Pod lets you find things from your library at instant speed for 1 and a phyrexian green, but it is only at sorcery speed. Getting that snapcaster back in hand to counter something or tuck a commander when you need to can be pretty brutal. They have their different uses that's for certain. I just <3 my shard!
Just thought that I would point out that the Pod and several other artifacts in this deck are sorcery speed activations only. If you're doing it at instant speed, unless there is a Leyline of Anticipation, you're playing it wrong.
Ok off of that decklist some of my thoughts being:
Brutalizer Exarch -> Green Sun's Zenith you have a lot of green noncreature removal in the list already. In my opinion cutting back on them to the better of them and utilizing more tutors is a good call. This opens up your deck for more toolboxing and while you still have those answers it opens you up to do more things in more situations.
Fauna Shaman -> Survival of the Fittest I tried running both and I can say that Fauna Shaman is like a fraction of how good Survival is. Survival comes down for the same mana, it can be used the turn it comes down, it is harder to remove, and it can be used multiple times in a turn. There is just no comparison Survival is so much better. Budget constraints are the only reason I can see not to upgrade this one soon.
Galepowder Mage interesting choice, it is really sort of slow which I dont like but it is free retriggering ETB effects. I feel it is a bit slow though.
Melira, Sylvok Outcast -> Mirror Entity if you look at my OP I list some combo options and while Melira works ok as a combo in my opinion a Survival based lark combo just works so much better with less bad cards and easier to assemble. You have to assemble several cards to get Melira to work properly and it is just harder to set up than the lark combo.
Sakashima the Impostor -> Phyrexian Metamorph Metamorph can be tutored up off of Tezzeret, recurred off of Academy Ruins, can kill opposing commanders, and copy artifacts. I have just found it to be a lot more versatile and it has been amazing in my experience. It is generally speaking the first clone I include in a deck now days.
Woodfall Primus I tried running both Primus and Terastodon for a while but I found that it hurt my average mana curve to run both of them and generally speaking if I want one of these guys I can tutor them up. I could see cutting one of the two of them and adding another creature tutor in their place to increase your toolboxing ability.
Genesis Wave I found it slow and unpredictable. We do run a good number of permenants in this list but generally speaking I am not happy to cast this for less than 6 as the x so that is 9 mana minimum... There are a lot of things I could do off of 9 mana that give me a known outcome. It is fun but unpredictable which is part of why I dont run it anymore. It is better in a deck that is more about huge mana like Omnath in my opinion.
Spitting Image It targets, it is expensive, and I like my lands at most parts of the game. This is one of those cards I never really cared for. It is also dependent on the graveyard so it can be weak there as well depending on if your opponents run a good amount of grave hate.
Ashnod's Altar I feel like this is only in the list for the Melira combo... swap to the lark combo and you can cut it.
Minion Reflector it is interesting but generally speaking it is hard to cast 2+ ETB guys and pay 2 extra in a turn so you are probably looking at this effect being used like once a turn in the early turns as well as it being a bit expensive to cast so you will probably have a turn layover... You might just run Mimic Vat instead as I feel like it has a similar start-up time but a lower mana cost allowing it to be tutored off of Tezzeret / recurred with Sun Titan.
Also, your manabase could use a little work. I hate the Vivid lands but if you are on a budget I can understand.
Survival of the Fittest Is strictly better than Fauna Shaman, however, it is ridiculously expensive and when I have the effect on an easily recurable creature, I just can't justify dropping all the cash on it.
Metamorph is in the deck already, and I love tutoring it off of Tezzy, but I like the Clone effect of Sakashima as well since it gives me another person's legendary creature, which is always nice, especially with a Jhoira deck in my playgroup running Eldrazi -_-
Genesis Wave and Spitting Image are both probably coming out for some better cards as they are slow, clunky, and potentially not as consistently valuable (I'm looking at swapping in a Sphinx of Uthuun here for the CA and another card to be named later. Potentially another counter or two)
Another staple that my playgroup has gotten into is exiling everything so having Ashnod's as a sac outlet that I can tutor for is incredibly convenient. Allows me to put it in my graveyard and get it back later and there is a lack of GY hate in my meta aside from a rogue bajuka bog (hate that card). I also wanted to note that I did take a bit of a persist strategy in here in Melira, not to necessarily infi-combo, but to provide my board with more survivability (plus the infect creatures e.g. blightsteel colossus and skittles the blight dragon)
Minion Reflector is coming out as soon as my LGS gets a Mimic Vat in stock. It's mostly been a place holder because of it's concept, not necessarily it's overall effectiveness.
As for my mana base, it is the best I have been able to do so far. Getting a few more duals and bounce lands when possible in addition to a Kor Haven and a Winding Canyons when they come into the shop as well.
I truly appreciate the feedback, however, and will continue to post my solutions on this thread.
As far as instant blink on a creature, best you will find is Mistmeadow Witch, which if you haven't playtested it yet, I encourage it. For a 1/1 it seems to draw a lot of hate, but that is easily recurable and I love when they try to just kill it. But it is instant on a creature that you were talking about. I have Ghostway and Momentary Blink as well as I feel they are great utility for saving a card from exile, and etb abuse.
Just last night I actually made an army of 6 10/10 Terrastodon's and 15 4/4 elephants in a 2 headed giant game that my teammate took control of with a beacon of tomorrows plus a insurrection. Swung the other team down from 109 life after they had true convictioned us with an army of the damned that we barely survived. Incredible Utility there if you ask me. Our games tend to last a lot longer so Woodfall+Terrastodon never seems to be a problem and all I do from them is profit. Never sad to see one come into my hand.
Hi, I've been following this thread since I began to construct my own Jenara deck back in October and I have to say that your decklist was a very strong influence on where I ended up. Quite a few of the cards also managed to make it into my retooled Riku deck, because everything is better when you copy it right?
