Archangel has a bigger body, and works offensively as well. It seems like the deck is going to need an effect like this going forward. I'm using ghostly prison at the moment, and at least locally it's been a house.
I forgot to ask a question in my last post. I have $70 to spend and the last bit of stuff I am missing for this deck is
4 Chord of Calling
2 Voice of Resurgence
Would it be smarter to buy the two Voices since I know nobody in my area that has it and few have matching trades on motl or would it be smarter to invest in the 4 Chord of Calling + a Voice of Resurgence?
Also thoughts on a one of Siege Rhino for a strong beater with a good etb eff + resto/e-wit taget?
I think the thing with leyline is that if you don't opwn with it you won't get to play it in time. Thalia makes it turn 5 at best, and with the lower land count and blowing up our own lands it becomes less feasible. The effect is strong, but I'm not sure this is the deck for it. G/W with ramp seems better, or even U/W with some counter back-up to ensure you have time to cast it.
I think Dragon Whisperer is a better two power flyer than the Phoenix, it's just as quick but being cheaper makes it more consistent in a deck that is expecting to miss land drops. It also has a better albeit improbable upside in the dragon tokens. The Phoenix, for three mana and free flying is comparable, but it's return to battlefield clause is difficult to achieve, and it has no fire breathing.
I've been running 2-3 copies of ghostly prison on my sideboard to combat go wide strategies. It doesn't always play nice due to Thalia, but is a pretty good stumbling block for twin, affinity etc.
Mainboard sultai charms? Mainboard reclamation sages? Pardon my ignorance but is that really happening? If it is and our vault gets blown out (the only thing those two cards can do to us) they spend the turn not playing a threat. Vault is one of our better cards atm, but losing a vault is not the end of the game. If vault is your only play you're doing it wrong or you need to get lucky anyways.
The milling aspect of ashiok is not about winning the game. It's all about messing with the opponents game plan. The 60 cards in the main board have been scrutinized, analyzed, tested and retested to have a certain functionality with consistency. Ashiok throws that out the window. Even by removing certain lands, you force your opponent to play differently. We want time to go late game, disruption will help do that. Almost every other deck is playing high impact, quality creatures because that is how they win. If they use otherwise dead removal to deal with it, they aren't threatening the board, giving us more time to develop. Ashiok is not necessarily a winning card, but it definitely bears further testing.
What cards are we running that will pull us back into the game? This is a one for one attrition deck. It's not about individual card quality. Ashiok attacks the opponent in three ways, milling their deck, making bodies and ultimately hand and graveyard denial. For three mana! Maybe red decks can ignore her and burn your face, but they were going to do that anyways. As far as being a dead top deck, what cards can we top deck and feel good about? DTT and vault? Still two turns to even try and stabilize.
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?
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.
I may have missed this one earlier in the primer but what do people think of Phyrexian metamorph as an answer to Geist of Saint Traft, eldrazi, etc. At worst it's another vial/sword/kitchen finks. I was testing against w/u tron and I don't really like being annihilated for a loss.
If you can buy two voice for 70, you buy them.
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?