When should I try to go for the "combo-win" and when should I just beat down?
There are some MUs where the combo is often your best option if you have a Pod online, and these are either the ones you can't win otherwise, or the ones that don't interact much with your creatures :
Tribal Decks (Elves, Merfolk, Soul Sisters,...);
All-in Combo Decks (Reanimator, Ascendancy, Belcher,...);
Ramp Decks (Scapeshift, Genesis Wave, GR Tron, Bloom Titan,...).
The problem with these decks is we can't hardly assemble the combo before they go off with their strategy. That's why we play Thoughtseize, Sin Collector, Entomber Exarch and Eidolon or Rhetoric. The more you will play against control and combo decks, the more you'll like these cards !
Scullers are straight up better against Burn because they are down a card whether it lives or dies
How is it different with Sin Collector ? By playing Sculler, you give more power to Searing B's and Lavamancer, since they get their spell back. Plus you can't block in combat. 16 cards at least get more efficient if you play Sculler over Collector.
It may be irrelevant to say it comes faster into play. The ideal start is to play lands that don't hurt your life total. Hard to get BW turn 2 without an untapped shockland, and if you get a mana dork turn 1, you better have Collector turn 2.
No Spellskite(s) main, or am I just overestimating their value against Burn since they can't swerve Skullcracks and such?
Skite is a bomb against Burn. If you're opponent has 2 untapped lands and attack into it, you can suspect a Searing B in his hand, which is nice intel for the next turns. You can blank Searin B's by redirecting to it. Skite is one of the only creatures Burn wanna take out but need to do a 1 for 2 in that purpose. It's a great early blocker, and he redirects instead of gaining life, and this at instant speed, which is a crucial angle of defense (Spike Feeder has the same instant speed advantage).
Overall, Skite is a bomb in the format, no way to not play it.
Your list and your approach of the deck definitely belongs in a casual section of the forum. That said, with the budget considerations and the non-competitive field you introduced, I don't see how to be accurate on what to cut here and there.
Beware of your 2-drops. If you get rid of Wall for a Metamorph, your curve gets a little bit worse.
On another note, Wall of Roots is more than "one extra mana" for Chord. Players tend to underestimate its impact (same with Feeder). It's our best early blocker against Delver and Burn (doesn't die to Searing Bl...), Tarmo and Zoo, Scooze likes its company, it's a quick Pod enabler, a quick turn 3 "2-drop into 2-drop", and I probably forget some other interactions. In the red MUs, you probably tend to cut a few manadorks, but certainly not the Wall.
I like Wingmate Roc, I didn't find a slot yet to try it, but I'm not a huge fan of Shriekmaw. However sometimes we just need to kill that annoying creature. Roc doesn't interact with our opponent nor Pod, which may be the rule #1 for a card to enter a Pod list.
I don't know why so many guys here are fond of Rhino while Obstinate Baloth has been around for years. Rhino doesn't give Pod a tool that we didn't already have in the past. I need to try him to see how efficient he is at killing opponents.
@ProficientNomad
You don't need to max out on Affinity hate, unless, I don't know, more than half the people you play against are running Robots.
Yes, and I would add that if you play 3 Lingering Souls, you don't play Kataki at all. Kataki has been played in high level competitions in fields where Affinity was highly represented / excpected. Right now, Souls look so superior because it's good against Delver and basically almost all blue and black decks.
Claims are not good cards in Junk Pod. We struggle at racing Affinity, we don't want to give them 4 life.
Kor Firewalker is a good card in this online RDW / Delver field. I would've not considered it otherwise, but it seems it's the right time to add it in the party. It blocks Swiftspear and Pyro all day and acts like a Dragon's Claw , which is a solid SB tac in Delver and RDW mirrors.
Actually they barely interact with us (Path to Exile and that's it). The combo is easy to assemble. Martyr and Avatar are threats to focus on. It's considered as a good MU, so maybe you can tell us how you SB and which mistakes you feel you made.
