranger of Eos really is the most exciting white card you can get—it easily finds a Viscera Seer and any other one-drop so that on the next turn you can Pod into a Melira.
What I really don't get is why you're all telling me to change the list by adding more money either directly or through the manabase to support white. The point for me was not to make the best deck for $125 or even to make the best one for $50, it was to make a passable Pod deck for as cheap as possible. Maybe if the posts were presented as, "Hey, here's level two," I would be a bit more appreciative, but I don't really appreciate, "Hey, skip that trash, do mine." That said, some of the specific card choice advice I have taken to heart; I'm thinking more about Wall of Roots and will definitely be replacing Fauna Shaman.
So for any reader, I would invite you to take these posts with a grain of salt. You can start from mysticc's list or anybody's list. That's fine. But don't feel like you need to start with any particular list. You can dip your toes in with mine, play it at some fun events or with your buds to learn how the deck works and what makes it tick. Then you can come back and follow other people's recommendations to ramp up before you jump into the most expensive versions. Or you can start with their recommendations; that's fine.
If they play standard, my list really is "budget" and still remains fairly competitive. If you get above average draws with your mana, you may just end up doing quite well, and this list will definitely give the player the experience of piloting a non-budget pod deck - meaning the play experience will likely be more satisfying and relevant for when they do get the more expensive cards down the line.
I think a lot of us are insisting on white because it adds a lot of power to the deck - not to mention adds more sideboard options - otherwise, there is little incentive to build a pod deck in modern because it likely won't be powerful enough.
I'd love to add a Ranger of Eos to reduce the variance in assembling the combo even more - even if it is just finding the seer - but I don't know where to cut. If we had access to Inquisition or Thoughtseize, we could cut Shriekmaw, but we don't. Ranger of Eos' stock goes down when we don't have a pod out though. Without access to getting dual Deathrite Shamans, the card is kind of lame for 4 mana.
4 birds of paradise
2 viscera seer
1 thalia, guardian of thraben
1 qasali pridemage
1 cartel aristocrat
2 strangleroot geist
2 wall of roots
3 melira, sylvok outcast
1 sin collector
1 varolz, the scar-stripped
3 kitchen finks
1 eternal witness
1 harmonic sliver
2 murderous redcap
2 phyrexian metamorph
1 thrun, the last troll
1 acidic slime
4 birthing pod
1 dismember
2 abrupt decay
2 godless shrine
4 razorverge thicket
4 temple garden
4 overgrown tomb
4 woodland cemetery
2 gavony township
I understand that the budget is a bit higher on my deck as I'm using a lot of my standard manabase but I feel like this list fits better in the budget thread than the official melira pod thread.
~Signature by Rivenor @ Miraculous Recovery Studios~
I cannot emphasize how good Orzhov Pontiff is. I highly recommend adding it. Let's say your opponent has Dark Confidant in play. What you can do is pod in your Orzhov Pontiff, and when his trigger goes on the stack, you sacrifice it and haunt the Dark Confidant. Now the Orzhov Pontiff's ETB will finish triggering and the Dark Confidant will die, thus immediately putting yet another trigger on the stack. This effectively wipes out all of his x/2's on his board, which will include his Deathrite Shamans and whatever else he's got. This will be devastating.
Because you are running the metamorph, you also want to run Reveillark. While Reveillark can just be used for value, you do more crazy stuff with it. For example, if you copy the Reveillark with your Metamorph, you can sacrifice the Metamorph as the Reveillkark trigger goes on the stack, and then bring back that same Metamorph and another creature once that trigger resolves. Rinse and repeat. You can do this trick to bring back every creature with power 2 or less out of your graveyard into play. You can also infinitely do damage with the redcap and get back everything else with Eternal Witness. You can also scry your deck with the seer rather than the aristocrat until you find exactly what you want.
This is why white is so essential to the deck. It adds so much power. Please don't forget to include these cards! It gives you more ways to win even if you don't have Melira in play.
Without fetches/chord, sometimes EWitness is a decent card and frequently it is just a terrible 2/1 body for 3 and I'd rather have another finks in its place. Ari cut them from his kiki pod deck even when running fetches, so might be worth considering how much value they still have here.
3 Chord of Calling
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Reveillark
1 Spellskite
1 Viscera Seer
3 Wall of Roots
1 Scavenging Ooze
If it would help you guys while developing something, these are the special lands that I have available to me.
If you guys in general think that there are any easy budget changes that could be made to the main as well, that would be great!
Thanks a billion in advance for any/all your help!!
For a budget list I agree, but I do want to point out that the checklands are really bad in this deck. They lead to some awful hands. That said, they're better than nothing.