A couple constructive comments that I have are that Akroma seems to just be a big beater when it comes down to it. She is one amazing creature, but just not one that I feel really embraces the theme of what you're trying to do here. With regard to Elesh Norn, it is ridiculous, but unless you're prepared to invest in some protection for it (the deck isn't very equipment heavy), it becomes a one turn pump and a removal spell for tokens. I realize the card could do much more than this over time, but it seems like praetors don't last a single untap in my play group.
Now I know you've had to fight Tooth and Nail(pun intended) to justify having Avenger of Zendikar out of your deck, but it has literally won me games. If you play that card with 10+ lands on the board and tutor or recur a Primeval Titan, for example, you are talking some serious board presence. It gives you an army on a stick with the only real out being mass removal. My deck was designed to be a little more of a Blink abuse, mid-range control deck with a hint of persist, while yours was intended to be a bit more aggro, but those are just my constructive comments. Also, take a look at Mana Reflection and Mirari's Wake. Mana Reflection has literally been bonkers for me. That card is consistently able to allow me to do such a ridiculous amount of combos that it borders on degeneracy (mind you, even the possible infinite persist combo I have in my mainboard, I try not to use it unless absolutely necessary). Any other infinite combos, I do not have in my deck.
A lot of the cards I am running have proven to provide me with some ridiculous synergy which has only made me enjoy playing this shard more. If you could take a look at my decklist and post in the thread any feedback you have or send me a PM, that would be much appreciated. The list is linked to essential magic in my signature.
Just thought that I would point out that the Pod and several other artifacts in this deck are sorcery speed activations only. If you're doing it at instant speed, unless there is a Leyline of Anticipation, you're playing it wrong.
So just to go over what you suggested here:
I already run Green Sun's Zenith so swapping it for Brutalizer Exarch isn't possible haha.
Survival of the Fittest Is strictly better than Fauna Shaman, however, it is ridiculously expensive and when I have the effect on an easily recurable creature, I just can't justify dropping all the cash on it.
Metamorph is in the deck already, and I love tutoring it off of Tezzy, but I like the Clone effect of Sakashima as well since it gives me another person's legendary creature, which is always nice, especially with a Jhoira deck in my playgroup running Eldrazi -_-
Genesis Wave and Spitting Image are both probably coming out for some better cards as they are slow, clunky, and potentially not as consistently valuable (I'm looking at swapping in a Sphinx of Uthuun here for the CA and another card to be named later. Potentially another counter or two)
Another staple that my playgroup has gotten into is exiling everything so having Ashnod's as a sac outlet that I can tutor for is incredibly convenient. Allows me to put it in my graveyard and get it back later and there is a lack of GY hate in my meta aside from a rogue bajuka bog (hate that card). I also wanted to note that I did take a bit of a persist strategy in here in Melira, not to necessarily infi-combo, but to provide my board with more survivability (plus the infect creatures e.g. blightsteel colossus and skittles the blight dragon)
Minion Reflector is coming out as soon as my LGS gets a Mimic Vat in stock. It's mostly been a place holder because of it's concept, not necessarily it's overall effectiveness.
As for my mana base, it is the best I have been able to do so far. Getting a few more duals and bounce lands when possible in addition to a Kor Haven and a Winding Canyons when they come into the shop as well.
I truly appreciate the feedback, however, and will continue to post my solutions on this thread.
As far as instant blink on a creature, best you will find is Mistmeadow Witch, which if you haven't playtested it yet, I encourage it. For a 1/1 it seems to draw a lot of hate, but that is easily recurable and I love when they try to just kill it. But it is instant on a creature that you were talking about. I have Ghostway and Momentary Blink as well as I feel they are great utility for saving a card from exile, and etb abuse.
Just last night I actually made an army of 6 10/10 Terrastodon's and 15 4/4 elephants in a 2 headed giant game that my teammate took control of with a beacon of tomorrows plus a insurrection. Swung the other team down from 109 life after they had true convictioned us with an army of the damned that we barely survived. Incredible Utility there if you ask me. Our games tend to last a lot longer so Woodfall+Terrastodon never seems to be a problem and all I do from them is profit. Never sad to see one come into my hand.
A couple constructive comments that I have are that Akroma seems to just be a big beater when it comes down to it. She is one amazing creature, but just not one that I feel really embraces the theme of what you're trying to do here. With regard to Elesh Norn, it is ridiculous, but unless you're prepared to invest in some protection for it (the deck isn't very equipment heavy), it becomes a one turn pump and a removal spell for tokens. I realize the card could do much more than this over time, but it seems like praetors don't last a single untap in my play group.
Now I know you've had to fight Tooth and Nail(pun intended) to justify having Avenger of Zendikar out of your deck, but it has literally won me games. If you play that card with 10+ lands on the board and tutor or recur a Primeval Titan, for example, you are talking some serious board presence. It gives you an army on a stick with the only real out being mass removal. My deck was designed to be a little more of a Blink abuse, mid-range control deck with a hint of persist, while yours was intended to be a bit more aggro, but those are just my constructive comments. Also, take a look at Mana Reflection and Mirari's Wake. Mana Reflection has literally been bonkers for me. That card is consistently able to allow me to do such a ridiculous amount of combos that it borders on degeneracy (mind you, even the possible infinite persist combo I have in my mainboard, I try not to use it unless absolutely necessary). Any other infinite combos, I do not have in my deck.
A lot of the cards I am running have proven to provide me with some ridiculous synergy which has only made me enjoy playing this shard more. If you could take a look at my decklist and post in the thread any feedback you have or send me a PM, that would be much appreciated. The list is linked to essential magic in my signature.