Wolrd Peace, You have the best Pod list against Blood Moon, the answer to this threat is simple : basic lands. Fetch for basics. That's also what you will do against Fulminator Mage, Molten Rain, and others.
steal his Koth emblem
You can't gain control of an emblem. I assume you meant gaining control of him when he reaches 5 loyalty, which is not a very satisfying solution. Koth is real against Pod, as any 4-cmc+ Planeswalker actually. Sigarda is key, she'll be at her best against PWs. Maelstrom Pulse and Hero's Downfall are also answers to PWs, even though they see almost no play.
@World Peace:
your list is a pretty good start, welcome to modern.
According to the field you're describing, you need more removals in your SB. More Decays, Path over Dismember I would say. Cut your red cards, they have nothing to do in your build.
Brain Maggot is a very bad card in the format, don't you have Lingering Souls, Orzhov Pontiff or another hate card in your EDH collection ? ^^
Chalice is somewhat bad. You want Chalice turn 2, but at this stage of the game, it hoses all your 1 drops (mana dorks, PtE and Burrenton if you run some). If you don't play 1-drops in the SB though, and cut a few mana dorks (as they take red spells in the face anyway), you can try them and give your feedback.
Choke is somewhat good. It prevents Treasure Cruise (which may be the strongest card in the pack)... for a while. A topdeck island will happen, then you'll have to deal with an opponent's new hand. But that's all we want against Delver decks : slow them down, stabilize, then race. Lingering Souls is a good card in this MU, in terms of "non-Podable" spell. Eidolon of Rhetoric is good too even though it will eventually be hit by Snag or sthg. Treasure Cruise into 1-3 spells in the turn is devastating for us.
Easy to answer actually.
Decay doesn't reach Elspeth, Ajani, Gideon, Karn, Mindslaver, Olivia, Wurmcoil, Titans, Huntmaster*, Tezzeret, and about another hundred cards. Doesn't do a 2-3 for 1. Pod is actually very weak to 4+ cmc cards. You're comparing 2 completely different cards that don't overlap in build choices.
Cemetery is a perfectly fine land and sees play even with Windswept Heath. It's a matter of build and personal pref. Cemetery is actually very complementary with Heath.
Canonist is an anti-storm card. Thalia is more oriented towards control and Gaddock towards Tron. In a very focused field, one card can take the place of another. It's been the case already and will occur again. Your comparison is off.
You have to consider local or anecdotic metagames too, the cards I've mentionned have already helped attacking events on a particular angle.
Now most of the cards you listed are just worse than what we already play no matter what field we face. I agree with this but that's it.
It's true that a lot of these cards just saw very very fringe play (some never perform elsewhere than in daily's...), and some used to be played when Melira Pod was a new deck but haven't seen play in months/years. But some cards in your list are actually played right now : Maelstrom Pulse, Woodland Cemetery, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Gaddock Teeg.
If we wanted to put all the potential cards with ETB or whatever, the list should increase by 30+ cards. I agree with you that some cards don't really deserve to be mentionnend as they will never ever see play again. A Pauper / Budget section could legitimately gather all these cards, but is it even useful ? I don't think so.
Daily Events don't give us a real idea of the value of a card. When I see Elvish Visionary on mtgtop8, I can't stop thinking "it was a pie bet or sthg".
One interesting thing would be to add dates to decklists (which year ?) so we can see the evolution and don't get confused about which list is good and which used to be.
Some of the MUs are also pretty wrong. it's a long task though, I understand Lectrys doesn't have time for a complete reshape of the Primer.
@Aazadan : what have you done of Linvala and Thrun ?
I used to like Loxodon Hierarch but eventually realized 4 things that make it clunkier than Baloth :
1- It costs way - I mean WAY - too much to regen the team (try to chord him !). Burrenton is best, or the 3-cmc Rhino, they save the team for free ;
2- Good luck with Damnation and Wrath of God (and a few other removals like Smother), more and more popular as decks that support them see more play ;
3- Creatures that need to sac themselves to do something go against the beatdown plan. Sacrificing your best guy to keep your mana dorks alive, eerk... QA is worse than CA. And often sac-ing Lox is not even QA.
4- Thrun is the 4-slot you need against control decks. No need to regen the rest when Thrun protects himself and wins alone.
Baloth is already played in dozens of lists that perform well. There's no question about it being a good SB card. We need to go over the top sometimes in aggro MU, and Finks into Resto, then same Finks into Baloth is insane. Burrenton saves you 3 life most of the time where Baloth saves you 4. Burrenton is reactive, Baloth is proactive and he is so good against all the Lili decks; I have trouble finding back a slot for Burrenton in Angel Pod. Many lists play both, I used to, I don't anymore since combo decks are now a priority.
Siege Rhino aggro upsides are tempting, but that's so useless against most burn/aggro decks. Once they're on topdeck mode, you slowly but surely win. Being aggressive turn 4-5 makes no sense. Aggro MU's are sometimes races, but most of the time you need to stabilize before even thinking of attacking a very first time.
I always wanted to Pod the Finks into a removal for Tarmogoyf or Scavenging ooze
Yeah that's one of the pros towards Nekrataal, as the option to get it back with Lark. I know our manabase's fine, players used to play 2 Redcaps in old versions. The archetype has always known this tension with BB spells. We just all deal with it and shouldn't consider this as a real con. I don't think the meta plays too much with your choice : you will always face tarmos adn scoozes.
Would it be correct to take out all the razorverges and just play basics, say -3 razorverge +2 forest +1 plains?
Get your list resolved, then adjust your manabase. Don't run more than 6 basics. 4-5 is surely safer. A strong presence of Blood Moon and Hatebears combined with an intensive BB/WW/GG spells in a list would push your will for basics.
Anafenza or Siege Rhino
Ana, good SB card VS Melira Pod, good against the 2nd Living End, probably not the first one. Better play a 2nd Scavenging Ooze.
Siege Rhino, in duel with Obstinate Baloth, both good SB cards. Hard to define which is better, they're really close.
AND without Seer. I said that Ranger was bad for a list running Thune combo and cheap mana guys. If your run the Melira combo, Ranger of Eos is good even though you don't run the Hierarchs. You have various MUs where the combo is your best way to win (i.e. every non-blue combo deck and every aggro deck with few removals). Your list has 1-ofs mana guys, so Ranger looks very interesting there. To sum up, if you play Melira Pod, play Ranger.
Infect makes up 6-12 percent of my meta does that change your verdict on the second Melira or not?
You play a 2nd Melira when you want to focus on the combo more (metagame and eprsonal preferences considerations), not because of Infect / Affinity. Melira is one among other great cards in the deck.
So do you still suggest I take out the Melira combo for chords when Angel Pod players are taking them out?
Be careful about what you read here : I've been posting a lot recently but I do not represent a majority of players. If others also tend to take out a Chord or 2, don't follow this line blindly. I've come to this result after months playing my lists. Yours is different, and your choices are not necessarily less interesting. If you take out the Melira combo, you'll need a stronger plan, either disruptive or aggro, or both if you can find the slots.
There are some MUs where the combo is often your best option if you have a Pod online, and these are either the ones you can't win otherwise, or the ones that don't interact much with your creatures :
Tribal Decks (Elves, Merfolk, Soul Sisters,...);
All-in Combo Decks (Reanimator, Ascendancy, Belcher,...);
Ramp Decks (Scapeshift, Genesis Wave, GR Tron, Bloom Titan,...).
The problem with these decks is we can't hardly assemble the combo before they go off with their strategy. That's why we play Thoughtseize, Sin Collector, Entomber Exarch and Eidolon or Rhetoric. The more you will play against control and combo decks, the more you'll like these cards !
How is it different with Sin Collector ? By playing Sculler, you give more power to Searing B's and Lavamancer, since they get their spell back. Plus you can't block in combat. 16 cards at least get more efficient if you play Sculler over Collector.
It may be irrelevant to say it comes faster into play. The ideal start is to play lands that don't hurt your life total. Hard to get BW turn 2 without an untapped shockland, and if you get a mana dork turn 1, you better have Collector turn 2.
Skite is a bomb against Burn. If you're opponent has 2 untapped lands and attack into it, you can suspect a Searing B in his hand, which is nice intel for the next turns. You can blank Searin B's by redirecting to it. Skite is one of the only creatures Burn wanna take out but need to do a 1 for 2 in that purpose. It's a great early blocker, and he redirects instead of gaining life, and this at instant speed, which is a crucial angle of defense (Spike Feeder has the same instant speed advantage).
Overall, Skite is a bomb in the format, no way to not play it.
Putrefy is strictly worse than Go for the Throat if nobody plays Affinity among your friends. You play 2 Maelstrom Pulse for artifacts and other annoying stuff, it makes Putrefy even worse.
Entomber Exarch, Phyrexian Metamorph, Treetop Village are cheap real good cards. Obstinate Baloth, Golgari Charm, Duress are SB options.
Beware of your 2-drops. If you get rid of Wall for a Metamorph, your curve gets a little bit worse.
On another note, Wall of Roots is more than "one extra mana" for Chord. Players tend to underestimate its impact (same with Feeder). It's our best early blocker against Delver and Burn (doesn't die to Searing Bl...), Tarmo and Zoo, Scooze likes its company, it's a quick Pod enabler, a quick turn 3 "2-drop into 2-drop", and I probably forget some other interactions. In the red MUs, you probably tend to cut a few manadorks, but certainly not the Wall.
I like Wingmate Roc, I didn't find a slot yet to try it, but I'm not a huge fan of Shriekmaw. However sometimes we just need to kill that annoying creature. Roc doesn't interact with our opponent nor Pod, which may be the rule #1 for a card to enter a Pod list.
I don't know why so many guys here are fond of Rhino while Obstinate Baloth has been around for years. Rhino doesn't give Pod a tool that we didn't already have in the past. I need to try him to see how efficient he is at killing opponents.
@ProficientNomad
Yes, and I would add that if you play 3 Lingering Souls, you don't play Kataki at all. Kataki has been played in high level competitions in fields where Affinity was highly represented / excpected. Right now, Souls look so superior because it's good against Delver and basically almost all blue and black decks.
Claims are not good cards in Junk Pod. We struggle at racing Affinity, we don't want to give them 4 life.
You can't gain control of an emblem. I assume you meant gaining control of him when he reaches 5 loyalty, which is not a very satisfying solution. Koth is real against Pod, as any 4-cmc+ Planeswalker actually. Sigarda is key, she'll be at her best against PWs. Maelstrom Pulse and Hero's Downfall are also answers to PWs, even though they see almost no play.
your list is a pretty good start, welcome to modern.
According to the field you're describing, you need more removals in your SB. More Decays, Path over Dismember I would say. Cut your red cards, they have nothing to do in your build.
Brain Maggot is a very bad card in the format, don't you have Lingering Souls, Orzhov Pontiff or another hate card in your EDH collection ? ^^
Choke is somewhat good. It prevents Treasure Cruise (which may be the strongest card in the pack)... for a while. A topdeck island will happen, then you'll have to deal with an opponent's new hand. But that's all we want against Delver decks : slow them down, stabilize, then race.
Lingering Souls is a good card in this MU, in terms of "non-Podable" spell. Eidolon of Rhetoric is good too even though it will eventually be hit by Snag or sthg. Treasure Cruise into 1-3 spells in the turn is devastating for us.
Decay doesn't reach Elspeth, Ajani, Gideon, Karn, Mindslaver, Olivia, Wurmcoil, Titans, Huntmaster*, Tezzeret, and about another hundred cards. Doesn't do a 2-3 for 1. Pod is actually very weak to 4+ cmc cards. You're comparing 2 completely different cards that don't overlap in build choices.
Cemetery is a perfectly fine land and sees play even with Windswept Heath. It's a matter of build and personal pref. Cemetery is actually very complementary with Heath.
Canonist is an anti-storm card. Thalia is more oriented towards control and Gaddock towards Tron. In a very focused field, one card can take the place of another. It's been the case already and will occur again. Your comparison is off.
You have to consider local or anecdotic metagames too, the cards I've mentionned have already helped attacking events on a particular angle.
Now most of the cards you listed are just worse than what we already play no matter what field we face. I agree with this but that's it.
If we wanted to put all the potential cards with ETB or whatever, the list should increase by 30+ cards. I agree with you that some cards don't really deserve to be mentionnend as they will never ever see play again. A Pauper / Budget section could legitimately gather all these cards, but is it even useful ? I don't think so.
Daily Events don't give us a real idea of the value of a card. When I see Elvish Visionary on mtgtop8, I can't stop thinking "it was a pie bet or sthg".
One interesting thing would be to add dates to decklists (which year ?) so we can see the evolution and don't get confused about which list is good and which used to be.
Some of the MUs are also pretty wrong. it's a long task though, I understand Lectrys doesn't have time for a complete reshape of the Primer.
I used to like Loxodon Hierarch but eventually realized 4 things that make it clunkier than Baloth :
1- It costs way - I mean WAY - too much to regen the team (try to chord him !). Burrenton is best, or the 3-cmc Rhino, they save the team for free ;
2- Good luck with Damnation and Wrath of God (and a few other removals like Smother), more and more popular as decks that support them see more play ;
3- Creatures that need to sac themselves to do something go against the beatdown plan. Sacrificing your best guy to keep your mana dorks alive, eerk... QA is worse than CA. And often sac-ing Lox is not even QA.
4- Thrun is the 4-slot you need against control decks. No need to regen the rest when Thrun protects himself and wins alone.
Baloth is already played in dozens of lists that perform well. There's no question about it being a good SB card. We need to go over the top sometimes in aggro MU, and Finks into Resto, then same Finks into Baloth is insane. Burrenton saves you 3 life most of the time where Baloth saves you 4. Burrenton is reactive, Baloth is proactive and he is so good against all the Lili decks; I have trouble finding back a slot for Burrenton in Angel Pod. Many lists play both, I used to, I don't anymore since combo decks are now a priority.
Siege Rhino aggro upsides are tempting, but that's so useless against most burn/aggro decks. Once they're on topdeck mode, you slowly but surely win. Being aggressive turn 4-5 makes no sense. Aggro MU's are sometimes races, but most of the time you need to stabilize before even thinking of attacking a very first time.
Yeah that's one of the pros towards Nekrataal, as the option to get it back with Lark. I know our manabase's fine, players used to play 2 Redcaps in old versions. The archetype has always known this tension with BB spells. We just all deal with it and shouldn't consider this as a real con. I don't think the meta plays too much with your choice : you will always face tarmos adn scoozes.
Get your list resolved, then adjust your manabase. Don't run more than 6 basics. 4-5 is surely safer. A strong presence of Blood Moon and Hatebears combined with an intensive BB/WW/GG spells in a list would push your will for basics.
Ana, good SB card VS Melira Pod, good against the 2nd Living End, probably not the first one. Better play a 2nd Scavenging Ooze.
Siege Rhino, in duel with Obstinate Baloth, both good SB cards. Hard to define which is better, they're really close.
AND without Seer. I said that Ranger was bad for a list running Thune combo and cheap mana guys. If your run the Melira combo, Ranger of Eos is good even though you don't run the Hierarchs. You have various MUs where the combo is your best way to win (i.e. every non-blue combo deck and every aggro deck with few removals). Your list has 1-ofs mana guys, so Ranger looks very interesting there. To sum up, if you play Melira Pod, play Ranger.
You play a 2nd Melira when you want to focus on the combo more (metagame and eprsonal preferences considerations), not because of Infect / Affinity. Melira is one among other great cards in the deck.
Be careful about what you read here : I've been posting a lot recently but I do not represent a majority of players. If others also tend to take out a Chord or 2, don't follow this line blindly. I've come to this result after months playing my lists. Yours is different, and your choices are not necessarily less interesting. If you take out the Melira combo, you'll need a stronger plan, either disruptive or aggro, or both if you can find the slots.